China Glaze: VIII & Max Factor: Fantasy Fire

I recently received Max Factor: Fantasy Fire from a wonderful person in the UK. This is a legendary holo topcoat and I was very excited to receive it. The only thing to be aware of when using Fantasy Fire is that the base polish can have a huge effect on how Fantasy Fire looks. 

I chose China Glaze: VIII.

This is a lovely dark, dark purple. The formula is nice, I got full coverage in 2 careful coats.

Excuse my short nails! They chipped and flaked, and this was the after-filing result.

However, it is slow-drying. I didn't use a topcoat and had a nap about a half hour after application. VERY visible sheet marks. Whoops.  Its ok though, I intended to apply Fantasy Fire over this.

Woah... isn't this so gorgeous?! Here's another angle:

I applied one coat over VIII and it looked like this with no topcoat:

Natural light, overcast day. Underwhelming.

And with Seche Vite topcoat. The following pictures were taken in doors, in indirect natural light.

The blurriness shows the holo better.

It was really hard to capture the green holo flash

All in all, Fantasy Fire is a beautiful topcoat! I'll try it over a lighter colour next time I use it.

One more picture for the road:

Edit: Its been a few hours. I went to the mall and tried on a few things, and I already have tipwear. I used China Glaze Strong Adhesion base coat, 2 coats of VIII, one coat of Fantasy Fire, and one coat of Seche Vite. Not terribly happy about getting less than 8 hours of wear.

Rimmel: Midnight Blue

I like most of the Rimmel polishes I have, but there is one I have never worn. Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro: Midnight Blue. It is in a square bottle and has a nice contoured brush.

 

 

As you can see, it is a metallic midnight blue (great creative name they chose eh?). The formula is ok, streaky and slow-drying.

 

It looks almost black once on, but the metallic-ness will show up in direct light.

In my kitchen, fluorescent lights

 

Outside, overcast

 

 I was not terribly impressed with the durability, or rather lack thereof, of this polish. I had tipwear on the same day. I will gladly use it for stamping, as I think it will work well with with a pastel base.

Essie: Pure Pearlfection

Essie released a line of beautiful topcoats called Luxeffects. They are the "cherry on top" of pretty nailpolish.


Pure Pearlfection is an iridescent shimmer topcoat: decadent iridescence. It looks silver in the bottle but upon closer inspection the rainbow iridescence can be seen.

I chose to layer it of China Glaze: Pelican Gray. Application of Pure Pearlfection was a breeze. It is nice and liquidy with perfect density of the shimmer/glitter pieces.

Under overcast lighting you can't see the iridescence, it looks like a really light silver shimmer. With artificial lighting, it comes alive. It is very hard to take pictures of, but this should do:

Sorry the colours are so off!

China Glaze: Pelican Gray

I have always sort of admired grey polishes from afar. They seem very sophisticared and grown-up, but also weird at the same time. Grey nails?! On my hands?!

After the intenseness of Passion Fruit, I wanted something soothing so I chose China Glaze: Pelican Grey. This is from the 2011 Anchors Away collection. 

It is a really nice grey creme with shimmer. It is a true grey to my eye, not blue or purple based.

It is still overcast here, and this colour matched the weather really nicely. I did three thin coats. Application was very nice. It is a bit streaky but builds up opacity easily.

Its a bit hard to see the shimmer but its there!

 Tomorrow I will add an actual shimmer topcoat :)

ORLY: Passion Fruit

It has been overcast and drizzling here, so I needed hot pink neon nails to cheer me up. What better colour than ORLY: Passion Fruit?

Passion Fruit is part of ORLY's Hot Stuff Collection. And it is definitely HOT! I definitely chose the right colour for a rainy day.

I started with a layer of a thin white polish, because often neons do better on a white base. I chose Sally Hansen Hard as Nails with Nylon: Pink Whisper. It is really a sheer white that does well with French manicures.  A layer of that, two layers of Passion Fruit later and I ended up with this:

C'est magnifique! Pardon my cuticles. I moisturize frequently with body butter but they are just terrible. I am also prone to paronychia so I can't let those ragged cuticles tear.

Seche Vite has a reputation for shrinking polish. I never understood this, my first bottle of SV was an absolute dream. I am on my second bottle and I think I might have gotten some tip shrinkage on my ring finger, seen in the photo above. I wrapped my tips and everything, which is supposed to help with shrinkage. I'm not worried, it is very minimal.

Revlon: Blue Lagoon

There are tons of robins singing so I chose a very pretty blue by Revlon: Blue Lagoon.

Blue Lagoon

 

I often find pastel polishes to be challenging. They are too thick and take forever to dry, and when you think they are dry nope! Big dents and chips happen so easily. Revlon is the worst offender for me, but their pastels are prett.

Blue Lagoon is a sky blue with silver/glass flecks throughout.

The flecks can be seen under the "pped" in Chipped

 
It may not be a true pastel as one thin coat was very thin indeed; I find white-based polishes give decent if streaky coverage with one coat.  I applied three coats of Blue Lagoon, but as you can see I would have benefitted from a fourth. I don't like doing four coats especially of my dreaded soft (as in dent-able) pastels. 

This pictures looks more vivid; the pictures with stamping is more accurate

Pretty! But I wasn't happy with the streakiness so I stamped over with Bundle Monster plate BM-208.

Not too bad, but I smeared the stamped design with my topcoat, which was a L'Oreal that came bundled with white for French manicures.

China Glaze: Polarized

Funky French manicure incoming!


I used China Glaze Polarized for my tips. This is part of the China Glaze Prismatics collection, which are all chroma glitters. Many bloggers say this collection is duochrome, but I can't see it. I also have Prism and Liquid Crystal from the Prismatics collection, I will review them soonish and show you what I mean.


I started with China Glaze Strong Adhesion Base Coat, then applied one coat of Seche Blanc. Seche Blanc is a sheer white that is intended for the free edge of a French manicure, but I find it works really well to even out the colour of my nails after I use orange polish :)


I then applied two coats of China Glaze Polarized, with Seche Vite as topcoat.

Click to Enlarge

As you can see, it is a silver glitter with rainbow glitter throughout. No hint of duochrome in either natural or artificial light for me. I'm ok with that though, its unusual to find a silver glitter that is so dense. Application is lovely. It is thin enough to work with. The only challenge, if you can even call it that, is getting glitter pieces right on the edge of my nail. I don't like rough edges, I will pick and pick at my nails and tear them down to stubs. But you can use the pad of another finger to press the glitter back.


Unsurprisingly, it eats topcoat. Even my beloved Seche Vite was no match. My nails are a bit rough at the glitter.


The two coats worked well for my tips, but on the second day (yesterday) I applied a third with another coat of SV.

Pretend you don't see the tipwear!

Very pretty, no? I feel like a mod disco girl :) I got complimented on my nails by the waitress at breakfast yesterday. Its been three days and this manicure is about done. Three days isn't too bad for me, considering how many layers I have (base + Seche Blanc + 2 layers Polarized + SV + 1 layer Polarized + SV) and how rough I am on my nails.


There is nothing quite like doing my nails to brighten my mood. Its very therapeutic.