Layla - Hologram Effect - Cloudy Violet

Purple linear holo  

It's the late May Bank Holiday here in the UK and I'm off the rest of the week too - heading off to Marrakesh on Wednesday for 5 days  - so excited!

So I'd thought I'd got for a polish with a holiday feeling, even if unfortunately, the sun isn't shining in my part of England...

Cloudy Violet is a gorgeous purple linear holo - totally stunning.

Application was good once I'd worked out the best base coat to use.  The polish is very thin/runny but covers well.

Swatches are 2 coats over Gosh f/x base

A-England - Lady of the Lake

Dusky purple with holographic shimmer  

I'm rather remiss for not sharing any A-England before now.  I have a small collection of about 20 of Adina's polishes and they're all stunning.

Lady of the Lake is from the first collection, The Mythicals, back in 2011.

It's a slightly dusty purple with lots of fine scattered holographic glitter.

Application was great, only needing two coats, at most!

China Glaze - IDK

Pale purple holographic  

Back in early 2008 China Glaze launched the OMG collection of 12 holographic polishes, 6 warm and 6 cool toned.  I just have two from the cool toned collection.

IDK is a lilac/purple linear holographic.  Not very exciting when viewed in indirect light, comes alive in sunlight.

Swatches are 3 coats, no top coat.  As you can see from the swatches these dry with a muted finish.

The holo in this is very fine and linear, unlike the Kaleidoscope collection which was scattered, larger format holos.

Unfortunately these collections are discontinued and not easy to find but I'm sure there are duplicates available in other ranges.

H&M - You Rock My World and Creme de la Creme

Gold & silver scattered holos  

My nails being broken and stubby for so long has allowed me to work through a lot of 'old' swatches, here are some H&M holos from 2009!

First up is You Rock My World..

You Rock My World is a silver scattered holo.  Out of the sun it looks like a regular silver polish, in the sun the fine holo isn't super strong but it's there.

Creme de la Creme is a slightly cool gold holo.  Again the holo effect isn't very strong.

Both sets of swatches are 2 coats, no top coat.

Application on both of these was good with the very fast dry time often found with holos.

China Glaze - Kaleidoscope Him Out

Light blue scattered holo  

Out of sun

Kaleidoscope Him Out is a cool light blue scattered holo. The holo effect didn't show super strong for me it's more delicate to match the base colour.

Swatch shown is 3 coats, no top coat.

Formula on this was thin and very fast drying, slightly sheer hence the 3 coats.

This polish is from the 2006 Kaleidoscope collection, a collection that was discontinued a few years later and rather sought after for a while.  I'm not a China Glaze collector as such, I picked this up in a bargain job lot of China Glaze polishes on ebay.

Butter London - Trustafarian

Light sage green/gold holo  

Butter London Trustafarian is a pretty but sheer fine holo.

The colour out of full sun does have a hint of sage/grey green but in the sunlight it's a warmer olive green and more gold leaning.  The holo is scattered and fine.

It's also fairly sheer, this swatch is 3 coats and I still have some VNL, definitely one that would be better layered.

The formula is thin and somewhat runny, go careful with the application.

Trustafarian is from the Autumn 2012 collection.

Nubar - Gem

Pink/taupe scattered holo  

Gem is from Nubar's 2010 Prism collection which was all holo's IIRC.

It's a pretty pinkish taupe shimmering polish with scattered slightly chunky holo sparkles

The formula was a little thin, this swatch is 3 coats with no top coat and regular base coat.

Definitely a great example of a subtle holo.

Catrice - Dirty Berry

Purple scattered holo  

I'm still growing my nails out after a series of breaks.  It's been 6 months since the mega-stress of wedding planning which seemed to really take it out on my nails and I've had 7 out of 10 break.  Which means I'm mining Picasa for old swatches I haven't shared - this one is from 2011!

Dirty Berry is a dusky lilac fine scattered holo.  The holo effect isn't strong and out of the sun it looks more like a silver speckle.

