Comparison Thursday: Purple Holos

This week's comparison features purple holographics.  This by no means my full purple holo collection, but I tried to pick a few that I thought would be close in shade.  As you can see, in the bottles they are much closer than on the nail.  None of these are exact duplicates.

Purchased or Made by Me

Lilypad Lacquer Almost Famous, Enchanted Awesomeness, Color Club Eternal Beauty, and Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Fare the Wind

Almost Famous

Almost famous is the darkest polish in this grouping.  It's got a lovely strong pink/fuchsia flash along with the linear holo.  I'd rank AF third in holo for this grouping.  Application was super easy with the LPL wide brush, and I needed only minimal cleanup.  Luckily, the purple doesn't stain, either, so that's very helpful.  I wore this in two coats with one coat of topcoat.  Dry time was average.  Someone at some point had said that AF was a dupe of EP's Awesomeness, but as you can see, they AF is much darker and has that gorgeous flash.  AF is still available to purchase.

Awesomeness

I can't really speak to the application for this one, unfortunately, because I received it in a decant swap and those little brushes are the devil.  It's a lovely bright purple linear holographic that leans every so slightly towards the blue spectrum of purple.  It's the least holographic of the bunch and looks almost slightly scattered in some photos.  It's the second darkest of the grouping.  I used three coats and one coat of topcoat, which gave it average dry time.  Awesomeness, unfortunately, has long been discontinued, and it goes for super high prices on the secondary market.  However, you may be able to find some generous soul to swap you a decant!

Eternal Beauty

Eternal Beauty is the most holo and lightest of this grouping.  It's also a tad more difficult to apply as it's thin, a bit runny, and has a tendency to bald if you go back over the wet bits.  I wouldn't say that the application is as bad as Layla or Nuf Oh holos, though, so it's not that big of a drawback.  I used two coats with one coat of topcoat, and it dried very quickly.  I've never seen the Halo Hues in stores, but you can still find them on eBay or Amazon, which is where I got mine.

Fare the Wind

Fare the Wind is probably the closest leaning blue out of all of the purples today.  It's also the only one with a strong shimmer element in addition to the linear holographic.  It's the second lightest and the second most holographic.  Application was easy, and I used three even coats for full coverage.  One coat of topcoat made it glossy and helped it dry fairly quickly.  Fare the Wind has been discontinued for the moment, but keep your eyes out as it may make a comeback sometime this year!

So, there you have it!  Which is your favorite purple holographic?  Which of these do you wish you owned?

Black and Silver Stamping

Tonight's mani is one that I'm just soooo proud of.  I haven't had stamping come out as lovely as this in a long time.  And the fact that I have them on Cuties just makes it all that much better!  Cuties is the term I've dubbed nails that are intentionally short.  Nubs tend to have a negative connotation, so I've decided that Cuties should be the term we use for those nails who are short on purpose!  I know that I, for one, enjoy wearing my nails cropped low sometimes.  Whereas, there are others who will only wear Cuties - such as my lovely friend Sara from Born For a Storm!  When I wear Cuties, I tend to like to wear them with vampy colors, which is what I've done with this mani!  So, without further ado, let's take a peek at Chanel Cosmic topped with stamping using Color Club Harp on It.

Purchased by Me

I started with a base of two coats of Chanel Cosmic, which is a gorgeous black creme loaded with irregularly shaped silver holographic glitters.  Two coats was perfect for this polish and didn't require much cleanup.  While it's a lovely polish, I sincerely wish that it was a little more jelly so that you could see the glitters a little more easily.

To top it all off, I decided to use Color Club's silver holo, Harp On It, from their 2013 Halo Hues collection.  It's an absolutely lovely silver holographic, and it stamped really well.  The image transferred easily without drying onto the plate or stamper.  

I used regular Elmer's glue around my cuticles to make cleanup easier.  With this, I was able to just peel off the bits of stamp that got onto the skin around my nails.

I topped everything off with KBShimmer's Clearly On Top, which didn't smear the design.  Dry time with the topcoat was quick.

I know this isn't exactly winter-themed, but I did really love this manicure.  It lasted almost 5 days, which was fantastic because I just didn't want to take it off!  Have you ever had a mani you wanted to wear for as long as possible?  Tell me what it was in the comments!

Blog 2 Year Birthday Giveaway Prizes Part Two

So, yeah, I'm having to work tonight (still not done, in fact, *sigh*), so this will be pretty short.  There's only about half an hour left before my 2nd year blog birthday giveaway is over!  So, make sure you enter here!  Now, let's take a look at the rest of the prizes!

Lilypad Lacquer I Just Think It's Pink

IJTIP is a bright hot pink polish packed with flakies and holographic glitters.  I only needed two coats, but I probably could've just gone with one coat instead.  Dry time was quick, and application was super easy.  I'm so in love with the vivid brightness of this polish!

Model City Polish Strawberry Jam

I've got a full review of Strawberry Jam here, so make sure to check it out.  I just love how squishy this polish is!  And the sparkle!  Ahh, I love it so much!

