Born Pretty Holographic Stamping Polish

Today I am reviewing Holographic Stamping Polishes sent to me by Born Pretty (Amazon Store)
There are 5 polishes in the set. They don't have names, just a number - 01 Silver, 02 Pink, 03 Red, 04 Blue and 05 Black
These are all very pretty polishes, lovely colours but not very pigmented so their use is slightly limited in terms of base colours you could use them over.
I tested them over black and white. They all stamped well but the contrast is not great.
All stamped nicely over white but the results were subtle and the silver barely visible. Not a problem for the coloured holos, you don't always want a full-on contrast mani and the stamping over white was pretty and delicate.
They did all stamp nicely over black too but the colour was pretty much lost. The silver stamped quite clearly but the other 4 showed very little more colour than the silver. The holo was pretty and although my photos aren't great I would certainly use them again, where I wanted holo stamping and wasn't concerned about the colour pay-off.

Here is the blue (04) over white, very pretty and delicate.

Born Pretty holographic stamping polish 04 (blue)

 This is all 4 colours, excluding silver as it didn't show up. Pink (02), Red (03), Blue (04) and Black (05)

Born Pretty holographic stamping polish 02,03,04 and 05

This is Silver (01) over black, as you can hopefully see the stamping is clear and the holo is very pretty.

Born Pretty holographic stamping polish 01

This is Red (03) on the top 2 fingers, Pink (02) on the bottom 2 but as you can see, although pretty there is barely any difference to the silver above.

Born Pretty holographic stamping polish 02 and 03

 This is Black (05) on the top 2 fingers, Blue (04) on the bottom 2 but again, although pretty there is barely any difference to the silver above.

Born Pretty holographic stamping polish 04 and 05

Colors by Llarowe Aubergine Dreams

Colors by Llarowe Aubergine Dreams is part of the Fall 2015 Collection, all of which I have to say look pretty stunning. The collection launched on Rainbow Connection at the weekend, and I was very restrained, I just ordered the 2 darkest ones!
They arrived today and and as I had caught up with the August challenges there was no reason why I couldn't try one of them.
This polish is utterly beautiful. It applied really well, excellent coverage even on the first coat although I did add a second for a perfect finish and then a quick coat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl top coat. I bought the top coat really just for stamping but it dries so quickly I find myself using it all the time.
Holo polishes often frustrate me, they look stunning but I really struggle to capture anything on camera. I really think the holo gods were smiling down on me today - it stopped raining, the sun came out and I got a reasonable picture! I am quite pleased with all the pictures I took, they are pretty colour accurate, even the one I took with  the flash.
This aubergine purple is just gorgeous, dark with the perfect amount of holo. Under my LED desk lamp it is very distracting but even when the holo is not apparent it is still a beautiful colour.
I am so pleased I chose this one, I really like this kind of shade, dark, leaning slightly towards blue - just perfect - a definite me colour and one that will certainly be worn again this Autumn.

Colors by Llarowe Aubergine Dreams

 

 

Colors by Llarowe Aubergine Dreams - with flash

Above the Curve Friday the 13th #1

Today is Friday the 13th, and that means one thing to me - the perfect opportunity to wear Above the Curve Friday the 13th #1.
I know we had a Friday the 13th in February but it was all too close to Valentine's to squeeze a mani in so I decided to be patient and save it for today.
Above the Curve bring out a new polish for each Friday the 13th, so a new one will come out today - I haven't seen any pictures yet but it is bound to be beautiful.
However, it would have to go some to beat this beauty - this is the original one and it is an absolute stunner. It is a dark chocolate brown scattered holo and it looks just like Minstrels!
The brown is just perfect, very slightly red, beautifully dark but not so dark that you lose the colour- I absolutely adore it!
Unfortunately, although it seems to be trying very hard, the sun is not getting through the clouds so I can't get a sunshine holo picture. Very frustrating since this is the most beautiful dark brown polish!!!
Oh well, even in the softest of lights I love this, and when the sun did peep though it was breathtaking!

Above the Curve Friday the 13th #1

 

 

 

 

 

 

Above the Curve Pretend It's a Plan

Today's polish is a beautiful purple holo by Above the Curve. Pretend It's a Plan is another polish from the Doctor Who collection and it is a lovely mid purple.
The holo is very pretty, and looked absolutely stunning in the 5 minutes of sunshine I caught this morning, before the hail stones! I managed to get a couple of photos before the sun disappeared behind a huge cloud and the sunny pictures are more colour accurate than the others. This is more a pinky purple rather than the bluer purple the other pictures show.
Not the best pictures ever, but I think I was lucky to get any at all!
The polish applied well, good coverage in 2 coats and dried quickly. Pictures are taken with top coat.
This is a lovely shade of purple, which originally I didn't go for as I headed straight for the darker ones in the collection, but then an opportunity arose to acquire a few more so I leapt at the chance. This one is just a mini bottle but the new style mini bottles are great, they look just like the full size bottles and brushes are the same excellent quality.

