It is officially summer in the 852 , which means I get even more insane with my make-up than usual! Being my usual stupidly-prepared self, I bagged myself the hottest most searing neon nail polish money could buy around three months ago, thanks to Stateside make-up mule Nunu. First up to give my nails a dose of radioactive summer was American Apparel Neon Coral.
Well, it does what it says on the tin! It is neon. It is coral. BUT IT IS SO MUCH MORE.
In the words of Danny Zucko, ‘It’s electrifffffyin’!’. This is not the nasty orange highlighter colour of yore but a perfect red orange balance, neon-ed to the extreme. It’s electric coral, amplified salmon and peach on heat rolled into one. It is, of course, utterly amazing.
What isn’t amazing is American Apparel nail polish itself. It’s my first experience with AA nail polish and in the words of Shania Twain, ‘that don’t impress me much!’. The thin square bottles look very cool, the print on them is awesome and they look like little hipster bricks of E-number addled candy. But their being so thin means that using them is a precarious business, as one mis-aimed brush dunk results in them tipping over way too easily.
The brush was functional but not great and just served to remind me how much I take the likes of Zoya’s, China Glaze’s, Lippmann’s, Essie’s et al for granted as the way they splay just takes the hard work out of application. The formula of Neon Coral was fine (wait until you hear my horror stories for Neon Orange!), a streaky first coat that built up to opacity in two to three. Like most neons, it dries with a sort of demi-matte finish, though this was definitely still glossy and non-chalky looking enough for me not to consider top coat.
But back onto the colour itself, which is really something. Fabulously fluorescent, it of course caused my camera to have a seizure and never really capture it properly (too orange-leaning and nowhere near bright enough; bizarrely iPhone did a better job, so thank the fact I felt the need to tweet for the top two photos, which are pretty accurate). As the picture above shows, it near enough glows in the dark.
Retina-searing, sunglasses required, Neon Coral practically enters the room before you. It’s a neon no-brainer. Start waving those glowsticks kids, because the summer of 2012 is set to be a fluorescent one!
Looks good with: colour-clashing, summer brights, beachwear
Drying time: 5 mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: 2 days
American Apparel Neon Coral nail polish, released Spring 2011
Through The Looking Glass 
I am loving the neon trend for this summer! Orly has some seriously intense ones that I think you could use to find things in the dark.
China Glaze’s Summer Collection is tempting me…
wait is the name neon coral or neon red? I really want this one but i don’t know what is the right name. On the website i clicked on the neon coral one but it looks orangey and not like this. The red one looks more like this but im not sure. I dont want to purchase the wrong one.
Hi Bianca
I’ve just double checked and my bottle is definitely labelled Neon Coral – I don’t own Neon Red. However, I do agree with you that in most of the other photos online, Neon Coral looks more orange. Perhaps the formula/names have changed since I got this three years ago, as I’ve noticed that American Apparel online no longer stocks all the Neon range that I own and that the bottles/packaging look slightly different now too.