The Perfect Gold Holo: Layering

Awhile ago when I reviewed HITS Hermes and was a little disappointed, one of my readers (Katie from katie's handmade) suggested that I try out Hefesto (a holo topcoat) over my favorite gold. And I finally tried it!

Here are the results:

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Gold Holo - Pure Ice Bite Me and HITS Hefesto

For these pictures, I used only one coat of Hefesto, but what's great about this combination is that you can add more coats of Hefesto to "tone down" the brassy gold color. I wanted to keep the rich gold of Bite Me because it's one of my favorites. Usually saturated golds like this don't look very nice on, but this one is stunning.

A little note: I took these pictures right after applying it. Over the next hour or so it developed a lot of bubbles! Has anybody else had this problem with the HITS No Olimpo collection? I had the same thing happen with Hermes, and it's pretty frustrating. Also, they don't seem to dry nearly as fast as other holos I own.

Here is a picture of Bite Me by itself from my previous post. I actually didn't know its name when I first posted about it because the bottom label only has a number!

Pure Ice - Bite Me

Pure Ice polishes can be found at most WalMarts and also on the Bari Cosmetics website.  Hefesto can be purchased from Llarowe or Ninja Polish when it's in stock.

butter LONDON - Knackered

I don't really know why I NEEDED Knackered, but nevertheless I bought it when I made an Ulta order for Revlon Whimsical recently. I feel like it's similar to Wet n Wild's Gray's Anatomy (maybe with China Glaze Fairy Dust or Northern Lights topcoat), but without directly comparing I feel like Knackered is a bit more brightly duochrome and has a more metallic finish.

butter LONDON - Knackered over Essie Fair Game

Knackered is a somewhat sheer purple to green duochrome metallic with silver holo micro glitter.  I decided to layer it over Essie Fair Game because it didn't seem like it'd be easily opaque on its own (it'd probably take 3-4 coats to be fully opaque). Plus, at $14 for .4oz (11mL) of polish, I'd like to conserve it. Essie Fair Game is kind of a gunmetal blue/grey shimmer and I used one coat under two coats of Knackered.  The edges in person look a tiny bit more green than in the pics above.

The thing I love about this polish is that in low light the duochrome really stands out, and in bright sunlight the holo glitter brings it to life. Luckily, the glitter doesn't seem to make the metallic finish look too lumpy.

This picture in artificial light shows off the metallic finish and pretty green to purple duochrome depth nicely:

Knackered is a part of butter LONDON's spring/summer 2012 collection and is available at Ulta and the butter LONDON website.  I also got Disco Biscuit which I'll be showing soon as well!

HITS No Olimpo - Hermes

This is the only HITS No Olimpo polish I've tried so far. I've been looking for the perfect gold holo, but still don't feel like I've found one.

HITS - Hermes

These pictures show three coats, but in my opinion, it was prettier at two. When I added the third coat it became more grey/green-ish instead of the warm light gold it was at two coats. It still looks neat, and I like the finish it has. It hovers between a metallic and a pearl finish, with a subtle, linear holo effect. Here is what it looks like in indirect sunlight. You can see that the holo is very subdued. This is very much a work appropriate color, and it does look quite elegant.

For some reason I haven't been feeling the need to get the HITS No Olimpo collection. Maybe it's because I have a bunch of Spectraflair that I should probably use to create my own new colors (including my perfect gold)?

EDIT: I forgot to add that I got my HITS No Olimpo from Llarowe. They're a little pricey at $10 for 6mL (normal bottle of polish is 15mL), and they're in and out of stock a lot, so you just have to get them whenever you find them available.

Pure Ice - Year of the Dragon Swatches and Review

I've been over the whole crackle thing for a long time now. In fact, I don't even know if I ever really liked it. I can only think of one time that I left crackle on my nails for more than a day. Somehow, this one blew me away! When I first got the press release email, I instantly loved it and hoped it was going to be awesome in reality. It is.

Here is the promo shot for the Year of the Dragon (ShowStopper - Crackle Duo Gold and Red) set by Pure Ice:

From the press release:

"In 2012, Chinese New Year Day will be celebrated on January 23. The New Year festival will start from January 22 (Chinese New Year' Eve) and end on February 6 (Lantern Festival). 2012 marks the 4710th Chinese New Year, and this time it is the Year of Dragon according to the Chinese zodiac calendar.

The Dragon is the 5th sign of the Chinese zodiac and it is regarded as an auspicious symbol which stands for power, good luck, success, and happiness.

Since ancient times, the Chinese New Year was considered as the time to honor ancestors and heavenly deities. In addition, it was the time to organize family gatherings and grand feasts.

