Valentine's Day Nails: Purple Holo Hearts!

February would not be complete without a Valentine's Day manicure - I mean, without fail, V-day is one of the biggest highlights of the month - not just for us as individuals, but also, I'm sure, for the companies and retailers that bastardize the occasion every year in order to hawk their cheesy, red-and-pink-hearts-and-roses-bedecked wares, haha. Well, you know how I feel about crass commercialism, but a little (or a lot of) money-making never stopped us from enjoying the season!

This year, my Valentine's Day nails are purple! and holo! and they have hearts on them! and the hearts are holo too! So, what's not to like? For the base polish, I used Color Club Fashion Addict, which is a gorgeous lilac polish with a holographic finish. Unfortunately, the holographic effect in this isn't that strong (in a super old KOTD I've tried and failed to capture this lilac holographic finish). I then added on these cheap purple holographic hearts I got from Daiso. And then I was set!


For this look, I just added the hearts in a more or less random fashion. As long as they looked good, I didn't really bother where they landed. Each nail had three, except for my tiny last nail which only had two. Also, as you can see from the photos, I had trouble capturing the holo-ness of both the hearts and the polish in my photos. Bah, humbug!


So that's it - this one is really easy to do, and not even all that much work! And I think it looks fab in real life - purple holo hearts on purple holo polish is like, totally hawt! What are you guys doing for V-Day?

P.S. Want to see my older Valentine's Day nail art from past years? I get inspired in all kinds of ways, so I have a Valentine's Day nail look with no pink at all, an obnoxiously over-flowered V-Day mani, a V-Day mani that was hot pink and black, and an annoying-looking red-and-pink nail look, so you guys know this year's is already one of the "better" ones. I even have an Anti-Valentine's Day manicure!

Nails Inc Ebury Place NOTD: Attempting the Lilac Trend

You know, sometimes I really think the nail polish companies are just out to get me. They're always making the "trendy" colours of the season some colour that I think is just plain ugly, or some colour that just doesn't look good on me. Well, to be fair, there was the whole taupey-brown-purple mushroomy craze that I really liked - hellooo Sephora by OPI Metro Chic (here), Nails Inc Jermyn Street (here), and all your imitators. That one I liked. And then there was the mannequin nails trend, which while I know was boring as heck, was at least good for me (here). But for the most part, the polish companies just seem to hate me. Take the mint green trend for example, inspired by Chanel Jade (which isn't really jade colour at all, but more a mint colour) - I actually tried it out, and it looked like a pastel green puke of death on my fingers. And then now there is the LILAC trend, thanks to Color Club's Light As Air and Essie's Lilacism.

Can I tell you how much I hate those kinds of pastel lilac purples? Granted, I like them in the form of eyeshadows for some looks, but for nail polish, I just KNOW it's going to look like the pastel-purple-puke-of-death on me. But you know, I can never resist something if it's hyped up enough, and so I decided to give the trend a try. Of course, I wimped out of wearing straight up lilac, so I rooted around in my stash for something lilac, but with a tinge (okay a pretty strong tinge) of pink to it to make it less purply-pukey and more pinky-nude. And this is how I ended up with Nails Inc Ebury Place for my NOTD.

So here is my half-hearted attempt at wearing a lilac-ish shade, in the sun:



See see see? See what I mean about lilacs looking like purply death puke on my fingers? While I could certainly think of worse colours to wear, I initially felt like it made my fingers look really dirty. And not in a good way.

But anyway, I didn't have much to complain about. This was actually surpringly pigmented given that it's a light colour, especially since most light colours tend to be formulated (or mis-formulated) as sheers - as though an opaque light colour doesn't exist. Anyway, this was actually pretty much opaque in one thicker coat, although I used two out of habit. I think I might actually try konading with this someday, I think it could do. It also has a superfine silver pearl finish to it, that doesn't show up in most lights, if at all. But I think this slight pearlized finish is why this shade looks really glossy and reflective in the light.

Here is Nails Inc Ebury Place indoors. Here you can sort of see the silver pearl finish, if you squint. It's best seen in the bottle, around where the light hits:



Application on this, was, as is usual for Nails Inc, absolutely smooth and problem-free. I actually feel sorry for my fellow US girls, because it's hard for them to get their hands on Nails Inc, and they don't know what their missing. Every bottle I've had has been awesome in terms of application and consistency, with the slight exception of just one bottle, out of the many I have.

Wear time on this was also really good, as is with almost all my Nails Incs (except one). I don't know what Nails Inc puts in their polishes, but every company seriously needs to learn from them.

Anyway, I guess this didn't look THAT bad on me, although it wasn't my best colour. I feel that it's a little too cool-toned for me - it kind of really draws out the yellow in my olive undertones. The colour itself is interesting though - it's a lilac pink that looks either more lilac or more pink depending on the light. And that slight pearlized finish helps prevent it from looking too flat and uninteresting. I guess it's not a bad buy if you like these colours, and if you, like me, want to try out the lilac trend but don't dare to wear a straight up purple, this is probably a better bet for you.