A layering experience involving texture, shimmer, holo and glitter

I don’t always know where my manis are going when I start – today’s mani is a good example.

I started out with a textured polish I bought in Bratislava, Slovakia – princess of central eastern Europe. It’s a Gabriella Salvete, it’s from the Stars collection and it’s called Azzuro 08. It’s a beautiful pale blue packed with silver shimmer. Application was easy and I used two coats for full opacity. Drying time: good.

Here’s what that first step looked like:

Pretty, isn’t it? 

I rummaged around in my box of untrieds to see if there was something I could mix it with. I found a Miss Sporty that actually doesn’t belong in the box of untrieds, since I’ve worn it once before, oops! It hasn’t got a name, but it’s number 510 and that is also from my vacation in Slovakia.

It is a lovely deep blue shimmer, and very opaque. I applied one layer of it, and before it dried I dapped some of it off with a makeup sponge. I wanted to create a mosaic effect, and here’s what it ended up looking like:

So far so good, but I wasn’t quite satisfied. My eyes caught a holo topper from Dance Legend that sat on my table. I thought “why not” – and applied a layer of it. I love the effect it gives, but it does grey the underlaying polishes quite a lot. Here’s that step – the first picture is taken in the light box: 

I need to show you what it looks like in the sunshine too, it’s quite spectacular:

I like it, but I still didn’t feel as if it was really complete. I found a glitter from Claire’s, called Dizzy. It’s a clear base with neon hexagons in yellow, green, pink and blue. I dapped the glitter on, because it pretty much goes where it wants to go and not necessarily where I want it to be, haha!

When that was dry I applied a layer of topcoat, and here’s what my layering experience ended up looking like – tadaa:

Do you ever experiment with layering? I must admit that I think it’s pretty cool.