Toma : Prima Donna (review)

Hey everyone! Hope you're having a good week so far :)

Prima Donna

Today I have a dark, vampy colour to show you. I received 2 Toma nail polishes for review with the help of Julia from Nailtopia. I have never tried this brand before, so I was really excited to be given the opportunity of reviewing these!

Toma Nail polish is produced and sold by Mad Beauty Ltd in the UK. You can buy their nail polish from Nailtopia, at the price of roughly 6£ excl. tax.

Toma nail polish comes in bottles of 13.31 ml and I quite like the bottle - it's heavy and of nice quality. One thing I do like to mention is that it's 3-Free and not tested on animals, but it does contain Formaldehyde Resin, so it's not 4-Free. The smell of it was not overwhelming, neither was it particularly pleasant (as nail polish rarely is).

Prima Donna consists of a black jelly base with loads of red microglitter. The brush was very good, perfect for my nails and I had very little clean-up work to do. 

I used my regular basecoat, NailTek II and 3 coats of Prima Donna. I was expecting to use more than two, but if you have shorter nails and are a little more careful/use thicker coats, I'm sure you can get away with two. Another idea would be to use a black creme as base colour, as I often do - but I wanted to show you this gorgeous colour on it's own for this review ;)

I decided to take a picture outside as well - this polish really glows in the sunlight! All of the glitter from the first layers shines through the jelly base, making it deep and gorgeous to look at ♥

Inside:

Toma - Prima Donna - inside, flash

Outside:

Toma - Prima Donna - outside, sunlight

While the colour is not unique, I absolutely love it. I haven't tried China Glaze - Lubu Heels, so I don't know how they compare, but I own and have worn Eyeko Vampira and while they're very similar, I think there's just a little more glitter in Prima Donna. It would make sense, since Vampira covers after two coats and PD needs three. If I were to choose, I'd go for Prima Donna since the brush is so nice to work with - and the price is very nice, too!

I'm very satisfied with my first experience with this brand. I tend to be rather picky about the details - and the only thing I can put my finger on is that it contains Formaldehyde resin, which isn't an ingredient I steer clear of anyway. This is definitely a brand I'll be keeping an eye on for future releases!

♥ Vetten


(The product in this post was provided for review by MAD Beauy, UK)

Catherine Arley #668

First, let me thank all of you who responded to my last post :) I'm super grateful you like it the way it is, and I will try to include more pictures every now and then to knock it up a notch! 

Lately, the sun has been shining a lot ♥ Yep, I have another holo to show you! :)

Catherine Arley #668 - or, as I call it, Meowth! (Pokemon inspired, as always with these unnamed CA's).

Catherine Arley #668 - inside, flash

Meowth is a medium tan kind of colour. I'm certainly no expert on these shades, but I say for sure that it's a lot browner than my skintone (I'm so pale I blind people! LOL). While I don't think it suits my skintone when it's not flashing rainbow particles (no colour can look unattractive while mimicking the rainbow, I'm that easy to please!), I did enjoy wearing a neutral colour. Maybe I'm just not used to this sort of shade?

I used NailTek II, two coats of Meowth and Fast Forward. It's still rather sheer, but it was acceptable at that point. Expect three coats or even four if you want complete coverage!

Catherine Arley #668 - inside, flash

And since I received Spin Me Round from the Kaleidoscope collection while wearing this, I decided to do a comparison for you!

As shown:

- Meowth

- Spin Me Round

- Meowth

Catherine Arley #668 & Spin Me Round, sunlight

While the difference is not that easy to spot in pics, I think Meowth is very different IRL. It has much more fine particles, but they share the same kind of holographic effect - linear, but still scattered. My favourite? While they're very different, I'll be reaching for Spin Me Round next time, as I love the rough holos ;)

Which do you like the most - if any? Do you have either, or do you want them? What's your opinion about subtle colours as holos - yay or nay?

♥ Vetten

China Glaze : Octa Gone Wild (+ring!)

(I'm not good at updating these days and I'll tell you why: migraine. I found a recent NOTD post I wrote last week but didn't have the time to post. Hope you don't mind!)

