Mani in Manhattan: Neon Tribal

This past weekend I went with Mike to New York City to visit friends in both Manhattan and Brooklyn. We always love seeing our friends up there, and, to be honest, it's the only type of vacation we can afford right now, so we try to take advantage about twice a year or so.  

I cannot emphasize this enough: seeing the city with people who live there is a COMPLETELY different experience than seeing it by yourself. Many people who visit the city go to the typical tourist attractions: Times Square, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, etc. 

There's nothing wrong with those places, and they are cool to see. But when you get shown around New York by a New Yorker, you get to see all the cool little hole-in-the-wall hot spots and restaurants that you wouldn't otherwise know about. 

Brooklyn Bowl is a great example of this. It is a bowling alley in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that doubles as a bar and concert venue. Pretty cool, right? Well they also do events, like Emo Night, which we attended Friday night. I got to dress up as a douche-y, 2005 teenager (let's be real, a former version of myself) and scream along to classic songs by Taking Back Sunday, Story of the Year, My Chemical Romance, and more. 

"Am I doing this right?"

Mike and I *did* do one tourist-y thing, and visited the Central Park Zoo. It was worth every cent, especially for the time I spent watching the harbor seals twirl around in their pool. 

There was also brunch. Lots of brunch. SO MUCH BRUNCH. I'm pretty sure by Sunday afternoon, my kidneys were swimming in champagne and orange juice. 

"Do you guys have pitchers of mimosas? Yeah, we will have one of those. That's right, just for the two of us. Thanks."

#NoShame. 

And, of course, I had to browse around a city Sephora. I'm glad I did, because I got to see, and hold in my hand, a Christian Louboutin nail polish in all it's glory. They retail for $50 EACH, so I really felt like I was in the presence of greatness. 

Which brings me to my final point: what I did with my nails for the weekend. I arrived in the city wearing a light sundress and wore a lot of black and white or tribal throughout the weekend, so I wanted to do something that would work with whatever I wore. 

Zoya in "Ali", "Purity", and "Willa"

Despite using my smallest detailing brush, the tribal still turned out a little messy, but not too terrible for my first freehand tribal. But, holy moly, that pink?! EYE searing. It's a great pink neon for the summer, it really packs a punch. 

Neon Everything

Fall and winter gives us jewel tones. We rock pastels at the first sign of spring. And summer is for neons. 

Several big name brand polish companies are coming out with neon colors for their summer collections. I recently picked up most of Orly's "Baked" collection, which boasts six, highly pigmented neon colors. 

L to R: "Neon Heat", "Ablaze", "Tropical Pop", "Lush", "Hot Tropics", and "Saturated"

I snagged all but "Tropical Pop", because I'm still not wild about yellow polishes. I may get it to round out the collection, but it wasn't an immediate must-have. 

One of my favorite bands, Neon Trees, played a concert at the House of Blues on Friday, so I figured it made perfect sense to play around with my new polishes for the show. Their new album, Pop Psychology, features a multicolored brain on the cover, which I used for inspiration for this neon gradient...

Gradient colors: "Saturated", "Hot Tropics", "Neon Heat", "Ablaze"

My favorite thing about the gradient (besides how smooth it came out!) was that the color "Hot Tropics" has a golden glittery sparkle to it that mixed its way into the other colors once I started sponging it on.

For my non-accent nails, I used "Saturated" which is an awesome, deep neon purple shade; I don't have anything else like it. I put a layer of white polish underneath all my colors, but I think it was only necessary for the gradient. "Saturated" was pigmented enough on its own, so I don't think it needed the base, which is so great for a neon!

The concert was out of this world. Neon Trees puts on a phenomenal show that sounds even better than the studio recorded album. They will be headlining one of Radio 1045's summer block parties this year, so you should definitely go check them out, especially since the show is free ;)

I have been obsessed with this manicure all week, and I'm definitely looking forward to experimenting with more gradients in fun, summer colors! All of these shades would be perfect against a nice tan. Together with my new Zoya's, I think I'll have the perfect array of bright, fun colors to choose from all summer long.