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

CA #803 aka Bellsprout vs. L8R G8R - a green holo comparison

Another excuse to flash Bellsprout again! While no-one asked for a comparison, I did one for myself ;) I was curious to see the two compare.

I used one coat of OPI Greenwich Village and two coats of Bellsprout (CA #803) on my middle and pinky.

On my ring finger I used 2 coats of China Glaze L8R G8R (from the OMG collection).

Catherine Arley #803 vs. China Glaze - L8R G8R

In this picture, I have been wearing Bellsprout for 5 days. Amazing lack of tip wear, eh? I'm beginning to love Catherine Arley holos more and more!

While it's easy to see they're no match, I'm curious to know which of the two you like better. Bellsprout is without doubt my favourite, it goes much better with my skin tone than L8R G8R - but if you go for the most linear holo, L8R G8R is the winner. As for now I'll stick with Bellsprout, but maybe when (if!) I get a little colour on my skin this Summer, I'll try L8R G8R again.

Even though the Tronica collection is like nothing I hoped for, I might be hunting down Laser Lime. While I doubt it'll be no match for Bellsprout, I've come to the conclusion that the base colour of the holo matters more than the effect, and I'm willing to give it a chance :)

♥ Vetten

Flakies - matte & shiny topcoat comparison

In my previous post about Nfu Oh #49, Rijah suggested I should try a matte top coat on the manicure to spice it up. After wearing #49 for approx. 3 days not getting tired of the gorgeous polish but tip wear was beginning to show, I decided to give it a go and used some scotch tape to see a comparison on the nail. :)

It's always been my opinion that the duo-chrome effect becomes less obvious with a matte top coat, and even though the flakies are still looking gorgeous, I'd feel I'd miss the duo-chrome effect with an entire matte manicure. Anyway, I took some pictures to show you - what do you think? Is it prettiest with shiny, matte, or the combination of both? While it does take away some shine, the duo-chrome is definitely still there - silly me ;)

I apologise for me holding a completely unrelated (but pretty) bottle - I just picked up the easiest to reach from my lightbox. Consider it a preview of my next manicure! Oh, and ignore the tipwear - I changed the manicure after the comparison. Yay for lazyness ;)

Nfu Oh #49 + ChG Fast Forward & Essie Matte About You - flash

And at a different angle, taken with daylight ~

Nfu Oh #49 + ChG Fast Forward & Essie Matte About You - daylight + lightbox

I used Essie - Matte About You for the matte half.

While the matte top does take away some of the effect, it also adds depth and some subtle, darker colours. I'd definitely wear the combination of matte and shiny, but if I can bring myself to matte the entire manicure, I'm not sure.

Thank you Rijah for giving me the urge to try this for real (and not just one nail for fun as I've previously done). :)

♥ Vetten