Purple Rainbow - Layla Hologram Effect Cloudy Violet

This is going to be a quick one! I slapped this on in a rush, because I needed some happy in my life and my Layla polishes arrived, so I just needed to try Layla Cloudy Effect. Please ignore the little bits of polish on my cuticles that I missed and just focus on the holo! D:

[Layla Hologram Effect Cloudy Violet]

Layla Hologram Effect Cloudy Violet does not disappoint in terms of holographic goodness. There is so much holo here, it's like an explosion of rainbow. 

[Layla Hologram Effect Cloudy Violet]

Howeeeevvveeer, the nail polish isn't very purple. The photos are picking up the purple shade really well, but in person, it's actually a gray-purple, which is a tad disappointing, but not that surprising. I think that's how Layla holos are like. The more vibrant the colour, the less holo there is. The more holo there is, the less vibrant the base polish. I guess the same applies for frankenpolishes with spectraflair.

[Layla Hologram Effect Cloudy Violet]

I do wish it was as purple in person as it is in these photos! It really is more of a gray-purple than purple. But really, the holo still blows me away. Layla's holos photograph so easily, and the holo is still brilliant in low lighting, which I hardly ever see with other polishes.

[Layla Hologram Effect Cloudy Violet]

So here's a photo taken with my iPhone of my nails against the bottle. In person, and I think you can see it here as well, the nail polish looks darker and has more holo on the nails than in the bottle. And doesn't the holo look insane here? RAINBOW EVERYWHERE!

Layla's holo polishes are by far the most holographic nail polishes I own and have seen. If you're looking to get Cloudy Violet, just set your expectations for a dusky purple.

Ev's Past Plischtures - The Third

If you've missed my previous installments of "Past Plischtures" (here and here), briefly, they're old manis with not enough photos or poor quality photos that I don't consider deserving of their own posts! I do have an amazing range today, from glass fleck and glitter, to holo and duochrome, so let's take a look!

[Nubar Jewel]

Ah, I shall have to reswatch this some day! What a horrid photo of a gorgeous polish! This is Nubar Jewel from the Prisms collection. It's a rich cool-brown shimmer with large particle scattered holo.

[LA Girl Groupie]

A favourite purple - this is LA Girl Groupie from the Rockstar collection. A gorgeous purple glass fleck in a somewhat jelly base. Super shiny and great depth!

[Zoya Charla]

I love love love Zoya Charla but somehow I don't have a good photo of it! How terrible is that up there! It's also taken with my super old camera hence the noise and white balance. Remember to check out Jme's dupe post on NYX Advanced Salon Formula in Be Jeweled. 

[Base: LA Girl Black Velvet; Glitter: China Glaze Medallion]

Another favourite polish that I am doing absolutely no credit to.... This is China Glaze Medallion - also known as my go-to insta-bling! Here it is layered over black, a crappy iThing photo to show the blinginess.

[Milani One Coat Glitter in Gold Glitz]

This is Milani One Coat Glitter in Gold Glitz. I love all the One Coat Glitters! This one is a mix of gold and orange glitter. Gorgeous depth. I think I layered it over black (you can see a bit peeking out) but with these polishes, it's really unneccessary. (What is with that ring finger nail!! O.o)

[Milani One Coat Glitter in Gold Glitz]

Gold Glitz again in all its shiny glory! Love it!

[Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Star Opal]

Finally... A duochrome! Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Star Opal. I don't much like polishes like this unfortunately - I love strong colours and super shine so while this is very pretty and pearl-like, it's just not for me.  

[Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Star Opal]

Star Opal is a pink-peach to green-purple duochrome. Not as obvious on the nail as in the bottle but it does give a very nice pearl effect. Formula is quite thin, but that helps get nice even layers on the nail.

[Sally Hansen Nail Prisms in Star Opal]

Better shot of the duochromey-ness!

Apologies for the photo quality once again! I think I just have one more of these "Past Plischtures" posts to get through and then I'm done with the cruddy backlog!

Completely Dotty - Mode, Bys, Ulta3, LA Colors

This is my nail art entry to Concrete and Nail Polish's Nail Art Contest. The theme is a nail art that we think she'll like. I have noticed a trend on April's blog towards blue and pink manis, as well as freehand nail art. I thought dotticure nail art would be something she might find interesting then!

Nail polish used here:

Blue - Mode Hook Me Up

Pink - Bys Colour Change Bright Pink

Black - Ulta3 Black Satin

White - LA Colors French White

The mani started as the following:

This is obviously an indoors picture, because I do most of my nail art at night. I did half of these with tape, and the other half freehand. It's a little bit shakier freehand, but not too noticeable and I'm really just too impatient to wait for the polish to fully dry before I can use tape, even with the use of fast dry topcoats.

After that, I just went wild with the dots.

I dropped a blob of nail polish on a plastic 'palette' - or anything plastic, really - and went crazy with my dotting tool. I need steadier hands, and I really should get an extra dotting tool because I'm trying to make smaller dots with a tool that isn't catered for dots that small.

I don't plan a pattern, but I try one out on one nail first and then, I just replicate it to the others. They look similar, but they're not exactly the same because the size of my nails vary too much. I thought it would be interesting to leave the accent nail a little different.

My thumbnail was something different, because it was waaaay too wide compared to the rest of my narrow nails.

I need more practice with dots!

Sweet Lemonade - Amy's Nail Boutique Pink Lemonade and One Sweet World

As mentioned, here are more swatches for nail polishes from Amy's Nail Boutique!

