Revlon Transforming Effects Top Coats

Hello, Fireflies!

Isn't this blue gorgeous?  It's actually a little deeper in color and so beautifully shiny and jellied in person.  It's KB Shimmer Low And Be Bold, a cobalt blue-lovers dream.  Though absolutely gorgeous on its own, I decided to see how the color was transformed by using the new (and not LE!) Transforming Effects topcoats from Revlon.

Long Live Seche and Live Love Polish!

Some product sent for review, some purchased by me.  All opinions are my own.

 Hello, Fireflies!

If you know polish, then you probably know Seche Vite.  It's one of my very favorite top coats because it's thick and glossy and it dries fast.  Did you also know that Seche makes regular polish?  I have some I'd like to show you!

A Skittle, Layered.

Hello, Fireflies!  Today's skittle is a little different.  I wanted to see how layering a polish over different bases created the mani.

I started with (thumb to pinky): Chick Nail Polish Once Upon A Time, a pink with orange shimmer; Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, a sunny yellow creme; Cult Nails Kiss, a matte tomato red;  I Love Nail Polish Undenied, a metallic purple duochrome; and Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.

I built up the thumb with a few more layers of Chick Nail Polish Once Upon A Time, and then put that same polish over all the other nails.  What a cool transformation!

It turned Mellow Yellow into an orange sunburst, and the black creme into a dark, purple shimmer.

But, I think my fave has to be the effect over I Love Nail Polish Undenied.  It amplified the duochrome, and now there's all kinds of reds and purples in it.  Neat-o Jet!

As different as all the colors were, now they could almost pass for an ombre' mani.  Do you ever layer polishes for different effects?

An InLinkz Link-up

Indie January - Candii Polished

When I do polish reviews and swatches, I like including both swatches on the nail and bottle shots because sometimes the two look very, very different.  That was the case with all three polishes I tried from Candii Polished.  I thought that they were opaque polishes, but they were all best layered.

My Mystery.  I can't even remember how many layers this was.  I think over 4.  I couldn't get the VNL to go away.  I thought this was a dark brown polish with a scattered holo, maybe a duochrome, but I couldn't achieve it.

Dahlia.  I painted one nail with one layer of Dahlia and realized it was the same thing as My Mystery - a topper.  So, I painted my nails with Pure Ice Black Rage, and put Dahlia on my ring finger and thumb, and My Mystery on the other fingers. 

My Mystery imparts a golden/purple scattered holo, and Dahlia a silver/multi-colored scattered holo sprinkling.  Barely.  Color me disappointed, because I got hardly any bang for my buck.  

I figured I was in for more of the same with Candii Polished Holo Moly! and I was right.  I started with 2 coats of Revlon Spanish Moss and an accent of Holo Moly!

I added a couple of layers of Holo Moly! to all the fingers.  Even after 4 coats, it barely covers.  Spanish Moss looks pretty with the topcoat, though I think I would get similar results from a couple of coats of Chick Polish Hipster Chick.

If you're just getting into polish layering, these offer a pretty, if often subtle, scattered holo.  But, my recommendation would be to just buy a bottle of China Glaze Fairy Dust if that's what you're looking for. 

If you'd like more information about Candii Blossom Cosmetics and Candii Polished, check out their Facebook page, and their shop.

Lotsa Lilacquer!

I just love the intersections between geek girl and polish girl.  Lilaquer has a collection that pays homage to The Fifth Element movie, and I picked up a few.  They are as pretty as they are quirky!

First up, Zorg Industries:

Steel-blue grey with a slight duo-chrome shift, this polish just reads futuristic and industrial.

Leeloo Multipass was the polish that grabbed my attention first in this collection.  I never would have worn orange-pink before, but now I love it.  This is really a very sheer pale orange with a subtle pink shimmer.  Three coats, and you could still see some VNL.

An unexpected star of the show was Roo-Bee Rhod!  This is a real orange/pink duochrome that also evokes a little ruby red.  Two coats is much more opaque than Leeloo, also.

A little splash of Anti-matter of Opinion over Roo-Bee for an accent.  Gorgeous.  This glitter really shows more colors over darker undies, but I love a little subtle bling, too.

Another one of Lilaquer's polishes, Bakeneko, is from a different collection, but I'd heard rave reviews, so I decided to pick it up, too.  It's a Clarins 230-type polish, with the red shimmer, but it's really in it's own class.

One major reason is that Bakeneko doesn't need any undies at all.  The brown/red/green/gold shifts are inclusive in the polish itself.  It would probably shift darker if you did wear it over black, but it doesn't need it.  It's a gorgeous multi-chrome with a great formula.

Last, but not least, is a trio of duochrome topcoats that Lilacquer released in limited edition.  You might be able to find these floating around out there, but I don't know if she plans on bringing them back to her shop or not.  All of these are over a black creme, I believe.

Selkie is a blue/teal duochrome.  To be honest, I have amassed a small collection of these types of topcoats, and I rarely wear them.  There are so many interesting blue polishes out there, I don't often find the need to turn another color into a blue.  I have no complaints about Selkie, though, and it is certainly a pretty topcoat.

Lycanthrope is a gold/green topcoat.  Very pretty, and the slight shift to red is more unique than other topcoats in this vein.

At first blush, Kitsune looks a bit like Bakeneko, but it's more red, without the strong gold shift.  

I love how a topcoat can transform the look of a manicure.  These would also be fun to play with in nail art, changing colors within a nail.

Lilacquer is one of the Indies that has a great grasp on the duo/multi-chrome trend, and her polishes have good formulas, too!  Check her out if you like Indie polishes with a little something different to offer.

Shifty Facets of a Ninja Polish

I admit, I'm a Ninja Polish groupie.  I love their selection of polishes, and their prices are usually better than anyone else's.  So, when they came out with their own line of polish, I was ready to snap them up.

The Facets collection is a collection of three topcoats.  For each of the topcoats, I swatched them over these colors, in this order:  Orly Decades of Dysfunction, Revlon Royal, Sonia Kashuk Blank Slate, and OPI Black Onyx.

Have you ever seen a polish like Zultanite?  Gold in the bottle, with red flecks, and a green duochrome effect.  And all of it translates to the nail.

On the light color, all of these topcoats were at their worst.  Instead of melding into a cohesive mesh, each individual glitter stood out, and really didn't shine.  I wouldn't bother layering any of these over a light color.  Zultanite looked best to me over the dark grey, which gave it a mysterious, dusty look, or the black, which really brought out the red.

Alexandrite is a rare stone that has a color shift in response to light.  This polish shifts, too, and for a lot less money!

Again, not a fan over the nude, but the other three colors bring out a different look in the Alexandrite, and I like them all.  I am partial to the grey again, however - I can't get enough of that dusty tone lately.

Color-changing garnet looks similar to Zultanite in the bottle,  but different on the nail.  There's no green, and the red is much more pronounced.

Over the blue and black, it has a look reminiscent of Fantasy Fire when layered over those colors.  This polish is a fan favorite, and I like it, too.  Again, I'm loving this one over the grey best - it's just a soft, dusty, shimmery look that is beautiful but not in-your-face with the glitter. 

These polishes are available only at Ninja Polish, and you probably want to have them e-mail you when they're in, because they usually go fast. 

What do you think of this topcoat trend?