Glitter Gal Citrine Swatches and Review

Glitter Gal Citrine.  Know how I like to complain about how gold and silver holos are too common and there need to be more interesting colors than that?  Yeah... this is a gold holo that makes me forget about that.  What makes Citrine so special?  Well... look at it.  It's crazy holographic.  Instead of a frosty metallic base like most holos have, it has a thick golden-yellow jelly base.  That jelly base is packed with very fine holographic particles.  It's so holographic that it's even rainbowy in low light (top picture!).  So not only is it a very strong, richly colorful linear holo, it actually has a bit of depth to it.  It's too beautiful.  It needs to come in a bigger bottle.

The formula on it isn't perfect, but it's not too bad.  It's quite thick and gel-like, so I find it better to do three very thin coats rather than two thicker coats.  It doesn't streak or make bald spots like frosty/metallic-based holos. However, it does take much longer to dry than your average holo, but quick-dry topcoat doesn't ruin the hologram effect on this. 

The only other downside to this gorgeous color is that it's pricey.  $11 for a 0.3oz (10ml) bottle.  That's just a bit larger than an OPI mini.  You can use one coat of this over a complementary opaque base color to conserve polish and it won't cheapen the holo effect at all, but that does tend to change the overall color of it. 

Glitter Gal is an Australian brand, though it can be ordered from US supplier Llarowe. 

(This was sent for review.)

Glitter Gal Brilliant Shade Shifters Duochrome Collection Swatches and Review

Glitter Gal Australia recently released a collection of polishes that's basically a duochrome lover's dream come true: an entire line of duochromes that range from sheer to opaque for layering and wearing solo. There's duochromes, transitions and shade shifters, and today I have the Brilliant Shade Shifters to review. The Brilliant shades are:

Fiery Furnace - Last Light - Red Night Sky - Wild Violets

Glitter Gal Fiery Furnace Brilliant. All of the Brilliant shade shifters have a glittery glass fleck finish with several colors of iridescent particles. Fiery Furnace is an intense mixture of coral, pink, red, orange and gold/yellow. It flashes from a cool-toned pink coral to a warm red and orange multichrome with only slight changes in angle and lighting.


Glitter Gal Last Light Brilliant. This one reminds me of MAC Club eyeshadow in nail polish form. It's a red-toned brown tinted base with heavy silvery blue and green duochrome glass fleck and a red flash over everything.


Glitter Gal Red Night Sky Brilliant. Red Night Sky has a whole lot of different things in it. It's a coral red base with coral, pink, red, orange, blue, green and purple color shift. It shows me a different color every time I look at it.


Glitter Gal Wild Violets Brilliant. Wild Violets shifts from red-toned purple to blue-toned purple and also contains sparks of red, blue, pink and orange and has a pink and orange duochrome sheen on top of everything to add even more color.

The Brilliant Shade Shifters are opaque enough to wear alone, but they are also sheer enough to layer over any other color to create a variety of effects. I've layered each shade at one coat over a plain black creme to show how the color shift changes when layered (some are quite surprising!):

Glitter Gal Fiery Furnace Brilliant (one coat) over black

Glitter Gal Last Light Brilliant (one coat) over black



Glitter Gal Red Night Sky Brilliant (one coat) over black



Glitter Gal Wild Violets Brilliant (one coat) over black

The formula on all of these was good. On the thin side and very easy to control. The brushes are thin, soft, flat and square-edged so they take a little bit of getting used to, but after I got a feel for them I had no problems applying. I did four coats of each polish here. They were mostly opaque at three, but the fourth coat intensifies the sparkle and color shift just that much more, I really couldn't resist doing another. Dry time is average with three coats and only a little longer with four.

These are really amazing. I am both a duochrome and a glitter addict so to me this collection is heaven. They are really spectacular to look at and they're quite different from most duochromes (multichromes, whatever) in my collection. I personally prefer them alone rather than layered, but the effects you can create by layering them over different base colors are pretty cool. If you're looking for something new and different that just makes you go 'wow' when you see it, these might be worth a look. The only flaw I can find with them is the price ($17.95 each), but Glitter Gal imports have always been a bit on the expensive side.

These Glitter Gal Brilliant Shade Shifters came from Ninja Polish (located in the US), but can also be purchased directly from Glitter Gal (located in Australia).

(This was sent for review.)

Glitter Gal 3D Holographic Nail Polish

I'm sure you've heard of Glitter Gal by now- purveyors of mega-holo polishes in a rainbow of awesome shades? Well, if not, then keep reading to hear my two cents on these little holographic beauties.

I got to try six shades, but there are many more available here.



Copper. This is more of a dark warm pink or a warm rose than a true copper, but that's okay. It's gorgeous and insanely holo. It's even holo indoors away from sunlight!



Dark Purple. Purple holo. Compared to the others, this one looks more like a chunky scattered holo, á la China Glaze Kaleidoscope.



Frappe. Very pale light lavender pink holo. Can't say I've seen many soft baby pink holos before! It's really delicate and pretty.




Green. Honestly, this doesn't look very green. It looks like a dirty silver in most lights and a very pale seafoam in others. That doesn't bother me, just look how holographic it is... Kinda hard to be disappointed with that.



Light As A Feather. A white holo. How cool is that. White. Actually, it looks a little grey because of the silvery metallic particles, bit still has this odd creaminess to it that I've never seen in a holo before. Totally unique and I think it may just be my favorite.



Lizard Belly. How long have we all been waiting for a good dark green holo? Here it is. Finally. A dark green holo. My pictures don't do it any justice, but it is fantastic. It's a blue-toned green, black, and the holo particles really stand out against the dark base.



Red. Not much to say about this one, either. It's red... it's holo... it's pretty freakin' hot.


The formula on these is perfect. It's much better than the formula on a lot of the old holos; this formula is a little thicker, much more opaque and isn't patchy or streaky. I didn't get the bald spot issue that I have with the China Glaze OMG or Nfu Oh holos. Two coats is adequate for most of these. Lightning fast dry time. All around great formula and application.

One thing to note: These are smaller than the average polish bottle. The Glitter Gal holos are 9ml/0.33 fluid ounces. Apparently the hologram material used to make these is extremely expensive, so they keep the bottles small to keep the cost down. That said, these are also more expensive at $14 a bottle.

These polishes are totally worth the high price tag. The formula is great, the color selection is way more interesting than the usual plain gold and silver, and the holo effect in these is crazy good.

By the way, you can still enter Llarowe's drawing for a chance to win three Glitter Gal holos. This link will take you to the entry page. The winner will be drawn this weekend, so you only have a couple days left! (By the way, since I had someone ask, 'pay tribute to a fallen soldier' doesn't mean you have to literally pay anything, it just means that you may leave the name of a soldier you'd like to remember.)

(These were sent to me for review.)