Holo on Holo Stamping

Happy Friday!! I wanted to do something fun with China Glaze L8R G8R before removing it. I was thinking of crackle or some sort of tape design but did not want to cover up the polish completely. I decided I would find a design to stamp with. I ended up choosing the shattered glass/mosaic pattern from Bundle Monster, plate BM-208. I also had the idea to stamp with another holo!!

BM-208 worked awesome by the way, I had some issues with it last year if you recall in this post. Bundle Monster provided me a brand new plate at no charge and I could not be happier :) I really like this pattern.

I chose Nubar Reclaim for the added tone on tone look and I love it, I really need to do more manis like this. I love the subtle refresh it gives and you can still see the holo! I did use a top coat and I feel like it may have dulled the effect a tiny bit. If anything it is more scattered, but not too bad. I used a very thin and quick swipe of an old bottle of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri top coat.

See Ya Later Alligator... Some old & NEW Holos for 2013

Woohoo!! More holos! Today I have one of my China Glaze OMG polishes, I only own a few from the collection, and have only worn one as a full mani believe it or not! The first was DV8, which I LOVE, the second for me to wear from this collection? L8R G8R.

L8R G8R is a light green holographic/prismatic polish. I used two coats in my photos with a regular base coat (I forgot to use my Nfu Oh Aqua Base) and no top coat. Considering I wore a regular base I had no issues with application. The polish applied smoothy and dried quickly.

After wearing this for a few days, I kind of wish it was more pigmented or a deeper green. It is a pretty pastel lime but it needs a little more brightness to it! I was actually inspired to wear this polish after seeing swatches of China Glazes Spring 2013 Hologram collection and seeing OMG a UFO which is not only an awesome looking green holo, but the name rocks too! I soooo cannot wait for those :)

Krystal  from PolishGalore was kind enough to let me use her borrow her photo above to show you guys OMG a UFO and the other lovely holos China Glaze is set to release this spring. Look how saturated these shades look! To see more photos of this collection and some more upcoming collections from China Glaze, be sure to check out her post here.

The wear was typical of holos or most regular polishes without a top coat. Within the first couple of days I got some slight tip wear and one or two minor chips. This was from various day-to-day stuff like washing dishes, prepping food, cleaning etc. I want to do some fun nail art with this one, I'm off to look up some inspiration ;)

I couldn't resist taking a photo of my nails by my new neon coral bikini, :) ... which of course is showing up pink. I love the contrast in colours.

What's your favorite holo polish?

Duochome Refresh

Today I have a refresh for OPI Planks a Lot. I was looking up inspiration and came across this awesome mani from the NailXchange. I pulled out my Red Angel plate and Sally Hansen chromes, but was missing a blue.... No blue chrome, I must substitute! Sitting on my desk was my brand new bottle of Deviantly Daring that you have already seen here a couple times now from China Glaze's Bohemian collection.

I figured why not? It's blue, it has a chrome like shine and it looked to be thick enough. I tested it out and although it worked with the other chromes, I decides it was so pretty it deserved to be stamped on its own!

Now... My continuing annoyance with my Red Angel plates... This particular image on plate RA-107 is ingraved too deeply, an issue I have been having with my set. The result? Not too perfect stamping and smudging :( I guess I will have to try this image out again with one of my regular stamping polishes and see if I get the same issues.

One thing I thought about after was leaving the polish in the engraving a little longer after scraping to adhere better to the stamp when you pick it up. Again, I'll have to try another time. Below you can better see how each nail has a different result.

My fave nail is the pinky :) I thin k the stamp was the cleanest on that nail and the pointer is my second fave, I find the best way to stamp is to have a soft touch. Am I the only one having issues with these plates :(

Doppelgängers! Holo Edition, Featuring Layla and Nfu Oh

I hope those of you who had a long weekend emjoyed yourself, I know I did :) Today I will be comparing two awesome holos! Like I said in this haul post although I have around 4 other silver holos, I could not give up the opportunity to purchase Mercury Twlight from Layla when I saw it in store. Maybe one day will do a comparison on all of them if you are interested, but for now I picked Layla's strongest condenser in my collection, Nfu Oh 61. For your reference this this is the newer formula. So let's compare them shall we.

First close ups of the bottles, for whatever reason both of these holos hide in the bottle, doesn't really look like anything too special. I have noticed however that if you shake them up real good you can see a rainbow. I didn't capture this on camera because it goes away too fast.

Next up is formula, both polishes are different. Layla is very thin where Nfu Oh is thick and gloopy! Although I prefer the application of Layla, it does take longer to build up, for a full mani I would probably want three coats. In the swatches you see in this post, both polishes are two coats.

Although I have not worn either of these polishes yet I have worn the same brand and finish just different colours. From what I remember even without a top coat these lasted a long time! Definitely longer than my China Glaze holos. So which is more holographic?

... The winner is on the left, the Layla!! My camera sucks at capturing holos, Layla was sooo holo in person! Look how pretty!!

