Autism Awareness Day - Light It Up Blue

April 2nd is Autism Awareness Day and to show my support to those affected, while still keeping up with the beauty aspect of my beauty blog, I'll be showing you some blue manis plus what I'll be wearing on my nails for however long I can make the manicure last! I meant to post this earlier but it just kept slipping my mind for some reason. Better late than never though.

 The polishes I used were Layla Hologram Effect Polish in Ocean Rush and Mercury Twilight.

Yes, I got a case of the nubbins.

For this mani I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Pacific Blue and as an accent nail I used a franken I made (I call my frankens "AM Polish") called Tysen which is the name of my puppy.

This is Barielle Falling Star, one of my favorite polishes ever because of how unique it is. This will be the polish I'll be wearing as long as possible!

Fellow beauty bloggers, can you light it up blue?

Layla Hologram Effects - Ocean Rush Swatch + Mini Review

Ocean Rush is the only other one besides Mercury Twilight that I own of the Layla Hologram Effect collection. It's a gorgeous medium blue (that leans more towards green) with a strong linear holographic effect. 

Can you believe this [picture above] is an unedited picture (excluding the water marks)? Ugh, these polishes photograph beautifully.

The application was so much easier than with Mercury Twilight, this being 3 coats. The formulas a tiny bit thicker which makes for more opaque coats, but the holo effect is not as strong, not saying that this isn't extremely strong. The wear time was just as bad as MT. I can say this because I didn't even wash my hair in the shower 3 minutes ago and I still got severe tip wear. 

I bought my bottles off of HauteLook when Layla was selling on there for around $9, with each bottle being accompanied by a free Layla buffing board. Normal retail price is $15.50 each bottle.

Here's an overly edited picture that I thought was cool looking. (Above)

And lastly, a picture of it on a cloudy Sunday morning. Extremely color accurate from my perspective. 

Hope you enjoyed my swatches! Adios!

Layla Hologram Effects - Mercury Twilight Swatch and Mini Review

Today I'm going to be swatching this beauty for you, as well as reviewing it a little, with an explanation  on application. 

Mercury Twilight is a silver holographic polish with a very strong linear effect. Isn't it a beaut!

For my application, I didn't use any base coat. I don't currently own an aqua base, and using any other base coat has only made application more difficult for me, personally. The trick for me is to seriously just be more patient. Also, buffing your nails smooth is a very important factor for easier application and just overall better looks. You don't need the specific Layla emery board; anything will do.

- When applying coats, make them somewhat thick and NEVER go over one place twice; if you have a bald spot, just go over it with the next coat. Let it dry. When it's try, it'll lose it's sheen and will become more satiny looking in the light. After the desired amount of coats, put your hands under low light and you should be able to see your missed spots. This is when you spot coat. With a decent amount of polish on the brush, go from the top of the nail, all the way to the end, going over your bald spots. The beauty about this polish is that it evens out by itself and it dries extremely fast. Last thing, NEVER apply a top coat for this holographic polish, I've tested it out and yes... it does dull the holo effect.

I added this picture for the sake of it being cool lookin'. Haha, expect this as my next banner for when I update my blog layout.

This is a gorgeous, GORGEOUS polish and it would be my favorite one of all time if the wear time wasn't horrendous. Without a base coat or top coat, this polish chipped ridiculously. This mani held through for a good hour with no chipping, but once I showered, so much had chipped off. I still kept this polish on for 3 days afterwards though because it was so pretty even with all the horrible tip wear. The application for me was extremely smooth because of how fast it dried. This can be a little pricey at $15.50 USD for such a small bottle and considering how much polish you actually use per manicure. Would I buy this again? I'm not too sure. I feel like I could get a longer lasting strong holographic polish for a cheaper price (Color Club, I'm looking at you) but for my strongest holo of my collection, I'm in love and I don't regret buying it.

Hope you enjoyed my swatches! How do you feel about this polish?