Category Archives: Finish: Flakie

NYC Gold Flake Topcoat Swatches & Review

I am in the process of moving (almost everything is packed, including most of my makeup & nail polish) so today I have a very short post for you. NYC recently released a new gold flake top coat called Top of the Gold – it’s on the -->website -->, so I think it’s permanent. Note that it’s not a real-gold-flake type topcoat – more of a gold-colored flakie topcoat. It looks to be a dupe for Zoya Maria Luisa – but I don’t own the Zoya to compare.

Above, I have two coats alone on the left and one coat layered over two different polishes in the middle / on the right. The polish is a bit thick/goopy, and I found that unless you allow it to dry completely, you can’t do a second coat – it will be uneven. I think it would be fairly opaque in three coats, but I didn’t have the patience for that!

However, when layered, it looks best (I think) applied in one thin layer – and a single thin layer is easy to apply evenly.

It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty! For $1.99, I’d definitely recommend it!

Nail Polish Swatches & Comparisons: Flakies & Duochromes

Nail Polish Swatch Sticks: Kleancolor Chunky Holos, Flakies, and Duochromes

It’s time for part five of my nail polish series! Today is fun ones – my Kleancolor Chunky Holos, all my flakies, and all my duochromes. If you’d like to see the previous ones, I’m collecting all the links from the nail polish swatch series on my Project Swatch Roundup page (scroll to the bottom).

As before, I’ve included pictures that have the handle of the swatch stick, so you can more easily see the name of the polish. I also have a close-up of the polished tips only. In every set, the close-up of the tips is more color accurate. The number at the end of the stick is the number of coats, and no number means two coats. A couple of these have topcoat, and the swatch stick then says “+ TC.” As you’ll see, many of these have a half-black base; I wanted to use one swatch stick and be able to see what the polish looked like over black & alone.

Again, I’ve left these pictures larger than usual – click to enlarge.

First – Kleancolor Chunky Holos. I bought all of these as a set of mini-polishes for around $4 (for the set) at Ross. They’re all the same, except for the tinted base, and Black has larger hex glitters.

Kleancolor Chunky Holo swatches: Purple, Teal, Fchsia, Candy, Clover, Black

Kleancolor Chunky Holos: Purple, Teal, Fchsia, Candy, Clover, Black

Next, Finger Paints flakies – these were released as a collection several months ago. I bought Motley at full price, and was lucky to find the rest on clearance! Motley and Twisted are my favorites.

Finger Paints Flakies swatches: Flecked, Flashy, Motley, Asylum, Twisted

Finger Paints Flakies: Flecked, Flashy, Motley, Asylum, Twisted

More flakies! These are most of the other (non-Finger Paints) flakies I have. I love them all!

Nails, Inc. The Old Vic, Nubar 2010, Sinful Colors Green Ocean,
China Glaze Luxe and Lush, Sally Hanson Glass Slipper

And finishing the flakies, here are the Revlon Moon Candy duos I own, plus Orly Fowl Play. The Moon Candy duos are quite pretty, but I’m not thrilled with the quality – I reviewed them here.

Revlon Moon Candy duo Orbit, Revlon Moon Candy Duo Milky Way,
Revlon Moon Candy Duo Galactic, Orly Fowl Play

Duochromes / multichromes are my favorite nail polish finish, I think, though my very favorite polishes are in the last set of swatches below. The following polishes are definitely duochrome, but the duochrome is not very strong.

swatches - Butter London Knackered, Wet n Wild Fast Dry Gray's Anatomy, Sally Hansen Nail Prism Star Opal, Essence Where is the Party?, Orly Mysterious Curse, Chamelon Waltz

Butter London Knackered, Wet n Wild Fast Dry Gray’s Anatomy,
Sally Hansen Nail Prism Star Opal, Essence Where is the Party?,
Orly Mysterious Curse, Chamelon Waltz

Here are some more not-super-strong duochromes – L’oreal The Temptress’s Power is my favorite of this set.

L’Oreal The Temptress’s Power, Forever 21 Light Grey / Multi,
Model’s Own Purple Blue, Maybelline Downtown Brown

And now, some stronger duochromes! Maybelline Pink Cosmo and China Glaze Swanky Silk look almost identical applied – except that the Maybelline takes many more coats to be opaque. OPI Just Spotted the Lizard and Hits Mari Moon Trendy are quite close, but not identical.

swatches - Maybelline Pink Cosmo, China Glaze Swanky Silk, Maybelline Boho Gold, OPI Just Spotted the Lizard, Hits Mari Moon Trendy, Hits Mari Moon Cool

Maybelline Pink Cosmo, China Glaze Swanky Silk, Maybelline Boho Gold,
OPI Just Spotted the Lizard, Hits Mari Moon Trendy, Hits Mari Moon Cool

And now, some of my very very favorite polishes in my collection – my multichromes! Ludurana Show and Hits Mari Moon Cutie Pie are close, but Show is more intensely colored. Hits Mari Moon Dreamer and Ludurana Emocionante are dupes, and they are my favorite polishes that I own, I think. I took photographs from several different angles for these, but didn’t capture all the beauty of the polishes.

