Kiko 400 - Steel Grey (Swatch)

Good morning!

While scrolling through my blog pictures folder, I noticed that I never posted my swatches of the fourth polish from the Kiko Lavish Oriental collection. I bought this one a couple of weeks later than the rest, which is probably the reason. But for consistency, here are the swatches of Kiko 400 aka Steel Grey.

I'm glad that I bought it. I wasn't so interested in this grey at first, but after seeing swatches I felt the need to buy it. Together with the beige holo, Steel Grey got the strongest holo effect out of the four. But it's not an in your face holo. I'm still waiting for my China Glaze holos... I can't wait to compare their holoness. Though, I already know that the particle size is different.

Since I tried to capture the holo effect on all the other pictures, here's one in lamp light. The holo is still there, but it's faint. I find it pretty in this 'state' too. It's a sparkly grey, quite opaque (2 coats) and its drying time is quite good. Also, topcoat doesn't dull the holo effect. I have yet to try them Lavish Oriental polishes for stamping, but I think there are better ones.

Have you got any of the Lavish Oriental Holos? What do you think of them?
Have a nice day~

LDTTWC Day 5: We can do it!

Okay, I'm still totally behind with the schedule of this challenge, but I still have hope that I can finish it together with everybody else, since I'm on vacation for the next two weeks. :)

I tried to come up with something for the fifth day of the Time Warp Challenge this past week, between one seminar and another. The fifth theme is supposed to honor an influental woman from the past. Hm, I did some research on influental women and there are just so many women I had ideas for. In the end, I decided to honor a special lady though. The lady I owe my name to: Joan of Arc.

I'm not sure how well known she is in North America, but I'm sure most Europeans have heard of this young woman. She lived in 15th century France and originally, was a peasant girl. When she was about 13 years old, she started having visions of three angels and saints that told her to free France from English occupation. A lot of things happened, but church and Dauphin apparently believed in what she said after her faith was tested. She got her own armor and participated in the Houndred Years' War. The Dauphin would sit on the French throne, but the war was still not over and she ended up being caught, sold to her enemies and at the end, on a pyre in Rouen, when she was only 19 years old. She's a French national hero.

My mom loved the story of Jeanne d'Arc, how she's called in France, and this is why I was named Johanna. I can't think of a better opportunity to honor her. Both my mom and Jeanne d'Arc.

Sadly, I'm not very happy with the result of my nail art. Everything went fine, until I tried to paint her face and well... that ruined everything. But since time was a problem this past week, I had to leave it like that.

I used Kiko 399 as my base color and started painting my Jeanne with white acrylic paint first. Everyhing looked fine so far. Her armor was filled in using Catrice Browno Mars, the flag's pole with Color Club Earthy Angel and the flag itself was painted with Model's Own Pinky Brown. When I was done, I outlined everything with black acrylic paint and after that... well, ruined everything. :(

I was kind of frustrated afterwars, but still painted my Middle Age pattern using red, blue and black acrylic paints... and smudged it with some topcoat. Oh well... it can't go well all the time.

Have you heard of Jeanne d'Arc?

Kiko 402 - Jewel Pink (Swatch)

Hello~

Today, I want to show you a few pictures of the last of the three holographic polishes I bought from the new Kiko LE this week. It has the number 402 and is called Jewel Pink.

As the name suggests, 402 is a pink holo polish, but the holo is a lot more subdued in this one compared to the other two. It's still pretty though.

The holo effect is there and it is linear, but it doesn't show up as a rainbow, but rather like some sort of glow, because the colors are close to the base color.

It's a pretty pink, but out of all the four polishes from this LE, I'd say it's the least impressive. Application was the same as the other two, quite easy. You see two coats in my pictures.

I'm a bit disappointed in this one. I hope the new series of holos that are going to be released in the coming months are going to include some pink holos with a stronger effect. I'd probably buy other colors with priority, but pink is a nice classic color... might feel the need to have a strong pink holo.

