First of all, some notes on these polishes. I have learned to become very leery of swatches of holos anymore because of the way swatches are taken. In general, it's under the best lighting conditions possible. That's what makes them pretty and, let's face it, marketable enough to grab a readership of some sort. I like seeing those just as much as the next girl but one of the reasons I don't take photos of that sort most of the time is because I wanna see how the polish is really going to look. For example, Essence's Chic Reloaded. I absolutely fell in love with it when I saw swatches but when I wore it, it was crap. It looked awful and nothing like the swatches. Ever.
So now I've become leery of them, especially where holographics are concerned. Holos depend on the light to make them pretty and let's face it, I don't spend my days walking around in bright lights. I see the holo but it's not usually all pow bang boom. If you've seen the swatches for the FNUGs online (and if you haven't, go look and drool) they're explosively holo. Bursting with fruit flavor. Taken with a grain of salt though. Especially when I got the polish, they do not blow me away in the bottle.
Ohhhhh but once you apply....
Even in bad lighting they look great. If you're a holo fan and you don't own these, go buy them right now. They're so worth it. You will need and aqua base coat, they dry so so fast and streak very easily. Usually I don't put a top coat on holos because it dulls them and I thought it was going to happen with these, too, but they bounced right back.
Now on to the actual manicure. I had a few false starts. First it was just a straight up no lines job but the problem with that is that the shades are so similar, especially once the holo hits the light, that you can barely tell where one starts and the other begins. At that point I decided to do black lines to space. I tried using tape but that ripped the holo polish off with it. Since I already had all the nails painted with color I decided to free hand the black lines in. It wasn't too bad, shaky and wavy because that's how I paint straight, but totally manageable. I got it done and literally woke up with chips. It didn't last through sleep. By the time I showered it was bad and by the time I got home from work it was awful. I took it all off and started over.
This time, black base and striping tape. I was going to just dab it on, but you cannot dab these. It kills the holo.
See the pinky? Dead. Doesn't work. Thankfully the polish brushes are so small that painting tiny spaces was relatively easy. Results:
They were a bit tricky to use with the striping tape, there was a tendency to peel up and sort of rip. The use of a base color helps with the chipping immensely, as well. As I write this I'm through the first day without a single one. Just put the aqua base over the base color. But overall, I think it turned out just swell and I can't stop lookin' at 'em lol.
I also cannot rave about these holos enough. You must go buy these. I wish they'd make more colors, I'd be all over them.
Jess
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