230 Pick-Me-Up and HK Girl TC Review

Hi all! Do you guys have a certain mani that you wear if you are needing a pick-me-up? Well I have a weakness for red-green color shifting topcoats (and if you've followed my blog for any length of time, you know this) so what better for a mood booster than the holy grail of red-green color shifters, Clarins 230. I love it layered ove everything, but especialy purple shimmers. It just makes them glow!

For this mani, I started out with Bettina 28, a purple shimmer that was a gift from perhaps the biggest purple shimmer lover I know, Kristy over at The Polish Haven. It is so lovely! It reminds me of a hybrid of two of my most loved purple shimmers: OPI Diva of Geneva and Claire's Magic. Then I layered 1 coat of Clarins 230 on top.

 

 

 

Now I will show you the Bettina on its own. It was really lovely...until the Hong Kong Girl topcoat struck. I had heard about how this top coat was supposed to be super shiny and quick drying like Seche Vite but without the shrinkage problems. Now, I broke up with Seche Vite ages ago due to shrinkage issues so I was very excited about to hear about something comparable. It dried quickly like Seche Vite, but it dulled the polish as it dried. It also had the most offensive smell I have ever encountered with any polish or topcoat. It literally made me nauseous. So...yeah...I'm not on board the Hong Kong Girl Topcoat train. I'm gonna stick with my super cheap and easy to find NYC Grand Central Station.

 

 

 

 

Has anyone else had experience with the HK girl topcoat? I'm interested to hear how others have liked it because I have heard rave reviews as well as people with similar experiences to my own. Perhaps it is a body chemsitry thing? Thanks for looking everyone!

 

 



 

 

Layering with Clarins 230 and Cult Nails Seduction

Since I am just starting up my blog, I decided to include a few entrys here and there of some past manis that are among my favorites. I hope that you will indulge me in sharing them with you, because they just make me happy!

Here is one of my favorite manis that I have ever done. I decided after collecting nail polish for about a year that I was going to pull the trigger on one of the most coveted polishes in the nail polish community: Clarins 230. Thankfully, there have been several polishes that are good imitations of the elusive 230 in the past year or so, both by indie sellers and commercial brands (Max Factor Fantasy Fire). I do have several of these dupey polishes and they are gorgeous, but the collector in me still wanted to add the real deal to my collection. So, for my birthday this year, Clarins 230 was finally mine!

We'll take a moment to admire a few bottle shots. It truly is fantastic in the bottle. The red/green/gold color shifting pigment stands out against the sheer purple base.

I've found that it is true of most of these polishes with color shifting pigments that they really come out to play over a dark base color. For this mani, I chose to layer 230 over Nails Inc Belgrave Place, a dark blurple creme.  

Here is 1 coat of Clarins 230 over 2 coats of Nails Inc Belgrave Place

Next I decided to see if I could take this mani even further with MORE LAYERING! I recently ordered Seduction, a fabulous flakie from Cult Nails' recent Divas and Drama collection. I am a huge Cult Nails fan, so I always jump on the bandwagon when new shades are released. Their formulas are always top notch and they have some really unique polishes. This one did not disappoint.

Look at the awesomeness in the bottle! It has a purple jelly base with predominantly blue, red, and orange flakies that have some color shift to green and even yellow. The flakies here remind me somewhat of Fingerpaints Asylum, but they are larger and more dense (and, of course, are in a colored base).

I layered 1 coat of Seduction over my existing mani with 230 and Belgrave Place. Oh man...I loved this mani so much!

Cult Nails Seduction is a limited edition polish, but fortunately it is still in stock and available here. Be sure to get it while you can! You will not regret it!