Neon Glow Beams

Different people react differently to crises. Some people panic, some people don't know what to do but will follow directions, and some people automatically react to adrenaline with a cool and clear head. I'm one of the latter. So when my husband called yesterday to tell me I needed to get home right away, he was calling 911 because he was having chest pains and felt like he was about to pass out, I went straight into action. (He turned out to be okay, thankfully, though he needs to get a primary care physician to find out what caused it, but everything was functioning fine and they did the EKG, X-ray, and blood workup to verify he was not having a cardiac event, and had not had one in the last 72 hours. A paramedic friend of mine, after discussing his full history with me, said that it's probably stable angina, which isn't life-threatening, but will need to be seen by a doctor and possibly treated.)

I shut down my computer, grabbed my coat, stopped to tell my supervisor why I was leaving, and headed straight out. Drove at the maximum safe speed I could drive in the rain, called my best friend on the way to let her know what was happening because she would need to watch the kids if I had to go to the hospital with him, and the paramedics were packing up when I got there. He wasn't in danger, but they wanted him to go to the hospital, either with them or with me, to get fully checked out. So I sent him on in the ambulance, called my friend (who said her boss had said she could leave right away) and got her on the way to my place to watch the kids, explained to the kids what was going on, posted on facebook to let my family know what was happening, grabbed some water, hit the bathroom, and I was ready to drive out to the hospital as soon as my bestest friend showed up. Sat with Chris 'til the tests were done, got home, got some dinner...and about an hour after we got home, I crashed. I panic AFTER the emergency is over.

So, needing something to make sure I didn't sit there thinking about all the things that could have happened and working up into a panic attack? I did my nails. <3

Credit for the idea goes to Pshiit for being the first person I saw doing a neon-tape striped manicure, as well as Polish All The Nails whose neon stripe was the first one I found on Pinterest when I went looking to see how others had done the striping. (Credit should also go to anybody else who's done neon under black with thin striping tape, and I just didn't have them on my Pinterest board to reference - I know I've seen a few more than these two. :)

I have a new set of Primark Beauty neon minis in Pink, Orange, Yellow, and Blue

that I won in a giveaway from Talon-ted last month, but I have five fingers ^_~ so I decided to do an accent nail. Also, I wanted those strips to sparkle under that black, so after painting a skittle of pink, red, yellow and blue (I used two coats each - I would have needed a third coat for complete opaqueness if I were stopping there, as there were a few thin spots, but since I was adding other stuff, I stopped at two), I added a coat of Essie Shine of the Times! (I put two coats of China Glaze Liquid Leather on my accent nail, and then two thick coats of Shine. I think I should've stopped with one; I think I overdid the color saturation on it.) Mind, these pictures are pre-cleanup, since I wasn't done yet! :)

I just can't get over how Shine of the Times looks so different over each color! It's just beautiful!

 

I pulled out one of my foil striping tapes, because I got a set of 12 colors of the stuff for like a dollar a while back off ebay, and I can not cut tape that thin by hand! Put the striping tape down, and one thick coat of China Glaze Liquid Leather later, I pulled them up to reveal the awesome glittery goodness! They're like colored sunbeams on my fingers! The combination of neon and Shine of the Times is just too awesome for words (and for my camera, but I gave it a try with different lighting and angles!) These pictures are after a coat of Seche Vite (two on the ring fingers) and clean-up, so they're much nicer (I hope, anyway. ;) I love how all of them are sunbeams in different shades - red, orange, yellow, and that gorgeous pink over blue that you get in some sunsets. I call that sky-blue-pink, because I've never seen quite that shade anywhere else. Does anyone else have their own name for that color?