I have to admit that today's mani wasn't actually planned at all, even as I applied my base polish I honestly had no idea what I was going to do with it and it sort of spiraled out of neon control. And, I mean, I think we can all acknowledge that going balls to the wall with neon isn't exactly hard to do. Of course, it's even easier to do when you go all in and make a pairing of neon and leopard print, but it's summer and I'm fully vaccinated, so let's go! Also, this month's #CBBxManiMonday theme is Summer, leaving it wide open to just go mad with neon power. Am I right?

Keep reading for more!

The base polish for this mani is actually one that I scooped up from a friend when she was destashing and it was a limited edition polish that came out back in 2019 - which is kind of sad because THIS POLISH IS AMAZING. Ahem. This is 500 Festival from Different Dimension and it's this amazing straight up highlighter neon yellow jelly full of beautiful iridescent color shifting flakies and glitters as well as holo microflakes. I swear, every single summer I want to do neon yellow nails and they tend to look really, really bad on my skin tone but somehow this polish ended up looking really flattering... if straight up bonkers. Apparently I need more indie neons in my collection.... 

Anyway, for this mani, I applied two coats of 500 Festival and it gave me a surprisingly full opacity. 

Like I said, the stamping sort of just happened for this one and I actually sort of didn't think it was going to work out even as I was doing it. I reached for this new Pict You plate that has a whole bunch of different partial coverage (some full coverage if you have short nails) animal print images and decided to just go all in and alternate between two different leopard print images filled in with orange, pink, and magenta neon spots. I used one of my much beloved NailStuff.ca Dotting Tools** to fill in the dots and honestly... it's just insanely easy. I fill it in on the stamper and then apply a thin layer of sticky base coat to my nails right before I'm ready to transfer, giving it about a minute to get tacky.

Once I was happy with my stamping, I sealed it all in with a water based top coat and then finished with a generous layer of glossy top coat to bump up the shine even further - because why not? And voila!

This mani is very much a lot, but I kind of love that about it. I think the pairing of the neon and the leopard print makes a surprising amount of sense and ends up being a really fun summer pairing, even if it is quite a lot. Also, I'm so absolutely in love with this base polish and I'm so, so glad that I grabbed it from my friend - apologies for using another base that it isn't still available, I know that's kind of annoying but I can't help myself, I go where the inspo and my collection leads me. If you wanted to recreate this look, there are some great neon yellow/green indies out there or you could use a more mainstream neon and add a flakie or holo top coat to get a similar vibe!

Be sure to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK today to check out their Summer themed nail art for #CBBxManiMonday!

Thanks for reading!