What's your opinion on this one?

Kiko 399 - Silk Taupe (Swatch)

Here I am again with another picture spam involving the new holographic polishes from the Lavish Oriental LE by Kiko. I'm still amazed... and I'm so glad that we currently have sunny weather in my region. Perfect conditions to try out my new bunch of holos~

So after yesterday's post about the teal holo called Peacock Green, I want to present some many pictures of Kiko 399 today, a shade called Silk Taupe.

Compared to Peacock Green, the holo effect is quite a bit stronger. Even my crappy camera shows the full holo-V! For my pictures, I applied two coats and it appeared to be opaque. Although, right now, my nails are rather short, so if you have longer nails, you might need three. Since it is so easy to apply and dries quickly, this won't be problematic though. Like yesterday, I used no base or top coat.

Silk Taupe is a really light delicate color. Maybe my definition of what a taupe looks like differs from Kiko's, but to me Silk Taupe is no taupe shade. It's a beautiful greige that goes surprisingly well with my skintone. I can imagine this as a nice office color for all those that can't wear bright nail polish to work, but still love to wear something with a twist. On my pictures it looks quite silvery, but it's definitely no silver holo.

There's not much to add here. Silk Taupe behaves just like Peacock Green... flawless and easy to apply and it's quite shiny on its own. The holo effect stays very visible in indirect lighting too.

What do you think about this beauty? I think I really like it... it's probably going to be a color I'll reach out to whenever I feel like something calm. And yeah, that happens too. I just feel kinda bad if I'm uncreative and wearing a nail polish all on its own, hehe.

Kiko 401 - Peacock Green (Swatch)

I'm so excited right now! I just had to write a blog post immediately and show you a few pictures of my newest holo polish: Peacock Green aka 401 from the newest limited edition by Kiko called Lavish Oriental. I'm really glad I went to my local Kiko store today, because I bought the last three bottles from the nail polish display. Which means, I didn't get all of them, but I got all of the polishes I was really interested in.

For now, let's begin my picture spam of Kiko 401. I always wanted a teal holo and now, I pretty much got what I was looking for~

Let's just say this first: my camera refuses to take proper pictures of holographic polishes. The effect is stronger than what my pictures show. It's not as strong as the China Glaze OMG collection or any Laylas, but it is very visible and it's a linear holo effect!

Peacock Green is a light teal leaning to a light blue. A very summery teal in my opinion. It reminds me of the crystal clear water of the mediterranean sea in Spain. I would have loved it a tad more if it'd lean green, but I'm not going to complain until I have a greenish teal holo with a similar effect for the same price.

Application was a dream for a holo polish. I didn't use any base or top coat for my pictures. The first coat was a little bit patchy, but no way as bad as Make Up Store Greta. It smoothed out with the second coat and the drying time was really good too. When it is drying, it starts to look dull for a while, but then gets glossy again. I'll try later how it works with a top coat. I just hope my new teal love is no stainer.

I'm constantly looking at my fingertips right now... so pretty! The holo effect is very visible even here in front of my notebook... far away from any ray of sunlight. But it's certainly the prettiest in direct sunlight. That's when the full holo-V is showing up in all its glory~

I have no idea how long this limited edition (Lavish Oriental) is going to be on sale. It has not yet shown up on the German Kiko website and I don't think it's been on sale longer than a week. I mean, holos!? How can there by any left after more than a week!? So for all those who have no Kiko store in reach, I definitely recommend to check the online store every now and then. Those holos are worth every cent.

Apropos cent, all four shades (399-402) come in the usual Kiko bottle that holds 11ml (0.37 fl.oz.) and is sold for 4.90€ per polish. That's not exactly cheap, but for a true holo, it's not bad at all. Especially for a teal holo... :D

Okay, picture spam end. What do you think? Do you agree that it looks awesome!?
I'm going to post pictures of the other two tomorrow!