Cirque Colors Bubbly Collection

Hello from a very sunny England! Preparing for possible record breaking temperatures over the next few days! These nail pictures are from a weekend away we had in the Cotswolds last weekend which was delightful! I sat out in the garden and tried out Cirque Colors new Bubbly Collection while we were there. It's a six piece collection of linear holo magnetic polish in some gorgeous shades which are on the sheer side with a holo streak running through once magnets are applied.

I'm not going to talk through each shade here (though I've listed them below the pictures) but just give a bit of an overview of my thoughts in general. I adore the colour palette here. The colours are somehow perfect summery even though they're not bright or pastel, I think they made my nails look like coloured glass beads! I started with one coat of polish on all nails then added a second coat and only applied the magnets to that coat. I didn't get that much of a magnetic effect on most of them which I think was down to user error. I wonder if the effect would have been better magnetising both layers given the sheer element to the polish.

On one of my thumbnails I tried a gradient effect which I really like, would definitely like to do more gradients with these polishes. The magnetic effect definitely came out better on my thumbnails though I don't think the pictures do it justice. I would definitely recommend these! I think Aperol Spritz is my favourite. I have a bit of a thing for orange nail polish at the moment and it's my favourite drink too! (Aperol Spritz that is, not orange nail polish :D)

Colours used: La Dolce Vita, Helter Seltzer, Soda Shoppe, Sparkling Yuzu, Aperol Spritz, Fizzy Lifting Drink - All Cirque Colors

Holo Taco Christmas 2021 - Lazy Swatches

Hello again! Got some lazy swatches to share today, showing off the new Christmas 2021 collection from Holo Taco. I was late to the party with their previous holographic Christmas collection but it was SO gorgeous that as soon as I saw this collection I knew I needed it! It comes out at a convenient time too as it was around the time of my Birthday! There are six colours in this collection, and as I only have five nails per hand I decided to put two of them on my thumbnail. I've included my thoughts on each colour below.

Naughty List - This is a beautiful deep read glitter in a sheer red base. Their previous pinky-red glitter was SO stunning so was super excited to see this one! Reminds me of jewels. Two coats for full coverage.

Everything Is Pine - I absolutely love the name for this one! Formula is just as above but with green, it's super sparkly too, I'm not sure I've ever seen such a sparkly green! Two coats for full coverage.

Plumb Luck - This is a stunning plum coloured polish with the same formula as the two above. Really dense glitter and great pay off. Two coats gave me full coverage. A really glamorous vampy shade!

Gold Play Button - This one is slightly different to the others in that it's in a clearer base, but the glitter pay off and formula are otherwise the same, and it is SO sparkly! Just what's needed to sit alongside their silver holo glitter, Rainbow Snow. I used two coats in the pictures here for consistency, but another would be needed for full coverage.

Choco Holo - A brown holo, sounds odd but it's lovely! A really unique shade and surprisingly sparkly. Really good coverage (same as the first few) and a gorgeous warm autumn/winter shade.

Black Holo Wish - This one is not the sort of thing I'd expect to find in a Christmas collection but it fits well and I know many people have been asking for it. It's in a black jelly/sheer base which is packed with holographic glitter. Glitter pay off is great and it covers in two coats, no need for sponges!

In conclusion - obviously I love them! I know they would be amazing and they didn't disappoint! It's hard to choose a favourite. The gold is of course super sparkly, and plumb luck is understandably popular, but I think Choco Holo and Everything Is Pine might be the stand out ones for me, it's such a gorgeous glittery green and the brown glitter is so unusual. Much like their last holographic Christmas glitter collection I really love the depth in these and the different sizes of glitter.

Colours used: Naughty List, Everything Is Pine, Plumb Luck, Gold Play Button, Choco Holo, Black Holo Wish - All Holo Taco

Three New Unicorns In Town

Hello world! Having been pretty good with my blogging for quite some time I seem to have got behind again, not sure how but never mind! I recently received a Holo Taco order which included their three new 'unicorn skin' toppers, and couldn't wait to try them out over a variety of colours. I've seen a few images or videos of them over black and white, and the blue and pink shades that were part of the collection. So I thought I'd give them a try over some other colours. Perhaps predictably they did look pretty similar over the colours I chose as they're all darker shades, but I still enjoyed seeing what they look like with different colours shining through.

I chose dark blue, purple and green as my base colours, and applied them alternately to my nails, with the one extra nail in black as I love how the unicorn skins look over black. I then applied each of the new Holo Taco shades over the blue/green/purple trio. On the black nail I used a sponge to attempt a gradient with all three unicorn skins. I say attempt as it really isn't a very well blended gradient! It did however give me a change to see just how intense the unicorn skins are when sponged on! I've included a picture of the thumbnail below.

From the second picture below the unicorn skins shown are Lunar, Sonic and then Galactic. Unfortunately I didn't realise how blurry the Lunar picture was until I'd edited and cropped them but I thought I'd keep it in anyway for consistency, you can see a clearer picture of the polish to the left. As expected I love these! The first unicorn skins wowed me and these three are just as spectacular!

