A Week of China Glaze

I wore some China Glazes this week. First up is Twilight. This one is an oldie. I found it dustying. It has an older white label, but I was unable to find out when it was released. It is still fairly to easy to find for retail price on Ebay. 

Twilight is a berry-colored shimmer. It doesn't really fit the name Twilight for me. My mind immediately things of dark colors, or even the Twilight franchise. 

For it being an older formula, it applied very nicely in two smooth coats and didn't take long to dry at all. The formula definitely smelled like it wasn't 3-free.

Here's a picture taken indoors without the flash

And one taken with the flash.

Next is I'm With the Lifeguard. This one was a more recent release as it was part of last summer's Summer Neons collection.

I'm With the Lifeguard is a super vibrant neon green! I'm a huge fan of greens, and I was excited to get my hands on this one.

I'm With the Lifeguard has a subtle shimmer effect to it. It's somewhat difficult so see just because the bright green almost blinds you.

Application was pretty nice for a neon. This took three coats and dried to a satin-finish.

I just had to take a picture of it indoors with the flash because the flash does magical things to neon polishes.

This combo is China Glaze- Techno layered over Wet n Wild- Wet Cement.

Techno was originally released in the 2009 Speciality Colors collection but then re-promoted in the Spring 2012 Electropop collection. This is when I picked my bottle up.

It is filled with medium pieces of prismatic silver holographic glitter, and also has some tiny pieces of glitter.

Application was very simple and it only required one coat.

I used Wet n Wild- Wet Cement as the base color. It is a nice muddy-slate colored creme. It is part of the current Megalast line and it is easily accessible in drugstores. I was blown away with the application of this. The Megalast bottles come with a large brush, and it surprisingly conforms to the shape of my nails pretty well. Two thin coats of Wet Cement was all that I needed for a flawless finish.

Here's Wet Cement with the flash.

Last is China Glaze- Cast a Spell. This one was released for last year's Wicked Halloween collection.

Cast a Spell is a dark green shimmer- almost like a dark olive.

The shimmer in this is gorgeous because it's almost like a golden green. This is what I would consider a "vampy" green.

Indoors without the flash, you can see the golden green shimmer more. It only required two coats.

Here's a picture with the flash.

A Week of Holo Goodness

I have a super picture-heavy post that consists of the manis I had throughout this week. I wore all holographic shades! On to the holo spam! I took pictures in a variety of different types of lighting in order to capture the maximum holo effect. Sadly, it was cloudy outside for the majority of the week, so the best holo shots I got were indoors with the flash.

First up is OPI- DS Original. This is one of my most coveted holos, because it is very hard to find and OPI no longer makes holos this vibrant. This was the old "black label" formula. I was lucky to get this one in a swap. It is a medium purple holo with spectrums of color! This picture was taken indoors without the flash.

I took this while in my car. It was cloudy outside, but you can see a little of the holo.

Here you can see the color of the base. The formula was a bit thin, and this needed three coats to be completely solid.

Indoors with the flash.

This is Milani- Hi-Tech. The Milani holos are very good for the price. I recently found them on clearance at CVS. This is a light yellow-green holo. It is slightly more scattered but still gorgeous. This picture was taken indoors without the flash. This needed three coats to be completely opaque.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Indoors without the flash.

This is simply amazing! Color Club- Cloud Nine was released in the first Halo Hues collection in the fall. I needed to buy all of them! It is a light pink linear holo! Now this is how all holos should be! This was taken indoors with the flash.

This isn't a color-accurate picture of the base color, since I took it in my car while driving at night, but it shows off the linear holo effect very nicely.

Another one in my car in daylight. You can see the pale pink of the base, but since it was cloudy outside, the holo effect isn't as apparent. While a majority of holos I have worn require three coats to be opaque, this one needed two. The formula was perfect!!! The Color Club Halo Hues are kind of hard to come across in beauty supply stores, just because the demand is very high and they're sold out, but they are readily available on ebay or transdesign.com for reasonable prices.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Sunlight

Next is China Glaze- FYI. This is from the OMG collection released in 2009. These are rather hard to find. I believe I bought this one for around $15. The holo effect is just stunning. This is a taupe holo. This picture was taken indoors with the flash. This was another two-coater. It had some bare spots, but they were nearly impossible to see.

Sunlight

Sunlight

Indoors without the flash.

Lastly is Twee & Honey- The Nirvana of Inebriation. I just love the name of this! It is a silver holo, and a very close dupe to China Glaze- OMG (which I don't own). It is a similar holo to FYI only silver instead of taupe. This required three coats. I took this picture indoors with the flash.

Twee & Honey Polishes can be purchased through tweeandhoney.com

Indoors without the flash.

Here's a picture of it in the shade. You can't really see much of the holo effect here.

I took this one in my car, and you can see the effect slightly. 

New Year's Eve 2012 Mani

For New Year's Eve, I decided to go with a glitter bomb in order to keep it festive. This is Finger Paints- Santa's Magic layered over OPI- Tomorrow Never Dies

I was quite impressed with Santa's Magic. At first I thought it was just going to be a typical silver prismatic glitter, but the prismatic effect is super strong! You can see rainbows of color with this shade. 

Santa's Magic was released with the Finger Paints recent holiday collection. I purchased this at Sally's. They probably have these on clearance now if there are any left. This picture was taken with the flash! This polish was so packed with glitter, that it only needed one coat.

I had to take a picture while driving around in my car at night just to showcase how the glitter looked like glistening in the dark.

OPI- Tomorrow Never Dies is part of this holiday's Skyfall collection. Tomorrow Never Dies is a Blurple shimmer. I saw Blurple because I honestly cannot decide if it leans more blue or purple. It really depends on the lighting. This picture was taken without the flash- and this way it looks almost like a dark violet.

With the flash- you can see the blue side of this. I applied two coats of this for full coverage, but the second coat was somewhat thick in order to avoid bare spots. I wanted to stick to two coats since I was using this polish as a base for Santa's Magic anyway. This shade is most definitely unique!