Kiko Dark Heroin Laser Collection - swatches

Kiko Dark Heroin Laser Collection ~ #432, 433, 434 and 435

Swatches

I’m really fond of Kiko’s polishes. They’re great quality at reasonable prices. Until recently it’s been a bit hard to get them without having a mule. But that has changed, because Kiko has decided to ship to Denmark! Woohoo!!

So allow me to show you the four polishes in the Laser collection from winter 2013.

First one up is #432, Fluent Red. It’s a lovely, shimmery red. The formula is great and pigmentation is even greater. Drying time is average.

This, sweet ladies, is one coat, and no topcoat:

Is that sweet as sugar and gorgeous or what?

I really love this red!

Next one up is #433, Gothic Purple. It’s a duochrome that shifts between deep eggplant purple and dark green. Application was really easy and this is also a one coater. Here’s what it looks like when it shows its purple side:

And here’s more of the dark green.

Here’s a pic that shows the colourshift pretty well.

Third one up is #434, Psychedelic Blue. That’s a beautiful vibrant blue with a gorgeous shimmer. Same great formula, same great coverage.

One coat, dear ladies, and no topcoat:

It’s quite shiny in itself, isn’t it!

This could easily turn into a favourite blue!

Last one up is #435 Venom Teal, a dark teal with turquoise shimmer. The bottle suggests that it’s a teal to purple duochrome, but that doesn’t show up on the nails at all. 

The formula is great and again, I only had to apply one coat to make it look fantastic. Take a look at how pretty it is:

I’m usually a bit suspicious about polishes with a blackened base, but the turquoise shimmer really makes the teal pop in the prettiest way possible.

I’m impressed!

Overall impression:
Kiko did a great job with this collection. I should mention that there are two more polishes in the Laser collection, namely #431 Sensual Candy, which is a light frosty pink and #436 Strong Chocolate, which is a dark brown with copper shimmer. Neither of them spoke to me in any language I wanted to learn, but the rest of the collection is so me, and I don’t regret buying a single one of them. Great formula, great pigmentation and great colours. They all have average drying time, and they’re all one coaters.

The collection was limited edition and is now discontinued.

Number of coats: 1
Drying time: Average

Finish: Beautiful shimmers/duochrome
Overall impression: Fantastic quality, great colours, great polishes!

Buy again: Yes

A England ~ Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty

A England ~ Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty

Cranberry scattered holo

A England’s Burne-Jones Dream Collection from late summer 2013 had five polishes. I bought two; I showed you Rosebower yesterday. Briar Rose also wanted to come out and play, and here she is.

The formula is a bit on the thick side, but I didn’t have problems with application at all. The polish covered in one single coat, and the drying time was average. I guess it would have been fast if the polish had been a bit thinner, but oh well. The fact that it’s a one coater makes up for that in my opinion.

Here, sweet ladies, is a picture taken with flash. This is one coat:

It’s amazing, isn’t it?

The holo dust give this polish a very special dusty expression when out of the sunshine/flashlight. I’m not usually a fan of dustiness, but I must admit that I do like it when it’s like this!

I wasn’t in the mood for big experiments or anything fancy, so I dug up an old Icing topper called “Call Me Glitzy”, which is basically a clear base with iridescent glitters in various sizes. I applied a coat of that and left it like that.

Here’s your flash picture:

The glitters drown in the flashlight, so here’s a picture taken in lower lights:

Dreamy, and fits the nickname “Sleeping Beauty” so well in my opinion!

Number of coats: 1
Drying time: Average

Finish: Scattered holo, very beautiful!
Overall impression: Great quality polish, good value for money!

Buy again: Yes

You can buy A England polishes from Edgypolish. They ship worldwide.
You can find more info on Edgy Polish’s Facebook page, link here.

A England ~ Rosebower

A England ~ Rosebower

Red scattered holo

I seriously don’t know why I hardly ever pull out an A England polish from my stash. I mean, all the ones I’ve got are gorgeous colours and finishes.

Let me show you an example: Rosebower. It’s from the Burne-Jones Dream Collection from late summer 2013. It’s red and it’s gorgeous, I kid you not!

Application was a dream and so was the coverage. It covered in one single coat! Drying time was good too, in fact, I don’t have any problems to report at all!

Let me show you the prettiness on my nails. Here, sweet ladies, is one coat and no topcoat:

Is that amazing or what? these two first pics are taken with flash:

Here’s what Rosebower looks like in lower light and without flash:

I love this red that leans towards fuchsia!

I had stamping in mind (surprise!!). I used a plate from Bundlemonster called BM-423 together with Color Club’s ‘Beyond’, a beautiful black holo, as my stamping polish. Here’s what it ended up looking like in a flash pic:

And another one. It’s the first time I have chevrons on my nails and I love them!

Here’s the low light picture:

I think I should wear my A Englands more often, don’t you?

Number of coats: 1
Drying time: Fast

Durability: Good

Finish: Scattered holo, sooo beautiful!
Overall impression: Fantastic polish, I love all aspects of it!

Buy again: Yes

You can buy A England polishes from Edgypolish. They ship worldwide. 

You can find more info on Edgy Polish’s Facebook page, link here.

Chirality ~ Quarks

Chirality ~ Quarks

Blue/purple holo

It’s time for a couple of Chirality polishes, I think. They want to move from the box of untrieds to the Helmer. I’ll start out with Quarks, which looks really lovely in the bottle. I found it hard to determine whether it is blue or purple – so perhaps it is a little bit of both.

Application was a dream because the formula is just good. Drying time is good, and so is opacity: It takes two coats to make this baby shine to the max! I didn’t apply a topcoat just yet.

