claire's - Neon Polishes & Advanced Stamping Accent

Hello Lovelies!

And a very Happy Friday! Today I want to show you a summer manicure that is perfect for the hot and sunny weather we are having again right now. For this manicure I used only polishes I bought in Berlin and shared with you yesterday (Day 2), plus a black stamping polish.

First let me show you how I created my accent nail: I used the advanced stamping technique wich means that you transfer a pattern to your stamper and then fill it out with your desired colours. Once that is dry you paint on a topcoat and peel it of 30 minutes later (or the next day. Just make sure everything is dry!) I also included a layer of white to make the neon polishes stand out even better. But I would not recommend doing that. It is better to paint your nail white before placing the decal on. In my opinion this makes the cleanup easier and prevents white borders.

Once you placed the decal on your nail in the right position press down gently and remove any excess. You can cut it down with a pair of scissors or remove it with acetone or polish remover. What I like to do is to press down against the side walls of my fingers with an orange stick and break off the excess. This only works with a very well dried decal so be patient! :-)

Once you're finished with cleaning everything up seal in your decal with top coat. Don't use too many brushstrokes or you might smudge your beautiful design. I used Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat wich in my opinion is the best top coat ever. It gives a wonderful glossy finish and dries rapidly. It also almost never smudges a design.

I painted my other nails with different neon shades. On my thumb I used the orange Stormy Day, on my pointer Cobalt. The pink on my middlefinger is called Rave and the green polish on my pinkie is Pinball. All the polishes required three coats to be opaque. The formulas were all very similar and very good. I had no trouble with the application and they dried fast.

For my decal I also used the other neon shades I purchased. The yellow California Girl and the purple Electric. Furthermore I used an apricot neon shade by the name Pastel Neons. I bought this one a day later so you will see it in part 3 of my Berlin series.

I topped off all of my nails with Seche Vite. I really love how this manicure turned out. I was not sure that I liked neon polish on my nails, but this manicure proofed me wrong. Maybe a full set of neon in one colour would be too much, but this way it is perfect for me.

I also love how the polish seems to be glowing in direct sunlight. The colours look so intense and are just beautiful to look at. On the polish bottles it says 'fluorescent'. I am not sure if that means they'd glow under a black light. Do you have any experience in that department?

Have a great weekend everyone and enjoy the sun! I sure will.

How do you like this neon summer manicure? Would you wear it like this or do you prefer in in one colour?

Oh, I almost forgot to mention wich stamping plate I used. It is the BP-31 plate from my Born Pretty Store Haul. I do have quite a selection of stamping plates but only a few of them have such great full nail patterns. I definitely have to get more of those! Any suggestions?

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