The Holo Hookup September 2016 Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! Today I have the next edition of The Holo Hookup to show you! In case you haven't heard of it yet, it's a monthly pre-order "box" of four holographic polishes from indie makers Cupcake Polish, Different Dimension and Glisten & Glow along with a guest maker. They always have a fun theme and create some beautiful limited edition polishes. The theme for September's box is art, all the shades are inspired by famous paintings! And the guest indie maker is Vapid Lacquer.

Press Sample

Inspiration Photos

Cupcake Polish Bad Hare Day is inspired by Robert Deyber's Bad Hare Day (Mona Lisa). This is a beige/ivory linear holographic with copper speckles throughout. This has a great formula, thick but in a good way. This is two coats.

Different Dimension Monroe is inspired by Andy Warhol's Monroe. It's a creamy, lightened tiffany blue linear holographic with added shimmers and neon pink microglitters. This was also thick in a good way, buttery. Dried a little slow and has some texture, so wait a bit between coats and use a thick top coat.

Glisten & Glow The Abstract Expressionist is inspired by Sam Francis's Untitled, 1994, (SFP94-75, SFF.1749). It's a berry purple linear holographic with gold and purple shimmers. Super easy, great formula. I used two coats here.

Vapid Lacquer Dali's Elephants is inspired by Salvador Dali's Elephants. It's a very warm red-orange linear holographic. Thinner formula but very pigmented. I didn't shake my bottle very well and my first coat was not very holo, so I gave it a good tumble and the second layer was much more sparkly. This dries surprisingly shiny!

This box will be available for pre-order on The Holo Hookup website starting Sunday, August 21st at 9pm EST through Sunday, August 28th at 9pm EST. The price is $40.00 plus shipping, available both domestically and internationally. To see more swatches, you can check out The Holo Hookup’s Facebook and Instagram pages. Let me know what you think of these! This has to be one of my favorite boxes since I started reviewing them, so good!

❤ Kellie

The products mentioned were provided for an honest review.

halloween manicures

i love halloween and orange and black and these are some fun manicures i was sporting on or around the week of halloween this year :)

this is awesome china glaze fortune teller, an amazing black with copper/orange colored flake glitter. back-up worthy. amazing amazing polish. china glaze hit this one outta the park.
this is fortune teller a few days after (i know, i can't believe i wore it that long!) after i mattified it with essie's matte about you topcoat.
these are some cutie little press on nails i got at walmart for like $2 or something :) wore them the friday before halloween at work. this is the length i aspire mine to be naturally one day. ahh wishin and hopin! they were pretty sturdy considering how cheap they were, but the glue that came with them was crap so i had to use krazy glue (am i the only one who is peeved when companies use the letter "k" for things that should have the letter "c" to make them sound cool or something?) I used a few coats of base first so the glue wasn't on my nail bed, cuz i know you're worried ;)
this is nc2 fresh squeeze (discontinued) orange with the spiderwebs done with some striper polishes, inspired by the lovely Colette's awesome manicure over at My Simple Little Pleasures. the ring finger was my first try, but as i kept going i got the hang of it.
i decided it looked to "pretty" so i used sinful colors UFO on the orange and then mattified it with essie matte about you. the final product turned out fun and kinda deconstructed. the pictures don't do the look justice, but take my word for it haha.
this is china glaze's dreamsicle, which is a great great bright orange glitter. it's one of the 50 specialty glitters that came out this fall that i happened to snatch up at sally beauty by chance, even though my local stores didn't carry hardly any of the new glitters :( this shot was taken in my short lived rounded nail phase this past month too haha, i broke a few corners and decided to try the "squoval" shape thing again. needless to say, it didn't last long. now that i look at this picture tho, it doesn't look bad! i just felt weird looking down and not seeing my normal squares...i'm weird haha.
my last minute costume was a devil haha, this wig had the horns like glued in haha it was so fun to wear. it looked kinda rock-a-billy and i had a glitter pitchfork & forked tail. we have a family halloween party every year so we had a great time just eating and playing jeopardy and having a costume contest and lots of other stuff :) i hope everyone had a spooky fun weekend!!

cute as a tiger button

i've been wanting essie's cute as a button forEVA and i finally got it from transdesign not to long ago :D cuz it's the last place you can get cheap essie's online (correct me if i'm wrong please dears). and it truly did not disappoint. it is a gorgeous pinky coral shade that is so rich and creamy. very complimentary to my skin.

it was a tad more orange than i expected. so i figured i would work with it and the second day decided to use my china glaze ink with nail art brush to draw some tiger/zebra stripes.

then i thought it looked to pretty or something, haha, so i mattyified it with essie's matte about you, which changes the color up a little and made it even more orange. so i had full blown tiger nails. super fun!

i'm ok, you're bouquet

i really like pinks. i'm guilty. it's lame i know, haha. but i do! corals are really my guilty pleasure but pinks are pretty close. this pink is so cute and i found it in a discount bin in trade secret so i snatched it up of course of course. a pretty lavender tinted pastelish pink creme from opi, i'm ok, you're bouquet suggests this pink to be perfect for weddings. which i dare to say it would be. i put some old GAP brand silver chunky glitter i had in the corners, attempting to do a cascading look. and on the thumb i used white acrylic paint to do a simple bow, using the same sort of technique i mentioned in the gussied up green post, i've just added ribbon to the end and flattened it out a bit. i thought i did ok with it actually, but trying to do it on my right hand was a different story haha and a definite fail though, so i need to keep practicing!

