Fireflies inspired nail Tutorial feat. Orly Glowstick

Recently I purchased 3 very neon Orly polishes from the 2012 Feel The Vibe collection. I did not know about this collection, I was picking up some medicine from the pharmacy and low and behold there was a new mini Orly polish stand at the check out. Convenient location. I spent more on Orly polishes than I did on medicine of course ;-) I picked up 3 from the collection, one being a bright fluoro yellow called Glowstick. And still in the butter London mood, I paired it with Slapper from the 2012 spring collection (we will not discuss how I managed to purchase Slapper twice accidentally):

In my mind I was picturing a beautiful field of glowing fireflies but on nails I can't decide if it looks like the fireflies I had in mind.... or a bubbling pit of doom :-D And if you think this looks familiar, you'd be right, it is a neon recreation of my loved Purple Starry Nights Tutorial. That fan brush had to get some use again :-)

So to recreate this firefly/bubbling pit look we need a neon yellow, and a variety of mint polishes. And for someone who really doesn't fancy mint colours, I seem to own quite a few:

Left to right we have butter London Fiver, OPI Mermaid's Tears, Essie Absolutely Shore, MAC Ocean Dip, Orly Glowstick, butter London Slapper and Orly Alpine Snow. You probably don't need this many, I just grabbed all I could locate. Mermaid's Tears and Ocean Dip are probably interchangeable. Probably don't even need Absolutely Shore but use as many as you like! The effect is discreet in the end.

Let's begin the tutorial! All steps were shot in the iPhone app Hipstamatic, check it out, it's a fab app for lazy "photographers" like myself.

Step 1: Paint your base coat. I chose butter London Slapper from the 2012 Spring Collection. Honestly photos do not do this polish justice. I took photos with a variety of lights with both my phone and SLR and none could show its true beauty. All I can say is to buy it if you like Teal colours. It also applied beautifully. It's dark and not really a Tiffany comparison but it's pretty. Enough said.

Step 2: Take a fan brush and paint a little on the edges and create downward strokes on the nail. The MAC colour is really subtle against Slapper hence the large arrow above. It's also only on one nail.

Step 3: Continue the fan gradient with another lighter colour. Clean and re-fan your brush regularly otherwise it'll stick together.

Step 4: Repeat step 3 with a lighter colour! Here we have Fiver from the Spring 2013 collection.

Step 4 continued - keep going with as many colours as you like! I clearly have too much time on my hands.

Step 5: Finish with a white fan brush coat. This is important as it enables the neon shade to look opaque and bright.

Step 6: Using a dotting tool (I use the Orly brand) to create different sized dots across the nails. They too will be a base for the neon yellow. Use both sides of the dotter and apply more/less polish for different sizes.

Step 7: Go over the dots again with the neon colour.

Step 8: Final fan brush over the white base and fill more at the tips so it's nice and opaque. Use the nail polish brush for the tips if necessary.

Step 9: Clean up around the nails with nail polish remover and add a top coat! I use Sally Hansen Double Duty Base & Top Coat.

And that's what it looks like in sunlight, bright as can be! We went out for a late lunch on the lake and it was such nice weather. Although you can feel winter coming...

Well that is it for the fireflies slash bubbly pit tutorial! I  hope you enjoyed the look and I'll see you next time...