| bich-kraft |
"The act of being a total bitch; often practicing the acts of upsetting people for the sake of it" - Urban Dictionary
Howdy loverly lot!
Today's post features another polish from one of my favorite indie polish brands - Bitchcraft by Darling Diva Polish. I've told this story before, but I will tell it again:
I've been following/ collecting Darling Diva Polish since early 2012, when I was introduced to Ringer; a dupe for the infamous colour-shifting MaxFactor Fantasy Fire. Not only does she constantly come up with new polishes and collections, some of the themes and names are pop culture favourites and are a hoot!
Carrie, the creator, retails her creations on Etsy and also via Mei Mei's Signatures. It's always a joy interacting with her as she has such a sense of humor and has great customer service despite running the 2-man operation with her husband. You'll find regular updates and interactions through her Facebook page.
So moving along, Bitchcraft is described as having color shifting glitter, a la Elytra range by OZOTIC, swimming in dark charcoal linear holographic jelly. That's too much goodness in a bottle!
First Impression
The holo and shift in the bottle was captivating, even without the sun! Darling Diva's logo and label has been improved to a clear label for a while now, from the white paper label I last blogged about. As the label on the bottom indicates, each full-sized bottle contains 15ml of goodness. A standard round bottle with decent-sized brush never could go wrong.
Okay, the name - wicked! I actually had to Google the name to see if it was in reference to any game, show or character because Carries gets her inspiration from everywhere. Turns out, as the prelude to this post says, it's the art of being a bitch. A a lesser known fact - it is also the title of an adult film, but let's not go there.
The Formula
Here's the first coat of Bitchcraft over 1 coat of Nail Tek Foundation III:
1 coat was definitely sheer, but look at the holo particles! The colour-shifting glitter bits look black here but they do have blueness to them. In fact, it's hard to tell as the holoness was dominating the attention.
Close-up:
With 3 coats, topped with Glisten & Glow HK Girl topcoat:
3 coats to full opacity and stunning-ness. There was some blue shift, but I couldn't exactly tell if it's the holo or color shift working its magic.
But upon a close-up:
The blue glitter is more noticeable here, and the red shift can be seen on the bottom left corner. It settles smoothly on the nail, minimal grit.
Having glitter in a holo-filled base made the consistency of the formular a tad heavy and tended to drag if you're in the habit of doing more than 3 - 4 strokes on a nail. It's the same another brand which had the same mix; holo base with some micro glitter, so I guess that's the downside of having too much 'goodness'.
Here's Bitchcraft working its magic in the sun (yes, one of the rare occasions where I managed to catch the sun):
The play of holographic colours was much stronger in real life, the camera just could not capture it while it's in focus. Flashes of blue are a little more prominent under the sun.
To compare looks, I've layered Bitchcraft over some base colours, topped with Glisten & Glow HK Girl Topcoat:
Except for the index finger (top), 1 coat of Bitchcraft was layered over 2 coats of each of the base polish colours. Personally, I'm liking it over the dark shimmery blue of OPI Yoga-ta Get This Blue (a random shout-out to one of my homegirls, mindpolish because she recently received her certification as a yoga instructor and this polish's name is just apt). It brings out the blue glitter that's swimming in the charcoal holo base.
Final Thoughts
I love holos, but include glitter, and I get even more excited! I just want to stare at my nails obsessively. I do wish the color shift of the glitter was stronger, but with all the colours moving around, it's still a lovely sight.
It retails slightly more at USD14.00, as compared to Darling Diva Polish's holo range (USD12.00) and regular polishes (USD9.00) due to the ingredients. It is still available on her Etsy store and she ships worldwide.
For those in Singapore and the surrounding region, Darling Diva Polish is also sold on Mei Mei's Signatures, which also ships worldwide. Regular polishes retail for SGD15, while those with holo pigments retail for SGD16.00.
That's all for today folks, as I scramble to hit the sack to catch some precious sleep before facing another challenging week and long work hours ahead!
Have a good start to the new week and new month (it's September already?!), and for those in the US, enjoy the long Labour Day weekend!
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥To Leave a Comment: I've noted that OnSugar's Comment feature has caused a few readers frustration by not accepting their input. While OnSugar works on rectifying it, I did a trial and error and found that comments don't get red-taped if you enter your information in the "Name" field without any space, ie. "ALacqueredAffair" instead of "A Lacquered Affair". I hope this works. As much as I want to, OnSugar doesn't allow the disabling of Captcha.
Disclaimer: Darling Diva POlish Bitchcraft was sent for review, while all other polishes were purchased by me. However, all opinions expressed are my own, and will always be.
