Iconic Effect Astral Plane

Iconic Effect Astral Plane 

This is my first Iconic Effect polish! Quite timely because the day it arrived, Iconic Effect was announced UK Indie Brand of the Year, and winner of the best UK Indie Polish (Extreme Holo Topcoat) so I was feeling a bit sheepish not having tried them yet. Especially since I won the UK Indie Mani of the Year with my Quirk Madame Thenardier mani (last mani in this post here)   :)

It's a super holographic duochrome in a bright purply-blue with a strong purple shift, a sort of coppery purple. Although I have a lot of pictures, at this time of year its hard to do a holo polish justice, but in artificial light, it is really holo - I'm looking forward to revisiting this one in the summer. Here it is in the best sunlight I had all day:

And in more subdued light, you can see the duochrome shift better...........

Popping it under my daylight lamp really shows off the holo, although this burns out the duochrome. This polish seems impossible to photograph showing off both the duochrome AND the holo at the same time!

Iconic Effect Astral Plane 

Macros are obligatory I think - starting with an abstract, fuzzy one; I love how the holo particles spread out into little pools of colour!

Iconic Effects Astral Plane 

These two are a bit more representative of what the polish looks like under my daylight lamp, with holo in full on bling mode! I could only take macros under the daylight lamp, the DSLR and macro lens need this much light.

Iconic Effect Astral Plane 

In terms of application, Iconic Effect Astral Plane is very straightforward. The polish is rather sheer, so I applied it over a dark blurple base (OPI Sapphire in the Snow) to make the duochrome and holo pop, as suggested in the swatches on Etsy. Next time I'll use it alone; I think that would give a softer look and it would maybe take a few coats to build up a good density of colour.

Actually, I bought two Iconic Effect polishes (to spread the cost of shipping, or is it so they don't get lonely in the post - I can't remember, lol); the other one I got was Northern Lights. Northern Lights is another holographic duochrome, blue-purple again but this time with more of a teal base. I think the shift is more coppery than Astral Plane.  I added a gradient of this polish over Astral Plane. The difference between the two is quite subtle but I like the finished effect!

Iconic Effect Astral Plane with Northern Lights gradient

Iconic Effect Astral Plane with Northern Lights gradient

Honestly, I'm not surprised how popular these polishes have been, they are superb! I purchased Iconic Effect Astral Plane and Northern Lights from the Iconic Effect Etsy shop.

Crowstoes Indian Summer (with ILNP Birefringence and some gold leaf!)

Crowstoes Indian Ocean with ILNP Birefringence and Gold Leaf

I love Duochromes! When I first saw Crowstoes Indian Summer on Ida's blog Ida Nails It, I just HAD to have it! Ida called it the motherofallpolish and I have to agree! It's magenta/red/purple duochrome and totally fantastic. I just used two coats without undies of any sort for this mani - I prefer the squishy, jelly sort of look. Ida did a comparison of Indian Summer *commando* and over black - check that out at the link above!

Application, as I'd expect from Crowstoes, was flawless. Lauri has been making polishes for a while now, and they are always superb. She has a fantastic eye for colour too.

Crowstoes Indian Ocean

In some artificial light, Indian Ocean looks like a red shimmer - but sadly I couldn't get a decent picture because when it was reddest the room was rather dark and my photos came out all fuzzy. Boo!

This macro I took in daylight really show the depth and complexity in Indian Ocean, you can see the magenta shift around the edges of my nails:

Crowstoes Indian Ocean

After a couple of days I decided I'd add a gradient with another super Indie duochrome, I Love Nail Polish (ILNP) Birefringence. Birefringence is a blue to purple duochrome, with an underlying shimmer very similar to Indian Ocean, so I thought I could combine the two in a gradient to make a super-duochrome...........

Crowstoes Indian Ocean with ILNP Birefringence

It's just a simple sponge gradient; I always use a slightly dampened sponge. I think this idea worked; I was well pleased with it anyway! Here's a shot in bright, direct sunlight to show the colour shifting pigments glowing RED!

Crowstoes Indian Ocean with ILNP Birefringence

My final addition to the mani was some real gold leaf. I don't own a gold leaf topper, but I do have a gold leaf..... it's very easy just to pull bits off and press them onto your nails. And the advantage of doing it like this is that you can get just as much or little gold onto your nails as you want, and pieces the size you want them, where you want them. Maybe I'm just a control freak but I had great fun adding the gold and I love how it turned out. Sort of *regal* with the gold and purples!

I topped this off with a layer of non-quick drying topcoat then Seche Vite to get a good gloss. I was a bit vary of adding SV onto what was effectively a four day old mani, I think it might have caused shrinkage.

