I'm In Love

I've been on a serious nail polish kick lately.  And I am happy to say that I am in LOVE!  I was recently told about Speciallita nail polishes.  These are from Brazil.  As I scanned their website, guffawing over all of the amazing nail colors, I realized that I HAD to have these in my life.  It was imperative.  (PLEASE NOTE:  These polishes are not 3-Free.  They do contain toluene and formaldehyde.)

Here's the catch:  there aren't many places where you can buy this polish.  The Speciallita website is in Portuguese.  This is daunting to many, but with the help of Google translation, I managed to set up an account.  If you don't have the patience for that, there is a domestic site that has them for sale, look for anything that starts with "HITS".  Here's the difference:  the Brazilian site has the polishes for quite a bit less than the American distributor.  BUT the Brazilian site has CRAZY shipping.  I would recommend it if you want to place a really big order because it does work out less than the American site, but if you only want to try one or two things, save yourself some hassle and order domestically.  (I am contemplating ordering more or even taking orders so I can place one large order at a time, if there is enough interest.  Please let me know if you are interested.)

Now, onto the fun stuff!  (This is a "photo heavy" blog post, sorry!)

I got most of the polishes from the "HITS no Olimpo" collection.  These are gorgeous holographic nail polishes named after the gods of Mount Olympus.  I didn't get all of them because Atena reminded me of another holo I already have.  Hermes and Artemis both have a metallic base with holo and I wasn't too keen on how the swatches I had seen looked.  But I totally snatched up the rest and I am SO glad I did.

  

These polishes have a jelly base and microfine, linear, holographic glitter.  The colors go on smoothly and have good coverage with 2-3 coats.  They dry super-shiny, no topcoat needed.   I can't describe it, but the polish feels good on my nails.  I guess they are so smooth and glossy, it feels different.  I've been coveting Nfu Oh's jelly polishes, but this is my first experience with some and I love them!  I had swatched my nails on a Saturday, with a couple of different brands, but the Speciallita was the only brand to last over a week.  And that is with no base or top coat!

Afrodite is a lovely, warm, medium pink.  

It's unlike a lot of the cooler-toned, silvery-pink holos that are out there.

Apolo is a really gorgeous deep, blue.   I haven't seen anything comparable.

 Dionisio is a royal purple.  

Most of the holos I have or have seen that are purple tend to be muted and silvery.  

I'm starting to sound like a broken record.

But again, I hadn't seen a holo in this color before. 

Now, I HAVE seen light blue holos that are similar to Poseidon.

But since it has such amazing flash to the holo, I decided to get it anyway. 

 I decided to do a side-by-side (L to R) of Techno Teal from China Glaze's "Tronica" collection and Hera and Apolo.

Techno Teal is not a linear holo, like the Speciallita ones, but you get the idea.

 Zeus is black with a gorgeous rainbow of colors!

 I had never come across an orange holo until I found Demeter.

The holo isn't as flashy as some of the others, but I still like it a lot.

I almost passed on Ares.  I wasn't entirely sold on a red holo.

But I was pleasantly surprised when I got it.  It's very pretty!

The next collection I got is called "Mari Moon."  These colors are difficult to describe and impossible to photograph.  If you thought duochromes were fab, then you will be speechless when you see these.  They are multichromatic and look VERY 3-D when you wear them.  There are all sorts of color shifts.  I took many photos...inside, outside, direct light, indirect light...but I was really disappointed that I couldn't catch the true brilliance of these colors.    The color swatches in this blog are KINDA close, but I find they still fall short.  My favorite color of this bunch is Cutie Pie.  As you can see here, there is an purple, blue, aqua, pink multichrome action going on!  It is really amazing.  The other colors are beautiful too and there is something for everyone, but the color shifts in this one make it the "stand out" color of the bunch.

Last but not least, I picked up some of the "Powerpuff Girl" collection and some other odds and ends.  The Powerpuff Girl colors are lovely, pretty much what you see is what you get, but the pink has a lovely pink shimmer and the black, Buttercup color has a green shimmer.  Really pretty!!

The Speciallita brushes are the kind that are kinda flat, so that they are wider and cover more surface area of the nail when you apply the polish.  My only gripe is that some of the brushes are sorta frayed, they don't lie flat and together, there are strays sticking out.    And one of my Blossom PPG polishes has a chip in the bottle.  I haven't contacted Speciallita about it, so I am not sure of what their Customer Service is like, but I will keep you posted.

All in all, when I got these polishes, I thought that I could go the rest of my life and ONLY wear this polishes.  And that is a really big deal for me, since I have more polishes than I could ever wear in my lifetime!