Static Rainbow - Solar Club Festival

Today I have what should be a colour-shifting polish, but isn't! Oh dear...

[Bottle to nail: Solar Club Festival (2 coats)]

This is Festival from the Solar Club Ruby Wing collection. Festival is a super sparkly large holographic glitter polish which gives full coverage in 2 coats. It starts off silver then shifts to a deep purple in the sun. Jme has previously posted about this polish here showing the amazing colour change on exposure to sunlight.

[2 coats: Solar Club Festival]

Unfortunately, my bottle doesn't seem to change in the sun anymore! The base seems to be tinted slightly gold so I wonder if the colour changing component has somehow been lost? The bottle has been stored cool and dark though so it's a bit sad that it doesn't shift shades anymore!

[2 coats: Solar Club Festival]

Nevertheless, it's still a super glitter and a great one for the party season!

Christmas Baubles - Barielle Elle's Spell, Sinful Colors Rags To Riches

Merry Christmas, y'all! Happy Hanukkah! Happy holidays and happy no work day! :D

Now for an unsubtle Christmas themed mani!

[Base: Barielle Elle's Spell
Glitter: Sinful Colors Rags To Riches]

Red and green, it's as Christmassy as it gets, right?

The base is Barielle Elle's Spell, a deep red jelly with gold-green flakies. Gorgeous nail polish, I just love a good jelly-ish red. The green glitter is Sinful Colors Rags To Riches. Rags To Riches has green microglitter with hex-shaped and diamond-shaped holo teal glitter. It's a gorgeous glitter which I almost bought twice!

I used my index finger as the accent nail this time and I mainly just wanted to see how Rags To Riches would look if I was attempting a full coverage, since I haven't tried this nail polish before. It's definitely a layering glitter, not something to wear on its own.

Anyway, I hope you guys are having a good holiday celebration! :)

Cold Warmth - Zoya Blaze

Another holiday-appropriate polish - this time featuring red and holo!

[Bottle to nail: Zoya Blaze (3 coats)]

This beauty is Zoya Blaze from the Holiday 2012 collection. Jme has swatched it previously in a comparison with LA Girl Sparkle Ruby (post here). These photos show Zoya Blaze as a full mani.

[3 coats: Zoya Blaze]

Zoya Blaze is a deep red jelly with lots of fine holographic particles - not dense enough for a linear flame, more of a scattered effect. The red leans slightly cool and the colour deepens quite a bit with each coat. I used three coats so the end result was a fairly vampy red with subtle sparkle.

[3 coats: Zoya Blaze]

Formula was great as always. The rainbow effect actually seems to get tinted by the red jelly base so you get more of a red/purple tinted sparkle than the full colour spectrum. A lovely holiday shade that's not too in-your-face!

Positivity Dictionary - Fing'rs Edge Nail Tattoos

I found Fing'rs Edge Nail Tattoos on sale and just had to get them!

It comes with three different patterns, as pictured above. It was the one with the maps which tempted me the most. It also comes with a small beige white nail polish and a dark gray nail polish.

I tried the nail transfer page with the words on it, because I didn't want to try my potential favourite first and mess it up, heh. The words, as you can see, are all random and positive.

[Fing'rs Edge Nail Tattoos]

I could do two nails with each piece of transfer paper. Cut each paper in half before you start if you think you're going to use one paper for two nails. It will make your life so much easier.

As per the instructions, remove the plastic sheet over it, wet the paper and then apply the paper - make sure you've got the right side! - over the nail. The transfer comes off really easily onto the nails, too easily, to be honest. Sometimes the image came off before I had finished adjusting the paper. It would also come off perfectly for the most part but smoosh at the edges where I hadn't held it properly to the nail because of the way my nails curve. I really am amazingly clumsy.

In any case, it is rather minimal effort for something that looks cool, so I like it and am looking forward to trying the rest!

Christmas Dust - China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, Finger Paints Flecked, Revlon Slipper

Christmas is fast approaching - it's a sneaky thing, the holiday season! Seems to have just crept up on us... Here's a themed mani to prepare you for the coming festivities!

[Base: China Glaze Emerald Sparkle;
Flakie: Finger Paint Flecked; Glitter: Revlon Slipper]

I admit though that this is an old one! From two years ago, to be precise! I hope I remember which polishes I used for this! My base shade is China Glaze Emerald Sparkle, a great Christmas-sy shade which you can see here in another seasonal manicure by Jme.

