Saturday, May 5, 2012

Flash Black - Layla

So good news... My laptop will live to see another day! I managed to avoid all the major components (logic board etc) and just ruin the internal keyboard, so one new top case and $750 later (thank goodness for insurance covering most of that), my laptop will be back in my arms or on my lap on Monday! PHEW!!! Until then, I've hijacked The Boy's laptop and put some nail pictures on that ;)

Today I have some photos of 'Flash Black' which is one of Layla's Hologram Effect polishes. I have lusted after these polishes since the moment I first saw them and just recently Candy Girl got them in, so naturally I went straight over there and bought 3 of them. 'Flash Black' was the first one that I saw swatched so I had to try that one first...




Flash Black, Layla Hologram Effect, swatch
Layla Hologram Effect polishes are by far the most holographic polishes I own and so by default, I love them. But seriously, look at this beauty, how could you not love it! 'Flash Black' is a charcoal sort of dark grey with a very strong linear holo effect.



Flash Black, Layla Hologram Effect, swatch
I thought I'd get the least exciting side of this polish done early. I said least exciting, that's not to say it's not still gorgeous! This is what 'Flash Black' generally looks like in lower, less intense light. You can see the base colour a little better here.



Flash Black, Layla Hologram Effect, swatch
This photo was taken under direct artificial light. I love the way the green seems to glow at the top of my index and middle fingers.



Flash Black, Layla Hologram Effect, swatch

Flash Black, Layla Hologram Effect, swatch
At slightly different angles, different aspects of the rainbow can be seen. I love it when the green, blue, indigo comes into play like in the bottom photo!



Flash Black, Layla Hologram Effect, swatch
In indirect light, the colours soften and become so pretty!



Flash Black, Layla Hologram Effect, swatch
A final macro photo. You can see the particles are fairly coarse and I should add that this is noticeable to the touch after this polish has dried.


I would just like to apologise for the state of my cuticles. They were having a serious tantrum the day I put this on. I had just removed them and they were not happy about it!

Now to the formula... The Layla Hologram Effect polishes all come with a little buffer to use before applying the polish to give the polish a perfectly smooth canvas to be applied on to. It is generally recommended that no base coat or top coat is used with holo polishes so as not to dull the effect of them. Personally I don't like skipping base coat and my nails are SUPER weak so I don't really like to buff them much at all. There are base coats out there that are specifically designed to go under holos like Nfu Oh's 'Aqua Base', which is, in fact, what I used. I meant to do a comparison between this and a normal base coat but I forgot, so I will certainly do that next time. I think holos have a better effect and are much easier to apply on these special bases or without base at all, as they can have a tendency to pull and bald. Anyway, back to 'Flash Black', I did use 4 very thin coats but the 4th coat wasn't really at all necessary. It was really easy to apply. These pictures are all without top coat. I did take photos the next day with top coat but of course they are on my laptop so I can't show them to you right now. The linear rainbow effect was dulled a little with the addition of top coat (though this wasn't very obvious in pics anyway), but as far as I'm concerned, these polishes are so spectacular that a little dulling (and I mean a little) doesn't stop them from being brilliant and the added benefit of far greater wear-time far outweighs the slight dulling noticed.

Layla Hologram Effects are available for kiwis from Candy Girl and are $24.95.

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