There is a legend associated with the celebration of New Year in China. There was a monster named Nian who used to harass the villagers by eating their crops, cattle and taking away their kids. The villagers had no other option but to place food at the entrance to their homes so that the monster would eat it and go away without harming them.

One day, the villagers realized that the monster was scared of red color. So, they adorned their doors and windows with red paper cutouts and spring scrolls. The villagers also burst crackers to frighten the monster. Since then, Nian never came again to the village. Hongjun Laozu, a Taoist monk, was the one who captured the beast later on. Since then, the Chinese have been celebrating the capture of Nian on their New Year's Day."

Here is the gold from the set by itself:

Pure Ice - Gold

It doesn't have a proper name that I can find, but man this gold is pretty! Some may not like it as much because it's a very bright orange-yellow and it may not suit all skin tones as well. It took two coats and was quite easy to apply. This color makes me think of cooking with curry, and the bright yellow color that it turns when mixed in with oil. Now I'm hungry...

But it looks even better with the red crackle over top!

Pure Ice - Gold and Red Crackle

This just FEELS like the Chinese New Year to me. It makes me want to be wandering around Chinatown in San Francisco, observing all the colors and festivities. It's very vibrant and the metallic gold shows through the red just a bit to give it a lot of depth.

This red crackle works just like most of the others, but the result you see was just from a quick, simple application - no special thicknesses or stroke directions. I considered "waving" the brush around to get a more random crackle look, but I thought the normal vertical cracks would be perfect for the Chinese New Year look. So I would say it applies nicely and cracks pretty well.

I decided to try it with a matte top coat (Essie Matte About You):

Pure Ice - Gold and Crackle (with Essie Matte About You)

Very nice, too, though I was so in love with the shiny version that I'm just not as impressed with this. It still feels very "Chinatown" to me, and has an awesome effect.

Honestly, I can't believe how much this wowed me. I didn't think I'd find a single crackle combination I actually LIKED, much less LOVED. If all the other crackle polishes in the world disappeared, this is the one combination I'd want to keep.

This set is available on the Bari Cosmetics site as well as at Wal-Mart and Walgreens. I'm not sure on the retail price, but Pure Ice usually runs under $2 each, so I'm sure this one is reasonable as well!

Happy New Year of the Dragon!

(This item was sent to me for review.)

The 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Day 7 - Golden Snow

I really wanted to do some type of snowflake nails, and here they are!  I was going to do silver snowflakes right up until the last minute when I switched it to gold.  And I'm glad I did.

Golden Snowflakes - Essie Marshmallow stamped with China Glaze 2030

Heehee, the name is supposed to be somewhat funny - just remember, seriously, to never eat golden (yellow) snow!! Now, I'm not very good at stamping, but I don't even care if the snowflakes didn't come out perfect. I call this a success. It just makes me smile and think of a beautiful winter.

For good measure, here is a picture of Essie Marshmallow on it's own, because this is how I wore it for two days before stamping it (it was taken in low lighting so it's a tiny bit blurry):

Essie - Marshmallow

The 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Day 5 - Presents!

First, a warning: I am NOT good at freehand nail art. But I REALLY wanted presents on my nails, so I bit the bullet and tried it. It actually turned out better than I thought it would, but still not perfect. I think I need to invest in some acrylic paints or something, because nail polish just doesn't work very well with a striping brush.

So here it is, the fifth day of the 12 Days of Christmas Nails: Presents!

I used quite a few polishes in this one because I wanted to give each present a subtle metallic wrapping-paper look. Unfortunately, it was TOO subtle and almost invisible on most nails. Oh well, next time I'll probably just use a simple metallic or creme base under the ribbons.

The base on the pinky is Rescue Beauty Lounge Dead Calm, with China Glaze Little Drummer Boy stamped on top.  The base for the ring finger is CG Urban Night stamped with New York Summer Poppies.  The base for the middle is American Apparel Hunter stamped with CG Gussied Up Green, and the pointer is Essie Berry Hard stamped with Rimmel Lava Red.  All of the ribbons are done with CG 2030.

Although I'd considered doing some present nails from the start, it was Sammy's design that really made me decide on it.  Remember, you can check out all of her designs here if you've missed any.

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms Amber Ruby Swatch

Here is another of the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms line:  Amber Ruby.  This is one I love so much I had to get a backup bottle of it.  It has a strong duochrome/multichrome shift between red, copper, gold, and green (and apparently it goes all the way to blue, but it can only be seen in the underwater pictures).  I swatched it recently but was unsatisfied in my capture of all of the colors, so I re-swatched it over OPI Royal Rajah Ruby and it seems to bring out the colors just a tad more (two coats Royal Rajah Ruby, one coat Amber Ruby).

Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Amber Ruby

What can I say? It's just STUNNING. See the beautiful mossy green on the edges? Yes, it does show up like that in person. In low lighting this polish is constantly shifting between all of its colors. It also has a very nice metallic finish without showing brushstrokes. Here's a picture taken at an angle where you can see the mossy green by itself:

And now for the underwater pictures (I love taking these - it's so fascinating!)

*gasp* I can't help it - it's so wonderful.

And here is OPI Royal Rajah Ruby on it's own, which is quite nice in itself!

Kleancolor Metallic Green Swatch

I think it's a well known fact that the Kleancolor Metallic polishes are AWESOME (if you can get past the smell, of course). Well, here is yet another example of this AWESOME:

Kleancolor - Metallic Green

This has to be one of the brightest greens I own, and it is super shiny! I've tried Metallic Red as well but haven't gotten amazing pictures of that one yet. I'm pretty convinced that I need the rest of them now...

Also, my nails are really long here, and this is the length I'm hoping to get them to to try out my French tip water decals!

Layla Magneffect Swatches

I recently had the chance to purchase some of the Layla Magneffects line at AveYou.com during a SaveMore sale (I got $75 worth of stuff for $35, and with an order of $50 or more, you get $1 shipping... all in all I payed only $38.50 for these five, and they normally retail for $15.50 each!). I am SO glad I decided to try these out! They are AWESOME!

The pictures below show one thick coat on index and ring fingers, and two thick coats on middle and pinky.

Layla Magneffect - Velvet Groove

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite one. At two coats it truly looks like soft burgundy velvet... LOVE.

Layla Magneffect - Golden Nugget

This was a color that at first I thought "Ewwww, that doesn't look attractive." Somehow I changed my mind and it ended up in my order, and I'm glad it did!

For this one I lined up the magnet vertically with my nails, and it's hard to see in the picture but it really makes them look VERY 3D and awesome. Although I like the diagonal stripes, I think this is my favorite orientation - it even makes my short nails look long and pretty in person. It's hard to capture the 3D effect in a still photo, but trust me: try this at home!!

Layla Magneffect - Blue Grey Flow

Another neat color. The metal parts end up looking silver and the spaces in between become a navy blue.

Layla Magneffect - Purple Galaxy

The first coat of this looks like a nice rich purple, and with two coats it becomes a vampy dark plum with metallic accents. Very classy, in my opinion!

I'm not too big of a fan of the horizontal stripes, though...

Layla Magneffect - Metallic Sky

And my third favorite of the bunch. The brightest one of all, and just stunning in person.

Now I've been playing with frankening lately, and these made me very curious as to how they would look with holographic or duochrome pigment (doesn't it sound like it'd be awesome?!). However, I'm not ready to decant any of these new preciouses to try it, so I figured I'd try layering them over a holo (the holo-est holo I own - Nfu-Oh 62). Here are the results:

Layla Magneffects over Nfu-Oh 62

Disappointing, no? Oh well, at least I'm not gonna worry about combining them with holo pigment anymore. However, I still think that if they could somehow make a magentic pigment that is also duochromatic, this could produce one of the most epic polishes in the WORLD!

Missha HGR01 (with Chanel Peridot comparison)

Remember how much I fell in love with Peridot? It's the only polish in my collection that I've worn three times within a couple months, and I noticed I've already used a noticeable amount. Well, instead of buying a backup bottle (too expensive!) I decided I'd try out this polish that's supposed to be very similar to Peridot: Missha HGR01 (I found it on ebay, and it's not too terribly expensive). I am SO happy I did! Check this out!

Missha HGR01

This has the same duochrome metallic finish that Peridot does - so shiny and pretty! Like Peridot, it shows some brushstrokes while it's wet but they disappear as the polish dries.  The color spectrum on this one seems to "begin" where Peridot "ends." The greenish teal that you see at the extreme angles on Peridot is very similar to how HGR01 looks straight on. Then HGR01 turns to a bright cyan blue and even royal blue at the extremes. If mermaids wore nail polish (I only assume they don't because it'd be hard to paint your nails underwater... heehee), I think they would DEFINITELY wear this color. This feels like a "mermaid in a bottle." Oh, and also it smells like roses (very nice).

Because of it's similarity to Peridot, I wanted to show the two next to each other. I love both of these so much, though the gold in the Peridot really suits my skin tone more.

Missha HGR01 (middle and pinky) and Chanel Peridot (pointer and ring)

See how the green on Peridot (pointer) kinda of matches the green of the Missha (pinky). So cool! Love it!