Color Club Eternal Beauty

Application for EB was fairly easy and didn't require the use of an aqua base, which is fantastic!  Application was fairly easy and didn't really pool, drag, or bald like a lot of the other mainstream ultra-holos.  I used three coats to ensure opacity, but it only really needed two.  

Emerald and Ash Mie Scattering

Mie Scattering is a white jelly with a subtle holo shimmer.  It's a true jelly, so you'll need to layer it with other polishes to get rid of the nail line.  Here, I used five coats to try and cover up any sheer spots.  It can get a tad thick, so you may need to thin your bottle a little bit.  Otherwise, application was fairly easy without much need for cleanup.  It's my go-to white jelly, and it's just so squishy and gorgeous.  Dry time was average.

Elevation Polish Ave Secretan

For some reason, my photos are looking a lot more red than it really is.  It's actually a lovely bright pink and not really red.  I love the consistency of this creme, and it applies easily in just two coats, but I used three coats for my photos.  There was a little need for cleanup, but nothing too serious.  Dry time was fairly quick with a quick dry topcoat.

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Hypothermia

You can check out a full review of Hypothermia here.  It was a super limited edition that I released last year as a free gift with purchase of my full winter collection.  It will be back off and on as a free gift with purchase or prizes for giveaways, but it will never be sold individually.

So, there you have it!  Those are all of the prizes for the giveaway!  Which are you most excited about?  I'll have the winners announced sometime tomorrow evening.  Good luck, everyone!

Oh, and if bits and pieces of this post made no sense or were grammatically incorrect, please note that I'm running on fumes here...  I hope to be able to catch up on some sleep sometime in 2015...  ;)

Golden Oldies Thursday: Something Tropical

The name of this week's GOT Polish Challenge theme, Something Tropical, made me giggle quite a bit.  I mean, it's so open to interpretation, that I wasn't sure exactly what I should do.  And then I started thinking...  I haven't stamped in a while...  And then I thought some more, I haven't attempted a "pond" mani in a while either (not since this).  I'm not very great at nail art, nor am I very good at doing these pond manis without them looking wonky, but I thought I'd give it another shot!  So, that's what I've done!  If you're curious about the pond mani concept, check out the one that started it all over at Olive View Fashion!  Basically, it's a jelly sandwich but with nail art or stamps instead of glitter. Although, every time I think of anything "pond," I think of this: 

(Source)

Look at those fierce red nails on the second best red-headed companion out there.  (Yes, I'm a huge Donna Noble fan.  If you're not, then whatever.  I ain't bovvered!)

(Source)

Here is the GOT Polish schedule of events if you would like to follow along or participate.

Remember the rules:

• The polish you use must be at least a year old.
• If you haven't been a polishaholic for that long, you can use the oldest polishes you have.
• The polish should be previously used, but if you're stuck, you can use a polish from your untrieds stack.
• You can use more than one polish as long as it fits the rules.

I purchased all polishes in this post.

For this mani, I used Color Clubs Almost Famous, Pucci-licious, Wham Pow, and Twiggie and China Glaze Pool Party sandwiched between layers of OPI Don't Touch my Tutu.  I used images from the Cheeky Summer Collection plates CH36, CH37, and CH38, as well as Red Angel plate RA-109.

Because I tend to press hard with my stamper, this mani took a bit of time to complete.  I applied my first coat of Don't Touch My Tutu and then went ahead and added a layer of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top Quick Dry Topcoat.  I waited about five to ten minutes and then stamped.  Rinse and repeat three times.  I probably could've taken more time and not used my topcoat between layers, but I was working late at night and was too impatient.  Using topcoat between the layers ensured that my mani didn't smudge off or slide around while I stamped.

I was super surprised and extremely pleased to see that my Color Clubs would actually stamp so well!  I'm not the world's bet stamper, so when I find a polish that stamps well and without much effort I get super excited!  The image transfer was easy on all four polishes. The color isn't as saturated as I would've liked, but honestly, I was still super pleased with the outcome.

Pool Party was the trickiest to stamp with.  With Pool Party, you've got to move fast between the steps of scraping, picking up the image, and stamping the image onto the nail.  If you're not quick, the image won't transfer onto the nail and will just stick to your stamper.  So move quickly if you decide to use it to stamp.  I would've used Sinful 24/7, another neon pink, but I haven't had it for over a year, which means it didn't fit within the parameters of this challenge.

As I was going through this mani, I decided that I wanted to add a little bit of sparkle, so I added in a layer of China Glaze Fairy Dust, a silver holographic micro glitter topcoat.  It's underneath about three layers of DTMTT, so it's super faint, but I like how it gives the effect of sand glittering on a beach.  I almost wish I had put the layer a little closer to the top, but I'm still liking this effect.

You can purchase Color Clubs at beauty supply stores, drug stores, Ross, and Bed Bath and Beyond.  China Glazes are available at beauty supply stores and salons.  OPI are available at beauty supply stores, Salons, and some drug stores/Target.

So, have you done a pond mani before?

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