A Little 'Darling Diva' Goodness

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I've always liked Darling Diva's lacquers, but I only ever placed one order. The polishes were always sitting in my etsy cart but somehow never made it past paypal!!!

When DD had a sale recently I made an actual effort to grab some lemmings.

Darling Diva Polish Blonde Tornado

I didn't have the highest hopes for Blonde Tornado. I bought it without realising that the base was that sheer/shimmery, almost metallic look; I just thought it was a scattered holo. I ended up really feeling it though - it has a wee bit of a '90s feel going on, but the pink and peach hues really suit me, so I think it's a keeper. I applied three easy coats for full coverage. It's got a weak - medium scattered holo effect, weakened by my light box.

Darling Diva Polish I'm Fwee over OPI Lucky Lucky Lavender

I'm Fwee is my stand in for Lush Lacquer Clowning Around. LL had suspended international shipping and this neon glitter topper looked pretty similar. I love this style of neon glitters, they're way thinner than regular satin or matte hexes so they sit better on the nail. The big hexes (of which there are heaps!!!) might be a little too wide for my nails but it's still ok. I applied one coat over Lucky Lucky Lavender and then dabbed a few extra pieces of glitter in to the gaps. In the close-up you can see heaps of air bubbles, but they were from an ultra thick bottle of Glitter Gloss, not I'm Fwee. I think I will still  buy Clowning Around if I get the chance - I MUST HAVE ALL THE NEON!

Darling Diva Polish Dangerous Driver over China Glaze Grape Pop

Dangerous Driver is a mix of Ringer ( red-green colour shift pigment in a purple tinted base) with holo pigment. It's a pretty great idea but the concentration/formula just wasn't up to the standard I was expecting. Ringer has decent pigmentation - you can layer it to ok coverage with about four coats. DD however is much sheerer, so much of the purple has been removed, you have to layer it. Also the holo pigment weak too. It looks great layered over a similar base colour, but I wanted it to be a stand alone polish :( Note to self, read the description carefully next time. I layered two coats over Grape Pop.

Darling Diva Polish Chandelle over China Glaze Stellar

Chandelle is one of DD's original polishes and still going strong a year on! I lusted after this unique glitter mix for basically a year, myself! It's a light brown tinted base with light orange, green, pink and holo light gold hex glitter, brown squares and iridescent and gold micro glitter. I layered it over a tan-ish nude dense glitter so the tinted base turned it in to a dark caramel on the nail - not the most attractive look, but I think with another base colour it'd be prettier. The formula was on the thick side which I like. I wore two coats over two coats of Stellar.

Darling Diva Polish Flirt

 Flirt is a light green holo with iridescent glitter accents. It's really similar to Dollish Polish Master Chief. The gold aspect of the scattered holo particles really stood out on my nails so the green looked very yellow based. I'm not sure if it'd lean cooler on others, but the swatches I've seen show a minty colour, so I'm a little disappointed. Maybe I should layer it over a minty creme? Flirt is somewhat sheer so I applied three-four coats.

Darling Diva Polish Peonie

Peonie is my favourite of the bunch! It's a beautiful mauve-lilac purple scattered holo with green glass flecks that looks CRAZY AMAZING!!! I painted my 9 year old neighbour's nails with Peonie and she was gobsmacked. She told me it was her new favourite polish - and i had to basically force it on her in the beginning! The formula is a bit thicker than ideal because you need about three coats for full coverage and the thickness drags out the dry time. Oh it's so so so so pretty, typing this makes me want to put it back on my nails.


So my DDs are a bit of a mixed bag. I don't love them all, but mainly because I had certain expectations based on how long I have wanted them! My fav's are Peonie and I'm Fwee. Which do you like?

I'm two exams down now, five to go... Tomorrow is going to be full of study, then I have two exams in a row before the weekend, grrrr. But my polish makes it all better :)


xxx
NPA

Darling Diva Space Beetle - layering & Toxic Avenger comparison

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Hey,

I've got some rough swatches of yesterday's Space Beetle layered of a few different base colours as per a reader request.

Here are the base colours L-R: ChG Holly-Day, Mode Glamazon, Depend 171, ChG Millennium

Now with a thick-ish coat of Space Beetle on top:

You can see in these shots complexity of the holo particles. The maker uses 3 different types of holo: coarse and fine grade spectra flair as well as fine grade glitter powder.

Here they are 1 by 1:

ChG Millennium

Depend 171

Mode Glamazon

ChG Holly-Day

So basically Spae Beetle is is a holo topcoat with a little bit of a pink/green duochrome to it. I'm not really sure if I like it layered... Maybe it's just a case of finding a colour combination I like.

Now here is the comparison to Toxic Avenger:

In the bottle you can TA is darker, seems to have more colours and stronger holo effect going on.

You have probably guessed but in these pics Space Beetle is on the index and ring finger, Toxic Avenger on middle and pinky.

In the photos - maybe just because they're under a lamp - Space Beetle gets a bit drained of colour, the pink is stronger. But TA is really different. Although the have the same general colour shift, this is 3 coats of SB vs 2 coats of TA and TA is more dense and darker.

Happily though, I discovered I quite like SB worn alone and 3-4 coats does give good coverage. I think with some playing around you could probably manage to find a base coat topped off with SB that looks similar to TA.

Actually here it is layered over black:

So a bit darker than TA but it's approaching it! Maybe a charcoal...

It's a pity I couldn't take these pics in sunlight :( But I hope they give you a better idea of what Space Beetle is like.

xxx
NPA

Darling Diva Polish - Space Beetle

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Ahoy, hoy ladies,

About a month ago I found Darling Diva Polish on Etsy and promptly placed an order!
The owner makes a dupe of Clairns 230, affectionately 'Unicorn Pee', entitled Ringer! Naturally I snatched that up as well as a multichrome linear holographic called Space Beetle and a baby blue based glitter called Jennifer.

I haven't gotten swatches of Ringer yet - but it is seriously gorgeous and from what I can tell from other blog's posts on Clairns 230, a near dead on dupe!

For now, enjoy Space Beetle:

Bottle Shot

Macro

For the photos above, I layered 2 coats of Space Beetle over OPI Black Onyx. SB applies very easily, with a somewhat thin formula. I can't really imagine wearing it on its own because at 3 coats I still had considerable VNL. However I haven't had any time to experiment with it.
SB has a silver to pink colour shift with hints of gold, green, orange and blue . The linear holographic effect is very strong indeed! It actually reminds me of Dollish Polish Toxic Avenger, only much sheerer, like an TA top coat. I will have to do a side by side comparison for you.

I really enjoy these sorts of 'oil spill' multichromes! How about you?

You can purchase DDP lacquers HERE

xxx
NPA