Blue and yellow gradient with dots.............

I couldn't come up with a snappy name for this mani! It's a blue and yellow gradient with brown dots! The colours were inspired by an exhibition of small portrait works by Chris Ofili I saw recently. In the one which really caught my eye, the subject was wearing bright blue and yellow against her brown skin and hair. Ofili is best known for his use of elephant dung in his paintings - hence my use of the brown dots.

The base for the mani is a gradient of Butter London Jasper and Illamasqua Noble:

Butter London Jasper and Illamasqua Noble

Then I added dots in a range of brown shades - Essie Case Study, Nails Inc Hampstead Gardens, China Glaze Mahogany Magic and Essie Little Brown Dress.

And a few close ups of the dots to finish with:

I really enjoyed wearing this - I wore it for about a week, until my nails had grown an unacceptable gap around my cuticles. All the polishes here are old favourites from my collection, apart from Butter London Jasper, which I purchased recently at my local Boots.

An InLinkz Link-up

Experimental Layering - China Glaze Fortune Teller and Pahlish Bony Fingers

China Glaze Fortune Teller with Pahlish Bony Fingers

I was just playing around with a couple of my older polishes when I came up with this effect. Both are glitter polishes with black jelly bases; Fortune Teller has copper glitter and Bony Fingers white, silver and holographic glitters in various sizes. Both of the polishes also have a halloween theme, so probably a weird choice for April, but I don't think anyone should let the names of colours dictate when they are worn! China Glaze Fortune Teller was from their 2009 Halloween Collection; just for completeness, here is Scrangie's review and pictures of Fortune Teller when it was first released. Palish Bony Fingers was released for Halloween 2012, and is also discontinued now.

I started a mani with Fortune Teller, but I thought it needed something of a 'highlight' so I decided I would layer Bony Fingers through it. I did one coat of Fortune Teller, one coat of Bony Fingers then another coat of Fortune Teller. Fortune Teller must have a thicker black base than Bony Fingers, because the second coat of Fortune Teller almost drowned out the white, silver and holo glitters. Not a problem; I just added a further coat of Bony Fingers. A coat of Gelous and a thick coat of Seche Vite smoothed the whole lot out.

Here are some pictures at various angles and lights that show how well the glitters work together.

China Glaze Fortune Teller with Pahlish Bony Fingers

 I always think it's more fun to combine polishes and come up with something unique than just to wear polish straight from the bottle!

China Glaze Fortune Teller with Pahlish Bony Fingers

China Glaze Hologlam Strap On Your Moonboots - swatch and review

China Glaze Hologlam Strap on Your Moonboots

This is such a wonderful colour! As I'm sitting here, typing in a darkish room with an overhead light, the colours are quite mesmerising as my fingers are moving around.

I used two coats of China Glaze Strap On Your Moonboots over Nfu.oh Aquabase. No top coat. If you've not used an aquabase before, it's a basecoat which dries to a super-shiny finish and is a recommended base for more difficult holo polishes. When I swatched When Stars Collide and Infra Red I just applied the polishes to my bare nails and I was perfectly happy with the results, but a reader asked me if I thought they needed an aquabase so I'm using it this time round. It makes application really smooth and if you have an aquabase to hand (and time for it to dry - aquabase takes about 20 minutes to dry properly) I'd say go ahead and use it. But if you don't have one, you can certainly use these polishes without.

These first pictures are taken near a window, with an overhead light in the background. We don't have anything like full sun here today, but I guess this is the sort of effect you'd get in full sun. I'm really looking forward to wearing this polish in the summer!

China Glaze Hologlam Strap on Your Moonboots 

The base colour is a dark, slightly teal-leaning blue, but the holographic flare seems to range from greenish to a very dark purple.  Here are some pictures in indirect light, just showing the base colour. This is how the polish would look on an overcast day; the I like the base colour a lot and it is something I'd choose to wear in it's own right, quite apart from the holo awesomeness! There is no streakiness at all in this, the finish looks soft and velvety.

China Glaze Hologlam Strap on Your Moonboots - Low light

Finally, just because I could, I took a few pictures in direct light, to show how striking the colour shifts in this holo can be! Obviously, don't expect the polish to look like this all the time. But when you catch the light like this, it's amazing!

China Glaze Hologlam Strap on Your Moonboots - Direct Light

I guess the question in everybody's mind when there is a new dark blue holo is 'but how does it compare to OPI DS Glamour?'  Well, the two polishes are a different style of holo; Strap On Your Moonboots is a very fine linear holo, while DS Glamour is a scattered holo, with much bigger particles. The base colours are slightly different too - DS Glamour is more of  a straight-up blue where Strap On Your Moonboots leans slightly teal. In low light the don't look *that* much different - you can see the tonal differences in the base colour and OPI DS Glamour has a sparkly feel where China Glaze Strap On Your Moonboots is more of a velvety metallic finish.

