Milani - Purple Nail Art

Today I have an old untried in my stash.  Before Megan Chair stopped blogging, she posted a full mani done with the purple glitter Milani nail art polish.  As soon as I saw it I went out and bought two of these (okay, I bought one - it took me a couple of weeks to hunt down a second) and decanted them both.  I have no idea why it's taken me this long to wear them but when I saw Scrangie's recent post featuring this polish, it reminded me I had it.

Basecoat:  NailTek Foundation II (new bottle, yay!)
Color:  Milani Purple Nail Art (3 coats)
Topcoat:  Gelous (1 coat)
Topcoat:  Seche Vite (1 coat)

This is a pretty purple jelly PACKED with blue, pink, and purple glitter.  It looks like a lighter, glitterier China Glaze "Flying Dragon".  I own both but I'm not going to compare them.

Application was not too bad.  This polish is pretty thick so it was easy to control where it went, but when I messed up it took a while to clean up.  I actually took this photo the day after I applied it, because I had to resort to picking off the excess polish/glitter.

You really need to wear a topcoat with this.  It dries semi-matte, but it feels like very rough sandpaper when dry.  Much rougher than typical glitter polish.  I used the Gelous/Seche topcoat trick and I probably could have used another coat of Seche.  This polish "ate" topcoat - the night I applied it it was almost perfectly smooth, but when I woke up the next morning, it was all bumpy.

I imagine this would be a pain to remove.  I actually picked this off (as I do with almost every polish, sigh) so... yeah.  You'll probably want to use the foil method to remove this.

Sally Hansen - Spark and Milani - Totally Cool

I was trying to decide what to wear today and was swatching about twelve different polishes. Spark looked interesting but kind of dull, so I put a coat of Totally Cool (and Totally Sheer) on top. I decided to wear this as a full mani.
Spark is super opaque and super runny. The only way I could think of that this polish could have any worse of a cleanup is if it was a glitterbomb, too. Total smurf fingers.
Spark is a deep blue base with subtle purple shimmer. It actually reminds me of Confetti Smitten, though I haven't worn that as a full manicure yet. I found Spark in a clearance basket quite a while ago. I have to admit, it looks better and more interesting in the bottle than on the nail. This is two coats. I probably could have gotten away with one if I had been prepared for its consistency.

Basecoat: Gelous (2 coats, and I bet I'm still going to have staining)
Color: Sally Hansen Spark (2 coats)
Color: Milani Totally Cool (2 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

In the bottle, Totally Cool has a neat multichrome/almost holo effect. In one of the photos I took there's actually a green flash in the bottle. Totally Cool had a MUCH better application than Spark. I might have to try Totally Cool under a brighter purple or even a berry next time.

Milani - Rad Purple

Rad Purple is a pretty purple jelly. It's part of Milani's "Neon" collection, but I wouldn't classify this as a true neon - it's a little more muted and darker than typical neon purples.
The bottle is one of those annoying opaque colored bottles, so it's not really representative of the polish.

Basecoat: Salon Sciences Fiberglass Network (1 coat)
Color: Milani Rad Purple (4 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

Rad Purple applied like a dream. Thin, smooth, flowed nicely. I had a few problems with pooling at my cuticles, but cleanup was very easy, so it wasn't a problem. Obviously I still have VNL but it's not super evident. Rad Purple dried to a satin finish, not the typical neon matte.

Comparison: China Glaze IDK and Milani Hi-Res

As promised, I did a comparison today of China Glaze IDK and Milani Hi-Res.
In the bottle I can tell immediately that the glitter and holo is going to be the difference. The base colors for both of these are just about identical.

I have 3 coats of Hi-Res on my index and ring fingers, and 3 coats of IDK on my middle finger and pinky. Here they are in the sun.

Hi-Res has holographic glitter - the individual pieces are holographic. IDK has an overall holo effect. Coverage on both was fantastic - Hi-Res covered totally in three coats, IDK only required two, but I did three for consistency. If you happen to catch a glimpse of these in the shade they are almost identical, but when the sun comes out they're definitely different.

Milani Hi-Res

Chrla wore very well. I had only a tiny bit of tip wear, and it might be because I slapped on a coat of Seche before I went to bed. When I took it off I had light staining, but a cursory buffing got rid of it with no problems. I'll definitely wear it again, but I would probably use the ridge filler basecoat to try to prevent that.

This is Milani Hi-Res, from the 3D Holographic collection. I wanted something that was going to dry quickly and apply well. I thought about going with a neon instead but I didn't feel like dealing with streaks.
The holo in Hi-Res is the type that comes from the individual glitter pieces being holographic, not that they show any discernable pattern. This is pretty similar to China Glaze IDK (I think, it's in my untried pile), but the holo pattern isn't as defined. If I have time Sunday I will swatch IDK and do a comparison.
Basecoat: China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
Color: Milani Hi-Res (3 coats)
Topcoat: Seche Vite (1 coat)

Inside, this looks like a light to medium purple with silver micro glitter. There is almost no holo in this indoors. Application was pretty standard for a holo - I had to be careful about bald spots and drag, but it wasn't too bad.

Tomorrow I am going to a bicycle maintenance class at REI, then the Rangers game, so I am not going to have time to do another post then. I am planning to do a new mani Sunday. If I have the right nail art (I need to look through my stash) I am going to do a patriotic one, but I'm not going to go out and buy more nail art just for that. So, it'll be a surprise what comes up on Sunday. :)

Have a great weekend!

Sinful - Folly and Milani - Pink Out Loud

I wrote this last night but Blogger was being obnoxious and I couldn't post until this morning.  Now that I've seen this in the sunlight I think it's almost a dead dupe for China Glaze Strawberry Fields.  There is a tiny bit less gold sparkle in this mani, though.

A good way to go through the "untried" pile faster is to layer polishes.  I did it again tonight, except I didn't realize it would look so similar to CG Red Curl Girl, which I wore last week.  Oh, well.

Basecoat:  CND Stickey (1 coat)
Color:  Sinful - Folly (3 coats)
Color:  Milani - Pink Out Loud (2 coats)
Topcoat:  Seche Vite (1 coat)

Another photo, blurry on purpose to show the sparkle in Pink Out Loud:

This is nice and sparkly.  Again, it's very similar to Red Curl Girl, but it is definitely a touch pinker.  It's particularly annoying because the Texas Rangers are home and playing Monday-Thursday, and since I have season tickets, I'll be out at the ballpark all week.  Unless I work at home a day, I won't have time to change my manicure until next weekend.  So, not only am I wearing something very similar to what I wore last week, I'll be wearing it all week long, too.  Blah.

As has been my experience with Sinful cremes, I had some application issues.  Folly was a bit gloopy and definitely a bit streaky, but Pink Out Loud is just dense enough and its base pink color is just opaque enough to cover it.

This is pretty, but my overall feeling is "meh".  I probably should have gone with a neon or something.