My Beach Manicure: Milani HD and OPI Paris Couture For Sure

Hello lovelies!  The hubby and I just got back from celebrating our two year anniversary with a fabulous weekend at the beach in Ocean City, Maryland.  YAY!  Okay, it was really more like a few hours at the beach and then hitting up bars with friends, but same difference, right?  ;-)  Knowing I'd finally be exposed to more sun in one weekend than I had all year, I had to do a manicure that thrived off the sun - holographics!!

I started with Milani 3D Holographic polish in HD.  HD is a silver scattered (meaning the rainbow/oil slick effect is weaker and kind of dispersed, or "scattered" on the nail) holo, and was surprisingly sheer.  I used three coats for what you see below, and I still had some VNL.  Application was easy, and I didn't need to use any special base coats.  Scattered holos are a little tricky to photograph, as you need the light to hit them in just the right way to really show off their beauty, so I took a ton of photos.  I'm sure you guys don't mind.  ;-)

The first two photos were taken under my Ott-Lite.

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 And since holos love sun, the next two photos were taken in sunlight.

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The Milani holos are really great and super affordable.  I'm pretty sure Milani made these permanent, so you can find them for less than $5 at your local CVS, Rite Aid, etc.  You can also get them from Milani's website, along with a few other favorite Milani hard-to-finds, at www.milanicosmetics.com.

I loved the look of HD, but I wanted to spice it up a bit.  I found OPI Paris Couture for Sure on my first dusty hunt with Jessie and had been dying to try it out.  This was the perfect opportunity!  PCFS (that name is way too long to type out over and over again) is an old black-label OPI that was released with the Shopping Around the World holiday collection back in 2005.  It's labeled as a "glitter top coat," but it really isn't a glitter at all.  It's more of a very fine irregular holographic flakie to my eyes.  I'd call it a scattered holo, but it certainly has some linear holo qualities.  (Linear holos have a very pronounced rainbow/oil slick effect on the nail.  They're not as sparkly, but the overall effect is jaw-dropping.  I have a few to show you - just waiting for a good sunny day!)

OPI PCFS is very sheer - even more so than Milani HD - which makes it perfect for layering.  I added just one coat of PCFS over HD.  It applies extremely well, and I was so happy with the result!  You can see how much more pronounced the holographic effect is!  The first three photos were taken under my Ott-Lite.

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And then in sunlight.

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PCFS is so awesome!  I hate that it was limited edition.  Your best bet for tracking this one down is swapping, dusty hunting, or shelling on on eBay.  There's no listings currently, but I see them pop up all the time.  It's one of the few that I'd say would be worth it.  It's just too cool!

OPI Paris Couture for Sure and Milani HD say hello from the beach!  :-D