Day 15: Nail Polish Advent Calendar

Well, go figure the day I have this it's raining and dark outside. :( It's China Glaze He's Going in Circles. I used three coats and no top coat. It's very pretty!

You can sort of see the holo here.

I did get a pretty awesome macro! You can see all the fragments.

Until tomorrow.

Day 4: Nail Polish Advent Calendar

Yes, I am technically a day behind in posting this. But I did wear this on December 4 and photo it. Just couldn't get around to blogging till now.

Day 4 brought to me essence - can't cheat on me and China Glaze - Liquid Crystals.

 I used essence - can't cheat on me as the base for this manicure. It's a very dull silver holo. For the glitter gradient I used China Glaze - Liquid Crystals. The essence is discontinued and the China Glaze polish shouldn't be too hard to find at the moment.

Super Macro!

Layla - Ultra Violet

Hello again! Today I have a polish that I picked up over the weekend from Ulta.

It's from the Layla Hologram Effects line. The display was behind the counter and I wasn't really able to explore the colors too much. Plus, I was really only able to afford one anyways. They retail for $15 but I was lucky to be able to use my 20% off promo they were going on.

There are 8 different colors and I picked out the purple one, Ultra Violet. I have a little display card that the sales lady gave to me that explains how to apply it. I've added that picture below. The blue color Ocean Rush is nowhere near as dark as the promo in this flyer unfortunately. They have a base file for about $3. I passed on it since it's basically just a buffer block.

I didn't use a buffer block before applying this since I was out of town. I just placed three coats on my bare nails without a base coat. Then I let it dry and never put top coat on it. Sadly, I had a major break on my one finger at the beginning of the weekend. So my nails look crappy

In the sun you can see it's got a spectacular holo rainbow effect.

For the easy availability in the US of this holographic nail polish it is probably in my opinion the best out there. The bottle contains 10 ML of polish. Which isn't too terrible when you consider some of the better linear holographic polishes are only about 5 ML. Application was really easy and I liked the brush.

Not in direct sunlight at all.

Here it is partially in the sun. The one issue of no base and top coat was that the tip wear was a monster of a problem. So be warned about that. I'm planning to go back to the Walgreen on State Street to get the GOSH Aqua Fix base coat that is supposed to be really helpful for Holo polishes.

So what do you think? Will you be heading over to your local Ulta to pick some of these up? Do you already have some? I will maybe eventually go back for the black and silver one. Overall, I was pretty impressed with the quality and I don't mind paying $15 for that.

Milani - Hi-Res

This was something that I picked up back in January when I was in the US. Wasn't even going in to get this one. I went to four different CVS stores that day trying to find the one-coat glitters. No luck there, but I did come out with some of the colors from the 3D Holographics collection that came out ages ago.

Hi-Res is a purple shade. The interesting thing about the collection is that the polishes have these awesome silver flakes in them that catch the sunlight very nicely. This is what makes the Milani 3D Holographic Collection unique in my opinion; by no means are they full on holos but the finish in the shade is still very nice.


Here's the a picture I took of my manicure inside out of the direct sunlight. Not too shabby right!? I love the little flecks.

Of course it looks spectacular in the sun! Thankfully it was very sunny the two days I wore this and I marveled at it in the sun a lot.

This has fulfilled my need for a decent holo effect. I really can't be bothered to hunt down or pay way too much money for the old China Glaze holos. Of course the China Glaze are way better holos, then the Milani ones but Milani is way more accessible and cheaper in the US.

Essence - Can't Cheat On Me

Hello ladies! It's the last week of June. It's hard for me to believe that, but of course it was 90F+/32C so I guess I should.

Essence Can't Cheat On Me is a silver lacquer that has a bit of holo pigment in it. By no means is it full on holo unfortunately. It's fairly thin and I needed to use three coats. The first picture was taken inside with just natural light.

Here's a great picture of it in the sun.

Here's the last two pictures with a bit of angling with the sun. It looks great in the sun! But a bit of a bummer without the sun.

I'm off to relax not for the evening. Have a great week!

Side note: Ironically, as I edit through my posts in 2014 to eliminate the arschmuncher in here I find this. That asshole cheated 4 times. So I guess you "Can Cheat On Me" lol. I'm better off don't worry. ;) 

OPI - My Private Jet

This polish is full of confusion. Mainly because there are at least four different versions of this polish created by OPI. So finding the version you want can be extremely difficult. The first two versions are a base of charcoal black packed with holo glitter. The newer version is more brown based with silver glitter. A blogger friend of mine Squared Nails just posted on the brown version of My Private Jet.

