Holographic Bar Glitter Comparison

~purchased by me~


The only bar/hair glitter I like is holographic ones. Because of that holographic nature, I wear them over black. Today I have four bar/hair glitter polishes for you. Orly's Sunglasses at Night, Orly FX's Be Brave, L.A. Girl Rock Star Supernova and Ciate's Pinkaboo.

The Orly glitter is thicker than the L.A. Girl and Ciate one's. I think the Orly are more consider "bar" glitter and the other two are more "hair". I've seen it called both ways though. I swatched each of these over Rimmel's Black Satin.

I like using this black because even though it takes two coats to cover, the brush is fantastic and also, this doesn't stain your fingers. Below is one coat of each glitter over Black Satin.

Left to right is Sunglasses at Night, Be Brave, Supernova and Pinkaboo. You can actually see the glitter has a nice pink tint for Be Brave and Pinkaboo. Sunglasses at Night appears to be holographic black glitter and Supernova is a holographic silver glitter. I decided to see what it looked like at two coats.

The Ciate polish seems to be the densest of the four with the L.A. Girl one coming in at a close second. It appears you can wear the Ciate one on it's own at three coats and the L.A. Girl one at 4-5. I don't think you can get the Orly polishes opaque enough on their own.

Blurry to show holo-ness

So, no dupes here. My favorite would have to be Sunglasses at Night even though it's the least dense but since I wouldn't wear them on their own anyway it doesn't really matter and in my opinion it looks best over black.

Ciaté Pinkalilly and Pinkaboo Swatch and Review

~purchased by me~


I picked these up separately at TJMaxx for $3.99 each but it was originally released as a duo set for Breast Cancer Awareness and sold for $28. This is my first time trying the brand. Keep reading to see my thoughts below!

The brushes are nice on these and I like the long cap; makes it easy to grip onto when I'm painting. Also the slim profile of the bottles takes up less room in my Helmers than a regular bottle of nail polish (but makes posing my hand on the bottle quite difficult!). The bow is also a very cute touch.

Pinkalilly has a good formula; this is two coats. The golden flecks are annoying when you are trying to clean up though so use a steady hand to minimize any mistakes so that you won't have to deal with it. I put one coat of Pinkaboo on my ring finger as an accent.

Pinkaboo is a holographic bar/hair glitter in a sheer pink base and it's quite glitter dense. I know some people can't stand bar glitter but I personally don't mind it. The suspension base was a little thick and goopy but not unworkable. You can add a drop of thinner if it bothers you.

I think it looks pretty cute! I usually don't wear holographic bar glitter over any color other than black but I made an exception for this since it normally comes in a set with the other one. Tomorrow I have planned a little bar glitter comparison post so stay tuned if you're interested!

NYC Blue Majesty Swatch and Review

~purchased by me~


The final one that I got from this collection (Fashion Queen Fall 2014) and it's basically like the green one but blue flavor.

Blue Majesty has blue hex glitter in a blue base. This is the only one in the four that I got that I thought could use another coat in real life and not just pictures. It seems to be a touch more sheer than the other three. Here it is at two coats.

It's a gorgeous cobalt blue. I think next time I wear it i'll try it at three coats and see if it looks any better. Formula was good, just a little goopy the more you worked with it. I like how the polish won't drag the polish underneath it even if you apply your second coat without waiting for the first to be fully dry.

So all in all, these all have virtually identical formulas and this is the only one that might require more than 2 coats (though you could definitely get away with just two.) The glitter is smooth and doesn't require additional layers of top coat to get it glassy. I love the four that I got from the collection and highly suggest you go get them yourself if you are interested in any!

NYC Ruby Queen Swatch and Review

~purchased by me~


Out of the four colors I got from this collection (Fashion Queen Fall 2014) two are monotone (the blue and green) and the other two had thrown in an another color of glitter. NYC Ruby Queen is red and pink hex glitter in a red jelly base. I'm not sure if there are two shades of pink glitter in this (a lighter shade and a darker one) or it's just the glitter being tinted by the base.

I for one, love red glitter on the nails. If this was just pure red glitter I would consider it a holiday color but the pink glitter makes me think of Valentine's day haha.

The formula for all these appear the same across the board. Two easy coats, decent formula, decent brush.

Very cute and unique in my collection. I experienced no staining in the time that I wore this. I recommend this shade from the collection as well!

NYC NY Princess Swatch and Review

~purchased by me~


Here is another one that I got from the NYC Fashion Queen collection. I know a lot of people love purple polish so I decided to swatch this one second :). I'm not really big on purple (though a gander into my nail polish collection would denote otherwise) but I needed another polish so I could take advantage of the BOGO 1/2 sale and I didn't want the other two colors more. lol.

NY Princess is purple and (small) blue hex glitter in a purple jelly base. I don't really care for this particular color and I don't like the name of the polish but it is pretty. I don't regret getting it but I probably won't be reaching for it very often haha. I just don't like purple that much!

This is perfectly opaque and wearable in two coats though looking at my pictures now, I probably could have used another one just for pics. It didn't stain when I removed it and the formula was pretty much the same as the green in this collection. No complaints here.

The color is a very rich "true" purple and the glitter pops in this. My mother would love this (her favorite color is purple) and I mean that in a good way.

