Tag: neons

Orly ‘Electric Escape’ Summer 2021 Collection – Swatches & Review

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We’re continuing right along with the BRIGHTS.

Today we’re looking at the next summer collection on the docket, and it’s from one of my favorite, and I still believe underrated brands, Orly. Now Orly’s summer collection last year had some absolutely stunning neons and brights in it so I expected no different from this one. And I was not disappointed!

As always, I received this as part of my Orly Color Pass. I’ve talked about Orly Color Pass many times before and how much I love it! But just in case you’re new here, I’ll give another quick rundown. The Color Pass is where you pay a fee up front ($119) and then over the course of the year after you sign up, you receive 4 of Orly’s seasonal collections. The boxes are automatically mailed out to you as they release, and show up on your doorstep. And each box always contains extra goodies – like this box contained a full size of their Bonder base coat! I always say it’s a great deal if you’re like me and already planning to buy all of their collections anyways. Or it’s perfect if you’re looking to expand your collection and get more polishes! Orly has really been impressing me with their formulas lately, and they’re great at coming out with different finishes and formulas.

So that’s my spiel, definitely check out the website and you can sign up if you’re interested! Right now you’ll receive this summer collection as your first box!

Alright, let’s get right into this collection! It’s an absolutely stunning color story and I love how the colors all look together. And you’ll see they’re absolutely beautiful formulas. Let’s get right into it already!

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China Glaze ‘Havana Nights’ Summer 2021 Collection – Swatches & Review

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Listen, after the struggles I had with the Zoya Neons, I was ready for some true cream neons. (There was nothing wrong with the Zoyas, they just didn’t truly scratch that neon itch). And boy howdy, thank god the China Glaze summer release came THROUGH for us.

This is the ‘Havana Nights’ collection for Summer 2021, and oh my, it’s absolutely stunning. It has those neon shades I always crave in warmer weather (I say as its currently 45 degrees outside, listen the warmer weather is COMING, I SWEAR). It features 6 rich and saturated cream shades, including some beautiful neons.

As always, I purchased this collection from my favorite, Polishpick.com. If you’ve been here for a while, you know I love them for the mainstream brands, and they always have the best prices and fastest shipping. I highly recommend them. (And let them know I sent you!)

We have some beautiful and bright shades to look at, so let’s just get right into it!

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Zoya ‘Easy Neons’ 2021 Collection – Swatches & Review

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This is a long post full of a lot of thoughts, so I won’t ramble at the beginning!

Today we’re looking at the newest release from Zoya. They’re called the ‘Easy Neons’ and as you can probably guess, it’s 6 shades of neon polishes. In 2016 Zoya released a collection called the Ultra Brites, which was their version of a neon release. I wasn’t fully into polish at that point, so I didn’t have them myself – but based on other blogs and reviews of them, they were streaky and required a white base to even really show up. Not great. So when Zoya released these, they promised a new and improved neon formula, basically a step up from the Ultra Brites. They also automatically come with their wide brushes to make application even easier and smoother. Normally you have to buy the wide brushes separately and switch them out – I really wish there was an option to not have to do this, I have boxes of their old skinny brushes that I feel weird just throwing away. ANYWAYS.

They had a pre-order deal where they were a touch discounted, and also included more of their remover, so I went ahead and purchased. I was also so intrigued myself to try out this neon formula and see what I thought. It retails on the Zoya website for $66 for the whole set or each polish is $11. They are $1 more than their normal polishes, I’m assuming because of the pigments needed.

And do I have a lot of thoughts here. Buckle in, let’s discuss, I go over it ALL.

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Nails Inc ‘Naked in Neon’ Set – Swatches & Review

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Whooo boy I went a little dark there for a while (okay like a month). I can’t explain it, I just apparently needed to not blog for a while, but now we’re catching up so that’s right you’re getting like 9 posts over the next two days. You know, that feeling when you don’t feel like doing anything for a couple weeks, and then suddenly you have the motivation to bring the blog back up to speed. We have to ride this motivation as long as it lasts.

This is also a good place to plug my Instagram (always linked at the end of posts as well), as I always post swatches there first even if the full blog posts aren’t finished. But enough rambling, we have posts to catch up on!!

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So summer may be winding down, but of course, there’s still some posts about neons to look at. It’s still warm down here, so event though I’m very ready to wear some sweaters and drink pumpkin spice lattes, summer isn’t over yet. Let’s look at some neons I wore!

I always said I’m not that much of a seasonal polish wearer, and wear any color you want any time of the year, but dang, did this summer heat have me craving ALL of the neons. I know, groundbreaking. In this first review we’re looking at the Nails Inc Naked in Neon set. I had seen swatches of this from other lovely creators I follow and lord, I could not resist, it just looked so beautiful. And I’m so glad I didn’t.