I have a version that is packed with holo glitter. This version is pretty hard to find and very expensive on ebay. Funny enough, I got this off ebay at the beginning of 2008 with about 5 other OPI's for around $25. So I never had to give into higher prices.

Pretty stunning isn't it! Directly in the sunlight, it's like a rainbow over black. My bottle has a very thin formula and I need four coats. As you can maybe notice it's still patchy. Most noticeably on my ring finger. In the future, I will coat this over black but I wanted to show the true colors for the blog post.

Next few pictures were taken on day two of my manicure. Unfortunately, I had a lot of tip wear at this point. Mainly because the top coat I use is old and anything past one day will have problems. But I'm still using it since for the most part I don't even keep a manicure on for more that one day.

In the house or in the shade my version basically just looks like a charcoal black with silver glitter. So not very fancy unless it's in sunlight.

Which version of My Private Jet are you lucky or unlucky to own?

Kiko - 247

Have another Kiko polish to show you that I bought while in Berlin. It's called 247 and it's a medium pink mauve packed with lots of Holo glitter. Enough that I would consider it to be a very nice scattered holo. The formula on this one is pretty sheer and I need four coats to be rid of VNL. However, the thin formula might make it good for layering.

The first photo was taken under a light at night. The color is totally off, but the finish is pretty true to daylight form.

Here is a picture I took in the living room filled with natural light.

The best pictures at last of course! In the sun! It was a beautiful day in Zurich today around 12C and I went downtown and walked around in Old Town, by the lake, and then down the Bahnofstrasse.

Kiko nail polishes can only be found in Kiko Cosmetics stores in Italy, Spain, France, and Germany. They retail for 3.90 Euros. I wish they had a store in Switzerland because I would probably go in there every week.

Catrice - Dirty Berry

Recently the Catrice displays throughout Europe have started to be replaced with new products. Most notably for me is there are a ton of new polishes added. I grabbed four of the new ones and today I will show you one of them.

Dirty Berry is a purple with a very blue base that unfortunately is very noticeable in all my photos. In real life it looks slightly more purple. It's packed full of tiny silver glitter that in sun or direct lamp light will sort of look holographic. At best, it's a very, very weak scatter Holo. It applied beautifully and looked great at two coats, but I like to use three for most polishes I wear.

This is very picture heavy since I wanted to show off how gorgeous this looks in different lights! Click any of the pictures and you will be able to see the full size.  First up are all the pictures in the sun.

Here is a picture under lamp light. This is also the best representation of the color.

Here it is in natural light.

And here it is with flash.

Pretty unique color for a drugstore brand! Hope you enjoyed it!

Eyeko - Cosmic

Tomorrow I'm flying to the US to stay with my family for a month. I'm really excited! I've been living in Switzerland for 6 months 1 week and 3 days. Very crazy. I haven't driven a car or had a Diet Coke. (Okay, I did splurge on an import Diet Coke Lime once.) I don't think my posting will totally drop off the month I'm away but it's possible. 

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Eyeko Cosmic is very appropriately named. A glossy black with bits of holographic glitter creating a very cosmic look. I used two coats.

 

Unfortunately Zurich is not very sunny during winter and I never managed to get a picture of this in the sun. So here it is with my camera's flash. 

MNY 265 - Red Jelly With Subtle Holo Glitter

I showed a preview picture of this bottle a while ago and today I finally have some swatches of it to show you. This MNY 265 and it's a cherry red jelly with a subtle holo glitter suspended in it. It's a gorgeous color and if you have access to it you should definitely buy it.

MNY stands for Maybelline New York so you may be familiar with the brand but the MNY section is only available in Germany, Norway, and Sweden from my understanding. It's also available here in Switzerland. They have a wide range of cosmetics in many colors. I would say that the prices are cheap when you compare it to the regular Maybelline line, Nivea, and Loreal. Most of the products are between $4-7 USD. I believe this polish was $3.95 CHF.

I tried my best to capture the whole, but like most things, it's better in real life the in the photos. I used four coats of polish.

Natural Light

Flash

Sun

Shade