corrupted

As I mentioned in my previous post, I was all about the neons this summer. Naturally when I stumbled across Ciaté's Corrupted Neon Manicure set I had to have it. The premise of this manicure is that it's a fun bright mani in the daylight, and at night under UV lights glows in the dark--perfect if you were planning on hitting the clubs (something that is completely nonexistent where, I was but all the same). Each set comes with a full size paint pot, a full size bottle of glitter topping, and a mini blacklight topcoat. The set retails at $25.00 and comes in 4 different colors: 

Neon Yellow (as seen here)- Big Yellow Taxi paint pot

Neon Pink- Electronica paint pot

Neon Orange- Cha Cha Cha paint pot

Neon Blue- Boom Box paint pot

Basically you are paying $25 for the mini blacklight topcoat which can be applied over any polish for the same effect. If you aren't in love with the neon paint pots, or the glitter and would rather just purchase a UV topcoat you can find lots of different ones online. NYC has one that sells for as little as $10 for a full size bottle. Illamasqua, while nearly as expensive as the Ciaté set at about $20 for a full bottle, makes a stunning clear topcoat that glows your choice of four shades. Personally I found value in this manicure set since I get good use out of all three parts, but I thought it may be helpful to include some other information on UV topcoats since that is the selling point of the set. 

I didn't have anywhere exciting to really test out the UV function (what I wouldn't give to be back in college for moments like these) so I just tested it out in the daylight. For a look at the corrupted version of the mani, check out The Black Pearl Blog's post on the manicure set. To get my look I started with a coat of butter LONDON's Nail Foundation Flawless Basecoat followed by two coats of Ciaté's Big Yellow Taxi. I chose to use the glitter on only the accent nail. So, while my ring finger nail was still wet I sprinkled the glitter overtop the varnish, covering the whole nail. I placed a small plastic tray under the nail to catch any (and there was plenty) stray glitter. The glitter was very pigmented and had a great sparkle to it. Next I painted over each nail with one coat of the UV topcoat. Unfortunately this matted down the glitter on the accent nail, and in my opinion significantly dulled the effect. If I were to repeat this, I would not put a topcoat on the glittered nail--as long as I was only wearing it as a day look. Like I said, love the neon yellow, especially for summer--got tons of compliments on it, especially with the gold midi ring--and the UV topcoat works well and is a fun one to have in your arsenal for going out. However, unless you are in love with the whole set, I wouldn't recommend going this route for UV manicures. A singular full-size topcoat is probably a better investment for most unless you are an absolute polishaholic obsessed with neons!