OPI gradient with glitter on top

OPI gradient with glitter on top

I hadn’t quite had enough of Cute Little Vixen that I wore yesterday, so I decided to make a glitter gradient with it today. (Check it out with holo on top here).

But let me start out with showing you what my mani ended up looking like:

Do you like it? I’m not totally convinced myself.

I made a gradient with two OPIs first: Cute Little Vixen and Where Did Suzi’s Mango? That ended up looking pretty messy. I think it’s because the orange is a crème and the red is a shimmer – it didn’t quite work.

But glitter fixes many manis! So I added a layer of Pretty & Polished “Pumped up Pumpkin”, which is a clear base with orange and red glitters in it. I got it as a gift from my dear friend M from Lauriestrode’s Fun with Nails. She’s a doll! ♥

The glitter helped a lot – and it’s on purpose that I don’t show you the mani without the glitter! :D

Here are the three polishes I used for this mani:

Tell me honestly please: Do you like it?

Pretty & Polished ~ Blurred Visible Nail Line

Pretty & Polished ~ Blurred Visible Nail Line

Pink scattered holo

Welcome to the 6^th of December!

Blurred Visible Nails Lines is a very pretty pink with a scattered holographic effect. It was inspired by the hot single by Robin Thicke called Blurred Lines.

I usually don’t like visible nail lines, and I can assure you that I didn’t experience it with this polish at all. It was in fact very well covering – the nail line was almost invisible-ized after the first coat. The second coat took care of the last bit of nail line. I used my regular base coat, and the polish glided on smoothly and effortlessly – no sign of dragging or bald spots at all. The drying time is really good too.

Let me show you how pretty this polish is – here’s two coats, no topcoat:

Here’s a picture from a slightly different angle. See what a pretty chameleon this is?

I can’t wear many pinks, but this actually leans magenta, and in all modesty: I think it looks great on me!

Flashing the rainbows:

Let me show you what this polish looks like without the flash. It’s obviously more muted, even though some of the rainbows actually also show up in low light.

Still pretty, no?

  

I decided to keep it simple, so I just dotted two purple dots on each nail with Nabi Hologram’s “Deep Purple”. Here’s my final mani:

Oh yes, I love the new addition to my stash. A girl can never have too many holos!

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Buy again: Yes

Pretty & Polished ~ You make me feel Gourdgeous

Pretty & Polished ~ You make me feel Gourdgeous

Purple jelly packed with purple, blue, silver and fuchsia glitter

It isn’t a secret that I love glitter. The more the better! I like glitters that work on their own the best, so I was curious to see if “You make me feel Gourdgeous” could live up to my expectations. I don’t understand what I can only assume is a bit of superior and witty wordplay with the name, but – there you go.

I dapped a bit of the polish onto a corner of a nail wheel to check opacity, and it definitely looked as if it could work on its own. I did apply a layer of Essence “Black is Back” – a plain black crème on my ring finger, in order to make an accent nail with a glitter gradient.

The formula is a bit on the thick side because the polish literally is packed with glitter. It was still easy to work with – I didn’t experience any problems with it at all. And girls! It was almost opaque after the first coat – I almost didn’t believe my own eyes. Drying time was really good, so I applied a second coat of polish to make it both pretty & polished (pun intended, haha!!). And while that dried, I sponged a bit of glitter on the tip of my ring finger. The glitter is almost too dense to work like that though; what a luxury problem! I did it though. The glitter doesn’t dry up flat (how could it possibly, with that amount!), so I applied a layer of Gelous, which works as a glitter tamer, and then a layer of Poshé topcoat to smooth everything out.

Enough talk! Here’s what two coats, Gelous and Poshé topcoat looks like:

I repeat: There’s only basecoat under the glitter! No coloured underwear need be worn to make this baby work!

It’s so dense and pretty; like purple and blue disco balls on my nails.

