I finally spotted the JulieG polish line at Rite Aid about a week ago and picked up Geltao in Venice. Not only did the color look gorgeous in the bottle I love about anything named after an Italian city and who doesn’t love gelato?

Anyway, on to the nail polish. Gelato in Venice is a beautiful minty pale green creme. It’s not too minty though, if that makes any sense. The only true mint green polish I have in my collection is wet n wild I Need a Refresh-Mint and it has significantly more blue.

Like Party Dress, the formula of this polish is superb. Especially for being such a pale color. The formula is on the thicker side, but not hard to deal with, and very opaque. I only used 2 coats in my swatch.

I am so impressed with this polish! I will definitely be trying some other JulieG polishes in the future. JulieG polishes are available at Rite Aid (and on jessesgirlcosmetics.com) and retail for $3.99.

Below the jump there are pictures of the bottle (which I love), the brush and just for good measure a picture of the best gelato I’ve ever had (which also shows my naked nails…scary!). I bought it from a street vendor in Sorrento, Italy and no gelato since has even come close. Surely I can convince some polish brand to make a polish called Gelato in Sorrento….

The best gelato I’ve ever had. Not in Venice, but in Sorrento.

I reviewed the entire Poptastic set, but never got around to Electrocandy – I’m just not that into neons. I will say that the Electrocandy polishes are fun and interesting because of their subtle shimmers and flashes.

For my neon skittles I used Tangerine Scream, Electrocandy, What a Shock, and Volt of Light from Electrocandy and my favorite from the Poptastic collection: Warhol.

Each polish did take 3-4 coats, though that’s not uncommon and of course they are much brighter in person – the pictures are color accurate. I topped them off with a coat of Essie’s Good to Go.

All in all, I have to admit…even though I’m not generally a neon fan – this mani was a lot of fun to look at and it fits right in with this summer’s neon trend. I had fun with it, so there are a few more pictures under the jump.

So… what do you think about neons and neon skittles? Is it something you’d try?

Happy Saturday!

Bottle Shot:

More Fun:

But anyway, this isn’t a book review, this is a nail polish blog! I used the book as my inspiration for this manicure. I’ve been wearing so many neons and crazy colors recently I wanted something more muted but still not boring. I also wanted to give this mismatched manicure another try.

For my “50″ shades of grey I used Essie Power Clutch, OPI Metallic 4 Life, China Glaze Pelican Gray and Concrete Catwalk. All the nail art I did was simple but using similar colors gave it a more cohesive look than my Charlotte Observer inspired manicure.

This was a fun manicure to do and fun to wear for a short period of time but I wasn’t completely enamored by this manicure. I was definitely more enamored by the book…..

Please let me know if you’ve read Fifty Shades of Grey so I don’t feel so crazy! It seems like it’s one of those books everyone is reading but no one will admit to it. But here I am, yet again, admitting something slightly embarrassing on this blog!

There is another swatch below the jump where you can actually see my thumb nail

Recently Pixi launched a polish line. Vivid Coral is the first of their polishes I have tried so I didn’t really know what to expect.

Vivid Coral is a bright neon pink with red undertones. I’m not sure I would call this coral, but it certainly is vivid! I was surprised that this was a neon and I wasn’t at the same time. It does look quite bright in the bottle but not so bright that it was obviously a neon.

For a neon the formula was quite good. This polish does have a jelly feel to it so 3 coats are definitely required to get an opaque color. There is still a slight visible nail line but it is not near as noticeable to the naked eye as it is in the swatch. And as with all neons, this dries to a semi matte finish, so a shiny top coat is definitely required!

The wear from neons is usually pretty bad. A day, or two, at the most is all you’ll get. But this polish actually wore quite well.

Overall, I do like this polish though it is not particularly unique or groundbreaking. Below the jump there is a comparison to some similar polishes in my collection, including Essie Camera and SinfulColors Pink, but I don’t have any dupes. Also in that comparison I did one nail of Vivid Coral over Ulta Snow White. Layering Vivid Coral over a white polish gives the polish an entirely different look.

One thing I do love is the bottle. They are just so cute and different! But they only contain .25 fl.oz of polish and are $8. That is on the expensive side. Until I try a normal (read non  neon) polish from this line I can’t really say whether or not I think they are worth the somewhat steep price tag. Pixi is available at Target and on Pixi’s website.

Make sure to check below the jump for a bunch of other pictures including brush and bottle shots.

The product(s) used in this post were provided to TDV for review. For more information check out our disclosure policy.

After seeing this picture of Taylor on what looks to be a coffee run I just had to replicate her nails. I don’t know if she did it on purpose or if the manicure was a total accident but she had all her nails except her pinky nail painted a light blue. The pinky nail was a bright cherry red. This was the perfect opportunity to use 2 of my favorite nail polishes; Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Barracuda and Madame X.

As I was doing this manicure I was very unsure of it. I thought it might look really strange. But as it turns out I ended up  loving this combination of colors. I even tweeted about it from my car while I was waiting on my boyfriend to get his morning coffee. Clearly I was obsessed!

