Foil Effect - Fun Lacquer..

After a few years of polish collecting I have gotten to a point where it takes a lot to impress me enough to need to purchase something. OPI collections have left me underwhelmed this year, and its getting very hard to distinguish yourself as an indie polish maker unless you have something really unique and different from what's out there.  But then something really special comes along that changes everything.....foil effect polish.

Fun Lacquer - Queen - Foil Effect - Holo glitter polish

I cannot rave about this linear holo polish enough. 2 coats to full opacity, once it dried it really did have the plastic sheen of foil. My nails looked like they had nail wrap stickers on because the polish is perfectly thick and so dense with glitter, yet it dried as flat and smooth as a pancake. This polish is a true triumph! It was pretty much impossible for me to photograph accurately due to the excessive bling levels. In the bottle its a dark silver rainbow fun-house. 

Using traditional foil is not easy. Its really difficult to do full nail coverage with nice, clean edges. There are always little gaps and tiny bald spots at the cuticle line and sometimes you get crinkles. Well for those of us foiled by foil...see what I did there.....this is the polish for you. Get the look of of foil in a flash with Fun Lacquer.

Dance Legend WOW Prisms

Argh! WOW! My love affair with Dance Legend begins. My first polishes from DL have blown me away with their sparkle and fab bottles. I love looking at them all lined up on my polish rack....Fancy!  This is 3 of the holo polishes from the WOW Prism collection. The collection is a 2 parter, 18 colours in the first release and then another 6 in the Spring Collection.

For this design I used the polishes on their own with no base colour. However the silver really did need a base so next time its undies first. I sponged the gradient on as normal then also painted another layer of colour on the tips to darken the colours. There is a little bit too much spectra-flair glitter in these polishes which makes them hard to gradient with, the colour sinks into the sponge leaving the flair to sit on top making the gradient too subtle. But I guess that's a trade off to having mountains of amazing sparkle!

Pink: Dance Legend - Hysteria 21 

Silver: Dance Legend - Steel Panther 13

Teal: Danced Legend - Holy Diver 36 

It was overcast all day so the best picture I could get was indoors but you can still get a hint of the amazing sparkle. The glass crystals are from the multi coloured pack which is available  HERE. 

Guest post for More Nail Polish

Just in case you missed out on my guest post for More Nail Polish this week here is the link. Being invited to post for MNP was a huge honour as I have followed her blog right from way back at the start of my polish addiction. So head on over and check out MNP if you aren't already following her. This is the mani  I did for the post. All the details plus extra pics can be found here.

Emily De Molly - Dark Crystal

Somebody call the morgue. I am obviously dead, because Im in polish heaven right now. I cant see the white light but I can see bazillions of sparkles! Is this polish not tre amazing? Nail jizz! 

Dark Crystal is a black jelly polish, with rainbow scatter holographic glitter. Its made by the amazing Emily De Molly, an Australian indie polish maker. It's 3 coats to opacity or 1 coat over a black creme polish. With just 2 coats on its own there was some VNL but it still looked amazing.

Close up in the sunlight

Sunlight with top coat. The formula was fantastic. It spread evenly without creating bald spots. It dried quickly and smoothly. 

Such a chic colour with sparkles that aren't so in your face, perfect for those occasions when you have to tone it down a little but still want something fun. How have I let this beauty sit in my untrieds pile for so long? BTW I'm alive and well so no need for the morgue just yet, hopefully me and my Emily De Molly Dark Crystal will live a long and happy life together.

Indirect sunlight

The Dito collection by Karpati

Well this is different. A nail polish bottle with spaces for your fingers. "Simply slip the bottle onto your fingers like a ring and lacquer away". Alrighty then, here goes...

Chromatic | Refract by Karpati is just one of 38 polishes from their Dito Collection. A collection of polishes offering the perfect solution for the practical application of nail polish. The innovative design is so unique that it has been included in the ‘Design Collection’ of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Chromatic is one of 7 polishes in the Refract collection. It is a sheer silver polish with micro silver scattered holographic glitter. It has a smooth finish, the glitter is not raised above your nail, its embedded in the polish. 

This is 2 coats with no base or topcoat in morning sunlight. Its definitely a 3 coater if you don't want VNL, or you could layer it over a nice silver/grey undie to make it more opaque.

So is the design just a gimmick or does it actually work? 

Well holding the bottle in-between my fingers was easy, it felt steady and stayed put nicely. It didn't get in the way and allowed me to position my hand on the table the way I normally would when painting my nails. Its really quite clever. I can see the benefits of being able to apply polish this way say if you were in a rush and had to do your nails in the car or train etc. I really like that about this bottle design, its a definite pro. One thing however is the brush and the lid of the bottle. Its an awkward shape to hold and use and the brush was just average, a little on the skinny side. I had a derpy moment when trying to flip the brush over to use the paint on the other side. Another downside, the bottle does not stand up on its own. All my polishes are stored upright so my OCD is tingling just a little, but if you are carrying it around in your bag to do whilst you are out, its fine.

Awkward hand pose, the model on the box does it so much better lol This is with SV topcoat.

So the formula, it is 3 free and claims to be non streaky  I found it to be a little bit streaky, but with topcoat it's not noticeable and for a holographic polish its pretty good for application. It didnt erase itself or get bald patches. I stumbled across this polish from my Lust Have It box. Its a high end polish line and expensive. $20AUD for a bottle plus $10 shipping so definitely a splurge polish. The design really is clever and functional enough to make it worth buying 1 bottle for fun. The colour is really pretty and if they have a black version I'm all over it.

                         More details on the DITO collection by Karpati can be found here.

Color Club Halo Hues Collection

Today on the blog the Color Club Halo Hues Collection. Stunning, gorgeous, amazing I could go on and on. But I wont't because I know you just wanna drool over the pics. Scroll down for my review.

My experiences with linear holographic polishes is that they can be quite temperamental to work with and are not very long lasting. In most cases you have to apply them without a base coat to enable you to be able to paint a somewhat streak free layer. After applying topcoat they seem to be prone to flaking or chipping off in big sheets. So I was really impressed when I tried this collection.

Color Club is not really regarded as one of the better brands of nail polish around, however they have really nailed it with this formula. I used the polishes with and without a basecoat and it applied equally well. The first layer did appear to have some thin spots or bald patches after the first coat, however with the second coat is evened out perfectly using the 3 stroke nail painting technique. I wore the silver polish Harp On It for 2 days and it didn't chip or flake off at all.

976 Harp On It - silver holo

977 Cloud Nine - dusty lilac holo

978 Halo-graphic - pink holo

979 Blue Heaven - blue holo

980 Cherubic - nude/taupe holo

981 Angel Kiss -  aquamarine/green holo

There are similarities between the dusty lilac Cloud Nine and pink Halo-Graphic, with the latter having a brighter pink finish. I love all the colours and the formula for each one was really excellent  If you haven't invested in any holographic polishes yet I would seriously consider this collection. This collection and single colours are available from www.dramaqueennails.com