China Glaze Prismatic - Liquid Crystal - pimped

I bought the set of China Glaze Prismatic polishes quite a while back and I finally got around to trying one out.  I'd read on other blogs that these are so much better in real life than they are in photos, and I do agree.  

Most of these have a subtle colour shift, but some of them do not.  The one I chose to wear does have a good colour shift.  This is Liquid Crystal and it shifts from blue to purple.  In fact the colour shift is the exact same one that Ozotic 506 has.  Soooo, what I decided to do was pimp up that colour shift a little bit.

Here is two layers of Liquid Crystal topped with one layer of Ozotic 506 and then top coat.  I love that adding Ozotic 506 on top emphasized the colour shift in this polish, but it's still so sheer that you can see all the pretty glitter particles beneath.  I'm totally going to try this soon with some of the other CG prismatic colours (maybe the silver one that doesn't shift much I could try the green Ozotic 503 over?  hmmmmmm).

Very soon after taking this polish off, I chipped the corner off my nail on my ring finger, and subsequently nubbinised. Note to self - never buff nails again to remove yellow stains.  Sure it works, but my nails are so flimsy at the tips right now its breakage city.  Next time, stick with the yellow and just cover it up.

Colour Club Holiday Splendor

When I first got the Color Club Beyond the Mistletoe collection, this is the first one I put on.  Holiday Splendor.  It's the only one in the collection that has a tinted base together with the holographic glitter.

This is such a beautiful polish.  Seriously.  It is beautiful.  You are guaranteed to get comments on your nails when you wear this polish.  

This was two coats, over Nail Tek II foundation, then four layers of top coat. Color Club top coat that came with the set, Ulta3 non-chip, Gelous and Seche Vite.  Once it had totally dried, it was still a bit textured and not 100% smooth.  I think some of the other swatches I've seen of this must be taken when the top coat is still wet, to get that amazing glossy finish.  Just be warned, these are gritty. Just like the Nubar Sparkles.

It's hard to capture the holographic goodness of the glitter in photos. In the shade you don't see the multi-coloured sparkle, but then in the sun my camera spazzes out and doesn't show any sparkle either.

Here it is in the sun.

Holiday Splendor is very similar to China Glaze Atlantis.  The only real difference is that the jelly base in Atlantis is slightly darker.

The other thing I only noticed today is that Blogger has updated the comments section and it now allows individual replies to each comment.  Have I been under a rock and not noticed this for weeks, or is it just really new?  Either way, YAY, I've always wanted to reply to individual comments and had considered going to another comment plugin.  So expect to receive replies for as long as I can keep up with them.

China Glaze Atlantis

Today another polish I recently got because of reading someone elses blog.  This time is was Kristy from The Polish Haven's fault for making me get the most magnificent China Glaze Atlantis, with this post back in October!

China Glaze Atlantis is a teal green jelly packed full with holographic glitter. These pictures are two coats of Atlantis, two coats of gelous and one coat Seche Vite.  This is a thirsty glitter that will stay gritty if you don't layer on the top coat on.  Of course you don't have to have lots of top coat if your ok with the whole sandpaper feel, but for me it's not just about the smoothness. Having a glossy top also makes the holo glitter shine much more.

I have to apologise for these photos of Atlantis.  I usually take my photos in full sun, but all my sun shots of this were crappy.  So these photos are taken under incandescent light indoors at night.  My camera has a white balance setting, but even with it set to max for incandescent lighting my fingers look a strange yellow colour like I'm suffering jaundice.

And to make things worse, my best photos were ones that showed my fingers in a totally weird and cacky manner.  What's going on here with my middle finger, it's poking forward and looks ginormous - please don't focus on my ginormous nail (it's really not sticking up at you), just focus on the pretties.

You ladies with your pretty photos on your fancy blogs are killing my wallet.  My head says no more, by my heart smiles at the pretties!

China Glaze Cat's Eye

Today's awesome nail colour is China Glaze Cat's Eye.

With a name like that, there was no way ever, that I was not going to own this polish.  It's a discontinued polish, but I wouldn't say that it is hard to find.  I got mine off ebay recently, for far less that retail price in Australia.