This retails for $22 on the Nails Inc and Sephora websites for 4 of their full sized nails polishes – keep in mind their individual polishes can retail for $15 each, so this is a pretty solid deal all around.

It features 3 bright neons and one neutral beige cream. Let’s get into the swatches already, as these beauties basically speak for themselves!

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Color Club ‘Pride & Joy’ Collection – Swatches & Review

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Whew, it’s been a little bit since I’ve put up a post! If you didn’t see in my last one, my computer had some keyboard issues, so there were extra spaces all over the place, and it was just a pain to type up posts! But it’s all fixed up, I have a lot of swatches and posts to get up, so August will be full of reviews! I don’t want to ramble too much, so let’s get right into it!

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Color Club recently has had a lot of sales, including a BOGO, on their website, so I chose that time to stock up on some neons, as well as some of their newer collections. (Color Club likes to release like 9 collections at once, so I didn’t grab them all). But they have some beautiful shades, and I think they’re truly underrated! So you’re about to get a whole lot of Color Club action.

This first collection we’ll be looking at today is the Pride & Joy collection! I believe it was released for Pride month, but of course, we accept LGBTQIA+ all months of the year, and these are just beautiful colors for anytime of the year (or the warmer months if you’re feeling more seasonal). It has 6 cream shades, some with shimmer throughout them as well.

These retail for $8.50 each on the Color Club website, but as mentioned they have a ton of sales, so I don’t think I’ve ever grabbed them at full price! Be sure to follow their Instagram or mailing list to be notified of different sales!

Let’s get into swatches already.

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Loud Lacquer ‘I’m So Excited’ Collection – Swatches & Review

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We have another new-to-me brand to look at today, and it’s another indie! I have been slowly adding in some smaller and more independent brands into the blog, but I will say I’ll still be focusing mainly on mainstream brands. I’m not going to be reviewing every single smaller indie brand, because my budget wouldn’t allow it and I’ve already got so much polish to review now! Just wanted to quick put that out there if you’re questioning why you seem some brands and not others! These are just the collections that personally interest me and that I could put into my budget! There are tons of full indie bloggers and Instagrammers out there! Okay I’m done.

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Today’s brand is Loud Lacquer! This is a cruelty free and vegan nail polish brand that I believe is based out of California. It’s a woman-owned brand, and their polishes have intrigued me for a while. It was when they released this new collection that I just couldn’t resist and finally chose to check them out!

This is the I’m So Excited collection and it’s inspired by the classic TV show “Saved by the Bell”. It features 4 super bright and saturated shades. This set retails for $45 on the Loud Lacquer website, or you can buy the shades individually for $11.99 for Buddy Bands & PSA, and $12.50 for the 2 neons, Kapowski and Hot Sundae. It is a small independent brand, so the prices will be a little higher, so of course, it’s all about your own budget and preferences!

The bottles are super fun as they have LOUD spelled out around the sides. I think it’s a fun branding move and makes them stand out from other polishes! (Yes I was having too much fun making sure the bottles spelled out Loud, okay)

And let’s get on into the swatches!

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Orly Retrowave Summer 2020 – Review & Swatches

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Alright, I admit I’ve been a bit absent. This is the longest I’ve gone without publishing a post in quite a while! Like I haven’t posted a single post yet in June, and that just feels weird to me! So let’s talk about it.

Everyone is well aware what is going on in the US right now, and I mentioned it a bit in my very last post about the Essie Summer collection so long ago. I will say that I definitely felt weird just normally posting away, and I didn’t want to feel like I was taking any attention away from the Black Lives Matter movement, or just brushing it off. It’s been some time of just learning how to integrate it into my daily normal life and posting, as that’s what it’s all about – an actual longterm change of thought and actions. And it’s been thinking about how I can integrate it into this blog going forward as well!

Even just googling and trying to find swatches on deeper skin tones for this post and specific, it was so hard to find! There were ZERO blog posts (alright maybe the blogging medium is dying out, but it’s what I post on, so of course I gotta point it out). All of the top blog posts that popped up immediately about this collection were on light skin tones. I found ONE YouTube video. And luckily was able to find a few accounts on Instagram. But it was sad to see firsthand just how underrepresented it was. If you’re a deeper skin tone looking for swatches for actual reference, there’s BARELY any resources out there. I know I’m speaking to the choir here, as this is an issues that people of color have been dealing with FOREVER. And Orly doesn’t do swatches on their website, so where are you supposed to find those photos? So many people use swatches to truly see what a color is like before they buy, and it’s a shame that they’re so limited. I’m recognizing my own privilege all these years that I could ALWAYS find swatches on people with my own skin color, even before I started blogging. I’m only one White person here, but nothing will change if we don’t keep bringing it up, and trying to change it for the better. It’s all things that I, and others, should have been bringing up so long ago, and I’m sorry it took me this long to say anything about it. It can sometimes feel like “I’m just one small little nail blog, what I can do”. But I can’t keep thinking like that, like even speaking to just one other reader about it helps.

