Gold foil - part fail

First up - Sheri,  are you out there?  You won second prize in my giveaway and you haven't contacted me.  You also didn't leave an email address.  I'll wait one more day then redraw!!

I did another set of foils the other day.  I was sooo happy with my initial application, they looked awesome.  Thanks for the tips readers after my last attempt!!  This time, I used my hair dryer to ensure the glue was totally dry before applying the foils.  This worked perfectly and the foils transferred and lifted off with pretty much zero gaps.  Cool.

But then I did the top coat.  I knew not to use a quick dry top, so I put my seche vite away and grabbed another one.  As I applied it I could see it changing the foil immediately.  I did four fingers on my left hand with this top coat, and then stopped.  All the holo effect was disappearing!  I changed top coats for the left thumb and the whole right hand and it made a very clear difference.

Here is the right hand.  This shows a good smooth finish and you can see some of the holo effect.

Here is the right hand on another angle, see the nice smooth holo finish.

And here is my FAIL left hand.  See how the gold foil lost all its holo effect.

And another.  Although the nail had a high sheen from the top coat, the foil actually looked matte.

So I learnt my lesson about which top coat to use. 

I think it's just trial and error to find a brand that works well for you.

Artform 3D Gold holographic 514

Artform 3D polish in Gold is another beautiful polish in this fabulous collection of holographic polishes.  This one required three coats to be totally opaque, but it was worth the effort.

When this first arrived in the post I was a bit disappointed, because in the bottle this just looked like another silver holo.  I couldn't really see the gold.  But after applying it, I realised what a fantastic cool toned platinum gold this is.  Here is an indoor pic, where you can see that it is definitely gold rather than silver.

I had hoped to swatch some comparison swatches with other gold holos, but with winter descending on us in the southern hemisphere awfully quickly, I just don't get enough daylight to swatch before or after work.  Thus, my swatching has to wait until the weekend.  I wonder what people would think if I took polishes to work and swatched at lunch?

Artform 3D Purple Holo 513

Another Artform 3D polish today.  This one is called Mauve - but I would much rather call it purple.  It's a very red purple with a spectacular scattered holo finish.  The pigment is this polish is good and it's more of a jelly polish with holo. This was two coats.  It dries to a very high gloss finish, but it does take a while to dry.

Here is an indoor comparison picture of 3D mauve against China Glaze LOL.  You can clearly see the red purple tones compared to LOL.

Here is the comparison in the sun.

Finally, an up close pic of Artform 3D on the left and China Glaze LOL on the right.

I'm a big fan of purple polishes and I really like this cause it's very different to LOL, both in colour and in the way the holo effect works. I have four of the ten Artform 3D polishes, I think I will have to get some more as the formula and the finish is truly lovely.

Artform 3D polish - Red 518

Time so share my secret Artform 3D polishes.  I got four of these polishes last week and I am very happy with them.  I got Red, Mauve (actually purple), Dark Blue (more like aqua blue) and Gold (I'd call it platnium).

This one is the Red 3D polish.  These dry to a high gloss finish with a beautiful strong scattered holographic effect.  The holo effect on this is similar to the China Glaze Kaliedescope collection. Sorry about the tip wear in this photo, it was taken at the end of day two. This was two coats.

Here is a close up of the holo effect on this polish.

The only down side was that they take a while to dry.  Even with Seche Vite I found I had to wait to ensure I didn't get bumps and dents.   This is unusal for a holo polish, as usually they dry really fast.

So, where did it get these? I found them online from Artform Nails in Perth, WA.  They only deliver to Australia, so sorry everyone overseas, but Aussie gals, YAY!!  They have ten 3D colours and they are $10.95 for a 14.5ml bottle.  I will post about the mauve (purple) one tomorrow.  They also have a Aluminium Foil range for $3.25  bottle, a "Revolutionary Range" - which are all true duo chrome polishes for $10.95.  I haven't tried any of them yet though.

Nfu Oh 65 + Blue holo comparison

Keeping in line with my other posts this week. Here is Nfu Oh #65 - aka the Blue holo.

Very pretty blue/aqua coloured holo.  Fantastic linear holo finish.  Application, finish, wear etc same as the other Nfu Oh holo polishes.  This was three coats.

Here it is indoors.

And of course - a comparison with my other blue holos. Taken indoors, from left to right:

Nfu Oh #65, China Glaze 2Nite, Artform 3D Dark Blue, OPI DS Glamour.

Here is the same holo comparison in the sunlight. From left to right:

Nfu Oh #65, China Glaze 2Nite, Artform 3D Dark Blue, OPI DS Glamour. 
The Artform 3D polish I only got last week.  In fact I got four new artform holos, and I think they are very cool.  I will post about them separately soon.

Here is a close up of Nfu Oh #65 and 2NITE.  Both linear particle holographic but #65 is more aqua and 2NITE is more cornflour blue.

Close ups of Artform 3D Dark Blue and OPI Glamour.  In the sun, the Artform 3D Dark Blue polish is a similar colour to #65 but has more scattered holo finish.

I haven't worn the new Artform 3D Dark Blue polish as a mani, so I can't comment on its wear yet, but the wear on #65 and 2NITE isn't great, they flake and chip very quickly.  OPI Glamour lasts a bit longer.

I have the green holos ready to go, but I'm just waiting to receive Nubar Reclaim in the mail to do the comparison swatch.  Hopefully it will arrive this week.

Nfu Oh 63 + Pink holo comparison

I have deja vous, isn't this the polish I showed yesterday.  Well no, this is Nfu Oh #63, which to me is very very similar to #64.  I classify this as a pinky mauve holo, and #64 as a mauvey pink holo.  Same deal as the other Nfu Oh holo polish, check out my previous post. This is three coats.

Here is this polish indoors.  When you compare #63 and #64 indoors, that's where you can see the slight colour difference, with #63 being slightly lighter.

I also did a comparison swatch of my pink holos.  First pic is indoors. From left to right:

Nfu Oh #63, China Glaze Visit me in Prisim, China Glaze TTYL, China Glaze BFF.

And the same in sunlight.

Visit me in Prisim looks very silver here, but it does have a slight pink tinge.  It's a totally different holo polish compared to the Nfu Oh and China Glaze OMG polishes.  I don't own any of the other CG Kaleidoscope polishes in pink to compare with either sorry.

Nfu Oh #63 looks really purple in the sun here compared to the two china glaze holos.

Nfu Oh 64 + mauve holo comparison

I'm a little late posting today, but have another magnificent Nfu Oh holographic polish to share to make up for it.

This is Nfu Oh #64, which I classify as a mauve holo.  It's just like the other Nfu Oh polishes, that is:

• it dries kinda matte
• super impressive holo finish in the sun
• rather dull with indoor lighting
• very linear holo appearance (rather than scattered)
• crappy wear, chips on the first day
• difficult to apply, you get bald spots

Here is the same polish taken indoors.  As you can see on the index and ring finger, there are still two small bald spots at the back of the nail.  And this was after three coats.  This polish is very similar to #63, which I will show you tomorrow.  It really looks pink, rather than mauve indoors.

Here is a mauve holo comparison swatch. From left to right:

Nfu Oh #64, OPI DS Original, China Glaze IDK, China Glaze LOL (which is actually purple not mauve, but I needed a fourth polish).

Nfu Oh has the best holo appearance and is a much pinker mauve than the others.  OPI DS Original had the best shiny finish and a scattered holo effect.  IDK leans more blue, has a good smooth linear holo finish (although it's not as pronounced as the Nfu Oh)

Do you really need all of them - absolutely!