Crowstoes Indian Ocean with ILNP Birefringence and Gold Leaf

I purchased Crowstoes Indian Ocean from Rainbow Connection UK - the polishes seem quite pricey but when you factor in the difference in shipping costs it works out about the same as buying indies direct from the US. And it's quicker and less risky with the mail. Internationally, the best place to get Crowstoes is Llarowe. ILNP Birefringence came to me via a friend but you can buy direct from the ILNP Etsy Shop. My gold leaf came from Waitrose but I guess you can find it in most supermarkets in the baking aisle!

Untried Polish Challenge Day 8 *Oldest* - Boots No7 Dollar

Boots No7 Dollar

I'm pretty sure this is my oldest untried, but I'm not sure how long it has actually been lying around.......... two  or three years, maybe longer! On day 8, I'm still only halfway through this challenge, it feels like I've been doing this forever :(

I vaguely remember getting this polish from Boots with one of their £5-off-No7 vouchers when No7 polishes were £5 or £5.50, and thinking what a nice colour it was. I know it was before I discovered all the cool stuff - indies, US niche brands like RBL and Cult Nails, higher-end trendies like DL and Illamasqua. And at a time when I was dead against shimmer - I thought shimmer was the same as *pearl* and therefore old fashioned and brush strokey............ so it never got used.

Two coats plus SV, it's a nice colour and not in the least bit brush strokey!

Boots No7 Dollar

For some reason this colour reminded me of one of the shades in one of my absolute favourite duochromes, Ozotic 505, so after a day or so I added Ozotic 505! The Ozotic duochromes are semi-transparent and need a dark or bright base to make them pop, and I love the effect you can get by sandwiching glitter in there. I used a coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Hades, which is a black jelly with silver, iridiscent and black glitter (including some huge black hexes), between No7 Dollar and Ozotic 505. Hades isn't a polish I like much, it's intended to darken the base colour it's used over but the black jelly has ended up streaky every time I've used it over a bright colour, and when I've used over dark colours, you can't see the black glitter. But I though the black jelly in this case would darken up the colour of Dollar and make Ozotic 505 stand out a bit more. I'm happy with the result, and amused by that massive hex on my ring finger! Any glitter polish would work to get an effect like this with the Ozotic duochrome polishes.

The shifts in Ozotic 505 show up best in diffuse light:

Boots No7 Dollar with Ozotic 505 and glitter

And here it is on strong light:

And finally a macro in direct sunlight to show the glitter and pigments in the Ozotic:

Boots No7 Dollar with Ozotic 505 and glitter

I purchased Boots No7 Dollar from Boots some time ago, it didn't make it into the new range the last time they changed the bottle shape, but I've seen it available for a couple of quid from discount sellers online. Ozotic 505 is (very sadly) discontinued now, but certainly worth grabbing if you ever see it in a blog sale or swap!

Other bloggers taking part in this untried challenge are:

Jonochi at Just Add Polish
Masha at Lost In Lacquer
Raine at Lacquer Lily
Amy at Fancy Side
Amanda at Designer Nail Accents
Sam at Polished Art
Lizajane at Organic Neglect
Blueberry Pie at Blueberry Nails
Kristina at Lacquer Fetish 

Missy at Gnarly Gnails
Uni at Acetone FIles
Erica at Coat of Mani Colors
Isabel at Little Fairy

Raux at Raux Polish 

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.

Enchanted Polish Kids

Enchanted Polish Kids

I was lucky enough to get a couple of Enchanted Polishes at the last restock! This one is 'Kids', a fantastic teal blue holo with a lilac duochrome shift.

This polish looks similar to Ozotic 532 in the bottle, but the big difference is that whilst the Ozotic multichromes and holographic multichromes are quite transparent and need a base to show them off to full effect, this polish is fully opaque and needs no undies. This mani is just two coats, plus Seche Vite quick drying topcoat. Yes, SV! I took a chance, and the SV doesn't diminish the holo at all.

I don't think I need to add many words to this post - I've taken lots of pictures in different lights and at different angles, and I'm going to let them speak for themselves!

First, in strong sunlight, it's a light teal with a violet shift

Enchanted Polish Kids

And in slightly less direct light, the colours appear a little richer....

Enchanted Polish Kids

A bit of tipping and tilting shows off the violet tones....

And the blue...

Enchanted Polish Kids

And a fuzzy shot to show the holo...

Enchanted Polish Kids

And finally a couple of closer shots showing the pigments in a bit more detail...

Enchanted Polish Kids

So........ another fantastic polish from Enchanted! This is my third Enchanted polish, the others I have are Octopus's Garden and Spinkled which are equally wonderful. If trying to compare Kids to Octopus's Garden, I'd say that Kids is a holo with duochrome and Octopus's Garden is a duochrome with holo!

I purchased Enchanted Polish Kids direct from Enchanted Polish's website; be aware Enchanted Polish is extremely popular and sells out very quickly, but  Chelsea posts updates on her facebook page. Another good way to keep updated on restocks is to sign up for the newsletter. Llarowe also carries Enchanted Polish, but again most colours sell out pretty quickly. Both Enchanted Polish and Llarowe ship internationally.