Top coat love

I hit up eBay a while ago, wanting to expand my nail polish collection beyond Mode. I mean, I pretty much have every colour under the sun now (c'mon, $2.45 a bottle!) but I was super keen on trying some other finishes and textures. The two obvious options, besides nasty-to-remove glitter (and Mode's Diamante fills that slot nicely anyway) were matte and holographic.

Holos are notoriously difficult to track down unless you want to pay $12+ for a bottle (I'm looking at you, Nfu Oh, and yes that is drool on my chin. Sorry.) and I was totally spoiled after Mode's cheapness. I was also hankering after a lilac creme, and I spotted Light As Air from China Glaze's new collection. I poked around a few eBay stores and on viewing their selection, had a brainwave: if I wanted to try out holos and mattes, what better way to do it than buy a matte and holo TOPCOAT?

I did some research, especially in regards to the holo, before throwing my money at anything. China Glaze's Wireless looked the best in all the swatches and comparisons I saw, as did Matte Magic. I managed to get China Glaze's Light As Air, Matte Magic and Wireless from the same seller. I threw in Lemon Fizz for the hell of it, because Say Cheese from Mode is a wee bit bright for me. I ordered them from the U.S. and shipping seemed to take an eternity and a half. I got home from work one day and there was a well-padded envelope waiting in the letterbox.

Guh. So worth the wait! I'm typing this with every nail painted a different colour, which has either been matte'd or holo'd. I quickly found that Wireless works best over darker colours - I can't wait til morning to look at it in the sunlight over High Fashion and/or Starry Night! Light As Air is freaking gorgeous - I hadn't tried China Glaze before this but they're beautiful. The Matte Magic is AMAZING and if you like matte or haven't tried it before I would say GO, GO NOW before I buy every bottle available on eBay because I'm ordering a million backups right now. I even tried layering Matte Magic over Wireless, it completely obliterated the rainbow-y-ness, but it's still a bit shimmery, it reminds me of those Man Glazes I've seen swatched around. I matte'd a deep sparkly blue Mode polish called Style Magnet and it looks fantastic. I wish I had more fingers, I want to try this over all my polishes! Now!

Wear is a big thing for me when it comes to nail polishes. I don't think I'll be able to tear myself away from either topcoat at this point in time, so I can't comment on Light As Air or Lemon Fizz just yet. Also, as much as I love Lemon Fizz and find it way more wearable than Say Cheese... I don't have a lot of yellow in my wardrobe. Or orange, actually, which is why Frenemy from Mode hasn't gotten much wear even though I think it's gorgeous (aaand now I'm wondering what it'd look like matte'd...)

I won't do a proper review of these, because there are so many around, and because I haven't got anything to compare them to. I will, however, leave you with these:

China Glaze's Wireless Holographic Top Coat over Mode Cosmetics' High Fashion.

China Glaze's Matte Magic Top Coat over (thumb-pinky) China Glaze Light As Air, Mode Cosmetics So Parisian, China Glaze Lemon Fizz, Mode Cosmetics Cool As, Mode Cosmetics Hook Me Up.

P.S. if anybody has found a pastel/baby blue comparable to China Glaze's Moody Blue, could you let me know? I adore Hook Me Up, but I'd love something paler as well.