Darling Diva Review - Holographics Are a Girl's Best Friend

Have you ever looked at a nail polish and thought, "It's nice, but I really wish it was more holographic. More glittery. More...fabulous." I know I have, and these polishes from Darling Diva have answered a need I only just recently realised I had. 

I have a real thing with my makeup that it has to be noticeable - if I'm going to spend time spreading this gunk on me, I want people to NOTICE dammit. But at the same time, I have also always been deeply uncomfortable with the idea of drawing attention to myself - one of the reasons my personal style has always been relatively conservative. The most outrageous my wardrobe ever became was deep in the middle of my goth phase, where I somehow found the courage to go out in outfits like this;

Excuse the share house background

I fucking LOVED that coat. It swept the ground when I walked, and I had dip dyed the hem on it deep purple. I'd wear it with my PVC top that I'd brought home from Paris, and PVC pants, and just go NUTS with the eye liner, as you can see. It made me feel Fabulous.

But somewhere along the line the self consciousness overwhelmed my sense of fun, and I decided I couldn't wear things that drew attention to me if I wanted to be taken seriously. As a short, fat, geeky girl who suffered from bouts of depression, I figured being "wacky" with my wardrobe was just another obstacle I didn't need. 

It has taken me until...oh, about last week, to realise this is nonsense. Sure, I couldn't have worn my full length white satin coat to work. But my self conciousness had gotten to the point where I was uncomfortable wearing COLOURS for goodness sake - I have two perfectly lovely red dresses sitting in my closet that I haven't worn once in the two months I've owned them because I keep getting stressed by the idea it might be "too much." So I decided it was time to do something about this, and stop letting my concerns about what other people thought ruin ALL my fun.

Holographic nail polish has turned out to be a wonderful stepping stone for a tentative diva like myself, and Darling Diva came up as a recommendation on just about every review of holographic polishes I came across. It's also an "indie" brand, which means it's one woman show. Given the enormous variety and amount of glitter in her products, I like to imagine her living in some sort of fairy castle, where she just has to dust in order to get the sparkles for her polishes. I have a real soft spot for supporting people who start their own businesses. so I threw down my money, and one day a little package of pure sparkle showed up at my desk. 

Shiny, cap'n!

Because I have a tendency to get all over excited, I ended up getting three different polishes when I probably really could have been perfectly happy with just one. While these three look very different in the bottle, on the nail the differences are pretty slight.

Space Beetle has some copper glitter which is quite unusual, but while the listing claims it's a duochrome (meaning it changes colour in different lights) I haven't really been able to make that come up. In a certain light the copper glitter does seem to turn bright gold though, which is a nice surprise.

Bitch Panties doesn't seem to have much base colour at all, which is actually quite neat because it means you can put it over anything. And honestly, the amount of glitter in this, I don't really see how you could actually put in any colour pigment without making it into some sort of Tardis polish. Dangerous Driver has a relatively strong purple base, but not so pigmented that you could really wear it without something solid underneath. Like Space Beetle, it's listed as a duochrome, but like Space Beetle, I couldn't really get that aspect to show up. To be honest though, I wasn't really that disappointed - the duochrome isn't why I bought them. I was there for the SHINY, and shiny they bring in ABUNDANCE.

To show you how versatile these polishes are, I whipped up what is called in nail circles as a "Skittles" manicure, for fairly obvious reasons. 

Taste the rainbow! Actually, don't, it tastes pretty dreadful. 

For the sake of completeness, the polishes I used were; Revlon Top Speed in Ocean, Revlon Top Speed in Violet, OPI in I'm Not Really A Waitress (which I reviewed here), OPI in Every Month is Oktoberfest, and Sally Hansen Insta Dry in Uptempo Plum. 

While we're at it, where is my damn jetpack?

Then, I had to wait for it to dry. I make a point of almost always getting the fastest dry stuff there is and still find myself sitting there flapping my hands and whining impatiently like a toddler needing to pee. Remember Total Recall, when the girl had that wand she just tapped on her nails and they were changed? Why don't we have that yet? This is supposed to be the future!

ANYWAY, after approximately a million years, they were dry enough to put the shiny stuff over the top. I used Dangerous Driver on the index and ring finger, Bitch Panties on the middle and thumb, and Space Beetle on the little finger.  

And lo, it was FABULOUS.

The one negative thing I have to say about this polish is pretty neatly illustrated by these pictures - I really do feel like you only need to pick one. While Space Beetle is a teeny bit different because of the copper sheen, the difference between Dangerous Driver and Bitch Panties on the nail is pretty negligible. But hey, now I have LOTS of it, so it will be ages until I need to restock. 

Call me cowardly, but I also like that the sparkle tones down the brightness of the colours. These pictures were all taken to show off the rainbow holographic effect, but in less flashy light it basically ends up looking like a paler version of the base colour, because the sparkle is so densely packed. It's a great way for someone like me to get used to wearing something flashy and attention getting. I would feel comfortable wearing any of these colour combinations to work - so long as I wore it with a black dress. I know, I know. But baby steps, okay?

What's your favourite subtle diva touch that makes you feel fabulous?