Turquoise and holo lightning bolts

A quick and easy mani for you today featuring lightning bolt nail vinyls from Nailvinyls.com. Linda was a big sweetie and sent them to me along with some other of her vinyls to try out. We all know how much I love these things, so I gleefully accepted! I had also just received my first GG Couture polishes in the mail (had to order that spectraflair top coat) and so I had some fun with this simple mani with a subtle splash of holo on the middle nail.

 

VIDEO TUTORIAL AT THE END OF THE POST!


I realize that the lightning bolt on the middle finger is very subtle given that I just layered the spectraflair top coat over top of a very light (and already had some scattered holo in it) base. But that's kind of what I was going for (or at least I'm telling myself that now). The ladies of GG Couture were also nice enough to throw in 'Diamonds are a girls best friend' with my order - the holo glitter that I applied by itself on my ring finger.

I wasn't asked to provide a review for these GG Couture polishes as I purchased them myself (with the exception of the glitter as a gift) after seeing the spectraflair topper on Seize the Nail's page, but I will share my thoughts with you nonetheless:

• Genevieve Spectraflair topcoat: Exactly what I imagined. No, maybe even better. It goes on super smooth and evenly, the formula is perfect. I only used one coat on my middle nail, pointer nail, and half my thumb. I will have to try this polish again with more than one coat and see what amazing effects it has then. And over black! Wow. That's where the holo really comes through. All these pics were taken indoors too as I have limited access to sun, so I can only imagine how much more rainbow-y it is in direct sunlight. Very happy with this purchase.
• Breakfast at Tiffany's: Not so pleased with this one. Though the colour is exactly as advertised and I absolutely love this colour, the scattered holo was not as strong as I expected. My biggest concern with this polish was the formula. It went on quite thick and uneven, and with a second stroke the formula began to grow bald patches. I struggled with it and I actually had to redo my middle nail. Even with three very thin coats (which was difficult because the polish is thick) I felt it was challenging to work with. I cropped my struggles out of the video below, but trust me, they were there.
• Diamonds are a girl's best friend: This one is very stunning. I love the medium-sized holo glitters, they were a perfect touch. The holo heart glitters are a nice touch too, and their holo is to die for (see macro pic below), but I had to fish for a while to get them out of the bottle because they all pooled at the bottom. I also felt there could have been a higher glitter to jelly ratio. I applied four coats of this polish on my ring finger, and using my sponge technique to maximize glitter payoff and reduce jelly, but overall it still came out a bit thick jelly-wise.

'Diamonds are a girl's best friend' by GG Couture - 4 coats applied using make-up sponge and heart glitters required some fishing to find and then place

'Breakfast at Tiffany's' by GG Couture turquoise polish as base with 'Genevieve' on sides of lightning bolt

Black with GG Couture's 'Genevieve' holo top coat on sides of lightning bolt

Here's the lightning bolt nail vinyls I used - no complaints here, perfect as always. The sidewalls of these vinyls have always treated me right. As long as I make sure all edges are firmly adhered to the nail/side walls of cuticle, I never have any polish bleeding issues. If you use scotch tape, you will have polish bleeding!! Read my Gradient Guide for more on that.

Lightning bolt nail vinyls from nailvinyls.com

1 MIN OR LESS VIDEO TUTORIAL:

(see also 15sec version on Instagram)

This video should be pretty self-explanatory in terms of steps, but just note this:

• I only ever use Glisten & Glow's HK Girl top coat before applying nail vinyls - this ensures a fully dry/cured base after allowing to dry and then the vinyls won't rip up or indent the polish.
• When I paint on the holo topcoat over the lightning bolt vinyl, I remove the vinyl promptly, don't let the polish dry.

Polishes used:
- Cult Nails 'Nevermore' (my fav black creme - you could win it and way more awesome polishes if you enter this giveaway!)
- GG Couture 'Breakfast at Tiffany's' (turquoise scattered holo)
- GG Couture 'Genevieve - Spectraflair' (holo topcoat)
- GG Couture 'Diamond's are a girl's best friend' (holo glitters in a clear jelly)