Not a proper review: flakie goodness

This is not a review, though it contains many review-like qualities.

I don't care what you've heard about Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure. Forget the hours you scoured forum boards, pharmacies or eBay pages in search of it. Feast your eyes on this!

Nubar released this piece of flakie goodness to celebrate 2010, as their "we've been creating nail polish for ten years, yo". It's just gorgeous. 'Big 3-free'* like all of Nubar's polishes, it's a clear gel-like base filled with flakes of glitter which shift from red to orange to green to yellow-gold. Toted in the blogosphere as the best Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure dupe, it looks most resplendant over black, (obviously) since you can see all the colours:

That's over China Glaze Liquid Leather, which has a weird but awesome consistency, sort of like a cross between a jelly and a creme. Sorry 'bout the sad one-broken-fingernail swatch, I'm just lazy like that! There are plenty of good reviews of this, so if you need more pics, just Google it. Or if you ask really nicely, I could be persuaded to do a full hand for you ;)

I put it over red (Mode's Racy, my absolute fave red polish, you can get away with a single coat of it if you're careful!) for work, which means on some angles it's very subtle, but the green and goldy-orange tones showed beautifully:

 
It pretty much takes one coat to get that layer of coverage - even and colourful, but not overwhelming. I have seen it swatched over purple, and I plan to try it. I also have plans to try it over green, over nude polish and maybe grey. From what I've seen/heard, putting on a bare nail is a good option if you're looking for something super subtle.

(Note: I have this over Natio Brandy now. I didn't like it at first but it's growing on me... it's very light and sparkly. I haven't taken a photo of it because A) my nails are really short right now and B) I could not get it to show up on-camera!)

The gorgeousness (and affordability) of this polish definitely dulls the sting of finding out that the only way for me to get Nfu Oh, the best and most colourful flakies in the nail polish world, would be to pay $30 a bottle - and that's not including postage! I've heard that Inglot's flakies are alright, but they are almost as impossible to find online as the Sally Hanson, and the only actual shop that stocks them around Perth is just a wee bit too far away for me to get to.

Surprisingly for a nail polish with 'bits' in it, this was really easy to remove - even easier than the glitter Mode polish I have. I thought I might have to go buy something with acetone in it to get my nails clean, but nope! It dries quite fast as well, which is always a plus in my book. I'm so impressed, I plan on buying more Nubar. It's pretty easy to find online, and they have a great big range of colours and finishes. I kind of wish they'd make some more flakies. I definitely want a purple one. And maybe a blue one.

*The 'big 3' of nail polishes are DBP (phthalate), formaldehyde, and toluene. These are pretty freaking toxic ingredients which were used in nail polish until some companies went, "Hmm, that's kind of not good... is there any way we can not use this stuff and still make good polish?" Now it's actually pretty easy to find 'big 3-free' polish, and most of it's good quality to boot.