Time to show another glorious holographic polishes from China Glazes best collection ever - Kaleidoscope. This time you can feast your eyes on the wonder that's called Octa Gone Wild, a gorgeous linear purple. 

In the bottle, most Kaleidoscope polishes looks like a dull glitter, but fear not: once applied they will show off, even in dull light!

Yep, I'm a huge fan of these. I can't find anything wrong with them. They're quite covering, 2 coats doing the trick if you can survive a little visible nail line (and I can since it's only when the light is hitting it right), and the best part? They show their holo goodness inside, even with very low light. That's one thing I prioritize in a holo polish!

I'm wearing one coat of Nail Tek II, two coats of Octa Gone Wild, and I hadn't put on topcoat on all the pictures... I was afraid it would dull the effect, so I took a few pics before using it, and a few after... and the result was the same. 

The pics with ring is with topcoat and the ones without is a mix, I think. 

I wore this colour for 3 days without chips, just very minor tipwear. For any lacquerhead, that's a while, right?! LOL

Instead of wasting your time reading my boring opinion, let's skip ahead to what really matter... Picspam!

China Glaze Octa Gone Wild

China Glaze Octa Gone Wild

China Glaze Octa Gone Wild

For once, I decided to go nuts with pictures. Recently, I've begun to think about the appearance of my posts - is it getting to the point where I blabber on about boring details and not showing enough pictures? LMK in the comments, I appreciate your honesty on this matter.. I don't want to bore you to death! :)

I cheated a little... You might not notice it, but the ring is not made with Octa. It's OPI DS Original, a polish which I have yet the pleasure of wearing (saving it for another sunny day). But I think it suited the mani quite nicely anyway ;)

♥ Vetten

Gosh : Holographic

Gosh is one of few Danish make up companies. For as long as I can remember, I've been drooling over their stands in drugstores, always looking at their nail polish. They've always carried exciting, different colours, far away from safe reds and nude pinks. Before I realized I was becoming a nail polish addict, I had a few of their polishes - and it was amongst my favourites. Before this turns into a patriotic post sounding like a commercial, LOL, let focus on what this post is really about - my point being that Gosh is a widely known brand within the nail polish community... And much of it is because of one of their most adored polishes. If there's one polish Gosh is known for, it's Holographic.

In the bottle, Holographic looks like a silver polish - and that's what I thought it was until I looked up swatches when I started getting into nail polish. Then I had an OMG moment and rushed to the stores the day after, LOL! 

Now, it will be a bit of a problem child if you're cheap and don't invest in a good base coat - I conveniently bought the Fix Base Coat from Gosh when their lacquers where 40% off. Gosh even added a sticker to Holographic advising people to use the right base coat. And no, it really isn't just a sales trick trying to get you to invest more money in their products - it will save you many tears and even coats of Holographic.

Fix Base Coat is slow drying, but it's worth it. It dries with what I'd say is a "good-gripping" feel to it. I failed while swatching this; apparently I didn't even out the layer on my ring finger, so the weird blob you can see on my pictures is because of that. I recommend thin coats ;) I used two coats of Holographic, and no topcoat - it dries really fast.

I had a few issues photographing this wonder - in my lightbox, the flash washes out the holo effect, and without, it's back to looking plain silver. I therefore went outside, and although there's a lot of better pictures out there, I think I got a few decent shots (it will be a quest of mine to photograph this properly one day), at least it's better than a post without pictures, right?

Gosh Holographic - direct sunlight

Gosh Holographic - direct sunlight

Isn't it amazing? The only downside is the dullness inside - which is the reason I'm not wearing this more often. I'm looking forward to be using this in the Summer, being outside most of the day blogging in the shadow.. I'm sure this will keep me good company those days ♥

I contacted Gosh through their danish website, and the rumour is true.. It's discontinued. I'm proud to say, almost a bit embarrassed even, that I emptied all the shops around me while they were on sale. Can you blame me for wanting back-ups? :)

Oh, while I were contacting them, I asked them if they were planning to release new holographic polishes, but sadly, there's no plans about this right now. I'm in the mood to start a petition, LOL! Wouldn't it be amazing to see a dark blue, purple, even green holographic polish? While I accept the effect will be lessened when you add colour to the mix, it would be worth it!

♥ Vetten