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!

Zoya Bottle Spam Pt. 4

~purchased by me~

Happy hump day! Here are some shinies to get you through the rest of the week. We are now on Part 4 of my Zoya bottle spamming and finally we are at my beloved glitters, holographics and flakies. Zoya makes some awesome special effect nail polishes. I wish they would release more colors of the holographic flakes. Maybe this Christmas we'll get some new shades!

Chloe - 1 coat half over black, Opal - 1 coat half over black

Dream - 3 coats, Payton - 2 coats

Binx - 3 coats, Stassi - 3 coats

Rina - 3 coats, Twila - 3 coats

Zoya should make more glitters. I'm surprised they haven't come out with a multi-colored glitter bomb like everyone else has. I would like to see their take on it!

Rainbow Glitter Placement Nail Art

Blah Monday. It should just be removed from the week! Here is a bright little bit of nail art to cheer you up from the Monday blues!

Note sun-bathing puppy in background

It looks like it takes a while but once you get into the zone of glitter placement, it actually goes pretty fast! Supplies needed:

The polishes from left to right is Orly Bonder (basecoat), Rimmel Black Satin, Wet N Wild Clear Nail Protector (The glue for this whole operation!) and NYC Grand Central Station (topcoat). You then need something to pick up the individual pieces of glitter with and of course, glitter! For the picker-upper, you can use a dotting tool or toothpick but then you will need a little puddle of clear coat for which you will dip said tool in to make it sticky enough to pick up the glitter. Too lazy for that? Invest in a wax pencil and there is no dipping required -- you just have to keep it sharpened to a nice point. I bought mine from Born Pretty Store which offers free shipping worldwide. The glitter is from Martha Stewart. They usually come in tubes but my sister bought some for crafting and I stole mini-baggies of each color :). You can buy them from craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Michael's or online from Amazon and the like.

sun-bathing puppy woke up!

There are plenty or online tutorials you can watch/read for glitter placement so I won't bore you with picture by picture shots of mine. You just basically apply your basecoat, apply your base color, then, working on one nail at a time you put a strip of your clear coat down the middle of the nail and lay your column of glitter. Doing it this way will keep your glitter placement straight. Then you put a strip of clear on the left of the middle column, place your glitters and repeat on the other side. You can also bring the glitter all the way to the edges but for that you will have to trim your glitter with clippers. I only did it for the tips and I think it still looks great! If you only need a few half pieces of glitter, you will normally find some in the container and won't have to snip them yourself. 

bubbly topcoat :(

Put on about two coats of top coat and you're done! I think I had the fan on when I put on my topcoat 'cause it bubbled a little. It didn't detract from the overall look though! Though it may look it, I didn't have any glitter pieces poking out. If it dulls in a few days or the glitter begins to poke out, just lay on another coat of topcoat. This manicure ended up lasting a full week for me. It's very sparkly and shiny in the sun!

SHING!!

Blinding, no? I think this is a really fun easy manicure. It looks like a ton more work than it actually is. Also, if you have a crappy non-dominant hand, this is practically fool-proof! It took me a little longer, but my right hand looked as good as my left! By not bringing it all the way to edges, I think it helped the manicure last longer and saved me a lot of time from not having to clip the glitter. For awesome glitter placement tutorials and manicures you can also check out the blog of the queen of glitter placement Polish All The Nails. So what do you think of this manicure? Would you like to see me do a tutorial for this? Let me know!