Holy Holo Fun Batman!!!

I have acquired quite the collection of Holo Polishes...and yet, my collection is incomplete and I need MORE! HEHEHEE!
I had some fun with Milani, China Glaze and Color Club and the intermittent sunlight we had yesterday while waiting for the Tsunami to hit the Santa Barbara Coast. Things were a little tense downtown, but here at home we have an 80 foot drop from the bluffs to the ocean, so I wasn't worried. It turned out to be uneventful but with all the earthquakes happening, the hubster and I decided we would be wise to make sure we have plenty of bottled water in case the big one hits close to home. Santa Barbara is somewhat isolated from travel in the event of a big disaster as we learned when the mountain fell in 2005 cutting us off from most suppliers. Our grocery stores were almost bare when they finally reopened the roads.
Our lifestyle has us basically prepared anyway, but we need to keep a few gallons of fresh water on board too...but I digress into unhappy things..., let's move on to polish, shall we?

I chose Milani HD and China Glaze OMG to compare and play with, Take a quick look:

What you're looking at: from Pinkie to Thumb: Milani HD 3 coats, ChG OMG 3 coats, OMG topped with HD 2 coats OMG, 1 coat HD, HD 3 coats with ChG Matte Magic over the top, and on the thumb I did OMG on the left side (upper in this pic) and the omg/hd combo like on the middle finger on the right side (lower in this pic) then I put Matte Magic over the top.

Let me say first off, putting a matte topcoat over a holo, takes away the Holo completely...and you cannot get it back. Nope, not even if you put a shiny topcoat on top. Look:

See? Nuthin'.

Let's move on, shall we?

Here's a closer look, side by side: click it!

Now, I don't own Nfu Oh #62, but I think Middle finger just found a good dupe! I'm telling you, getting that smooth rainbow topped with the chunkier one and it was blingtastic! Gorgeous! Those of you who do own the Glorious #62, please tell me what you think, I need to know if I still need to add it to my hubby's buy list. :)

I love Holos for their color and for their drying time. I will say that HD was MUCH easier to apply, just smooth and nice as I don't give each layer much drying time, I don't have the time! :)  OMG was a bear, dragging polish for the first two layers so I applied it a bit more thickly for the third and it evened out. I used no top coat for the non-matte nails.

I will definitely layer the Milani Holographic polishes over the corresponding China Glaze OMG series colors because it's just so much more holographic. I like having options!

PS: For those of you having issues with blogger, be it posting, commenting or whatever. Get Google Chrome. DO EET NAO!! It works seamlessly and I am in heaven.

NYC West Village WNW Caribbean Frost Konad

I wasn't sure if I liked this one or not, but I did wear it for another 2 days before removing it to swatch and then settling on the next manicure which I'll show you in a few posts.

I used the dots on Konad plate M60. I am a bit frustrated by the last row of larger dots. It seems they are lined up just right for the scraper to leave a perfect line across their middle. I've seen that line on other blogger's designs too! I tried a few things to stop it, but generally gave up caring so I could get the damned thing finished.

I could use some Konading tips too...Those of you out there doing a bazillion Konad designs a day, share your tips on how you get the design straight, and other useful things please!!!

Then I wanted a whole 'nother look so I hit it with China Glaze Matte Magic.

It made the NYC polish look even more black and I noticed shocked looks at my nails from my co-workers. LOL. Oh well, I kinda liked the idea...but again, the execution needs work...looking for tips on straightening out Konad designs (especially helpful for those darned French manicure stamps!!!)

Thanks for looking! Wishing you a day of sunshine, I hope to get out today and enjoy some of mine!

Red Satin (my first Matte Top Coat)

Middle of October 2009, I wanted something simple but elegant and sexy. I started with a mini Sally Hansen that I picked up Christmas 2008 and hadn't used yet. I had just started checking out the world of nail blogs and read about Matte Top coats. So I picked up China Glaze Matte Magic and this one took my breath away. It's exactly what I wanted right then. Feast your eyes on my crappy cell phone pics! heeheehee!

I loved how they changed color depending on how the light hit them, just like satin. This was true love for a few days, I'm tellin' ya!

Huh, I just noticed these pics have dates stamps, I wonder when I set my phone cam to do that? Sometimes I'm pretty darned smart, and then I forget!

I hope I'm not cramming your readers with too much polish porn.

I am just so happy it's the weekend...and I have more to get all caught up to date!

I promise you, after reading some of your blogs, I realized my snappy camera was the best way to take photos and I worked toward more natural lighting so I didn't have to adjust for the warmth of my house lighting...hang in there, the photos get better.