Brazilian Beauties

So long ago that I'm embarassed to admit, I did a swap with Lucy in Brazil, who writes Frésias Azuis (in Portuguese, which I don't know, but I can appreciate the photos). She sent me many gorgeous polishes; they were so pretty I didn't want to use them but instead just admired them in the bottles. This approach, of course, is silly, yet I can't seem to get over it and just do a mani with one of them already. As a compromise with myself, I did some Skittles swatches which wouldn't make too big a dent in the bottles and would let me enjoy some of the colors Lucy sent on my nails for awhile.

First I tried four of the Speciallità Hits no Olimpo holos: Ares (red), Apolo (blue), Dionisio (purple), and Zeus (black).





To make sure I had a smooth base, I used one coat of Salon Sciences Instant Artificials before adding the color. I used two coats of all but Zeus, where I had to use three because I made the first one too thin.







The Hits no Olimpo were so pretty I wanted to try the other colors Lucy sent right away, but talked myself into trying a sampler of holos from other brands so I could see what they were about: Ellen Gold Holográfico Dourado (gold), Ellen Gold 3D H9 (green), Ludurana Aurora Boreal Supremo (purple), and Impala Army na mira 3D (black).



Again I used Instant Artificials as a base and added color. The more linear holos, the gold and purple, took two coats, while the more glittery scattered ones (green and black) took three. Even then the green was a bit sheer; next time I'll layer it over a base.







I fell in love with the Impala one—so many colors winking out at me, even in the lightbox (unfortunately it was sun-free when I swatched these so I couldn't try them outside). Maybe I'll get over my fear of using it up and do a full mani with it one of these months. In the meantime, I do have the pretty pretty bottles to enjoy.