Flashing Rainbows

I haven't been genuinely excited about a nail polish for a while, but my newest discovery has been a revelation. Models Own Northern Lights was another impulse buy that was part of my Luxola order. I was looking for something relatively inexpensive that would qualify me for free shipping, and naturally gravitated toward nail polishes and the Models Own page. The only other Models Own nail polish I had was the exquisite Indian Ocean, so I was hoping to find something equally unique and visually arresting.

I don't have any purely holographic polishes despite a strong interest in them, though I have a few glitter polishes that partially contain holographic glitter. Northern Lights is a dusty, blush pink glitter polish in a clear base, where the individual glitter particles have a strong holographic effect. It's quite a dense glitter polish and two coats sufficed to provide opaque coverage. I first used two coats of Savvy by DB Nude to provide a neutral, tinted base, followed with three coats of Northern Lights, then sealed everything with my trusty Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Anti-Chip Top Coat. It's been six days and still not a chip in sight — a seriously impressive feat given glitter polishes are notorious for chipping quickly.

Northern Lights is absolutely dazzling in direct sunlight but still powerfully holographic under artificial or indirect light. Despite that, it doesn't seem gaudy or OTT, mainly due to the muted pink base and the small, uniform glitter particles. If it were made of chunky, differently sized glitter, and there was a stronger contrast between the holographic effect and the base colour, the whole character of the polish would change. Northern Lights manages to pull off a rare thing: elegance in a party varnish.