[NOTD] - A variety of sequins

Today's nails are a bit messy because I actually only wanted to try out some different layerings but ended up liking them so much I did both hands. By the time I finished it was late night (or rather early morning) and I didn't feel like cleaning up.

The not-so-secret star is the KIKO Sparkle Touch - 270 Aqua Sequins, a topcoat with lots of opalescent hexagonal half-transparent flakies. I'm not sure flakies is the right term, they do actually look like sequins.
It's currently discounted - I got it for 1,50€. I believe it's supposed to leave the permanent range.

The flakies are in a transparent base and take on an amazing variety of colours, from pink to green to turquoise, silver and even a bit of gold - unfortunately only in the bottle. Depending on the colours you use them on, they can look absolutely stunning or lose all their vibrancy and make your nails just look spotted. The pink never actually makes an appearance and the colours that dominate on the nail are blue and turquoise, which is why I decided to try it over black and blues/greens.


The light wasn't very good and I still haven't figured out how to take proper close-ups which means the pictures are nowhere near what they should be, but I hope I managed to get the basic impression across. The colours are somewhat exaggerated - they are a bit more subtle in reality. I used Essie Good To Go over them all (another new acquisition and I can only say - I'm in love!)

Right hand:

From left to right:
1 coat of black Franken + 1 coat of Essence 76 hard to resist + 2 coats KIKO 270
2 coats of Essence 77 in style + 2 coats of KIKO 270
Black Franken + 2 coats of KIKO 270
Black Franken + Essence re-mix your style LE 01 Feels So Good*

Another view:


Left hand:

Black Franken + Essence special effect topper 01 it's purplicious
Black Franken + 2 coats of KIKO 270
Artdeco Ceramic Nail Lacquer 121 + 2 coats of KIKO 270
2 coats of Essence 76 hard to resist + 2 coats of KIKO 270

Another:


And another:

Personally, I think it looks best with black or a very dark, deep blue. I didn't have a blue darker than Hard to resist (this has been remedied - I bought Lara from Douglas Absolute Nails earlier today) so I had to try and get it dark with a black base. In the pictures it looks looks brighter than it actually is.

I did have some problems with KIKO 270. Apart from the already mentioned incompatibility with many colours, there's also the pink-silver side of it. In the bottle it looks lovely. On the nails, the pink, as I said, is not visible. Except when, at a certain light angle all the flakies turn a pinkish silver - on any coloured base it looks like the natural nail colour is shining through, which makes the mani look... pitted, for lack of a better word.

Also, the flakies are not very densely packed and they are very clingy - they love to hug the the sides of the bottle or the bruch or each other, but when the times come to transfer to the nail, they seem inexplicably reluctant. This makes it very hard to get a satisfying amount of them and spread it evenly - I always needed at least two coats.

On the whole, I think it's a lovely topcoat that can produce gorgeous results but isn't as versatile as one might think (or wish) and that has its difficulties in application. Still, it's certainly worth the 1,50 Euros I paid for it.



*The Feels So Good topcoat is amazing. I haven't seen it mentioned much compared to the other popular polish from the LE, the Waking Up in Vegas flakies, and it's a pity. It's an absolutely gorgeous dense silver-pink shimmer that looks stunning over anything with a hint of pink, red, purple or, like here, over black. I've seen it floating around in the discout-boxes and I'd recommend picking it up if you haven't yet.If you're in Cologne - Ihr Platz in the main station still has bunches of them.