Neon Grunge Nails

I've been sporting mostly soft, girly-ish manicures lately - lots of florals and pastels, so last night I wanted to do something a bit different. I couldn't think of anything more different from girly than grungy, so that's what I went for! Take a look!


To start, I laid down a quick coat of China Glaze White On White. Then I added random spots of neon colours using six shades from last year's China Glaze Summer Neons Collection. Specifically, I used Beach Cruise-r, Hang-ten Toes, I'm With the Lifeguard, Orange You Hot?, Splish Splash and Sun-Kissed. I did a quick coat of Seche Vite and allowed that all to dry fully.


After about an hour (or however long it took to play two matches of Call of Duty: Black Ops II Zombies), I went back and painted a coat of China Glaze Liquid Leather over all of my nails. I waited for that to dry slightly and then took a fan brush, dipped it in some pure acetone, and swiped it several times over each nail. The acetone removed some of the black polish, allowing the bright neons to show through! And because I added that layer of top coat earlier, the acetone didn't penetrate deep enough to ruin any of neon colours.


This technique is the same idea as watercolour nails, but instead of swirling the acetone around the mix colours together, you're using it instead to just remove some of the top colour and allow the bottom layers to show through.


Ironically, I can't help but think that these would look even better if I added the outline of a big white rose on just a couple of the nails. It kind of goes against what I was going for here, but I think it would add a cool touch to this mani. What do you guys think?

Thanks for looking!