China Glaze - LOL

Here's an oldie but goodie.  I was just recovering from being basically in bed sick for an entire week, but my mom wanted to go do some shopping.  My darling husband graciously allowed it on the condition that he drive me to meet my mom and pick me up (what actually happened:  He drove me, halfway through he met us at the mall and carried all our bags, then drove me home).  Anyway, I still felt awful, and purple is my mom's favorite color, so I picked this out of my stash. 

LOL is a dark purple, linear holographic polish.

Basecoat:  NailTek Foundation II (1 coat)
Color:  China Glaze LOL (3 coats)
Topcoat:  Nubar Diamont (1 coat)

Love.

China Glaze - Laser Lime

Laser Lime is a light green holographic polish.  The holographic effect is more scattered than linear.  Otherwise, it's very similar to L8R G8R - I believe the base colors are very very close if not identical.

Basecoat:  Gelous (1 coat)
Color:  China Glaze Laser Lime (4 coats)
Topcoat:  China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat (1 coat)

Application was fairly typical for holo polishes - I went slowly and made sure not to go over any parts that already had polish unless they were totally dry.   Cleanup was a snap.

The Tronica collection of polishes has been hit or miss, to me.  Some bottles just don't look as holo as other bottles - Laser Lime is one of the non-holo-looking bottles.  And once it's on the nail it still looks non-holo, even under my desk lamp in my office.   I had to go outside to capture any holo at all, and even then it's fairly weak. Somehow, all the outside photos give me major lobster hands with this polish, which is odd - in real life it doesn't even remotely make my hands look red.

For once, I used four coats because a holo wasn't opaque enough.  I had no dragging or bald spots at all - it just wasn't very opaque.  If you look very closely in the photos you can see a hint of VNL - it's not visible in real life, but it definitely was at three coats.

OPI - DS Exclusive

Here's another old favorite I pulled out of my stash.  Sometimes when I'm looking through my untrieds, a lyric from Faith No More's "Falling to Pieces" pops up in my head - "Indecision clouds my vision".  Actually, this happens every single time I can't decide immediately, but whatever.  At any rate, you know how it goes - running out of time, so you pick a holo or an opaque neon or a matte.

Basecoat:  Gelous (1 coat)
Color:  OPI DS Exclusive (3 coats)

No topcoat.  The above photo is in indirect sunlight, as are most of my photos.  I had to bring this one into more direct light.  Please to ignore the cat head in the background.

Application was really nice for this.  I had no dragging issues or any of that kaka.  This polish is pretty runny, though, and it pooled in, oh, all my cuticles.  It doesn't clean up as nicely as DS Glamour, so if you click to embiggen the photos and look closely, you can see glitter particles on my skin still.  Fabulous!

OPI - DS Glamour

The nail board recently had a theme week for "Forgotten Loves", and, well, this is definitely one of mine.  DS Glamour is a dark blue, linear holo.  I bought this bottle when it was released, well before I was into nail polish.

Basecoat:  Gelous (1 coat)

Basecoat:  NailTek Foundation II (1 coat)

Color:  OPI DS Glamour (3 coats)

Topcoat:  Out the Door (1 coat)

Loooook at eeeeeeeet.  Of course, the day I wear this, we have some clouds in the sky (but still no rain). Some of these photos are under my desk light, but they still don't show off the awesome holo on the nail.

China Glaze - Virtual Violet

Virtual Violet is from the Tronica collection, which was available only at Sally Beauty Supply.  I only picked up a few polishes from this collection but I had to resort to eBay to get the one I really wanted, which was Techno Teal.  Virtual Violet is a dark purple - probably really close to LOL, but the holos are different.  LOL is a linear holo, and the Tronica polishes are a little more scattered.  I had a hard time getting a good bottle photo of this.

Basecoat:  China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat (1 coat)
Color:  China Glaze Virtual Violet (3 coats)

I did not want to risk dulling the holo so I did not use a topcoat.  As you can see from the bubbles I have, I had a fan going in the room I was in.  Application was kind of a pain - I should have used a basecoat like Nailtek Foundation or even a matte topcoat.  I had all kinds of dragging because I used a sticky basecoat, so I ended up using thicker coats than I should have to compensate.  Because of that I had tons of pooling at my cuticles, and it made the bubbles worse, too.  Oh, well!

Ulta - Material Girl

I was undecided on what to wear today. Someone on the nail board posted pics of this, and I remembered I had it in my untrieds. This is a berry shimmer with holo glitter.
I'm not gonna lie - application was pretty terrible.

Basecoat: Salon Sciences Instant Artificials (1 coat)
Color: Ulta Material Girl (3 coats)
Topcoat: Gelous (1 coat)
Topcoat: Seche Vite (1 thick coat)

Material Girl is pretty but the application is awful. Thick and goopy, and as you can tell, it's a topcoat eater. At two coats I knew I was going to have to use the Gelous, then Seche trick I first saw on Scrangie's blog, and guess what? As you can tell from the photos, it didn't work. This is still bumpy to the touch and looks it.

That said, this is a pretty polish and I'm still probably going to wear it again. Other application issues aside, I probably could have gotten away with two coats for this, but I tried for a thin second coat and had some dragging, so I had to use a third coat to even it out.

Franken - Black No. 1

I gave in to the dark side and I finally made a franken, simple as it is. I saw this idea on MUA, and since I'm not going to pay big bucks for the holo version of My Private Jet, I think this is plenty close enough. I named it Black No. 1.