China Glaze Hologlam Strap on Your Moonboots  / OPI DS Glamour - Low light

Move into strong light and the differences between the linear and scattered holo become more pronounced -

China Glaze Hologlam Strap on Your Moonboots  / OPI DS Glamour - Direct Light 

To be honest, I don't know which I prefer! I'm very fond of OPI DS Glamour, so I didn't expect there to any contest but I'm surprised how much I like Strap On Your Moonboots. I think they are different enough to justify owning both :)

I purchased China Glaze Strap On Your Moonboots from Faith Cosmetics at Amazon.co.uk. OPI DS Glamour is long discontinued I'm afraid, although it occasionally turns up on ebay, or you might be lucky enough to find a bottle lurking on a back shelf at a shop or salon.

China Glaze Hologlam Infra Red - swatches and review

China Glaze Hologlam Infra Red

I don't have much to say about this one really. It's a hot pink holo. I mean, it's a holo, its PINK.... and its HOT!

This is two coats, no basecoat, no topcoat. Application is flawless, the formula seems a bit thicker and richer than the old China Glaze OMG holos and therefore easier to handle. I don't have any similar colours to compare it too - but I guess it's probably a bit like QT from the OMG collection, which sadly I don't have.

Pictures are taken indoors, near a lamp, there's been no sun in the UK today! One one of my screens the base pink looks quite a bit warmer than in real life, on my other screen it looks just about right - which goes to show you can never trust how colours look on computer screens! Also, it's worth saying that in the bottle, this colour looks quite dark and murky, almost like a 'berry' shade and you can hardly see the holo. Don't be put off by this if you're looking at the polish in a bricks and mortar store - this is one that really comes to life on the nail.

Spamarama at different angles....................

China Glaze Hologlam Infra Red

I purchased China Glaze Infra Red from Faith Cosmetics on amazon.co.uk. That's a great seller, I ordered yesterday, and got the polish this morning; postage was just £1.

I also reviewed When Stars Collide from the China Glaze Collection recently, which is a lovely deep plummy colour. And I can't believe how much my nails have grown in the few weeks since that post! I'm much happier with them a bit longer :)

China Glaze Hologlam - When Stars Collide - Swatch and review

I couldn't resist trying one now that the China Glaze Hologlam collection is available in the UK! Even though holographic isn't my favourite finish, I loved the China Glaze OMG collection from a few years ago, so I couldn't resist ordering a shade from the new collection to try. We've seen recently how brands that released awesome holos a few years ago have been coming out with much less pronounced holos, so I was a little nervous how this one would stand up to comparison with the OMG collection.

I went for When Stars Collide, a plummy-maroon shade. I like my holos dark, and I don't have a colour quite like this in my collection so this seemed a perfect choice.

Here is When Stars Collide - three coats, no basecoat, no topcoat. This is how I normally wear the finer holograpic polishes such as China Glaze OMGs, Layla etc. In the past I've tried to wear holos with various basecoats but usually end up with dragging or bald spots; I just get on better without. Topcoats are notorious for dulling the holo effect too - so again I conclude better just go without!

China Glaze When Stars Collide

China Glaze When Stars Collide

Pictures were taken indoors, near a lamp but not in direct light. I couldn't wait for a sunny day to swatch these - this is February in the UK after all! As you can see the holo 'flame ' effect is very distinct. The polish is also a great colour. The only holo I can think of which might be similar in colour is Layla Misty Blush, which I don't own to compare. The Layla holos I do own however, are rather a different texture to this - I think I prefer the smooth, velvety holo of China Glaze.

Then I decided to compare When Stars Collide to the purple colours in the OMG collection - IDK and LOL. My first impression is that When Stars Collide is a thicker consistency than both IDK and LOL. It's possible that the older colours may have just thinned over time, but whatever, When Stars Collide was a bit easier to apply than my OMG colours, which tend to drip and dribble a bit if you're not careful.

LOL and IDK are both more holo than When Stars Collide - the flame is longer and brighter. However, this isn't a big difference and overall I really like When Stars Collide. These pictures are taken at different angles and with different lighting to try to show how the holo effects vary between the three colours.

Comparison - China Glaze When Stars Collide, IDK and LOL

I purchased China Glaze LOL from Faith Cosmetics on Amazon.co.uk. I've bought from this seller several times and been very happy every time. My order was shipped the day I ordered and postage was just £1. China Glaze LOL and IDK were limited edition polishes several years ago.

I also reviewed Infra Red from the China Glaze Collection recently.