Wednesday 21 January 2015

Nail Polish Collection Part 1

Apparently, the prioritisation of my posts hasn't sat well with my lovely lady friends. To make up for this, these posts are ALL about nail polishes and ALL the pictures of nail polishes that I own. I'm warning you, it's going to be picture heavy and brand-name heavy! Don't blame me if you get headaches from the sparkles, Chemistry kitty is ALL about the sparkles after all! <3

First things first, abbreviations of the brand names if they are too long to type out:
CA - Coco Allure
CG - China Glaze
EP - Enchanted Polish
FF - Femme Fetale (Polish)
HP - Hit Polish
HS - Hits Speciallità
MF - Max Factor
PI - Pure Ice
PP - Picture Polish
PS - Pretty Serious (Polish)
SH - Sally Hansen

I try to not buy polishes that are too similar to each other, so there won't be many dupes in here. However, the nude pink colours appeared to be very similar in the photo but actually have different highlights. If you're interested in those I can make another post as a request.

Moving on, I try to categorise my collection (self-diagnosed OCD) by type and then order by colour. There are a few polishes that don't like to conform to only one category, I have outcasted them as loners!

Photo information: All photos were taken indoor but under natural sunlight (on my dining table next to the window, FYI), they have only been cropped to appropriate size but not edited to enhance colours or finish. I was lucky that the white balance was consistent throughout the photos. Again, if you'd like to see particular polishes under different lighting or the complete colour-shift, just throw me a kibble. ;) 


The Colour-Shifting Multichromes:

1. Opaques
The majority of this set consists of the Hits Speciallità Mari Moon Multigirl Modern (HM) and Unique (HU) sets. They do not have a holographic finish, so I have added a bit of silver holographic metal flakes (1/250" and 1/500") for some additional sparkle effects. Most other polishes were swatches as originals. the altered ones will be denoted with an *, and the alternation will be explained in the description.
Left to right: Unconventional (HU), Dreamer (HM), Artsy (HU), Pupa - Iridescent P157, Cutie Pie (HM), Darling (HU), Chameleon (HM), Cool (HM), Trendy (HU), and EP - I Am The Walrus,
Top row: Swatched on its own with 2-3 coats,
Second row: Swatched 1-2 coats over CG - Black Leather,
Extra (bottom): EP Octopus's Garden - dupe of Dreamer.
Colour-shift effect 
Personally, I prefer these polishes over a dark polish, as it really brings out the colour-shifting effects of the pigment. I also prefer the formula of the Hits polishes, they spread better and smoother than my Enchanted polishes and are cheaper. EP does have a better colour selection and a better holographic finish. That's just my experience with the ones I have, it'll probably differ with batches.

2. Flakies 
This type of colour-shifting polishes have relatively large and irregular particle size. Particle size explains the physical light-reflecting properties of these materials, i.e. larger particle size = more sparkly and smaller particle size = more shimmery. The coating (thermal, UV colour-changing types) also affects the colour and reflectivity of the particles, but that's a different and more complicated story. The 2 left ones in the photo below are more like iridescent glitter but who cares, but they look right at home next to the flakies. :p 
HP - Irisation, CG - Snow Globe, PP - Festival, SH - Hidden Treasure (old), Inglot - 205, HS - Jazz (matte top coat), HS - Valsa, Innisfree - Pro69, and Inglot - 204 (matte top coat).
Since most flakies are duochrome but not multichrome, I really like to mixed up ALL the colours to get a unicorn vomit (like PPs Festival but MORE)! =D 

3. Glitters
Colour-shifting glitters have a much more limited colour range compared to the pigments and flakies. So far, I've only seen four opaque metallic multichrome glitters, and the rest are actually clear/iridescent. I don't have all of them, and don't think I will, they always look prettier in photos and the bottle than in real life. 
Ozotic - 529, HS - Seapunk Mermaid, CA - Jupiter Aurora, PI - Heart Breaker*, Glam Nails (from Target), Marcia (Sasa HK), Kleancolor - Chunky Holo Bluebell, and MF - Fantasy Fire.
Ozotic doesn't make the multichrome glitter polishes anymore, but FF stocks an indie brand (Indigo Bananas) that has all four colours, if you're in Australia. Seapunk Mermaid is actually a mix between Jupiter Aurora and Ozotic 529, but Jupiter Aurora has the highest glitter density among them. Heart Breaker is a very fine green to blue duochrome shimmer, so I added some 0.008" green to blue shifting glitter to jazz it up again.

4. Glass Flakes
These ultra-thin particles are called glass flakes because they are made from borosilicate. Due to their thinness (didn't think it's real word, but it's in the dictionary), the application of the polishes is extremely smooth and the desired opacity is easy to achieve by additional coats. The flakes themselves are again transparent, but they are much more sparkly than  the other types of colour-shifting materials.
A'pieu - Aurora VL02, Ozotic - Sugar 903, Ozotic - Beam 905, TKB Starbite pigments*: Marinda Star,  Cherika Moon, Sharina Sun, Innisfree - Pro72 and Pro 73.
Covergirl - Midnight Magic, Maybelline - Brocades, PS - Galaxy Invader and Phantom Planet on its own and over black.
As you can see, the polishes in the bottom photo have smaller flakes than the ones in the photos above; therefore, creating a smoother, more metallic shimmer. I thought the Maybelline one was colour-shifting, but it's NOT. Oh well, it only cost 2 bux!

Sorry I didn't swatch the Innisfree polishes over black, I know it makes the colour-shift hard to see, but you won't be able to see the cute mixture of glitters if I did. I'm really impressed with the quality of these Korean nail polishes, they are also reasonably priced! I'll definitely be making another post just for them! <3

I have to stop here because my husband warned me that I'm screwing myself out of writing material. I think this is enough nail polishes in one post. I know there seemed to be a few pop ups of polish alterations of my own; again, I'll make a different post for  those and 'Franken' polish supplies.

I'm going to watch Supernatural now! It's finally back after the break! xoxoxo



1 comment:

  1. What colours does Graham look best in (pictures required)?

    ReplyDelete