Layla Hologram Effect Retro Pink review and swatches

Hi there everyone,

I hope you're enjoying your Bank Holiday Monday.  I was going to go shopping, but it's pouring with rain, so I thought I'd go with plan B.  It was lovely and sunny yesterday, so I thought I'd make the most of it with my most favourite things in the whole world - HOLOS!

I already own the Layla Hologram Effect polish in Flash Black, and I like it, so I thought I'd try a few more colours.  I had a look around and eventually decided on two, Retro Pink and Coffee Love.  After much deliberation (about two minutes haha), I decided to wear Retro Pink yesterday.  Here's how it came out:

I knowwwwww!  Heavenly pink holo goodness!

BUT (and there's always a but), don't be fooled by the pretty looks, this polish is a real horror story. 

I've painted my nails probably thousands of times, and I like to think I'm pretty good at it, but this polish made me feel like a gorilla wearing oven gloves.  If you don't get a perfectly even coat in three brilliantly executed and very swift passes, you end up with a lumpy bumpy, hole-y hot mess.

Plus it's pretty sheer too.  If you could manage not to get any holes, you could probably get away with 3 coats, but I guarantee you won't manage that.  It does dry VERY fast though.

As you can see on my ring finger, it does shrink a bit too, and after one day of wear it's pretty chipped.  Oh, and top coat kills the holo too.

Here it is in the shade:

You can see on my middle finger, it's so super holo, it's even showing some in the shade, that's pretty good.

But I can't make that the picture you remember of this polish, so lets have some more happy finger rainbows:

It's actually even more hologram-y in real life, but as anyone who's tried to take a picture of a holo knows, it's frustratingly hard to show the real life magic.

The brush actually wasn't that bad, wide, flat and quite stiff:

So, while you won't be able to stop looking at your nails in the sun, at the same time as admiring the beautiful rainbows, you'll also be wishing there weren't bare patches that won't, just won't, cover up.

Therefore, although it is mega-holo, and I should love it, I don't, and I'm sure there's better out there.  I bought it from Amazon (link) and I paid £5.29 with free shipping, which would have been a bargain if the formula had been right.  I couldn't find out if they are cruelty free, as it doesn't say on their website, but I have emailed them to ask, and will update when they reply.

A real 'Beauty and the Beast' polish.  Do you know of any better light pink holos I could get?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~