Catherine Arley - Holo Goodness

Catherine Arley polishes are inexpensive and fun. They take a good while to receive as they come from, get this, Eastern Europe. But they're Turkish. And the labels are in Cyrillic...but who cares? That's what the global economy is all about. Inexplicable acquisition of stuff from far away lands. Which is also pretty! I believe they are also cruelty free, so that falls in my area. I do the best I can. I slip...but I try.

I believe this one is 673. I wish they had names but they don't. So I choose to call this Grape Holo Goodness. Because it's grape, and holo, and good.

This swatch REALLY shows off the holo, I was so pleased with it. Look at all those little shimmery particles! Yummy.

I love the color of this, it's sort of muted but the sparkle makes it so special.

Kinda blurry but this is very much like what you would see in just normal life. But in focus. I hope. Or you need glasses. Whichever. But the holo isn't crazy in your face, it's pretty, it's an added dimension of shimmer and pop without the impossible to remove so you end up looking like a Vegas showgirl glitter.

And look at those cuticles, would ya? I'm not that good. This polish is, though.

Nice creamy application, gorgeous color, bunny safe (or so I'm given to understand from other bloggers), so what's not to love? Certainly not the price tag, which was something like $3.50 US when I bought mine? I think? It's been awhile.

I really love this. Look at the pretty jelly base coat with all those silver pink, blue, purple effects happening. Unless you're a straight up creme girl, and I know you're out there, you have to really like this. Or at least appreciate it.

The parting shot and it's a good one. These pictures were not taken in natural light, this was my desk lamp, for the record.

You can see some minimal wear. If past experience can be relied on, these wear quite well anyways, but I wore this with Gelous. I've been working with that, trying stuff out with it. The next mani I have to show you lasted a full 6 days before a glitter particle caught on my sweater and cause a chip. This wore probably 5 but I did a little different. I'm still experimenting. To all you who have gone before and suggested Gelous then a top coat I thank you. I was pretty unimpressed until I tried that and while I did try it before I read it, I was happy to have it confirmed by other nail experimentiosi that it was the way to go. I wasn't a flawless experiment but it yielded good results.

So the mechanics of this:

Growth Spurt (by Cosmetics Design Group who make Gelous, they are cruelty free, it was confirmed by Kelly at Kell's DIY Nails. Check her blog here: http://kellsdiynails.blogspot.com Where Kell talks about her email and while you're at it, read her blog, she's great!)

K, starting over because I get sidetracked easier than a sidewinder.

1 coat Growth Spurt
2 Coats Catherine Arley 673
1 Coat Gelous (Which never appears to really dry)
1 coat Seche Vite (Which does)

It wore so well. It's true. You guys have been singing the praises of Gelous and you're right. My Sally was sold out when I caved and decided to buy some but my next trip they had it and I bought two plus Growth Spurt, which I had hoped would help with my little peeling problem, that Deborah Lippmann's Coat of Arms didn't help. Not so far, but I'm sure I have some growing out to do, too. My nails do seem some stronger, though so we'll see. It takes a good while for anything to work, even vitamins, which I take for my nails pretty religiously, so time will tell.

I hope you like it! I think you can still get it. You could when I checked a little while ago, meaning a couple weeks.

Happy Talons!

Catherine Arley - 807

Maybe you were wondering, maybe not, but maybe you were, which gold I wore to commemorate James Bond. It was Catherine Arley 807, which was the holo one, if you remember from last post.

Catherine Arley is a Turkish brand of nail polish that is most easily purchased through a Bulgarian website. I guess it was all the rage some time ago on the beauty blogs and I somehow missed it. I was not reading the right blogs, I guess. I came across it in my travels and at about $2.75 per bottle plus shipping (which amounted to about $5 a bottle total) I picked up all the holos that were still available. The price was sure right. And worth it, as it turned out.

Here is a shot of it after I had just applied it:

LOTS of holo goodness. The bummer being that you don't see this in regular lighting. A little...nothing like this level of mesmerizing.

