Red + Gold glitter + accent nail

Used the following for this mani, forgot to get bottle pics:

• ELF: Cherry Bomb
• Orly: Sashay my Way

Also Konad's special white stamping polish for the accent nail. I was originally going to stamp all my nails but suddenly got lazy. I actually wasn't going to post this because I ended up being lazy on cleaning up and making the edges look nice. Some of the glitters had gotten near my cuticle and made it awkward to clean up. Oh well. ELF polishes are generally also difficult to get to smooth out properly and look nice around the edges.

Pure Ice - Temptress swatch

Squeal! Purple. My favorite. Shimmer is usually a slight pet peeve of mine but this is a glittery shimmer and I looove it. I think it's my 2nd all time favorite polish, with Studio M's Purple Medallion being the first. Maybe I should do a "My favorite polishes" post eventually... It has a lot of gold undertones in it, and it also looks just as pretty on the nails as it does in the bottle. Damn shame Pure Ice hasn't updated their polishes in my local Walmarts, this was another gift from my awesome Secret Santa.

The only downside is that I did 2 coats, and with some of the pics I took you could see through my nails some what... could have used a 3rd. But that's my bad, in general you can't see through my nails unless it's in the pics.

I cut my nails down to nubbies. So the skin on the tips looks odd, sorry.

I just figured out what OPI polish this reminds me of! OPI - It's My Year has a similar coloring, only a lighter purple/pink.

Gold holographic glitter comparison

My first post with a new lamp and much much better lighting! I'm sooo excited! :-) Note the felt background and background for the desk, too. ;) 59 cents! Totally worth it!

These are the babies I'm swatching today, along with the base color I'm using:

• CQ - Slate
• Nina Ultra Pro - Holographic top coat
• China Glaze - Golden Enchantment
• Orly - Sashay my way
• ELF - Golden goddess

I picked up the CQ from Rite Aid. I had a purple one from this brand when I was younger so I couldn't leave it. Nina Ultra Pro came from Sally's as well as the China Glaze and the Orly. ELF came from a Target holiday nail polish cube that my husband got me for Christmas. I ended up dotting on my thumb nails as well since I only had 4 polishes to swatch/compare.

I am a complete sucker for dark cream green/blues.

 Also, I was playing with the lighting.

Here we have just Slate:

With flash.

What I ended up doing over all: Playing with dots on my thumb. I'll have
a photo labeled with the polishes also.

You can click to enlarge it, I think.

1. Nina Ultra Pro - Holo top coat

2. China Glaze - Golden Enchantment

3. ELF - Golden Goddess

4. Orly - Sashay My Way

I'm going to go ahead and review all of them and then post the last few swatch photos I have of this bunch. :)

Nina Ultra Pro - Holographic Top Coat

This is by far my absolute favorite! I was totally surprised by this one. I figured China Glaze would be my favorite, as per usual, but I was wrong. The only thing I did not like was the brush was HUGE. Short and fat. Two quick strokes and you have a nice coat going, but some people don't like the fat brushes. It was ok. The glitter wasn't heavily dripping everywhere off of it, so no real complaints about it.

The actual glitter appears to be much more holographic and much more heavy upon application. I had read poor reviews on the Nina polishes on the Sally's website, but promptly ignored it when I seen they had a holo. It's gorgeous, and I'll probably buy another bottle at some point. 

China Glaze Golden Enchantment

Ahh. Good ole China Glaze. They have a silver one called Fairy Dust, I like to say this is Fairy Dusts sister. :) Pretty fine glitter, only less holo than the first and just minorly less heavy upon application. Doesn't seem to have much green/blue to it compared to Nina. Went on great, a China Glaze favorite.

ELF - Golden Goddess

Ehh. Don't love it, don't hate it. Has a weird stench to it, it's my first ELF polish being used. Came in the 14 pack holiday cube. Almost non holographic entirely, the only ones with any color are the some what large circle glitters. (The ones that stick out more than the fine glitter.) Would take several layers to remotely get any on your nail, as you can see from mine, very few got on it. It's a uber cute little novelty bottle though and still a fun shade.