The Gelous and the topcoat did smoothen everything out nicely. You can easily leave out the Gelous if you don’t mind a bit of grittiness.

Here’s a close up of the accent nail. I tried to make it less dense, but the glitter demanded to get out of the bottle!

I’m going to show you just a couple of more shots. I know I really love this!

I also like the colour combination! Blue, fuchsia and purple really works in my world.

Verdict:

I think you’ve already guessed it: I love this glitter! It is so nice to get a glitter polish in these colours, that works on its own! I’ve got more than enough layering glitters, so this is a really cool addition to my stash!

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 10/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 9.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Pretty & Polished ~ Tomboyish

Pretty & Polished ~ Tomboyish

Thermal polish that shifts between dark teal and sky blue

Polishes that have the ability to do something fascinate me. Thermal polishes change colour when the temperature shifts, and that looks just like magic. Allow me to demonstrate with Pretty & Polished “Tomboyish”.

The polish is teal in the bottle, but it shifted to sky blue when I applied it onto my nails. The formula is good, and I applied three thin coats to make this look the prettiest. If you use thicker coats, you might be able to get away with two coats. I didn’t mind the three coats because the drying time was pretty good. Topcoat doesn’t affect the polish’s ability to shift colour, so I applied a layer of topcoat before I took the pictures.

Dear ladies, this is what three thin coats and a layer of topcoat looks like:

Note the difference between the colour in the bottle and on my nails. Also imagine this over really long nails – it’ll look like an amazing gradient!

I went into the bathroom to see this polish do its magic. I filled the sink with cold water and dipped my tips into it. And behold – the magic happened:

Here you can really tell the difference between warm and cold:

I played with running water to see if I could create some sort of pattern, and I could! Splatters! :D

I like reviewing polishes like this – the hardest thing was to actually stop taking pictures!

Here’s what the polish looks like when it’s fully teal:

And the last picture shows half teal – half sky blue. Isn’t this just amazing?

Verdict:

I spend quite a while with my fingers in cold and warm water, so this is a pretty cool “toy”! Imagine wearing it at a party, and wrapping your fingers around a cold glass of something and then your nail polish changes colour! I like that idea!!

I’ve heard that colour changing polishes are also known to be a little thick because of the large amount of pigments used. I didn’t experience that with this polish at all – in fact, I’d like to go on record as saying the consistency was just perfect.

Opacity: 7/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 9/10
Overall: 8/10
Buy again: Yes

Pretty & Polished ~ Sand Art

Pretty & Polished ~ Sand Art  

Clear base packed with matte blue, green, pink and purple glitter

I have had this Pretty & Polished glitter in my stash for a while, trying to figure out some clever mani to use it for. I decided to go for something familiar: A glitter gradient.

The underwear for this gradient is Sally Hansen “Calypso Blue”, a pretty, shimmery turquoise, which is opaque in two easy coats. Drying time is average on this one. Here’s first a picture taken in my light box: Two coats, no top coat:

The light is flat, and even though it’s obvious that the polish has a really nice shine, it doesn’t at all show what potential this baby has got. Let me show you what it looks like in the sunshine instead: 

See that polish come to life? I love it!

I wish I had been more creative with my Sand Art, but my mind went blank. I sponged the glitter onto the tips of three fingers, and reversed it on the last two fingers.

The glitter dries up really gritty. I applied two layers of Catrice Quick Dry & High Shine topcoat, but that didn’t make any difference when it comes to grittiness. Fortunately I don’t mind so much about that.

Picture taken in the light box:

Picture taken in the sun:

If you look at the thumb, you can really see the depth of the shimmer.

Here are the two polishes in crime:

I’m pleased with this, even though it’s not my most creative mani. But they can’t all be equally creative, can they? I need to make up a challenge soon, to get my creativity running again!

Tell me what you would have done with this polish, please! :)

Opacity: -/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 6/10
Overall: 6/10
Buy again: No