Born Pretty Holo Polish + British Indie Accents

A few weeks ago when the Born Pretty store brought out their holo range, they put 200 polishes up for grabs if you shared the information about them on certain social media platforms and I was lucky enough to 'win' one from this mini giveaway. I had a tough time choosing which colour I wanted because there were so many really pretty ones, but in the end I plumped for #8-a tealy blue shade. It only took a couple of weeks for the polish to arrive and it was really well packaged when it did come. It's slightly darker in the bottle than it was on the listing but it's still a really gorgeous blue-more cobalt than teal.

I have a habit of wearing similar base colours underneath my holos because they take so many coats to build to opacity, but I did test this one on my thumb to see its true colour:

Born Pretty Holo Polish #8, No topcoat

As you can see, the colour built up really well and I definitely could have got away with only 3 coats. The linear holo is really awesome and you can spot the full rainbow running through it. I didn't manage to get any shots in the sun because of our crummy weather at the moment, but it's still visible inside too. For my other fingers I used 2 coats of the holo polish over 1 coat of Maybelline-Dark Denim which has made the colour slightly darker than on its own, but not by much.

I did find the square shape of the lid a little difficult to hold whilst I was polishing but there was nothing that would cause major problems. The brush is quite long and flat so gives good coverage.
The polish on its own is beautiful, but I wanted to add a little something extra to make it even more special, and I had the perfect polish just sitting on my desk begging to be used. Pocket Money Polishes are a new, British, indie brand made by the lovely Charlie (who you may remember from her guest post in May) and she has designed two collections called her 'Glitter Babies'. (The new one is launching on July the 1st-check out all the details here). This polish is from her first collection and is called Starry, Starry Night and it's GORGEOUS. It's full of blue matte glitter, gold holo glitter and tiny white stars and is almost impossible to capture on camera, especially over the holo background, but I did my best:

This was the ONLY picture I could pick
up those gold sparklies in!

My camera just couldn't cope with everything I was throwing at it in these photos, so you can't see how pretty this combination is in real life I'm afraid, you'll just have to trust me that it is stunning. I keep getting dazzled by all the holoy sparkly goodness =)

You can buy the Born Pretty Holos here, currently they have a 50% off sale so are $6.44 for 6ml, with free shipping.
You can buy Pocket Money Polishes' Glitter Babies here, but they're seriously limited edition-Starry, Starry Night is already gone I'm afraid! They're £4 for 5ml + £1.50 postage. Look out for the new gorgeous collection arriving on the 1st of July!

~Nail Art Novice~

Featured on Imperfectly Painted

Today I have a mani featured on Imperfectly Painted in her 'Share With You Sunday' post

Here's a sneak peek:

but you'll have to go to Imperfectly Painted to see how it was done and find out what polishes I used [LINK]. Why not submit one of yours while you're there too?

~Nail Art Novice~

ABC Challenge: R is for Rainbows!

A few days after I received my first ever holo polish (and immediately fell in love) I got my second one in the post after purchasing it from the Nail Newbie's blog sale. (I ordered it in April before my polish ban, just so you know!) It was GOSH-Holographic Hero which is a limited edition silver holo polish. It shines with all the colours of the rainbow, so it was my immediate thought when it came to doing rainbows this week:

3 Coats-could have used two but smudged it!

But that was much too boring so I decided to add some nail art on top. On my fingers I've got a dotted rainbow ombre/gradient and then stripes on my thumbs because I loved them so much last time. I didn't want to cover up too much of the lovely holo, so I used striping tape between the colours. This way I've got rainbows on top of rainbows =)

Polishes used: Red-No 7-Siren, Orange-Barry M-Satsuma, Yellow-Rimmel I Heart Lasting Finish-Sunshine (I finally caved a few weeks ago and bought a decent yellow polish because the London Girl one was an amazing colour with an AWFUL formula!), Light Green-Cairuo-Green Tea 22, Dark Green-Rimmel I Heart Lasting Finish-Block Your Green, Light Blue-Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure-Himalayan Blue, Dark Blue-Maybelline Forever Strong Pro-Dark Denim, Purple-Maybelline Forever Strong Pro-Mellow Mauve. And Holographic Hero of course! The bottle says it's only good for 24 hours of wear, but I have topcoated the life out of it in the hope to prove them wrong-we'll see!

This is another mani I love, it's so colourful and cheerful and when the holo particles (if that's the right word!) catch the light it's amazingly sparkly too! I'm really hoping it at least lasts the weekend. Fingers crossed ey?

~Nail Art Novice~

Don't forget to check out the other ladies' 'R' entries:

One Hot Mother

Guys, why did no-one tell me that holo polishes were SO FREAKING PRETTY? Honestly, I have not stopped staring at my nails in the 24hours I've been wearing this polish. I'm definitely in love. The rainbows and the sparkles and the prettiness! Within about 5 minutes of applying it this happened:

*applies 1st holo polish, looks down at nails* "OMG I need more of these!" THEY'RE SO PRETTY!
— Nail Art Novice (@NailArtNovice) April 30, 2013

So...yeah. I've just banned myself from buying polishes and now I want ALL the holos-sad times.

This is (of course) Above The Curve-Mother Earth and she's beautiful. For starters she's a lovely-but-hard-to-describe nude/tan/bronzey/coppery/gold colour in different lights. Then there's the holo effect which I am constantly in awe of. I really wish I'd thought to get some pictures of this baby in the sunshine, because she lit up like the sun. I know that a lot of people probably think I'm going a bit OTT but I've never worn a holo polish before-don't you remember how magical your first time was? Cut a girl some slack, ey? =p
This is 3-4 coats, and there's still a hint of nail line in some of the pics. I guess she might need an under layer in future (does that work?).

Anyway. PICTURES.

Can I get an Ooft?
I really want to keep her on forever and ever, it makes me rather sad to know she has to come off tomorrow so I can paint my nails for my show. SIGH.

I think I've definitely found my new love!!

~Nail Art Novice~