China Glaze: Towel Boy Toy

Since I swatched Kiwi Cool-Ada, I felt it was appropriate to show you my favorite polish of the China Glaze Poolside Collection, Towel Boy Toy. As soon as I began seeing the promos and bottle pics from other nail bloggers, I knew that Towel Boy Toy had to be mine. Haddddd to be. It is just so phenomenal. A bright, beautiful neon blue. It has a hint of shimmer. It is bold and beautiful. I just love it. It would probably seem weird to say that it is slightly understated, since it is a neon and all, but I really do feel like this polish is classy and elegant.

China Glaze: Kiwi Cool-Ada

This is China Glaze Kiwi Cool-Ada. I actually really like this polish, although I didn't when I first purchased it. The reason I didn't like it is because it is still not completely opaque after 3 thick coats, and also... this is really freaking vibrant. It may not look like it is in these pictures, but this polish is shockingly bright. And while I am normally all for shocking brights,  for some reason I wasn't feeling this one for the longest time. All summer, in fact. But now that fall is here, I find myself reevaluating this spring purchase. It is bright and cheery. Fantastic for some nail art (like my dots). And it is so unexpected in the fall, and I love unexpected things. 

Well.. enough chatter. onto the pics. 

P.S. I HATE when companies are sloppy and I get bottles with fucked up labels.

P.P.S. Yay the Giants won!!! Wooo Hoooo!

P.P.P.S. I am kicking ass in Fantasy Hockey this week, and it is making up for the horrible week/semester/year I am having scholastic-wise. I really hate the program that I am in and the people in it. I had, for some reason, this romanticized notion that in the academic world qualification and skills would be a deciding factor in jobs, not how pretty you are and how much you suck up. But I was mistaken. 

China Glaze: Flip Flop Fantasy

Oh China Glaze... I love you so much! By far my favorite polish company. They constantly roll out huge new collections several times a year, and they have the widest variety of colors that keeps a girl like me happy. A few days ago I decided to go with a polish from the Poolside Collection entitled Flip Flop Fantasy.

I find this color to be the most accurate, although my camera had major problems capturing the fluorescent awesomeness of this polish. 

The pictures I took outside look very orange, which is not the case in real life. 

The real color is more of a neon salmon... very pink yet orangish at the same time. In these pictures it just looks plain orange. How unfortunate, because this color is pretty darn cool. However, I do have a love-hate relationship with neons. There are so many pros, yet so many cons. 

Pro: they dry super fast

Con: they dry matte

Pro: They have awesome colors

Con: All of the awesome colors I have ever purchased are also incredibly sheer

Pro: Great for layering (bc of their quick dry time)

Con: They chip ridiculously fast - which is a major problem for me because if I see one chip I instantly have to change my polish. I just can't stand chipping. 

Overall - I generally don't allow my problems with the neon formula affect my desire to purchase them, but I usually wear a neon color once or twice before I get fed up with the chipping and realize it is not worth the hassle. Especially when we're talking four coats on these pictures of Flip Flop Fantasy when I only wore it for a few hours.

Oh, I must say that I find that the wear time for my fingers is totally different for my foot wear time. When I received the poolside collection in mid-April, I instantly put Pool Party on my toes, and decided to wear it until it chipped. Well, come the second week of May I got tired of looking at it. I got a good 3-4 weeks of wear without a single chip. It is bizarre. I wonder if anyone else has these inconsistencies. 

Blue and Green Tiger Stripes

Holy crap are these pictures crappy! I've definitely got to take some time learning how to take and edit pictures better. But this will do for now.

I used China Glaze Towel Boy Toy for the blue, Turned up Turquoise for a little teal in the middle, and Kiwi-Coolada for the green. I applied the colors using a makeup sponge on top of a white base (I used Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White) and topped it all off with just a black nail art polish. I free-handed the stripes because I have very bad luck with Konad, and find it much easier to just make my own nail art rather than struggle with the scraper and the polish and the stamper that has to be cleaned with nail polish remover, which usually just ends up taking nail polish off of the nails that I had just painted. Ugh. Maybe with more practice I will become a proficient Konad-aficionado. But for right now I will just stick to my standard, somewhat boring, nail repertoire.

Wow, so after uploading these pictures I realized that every little flaw and smudge is glaringly obvious. I have really got to be more careful in the future. Also this was taken while I was in my pool, so I apologize for the wet-ness.