Layla is on the right in this photo, upside-down!

One last thing before I finish this post, check these two out in the shade. I love how the Nfu Oh looks like a chrome. For that and just not being holo enough I'm gonna have to day they are not dopplegangers. Do you need them both then? Probably not, I just cold not resist picking up a stronger silver holo :)

Doppelgängers! Duochrome Edition Featuring China Glaze & Revlon

While in Sally's the other day deciding if I wanted to pick up Deviantly Daring I was reminded of another colour in my stash. I have been doing that a lot lately, trying to make a mental note of the polishes in my stash and they are close to the ones I want to buy. This way I can leave it if I have something similar. Usually swatch wheels aid in this, but they didn't have one out on display at the time.

The one polish that came to mind was Revlon's Ocean Breeze I wore not too long ago. I almost left the China glaze behind, but I am so glad I didn't!

So let's see a close up, first Deviantly Daring 

and Ocean Breeze.

And now both snatched side by side, Deviantly Daring is two coats and Ocean Breeze is at least three.

Both pf the photos above and below were taken in direct sunlight at different angles.

And the last photo shows them in the shade. Look at that shine on Deviantly Daring! I love it :)

So these are obviously not as close of dupes as I thought they were. It you couldn't see it in the photos here are some others reasons why:

- Deviantly Daring is darker in colour

- Deviantly Daring has a chrome-like finish

- Ocean Breeze is thinner formula wise and requires more coats

- Ocean Breeze has more of a duochrome effect. You can see the colour of this polish better in this post.

- Ocean Breeze leaves more brush strokes behind and has more of a frosty finish

Even though Deviantly Daring doesn't have a strong duochrome effect I still prefer it over Ocean Breeze and I cannot wait to wear it as a full mani soon :) which do you prefer?

Planks a Lot

I picked up this dusty purple late last year apart of OPI's Pirates of the Caribbean collection. Planks a Lot is a light, dusty purple that is just so perfect in application. I don't think I have worn an OPI polish in while and it was just a dream to apply. It makes me want to wear only OPI polishes from now on! lol

with flash

Shown on my newly trimmed nails is two coats and a top coat of Seche Vite. I don't know much more to say about this polish, but it is just lovely :)

lamp light no flash

Haulin'

I haven't been picking up polish lately.This is a really good thing seeing as I am trying to cut down, I am running out of space :( I Stumbled in to Sally's twice this past week and picked up some new polish, most on sale :)

First I'll start off with my first trip to the Sally's by my house I picked up from left to right, China Glaze I Herd That, Orly Mysterious Curse and After Party.

I actually was hoping to find China Glaze I'm Not Lion, but I actually ended up liking I Herd That better! It looks to have copper/orange and pale yellow glitter sprinkled with some holo glitter, that it was makes it really special. The swatches I saw from the Safari collection didn't really wow me overall but in person they look a lot more interesting. I may pick up a few more...

On to the Orlys, first one is from the Dark Shadows collection. I love Tim Burton and was excited there was an accompanying polish collection to the movie, but was mostly disappointed in the colours. Mysterious Curse however has this purple shimmer that literally glows. It is pretty cool, more of a fall shade for sure. I feel like all three of these polishes would be good around Halloween :)

The next Orly is After Party. This is apart of Orly's latest summer collection, and I like the idea of it, I think

of After Party at a cottage on the beach with a fire and fireflies... sigh... I need a vacation! This is a very interesting colour, black base with mostly blue/teal, and magenta glitter sprinkled in. It appears to dry a little gritty on it's own, but I'm sure a good top coat will fix that up.

Below are some swatches in the sun...

and in the shade.

Moving on now to the second part of my haul, I was in the States over the weekend and was hoping to find the Bohemian collection at the Sally's I frequent there. They usually put their collections out the last week of the month. Lucky me it was out... but totally picked over :( oh well, I got one of the three that I really wanted so not too bad. With my Sallys card this was over $6 with taxes! wtf China Glaze!?

 I picked out Deviantly Daring which is a deep teal blue with a slight green/turquise shift. Not as muticolour changing as I would have hoped but it has this chromey, almost mirror like finish without a top coat that is amazing! And compared to my other Sally Hansen prisms the formula is perfect, not so thin. I really love this one and am glad I found it :)

I also ended up picking up an unexpected polish at Ulta's...

Layla Mercury Twilight!! I had gone looking for the Layla holos the last time I was in the States two months ago and they had no clue what I was talking about! lol It was unexpected to find them this time around, I was actually hoping to find the Ulta exclusive OPI polishes. I tried to resist paying $15.50 for a teeny, tiny polish... but I had a $3.50 off coupon ;) Still a lot more that I would have liked to spend, but when am I ever going to find another one like this?  I have like three other silver holo polishes... but this one does appear to be the best. I may actually be selling some of my other ones to make up for the cost of this one. You can expect a comparison with this polish very soon ;)

I am excited for the release of China Glazes new holos and hope to get my hands on them, I wonder what the price point for those will be, anyone know?