Wow, that is a terrible bottle photo. If you click for the bigger version, it's better but not great. Anyway, here it is on.


Basecoat: OPI Ridge Filler (2 coats)
Color: Franken - Black No. 1 (3 coats)

Because this is a holo I didn't use topcoat. To make this, I took a full bottle of OPI DS Shimmer and poured in some Wet N Wild Black Creme. I don't know exactly how much I used, I just stopped when I couldn't get any more in the bottle and shook it up like crazy. I slapped it on and thought it wasn't dark enough, so I took it off and used the new empty space in the DS Shimmer bottle to add more WnW. Shook it up like crazy, swatched it again, and decided that was good. If I had to estimate I would say I used maybe a tenth to an eighth of the Black Creme - I mean, I can't even see a drop in the bottle level.

Because Black Creme is crazy pigmented, cleanup kind of sucked for this franken. Still, I absolutely love this.

OPI - DS Glamour

Sooo, originally I had planned some nail art, but you would think I would know by now that unless it's a small decal, it's going to be a huge fail for me. As was this one. I had some Texas Rangers logo decals that worked pretty well, but they were sized for each nail. Apparently I have small nails, because the last three were so big they overflowed onto the skin on both sides. I scrapped that and tried jewels. Not so much. I decided to pull out a trusty blue. It was either going to be China Glaze Frostbite, DS Glamour, or DS Magic. Okay, it was never going to be DS Magic, but at least I threw an untried in there, right?
DS Glamour is a medium blue holo.

Pretty boring, right? Add light, and voila! In your face holo!

Please to ignore my insufficient cleanup and the place where I nicked the not-quite-dry polish.
Basecoat: NailTek Foundation II (2 coats)
Color: OPI DS Glamour (3 coats)
Topcoat: David (1 coat)

I opted to use topcoat after testing on one nail and determining that it didn't affect the holo in this polish. Application was outstanding as it usually for DS holos.

Essence - The World's Coolest and Nubar - Reclaim

Today I planned to put on Essence The World's Coolest from the Surfer Babe collection. This is the first Essence I've tried.
This is a pale , slightly dusty baby blue.
Basecoat: Gelous (1 coat)
Color: Essence The World's Coolest (4 coats)

This was a mess. This is four coats and I still have VNL and bald patches. The formula was thick and goopy and hard to control. To top it off, I just don't like the color on me. It may be one of those that I just don't like while my hands are tanned, so I'll try this again in spring. Tonight, though, I couldn't stand it so I took it off.

To make up for that fail, I put on Nubar Reclaim instead. This is a medium green holo with tons of sparkle.

Basecoat: Nubar Foundation (1 coat)
Color: Nubar Reclaim (2 coats)
Topcoat: Nubar Diamont (1 coat)

I had a really hard time getting the holo-ness of this on camera. Wish I had some sun, but I don't. Application was a dream - smooth, no dragging or bald spots at all.

New post tomorrow - have a great day!

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!

Color Club - Magic Attraction

Here's one that has been in my stash for a while - Color Club Magic Attraction. I can't remember when I picked it up but it's one of the oldest Color Clubs I own - I've never seen Color Club for sale anywhere until I found online e-tailers. Since then I've seen it at one nail supply store, but that's it.

Magic Attraction is a holographic glitter. It's not a holo in the same way that China Glaze DV8 and OPI DS Glamour are - it's just got a ton of holo glitter in it, but it doesn't sparkle in any kind of pattern. It looks very "meh" inside under indirect light. Here it is next to a window on a mostly cloudy day.
See? Meh. Since I am working at home today I went outside to take a picture of this. It figures that it's been cloudless and sunny all week, but as soon as I go outside to take pictures, it's mostly cloudy today. Here it is in as much sun as I could find today.
Sparkly, but not spectacular, right? When I looked at the photos of this mani and got to this one I giggled like a little girl. This is inside under halogen light:
If I've done this right, you should be able to click on this one to embiggen it. Look at that sparkle and color! If the sun comes out for real today I'll go outside and take another photo. I'm going out to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington tonight so I'll at least take a photo with my phone and post it to Twitter, then move it here later (probably tomorrow). The breakdown:
Basecoat: CND Stickey (1 coat)
Color: Essie Loophole (1 coat, just to hide any bare spots)
Color: Color Club Magic Attraction (3 coats)
Topcoat: Seche Vite (2 THICK coats!)

Let's talk about application here. Magic Attraction is very pretty but it was a PAIN to apply! It's packed with glitter in a clear base, but even with as much glitter as there is, I still had some bare spots after two coats. I had to glop on the third coat in some places to get even coverage. Clean-up was a pain, too. You can forget the acetone/brush trick with this one - just be careful in application. And, the finish was super-bumpy - one coat of Seche wasn't enough and I had to do two to get it smooth. I don't have any tip pulling right now, but I will be extremely surprised if I don't have any later. I'm OK with that though, because I usually file my nails on Fridays, so it won't be that obvious. I'm kind of dreading removal, but I'm not - because I know I'm probably going to pick it off, like I usually do. I really wish I could stop doing this. It can't be good for my nails long-term.

Have a great weekend, everyone - I'm going to try to fit in a comparison of Color Club Warhol and China Glaze Pool Party before my regular mani.