Darling Diva Polish OMG BFD

Darling Diva Polish OMG BFD

I've been waiting for what seems like weeks for a sunny day to wear this lovely colour-shifting glitter / holo polish........... and now we seem to be having a heatwave in the UK. I ran about 16 miles over the fells yesterday from Ambleside to Coniston and the heat and bright sunlight was almost overwhelming - it felt more like Arizona than Cumbria! I know I shouldn't be complaining, it's usually cold and rainy here! Anyway, I got a chance to show off this beauty to it's best advantage.

Darling Diva OMG is the sister polish to Bitchcraft; the difference is that where Bitchcraft has blue-red colour shifting glitters, OMG BFD has magenta-teal glitters. Both polishes have a charcoal jelly holographic base. Here's a bottle shot of OMG BFD so you can see what the glitters look like:

Darling Diva Polish OMG BFD

Even in full sun, this polish isn't the easiest to photograph! At different angles, it will flash or magenta, but it's hard to capture this effect on camera. Here are a couple of pictures in full sun, I think you get an idea of the difference!

Darling Diva Polish OMG BFD

And a couple of nail macros to show the glitter!

Darling Diva Polish OMG BFD

It's hard to capture both the holo AND the glitter at the same time - so just for fun I took a few shots using fill-in flash to show how holo the polish is:

Darling Diva Polish OMG BFD

I think OMG BFD is amazing; I love the combination of colour shifting glitter and the holo base. Application is flawless, I used three coats of OMG BFD alone here - I'm sure it would look good over a black base but I love the effect of the glitters suspended in the charcoal jelly so I chose to wear it alone rather than over another colour. You can see the transparency / jelly-ness of the base in the flash shots.

If I had to choose between the two polishes OMG BFD and Bitchcraft, right now I'd go for Bitchcraft, but that's just because I'm a blue polish mood at the moment; ask me again in a few weeks and I'd probably choose OMG BFD, 'cos I'm always changing my mind about which colours I like best!

I received Darling Diva Polish Bitchcraft as a sample for review; you can buy Darling Diva polishes from their Etsy Shop or from Llarowe or Mei Mei's Signatures - all these sellers ship worldwide. Norway Nails also stocks Darling Diva polishes and ships within Europe. You can follow Darling Diva on facebook for news of new colours and restock updates.

Darling Diva Firefly

Darling Diva Firefly over Illamasqua Load

I have another newly released polish from Darling Diva to share today. This one is Firefly, an acid green-yellow jelly with teal glitter and microglitter (some of the glitter looks to be holographic too). I was going to pair this with OPI Who The Shrek Are You but Sminkan wore Firefly over a similar green, so rather than repeat the lovely effect she got, I decided to go for a lighter base - Illamasqua Load - to create a brighter mani. If you don't know Illamasqua Load, it's a very pale yellow cream.

Darling Diva Firefly over Illamasqua Load

This turned out very pretty and summery! Teen Polish Junkie wore Firefly alone, without any base, and it looks great on her nails - but I don't think it would work as well on me with my longer nails and lighter skin tone.

I used two thin coats of Firefly over three coats of Illamasqua Load smoothed out with a thick coat of Seche Vite - pale yellow creams are notorious for streaking and I wanted a very even dense base for this mani.........because it's a glow in the dark polish!

Darling Diva Firefly over Illamasqua Load - photograph taken in the dark

With such a pale base, my nails glow almost white in the dark - very eerie, very cool. I love this effect, but it's very hard to capture on a photograph! This picture was taken with my compact camera in very low light, not pitch dark. In the photo, you can see how the different glitters block the light either fully (the coloured glitters, which appear black) or partly (the iridescent microglitter). The overall *glow* in the dark in real life is too intense to really see this though.

I'm really fascinated by the glowing in the dark, so I couldn't resist adding some nail art, especially after I'd seen this fantastic mani using black patterning over a glow in the dark polish at Lucy's Stash the other day. I wanted a bold, blocky pattern to give the glow in the dark the best chance of showing up. I drew the outline on with my Barry M black nail art pen, then filled in the black areas with Konad Special Polish in black and let it dry thoroughly before applying Sinful Colors Gel-Tech Top Coat. I chose the Konad black because I wanted as dense a black as possible (to block out the glowing pigments in the dark), even though I think this is the messiest make-up product I've ever owned when it comes to clean up and it's very prone to streaking. With a very careful application and letting it dry thoroughly before top coat I just about got away with it. I've been really impressed with the Sinful Gel-Tech Top Coat so far, it's thick, shiny, dries fast and doesn't shrink; and it's done great herein this mani too.

Here's the nail art in daylight:

Oh, and it's a Louboutin mani too! I hope this doesn't stain the insides of my nails!