Orly - Sashay My Way

This was one of my lemmings for a very long time, finally got it. The most holographic and vibrant out of the bunch, really. Along with the ~large~ golden holo circle glitters it has gold bar glitter in it as well which is pretty cool. This is my 3rd or so time wearing it, also a pain to get off. (More so than your typical glitter.)

With flash.

Finger Paint's Santa's Magic on black with gold striping tape

I had originally ordered Santa's Magic from the new holiday collection from Finger Paint's online, so I didn't have much of a realistic idea of how it was going to turn out. Holy moly, it's good stuff though!

First, it's uber holographic. Heavy holo glitter that really looks like snow. Secondly, it IS in a clear base, but it seems like the clear base kind of goes away and the actual glitter ends up adhering to the nail MUCH better than your average glitter. I was surprised I was able to do two coats of Santa's Magic under my gold striping tape line with very little goop/clear base making it unusually thick. (Which usually happens with a lot of glitters, specifically China Glaze's Whirled Away *cough*)

It's just as pretty on the nails as it is in the bottle. Don't you hate when you get a gorgeous polish and it looks like crap compared to what it does in the bottle? Huge pet peeve of mine really. If you're looking for a really gorgeous good quality glitter for the holidays, this would be it. Go get it at your local Sally's!

My guess is that this will probably be similar to the Finger Paints flakies last year and be discontinued sometime in January or at least after the holidays. I got two bottles. >_>

I really need to start getting pics of the bottle! Dang.

Dude. I have no idea why my cuticles are yellow! GAH. I tried Blue Cross cuticle remover that was the only thing I did different! GR. Sorry bout that.

Brown with Gold stripes + white hearts and Zoya's Limited Edition 18K gilty

Love this. I had no idea where I was going with it, it started off as testing my new gold polish I got from a $1.89 Walgreens sale. (Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure brand.) Thought it was too light for my taste, so I thought it was the perfect time to try my striping tape I ordered. Sooo. I added Essie's Little Brown Dress on top of it after applying the tape. In the process of doing this, I smudged the lines a little and I'm a perfectionist. Sooo. I added little white hearts using my white nail polish striper. Thank god for stripers! Heh.

The next day after I had done this mani, my pre order of Zoya's Gilty Pleasures 18K gold flake top coat came in. Perfect timing, as it goes very well with the mani I had did. Of course I had to use it, ended up putting it on my accent thumbs. :-)

Sorry bout the tip wear. I hate Essie polish, it tends to chip fast for me.
Must be a weak formula. :(

OPI - It's My Year swatch

Ehhh. I don't care for this too much on my nails. It looks gorgeous in photos though. It's still very pretty, but for some reason I just don't like looking at it in person.

Got this baby at Marshall's in a two pack for $8. :-) Along with a gold shatter I haven't used yet.

This is the longest my nails have ever been, pretty proud of myself. I may cut them soon though because I almost broke one.

Low-ish lighting in this one.

 

 

Ok so i'm not crazy! There is a weird ridge in my nail after growing
it out quite a bit. Weird, right?

Sephora by OPI - Who Let The Dorks Out + China Glaze's Golden Enchantment

Pretty simple mani. Wanted to try one of my OPI polishes I had been hoarding for months without using. The teal blue is pretty gorgeous, seems to have very slight purple-y undertones. Adding the golden holographic-ish glitter on top, this is a pretty subtle summer manicure.

I was trying to make this last a week, so about 5 days in I put Sinful Colors - Hottie on top of it as well. I'll post those pictures last.

Blurry, but it shows the holo aspect a bit better.

OOO shiny.

Indoor lighting, bt this was after I added Sinful Colors - Hottie on top. My cuticles
look a bit strange, I think I may have pushed them up a bit recently. IMO
the Sinful polish didn't really add too much to it.