Here’s what it looks like, two coats, picture taken with flash:

Aren’t those rainbows just darling??

The polish changes quite a lot when you look at it in lower lights – here’s a picture taken without flash:

Still pretty, don’t you think?

I stamped on it. I used a design from Bundlemonster BM-406 and I stamped with Essie’s Nothing Else Metals. I topped it with a layer of topcoat, and here’s what my final mani looks like:

I think this knotted hearts-design is really pretty!

The last low light-pic: 

I like Chirality’s holographic polishes; the formula is good, the colours are pleasant and the drying time is good. Do you know the brand?

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Fast

Durability: Good

Finish: Holographic that is glowing from within
Overall impression: Great polish – I love the colour that changes between blue and purple depending on when and where you look at it.

Buy again: Yes

Arcane Lacquer ~ Hearts Ignite & Liquid Fear

Arcane Lacquer ~ Hearts Ignite & Liquid Fear

Dark purple with magenta shimmer & Magenta with orange flecks with blue shimmer

Today I seriously didn’t know where my mani was going when I started it. Stay tuned and see how simple it all ended up being.

I started out with two layers of Hearts Ignite and Liquid Fear. They both got the same good formula – easy to apply and covering in two coats. Drying time between the coats is average. I applied a layer of Poshé topcoat before I took my pictures.

Two coats, one layer of topcoat:

I love the little flecks in Liquid Fear, that makes it so much more than just another magenta.

I thought I was going to stamp on at least one nail, make stripes or dots on a couple of other nails and then add some glitter to the rest of them. That’s what I had in mind when I rummaged around my Helmer to find a suitable glitter. Then I saw Emily de Molly’s “Fashion Victim”, which is a bright pink jelly with various sizes of glitters in it. I have actually worn it before but never shown it on the blog because it photographed really badly compared to how pretty it actually was on the nails. But here I thought that I could use it as a topper! I looked to see if I could find a suitable glittertopper for Hearts Ignite and I chose Cheshire from Crowstoes. It’s a clear base with various sized of purple, golden and silver glitters and hexes.

I applied a layer of glitter on each of the polishes, applied another layer of Poshé topcoat, and here you go, sweet ladies, my final mani:

I know it’s simple, but I’ve been wearing a lot of holos lately and my glitters do feel a little bit neglected and that’s a shame.

The glitters matches their undies just perfectly!

Here are the four polishes united:

Verdict:
I’d wear all these polishes again for sure! ♥

Musical Mani Monday, week 10: WhoMadeWho ~ The Morning

I am a morning person for sure. I always wake up early and I really enjoy a nice stress free morning. I am most certainly not a winter person though: I hate it when it’s really cold. But cold, clear mornings are often really pretty in the winter, the sky shifting between red, pink, purple and blue.

But let’s cut the crap and get to the point – here’s my interpretation of “The Morning” with WhoMadeWho:

I made a gradient with two Emily de Molly polishes: Indigo Flow, which is a lovely blue, and Seeing Red, which isn’t really red, but dark pink. They are both linear holos. I have been recommended to cover the area around my nails with peel off glitter-basecoat, let it dry and then do the gradient. That should be a good way to minimize cleanup after the sponging. I must admit that I’m not hugely impressed with the method, but perhaps I just need more practice. Firstly it took forever for the basecoat to dry, and secondly I found it hard to actually cover the cuticles with the basecoat without covering some of the nail. And because I’m not very good at cleaning up, I spent a loooong time trying to make this look decent afterwards!

I stamped palm trees and birds on it. I found the palm trees on Moyou London stamping plate Back to the 80s-04, and the birds on Moyou stamping plate Sailor Collection-01. I stamped with a black no name stamping polish.

The palm trees were on an XL plate, and the motifs are too big for my relatively small nails, so I had to split the motif up, and the trees on my thumb are only the top half of the actual palm trees.

Here’s the picture of a morning sky that inspired me:

And just for the record, here’s what the gradient looked like before the stamping.

WhoMadeWho is a Danish band, and “The Morning” is from the 2014 album “Dreams”.

That was the tenth challenge in my Music Mani Monday. There are only two challenges left now, so stay tuned next week to see how I interpret Gipsy’s Kiss with Deep Purple! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Arcane Lacquer ~ Paucity

Arcane Lacquer ~ Paucity

Indigo base with blue to magenta flecks with berry pink hexes and gun metal hexes with a sprinkling of silver holo hexes

I was lucky to snatch this polish from Arcane Lacquer. It’s a limited edition product that I bought with a bunch of other non-limited (unlimited?) polishes. It’s deep blurple with a splash of various glitters throughout.

Application was a breeze. The glitters spread out easily and didn’t make lumps of glitter on the nails. Drying time is average, and it took two easy coats to make it look its best. I applied a layer of Poshé topcoat before I took my pictures.

Here’s two coats plus a layer of topcoat:

See how fine that glitter looks? It’s like a purple night sky!

Mmm… I like it!

I stamped on it. I used a Fauxnad stamping plate called W202 and I used Color Club’s Halo-Graphic from the Halo Hues collection as my stamping polish. It’s pink and it’s super holo!

Here’s my final mani:

I think the fine rose motif looks good on the relatively dark background.

Another lightbox picture:

And then the sun came out for a very short visit! I was SO lucky to manage to catch a picture of my mani in the sun:

How about that, is that cool or what? :D

Number of coats: 2
Drying time: Average

Durability: Good

Removal: Harder The glitters were a challenge, but not a big one for a glitter lover like myself!
Overall impression: Deep, blurple, beautiful

Buy again: Yes