Above the Curve Pretend It's a Plan

 

 

Stamping! Lacy nails with french tips

Today's mani was inspired by Tracey at Simply Into My Nails. When I saw her negative space mani I just had to try it. What I liked most about it was that she had done french tips in the same polish as the stamping which is a lovely way of hiding that visible nail line.
Tracey used a Born Pretty plate, but as Messy Mansion 44 arrived in the week I thought I'd give that a try.
My nails are horribly stained. They always have been even before I started painting them and it is actually the main reason I do paint them so I was a bit nervous of doing a negative space mani. I am not sure I will do a bare nail again as I can still see the yellowyness - I have a huge selection of lovely nude polishes so I will use a base colour next time.
Anyway, although Tracey did her tips last, I did mine first as I felt I was more likely to make a mess of that. I wanted to go for a fairly subtle look for my first attempt so I chose A England Sleeping Palace which is a lovely soft dusky holographic purple. I am still getting the hang of the new stamper and I haven't picked the image up perfectly but I am reasonably pleased with the way these turned out.
I have never had a french mani so these do feel a bit unusual to me but I certainly want to try this again.

A England Sleeping Palace
and Messy Mansion 44

 

 

 

Above the Curve Cold Rain

Yesterday's polish is from Above the Curve's Best Things About Fall collection. Cold Rain is a delicate teal holo and it is really pretty. It is quite a green teal, and I think that's one of the things that is making me really love it, some paler teals are too blue for my skin tone but I am delighted with how this one looks.
I don't have a lot of pale, pastely shades but I do like this one. It is a lovely wintery shade and I can imagine this with some frosty nail art at some point.
Coverage was great with 2 coats and the finish is lovely. The holo is very pretty, not too strong and there are tiny blue flakies too although you need good light to see them.
I think the pictures are reasonably colour accurate and taken indoors with topcoat which did not dull the holo at all.
Added a couple of outdoor pics as the sun the sun came out today :)

Above the Curve Cold Rain

 

 

 

Above the Curve Gryffindor

What am I wearing for Christmas day ? - well I think it had to be a polish by one of my most favourite brands. Gryffindor is from Above the Curve's Harry Potter Collection released earlier this year.
I bought mine from Sally Magpies along with a few others from the same collection which I am looking forward to wearing in the new year.
For Christmas though I wanted something sparkly, and I think this is perfect. Gryffindor is a deep burgundy red, which appears more bluey purple  in some lights. It's holographic but it is sparkly too with red and gold glitters.
I did find this polish to be a little sheer so I have applied 3 thin coats for really good coverage, and because it's so glittery I did use 2 coats of top coat. It is a real stunner, and looks different in different lights. Yesterday there was no sunshine, but I could see the red, gold glitters and the polish did look more red. Under my desk lamp which throws a very cool light it's almost purple, and the holo is just fantastic. Today the sun came out and the polish looked more red again and the holo was beautiful.
This was a challenge to photograph, I really struggled to capture its beauty. Flash pictures bleached out the colour, the sun was too low and made most of my pictures look really odd but eventually after discarding about 100 pictures I think I've got enough to make a blog post, including a fairly random shot I snapped whilst trying to finish my Christmas knitting.
The advantage of blogging after 2 full days of wear is that I can also report that this polish is wearing really well, no sign of tip wear and the shade is just very wearable. I think I've made a great choice for Christmas!

Above the Curve Gryffindor

  

  

 

 

 

Smitten Polish Seasonal Lattes

Today's polish is a real stunner. Smitten released this beauty in early autumn as part of their Fall 2014 collection, I saw swatches, fell in love and as soon as I saw it in Rainbow Connection I snapped it up.
I wasn't quite sure what to wear today, so I selected a few possibles and asked my son to choose - he went straight for this one. As you can see, my nails are shorter - we have small people visiting this Christmas and I'd hate to scratch them, and I do like to cut them back every now and then anyway. I think the colour my son chose looks great on shorter nails.
Seasonal Lattes is the most beautiful medium brown holo and it is just holo perfection. I only have one other brown holo, Colors by Llarowe Burnt Sugar, but that is a completely different tone. I have other brownish holos but nothing like these 2 - plenty of room in my collection for both!!
This applied so easily, perfect coverage in 2 coats and the holo is just wow! I often end up taking hundreds of frustratingly unholo pictures but I think my indoor and outside sunshine pics have both captured the holo pretty well.
This is such a lovely tone of brown, as you can see it looks equally wonderful in the sunshine and in the much cooler LED light of my desk lamp. In extremely poor light they just look chocolatey, I can live with that!!

Smitten Polish Seasonal Lattes