NYC is only $1.87 regular price at my store and this is limited edition so if you like it, go get it before it's gone!

NYC Queen's Jewels Swatch and Review

~purchased by me~


So I decided to swatch my favorite color first from this collection! Queen's Jewels is a dark emerald green jelly with small green hex glitters.

It's not really suitable for layering, unless you don't mind it greatly changing your base color. To demonstrate, here it is at one coat:

And here at two coats:

Holy wow, this is a two coater! I love this color! It's very festive looking. The color reminds me a lot of Sinful Colors San Francisco. The formula was pretty good, albeit a little goopy. It didn't hinder application though. I didn't wear this very long but for the time that I did wear it, sans base coat mind you, it didn't stain.

Super affordable, good formula, opaque in two coats?? What's not to love? If you like green polish, go get this now!

Wet N Wild Spitfire Swatch and Review and first Jelly Sandwich ever!!

~purchased by me~


This is the other polish I picked up from the Wet N Wild Summer Festival Collection. It's an orange jelly that is actually super opaque with a great formula!

These limited edition polishes sport white caps in lieu of the regular gray ones.

This is it at one coat. ONE! Amazing! I don't care for a lot of jellies because of their sheerness but this one can definitely be built up to opacity! The color is nice too, great for Halloween as well as summer!

This is it at two coats. Perfect opacity, completely smooth and streak free. An absolute dream to work with. If you get any one polish from this collection it should be this one! And now for my first attempt at a jelly sandwich! I used China Glaze's Scattered & Tattered.

I believe this is from their Glitz N Pieces collection. First I put one coat on...

And stopped to admire that for a bit! I really liked the way this looks! Very halloween. Then I went ahead and layered another coat of Spitfire on...

Yummy squishy-ness. I liked it like this but you can of course lay on another coat if you don't like the glitter this opaque. If you are looking for a great orange jelly you should considering picking this up while it's still available!

Sally Hansen Triple Shine Archipela-Glow Swatch and Review

~purchased by me~


This was limited edition and it was the only one I wanted to get from the collection but I restrained myself since it's not really really special (and there was no good deals for it) and lo and behold my patience was rewarded because when I checked my target's clearance section it was there for only $1.08! Well then, how could I refuse a price like that?

Since it's a micro-glitter I used my homemade peel-off base again. Archipela-Glow covered decently in three coats though the formula does start to get a little goopy the longer you work with it. Next time I think I will add a drop of thinner and see if that helps. The triple shine line has a removable cap to make it easier to use.

Unless your nails are super short I don't think you can get away with two coats. The glitter is in a jelly base but the base is pretty sheer. Even at three coats I could kind of see VNL but not enough to bother me. Even thought the base is kind of thick and get thicker the more you work with it my nails weren't thick at the end of three coats.

Archipela-Glow is a teal micro-glitter in a sheer teal base. The glitter is all the same color and is pretty fine -- so much so that it looks more like a super shimmery polish on then as glitter. I like it!

Sally Hansen Triple Shine polishes regularly retail for $4.99 but like I said, I caught this specific one on clearance. That's the one good thing about Limited Edition collections; even though it's hard to find and only available for a short amount of time, if you watch it carefully you can get them on clearance! If you like this color go get it now! I saw a bunch of them at all three Targets I've been to.

How to make glitter toppers full coverage

I don't really care for the look of glitter toppers. Iridescent glitter or flakies I like but regular big hex glitters as sparse top coats? Not so much. Now if you were to wear those glitters as full coverage, ooh yes please! The problem is, some glitters just won't be able to reach opacity or would take too many coats and therefore result in thick nails. So if you have some glitter toppers that you want to be opaque, all you need is said polish, a pipette, something disposable like a small paper cup and to make cleaning the pipette easier I used my nail polish scrub tub.

All you're basically going to do is allow the polish to settle (takes about a day if you've shaken it) and then with your pipette, you're going to suck out some of that excess suspension base. You won't be able to get all of it and you will get some glitters sucked up too but if you are careful and find a good angle (I tilt the bottle to a 45 degree angle to get the excess base to "pool" into the corner) you will be able to get most of it. Remember to clean out your pipette between bottles! I do mine but squirting out all the sucked up base into a paper cup and then stick it into my nail polisher remover tub and suck up acetone a few times into the pipette and emptying it back into the tub. Allow to dry and move onto another bottle!

 Left to right, Milani Fuchsia, Lavender, Gold and Silver

I've swatched them below at one dabbed coat each (over an old mani) before I sucked out the excess suspension base. The formula on these are good btw.

BEFORE pic
(This is over Sally Hansen Titanium Flush in case you're wondering)

Now Gold and Silver you can reach opacity in about three dabbed coats but since I was going to be tweaking Fuchsia and Lavender anyway, I thought I might as well work on these too and make achieving full opacity a little easier with them. I don't think you will be able to reach opacity with Fuchsia and Lavender unless you use 5 coats and maybe not even then. So I allowed the polishes to settle and then the next day...

 After!

 Doesn't look like much but it really does make a big difference when you apply it!

AFTER pic!

I forgot I had this on and wore it out. Yes, I looked crazy

This is two dabbed coats. Nice! Also, these don't dry that "thirsty". One coat of top coat will do ya!

Also, you gotta love that peel off base coat :)

Hope this helps someone out there. Cheers!