Make Up Store haul & quick swatches

Make Up Store - Britta, Madeleine, Anki & Lea

Recently, my dad gave me an unwanted (to him!) 50€ gift card to a mid/high end department store chain, and my first thought was "Make Up Store haul!!" 8) At 14.50€ a pop for 8ml of polish, those pretty little bishes are far too dear for my wallet. So today I hauled my hiney to my local Sokos and headed towards the MUS stand. Hello holos! Now, since I already have GOSH Holographic and Nfu-Oh 65 I skipped Greta and Siw and only grabbed Britta and Madeleine. I knew I *had* to buy Anki for I've held her tester in my paws for countless times. I figured I'd also get Lea because basically I'd "only" pay 8€ for her.

Make Up Store - Anki, Anki over black, Lea, Britta & Madeleine

Lineup of my little bishes, swatched on a nail wheel. Anki, a lilac-y pink with blue glass flecks, seems a little shy until you put her over a dark colour. Oh and she's a duochrome, too. Lea belongs to the same sisterhood as Claire's Magic, Zoya Yasmeen and Rimmel Art of Noise. Britta is a pretty pink with a strong holo effect, and then finally there's Madeleine who's a beige holo.

China Glaze IDK & 2NITE holo stars on night sky nail art

China Glaze - IDK & 2NITE, 1 coat each over H&M - You Rock My World

After my fruit salad nails I wanted to do another flashy mani. I started with a coat of H&M You Rock My World which is a silver holo polish, and then painted vertical stripes of IDK and 2NITE over it in a random order.

China Glaze - IDK & 2NITE holo stars on night sky nail art

I placed a star shaped sticker on each nail and painted over with black polish. After the black had dried I went over it with Wet 'n' Wild Kaleidoscope and let both coats dry again. Then I removed the stickers and topped the whole thing with SH Insta-Dri top coat. There was some minimal bleeding of black over the holo stars, and you can see where I didn't press down the stickers hard enough against my nail as all the lines aren't nice and crisp. In retrospect I wish I had used a smaller sticker on my index as I did on my pinky.. they also had a stronger sticky side to them so the small stars' lines are neater.

 "GRR, BRUNO SMASH! I VILL KRUSH YOU!!" :p

Milani Hi-Tech & pink funky French with fimo fruit slices

Milani Hi-Tech, 2 coats

WOW x 10,000 - Hi-Tech is a scattered (or more like shredded?) bright lime green holo that everyone should own! It's noticeably holo even in indoors, but in direct sunlight it almost explodes! I cannot put into words just how muxh I love this. ♥♥♥

Milani - Hi-Tech & pink funky French with fimo fruit slices

Fruit salad nails! The vibrant green begged to be accompanied by other happy colours, so I painted the tips pink and one by one placed pink opalescent hexagons on them. Some fimo fruit slices and a couple of silver rhinestones later I was left with cheery spring nails! The tips are a bit chunky (I. HATE. CHUNKY!) but I'll survive. :p Tomorrow, I'll go to the police station to apply for a new passport and will get my fingerprints taken, I'm imagining that I'll be getting some funny looks. :D

Claire's Mood Calm/Wild

 Claire's Mood - Calm/Wild, 2 coats

Claire's Mood polishes are great fun and they look really cool on longer nails. I own four or five of them and would possibly like to collect them all. The downside to colour changing polishes is that they will eventually stop reacting to your body temperature and stay the way they look in the bottle. Here you can see the colour change quite well - from what it looks on me most of the time, to hot and then the transition to cold. These mood lacquers dry matte so they need top coat to look nice and shiny.

Skinfood Milk Creamy Prism Nail #1 Pink Prism

Skinfood Milk Creamy Prism Nail - #1 Pink Prism, 2 coats

Talk about false advertising - this looks incredible in the bottle, but on the nail the holo effect is very dull. :L This is two coats of this light pink scattered holo over Nfu-Oh Aqua Base. Oh, and the baby bottle shaped container freaks me out.

BiChun #8322

BiChun - #8322, 2 coats

Now I THINK that this is called #8322 which is what was printed under the brand name BiChun. It's an absolutely gorgeous purple jelly jam-packed with silver glass flecks. When I was visiting the 'rents I asked my mum (who never ever wears polish herself) to pick a polish for me to wear from an assortment that included so-called safe and neutral choices, and she picked this! :o This polish was an eBay find, I think it cost me a few euros (shipping was free).

Orly Catch The Bouquet & nail art stickers = FAILSAUCE

 Orly - Catch The Bouquet & nail art stickers, 3 coats

Catch The Bouquet... three coats, about 20 mins of drying time between them + SH Insta-Dri, yet it never dried. The colour is super cute though, perhaps I'll have better luck next time with another base coat? As for the stickers - they're cr4p. $hite. P00. I don't know what level of Hell did they crawl out of, but it's where they should have stayed. >:( The edges started curling up as soon as I had applied a coat of clear polish over the stickers. I tried pushing them down gently but no dice, I think that even nail glue wouldn't have helped here.

Wet 'n' Wild 445C Limitless & China Glaze Crushed Candy

Wet 'n' Wild - 445C Limitless, 2 coats

Limitless is a grey creme with tons of turquoise shimmer in it that tints the polish a very subtle blue. The formula was on the runny side (then again, this polish must be about 15 years old) but covered nicely in two coats. This is very much like Essie Demure Vixen but in grey & blue, très chic. I found this on eBay where it's still available if you do a search for "wet wild 445c" or "wet wild limitless".

Wet 'n' Wild - 445C Limitless & China Glaze - Crushed Candy, 2 + 1 coats

 Of course I had to try Crushed Candy over this, I swear she never disappoints me. ♥

Collection 2000 Hot Looks Minx

Collection 2000 Hot Looks - Minx, 2 coats

Oh lawdy how I love this lacquer! Blue, pink and gold glass flecks in reddish purple base, oh my! I already one backup of this and I might go back for another. My only gripe with Minx is the horrible brush the Hot Looks polishes have - they're shaped like duck's feet, normal on the top but they flare out like crazy.

Black holo comparison!

Color Club - Revvvolution, Eveline - 470, Golden Rose - 119 & China Glaze - Let's Do It In 3D, 2 + 3 + 3 + 3 coats

W00t, black holo polishes! ^o^ These were all swatched over Nfu-Oh Aqua Base which eliminates any cuticle dragging. The China Glaze packs the most punch in the holo department, then Eveline followed closely by Golden Rose, and finally dragging far behind comes poor Color Club. I do not know if my Revvvolution is a dud version as it has some holo to it but it's quite subtle. China Glaze Kaleidoscopes still pop up on eBay quite often and Revvvolution ought to be pretty easy to find if you don't care if you're getting the original or a dud version. As for the more unknown brands, Eveline originates from Poland and Golden Rose hails from Turkey (?).

Etude House WH004

Etude House - WH004, 2 coats

Another mildly disappointing lacquer, Etude House WH004. I was so excited to finally pull this out of my untrieds and slap it on, hoping to soon see a duochrome heaven on my nails. Yes it's black but I wasn't expecting it to be so... black. :-L It looks pretty cute here but I had to look hard to see the teal-to-blue-to-pink effect, even in bright daylight. I was visiting my parents when I wore this and hadn't brought any layering polishes with me for my 1½ week visit, but I bet that a polish like, say, Pure Ice Busted layered over would do wonders to this.