It is a beautiful green toned gold., which is a little sheer.  It needed three coats for full opacity.  It also has a slight tendency to streak, but I was generally able to keep those streaks straight.  Although my index finger is a little wobbly.

What I absolutely love about this polish is that when you look at it closely you can see a orange and green shimmer.  The speckled shimmer almost seems to float on top of the gold base colour.  You can see the green and orange clearly in my index finger below.

Here is a macro where you can see the sparkling dots of green and orange.

We have several kitties, but certainly our little Nahla has eyes just like this polish.

And yes, I have managed to add another gold polish to my expanding collection, which must be made up of at least 25% gold polishes!

Silver Holo Comparisions & Ozotic 509

With my most recent Ozotics purchased from piCture pOlish I finally got 509.  I had missed the Artform version and I was waiting for Essential Beauty to restock so I could get Chemistry 509. It was the only gap I had in my Ozotic/Artfom/Chemistry holographic collection!

509 is the Silver holo. Very sheer, but buildable.  This was three coats, no base, Seche Vite top coat.  These fine particle linear Ozotic holos are just so easy to apply, smooth, no dragging or bald patches, and you can happily apply a fast drying top coat and it wont dull the effect.

What else can make a holo better?  SUNSHINE.  For what is usually our coldest month, we have just experienced three of the most magnificent sunny day's with temps above 20 degrees.  I was actually hot outside yesterday! 

I thought I would take a indoor, no artificial light picture, to show the silvery white appearance of this polish.  But as soon as any light is on around this, it rainbows up.

Ok, now a silver holo comparison to end all comparisons.  I have to say, that on my little sticks, these don't look as holoy as they do on the nail.  I know some of them look great, but others look rather crapola, but for example, take a look at the fourth from the left, that is the same polish as above. So that just shows that the sticks only give an indication of colour and holoiness.  

I lined these up from left to right with small particle holos on the left and large particle or scattered holos on the right.

Now just to list these out for the search engines, from left to right:

Gosh Holographic, Nfu Oh 61, China Glaze OMG, Ozotic 509, Ozotic 514,Vintage Ozotic 509, Color Club Worth the Risque, China Glaze Sexagon, China Glaze Visit me in Prism, Milani HD and Stuf. glo glo.

Same line up, with no sun.  It was only when the sun went behind the cloud that I realised I had included two ring-ins which don't strictly belong with the silver holos.  Those two being Ozotic/Artform/Chemistry 514 (5th from left) which is actually a platinum gold, and China Glaze Visit me in Prism (4th from right) which has a mauve base.

Now some up close shots.

If anyone wants to see some comparisons on the nail, let me know.

Do you think I have enough silver holos?  It's obscene that one person should have this many, I know, but their mine I tell you. Mine. Mwahhaa haa haa haa.

China Glaze Kaleidoscope Collection

I only have six of the eleven polishes, and I think I will gradually have to get them all.  These polishes are really awesome.  My favourite collection in my whole stash. I really, really love them. Really!

'It's My Turn' is a gold holographic.  I love gold polish and this is no exception. I think this was three coats.

'He's going in circles' is a light pastel green holo.  And I just had to bling it up more by adding green stars.  The stars just didn't really stay on, they kept catching on everything.  I don't know how people manage to do anything when they wear all sorts of embellishments on their nails.  This was three coats and it was very sheer. 

'Visit me in prism' is almost a silver holo, but it has a slight pinky mauve tone to it.  It's beautiful.  Again three coats.

'Sexagon' is a pure silver holo.  It was a little cloudy for this picture, so you can't see the holo effect as much as you can in the other pics, but believe me, it's just as holo.

'Spin me round' is a tan coloured holo.  Really beautiful again.  I'd say it's a work appropriate holo, but then again I wear just about anything to work!

Finally, my favourite of them all, 'Lets do it in 3D'.  This is amazing polish.  It just yells WOW at you.  It's a charcoal base holo with so much holo speckles that it's, well, just amazing.

All these polishes are super fast to dry, which is good, because they all needed at least three coats.  The holo particles in these are much chunkier than the ones in the OMG collection, but they still apply absolutely smooth on the nail.  They also lasted a bit better on my nails than the OMG ones, but still not very long.  But when the polish is this spectacular, it just doesn't matter.