What's Hot – Neon Nail Tutorial

Neon nails are super hot right now, but it can be a little intimidating for the average gal to wear "traffic cone orange" on her fingers. The easiest way to tone it down? Pare it with a nude. And just for kicks, paint it at a jaunty angle!

1. I chose Fly and Samoan Sand, both by OPI. I know Fly isn't technically a neon, but it is brighter in person than in the pics. And it looked sooo good with Samoan Sand that I just couldn't resist.
2. Paint nails using nude polish, allowing polish to dry thoroughly before continuing to step 2.
3. Take a strip of masking tape and, at an angle, adhere to your nail, pressing into the cuticle and around the nail tip to avoid bleeding.
4. Paint neon over exposed nail. Remove tape while polish is still wet. 

The nude polish may be smudged a little from the masking tape, but a layer of topcoat will mask those imperfections.

Now you can wear neon with pride! I had to get into the neon fun too. Remember the "traffic-cone orange" I mentioned earlier? Well…

I'm not afraid of a little NEON! I'm wearing Gelish polish in Tiki Tiki Laranga .

Have you embraced the neon trend?

Top 4 Nail Tutorials & Reviews

Don't forget, you only have two days left to enter the Hyundai Epic Playdate Weekend!

Being Spiffy used to be primariy a style blog, talking about fashion, hair, makeup, and nails. Those posts are still my most popular, so I thought I'd throw a compilation together. Here's the top four, counting down to the most popular…

#4—China Glaze Magnetix Review

#3—Skinz Nail Wrap – How-to and Review

#2—Gradient Nail Tutorial

#1—Bling on the Ring

OPI Spider-man Polish Minis

I am a wee bit excited for the July 3 premiere of The Amazing Spider-Man. (Is it July yet?) I love that OPI and China Glaze team up with movies for polish lines. There are actually seven polishes in the Spider-Man line, but I picked up the set of four minis.

I love getting the minis because I've never gone through an entire bottle of nail polish. Ever. Here are the colors.

OPI Into the Night

A really pretty mid/dark blue, Into the Night has some sparkle, but not bling.

OPI Number One NemesisNumber One Nemesis might be my new favorite gray! It has some gold glitter in it which gives it a green tinge. It's super cool!

OPI Just Spotted the LizardJust Spotted the Lizard reminds me of an iridescent green I have, but mine has a pink undertone. I like this one more. It's all gold and green and lizard-y, but in a wearable way.

OPI Your Web or MineTo me, Your Web or Mine is kind of a boring pink. I guess because I have a few like this. It has a tinge of coral in it, but not enough to make it fun.

I used two coats on each swatch. Each polish in The Amazing Spider-Man collection showed brush marks, but they weren't distracting. Plus I liked three out of four colors, so not bad!

What are you more excited about? The movie or the polish?

When Blogs Collide – an introduction to Yarrrn

Not sure if you've noticed the lovely skull and crossbones in my sidebar, but that is my other love. Yarncrafting.

I'm not all lipgloss and hairspray, ya know. ;)

I'm trying to balance my life between my two passions—beauty and yarn. Case in point, I went shopping yesterday and this is what I came home with.

This is pretty representative of my excursions.

So there it is. My other half. A blog full of knitting and crochet and nerdy craftiness. And I love it.

China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters

I'm a sucker for glitter, so when I saw the China Glaze Chroma Glitters at the beauty supply, I was smitten.

China Glaze Prismatic Chroma Glitters

These are the shiniest things I've seen in a while! They have teeny, tiny little pieces of glitter that create an insane amount of sparkle as well as define the color of each individual polish. Couple that with the varying colors of larger glitter and it adds great dimension. The larger glitters are the same in each color—pink, green and silver.

As you can see, there are six Chroma Glitters. The photo above shows their intensity. The swatches below show what they look like in sunlight. In shadow, they're closer to the colors above. I used one coat on each swatch.

China Glaze Prismatic Swatches

1. OPTICAL ILLUSION—This is one of my favorites. I think because it's rare to see a green glitter that doesn't look too Christmas-y.
2. LIQUID CRYSTAL—Another favorite. It's not baby blue but it's not crazy bright either. I think it would go with almost anything.
3. FULL SPECTRUM—I really liked how this looked in the bottle. It didn't translate as well on the nail, though. I was wishing the pink would have stood out more. It almost comes across as a neutral.
4. RAY-DIANT—This one is kind of hard to define. It teeny sparkles are gold, but it doesn't really look gold on. It's kind of like Full Spectrum, where it's more of a neutral.
5. PRISM—I gravitated toward this one since it was purple, but, like the previous two, it just didn't come across as well. You can tell it's purple when it's on, but it's very muted.
6. POLARIZED—With all that silver sparkle, this is a favorite too. Plus the colored glitter makes it interesting.

This is a fun collection. If I had to choose only two to get, I'd go with Optical Illusion and Liquid Crystal.

Optical Illusion / Liquid CrystalThese two are the most unique. I really own nothing like them.

With all the polishes in this collection, I would use two coats. Especially with the lighter ones. Also, beware that every glitter polish (especially China Glaze) tends to peel and flake off within a day or two, even with a good topcoat. So if you're wanting the China Glaze Chroma Glitters to last, I'd use them on your toes instead of your hands. You'll get more wear out of them.