In the original picture I couldn’t tell if Taylor had any nails on her right hand painted red. I decided to do my pointer finger on my right hand in the cherry red color just to add some continuity to the look.

This is a manicure I could see myself doing again. Maybe even trying out some other color combos…. What do you think? Is this something you would try?

There are quite a few more pictures below the jump (including a proper swatch).

Anyway…Fishnet is a shimmery aqua with a fishnet overlay. I love this design for Spring and Summer. It’s just so fun and different for a fishnet design.

These OPI strips are made from real nail polish. I much prefer these kind of nail appliques to those that are more like stickers such as the Julep Nail Appliques or Nail Rock Nail Wraps.

For all the details on application, removal, etc, etc check below the jump!

Packaging: There is nothing special about this packaging. It came with 16 nail strips in a shrink wrapped package. There was nothing aside from the nail strips in the package. No nail file or wooden stick or acetone wipe which I was fine with. I don’t generally use those extra things anyway.

The only instructions for this product were on the back of the packaging; they were simple and straightforward. But if you are a first time user of nail strips that may make you a bit nervous.

I did like that OPI warns you that these nail strips will dry out. The Sally Hansen Salon Effects will also dry out but I never saw any type of warning on their packaging. Lets just say….I learned the hard way that you have to reseal the strips if there are any leftover!

Application, Wear & Removal: Application, wear and removal of these nail strips was identical to the Sally Hansen Salon Effects nail strips. I did a very detailed post on that so if you missed it you can check it out here. I see no need to rehash that here. I do want to add that despite the fact OPI claims that a base and top coat are not necessary with these strips I used both anyway.

Day 4

I really did enjoy wearing this nail apps as OPI is calling them. I wouldn’t shut up about it on Twitter!

For the most part these are identical to the Sally Hansen Salon Effects which are slightly cheaper. The OPI strips were $11.95 at Ulta. So unless there is an OPI design you’re just dying to get your hands on I’d opt for the more affordable Sally Hansen version.

For this manicure I did alternating polka dots and base colors. So for half of the nails I used a base of Ulta Snow White and Essie Bazooka for the polka dots. On the other nails I used Essie Bazooka over Ulta Snow White as a base and Ulta Snow White for the polka dots.

I loved this manicure. I loved it so much I even tweeted a picture of it. It was so much fun to wear and I was constantly getting compliments on it. But the best thing about this manicure is the combinations are endless!

As usual, I did not use a dotting tool. I just used the large end of a bobby pin. Worked perfectly!

There is another swatch below the jump.

Marmalade is a bright tangerine orange creme. It has slight pink or red undertone, it is not a yellow based orange. It’s basically the it color for everything fashion and beauty for Spring/Summer 2012 in a nail polish bottle.

The formula is good. I did use 3 coats on my nails for this swatch, though when I’m doing a pedicure I only use 2 coats. Basically, for any normal person, 2 coats would likely be sufficient! As with all of the ColorStay polishes, Marmalade dried to a super shiny finish.

At first I was kind of wary of this line of polishes but now I just love it. For more information about the ColorStay line (including brush pictures) check out my post on Vintage Rose. There are pictures of the bottle and  label below the jump.

If you haven’t tried out the ColorStay line this is a great week to give it a try. CVS is running an awesome sale. All Revlon polishes are on sale for $4.99 with $3 back in Extra Care Bucks. Plus, if you are lucky enough to have this Revlon polish display (I have seen this display at CVS, Rite Aid and Ulta), grab one of the $1 off coupons and you have yourself an $8 nail polish for $.99!

For my $1 nail polish I picked up Provence. I can’t wait to try it!

Now I seriously need to go listen to Lady Marmalade because it has been stuck in  my head since I started writing this post! Cue Christina belting out Creole Lady Marmalade.

Gagalectric is a very sheer duochrome that flashes between a lilac and an aqua. The duochrome is as strong on the nail as it is in the bottle, which isn’t always the case with duochromes.

While the polish looks pretty good on the nail, application is kind of a pain. The formula is quite thin and reminded me alot of Wet n Wild Gray’s Anatomy. I used 4 coats in my swatches and as you can see there is still a visible nail line.

I’m thinking this might look good over a white or black base. I’d love to hear some of your suggestions for a polish like this!

There are a bunch more pictures below the jump

I wanted to do (another) post on this polish because of the frequency I mention it in my posts. But Ulta’s salon formula polish line has gone through several changes since I initially picked up this polish. So when I was at Ulta a couple of weeks ago I checked, and Ulta still sells this polish, though the packaging is different from  mine.

The reason I love this polish so much is the formula and application. White, like yellow, can be a bit of a pain if the formula isn’t perfect. I consider Snow White to have the perfect formula. It is very opaque and a tad on the thicker side but not difficult to work with. In this swatch I used just 2 coats.

So, if you are on the hunt for the perfect white polish to use under a neon or to use in nail art, or heck, just to wear on it’s own, I highly recommend Ulta Snow White. It retails for $6 but never pay that! Ulta runs sales on their house brand all the time. I usually stock up on Ulta polishes when they are $2

Do you have a perfect white? I’d love to know some other favorites. I know Katie really likes OPI Alpine Snow!