NOTD: Milani 3D Holographic Nail Polish in 3D

As you might know, I really like holographic nail polishes, so when Cherry Culture was having a 20% off sale a little while ago, I took the opportunity to order some of the Milani 3D Holographic nail polishes (okay, all 6 to be precise). The first colour I tried was this pretty yellow gold shade also named 3D, which is a bit confusing, but never mind.

This nail polish wasn't as holographic as I had hoped, it looked more like it just had silver glitter in it, although at some angles you can see some faint rainbow colours, but only in sunlight. Indoors it's really just yellow gold with silver sparkle. It's pretty, but not really holographic. The formula was very nice. It took 2 coats for full opacity and it wore okay on me, it started chipping on day 2 which is normal for me.

As I mentioned before, I bought this nail polish from Cherry Culture and it cost $3.99. You get 13.2 ml which is great. I'm looking forward to trying out the other shades as well and I will report on how I got on.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Darling Diva Polish in Dangerous Driver

I have recently discovered some indie nail polish brands, one of them is Darling Diva Polish. In this post I want to show you Dangerous Driver, a beautiful purle polish with green duochrome, red sparkles and subtle holo. I'd say it's not as blue purple in real life as it is in the pictures as my camera always turns purples into blues. This reminds me of Max Factor Fantasy Fire but with holo.

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

I layered this over 2 coats of China Glaze Gothic Lolita, and I think I used 2 coats of Dangerous Driver as well. You can use it on its own too, it's not too sheer. The consistency of this was really nice, not too runny, not thick, just right. The combination lasted on me for about 24 hours without chipping, by the end of day 2 i had some bigger chips. Not the longest lasting, but China Glaze polishes don't seem to last on me very well, so maybe it was China Glaze's fault. I'm not sure, I've never used Gothic Lolita on its own.

I bought my Dangerous Driver from the Darling Diva Polish shop on Etsy, it cost $12 for 15 ml. They ship internationally for quite a reasonable price, $7 per bottle, but for 4 bottles only $10. I have bought another 3 polishes from Darling Diva that yet I need to try and there are a few bottles in the shop I quite fancy, but can't justify right now due to my excessive nail polish stash.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: GOSH Holographic Hero Nail Polish - For One Night Only?

If you follow me on Twitter, you will have seen my tweets about Gosh's coveted Holographic Hero nail polish that has been re-released recently. It has been branded as a "one night only" polish due to problems with it chipping quickly, so I thought I'd give it a go myself and see how much of that is true.

Taken without flash in direct sunlight

I was actually very pleasantly surprised by how well it lasted. The picture above was taken about 36 hours after I painted my nails. You can see a small crach on my middle finger nail, that's due to that bit of nail peeling badly (and subsequently breaking off sadly), but other than that there are were only a couple of small chips on my index finger nails after 2 days or so. I kept it on another day and by the end of day 3 it did look pretty bad, but no worse than any other nail polish (with a very few exceptions) would look on me. It certainly wasn't a one nighter for me.

The formula is very nice, thin enough to apply evenly and dry quickly. With holographic nail polish I always apply base coat, 2 coats of holo polish, then a top coat and another coat of holo polish on top which helps make it longer lasting and also this way the top coat doesn't dull the holographic effect. The holo effect on this is gorgeous, it's proper linear holo, although the Glitter Gal holographic polishes have a stronger linear effect. I think this one is up with the Layla holographic polishes I've tried, but is cheaper than both the Glitter Gal and Layla polishes. There wasn't any sunshine on the day I took most of the pictures, so I included some taken under strong indoor light and with flash too.

The GOSH Holographic Hero nial polish is available for £4.99 (for 8 ml) if you can find it. Although it's now permanent, it has taken me a couple of weeks to find it as most Superdrugs were out of stock. Hopefully once the hype dies down, it will be more readily available. If you like holographic polishes, this one is definitely a nice to have.

If you have it, let me know in the comments how you like it. 

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: A-England Princess Tears

I picked up some A-England holographic nail polishes back in April and finally I've got around to wearing one of them. I have Princess Tears, a grey-purple with subtle holo to show you.

Taken with flash

It took 3 coats to achieve the colour seen in the pictures. The formula was nice and easy to apply. I always do the last coat on top of the top coat (Seche Vite) to seal it better and also not to dull the holo effect. Despite this sadly it chipped on me within 24 hours. Also the holographic effect wasn't that vivid, not even in direct sunlight.

