ILNP and Polish Me Silly: Flakie Review + Happy Holidays Giveaway

Hello peeps! Time for another fun giveaway :)

So, one thing I love about the nail art world is that it’s constantly evolving. Every few months, a new type of polish comes out or a new technique is created that everyone must have or wants to try. A few months ago, textured polishes were a big deal and a few months after that, lead lighting (a stamping technique) took center stage. Well ladies and gents, the polish God's have brought us a new craze in the form of opague multichrome flakies.

What are these shenanigans, you ask? Well, most of us know what a flakie polish is (typically, a clear polish containing transparent iridiscent glitter). Commonly, this kind of polish is used as a topcoat over a dark color for the best effect. And as a general rule, MATTE ALL THE FLAKIES. Why? Because matted flakies look awesome!

But these new flakies are a bit different. Instead of transparent flakies, some indie maker’s are using opague multichrome flakies which change color according to how they are viewed. Because the flakies are opague (instead of clear) they can be applied over light or dark polish (unlike transparent iridiscent flakies which are almost invisible over light colors).

From what I have noticed, quite a few different indie brands have started selling multichrome flakie polishes, such as Starrily, Indigo Banana's, and I Love Nail Polish (ILNP). Although I wanted to go nuts and spend my rent money on each brand, I decided to pick out some polishes from ILNP and Polish Me Silly to show you a comparison between different kinds of flakie polishes. First, I am showing off a swatch of ILNP's Ultra Chrome Flakie Polish Electric Carnival.

 

 

This polish makes me so happy. Shown here is one coat of Electric Carnival which has colorshifting opague flakies in a clear base. The most prevalent color shift for me was from yellow/green to pink/purple, but depending on your light and view, you might see a few more colors in there.

I decided to layer this flakie over black, although this polish could be worn over any color quite nicely. I added a coat of Seche Vite to really make the flakies pop. I found that the polish has a nice formula to it, not too thin or thick. Keep in mind, it is densely populated with flakies so if you are hoping to have the flakies stand out against your base, you may want to apply one thin coat. In 2-3 coats, this polish could easily stand on it's own with no base. Actually, I think that would be pretty cool.

Electric Carnival can be found on the ILNP website. It retails for $12.50 which is a little bit above the average price of a "normal" indie polish, but about average for a flakie polish. Trust me, it's totally worth it. At the moment, Electric Carnival and some of the other ILNP flakies are sold out, but the second they are restocked, I'll be standing in line with my credit card.

And because you should always matte all the flakies...

(although I actually prefer this polish shiny because the color shift is more vibrant)

The second polish I have for you today is Tinsel Town from another indie brand called Polish Me Silly. Although this brand released a flakie collection around the same time that opague multichrome flakies were released, keep in mind that this polish does not contain opague glitter. Rather, it uses transparent iridiscent glitter and works best as a topper over a dark color. But that doesn't make it any less gorgeous, take a look!

This polish reminds me of a carnival! There are so many different colors in here, its hard to keep track. The ones that stand out to me the most are red, blue, green, yellow, and orange. But just as with Electric Carnival, depending on your view and light source, you may see a few more.

Shown here is one coat of Tinsel Town (transparent iridesecent flakies in a clear base) over gray and black. As you can see, Tinsel Town looks nice over the gray, but really pops over black. For this kind of flakie, definitely stick with a darker color. I found the formula to be a little on the thick side, but after a few drops of thinner, it was fine. What I really like about this polish is that the flakies are less densely packed into the polish, so with one coat of Tinsel Town, you get a nice balance of base color and flakies. 

Tinsel Town can be found on the Polish Me Silly website. It retails for $11.50 which is a pretty good price considering most of the flakies I have seen cost $12-$13. At the moment, the Polish Me Silly store is closed, but should be re-opening soon. Make sure to check out their other flakies! Inferno and Peacock are also gorgeous.

And now for the fun part...

Here's the bad news: Unfortunately, as I mentioned, these polishes aren't currently available.

The good news: However, I liked these polishes so much that I thought you would too!

So I picked up a few extra bottles :)

Happy Holidays Giveaway

To celebrate the holidays and as a thank you for your continued support, I am giving away some fun stuff, including the flakie polishes discussed in this post! (but don't worry! You'll get new, unswatched bottles lol)

And to make sure that more people have a chance to win, there will be two prizes available!

Prize 1:
ILNP - Electric Carnival (swatched above)
Starrily- Supernova
Funky Fingers - Varsity Blue
Nakamichi Nail Strips - Harlequin Design

Prize 2: 

ILNP- Supernova
Polish Me Silly - Tinsel Town (swatched above)
Funky Fingers – The Notebook
Revlon Nail Art Appliques - Python and Petals

This giveaway will run starting today 12/19 until 12/31 at midnight (EST).
Please see giveaway rules and info before entering.

Giveaway Rules and Info

~ US entries only please (or U.S. mailing address for those overseas)

~ No following and unfollowing once the giveaway ends. Unfollowers will be banned from future giveaways. 

~ All winning entries will be verified. 

~ While I will package the items for safe shipping, On Wednesdays, We Wear Polish cannot be held responsible for replacing items that become damaged (i.e. broken polish) during shipping.

~ The prize packages will be mailed as shown in the above photos  (in other words, winner's cannot pick what they want from each prize group and end up with both ILNP polishes or both Funky Finger's polishes.)

~ The giveaway will begin today (12/19) and end on 12/31 at midnight. On the morning of January 1st, two winner's will be chosen (by raffle-copter), announced on my Facebook page, and contacted via email. The first person to respond to my email will be able to chose which prize they would prefer (prize 1 or prize 2). The remaining winner will receive the remaining prize. Both winners, after being picked and contacted, will have until 8PM (EST) on Friday the 2nd to respond and choose their prize. Otherwise, a runner up will be chosen.

Good Luck!

XOXO, On Wednesdays, We Wear Polish

a Rafflecopter giveaway