I then added a coat of Finger Paints Flecked, a blue-to-green duochrome flakie, to represent leaves on the tree, finished off with Revlon Slipper (previously posted here), a festive red and white microglitter. There are actually larger silver holo pieces in Slipper but I avoided them when swatching.

[Base: China Glaze Emerald Sparkle;
Flakie: Finger Paint Flecked; Glitter: Revlon Slipper]

I would consider this a relatively toned down polish. Festivities call for glitter! More glitter! Although to be fair, there is little that doesn't call for more glitter, in my books..... =p

Black Light - Dance Legend Quiet Riot

Wooooo, black holo! This is called Quiet Riot, from Dance Legend's Wow Prism Collection.

[Dance Legend Quiet Riot]

It was so holographic when I first applied it but I think my quick dry top coat actually reduced the holo shine. But it still looks pretty good right? I have to try this again without a top coat. I'm really loving these polishes with linear holographic flecks!

Mysterious Depths - Holika Holika 04, Femme Fatale Glinting Lodestone

Topping things off with glitter is one of my absolute favourite ways to jazz up a mani! 

[Ahhh, much better!]

After last week's trial of Holika Holika 04 seemed to lack a little oomph, I reached for some glitter to sparkle it up!

[2 coats: Holika Holika 04]

The base from last week - Holika Holika 04 was a green jelly with blue shimmer and lots of green hexes in different sizes.

[Bottle to nail: Femme Fatale Glinting Lodestone (1 coat) over Holika Holika 04 (2 coats)]

Here's what I used to top it off - Femme Fatale Glinting Lodestone. What a beauty! I seem to repeat myself all the time whenever I review a Femme Fatale glitter mix, but isn't it so so stunning! Love love love the purple and orange accents!

[Glitter: Femme Fatale Glinting Lodestone (1 coat); Base: Holika Holika 04 (2 coats)]

Glitter density is also always great, here's just one coat over my base of Holika Holika 04. Phew, crisis averted with glitter application! ;)

Set Sail - Clio S421, Barielle Falling Star

I thought I would stick to the blue-green theme too! This is Clio S421 from Korea over Barielle Falling Star as the base polish.

[Clio S421 over Barelle Falling Star]

You can see our swatch of Falling Star which I really like and it really does make a great base for S421. S421 comes in a fat bottom nail polish bottle and it's glitter has a tendency to sink unfortunately. But the glitter payload is enough for a good coverage as long as you have a base polish.

[Clio S421 over Barelle Falling Star]

S421 has hex glitter of different sizes in a clear base and is predominantly blue and green in colour. It has a scattering of silver and copper glitter too, which I think is a nice touch. You can spy the odd flash of silver and copper below, amongst all the pretty blue-greeny colours.

[Clio S421 over Barelle Falling Star]

I think S421 is a lovely polish. No regrets lugging it back from South Korea! :)

Sea Shards - Holika Holika 04

Blue-green shades are my guilty pleasure! Here's a jelly/shimmer/glitter mix that I picked up in Korea!

[Bottle to nail: Holika Holika 04 (2 coats)]

This is Holika Holika 04, yes... again with the nondescript number naming... At any rate, this is polish consists of a green jelly base with oodles of blue shimmer, giving it a teal look. There's also generous helping of small and large green hex glitter.

[2 coats: Holika Holika 04]

The formula wasn't too difficult to work with and there was a good glitter density - no fishing required! These photos show two coats of polish, topped off with topcoat. You may notice though that the large green hexes do seem a bit raised. Not enough to catch on anything at least, but you'll need a few layers of topcoat to get the surface completely smooth (which I didn't bother with).

[2 coats: Holika Holika 04]

Although it seems like a winning combination, nice pigment and lovely colours, for some reason, the final effect was just so-so to me! I guess perhaps it's neither here nor there in terms of sparkliness? I do like the extremes...

Frost Tips - Dance Legend Lebedushka

I really am loving everything from Dance Legend. This is 05 Lebedushka from the Anna Gorelova collection. Look at this!

[Dance Legend Lebedushka]

And look at its adorable packaging! Awwww, 'owl-ing cuteness!

[Dance Legend Lebedushka]

Okay, okay let's talk about the nail polish. Unfortunately, the application was not the best. The polish is rather thick and it takes three careful coats to even out. It's often a problem with textured matte polishes, but I thought this one was a little thicker than most.