It's a nice enough polish and I know a lot of people rave about A-England polishes. This one isn't the best holo I've tried, although it does give a nice subtle effect and the colour is pretty. If you want proper holographic polishes, try the Glitter Gal ones instead. However, if you want something with a subtle effect, you might enjoy A-England polishes more.

They cost £9 each and you get 13 ml. Available to order from the A-England website.

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Glitter Gal Copper 3D/Holo Nail Polish - The Best Holo Nail Polish I've Tried!

Holographic nail polishies are notorious for chipping quickly, I've heard that a certain one (the hard to find Gosh one to be exact) chips within hours. I don't own the Gosh one, but I do own quite a few different ones  since I've been trying to find the best holo polish for a while now. The good news is, I think I've found it.

Taken with flash indoors

Glitter Gail Copper 3D/Holo nail polish remained chip free on me for a full 24 hours and after 48 hours I still only had a very few minor chips. Now that is impressive, especially seeing that almost every nail polish chips on me within that time anyway. I ended up taking it off after about 60 hours because I was getting ready to go out, but quite frankly I would've been pretty happy to continue wearing it at home for another day or two. 

The formula was lovely too, not too thick, not too runny, and it dried pretty quickly. I did my usual trick of base coat, two coats of holo, top coat and another coat of holo and it worked really well. The holo effect is gorgeous, quite subtle indoors (see picture above), but in the sunshine you have the full rainbow (see pictures below). Really lovely. Glitter Gal polishes are also the Big 3 free ( Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Formaldehyde and Toluene).

I bought mine from Sjmwell Nails & Beauty and they cost £8.75 each. You get 9 ml per bottle, so they are rather small, but not too tiny. Postage and packaging is quite reasonable and I received mine very quickly.

Do you like holographic nail polishes? Have you got any favourites? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

This Month I...

Rather than just doing a post about products I've finished this month, I've decided to do more of a summary of the last month and all beauty related happenings. So here we go.

Last month I...

• finished 3 products. It's been a slow month, what can I say? At least it's more than nothing, eh? One of the products finished was Maybelline Lash Stiletto mascara which I really enjoyed using and would definitely consider repurchasing if I didn't already own 20+ mascaras. It also lasted for ages, I don't even remember when I first started using it, it didn't go bad or dry out, just simply ran out eventually. 
• have overspent by about £250 again. I think I should just up my budget, because it's clearly too low. Or maybe buy less make up and spend less money. (Crazy talk, I know.)
• have bought another lorry load of nail polishes. I know I'm crazy, I have been buying nail polish all the time, but there are so many pretty colours! I have also discovered a couple of brands (namely Glitter Gal and A-England) I'd not heard about before and they both happened to be holographic nail polishes which is my weakness. 

Here are some pictures of the pretty polishes I bought in April (some reviews will follow eventually, let me know in the comments which ones you're interested in the most). First up, A-England holo polishes:

Princess Tears, Lady Of The Lake, Ascalon, Tristram, Princess Sabra

See lots more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Layla Hologram Effect Nail Polish in Ultra Violet

Here's the second Layla Hologram Effect Nail Polish I got from Simply Occasions. If you missed out on Mermaid Spell, you can check it out here.Ultra Violet is a beautiful violet shade (doh!) with gorgeous holographic shimmer. This is slightly more holo than Mermaid Spell, you can properly see the rainbows there.

With flash

Once again, I used 3 coats, 2 below and one above the Seche Vite topcoat to make the polish longer lasting and more vibrant. Unfortunately it's not long lasting at all, chipped on me very quickly. You can already see some chipping in the photos and they were taken the day after I painted my nails. Sadly this seems to be one of the characteristics of holographic nail polishes.

This cost £11.25 and can be ordered from Simply Occasions. You get free shipping if you order over £21, otherwise it's a very reasonable £2.50. Each polish is 10 ml which makes them rather expensive, but it is hard to find holo polishes this pretty, so that's my excuse anyway!

See more pictures after the jump!

NOTD: Layla Hologram Effect Nail Polish Mermaid Spell

As I said before, I'm always on the hunt for good holographic nail polishes, so when I saw Charlotte blog about these polishes, I knew I had to pick some up myself. I ordered 4 of them including a beautiful purple that I'll be showing you later, but for now here's another one: Mermaid Spell.

