This will probably be my last post before Wednesday's Challenge nails this week, because of course on Monday night I'll be at the elf Store Cardiff Grand Opening party. Cannot wait! So excited. I'll be sure to take lots of pics and you might even get an outfit and makeup post from me! My plan is to use as many elf products as possible for the night, which shouldn't be too hard because practically my whole makeup stash is elf!
One of my friends back home went to a Steve Wariner concert this week, and posted some pics and a video, and for the past 2 days I've had "The Weekend" stuck in my head.
"Couple of days isn't a very long time.
Why can't I just walk away? I used to be good at goodbye.
Out on the water, under the stars
I let the moonlight play a trick on my heart.
You had some fun for the weekend
But I'll be in love for the rest of my life.
You took me out to the deep end
And I fell right over; I didn't think twice.
I finally got something worth keeping
And if I can't have you tonight,
At least I had the weekend."
I miss the 80s. Not all of the 80s, mind you, but definitely parts of them. I remember this album pretty specifically, because it had 3 great songs on it, all of which I loved to sing. "Small Town Girl", "The Weekend", and "If I Could Make a Livin' Outta Lovin' You" are my favorite Steve Wariner songs of all time. When this song came out, I was 11 years old, and was still crushed that The Fall Guy had been cancelled, because, hello?!? Lee Majors! I also remember covering my Trapper Keeper with holographic Lisa Frank stickers. I loved watching the colors shine and shift and make rainbows. It is with this same childish wonder that I am still infatuated with holographic things, only now I put them on my nails, because I cannot fit a Trapper Keeper in my purse.
With that in mind, I'd like to show you ILNP's My Private Rainbow and Amanda Hugginkiss, two of the 19 different holo colors that Barbra has out right now. Forewarning, the weather (ie: sun) didn't want to cooperate with me on taking pics outside to show off the full brilliance of these holos, so these are LED lamp-lit and I apologize. Fortunately you can still make out the rainbows and sparkles, just not as fully as real life. No topcoat in these pics.
These little sweeties remind me once again of my fascination with all things shiny. Let's start with My Private Rainbow, henceforth abbreviated to MPR.
MPR is a holographic topcoat, having no base pigment of its own, but adding brilliant shine to any undies with which you wish to pair it. I swatched it both on its own and with two different undies. For the purposes of showing off the pigment, my swatches show different numbers of coats as listed.
As you can see, a single coat really doesn't do much on its own, but you can definitely see it coming through with just a single coat over a polish. I think for full effect, 2 coats over a base color would be ideal. On my middle and ring fingers, you can definitely see that holo shine coming through on a naked nail. In person, the flash is definitely more vibrant. This is a great topcoat because as you can see, there's absolutely no base pigment to distort or otherwise change your base color. Unlike my other supposed holo topcoat which has a silvery base pigment (used in my BCA post here), all MPR does is add a gleaming holo rainbow to whatever else you want to wear!
Moving on... this is Amanda Hugginkiss. The name itself makes me think of Bart Simpson's classic phone pranks, of course, but this polish is way more sophisticated than ol' Bart.
Of ILNP's two purple holos, Amanda Hugginkiss is the lighter. The darker shade, Grape-alicious, wasn't available when I placed my orders, or I would have ordered it instead. However, I'm not displeased with my purchase, because it's a fine shade on its own. Again, I've layered the polish similarly to show the difference a few coats can make.
As you can see, this is a very opaque color, not at all like MPR. Truly, this could be a single-coater, but I think 2 coats is ideal. It makes very little difference if you pair this with undies or not. I specifically chose a purple shade and a pale shade on my thumb and pinky to show that off (you can see the base colors peeking through along the base edges of the nails). While I do think that Amanda is definitely darker over the purple base, just look at the shine and holo flare coming off my thumb with the pale undies?
Overall, I am so pleased with ILNP, not just because of these holo polishes but also the incredible UltraChromes I reviewed in my last two posts, the outstanding customer service, and just an overall great branding effort from an indie polish. ILNP is one to watch, for sure. I hope you'll go take a look at her website and order at will and you'll see what I'm talking about.
Do you have a favorite indie brand polish or makeup to recommend? Let me know in the comments.