Obviously, I am just one person swatching, one pale white person. I can’t offer swatches on different skin tones at all. And in the end, this is my own personal blog, so it’s going to be my own content. BUT, I can still direct you to people and creators and accounts who can do that! So something I’m committing to in all of my future posts is making sure to link to others who are swatching on different skin tones, especially Black creators with deeper skin tones than mine. Polish is so universal, and can be worn by anyone, so it’s time I show that any way I can! I definitely make sure to google and search for more swatches, but if there are other creators you love as well, please let me know in the comments! It’s the least I can do during this time, and I want to make a commitment to supporting more Black creators in this space – something I should have been doing a long time ago. It’s about being better.

So be sure to scroll to the end of this post to see full links to those other creators!

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Orly ‘Birds of Prey’ Trio

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Listen, I was recently on a binge of polish buying where I just wanted to buy everything, and all of these new polishes were releasing that just caught my eye. You would think that’s what is going on all the time, but I promise sometimes I do hold back. But it was during this binge that I saw this little trio of polishes, and listen, they GOT ME. I have no excuses. My hand slipped, I added to cart, I ordered.

And I’m not sorry. “It’s for the blog”. It’s what I tell myself all the time, okay. But I know you guys love it, and I won’t ever stop, and trying new nail polish will forever be my love.

This is a trio of shades that were released in collaboration with the Harley Quinn ‘Birds of Prey’ movie, releasing tomorrow, February 7! I’m definitely interested in seeing the movie (I can only hope they do Harley Quinn justice after the mess that was Suicide Squad), so this piqued my interest as well! I also loved that based on the names, these seem to be newly released shades specifically for this movie, and not just permanent shades packaged up into a different set.

It’s only available on the Orly website, and it seems that you can only buy all 3 in the trio – not individually. It retails for $28 for 3 full size shades (for reference, all Orly shades retail for $9.50 each for 0.6ml).

It comes in this cute little box set, and there’s just something inside of me that wants to keep it for display. I told you I was a monster here. But it has Birds of Prey on the top, with Harley Quinn, as well as pattern going around the sides. Overall it was just really cute!

BOP-Box

Let’s get into the shades and swatches!

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OPI Neons 2019 – Comparisons

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PURCHASED WITH DISCOUNT

Alright y’all, we had the full collection swatch and review, so of course now we have the comparison post. I said in my last comparison post that I wanted to keep doing this for the collections I reviewed, both for reference for myself, and for others! I know it’s helpful for everyone to see, and always helps me when deciding whether to purchase. This blog was made with the intention of being a resource, so of course I want to provide that for you!

We’re talking about the comparisons for the OPI Neons 2019 collection today! I found some similar shades for 4 out of the 6 colors.

I picked up these shades from Polishpick.com. And as you can see, I’m now labeling it “purchased with discount”. I always want to be upfront and honest with all products I’m getting, so I’m posting that up there now. After purchasing from PolishPick multiple times on my own and talking about them with no incentive, the owner was kind enough to give me a blogging discount – I’m still purchasing the shades myself, but at an even cheaper price, which allows me to keep picking up the shades and showing them to you!

Even without the discount, PolishPick is still the place I’ve found with the cheapest prices for OPI – she also gets in the new collections right when they launch, and I’ve never had a problem with shipping or receiving products. Even without a discount, I would still be shopping there for each collection! That’s my spiel for the post.

Enough yammering, let’s get to nail polish.

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OPI Neons Summer 2019 Collection

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PURCHASED

Gosh DANG, it’s gotten HOT here in Chicago (finally). Something snapped and it’s been 80s here all week (that’s hot for a Midwest state that has been lazing around in the 60s and 70s all summer), and today it’s apparently 94. My new exercise routine is just sweating constantly because I’m currently too cheap to turn on my AC. I keep telling myself to appreciate it after Polar Vortex 2k19 but I’m weak and not used to this. What’s the summer like where you’re at? Are you calling me weak right now? Pls let me know.

But you know what, hot temperatures require neon nails. Smooth transition, right?

That’s right! We’re talking about the new neon collection from OPI. This is a 6 piece collection for Summer 2019 and features 6 bright neon shades. They’re bright, I was excited to test em out. Let’s just get right into it.

As always, I purchased these off of polishpick.com.

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