And finally, in the dark. Different approach here from the plain mani above, as I couldn't get enough exposure to make a picture with my compact camera. These shots are very long shutter speed with my DSLR and macro lens, this really shows up the green glow ........... first, with an open door just letting a bit of room light in so you can see that this is four nails with a pattern on them.........

........... and finally, in total darkness, with just the Firefly parts of the mani glowing - when I move my hands around in the dark, this really does look like Fireflies dancing!!

Darling Diva Firefly was sent as a sample for my unbiased review; you can buy Darling Diva polishes from their Etsy Shop or from Llarowe or Mei Mei's Signatures - all these sellers ship worldwide. Norway Nails also stocks Darling Diva polishes and ships within Europe. The other polishes I used in this mani were all from my own collection and were purchased by me.

Darling Diva Polish Lucky Star

Darling Diva Polish Lucky Star

Lucky Star is another polish from Darling Diva's Madonna collection. It has hot pink square glitters in two sizes, and neon green and black star glitters in a white jelly base.  I layered it over a just off-white polish for this mani - Models Own Pro French Ivory.

Darling Diva Polish Lucky Star

This is two thin coats of Darling Diva Lucky Star over two thin coats of Models Own Pro French Ivory. With hindsight I should have used a third coat of the Models Own, as it still looks a bit streaky close up.

Darling Diva Lucky Star was easy to apply and no fishing for glitters required. I used a coat of Gelous and a final coat of Seche Vite quick drying top coat to finish the mani - mostly because I wanted to be sure that the corners of the stars didn't stick out on my curvy nails! If your nails are flatter than mine, you'll be fine with just a coat of SV (or your preferred topcoat) for a bit of shine and protection.

Darling Diva Polish Lucky Star

I love this polish over the cream coloured base; I also think it would look good over a very pale yellow such as Illamasqua Load, a very pale pink like Butter London Teddy Girl or a buff like OPI My Vampire is Buff. I'll be trying this out again over a couple of these colours in the future. Maybe even over a gradient!

I've been looking at my nails all day today and really loving the effect of this mani in the sunlight ( I was running a 24 mile fell race over some pretty rough ground, so looking at my nails might not have been such a great idea) but there is bit more to the polish than that............ Darling Diva Lucky Star is also glow in the dark (and *glow in UV / black light*)!

Darling Diva Polish Lucky Star (Dark)

This picture was taken in the dark; I don't have a black light source but neglelakkmani does - check out her review of this polish with a superb picture taken under UV light!

I received Darling Diva Polish Lucky Star as a sample for my unbiased review; you can buy Darling Diva polishes from their Etsy Shop or from Llarowe or Mei Mei's Signatures - all these sellers ship worldwide. Norway Nails also stocks Darling Diva polishes and ships within Europe. I bought the Models Own polish I used for undies  from my local Boots a while ago.

The Madonna collection, which also includes the lovely Material Girl I reviewed last week, launches today (Sunday 9 June) on Etsy. You can follow Darling Diva on facebook for news of new colours and restock updates.

Darling Diva Polish Bitchcraft

Darling Diva Polish Bitchcraft

Darling Diva Bitchcraft is a charcoal holo linear holographic polish with a bonus - small colour shifting glitters! The glitters in Bitchcraft shift from blue to red, and are quite stunning when they catch the light.

This is three coats with Seche Vite quick drying top coat, pictures are taken indoors in indirect sunlight. In this lighting, the holo effect is quite strong, and the glitters give a strong colour shift. This effect is quite different to the holographic duochromes (eg Ozotic Mish-Mash colours (532 etc) or Enchanted Polishes like Kids) - it's much more granular and, in my opinion, more interesting. Darling Diva Polish Bitchcraft is easy to apply and the SV doesn't dull the holo at all. The polish is also hardwearing, I took these pictures on the third day of wearing!

The polish base is quite jelly-like, so you can see a suspension of colour shifting glitter in amongst the holo - best seen in close up!

Darling Diva Polish Bitchcraft

Bitchcraft is the art of being bitchy while smiling sweetly :D Whatever, this polish is gorgeous!

I believe the glitters in this polish are similar to those in Ozotic 529, although I don't have that polish to do a comparison. I DO have Ozotic 528, which has a purple / green shifting glitter, and I also have a bottle of Darling Diva OMG BFD! which is the sister polish to Bitchcraft, and these glitters look very similar indeed (if not the same). I'll be posting about OMG BFD! soon; I was going to review both these polishes together but they are so lovely I think each deserves its own post.

In full sun, this is a serious holo!

