Holo Hunting - Born Pretty Holo Polish #12

I'm back with another polish review from Born Pretty! When I saw their latest holo collection, I was super impressed by the colour range and holo flame visible. Jme and I were lucky enough to be provided with some bottles for review and she previously posted about shade #6, a pretty peach holo, so if you missed it, you can check it out here!

[Bottle to nail: Born Pretty Holographic Polish #12 (2 coats)]

I, on the other hand, went for a dark shade in comparison. Here's Born Pretty Holographic Polish in 12#, an amazing deep green holo. I heard that this is a great sister polish to Glitter Gal's Lizard Belly, another dark green holo polish, but with much more green to it (Lizard Belly is very much a blackened green). I love green, and I love holos - match made in heaven!

[2 coats: Born Pretty Holographic Polish #12 in diffuse (top) and direct (bottom) light]

Shadewise, #12 is not a bright green. My photos are not super accurate unfortunately (the site product photos are fairly accurate) and I'll explain why in a bit. Under diffuse lighting (top photo), you can see the actual base shade which is a slightly dusty hunter green in a blackened blue base. Under direct lighting, the holo flame appears and the middle of the flame (the blue of the rainbow) is very distinct, giving the polish a much bluer/teal cast than the actual deep green polish shade.

[2 coats: Born Pretty Holographic Polish #12]

Application was really good! I was really pleased with this. All these photos are two coats except for on my ring finger which I tried three on. In this photo, it looks like the ring finger has a much deeper colour, making the holographic particles more obvious. However, in real life, it's hard to see any difference between 2 and 3 coats.

[2 coats: Born Pretty Holographic Polish #12]

The polish applied evenly in thin coats and dried extremely shiny! You didn't really need topcoat but I put a layer on anyway because I want this to last on my nails! You can sort of see it from my photos, but shade 12# is not a completely linear holo (that is, having a distinct flame shape). It's kinda a mix between linear and scattered holo, leaning more towards being a linear holographic polish.

These holo polishes normally $12.88 at Born Pretty, but are currently on sale for $5.59, yayyyy!! Check out this shade here, or see all 12(!!) of them here!

Born Pretty stocks lots of awesome nail art supplies as well, so do check out the other things for sale (and on sale!). Have a look at our previous reviews for Born Pretty for ideas. Once again, here's our discount code if you wanna take a little bit off your purchases! ;)

Treasure Chest - Sinful Colors I Dream In Jewels

Here's another nail polish from Sinful Colors' Diamond Lust collection!

[Top: Two coats of Sinful Colors I Dream In Jewels
Base: Kleancolor Metallic Black]

This is Sinful Colors' I Dream In Jewels. It has gold and red  hex glitter and big silver holo diamond glitter in a clear base. I do like this glitter polish (not just because it has Iron Man colours ahahaha). The gold and red combo goes together nicely of course and the extra diamond glitter gives it an extra zest.

[Sinful Colors I Dream In Jewels with its bottle]

This mani has two coats of I Dream In Jewels over Kleancolor Metallic Black. The gold and red glitter is really dense, but the diamond glitter is definitely a little more sparse, as you can see from the glitter in the bottle. The diamond glitter aren't hard to get out though, you don't actually need to fish for them. You might have to dip the brush back in again if it doesn't have any diamond glitter, but it shouldn't be too hard to get some on the brush.

[Top: Two coats of Sinful Colors I Dream In Jewels
Base: Kleancolor Metallic Black]

Overall, I like this nail polish! It isn't a topcoat eater and it looks really pretty against black. It's not overly complicated and I don't have anything like it yet.

Check out swatches of Gemtastic and Crystal Clear from the same collection done by Ev!

Deep Blue Sea - Sinful Colors Gemtastic

Here's my second swatch from the Sinful Colors Diamond Lust collection, which I spotted at Kmart last week selling for $4 a bottle. For photos of the 6 polishes available, check this post. I posted swatches of Crystal Clear on Monday so if you missed that, check that out too!

[Bottle to nail: Sinful Colors Gemtastic (1 coat) over black]

Gemtastic is a mix of different shapes of blue glitter in a clear base. There are three glitters of the same shade of blue, in the shape of small hexes, small bars and very fine hexes (?). There's also a lighter blue larger hex glitter in the mix.

[Base: LA Girl Blackout (1 coat); Glitter: Sinful Colors Gemtastic (1 coat)]

These photos are all one coat of Gemtastic over a black creme! This polish is chockers with glitter and you could easily achieve full coverage. However, that would mean you can't see all the detail from all the different shapes.

[Base: LA Girl Blackout (1 coat); Glitter: Sinful Colors Gemtastic (1 coat)]

I didn't really have a problem with glitter placement on this one, it was easy to use although be careful of extra polish running down the brush handle! All the glitter lays flat despite the slight reflective curl in the larger hexes.

