Liquid Sky Lacquer Holo Top Coat Review and Swatch

Well hi there, long time no blog!  Life is just too annoying getting in the way of my nail polish fun.  Today not only has the sun finally come out, but I also have a day off work, yay! I am, of course, using the time wisely to finally show you my new nail polish.

You must know by now that I love holos.  LOVE them.  Somewhere along the way, I saw someone talking about a holo top coat, and was instantly intrigued.  I went onto Google (as you do) to have a look for reviews.  I found alot of swatches but nothing easily findable in the way of reviews, so I thought I'd buy it anyway and do my own review.  So here I am.

Firstly, lets see it:

Pretty rainbows hooray!  In real life it looks mega holo in the bottle, I could look at it all day.  I like the simplicity of the label too, I don't think it needs any more than that.

So lets have a look at some swatches.  The thing I was looking online for the most, and couldn't find, was a swatch of it by itself.  Well, I did one for you.  Here it is:

Just a linear holo sheen which is eminently safe for work.  I really enjoyed having the polish on my nails this way.  It was like my own secret portable rainbow.

But of course, that's not what it's designed for.  I got a nail wheel out and experimented:

It really pops over black!  I think you can click the picture to zoom in.  The two I was most pleased with were the yellow and the white.  All too often yellow holos are actually gold.  A yellow holo makes me happy.  And I don't think I've ever seen a white holo, it does work.

So how about on my nails?  I thought I would go double whammy and swatch over a thermal polish.  I chose In the Mood polish in a shade called Devious.  Here is is "naked":

It is pretty by itself, despite having tricky application, I still use it because I love the end result.  It dries semi-matte though, so I'm thinking a holo top coat might be just the thing.

Here's how it looked:

Application was easy, with no clumping or dragging, and the polish itself was fast drying.  No hassle at all.  This is without top coat, but I did apply a coat of HK Girl Glisten & Glow Topcoat after I took this picture, for longevity.  It didn't dull the holo, so that's another plus.  I got lots of compliments on this mani, and quite a few people asked me where I'd had them done *smug face*.

So what do I think?  I love it!  I don't know how I'm going to resist using it over everything.  I highly recommend.  I bought mine from Mei Mei's Signatures who ship internationally (link) for 17SGD which equates to roughly £8, plus shipping.  It probably worked out around £10 overall as I bought other polishes while I was there so combined shipping.  You can pay by PayPal so don't have to worry about exchange rates and currencies too much.  Considering how much it will save me from buying other coloured holo polishes, I think it's well worth it!  This is my first Liquid Sky Lacquer, and I'm sure it won't be my last.  Any recommendations?

So what do you think?  Are you mad on holos like me?

Until next time...

MASPOOASE x x x
~Wendy~

Fairy Dust vs Electric Lane Comparison

Hey there people, now here's a question.  Who doesn't want sparkly rainbows on their nails?  I know I do!  Nails Inc Electric Lane is the nail polish that made number one on my all time top ten polish list. If you want to look at that, here's the (link) which also includes a couple of Electric Lane swatches.

But I've seen manicures online using China Glaze Fairy Dust.  The difference between these two polishes is something I've been wondering for ages.  Finally, I couldn't wonder any longer so I bought some Fairy Dust so I can compare the two. 

I bought my China Glaze Fairy Dust from Amazon, and when it arrived, I couldn't see much difference at first glance:

The glitter pieces seem to be exactly the same size and colour to me.  So I made up some nail wheels with lots of different colours to try over:

Black: Deborah Lippmann - Fade to Black

White: Poundland Jess (link to full review)

Grey : Leighton Denny - Zero Gravity

Green: Barry M Gelly - Key Lime

Blue: Bourjois One Seconde - Bleu Water

Red: OPI- Big Hair...Big Nails

 

I decided to do one coat of each and no topcoat so you can fully tell the difference (if any).  Here's what I got:

I think you'll be able to guess, but the N's are the Nails Inc Electric Lane, and the C's are the China Glaze Fairy Dust.  As you can tell, more noticeably on the red and black is that the Electric Lane has a denser consistency.  However, in this light you can't really tell so well.  I have a couple of close ups which show it better:

 

Firstly the black:

I think this shows the difference in density much better, although in this lighting my photo seemed to come out a bit blurry, strange.  I think it might be the holo freaking my camera out.

 

Here's the red:

Again, a heavier glitter presence from the Nails Inc.  However, in my opinion, for a glitter topper, that's not necessarily a good thing.  The heavier covering of glitter is hiding the base polish somewhat, rather than enhancing it.

 

Also, Electric Lane dries to quite a sandy matte finish, which I like, but is another difference from Fairy Dust, which dries to more of a gloss as you can see.

 

Here's a picture I took in a rare sunny moment:

Definitely on the black you're starting to see the holo.

 

Here's how the brushes differ:

They both performed admirably, no problems with blobbing during application, and both glitters went on pretty evenly.

 

Here's a full nail swatch of Electric Lane over Nails Inc Devonshire Row:

So how much do they cost?

Nails Inc Electric Lane costs £12 for 10ml

China Glaze Fairy Dust costs £6.49 for 14ml

 

However, there isn't anywhere on the high street I can buy China Glaze, and Amazon have stopped free Super Saver Delivery unless you spend £10, so there will be extra to pay for shipping.  There is a Nails Inc stand in larger branches of Boots, so you can get them with no P&P to pay.

 

However, even with this taken into account, Fairy Dust is cheaper, and you get more.

 

I have managed to get full coverage on my nails with Electric Lane with four coats, I doubt you'd ever manage that with Fairy Dust.

 

So, which do I recommend?  Amazingly, I actually recommend Fairy Dust!  Electric Lane definitely has more bling, but I prefer the glossier and less overwhelming finish of the China Glaze.  Plus of course it's cheaper.

 

No one could be more surprised about this outcome than me, but that's the conclusion I came to.  I still like them both though in different ways, so you could certainly justify owning both.

 

Do you own either of these polishes? Or do you have a different favourite holo glitter topcoat?  Would love to hear about it if you do.

 

Until next time...

 

MASPOOASE x x x

~Wendy~