Colours used: Watermelon - Barry M, Wigmore Street - Nails Inc, The Serpentine - Nails Inc, Lunar Unicorn Skin - Holo Taco, Sonic Unicorn Skin - Holo Taco, Galactiv Unicorn Skin - Holo Taco

Lazy Swatches: Fun Lacquer Valentines Collection 2019

Hi everyone, today I have GLITTER to show you!! Glitter is always a great source of excitement for me! Fun Lacquer released a very sparkly valentines collection at the beginning of the year and I just had to treat myself after seeing some of the lovely videos of them under bright lights. There are six colours in total and I have done what I call 'lazy swatches', where I do one colour on each nail instead of each hand. I do this to try and save time as otherwise it would probably be months before I got round to blogging it!

All six shades are fine holographic glitter densely packed in a clear base, and are show below with three coats and a top coat. Scroll down to see how I got on...
Crazy In Love (little finger) - First up is this vibrant purple with a pinkish tone in  certain lights. Lovely and holo and very girly!

Lucky Girl (ring finger) - This is a bright green leaning towards teal/turquoise and intensely sparkly.

Kiss Me (middle finger) - Classic sparkly red. Not quite as glittery as the others in some lights but super sparkly in bright sunshine or artificial light.

BFF (index finger) - Bright blue holographic. Some similarities to 'How Deep Is Your Holo' from Fun Lacquer's Simply Nailogical Collection but finer glitter and slightly less green.
Love Potion (index finger) - This is a classic bright pink glitter. A rich sparkly pink.

Precious Moment (middle finger) - Pale pink/rose glitter with a hint of champagne. Classy yet also incredibly sparkly! This one came out the most sparkly of all six.

I feel as if I've been describing a box of chocolates for some reason! I didn't go into much detail on each colour as they were very similar in terms of consistency and glitter density. I was particularly impressed that I was able to do this in three coats. Normally I would expect to be sponging on this type of polish. If wearing these out and about and not just for swatches I think I would probably add one more coat, but only because I have long nails which makes my nail line more visible in bright light.

My favourite has to be Precious Moment. Normally I am more of a blues/greens/purples sort of person but this one is just so intensely glittery! I also think it's a classy shade despite all the sparkle, and a little different to what I currently have.

Will you be trying these out this year? Let me know what you think!

ILNP Spring 2018 Ultra Metallic Brights

Hey everyone! Today I'm excited to share with you my swatches of ILNP's Ultra Metallic Brights collection for Spring 2018. I already have some Easter ideas lined up for these so am looking forward to using them properly. The collection consists of 7 super shiny and bright metallic Polishes. ILNP also released two more collections at the same time, one of shimmery toppers and another with their spring col,ours, featuring some beautiful holographic glittery polishes as always. Toppers aren't as much my sort of thing, and I managed to resist their spring shades (we'll see how long that lasts!),  as I think 7 is probably enough to go on for now, and I was excited about the finish of these.

See below the pictures for my thoughts on each individual polish...
First up is Short Circuit, a shade I liked even more than I thought I would. This is a super shiny yellowy gold metallic, opaque in two coats. The colour reminds me of stars on Christmas cards. I was surprised at how well it suited my skin tone as I wasn't quite sure if it would.
Next is the gorgeous Sugar Coated, another one done in two coats (I did two coats for most of these, and I would say you may need three depending on how opaque you like it - two was fine for me). This one was pinker than I expected, I thought it might be a little more rose gold, but it is a really lovely shade.
Next up is Checkmate, a shimmering bronze metallic. I used two coats for this one as well. The shimmer comes out particularly  nicely in this polish. It reminds me of a slightly shinier version of Barry M's Bronze Bae from their original molten metals collection.
Next is Blueprint, one of the ones I was most excited to try. This one is a little more sheer, I used three coats in the pictures. The colour is super bright and eye catching, I always like blues and I think this one is quite spectacular!
Here we have another I was super excited to try, Hi-Fi. It's come out a little bright in the pictures, but it really reminds me of chocolate wrappers - a definite win for Easter nail art! I've been looking for this shade in creme for a long time (I think I've just about found it), but now I have it in metallic I think it's what I wanted all along!
Next is Love Me Not, a bright red metallic. I feel that this one is a little less shiny than the others (though still metallic) so you may need a top coat if you want super shiny nails. I used two coats for the pictures, and as you can see there is a little nail line on the one on the left, so would potentially use three coats in the future.
And finally, Funhouse, another of my initial favourites. This shade did not disappoint! It's so vibrant and bright. I think it will go well with Hi Fi and Blueprint for some very metallic nail art.

So there we have it! This is one of my longest review posts, so thank you for sticking around till the end! It's hard to choose favourites as their all so gorgeous, but I think Blueprint, Hi Fi and Funhouse are all stunning, they were my favourites in the bottle as well. That said, Sugar Coated is rather lovely too!