Nail Foil Topcoat Comparison - OPI, Picture Polish Revolution, Revlon Quick Dry, Born Pretty No Smudge Top Coat

Haven't done a comparison for a while - and here's an interesting one! Top coats!

[Battle bottles]

The topcoats I'm trying out today are from left to right: OPI Top Coat, Picture Polish Revolution, Born Pretty No Smudge Top Coat and Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat.

[Born Pretty No Smudge Top Coat]

I recently received the Born Pretty No Smudge Top Coat from Born Pretty for review and I was super excited because in the item description, it is meant to work over stamping designs, holo/chrome powders and nail foil transfers! It comes in a nice weighty rectangular bottle of 10ml volume. The black cap actually comes off, as you can see in the first photo. I found it much easier to use with this off, as that suits my smaller hands better. I think you could leave it on during application if you prefer.

[Fiber Optics Nail Foil Transfer]

As a challenge, I tried to pick out a super holo nail foil transfer from my collection; this one is called Fiber Optics. I'm not sure I picked the best one for the no-crinkle challenge in the end, but it's certainly super rainbows up in here... Above you can see the process of cutting out appropriately-sized rectangles for each nail...

[2 coats: Color Club Harp On It]

As always, I picked a matching silver holo base since my foil transfer was a silver holo. This lovely is Color Club Harp On It from the Halo Hues collection. Both Jme and I have previously posted about this here and here, but I couldn't resist putting more photos of this beauty up. Ah~~

[Base: Color Club Harp On It (2 coats); Foil: Fiber Optics (pinky)]

I know Harp On It is amazingly bling, but there's just something about holographic nail foil transfers. This photo doesn't even capture it properly but the holo shine with Fiber Optics is on a whole other level.. 

[Nail foil transfer: Fiber Optics]

So obviously, I have to have some photos BEFORE I put topcoat on, before any crinkly catastrophes occur. Check it out! These were so hard to photograph - they seriously look like some crazy techno robot nails under direct lighting.

[Nail foil transfer: Fiber Optics]

Once more before topcoating....

[Topcoat (L-R): Revlon Quick Dry, Born Pretty No Smudge, Picture Polish Revolution, OPI;
Nail foil transfer: Fiber Optics]

Et voila! So, there were a couple of surprises here. I'll list out what I used and the result..

Pinky: Revlon Quick Dry - I expected a quick-drying polish to leave a crinkly and dull finish but it only crinkled slightly and remained holographic.
Ring: Born Pretty No Smudge - No crinkling, good holo. Bling-addict approved!
Middle: Picture Polish Revolution - My positive control, so to speak. Also no crinkling, good holo!
Index: OPI Top Coat - Whoa, crinkle! Pretty much all crinkled, and patches of dullness. No bueno!

[Topcoat comparison: Revlon Quick Dry (pinky); Born Pretty No Smudge (ring);
Picture Polish Revolution (middle); OPI (index); No top coat (thumb)]

So basically, Revlon works in a pinch. OPI to avoid. Picture Polish Revolution and Born Pretty No Smudge Top Coat are both fine to use but one is also 1/3 the price of the other so if you're trying to save up (for more polish, I assume), then Born Pretty No Smudge Top Coat is the way to go.

I will note though that both topcoats from Born Pretty and Picture Polish feel tacky to the touch a bit longer than the Revlon and OPI. I don't think it's particularly long, I'm probably just used to the Quick Dry!

I mentioned above that I wasn't sure if I picked the most challenging foil transfer design - I truly expected more crinkling to happen! Well, that'll be an experiment for another day.. 

Again, you can purchase the Born Pretty No Smudge Top Coat here, and check out the entire range at Born Pretty. Code above also available for some savings off full priced items!

Avian Display - Peacock nail foil, Layla Turquoise Splash, Picture Polish Revolution

Another birthday gift from Jme - this time a nail foil!

[Eyes on the prize]

 Yay for nail foils! Quick, easy way to get fancy nails? Grab the foil glue and get stickin'!

[Peacock nail foil; Topcoat: Picture Polish Revolution]

This particular one is a peacock feather themed nail foil. The background (not the "eyes") are transparent but the entire foil has a pixellated holographic overlay over the top that you can sort of see on my middle finger above. I used Layla Softouch Effect in Turquoise Splash to keep in the peacock theme. You can see my swatches of Turquoise Splash here.

[Peacock nail foil; Topcoat: Picture Polish Revolution]

I also conveniently received my bottle of Picture Polish Revolution top/basecoat for glitter polish/nail foils at the same time, so that's what I used on this, and yes! It did preserve the holographic finish on this foil. Overall, a success! Sounds like it's time to break out all my shiny and/or holo foils...

Glitterazzle-dazzle - Milani, Nabi, Canmake, Kleancolor, Picture Polish, Nailventurous

So I often play around with layering glitters so I end up with lots of photos of glitter layering skittles. I tell myself it's to remind me what they look like for the next time I'm looking to layer on some glitz... Although... whether I can correctly remember the combinations might be another matter entirely...

Here's a selection of skittles I've done!

From left to right:
[1] Milani Teal from the One Coat Glitter collection, possibly over Essence Blue Addicted. Excellent depth but formula can be a bit thick.
[2] Picture Polish Mask-a-rade over a black creme (LA Girl Blackout). Mask-a-rade is a combo of three different multichrome glitters. You can sort of see the colour shift in the photo.
[3] Nail-Venturous Floam... no idea over what... O_o;; Floam is a combination of blue and yellow matte glitter.

From left to right:

[1] Nabi Party Mania Glitter over a plain black creme (LA Girl Blackout). Party Mania is a black jelly base with a combo of 3 different-sized hex glitters in blue, gold, silver, yellow and magenta. I somehow didn't get any magenta on this skittle. There's also a sprinkling of large green hexes which I also did not pick up. An interesting one, for sure! Not super dense on the glitter so strictly a layering glitter.

[2] Oh deaar... This is some blue base possibly also Essence Blue Addicted... then topped with Canmake 30, a blue jelly with loads of iridescent glitter (the stuff flashing blue and gold). THEN, topped with a layer of Nabi Lilac Jumbo Glitter... which is a crazy mishmash of three sizes of gold-green duochrome glitter and purple holographic bar glitter.

[3] This is a base of Kleancolor Chunky Holo Scarlet (previously posted here) and then topped with Nabi Lilac Jumbo Glitter like the middle skittle.

Geeeee, that took longer than I expected to type out... My glitter polishes are taking over the collection, oh no! Oh, who am I kidding...MORE LIKE OH, YEAHHHHH~ ;D