Application was delightful. The consistency is thin and fluid but not runny and applies easily and smoothly over the nail in thin coats. Kaleidoscope Him Out is a fairly sheer polish and opacity must be built up over several layers. I could still see color from the emphatic staining on my nails after two coats, but it gave up the ghost (so to speak, ha!) after the third. Like many holographic polishes, this one shows every flaw of the nail bed, so you get to view my prodigious ridges in the photos today.
I've heard that there's a layering trick you can use with holos and other polishes that show nail bed flaws (like metallics) -- you apply your basecoat and then immediate over top of it a coat of Seche Vite (or other good, thick self-leveling topcoat) and then your holo or what have you. The topcoat in there should create a perfectly smooth surface for the holo so it won't show the flaws beneath. I wish I'd remembered this before applying Kaleidoscope Him Out! If anyone reading has tried this technique, please let me know how it worked in the comments!
Clean up was a snap, this polish is easy on easy off. Kaleidoscope Him Out dries very quickly, which makes applying three coats as easy as applying two of a polish that dries in average time. Plus since it goes on in thin coats, you don't get any of that thick polish look or feel. The natural finish is smooth and satiny and from what I can tell, application of topcoat does not in any way diminish this puppy's holographic qualities.
Photos show three coats of Kaleidoscope Him Out over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of HK Girl.
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| China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out, label a little worse for wear... |
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| China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out |
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| China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out |
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| China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out |
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| China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out |
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| China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out |
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| China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out |
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| China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out |
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| China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out |
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| China Glaze Kaleidoscope Him Out |
One thing in particular that I love about Kaleidoscope Him Out is the way the prismatic flair nuances the base color out around the edges of the nail to a darker dusky steel blue. It engineers a bit of that lit from within look we all love in a polish. This is a fascinating, fun polish to wear and the holo dynamic is lively and colorful without being in-your-face holo. The larger holographic particle size also produces lots of nice sparkle in addition to the prismatic display.
Cool polish!
love,
Liz
This is very pretty! You're lucky to have it in your collection. I have Milani Cyberspace which is similar in color, although the holo doesn't seem as strong.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Melissa! This is the only polish from the Kaleidoscope collection I have. I got it from a blog sale. Such a shame these are so hard to find! I used to have three of the Milani holos including Cyberspace but I gave them all away during one of my massive collection winnowings.
DeleteRidges, what ridges?? All I see are beautiful rainbows! I wish there were more of these out there, or something similar. So pretty!!
ReplyDeleteHa, Thithi! My two ringfingers look like Ruffles potato chips! You're right, though -- wearing a polish like this one, nail ridges are not going to be the focus of attention. Apparently this collection was discontinued almost immediately after its release. I can't think of another maker, indie or otherwise, that's done scattered holos with such large pigment particles in the density of the Kaleidoscope holos. It seems most holos these days are either much more scattered or they're fiercely linear. Interesting....
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