But at least the outcome is pretty~

[Dance Legend Lebedushka]

Lebedushka is this perfect shade of delicate blue and it has silvery-gold microglitter in it. The textured matte polish gives it this perfectly icy appearance. It was lovely to look at and very nice to touch as well!

Rainbows against a blue sky - Dance Legend Beautiful Lie

Look at thisssssssssssss...

[Dance Legend Beautiful Lie]

Looking at my photos again with the nail polish bottle in hand, I believe the colour is a little darker and more vibrant in my photos than in person, but honestly, this is a gorgeous nail polish regardless. Beautiful Lie is a periwinkle blue with intense holographic flecks. It reminds me of the LA Girl 3d Effects collection, but the holo for Beautiful Lies is denser and more linear in comparison.

[Dance Legend Beautiful Lie]

I just love the beautiful colour of this nail polish and its awesome holo so much. I want more from this collection! In general, I have found this company to be legend...wait for it...dary!

No Holo - Layla Ocean Rush

Well! The other day I learnt a little lesson about holo polishes....

[Plenty glowy, not so rainbow-y]

Holo polish, you say? That doesn't look particularly holographic to me!

[Bottle to nail: Layla Holographic Effect in Ocean Rush (2 coats)]

Indeeeed, this should be a super flame-y Layla Holographic Effect nail polish in Ocean Rush. Jme swatched this previously in all its rainbowy glory, so check it out here to see what it should look like!

[2 coats: Layla Holographic Effect in Ocean Rush]

So, what have I done to stuff it up? Used the wrong base coat! I randomly picked Nail-Tek Ridge-filling Base Coat (Foundation II) as my base coat. Ooooops~ Looks like it doesn't play well with holographic finishes, or at least with Layla holos.

[2 coats: Layla Holographic Effect in Ocean Rush]

I switch base coats around depending on what I feel like so it's surprising that I haven't hit this winning (losing) combination yet considering how frequently I've been using holographic polishes!

Sunset Shades - Dance Legend Comet Tail

I am loving Dance Legend nail polishes! This is Comet Tail from their Galaxy collection, and while not my favourite, it's still damn pretty.

[Dance Legend Comet Tail]

Comet Tail has a magenta-ish to gold to green colour shift, a true multichrome. It's opaque in three coats, no black coat needed as a base, and it's colour shift is obvious in the shade. The white specks you see are holo glitter, but I didn't manage to capture their holo in my photos. The holo glitter isn't dense but it's still a nice touch as part of the 'galaxy' theme.

I'm lusting after so many Dance Legend nail polishes right now!

Lighting Up - Missha HKH01, China Glaze Twinkle Lights

A continuation of last week's post!

[2 coats: Missha Crystal Nail Polish HKH01]

I introduced Missha Crystal Nail Polish HKH01, an antique gold chunky metallic with scattered holo glitter. AS you can see, I didn't manage to capture the holo very well... So as usual, my go-to response is to slap on more glitter!

[Base: Missha HKH01 (2 coats); Glitter: China Glaze Twinkle Lights]

Here's one extra coat of China Glaze Twinkle Lights from the Let It Snow 2011 collection. This is a mix of gold, green and red glitter. It's definitely heavier on the gold (or maybe it's that slight bit larger?) and the overall effect is really quite twinkly, as the name says!

[Base: Missha HKH01 (2 coats); Glitter: China Glaze Twinkle Lights]

Here's a closer look at Twinkle Lights over HKH01. I think it ended up being quite a Christmas-y manicure!

Earthy Gold - Missha Crystal Nail Polish HKH01

Here are some dusty old photos I dug out of my mani folder... 

[Bottle to nail: Missha Crystal Nail Polish HKH01 (2 coats)]

This one is Missha Crystal Nail Polish in HKH01. It's an antique gold heavy foil polish with large particle holo glitter scattered throughout. I know my photos haven't managed to capture the holo very well though!

[2 coats: Missha Crystal Nail Polish HKH01]

You can see a tiny hint of holo in these pics. The formula is fairly thick but not too hard to work with. I used two coats for these, I think! It does dry gritty so pop on the topcoat when you're done for a slick shiny finish.

Party Shine - Savvy Carnivale

It's been awhile since I bought a nail polish in Sydney, and I'm glad I got this one!

[3 Coats Savvy Carnivale]

This is Savvy Carnivale, which is a cheerful glitter bomb. It has silver-gold glitter with tonnes of holo glitter and pink glitter. It's opaque in three coats, but you can go for four just to be sure.

It's simple but different enough that I know I don't have anything like this in my arsenal right now. :)