Femme Fatale Hydraxia

Femme Fatale Hydraxia over Barry M Countess

This is the last of the lovely glitters Femme Fatale sent me for review. The others I've tried are Spindleweb (another teal glitter topper, but with a strong green shimmer in its base), Lime Thief (a pretty lime green crelly with bright, matte glitters) and Snapvine (a teal crelly with lime and magenta glitter).

Hydraxia is a glitter topper with teal, blue and yellow glitters in various sizes. Most of the swatches I've have been over a blue or teal base; I wanted to try something a bit different but I'd been lacking inspiration, hence this polish is the last one of the four to get used. The base is tinted teal, which rules out a light base that isn't teal, blue or greenish. However, I had a sort of eureka moment when I added topcoat to Barry M Countess (a dark burgundy textured polish) - this really came alive with sparkle and just called out for a bit of blue and yellow! So it was Hydraxia's moment. Here's Hydraxia in the bottle:

And over Countess:

Femme Fatale Hydraxia over Barry M Countess

The application of Hydraxia is good, even with the sample size bottle. The glitter is very dense, so no fishing required and the polish spreads easily over the nail. Because the glitter was so dense, I used two coats of Gelous to smooth it out before adding a thick coat of Seche Vite.

Here's how it looks in macro view

Femme Fatale Hydraxia over Barry M Countess

Femme Fatale Hydraxia was sent as a sample for review. You can buy Hydraxia direct from Femme Fatale; they do ship international but shipping works out quite expensive unless you are buying a few bottles. There are details of international suppliers on the website.

I purchased Barry M Countess at my local Superdrug; I'll have a post up about that polish on it's own soon, as it's pretty awesome :)

Femme Fatale Snapvine

Femme Fatale Snapvine

Here's another lovely jelly glitter from Femme Fatale. This one is Snapvine, a rich teal green base with various sizes of hex glitter in hot pink and lime. Some of the lime glitters are matte and some are holographic, which makes the polish even more interesting. Some of the pink glitters look purple on my nails - I think that is the effect of the teal jelly over the pink. Here's a look at Snapvine in the bottle:

Femme Fatale Snapvine

I used two coats of Femme Fatale Snapvine over a base of Butter London Slapper for this mani. Holding the bottles side by side, the base of Snapvine looks very similar to Slapper, but on the nail Snapvine turned Slapper much darker and greener. I really liked the finished effect though. Application of Snapvine was fine, no need to fish for the glitter and the base applied very easily. I used a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite quick drying topcoat to finish this off.

Femme Fatale Snapvine was sent as a sample for review. You can buy this shade directly from Femme Fatale (shipping worldwide, or check their list of international suppliers for other shipping options) at their website.

Femme Fatale Lime Thief - swatch and review

Femme Fatale Lime Thief

What a gorgeous combination of colours and such an evocative name - the name reminds me of William Morris' Strawberry Thief, a textile design inspired by blackbirds stealing fruit from the artist's garden.

Femme Fatale Lime Thief is a bright lime green jelly polish with hexagonal glitter in various sizes in red, lime green and emerald green. I've seen it looking great alone as a jelly (check out Ida's lovely swatches to see this) but I wanted a more vibrant effect so I layered it over GOSH Early Green, a bright leafy lime that's maybe just a tad more yellow than the base of Lime Thief (have a look at this post for my pictures of Early Green on its own and with a black glitter).

This is two coats of Femme Fatale Lime Thief over one coat of GOSH Early Green. I used a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite quick drying topcoat to smooth the glitters out. Application of Lime Thief is flawless, and I was working from a mini bottle. The glitter comes out of the bottle easily without fishing, and spreads across the nail without clumping. The combination of colours is perfect - green and red are complementaries after all!

Femme Fatale Lime Thief

And a couple of macros to finish with.........., and by the way, I cut my nails square; they're perhaps a bit shorter than I'd really like right  now, but I wasn't getting on with those rounded corners from my last couple of posts at all - I know I like square or pointy, and nothing in between, so I must have been having a bit of a funny moment when I rounded my corners. Never mind, I like experimenting, and they're only nails, they grow back quick!

Femme Fatale Lime Thief

Then, just for fun, the day before I took this off, I added a bit of simple geometric nail art with striping tape and black polish. I used American Apparel Hassid here - it's a very dense black and I only needed one coat. I'm always amazed how much something like this can totally transform a mani - and it's a great trick for extending the life of a mani another day or two if you're bored with it or its become a bit worn looking!

Femme Fatale Lime Thief was sent as a sample for review. You can buy this shade directly from Femme Fatale (shipping worldwide, or check their list of international suppliers for other shipping options) at their website.  I purchased GOSH Early Green at my local Superdrug earlier this year. American Apparel Hassid was a gift from a friend a while ago.

Femme Fatale Spindleweb - swatch and review

Femme Fatale Spindleweb

Australian Indie Femme Fatale's Spindleweb is a deep teal polish with tons of glitter; the glitters are various shades of blue, green and teal and there is a strong green shimmer in the base. Some of the glitters are holographic and have reflected purple in my pictures.

I used two coats of Spindleweb over a base of Wet'n'Wild Sagreena The Teenage Witch, which is a shimmery mid-green, with a coat of Gelous to smooth the glitters and a coat of Seche Vite quick dry top coat to finish everything off. Femme Fatale recommend that Spindleweb is layered, rather than used alone. Out of curiosity I did try a couple of coats on its own, but I agree, it looks way better layered! Application was very easy, lots of glitter came out on the brush each time and it spread smoothly over the nail. My base of Sagreena pulls Spindleweb slightly greener than it looks in the bottle; the shimmers in Spindleweb are a similar colour to Sagreena. Have a look at Nail Gun XS' swatches of this one to see how it looks layered over blue, and Lucy's Stash to see it over black. You can see more detail of the shimmer and glitters in the macro pictures:

Femme Fatale Spindleweb

Nothing to do with the polish, but I rounded the corners of my nails the other day on a bit of a whim - and I'm not loving it. I think I'm going to be shortening to proper squares in the next few days!

I received this product as a sample for review, along with three other colours I'll be posting about soon. Although Spindleweb is very pretty, some of the other colours Femme Fatale sent me are much more to my taste - and I've done what I usually do when I get a bunch of polishes to try and gone for the one that appeals to me least first! I love the colours in this, but I'd never choose a glitter in a shimmer base myself - I prefer simpler combinations.

You can buy Spindleweb direct from Femme Fatale's website, although shipping is quite expensive for international orders and they do recommend group orders. International stockists include Ninja Polish in the USA, Harlow & Co in Canada and Norway Nails in Europe.