The picture above was taken in indirect sunlight, so the holographic effect isn't that strong, but even so, it is way more noticable than the Color Club polish I showed you the other day. It really comes to life in direct sunlight or under a strong indoor light, which you will see towards the end of this post. The colour is a really pretty light blue/turquoise. The consistency itself was fine, I think I did 3 coats, two below and one over the Seche Vite topcoat (to prolong wear and make sure the topcoat doesn't dull the holo effect). It chipped on me fairly quickly (day 2), but it's so pretty, I can forgive it.

I bought mine from Simply Occasions and they cost £11.25 each (so not cheap), and you get 10 ml for your money. Postage is free on orders over £21 (so that's two bottles of this). Well worth checking out if you like holographic polishes.

See more pictures aftre the jump!

NOTD: Color Club Worth The Risque

This was one of the nail polishes I showed you in my recent haul post and I had a request to review some of the Color Club polishes, so I chose this. Truth is, I've been on the hunt for a good holographic nail polish for a while now and as the GOSH holographic polish is selling for crazy money on eBay, I thought I'd try some alternatives instead.

This polish is definitely not as holographic as I had hoped, compared to the GOSH one it really is disappointing. I took the pictures in hazy sunlight and you can just about see the rainbow. It is more visible under strong indoor light, but even that isn't too noticable. My nails just look silver rather than holo-rainbow, sadly. On the upside, the formula is really nice, not too thick, not too runny, fast drying and I'm into day 2 now with very minimal chipping. The coverage is absolutely fantastic, what you see in the pitures is 2 coats, but really, you can get away with one. The reason I did two coats is because I apply an extra coat on top of the Seche Vite top coat to make it longer lasting and also because top coats can dull the holo effect.

All in all, a nice subtle holo polish with a great formula. I got mine from eBay and it cost $3.25 with reasonable shipping cost.

Have you tried any holographic nail polishes? Have you got a favourite? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

My Recent Haul Pictures

I'm still playing catch up when it comes to writing blog posts, so I thought I'd do a quick one about my recent make up (and mostly nail polish!) purchases. I don't think I will get around to reviewing many of these anytime soon (I have one review coming), but if you are really interested in something, let me know in the comments. So without further ado, here are the pictures:

My Cherry Culture order

First up lots of lovely Milani stuff. I bought these from Cherry Culture when they recently had a 20% sale. Shipping was quite expensive, but I was very pleased that I didn't have to also pay customs duty and the horrendous £8 Royal Mail fee on top of it all, so the above came to a total of £60 which isn't too bad actually.

See what other products I bought after the jump!

NOTD: Inglot 207 Nail Polish

I bought this gorgeous gold holographic glitter nail polish back in October when I first visited the Inglot store in London. It's taken me this long to wear it and show you how pretty it is. I love glitter and holographic nail polishes and so I was very happy to find a nice gold one that I didn't have before. It's not fully holographic, but you can definitely see every colour of the rainbow in there and at certain angles you can actually see the rainbow. I took many pictures to try and capture its true beauty, but the pictures don't really do it justice, it is even prettier in real life.

The pictures show 3 coats and even that doesn't give full coverage, but I got bored with painting my nails. The formula is nice, not too thick, not too runny and dries quite quickly. The glitter is very fine, so the end result is nice and smooth (I did use a topcoat though, I always do). Wear time was average (2 days without major chipping) and I would be happy to recommend this if you're after a nice gold holographic glitter polish. Available from Inglot, it costs £8 per 8 ml.

See more pictures after the jump!

Festive Nails: China Glaze Luna

Okay, so I know, Christmas is over, but there's still New Year's Eve, and in any case, you don't even need an excuse to wear a gorgeous glittery nail polish. China Glaze Luna is a beautiful icy blue nail polish with lots of shimmer and holographic glitter that shimmers in every colour of the rainbow depending on how the light hits it. Absolutely stunning.

With flash

My only problem with glitter nail polishes like this is that they chip and peel off very quickly. I like painting my nails the night before a party or meal out, and often with glitter polishes I have chips within a matter of hours. I actually had to stick back one nail back as it completely peeled off (just the nail polish, not the nail obviously). Of course there's always the pain of removal of course, but I'm starting to get used to it now. I also found this to be a bit thick, so drying time was a bit long, but just look at it, still very much worth it!

I got mine from the US on eBay, but in the UK you can get them from Sally Express for £6.49 each. You get 14 ml which will certainly last you a good while.

See more pictures after the jump!