Darling Diva Polish Bitchcraft - Full sun

Of course, with the holo full on, the impact of the colour shifting glitter is rather drowned out - but it's like having two polishes in one. I think in the full sun this polish is as comparable to Layla Flash Black for a strong linear charcoal holo, but it's easier to apply, wears much better and isn't spoilt by topcoat.

Here's a macro in the sun to finish with :)

Darling Diva Polish Bitchcraft - Full sun

I received Darling Diva Polish Bitchcraft as a sample for review; you can buy Darling Diva polishes from their Etsy Shop or from Llarowe or Mei Mei's Signatures - all these sellers ship worldwide. Norway Nails also stocks Darling Diva polishes and ships within Europe. You can follow Darling Diva on facebook for news of new colours and restock updates.

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl 

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl is just so *girly* - I love it! It's a hot pink jelly with a variety of pink and holographic glitters - some hex, some circular that all just comes together into a super-feminine polish.

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl 

As Material Girl is quite sheer, I chose to layer it over a polish almost identical to the base colour to avoid visible nail line. I think Material Girl would be fine on it's own on short nails, but I try to avoid vnl in my manis  mainly to disguise the fact that my nail beds are all different lengths! I used Barbara Daly Think Pink as my undies for this mani, which is a Tesco brand. Sally Hansen Insta Dri Presto Pink is almost identical.

Application of Material Girl was really easy, the formula is good and no fishing for the glitters is required. I didn't do any placement of glitters, this is just how they came out the bottle - I prefer a random distribution on my nails! I used three coats of Material Girl here - I was going to stop at two  but I really liked the jelly sandwich effect I was getting as the coats built up so I decided to add another coat. I used just one coat of Seche Vite quick drying top coat to smooth this manicure out.

In more subdued light, Material Girl takes on a brighter denser pink hue!

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl 

And here are a few macro shots to show the detail of the smaller glitters - look at that holo microglitter!

Darling Diva Polish Material Girl 

I received Darling Diva Polish Material Girl as a sample for review; you can buy Darling Diva polishes from their Etsy Shop or from Llarowe or Mei Mei's Signatures - all these sellers ship worldwide. Norway Nails also stocks Darling Diva polishes and ships within Europe. You can follow Darling Diva on facebook for news of new colours and restock updates.

Darling Diva Polish Dirty Deeds

Darling Diva Polish Dirty Deeds

I've reviewed a couple of  Darling Diva Polishes (Serendipity and Grumpy Bear) over the last few days, but I saved my favourite, Dirty Deeds, for last! Unfortunately the full glory of Dirty Deeds is difficult to capture in photographs, but I've done my best.

Dirty Deeds is from Darling Diva's Back in Black Collection; I have to confess I still like AC DC and I do have the Dirty Deeds CD in my car. Dirty Deeds was one of my favourite tracks when I was about fourteen and every time I hear it I can taste the cider............so when I took this polish out of the wrapper it made me smile from ear to ear! Teenage reminiscences apart, the polish is gorgeous - it's a sheer black jelly packed with glitter in many shapes and in a multitude of shades of lavender, purple and magenta, including matt, shiny and holo ones. The sizes of the glitter range from teeny tiny microglitter right up that massive great purple hex you can see on my ring finger. I like my glitters either simple or super-complex, and this is a great example of the latter!

Darling Diva Polish Dirty Deeds

Darling Diva Polish Dirty Deeds

The base is quite thin, but very smooth and easy to apply. I used three thin coats (no undies), with a layer of topcoat between the second and third coat - there's a lot of glitter in there and I wanted to avoid it clumping up on the third coat. To finish off I used a coat of Gelous and a thick coat of Seche Vite - as you can see the mani is smooth as glass with no lumpiness from the glitter. I love how the colour has built up and how complex the glitters are - the whole thing makes me think of a delicious, glittery blackberry jam. I think this is the polish I wanted Deborah Lipmann Bad Romance to be! Not a problem, I have it now, and I don't think there's any reason dark colours shouldn't be worn in Spring :)

Here are some shots in various lights - one of the things I like about this is that in dull light the polish looks very understated, like a dark vampy jelly, but move your hands around in the sunlight or under a lamp and it really comes to life. I was driving when the sun was shining yesterday and my nails were really quite distracting.

Darling Diva Polish Dirty Deeds

In stronger light, you can see the jelly quality of the polish

And finally, a couple more macro shots I took in indirect sunlight to show the glitters - look at the holo glitters!

Darling Diva Polish Dirty Deeds

I received Darling Diva Polish Dirty Deeds as a sample for review; you can buy Darling Diva polishes from their Etsy Shop or from Llarowe or Mei Mei's Signatures - all these sellers ship worldwide. Norway Nails also stocks Darling Diva polishes and ships within Europe. You can follow Darling Diva on facebook for news of new colours and restock updates.