You can see there are nice neat cuticles here, this was easy to apply. The only problem I had with it was some drag. I would give this some time between coats, maybe wait for almost total dryness between coats because it wanted to pull the previous coat down with it. Nothing a little patience wouldn't resolve.

This did eventually tip wear. Eventually. It wore for about 6 days with no problems. Very good wear. To note: the pinkie nail here is more like what this will look like in everyday lighting. It's a little more pale than this is coming up, but it's more shimmery metallic than holo.

When it finally did wear it did it in style.

Dang. Well, it happens. This is why we have so many colors. So when we have to change them we can REALLY change them!

 

Last shot of this. I didn't take a lot of swatches of it for some reason. I really wanted a sunlight picture but the weather was not going to have any of that. 

I think this gives you a good idea, though. Picture this color with less holo...that's what you're really going to get. It seemed no matter what I did with the lighting it came to the fore. It's in there, but it's not obvious. In a more conservative office, this might be just what you are looking for. 

I really liked this polish. Good price, good wear, good color...I have more, like I said, but I may go back and check the other colors out, see what else they have to offer. The website is a bit odd. Go prepared with the polish numbers you are interested in because it won't give you swatches to look at. Also, it only offers a COD option to pay. Just ignore that, email them and ask to have your invoice sent to you through Paypal. Worked like a dream and they were very sweet. It did take a solid month for these to arrive. Shipping isn't quick from Bulgaria, evidently. 

But I do think it's amazingly cool, this global market idea. Turkish polish sent to my fair hamlet from Bulgaria. It's just fun, don't you think? And they all arrived wrapped in bubble pack and stuck into polish shipping boxes. I had read that some were arriving broken. I think they must have listened and tried to fix that issue because mine arrived well wrapped and perfect. 

beautycosmetic.biz 

Definitely one to check out if you haven't already. 

I hope you like this one!

Happy Talons!

**waves at MDAMO**

 

GoldFingaaaa!

Yeah...I was raised on James Bond. My father was always a big fan. It's watching those movies with him that I learned I wanted to be either Bambi or Thumper, I wasn't specific, and that the Aston Martin HAS to be the coolest car in the world.
Though I am somewhat happy that the new Bond wears an Omega rather than a Rolex. I like that Omega isn't as...Rolex as Rolex. I personally rock an Omega, so....

If you read the same article as me about the anniversary of James, though it is a week late, and I do apologize for that, but all the same. You know one way to celebrate the man, the myth, the martini is to be fearless in a gold manicure. so I am here to give you some gold options that are available out there and you can easily get, and hopefully I've found something for every skin tone.

Just please keep in mind that I don't actually look good in gold. I don't look BAD in it. I just don't look good in it.

These are from left to right: A-England Holy Grail, butterLONDON The Full Monty, Cherimoya Boo 2012 Collection Gold Glitz, Deborah Lippmann Nefertiti and on the thumb China Glaze Champagne Bubbles from the 2011 Christmas collection.

I did check on these and they are all available online, incidentally. And each nail is two coats on a bare nail, no prep or anything.

There is a better picture of the China Glaze coming up. I recognize, of course, that you can't really see it here.

Here they are again, reverse order: Nefertiti, Gold Glitz, The Full Monty and Holy Grail. As you can see...all gold, all distinct.

China Glaze Champagne Bubbles. It is gold shimmer with a gold glitter. It's prettier in real life, the flash and lighting are making this more yellow than it actually is.

This is, left to right: Chanel Delight and Catherine Arley 807. The Chanel is more a rose gold, but I think on it's own it might be very true to a real gold.

A different angle on those. The Catherine Arley has that lovely holo effect that is nearly non-existent in regular lighting, but it adds depth.

All BondJamesBond aside, an antiqued gold is all the rage this season so this also may help you know which direction you want to go if you're interested in that look. As I said, I don't feel that gold is flattering on me so I only have these few and one or two others that I couldn't find for purchase online. Still won't do that to you. Just won't.

What do you think? Are you shaken or stirred? :D


Happy Astons!