Essence - Gagalectric (@Holografics.com)

Something I learned recently: duochromes are so hard to photograph correctly!  I can't capture all the colors and gorgeousness of this polish!  This is Essence's Gagalectric, which I recently purchased from Ulta.  It is from Essence's @Holografics.com.  They call it a holographic, but it's really not.  It is actually a very light lavender duochrome that flashes blue with a little bit of green mixed in.  It's very sheer, but still very pretty.  I picked it up thinking I might not like it because it looked like it could be sheer, but decided to give it a try anyway.  Glad I did!  While it my be very sheer, since even with 4 coats you can still see a bit of VNL (visible nail line), the color makes up for it.  It is just so pretty!

the bottle, in sunlight

in shade

in shade

in shade

in sunlight

I think these pictures don't do this polish justice!  You can definitely see the duochrome in the bottle in these pictures, but not on the nail too much. :(  Just imagine the nail flashing just like the bottle, and you'll probably have a good idea of how the polish really looks in person!

Formula and application were great with this!  Not too watery or too thick, and no streakiness.  It is, however, very sheer, as I mentioned earlier.  I used ORLY Bonder as my base coat and applied 4 coats to achieve this opacity.  No top coat.

Hope you enjoyed this~ the first of many swatches from my Ulta haul! :)

HAUL: Nail Polish from Ulta

Hi, I'm Kristine, and I'm a nail polish addict! xD

Ulta had an AMAZING deal today...Buy one, get one free on butter LONDON polishes.  I definitely could not pass this up, so I stopped by after class today.  The Ulta catalog said there was a limit of 2, and I took that to mean a limit of using the deal two times.  Looking online, that's what most other people thought too.  But I got to the store and the SA told me the limit meant a total of 2 polishes.  Whatever, just getting 2 for the price of 1 is an amazing deal on it's own...but it was hard to pick colors!  I have so many on my wishlist!  But this is what I got:

indoors, no flash

indoors, flash

I think this picture shows the true colors better...

As you can see, I did not just walk away with only butter LONDON, lol.  In addition to the butter LONDON polishes, I picked up 1 Revlon polish, 2 Essence polishes from their holographic collection (but they're not, they're actually duochromes), and 1 Maybelline polish.

From butter LONDON, I really wanted All Hail the Queen...that was the one I wanted for sure.  My second one was up in the air, until I actually got to Ulta.  I just picked one from my wishlist, on the spot, haha.

Then I went looking around, cuz I wanted to use my $3.50 off coupon.  My Ulta does not let you use it on butter LONDON cuz they consider it a premium brand, but I've read other Ultas do let you...Anyway, I saw the Revlon polish and Maybelline polish, and I got so excited because I've been wanting these.  I haven't seen Royal Cloak (from the Masquerade collection) anywhere until now!  So glad to find it!  And then, I've wanted Autumn Leaves since I saw it on Nouveau Cheap...it's super pretty, and looks like a duochrome.

revlon royal cloak & maybelline autumn leaves

And finally, the Essence polishes...

I wasn't planning on getting these at all, until I saw them in person.  They are very pretty duochomes...and I don't know why the collection is called Holographic.com, because they are definitely not holographic.  Really loving the one on the left!

But that's not the end!  I stopped by Ulta again after my last class of the day...it was close to closing time, and a lot of the butter LONDON polishes were gone by then.  But they still had one I wanted: Knees Up.  So I got that one, along with British Racing Green...which I hadn't expected to get, but am growing to like.  Went a bit crazy with polishes today, but I was saving up for the butter LONDON polishes since I saw the catalog. xD

They all look like great fall polishes, and I can't wait to swatch them!  I have lots in my queue for swatching now, haha.  Stay tuned for those!

Also, I was planning to swatch and review some lippies, but I got sick last week, and haven't wanted to wear any makeup for fear of contaminating it with my germies.  But I'm happy to say I am getting better, so I'll be trying to do those swatches and reviews soon!

Did you end up getting anything from the BOGO butter LONDON deal?