Nail Polish Trend: Glitter

The first thing I want to point out is that none of these pics are my nails.  Click on the names of the polish to see the corresponding blog post.

Now that every color has taken over the nail polish world, the next logical step is glitter.  Yep, glitter for adults.  Some of these glitters are the glitter nail polishes we traditionally think of, full coverage small glitter.  If you are looking for this type of glitter, China Glaze has lots of interesting options (at Sally Beauty Supply).  Another trend that has been around a while is holographic glitter, such as China Glaze OMG (last pic, bottom right). Some of the new glitters have bigger or different shapes.  Hexagon shapes are popular, but you will also see circles, donuts, and long, thin pieces.  There are some polishes have sparse glitter that looks more like polka dots on your nails.  Essie just came out with a collection of glitter top coats (first pic) called the Lux Effects Collection.  Some of the Essie collection have tiny shimmers, others with hexagonal glitter meant to look like small stones.  I've added some pics of  drugstore glitters popular with nail polish fanatics.   First, on the right, is Revlon Facets of Fuchsia (now renamed Scandalous).  It is a dupe(licate) of Deborah Lippman's Bad Romance (more expensive). It has purple hexaganol glitter and micro glitter in a black jelly base.  Next is Revlon Whimsical which is a dupe of Deborah Lippman's Glitter in the Air.  It is blue and pink hexagonal glitter plus blue glitter in a sheer blue base.  Third is Revlon Starry Pink, now renamed Revlon Popular.  It is a light pink base with silver hexagonal glitter and silver glitter.  Wet N Wild Party of Five Glitters is a sparse glitter overlay of glitters of varying size and color.

Another big trend in glitter is flakies.  In the first picture, the bottom left and center are Essie Shine of the times which is a flakie.  Flakies look like little pieces of mica.  In fact they could actually be little pieces of mica.  Who knows?? (not me, but someone knows)  These polishes remind me of the rocks with mica in the black hills of South Dakota.  As you can see with the two pictures above, flakies look quite a bit different over light or dark polishes.  Traditional flakies, like Shine of the Times, flash between green and copper, depending on the angle.  Some of the newer flakies flash blue to dark blue or green to blue.  Click for swatches of the newly released Zoya flakies or Finger Paints flakies (at Sally Beauty Supply).  I own Essie Shine of the Times, but so far I don't think it is for me, unfortunately.  I'm going to keep trying though and see if I can find a way I like it.
If  you want to ease your way into glitters, you can always do an accent nail in glitter.  An accent nail is where you paint one nail, usually the ring finger, a differently then the rest of  your nails.

See my post on how to remove glitter nail polish.