Holographic Pigment Powder

Holographic powder isn't exactly new. Spectacular? Yes. New? Not really. SpectraFlair has been a popular polish additive for years. the difference now is how its used. The holo of old was added to existing polish to give it a holo sheen but balancing the ratio could be difficult. Too little and you see no effect. Too much and you end up with grey sludge. The new powders in holo, chrome, and multi chrome that have recently exploded into popularity are buffed into the nail after it is polished. The coverage is surprisingly complete and I believe it uses significantly less of the precious powders.

One of the first pigments available in brick and mortar stores. I got this at Sally's Beauty Supply a few years ago. (yeah this review has been sitting in my queue for years.) SuperNail came out with Chrome, Rose Gold and Holographic. Of course I had to go with Holo. It was also a great time to use my Seche Vite UV lamp I got on clearance years before but never had polish to go with it. Pigment powders work best with a UV/LED No Wipe Top Coat.

Its really very easy to use. Just paint with the top coat, cure it under a light, use the eyeshadow applicator to pick up just the tiniest bit of powder, and buff it into your cured polish. That's it. All there is to it.

Literally this is all the powder you need for one nail.

This is Layla holo nail polish (with a little stamping for flair). I've yet to find a regular top coat that doesn't "eat" the holo effect so this is not top coated and wears away at the tip.

More Layla polish with no topcoat. Ring was with Black Holo, others with regular Holo.

Holo powder buffed into the nail with another coat of No Wipe on top of it so that it shines too! Index and ring have a coat of black under the top coat, the others are naked.  I'm in love with powders and now have a large collection of tiny pots of powder.

Funk-Breaking Holos

Ok, so I didn't post alot the last few months. I just couldn't help it. I had no motivation, no inspiration, no nothing. I sat and stared at my polishes then just got up and played MineCraft. I just couldn't get into it. Stuck in a funk, I asked my nail polish friends what I could do to get out of it. The majority of the advice? Stop trying to force it, grab one color for your nails, don't bother with art, and go do something else. So ignoring nail art all together I grabbed my fav holo (if I'm gonna just wear one polish it will be a fabulous one) Layla "Silver Mercury" and "Flash Black" for an accent. I prepped the nails with black undies but I think in the future I'll prep "Silver Mercury" with silver instead. Then played video games, or read books, or watched TV. It took a week or so, but I think I might have broken the funk for now. The fact that my nails are the longest I've ever gotten them to be has helped a lot too (tho now that I've said that I'm sure they will break soon :P ) I'm back to art and not feeling so lethargic. Sometimes you just need to take a break. Even if its from something you love.

Polish Ornaments

I had always heard of the make your own ornaments where you take clear glass ball ornaments and swirl the inside with paint, but I never thought to use nail polish instead of paint! Polish is so much prettier than paint, with the glitters, shimmers, holos, metallics and all the other types out there! It's so much fun, but I need to warn you, it does use alot of polish. Not as much as you might think, but maybe a bit less than a quarter of a full bottle? That is alot.

Start off with a clear glass bauble and a bottle of polish that you don't mind using alot of. I used China Glaze holographic "Infra Red". I usually would balk at using an expensive bottle, but I accidentally got 2 of these when they went on clearance. That and I really wanted to see if the holo would translate to the ornament.

A neat trick I found was to pull up on the wire bit on the cap. It will come up but then stop where there is a little bend in the wires. This keeps it from pulling all the way out and you can lift the cap off easy. If the wires pop out all the way don't fret. You can thread them back into the holes in the cap.

Pour your polish into the ornament. Don't be stingy. I usually pour nearly the whole bottle into it. You will swirl the polish inside to coat the whole ornament. If you are working with a older polish, maybe thin it with polish thinner before pouring it into the glass to make it easier to swirl. Then pour the polish back into the bottle. Polish is thick so you might be holding the bauble over the bottle for a while and it drips slowly back in.

When you get tired of holding it and you think most has dripped out turn it upside down and let it dry. You can try to balance it on a paper towel, but I live with cats and that was a mess waiting to happen. So I found this plastic container at work. I have no idea what was packed into it, but it was being thrown away so I grabbed it. I think you could use maybe an egg carton or ice cube tray to prop up the ornament while it dries. Something that can keep the drips from making a mess. You could use the packaging the ornaments came in, but I like to use them to store the finished ornament in. I left them overnight to dry.