[Ring finger: Pink Lemonade + One Sweet World
Others: Five thin coats of Pink Lemonade]

How delicious is this? Very delicious! Amy's Nail Boutique Pink Lemonade has pink and yellow matte glitter, which is fascinating, because the polish looks orange overall. The orange is just purely the combo effect of the yellow and pink. It looks like candy...delicious, delicious candy! Similar to Cotton Candy, Pink Lemonade required five thin coats for full coverage.

[Ring finger: Pink Lemonade + One Sweet World
Others: Five thin coats of Pink Lemonade]

The ring finger has mixed layers of Pink Lemonade and One Sweet World. What a party of colours! I love how the combination turned out!

[Ring finger: Pink Lemonade + One Sweet World
Others: Five thin coats of Pink Lemonade]

Under indoor, fluorescent lighting, the colours are gorgeous! The yellow is just so bright and lovely! If I didn't want to swatch other colours within the same week, I would have worn this for so much longer!

[Ring finger: Pink Lemonade + One Sweet World
Others: Five thin coats of One Sweet World]

I added One Sweet World to my shopping cart on a whim, but it's another surprise favourite (so many favourites!)  Doesn't it look like a pretty green field? One Sweet World is actually a mix of blue, yellow and pink matte glitter. One Sweet World looks more neon then Pink Lemonade, probably because the blue and yellow were nicely bright. It needed four thin coats for full coverage. 

[Ring finger: Pink Lemonade + One Sweet World
Others: Five thin coats of One Sweet World]

The ring finger is a mix of alternating One Sweet World and Pink Lemonade coats. I love how this mani looks because it's bright and colourful, with the ring finger having the same feel but also providing an interesting contrast. 

[Ring finger: Pink Lemonade + One Sweet World
Others: Five thin coats of One Sweet World]

I don't have anything else to say, except I really like One Sweet World, and mixing it with Pink Lemonade is an extra bit of delicious. :D

Concrete Shine - Essence The Dawn Is Broken + Color Combos CTW507

Another scheduled post from me! Current location: probably at Tokyo Disneyland being confused and bombarded with light and sound! =X 

One collection I really liked this year was Essence's Vampire Love collection. I almost bypassed it because of the "vampire" bandwagon hype... but thank goodness I didn't! Managed to pick up all the ones I wanted from it and here's one of them!

[Bottle to nail: Essence The Dawn Is Broken]

Essence The Dawn Is Broken - a concrete creme with tiny black and silver flecks! From what I've seen on blogs online, people seem to either love it or hate it... As for me, I love it - it's totally my favourite from the collection!

[2 coats: Essence The Dawn Is Broken]

The formula is absolutely perfect - full coverage in two coats, dries smooth and relatively quickly.

[Essence The Dawn Is Broken (2 coats) + Color Combos CTW507 (1 coat)]

I added a bit of sparkle using Color Combos CTW507 - check out Jme's gorgeous photos of this glitter polish! The fun thing is that this glitter is virtually invisible at particular angles when it's a sort of translucent purple... but shift the angle...

[Essence The Dawn Is Broken (2 coats) + Color Combos CTW507 (1 coat)]

Voila! Check out the gorgeous blue and green flashes! Excuse the terrible pics, this mani is a little old and I hadn't quite figured out how to properly photograph glitter by lamplight yet... ;)

I'll be back next week, woooo!

Funfair + Patriotism? - Amy's Nail Boutique Cotton Candy and Patrio

Matte glitter, oh my! I have a new obsession and I have been satisfying it at Amy's Nail Boutique, which means swatches!

I like the labels on the bottles. They vary, and some of them come with little patterns - little bees! a flag! - which just add to their adorableness. I have used some of these before taking the photo so don't worry, the bottles come full. :)

[Five thin coats of Amy's Nail Boutique Cotton Candy]

Amy's Nail Boutique Cotton Candy is a blue and pink matte microglitter. The blue actually has a little gleam to it, which makes it more striking. Cotton Candy is a sweet combo. The blue does overpower the pink a little from a distance, I think because the blue is a touch brighter. 

[Five thin coats of Amy's Nail Boutique Cotton Candy]

It doesn't dry very gritty, but I don't think the polish has a high enough glitter to base polish ratio. What you see are five thin coats, and it was still difficult to cover the tips entirely. I tried painting with thicker coats, but it just made it very gloopy at three coats, and I didn't have full coverage yet at that point. Next time, I'll try this with coloured undies, because I still do like how the glitter looks!

[Four thin coats of Amy's Nail Boutique Patriot]

Aaaaaahhhh, Amy's Nail Boutique Patriot was an unexpected favourite! Why did I get a mini bottle of this instead of a full bottle? It's so gorgeoussssss. The white and red are microglitter while the blue consists of slightly larger hex glitter. The contrast is gorgeous and I just kept thinking Captain America when I looked at my nails (because I'm a dork, fine, fine). 

[Four thin coats of Amy's Nail Boutique Patriot]

I didn't get full coverage of Patriot on my tips, but mind you, this was using a mini bottle's brush. 

[Four thin coats of Amy's Nail Boutique Patriot]

Just as gorgeous under natural lighting. It looks a little like paint splatters and someone actually stopped me to ask how long it took to paint on all the different colours, ahaha. I think because it's matte rather than shiny, glitter doesn't come to mind immediately. 

Overall, I love this matte glitter nail polishes! Watch this space for more swatches of the other colours from Amy's Nail Boutique!