[Base: LA Girl Blackout (1 coat); Glitter: Sinful Colors Gemtastic (1 coat)]

In person, it's super sparkly! I've always loved bar glitter but they tend to curl off the nail and stick out. The bars in Gemtastic are tiny enough that there's no problem here though! A very pretty polish that I'm looking forward to trying out with different base shades!

Space Lasers - Sinful Colors Crystal Clear

As promised, here's the first of my swatches from the Sinful Colors Diamond Lust collection. This super pretty glitter mix is Crystal Clear. Somehow I find the name doesn't quite suit, although I can see how the silver holo glitters and clear base would inspire the name. I think it's the bright blue that really catches the eye in this polish.

[Bottle to nail: Sinful Colors Crystal Clear (1 coat)]

Sinful Colors Crystal Clear is a mix of small silver holographic hex glitter, with large silver holographic diamonds and a ton of fine iridescent bar gltiter that shifts from a bright blue to a more teal shade depending on the angle.

[Base: LA Girl Blackout (1 coat); Glitter: Sinful Colors Crystal Clear (1 coat)]

These photos are all one coat of Crystal Clear over a plain black creme. Great glitter density, but might require a bit of dabbing to get the glitter particles exactly where you want them. I used one thin coat of topcoat but it got soaked up pretty quickly (although the finish is still very shiny) so I'd recommend a thicker topcoat for maximum smoothness.

[Base: LA Girl Blackout (1 coat); Glitter: Sinful Colors Crystal Clear (1 coat)]

It looks really great in person because the fine blue bars really light up the polish. I'm super impressed despite having reservations when I first saw it in the bottle. I don't have anything else like it in my collection, that's for sure. Definitely pick this one up if you can get your hands on it!

Shopping in Sydney - Sinful Colors Diamond Lust collection

Quick heads up! I was at Kmart two days ago and found that their Sinful Colors stand now stocks the Diamond Lust collection! This is a collection of 6 glitter mixes including holo diamonds and bar glitter! Each bottle retails for $4 (compared to $4.95 at Priceline, which I haven't seen stock these yet anyway). Sorry for the phone pics, but here's a little peek at them! Swatches to be posted throughout the coming week!

[Sinful Colors Diamond Lust: Crystal Clear (left) and Scene Stealer (right)]

On the left is Crystal Clear, a mix of small silver hexes, large silver holo diamonds and a ton of absolutely gorgeous iridescent teal-to-blue bar glitter. I'll be posting swatches of this tomorrow, so watch out! On the right is Scene Stealer, a mix of small orange-gold and pink hexes with large pink(?) holo diamonds. The pink hexes are actually a little bit smaller than the orangey gold ones. 

[Sinful Colors Diamond Lust: Rags to Riches (left) and I Dream in Jewels (right)]

On the left is Rags to Riches, a mix of small green and gold hexes, larger blue holo hexes and large blue holo diamonds. On the right is I Dream In Jewels, a mix of small gold and red-bronze hexes, and large gold holo diamonds. The red-bronze hexes are much tinier than the gold ones.

[Sinful Colors Diamond Lust: Gemtastic (left) and Queen of Deco (right)]

Finally, on the left here is Gemtastic, a super dense mix of three glitters of the same colour (tiny glitter, tiny bars, small hexes) and larger hexes of a slightly lighter blue. This one has no holo/diamond glitters. On the right is Queen of Deco, a mix of small pale purple and silver glitter with pale purple holo diamonds. A bit of a sister-polish to I Dream In Jewels.

I only saw six colours in the display - the collection has 8 colours, missing are Watch It Shine (silver-based) and Shine on Me (pink-based). You can spot these pretty easily by their bottle cap, these are silver instead of the regular black caps on Sinful Colors polishes! Jme and I will have some swatches up throughout the coming week so keep an eye out for that!

Shifting Meadows - Savvy Galaxy

Savvy Galaxy caught my attention recently, and with the 'buy 2, get 1 free' sale at Priceline, I couldn't resist!

[Galaxy Savvy]

Savvy Galaxy is a blue-green duochrome foil with tiny holo flakes. The colour isn't like the numerous Chanel Peridot or OPI Just Spotted The Lizard dupes, and closer to the China Glaze Deviantly Daring colour. But it does have a stronger duochrome shift than Deviantly Daring.

Unfortunately, the flakes are practically non-existent in Galaxy. You can see occasional glimmers of them, but they're really small, so they hardly stand out sadly. I tried to photograph them here:

The little bits of shiny you see are the flakes.

So is Galaxy worth buying? Well, without the sale, it's only AUD3, so it's rather cheap anyway. If you don't have anything similar, it is plenty pretty. But if you do have something similar and just wanted it for the flakes, I would recommend giving it a pass.