i hope everyone had a great weekend! i had an amazing time shopping with the sister, so you'll be seeing some haul photos soon!!

gussied up green

i love greens, as most of the nail bloggers do. idk why? i guess it's just a commonality we share for some reason. i for one blame ZULU! haha, anyway one of my new favorite greens has got to be this one, china glaze's gussied up green from the rodeo diva collection. sooo pretty!!! it's a dark emerald that shimmers as if it's life depended on it. the polish just doesn't quit! i compare it a bit to sally hansen's insta dri jumpin' jasper but this is warmer. this is two coats with seche on top. and i took pictures without cleaning my cuticles first can you believe it?! oh the horror.i put some deco flowers on the ring and thumb nails, using a technique i've seen on a few youtube vids (namely julieg713) using opi's DS design.also i didn't walk around with this but i tried a bow using the same type of technique as the flowers (see it HERE by Naritaz) on my pinky nail using opi's i'm ok, you're bouquet just to see if it would turn out or not. and it looks ok, but it was just for practice, so i thought i'd show ya!

anyway, my posts might get spaced a little further in between since my classes have started up again, but i will keep posting nevertheless :) so stick with me k my dears ♥ ya!

prince charming pinstriped

this look was a fun one and i really loved wearing it. i borrowed all the polishes so i don't have pics of the bottles unfortunately tho. the main color is prince charming by orly, part of the once upon a time collection. it is a pretty creme chocolate brown color, which i didn't think i would like that much actually with my skin tone. (more on that later) the stripes are done with art club (?) or art deco or something nail art brushes in standard white and black. there are possibly different names for them but like i said, i borrowed them so i can't remember.

the first shots are with seche as a topper. now i like this look alright, but meh, i didn't think it was anything special. and i actually only did the stripes on the sides because i messed up and peeled some off my right thumbnail on the side and i didn't want to paint it over, so i decided to decorate them instead.but when i got home i put on a coat of essie's matte about you matte-maker top coat to try it out (new purchase!) and WOW it absolutely transformed this mani for me! idk about you but after it went matte, it went PHAT haha. the topcoat lightened the brown a bit which made the polish suit my coloring much better i think. it also like flattened and blended the polishes all together into a satin-y way and i just absolutely loved it. what do you guys think??
mmm i just went to texas roadhouse for dinner with some friends and i am STUFFED to the brim with yummy rolls and delicious mashed potatoes and new york strip steak. so i'm gonna sluff off and get some sleep! i start fall semester tomorrow (YIKES!) and its finally all psychology classes!! yayay no more math :D wish me luck and i hope everyone is having a lovely week so far.

zoya zara & my special package

awww my dear zoyas how i love them so! i think they absolutely have the best color range of any polish. the formula is pretty good, a little thicker on this first one i'm showing, zara. the lovely lavender/purple is ga ga gorgeous and it has tons of golden shimmer in it and flashes bronzey and sandy in certain lights. i've heard people describe this as a slight jelly but the jury is still out for me. it was the harder out of the three zoyas i have to apply but i just love it soooo!also to shake it up a bit, i added some nail art today (second day) inspired by the diva's polish's post who posted because she was inspired by a tutorial she saw on youtube. (check out her blog it's great!) i obviously didn't do the tips but put the stripes and dots on using white kiss brush on nail art paint. i also used color club's crystal glitter art club nail art brush to do stripes in between the white stripes. and i even accomplished the look on my right hand, which i couldn't believe. it's definitely not my usual look, but it was fun to do and that is all that matters yes?also waiting for me on saturday was a package from mary of body and soul. i won one of the two packs she was giving away in july YAY!! and i was super super super impressed with the gift. can't wait to try these out! :)hope everyone had a great weekend :) i had fun hanging out with my sister and nephew who came into town for a mini-break. byeeee♥

konad nail stamps

so i went to the women's expo at UVU today w/ my stepmom and step-niece because my sister's company NuSkin was the main sponsor of the event this year and we all went last year together. It's become kind of a nice tradition. Anyway, i usually don't get suckered into buying anything but this year i came across a Konad nail art stamp booth and was blown away by the apparant ease of applying the nail art. i follow CeeCee on OnSugar and she has done a ton of nail art with these and i wanted desperately to find them and try them out.

they are super fun little designs that are pretty easy (after you get the hang of it) which are achieved by placing the thicker than normal Konad polish on a little etching of the design on a mirror plate, scraping off the excess polish with a blade like apparatus, placing the stamper over the design, then rolling the stamp over your (polished w/ a top coat or color) nail. there is obviously a learning curve with anything like this but after you get used to it, it's pretty sweet. here's my first attempt:
china glaze black diamond base coat w/ konad white polish

obviously i cleaned it up around my cuticles. i also placed a blue rhinestone on my thumb nail. pretty cute, no?