Model’s Own Aqua Violet Beetle Juice, Hits Mari Moon Cutie Pie,
Ludurana Show, Hits Mari Moon Dreamer, Ludurana Emocionante

Thanks for looking! Any questions, just ask.

TKB Mermaid Collection Iridescent Pigments Swatches & Review

TKB Trading Mermaid Collection: silver white, gold dust, blue diamond, seawitch green, fairy violet, siren red

This post is a little bit different; the polishes I’m going to show you are not commercially available. I mixed them myself using pigments and suspension base, both available at TKB Trading (the bottles are also from TKB). These six polishes are made from TKB’s Mermaid Collection iridescent pigments.

When I was ordering from TKB, I couldn’t find any swatches of nail polishes made with these pigments, and although they looked neat, I really had no idea of how they would look. So, I’m posting these swatches in case anyone else is searching for photos of how these pigments look mixed up in nail polish base.

TKB Trading Mermaid Collection Swatches:
Silver White, Gold Dust, Blue Diamond, Seawitch Green, Fairy Violet, Siren Red

When I mixed up the nail polishes, I wasn’t sure what density of pigment would look best. So, these first swatches are all six pigments very concentrated in the polish. This gives a glass fleck type look – it reminds me of some Zoyas.

Here are close-ups of the swatches:

TKB Silver White, Gold Dust

Silver white is a true, light silver. Gold dust is a yellow-gold; it’s similar to Essie As Gold As It Gets at the right density.

TKB Blue Diamond, Seawitch Green

Blue Diamond is a sapphire blue; Seawitch green is a pale green. It looks more blue in the picture than it actually is because of the reflections from the blue.

TKB Fairy Violet, Siren Red

Fairy Violet is my favorite – it has multiple shades of purple in it. Siren Red is a pink-red that seems to have some orange in it too.

I also wanted to see what these would look like if they were mixed more sparsely into the nail polish base, so I tried it out with Blue Diamond.

TKB Blue Diamond

I love this look too – I’m definitely going to mix up bottles of each of the colors at a lower density like this one.

These are really gorgeous pigments – if you are into frankening nail polish, I highly, highly recommend them. I bought a set of samples of each color (2.5g each) for $7.50; you can also buy individuals samples and larger quantities. I think I used about 1/5 or less of a sample bag to make half a densely-packed mini (5ml) nail polish, so I’d guess that you could make a couple densely packed 5ml nail polishes plus several sparse ones with one bag.

If you’re new to frankening, make sure you get suspension base; if you mix these with regular clear nail polish they will probably sink to the bottom rather than remaining evenly mixed throughout. I used TKB’s Glamour base, but I think their Luster base would work for these as well.

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Revlon Orbit and Milky Way Nail Art Moon Candy Review, Swatches, Photos

Revlon Nail Art Moon Candy – Orbit and Milky Way

Revlon recently released a collection of double sided nail polishes – one side is a creme, and the other is a shards of glass type flakie. I happened upon a full display the other day, and since Revlon was on buy-one-get-one-half-off sale, I bought two: Orbit, a deep purple creme with purple flakies, and Milky Way, a deep grey creme with silver flakies.

The quality of the polish seems inconsistent. The purple creme in Orbit applied flawlessly. It was smooth and thin, and although it took two coats for perfect opacity, each was even. However, the flaky in Orbit – while absolutely gorgeous – was a total nightmare to apply. It was lumpy, thick, and jelly-like. Additionally, it WOULD. NOT. DRY. – even with a reliable quick-dry topcoat over it.

Revlon Orbit Moon Candy

The gray creme in Milky Way applied decently, but not great – the first coat was streaky, but it evened out with a second coat. The flakies in Milky Way applied fairly well – good coverage, and the base was thin enough to apply easily. I have not yet tried them on my nails, however.

Revlon Milky Way Moon Candy

As you can see, both colors of flakies dry with a bumpy surface. This is a bit annoying, but not really a problem, as a couple coats of top coat will smooth it out.

I had hoped to wear the Orbit flakies over Illamasqua Collide – a gorgeous neon pink jelly that I have been wearing a lot lately – and I actually tried to make the layered polishes work twice. However, both times, the flakies never dried, and I ended up destroying the manicure before I was able to take photos of it. It is a lovely combination though, so I swatched it on a nail wheel in order to photograph it. It’s even prettier in person, with the shifting colors! I’m disappointed I couldn’t make it work on my hands; maybe I’ll try it a third time when I have the patience to sit still for a very long time.

Revlon Orbit flakies over
Illamasqua Collide

Overall, I can’t recommend these polishes. Milky Way has a slightly superior formula, but China Glaze Luxe and Lush (from the Hunger Games collection), is far superior for about the same price (or cheaper – it’s on clearance at sallybeauty.com and similarly inexpensive on .) Luxe and Lush is not identical – see it here at Vampy Varnish – but it is quite similar.

I am not aware of any similar polishes to Orbit (though I’m sure they’re out there and I would love to hear about them if they have a better formula!), but the formula is just not worth it for me.

Have you bought any of the Revlon Moon Candy polishes? Were your experiences similar to mine, or did you have better luck? And do you know of any polishes similar to the Orbit flakies, but with a good formula?

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