Sally Hansen Insta-Dry - about $5 in most drugstores
While I was picking up Sea Breeze I finally caved and snagged Going Grape as well. The vibrant midtone purple and the blue shimmer are gorgeous, but this polish was a tad thinner than I expected it to be. Above is three coats, and while you can't see it very much in the picture, I've still got some visible-nail-line action going on. I started to wonder just what the heck was up because all of the Insta Dry polishes I'd tried to this point were beautifully pigmented. Perhaps it's just a character flaw of the beautiful shimmer and flash. The world may never know. Moving on... I really still like the polish a lot though I don't see myself pulling it out often. It's too much of a PITA to wear alone and I only layer if the effect is something fabulous and unique, not what the polish should have been on it's own anyway. I want to find an opaque version of this... And no, Rescue Beauty Lounge Scrangie isn't that polish. Below you'll see a few more pics of Going Grape; I tried to capture the violet flash so check it out. You'll also see some comp pics with RBL Scrangie.
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Claire's Calm/Wild Mood Nail Polish - $5 at Claire's
I just posted Claire's Mood Polish in Daring/Innocent, and this is the other of the two Mood polishes I talked about. Calm/Wild is purple with lots of silver shimmer when cool and a pretty Springy pink when warm. It's quite midtoned and subdued on it's own, whether it's showing pink or purple, but the ombre effect of the pink-to-purple gradation on the nails is something else altogether. If you've got shorter nails, or less free-edge, you're most likely going to see the pink alone most of the time unless you've just taken your hands out of cool water. However, if you've got a bit of free-edge to your nails, you can see it's got that neat effect just about all the time. I like this one best when both colors are showing.
Like Daring/Innocent, this one applies beautifully. It's opaque and streak-free in two coats. It applies as purple but as it begins to dry, or cure, it starts to slowly turn pink starting at the base of the nail. As you can see, the tips of my nails never turned pink. That is, until I ran them under cold water.
Click to see photos of the polish after running it under cool and then warm water
China Glaze Octa-Gone Wild is from the now discontinued (CRY!) Kaleidoscopes collection. Some of these are still available on the sites of the distributors, like transdesign, 8ty8beauty, and head2toebeauty, but I don't know which site has which right now, so don't quote me. The weird thing about these polishes is that the holographic pieces of whatever the shimmer is made of is huge and the shapes are seemingly random. I wish I had a microscope but I think I'd feel mildly ridiculous analyzing nail polish with one. Don't act like you don't want one for the same reason. Wait. It's just me? Dernit.
I loved Octa-Gone Wild because of the soft purple color to it. It's not over the top, it's just right. It's beautiful when layered as well! I remember when these first came out. Up till then the OPI Designer Series original launch were about the only holo game in town and I counted down the hours till the Kaleidoscopes arrived then proceeded to buy almost every one. It was a field day on the Makeup Alley nail board when these things arrived. If you were there, you're probably nostalgic about it. China Glaze made dreams come true.
OPI DS Royal over China Glaze Spontaneous (flash)
China Glaze Spontaneous, which you can see in more detail here, is a midtone creamy warm purple and it matches the base color of OPI DS Royal fabulously. Royal has got that jelly purple base with an almost foil-like blue shimmer with a purple flash. I have only used Royal before over black, which is a sight for sore eyes, but pulls mostly blue. I wanted to bring out it's purple without having to put on 4 coats, so I layered it over Spontaneous. I love the contrast between the creamy base and the bright blue flecks that seem to float on top, and I really like that it cools down considerably in indoor indirect light. I love this combination!
Click for a few more photos!
China Glaze LOL is getting increasingly harder to find, so if you want it, get it now where you can find it. It's a midtone true purple with a very fine holographic finish. Honestly, I find that this, as well as the other polishes from the OMG collection, apply best without a topcoat. I feel like I get a lot of lifting of polish at the cuticles while applying when I put it over any kind of base coat. If I go sans base, these apply very easily and look great. If you put one on and then top it with a top coat and feel like it has killed the holographic effect, never fear, wait a few minutes and it'll be back to normal. These also make great polishes for Konad, and (I've heard) for water marbling. Ask Nihrida, she knows more about that than I do. But I digress, I love the OMG polishes, especially this one and DV8 which is a deep teal holo. Whoo!
I used China Glaze Admire and this swirly pattern from Konad plate m64 over Zoya Savita. I liked the bold shiny chrome over the matte finish and the pink sheen of Savita was really set off nicely by the pink chrome. I really liked this combo. I also tried it with Seche Vite topcoat which darkened the final product up a bit and made it much more shimmery in both the base and design colors. Below you can see topcoat on only my pinkie and middle fingers.
Click to see the photos of this manicure with topcoat!
Zoya Savita from the 2009 Winter Matte Velvet Collection ($7 each at zoya.com) is an interesting animal. I started out with a base coat of Orly Bonder, then applied the first coat of Savita. It went on a bit streaky and matted out quickly. The neck of the bottle got a bit congested with drying polish but I pushed on. On the second coat I realized that splaying out the brush to get the best coverage per swipe was really the trick and I had a better time with coat two. I began to think that it wouldn't self level at all as I saw lumps and ridges, but again, I pressed on. After the third thin coat, I just let it be to see what would happen. It already looked pretty decent, but after letting it dry for a few minutes, it leveled out quite nicely. It's pictured here with three coats over Orly Bonder and left to dry for about 20 minutes. Overall, I really love this polish and the satiny finish it has. I also really like the pink sheen it gives off in some lights. I'm very pleased with this polish.
Index to pinkie: Orly Cashmere Cardigan, China Glaze Spontaneous, OPI Do You Lilac It?, OPI A Grape Fit
Orly Cashmere Cardigan: This one is quite a bit bluer when compared to these other shades. When worn alone I definitely consider it purple.
China Glaze Spontaneous: I'm surprised by how similar this and A Grape Fit are, but this is just a bit darker, otherwise the tone is the same.
OPI Do You Lilac It?: This has some gorgeous pink tones in it and it is basically Spontaneous/A Grape Fit but a few shades lighter.
OPI A Grape Fit: As I said above this is incredibly similar to Spontaneous, just a touch lighter. It applies just as beautifully as the China Glaze as well.
Click for a side-by-side of Spontaneous and A Grape Fit on the nail
The sun is making appearance this week after our long battle with feet of snow freezing, windy days, so I wanted to do a holographic manicure. I picked Color Club polishes in Worth The Risque (base) and Wild at Heart because they've both got some holo qualities and have a nice contrast with each other. I've been obsessed with my Konad plates recently, so of course I broke 'em out for this one. I thought this design from Konad plate m64 fit with the prismatic quality of these polishes. The design really reminds me of light cutting through a prism and shooting off in different directions.
Click for a couple more photos
Prepare for a ton of photos of this one because this Milani is amazing! AND it's a part of the permanent core line. For under $5 at CVS you can find this cool-toned jellied purple stunner that is packed with golden-undertoned pink shimmer. There is a bit of a duochrome appearance in the bottle but I can't figure out if it's the shimmer or the base that has that tendency. At first glance this polish reminded me of Sally Hansen Purple Pizzazz, but Totally Cool has a deeper and more vibrant base, and the shimmer is a bit darker and there is a heck of a lot more of it. This is around 4 coats as it does start a bit sheer, however the depth is amazing and it's worth the extra effort. It builds gorgeously without picking up the layers you've already applied.
Click for more photos!