In the morning you will see a puddle formed under the ornament.

Put the cap back on the ornament and you are done! You can see the holo effect in this photo. I love it!!

I had so much fun making these that I gave them all to my coworkers for Christmas. It was a hit!

...And All Night

After my Sunrise mani on my left hand, I decided a moon manicure on the other hand. Moonrise wouldn't look as cool as sunrise, but how about the phases of the moon? I put down a base of Orly "Liquid Vinyl" and using the hole from a piece of notebook paper I painted in Milani "White On The Spot" the moons. Full Moon on the middle with gibbous waxing/waning on ring and index and crescents on thumb and pinky. A holo glittery coat of Out The Door fast dry top coat in "Northern Lights" adds stars and matches with the glitter of the left hand.

Chicago Holographic

My weekend in Chicago was a sunny one, so I packed a couple holographic polishes to show off. Thumb, index, middle and pinky were all painted black (Wet n Wild "Ebony Hates Chris") then with Layla "Silver Mercury". The black is supposed to make the holo pop but I really didn't care for it. It made it look muddy. The ring finger is China Glaze "Sci-Fly By" and I wish I'd just done that on all the fingers. Maybe with a little stamping or something. All well, I worked with what I had in the hotel.

China Glaze Hologlam ~ Sunny Pictures

Finally the sun came out today so here are the promised sunny pics. Sorry for the awkward angles, I was trying to use the first beam of light to shine into my workshop. Original post here.

As pretty as these are in shade, they are stunning in sunlight. I am so in love with holos and need to get more. Lots more.

China Glaze Hologlam

I have been waiting for this polish for nearly a year since I saw it on Polish Galore last year. I missed out on China Glaze's OMG collection and was ridiculously excited to see them come out with another holographic. I only have one other brand to compare it to, Layla's Hologram Effect , but I understand that China Glaze's formula is different from other brands out there. I've applied this to my mom's naked nails, my base coated nails, and my plastic practice finger. Naked nails were beautiful, only one or 2 coats to cover it. My base-coated nails kept getting bald spots. I don't know why because I'm sure the base-coat was dry when I applied the holo. It took 3 or 4 coats to cover bald spots. Practice finger(no basecoat) was a one or 2 coat cover as well. What is interesting is these polishes paint on almost matte and dry to reveal the holo effect. So don't panic if you don't see the holo right away, it will show up. Now holographics tend to run more expensive than regular polishes, so I assumed they were going to run about 14 dollars. No idea where I got that number from. Regular China Glaze is 6 or 7 bucks, the holo collection is 8.99. Not bad at all. And through the month of April all the polishes are buy 2 get one free, hence the first 3 I picked up. I hope to get more, there are 12 in the collection, but money is tight so I'll have to settle for these first 3 for now.

I have some pictures, but the sun hasn't been shining for the last couple days so all the pics are in shade. Stupid rainy April messing up my pictures. When the sun shines at last I'll take some more pics and update this post. They are lovely colors even in the shade, but you can barely see the holo effect in shade or indoor lighting. Wacky Laki has some nice holo pics you can check out for now til I get my better shots.

Check out my first 3 China Glaze Hologlam colors after the jump.

Holo Love

I have fallen head over heels in love with holographic nail polish. I only own the one so far, but China Glaze will be coming out with a line this summer and I simply can't wait. Fair warning though, I have never found one that could be considered "cheap". The one I'm sporting above was 14-16 dollars a bottle, the most I've ever paid for polish. Well, I had a coupon, but its still expensive. One thing I haven't been able to do yet is find a top coat that will preserve the holo effect. All topcoats I've tried have "muddied" it and made it disappointing.

This is 2 coats of Layla "Mercury Twilight". I had it on my nails for a couple days,just staring at the shifting colors before adding the stamping on the side. I wanted to dress it up a little with out covering the holo. The stamp is BundleMonster.com BM206 in Wet n Wild Fastdry "Ebony Hates Chris". No topcoat so the stamping wears out on the tip fast.