Swatch shown is 2 coats with top coat as I dinged one of my fingers

I love this, the muted blue toned purple is lovely and although the holo isn't super strong it adds up to a very pretty polish.

Happy New Year! featuring Pop Twinkle

Silver scattered holo  

Sorry for the lack of posts, the blog went on a Christmas/New Year break with me!

I had a lovely Christmas, good food, great presents, time with friends and family.  Could've done with a bit more relaxing but hey ho..!

So I thought I'd belatedly kick the year off with a dose of sparkley bling in the form of  Pop Twinkle

Twinkle is a silver based scattered holo.  The holo pieces are on the larger side and are pretty densely packed.

Swatch shown is 2 coats and you can still kinda see VNL.  But it's so pretty in the sunlight....

The Pop Beauty Nail Glam bottles are tall, square and shallow, very like the American Apparel ones and hold a generous 15ml.  I bought mine a while ago ASOS, don't think I've ever seen them in a store here in the UK.

H&M - Sinful Señorita

Pink holo

It's actually sunny on this Friday in England (yay) so I thought I'd celebrate by sharing a holo.

This is from a couple of years ago, 2009(?) H&M bought out a small range of holos, four I think - pink, purple, gold and silver.

Sinful Señorita is a pink holo, definitely not linear so does that mean it's scattered?

Swatch is 2 coats, no top coat. Application was fine and like most holos it dried super fast.

It's not the most holo of holos but it's very pretty in the sunlight...

Nails Inc - Special Effects - Sloane Square

Grey holo glitter

The last of the 3D Glitters from the Nails Inc Special Effects Collection is Sloane Square.

Again, the first swatch pictures show the polish as it dries, and then with lots of topcoat to give a glossy finish.



















Closeup, blurry bottle shot to attempt to show the holo glitter.

Sloane Square is a sheer base with masses of darkish grey glitter and a scattering of larger holographic glitter.

Swatch is 2 coats.

Overall, for me the 3D glitters are interesting but not quite successful. The coverage is good but the matte and very gritty finish isn't great.

Etos Effect Nails - 905 Blue Holo

Blue holo

Not much time tonight as I need to go and vote! So remember that Dutch drugstore purple holo I showed a couple of weeks ago?

Well here's its blue sister!









Again application was good and this swatch is 2 coats with no topcoat.

Like the purple one the holo effect isn't OTT but it's pretty.

Effect Nails - 010 Purple Holo

Purple holo

I don't know much about this brand, I think I picked it up in Germany, although it may have been Amsterdam - Any readers know if this is Dutch or Deutsch?

It's a smallish bottle, somewhere between regular and mini, maybe 7 or 8ml?






The number on the bottom says 010 and I'd describe it as a mid lilac/purple holo

Application was fine, pretty fast drying like a lot of holos and this was 2 coats, with no top coat.

As you can see the holo effect isn't super intense but it's pretty. Unfortunately I can't remember how much it cost either, my guess is less than €5 as I grabbed at least 4 from this brand!

Glitter Gal

Back in the Autumn the lovely Jasmine from YouTube and blogger fame asked me if I'd be interested in reviewing some nail polish, of course I jumped at the chance.

Unfortunately despite swatching the polishes fairly rapidly I haven't found time to post my swatches and review till now - bad blogger :-(

I can always find time to swatch a new polish, my unblogged swatch photo folder has over 2000 images in (which probably represents nearly 300 different polishes) but I have a real mental block with writing up the post to go with the pictures! I think I feel like it's always going to take longer than I have available. Anyone else have the same problem?

Anyhow onto the polish review.

First up is Suede from Glitter Gal







Suede is a greyed out brown with lots of holo sparkles - I'd say the holographic glitter was more of an accent to Suede rather than it being a full on holo polish.

The bottles are mid-sized at 9ml and the brush is quite dinky too but I had no problems with application from the brush or the polish.

As you may know I'm a big fan of these taupe/mushroom shades and this is no exception - with the added goodness of holographic sparkles.

Glitter Gal are an Australian company but I don't think they're widely available in other countries, yet.

Overall a very pretty polish - thanks Jasmine.