Review: China Glaze Holographics in a Dot Gradient

Hello!  Again, not dead, just still trying to find time for getting home after work at like 7ish, going to the gym, making dinner, doing my nails, taking the photos, editing them and writing the post all in the one night.  I used to have a good system where I'd take the photos at night and write the post at lunch at work but damn my new socialable co-workers!

Anyway, like any person who ranks how awesome something is by how rainbow and/or sparkly it is, I was pretty damn excited to see the new China Glaze Holographic polishes show up at my local beauty supply place.  I mean, you all saw how great the OMG Collection was, right?  Yeah, this isn't that great.  Not by a long shot, especially with the stunning effort Color Club is putting into their new holographic polishes which I just found at the Winners on Spadina.  Run on sentences, hooray!  I very nearly bought all twelve of the China Glazes on the spot, thinking at the time that the fluorescent lighting in the store must be the reason they weren't that holo.  Nope, not the lighting... 

So having picked up Infra Red, Galactic Grey, Sci-Fly By, Strap on Your Moonboots and Take a Trek, I wanted to find a way to incorporate them into the one manicure.  Giving I'm a little short time these days, a dot gradient fit the bill perfectly.  I started with my usual two coats of Rimmel Black Satin then, using a smaller dotting tool, I did my dot rows, starting at the cuticle and working upwards.  I don't have the greatest lighting for holos - it's set up for smooth, even light - but there aren't rainbows.  All you see is the texture you get with these polishes and the teensiest hint of rainbow and that's it.  

The Verdict:  I was so excited about these polishes and they're just so not exciting in person.  I mean, they're still interesting polishes but compared to Color Club Halo Hues 1 and 2, well, it's not even a comparison.  You'll see.  I have the new Halo Hues and if it weren't for already having done the mani, I wouldn't even know the China Glaze existed.

Checkered Fancy French Nails and Not a Rainbow in Sight!

I love glitter, blah, blah, I think you get the picture by now.  HOWEVER, you haven't seen me to do a checkered pattern with matte square glitter now have you? HUH??? Yeah, that's what I thought.  It's that kind of day.  Not even a sparkle or rainbow in sight, too!  Cos that's a good segue.

I knew I wanted to do checkers with this matte square glitter I ordered off Impulse Co on Etsy, the trick was trying to find someway of incorporating it without me having to spend a year doing it full coverage on all my nails.  The obvious choice with black squares is white but I wanted to do a bit of twist, with a slight gradient on my tips.  To do this, I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, then sponged on said white, Sally Hansen Wet Cement and Grey Area on the top third of my nails.  Once dry, I used my usual technique to apply the glitter.  I started by centering a piece right at the end of my nail, then made a diagonal row out to the sides, lining the glitter up corner to corner.  I then just filled in the gaps.   

The Verdict: I'm kinda proud of my for not only getting my square glitter to line up nicely, but that I did so without using a single rainbow or sparklie.  I'd say that I'm growing up but that's not true and I kinda wanna do this again but over a neon rainbow...mmmm sparkly rainbows.  This cool too though :D

Mixing Glitter Textures: Matte, Metallic and now HOLO Too Yesssss

I'm the type of person whereby if I come up with a good idea for nails, I'll run that idea into the ground by doing it over and over again until we're all sick of it.  Well, as sick as one can get of awesome sparkly glitter.  I was really happy with how my mixed texture glitter mosaic came out a couple of weeks ago so I thought that maybe, just maybe, if I added holo glitter in there as well as metallic and matte, we might win.  Generally.  Let's see, shall we?

I didn't want to just use black again as a base colour so I cracked out my new Urban Outfitters polish, the slate grey creme Storm.  Usual consistency, three coats is better to make it nice and even.  Next was the hard part.  I don't have that much holo glitter - notably missing orange and green - so it was a challenge to get a nice rainbow gradient.  My first attempt was on my thumb with green - blue - purple - red but eh.  My ring finger was much more successful, nice and gradienty.  Usual technique to apply the glitter, starting with a line down the middle then offsetting down two, up three, down two, etc, to create the zig-zags.  Cos zig-zags are cool.  

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The Verdict: I miss my perfect square thumb nail :( Has anyone had, like, actual success with a basecoat to stop nails breaking?  Like OPI Nail Envy?  Anyway, sparkly at least.  Not 100% sure about the grey but I think I'll live :)

What Went Wrong: Four Manis from Dec-Jan

I don't know about you guys but I do my nails every day.  Unless I'm sleeping.  Then I do them when I wake up.  Anyway, given I post only sporadically, that leaves a lot of nails I do but don't post.  They're even usually pretty complicated!  Just somehow, somewhere in how the photos came out, my colour choices, my execution or the way the wind is blowing, they don't get posted because they're not the best they can be.  In the interest of transparency, let's have a look at some that didn't quite make the cut. 

I swear, black holo glitter will be the death of me.  It looks so amazing in the bag but then on, it's just...flat.  I've tried multiple brands in different shapes but just...eh.  I'm happy with the execution of this glitter placement, but just try to get excited by how it looks in the pictures here.  I'm happy I could capture the rainbow in the finish - thanks to the external flash provided by my bf - but I just don't like the colour.  

Next, another example of the same glitter being boring on the nail.  This was a trial run for New Year's and I'm so happy I went with black and silver squares instead.  Same amount of effort, significantly better result.  I like the grey glitter more than the black but it's a case of it being amazing in the bag, boring on the nail, under top coat.  I could show you pictures without top coat but I don't feel that's terribly honest.  The gold is better but overall, just boring. 

YEP, HAD TO KEEP TRYING THE STUPID BLOODY BLACK GLITTER, MAYBE IT WILL WORK WITH OTHER COLOURS IN A GRADIENT.  A resounding meh.  I've since discovered that a different gold really fixes this gradient so that's a good thing.  I actually filmed this for a tutorial/time-lapse but some of it wasn't in focus and I didn't do a particularly stellar job placing the glitter.  I'll film it again soon.  Gotta update that tutorial.  

Oh, crazy giant rainbow studs.  You're so crazy and giant and strange-looking.  I paired them with A England Bridal Veil but it's not the right base colour for this.  I do really like these studs because they look like alien eggs but with this base colour it's just, again, kinda meh.  I also only made it to 11am before I picked them all off my nails.  Yep, I'm that person.  I also don't like it when my skin comes out this greyish colour because my white balance is off.

The Verdict:  I know there's really nothing wrong with any of these manis and I'm basically just complaining but I like to show you guys the best work I can do.  I swear I'm not just fishing for compliments, I just like to be transparent with you, talk through what doesn't work and do better!  Always better and sparklier :D:D