L'Oreal After Hours, Finger Paints Special Effects Motley, and Sally Hansen Diamond Flash Top Coat

Hi Guys! Happy Tuesday!

Today I'm multitasking and killing 3 reviews with 1 post!

First up, L'Oreal Color Riche Professional Manicure in After Hours...

I am a sucker for a dark blue polish. Actually, I'm a sucker for any blue polish, but dark blues always suck me in. So it's no surprise that out of the 4 polishes I have from this line, I tried out a dark blue first. After Hours is a rich, Navy Blue that is so dark it looks black. You have to look very closely to see the blue in this on the nail, despite it being evident in the bottle. Even so, it is gorgeous. Formula on this baby is fair, it's a jelly but it thickens rather quickly. By the time I hit my last nail it was leaving those annoying little strings of goopy polish on the tips. Nothing a little thinner can't cure though. I used 2 coats here, although it's easily opaque in one medium-thick coat.  Now, let me tie in my second product here:

I decided to try out Sally Hansen's Diamond Flash Fast Dry Top Coat with this mani. And I have to tell you that the shine is absolutely amazing, and the dry time is lightning fast. However.....It bubbles like nothing I have ever seen. The bubbling is not evident until it is completely dry, which is misleading to say the least, and I'm not talking one or 2 bubbles - nope! I had at least 15-20 bubbles non each nail. It's also very very thick, doesn't spread easily and is just an overall pain. I was really disappointed in this one. Sally Hansen's top coats, while not the best on the market, are usually decent. This was a huge letdown and I'm bummed that I wasted 7 bucks on it. I will say that if you let your polish dry COMPLETELY before using this, the bubbles aren't as bad. But in my mind that defeats the entire purpose of a fast drying top coat.

Here is L'Oreal's After Hours. Look closely and you can see that it's actually a deep Navy and not black (In these pics, I used a coat of SV over the Diamond Flash to try and lessen the bubbling. It worked well, but you can still see some bubbling.).

Please forgive the dog hair on the bottle! There was sticky goo left on it from where the price tag was! hehe!

After taking these pics, I added 2 coats of Finger Paints Special Effects Flakie Top Coat in Motley. I'm sure you've all seen this stunner by now, but I had to try her out over After Hours. Motley is an awesome Flakie top coat with a Blue to Green shift. But it's not just basic blue and green - it shifts from a royal blue with a hint of purple to blue, to teal, to green. It really is gorgeous! I didn't dare use the Diamond Flash again, so I topped this with SV. I'm loving this combo!

I'm pretty happy with this mani. I was on flakie overload for while there, but I'm ready to give these a whirl. I was really impressed with how easy Motley was to control, and I like that it's not overloaded with Flakies so that you can use a single coat for a softer look, or 2+ coats for something more dramatic. Good stuff! I still have to give Flecked and Twisted a whirl, but I'm certain they are just as awesome. What do you guys think of them?

Happy Polishing!
-Kimber