6. Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Lavender Pearl

Lavender Pearl is a strong metallic duochrome that flashes between lavender and teal/green.  It's a really cool looking polish, yet it's really sheer.  I initially intended to swatch it alone, but realized it was too sheer, so I layered 2 coats of Lavender Pearl over 2 coats of WnW Black Creme.  This way, you guys can see the duochrome more clearly.

Lavender Pearl is very brush-strokey, so you have to be careful applying it.  I can't really say much for the formula, since my bottle is well over 5 years old.  Mine is really gloopy, but nothing some polish thinner can't fix! :)  What I've noticed about the Nail Prisms line is that they are very slow to dry.  Even with a coat of Seche Vite, I've managed to smudge my nails 5 hours later! D:

I don't think you can get this polish anymore through normal means since the entire collection has been discontinued for a while, but I believe Wet n' Wild has a similar polish called Grey's Anatomy.  Not sure how close it actually is to this polish, but it's worth a try!

5. Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Diamond

I never noticed how repetitive the SH nail polish names are. So here's Diamond, a silver linear holo. The holo effect is subtle in this on as well, nowhere nearly as IN YOUR FACE as the old OPI DS or China Glaze OMG collection, but it's there.  My god this polish was hard to photograph.  This polish is definitely more mezmerizing in real life than in the pictures taken by my merely average point-and-shoot camera.

The following pics have pretty good holo effect in them!  So pretty!

It doesn't seem like it's meant to be opaque. 2 coats got the polish to this opacity, and adding a 3rd coat seemed to make little difference in the coverage.  I didn't add topcoat, since I was afraid that it would dull the holo effect, like it did on Mandarin Garnet.  Application was smooth; no dragging or bald spots.  However, formula is a bit watery, something I've noticed with all SH polishes.  I'm learning to apply it neatly, but if you're not careful, you could easily get cuticle flooding.

I like this polish and I can't stop staring at my nails!  Definitely a keeper!  In the future, I'll probably layer it over a light grey or silver metallic polish.  On a side note, I love how the bottom of these bottles are weighted.  Good for a clumsy girl like me to avoid excess accidents.  However, the short, squat shape of the bottle makes it awkward to take pictures....

4. Sally Hansen Nail Prisms - Mandarin Garnet

Mandarin Garnet is a pink-toned red metallic polish with a very subtle scatted holo effect.  It's really pretty and delicate-looking in the bottle.  On the nail, it looks a lot more pink than in the bottle I think.  These reds and pinks really aren't my favorite.  Right after I finished these pictures, I immediately took the polish off :(

It's not a bad polish; in fact, the formula's pretty good.  The following pics show 3 coats, topcoat only on the thumb and pointer finger.  Topcoat dulls the holo effect to the point where there's no more, so the other 3 fingers have no topcoat.  Mandarin Garnet is a lot more opaque than I thought it would be by looking at the bottle; one coat was halfway to opaque.  There's still some VNL, but I feel like this polish would be better layered anyways.  Application was pretty good, only some drag and bald spots on my right hand (since I suck at applying polish with my left hand).

The holo doesn't seem to show up at all in these pictures.  I guess it's just too subtle.  But look how sparkly the polish is!

I'm probably gonna be giving this one away too.  I got this polish (along with 4 other bottles of SH Nail Prisms) at Ross.  I was pretty happy to find them, especially since the whole line's been discontinued for a while.  Mostly, I picked up the Nail Prisms because I thought they had extra bottles of my old favorite, Lapis Amethyst.  However, I was disappointed because the color of Lapis Amethyst wasn't the same as the old bottle I had (and finished using a looooong time ago).  However, the discovery that some of the Nail Prisms I bought were holo cheered me right up!

3. Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - 05 Diamonds

Today, I used one coat of Diamonds over one coat of WnW's Black Creme, no topcoat.  Diamonds is a layering polish containing the same shimmers seen in Black Diamonds and Forever Lilac.  This combination ends up looking pretty much like Black Diamonds from a couple days ago, but with less depth and more apparent shimmer.  It reminds me of snow on the ground or little pricks of starlight in a dark night sky :)

This one shows off the green and purple flashes in the shimmer.  Check out that ring finger!  Pretty, isn't it? :)
(Excuse the bald spots; I was trying to apply in a rush, since I had less than an hour until I had to meet with friends :P)

Diamonds is a little bit tricky to apply.  If you just stick the brush into the polish, you just get clear polish.  So what I had to do to get enough shimmer was to pump the brush up and down inside the bottle a couple times before painting.  Despite this odd method, Diamonds is actually very packed with shimmer.  Love it!  Great for adding a little something extra to a plain cream polish.  It dries smooth, so no need to add topcoat if you're feeling lazy :)

2. Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - 22 Forever Lilac

Forever lilac is a foily, shimmery light purple/pink color (dare i say...lilac?).  It has the same shimmer in it that SH Black Diamond has, with the purple/teal flashes in the shimmer.  Obviously, the purple shimmer is not as apparent, since it's similar to the base color.  This could be worn on it's own at 1 coat, provided you have nice, unstained, nails, or if you just like that kind of thing.  at 1 coat it's sheer, yet the color is fairly even, not streaky.  it kind of reminds me of fairies and sugarplums.

I gave up at 3 coats.  I just can't do anymore than that.  I just don't do sheers.  Give me bright, bold, opaque colors anyday!  At 3 coats, opacity is acceptable, but could be better with 4.  This color is just so...pink.  On the nail, it's a lot more pink than it appears in the bottle.  It dries really shiny, and the shimmer adds a little something special.  It's not a bad color for my skin, actually; it's just strange because it's pink.  So very girly.  I think I like it better at one coat; it's very delicate looking and kind of whimsical.

I don't really like the pictures I took of this polish either.  That's why there's so few of them.  I also tried this polish with matte topcoat, and it just does not work.  It ends up looking frosty and lackluster.  As my housemate, ACheung said, "it looks like something a pageant mom would wear."  Ick.  After she said that, I just had to get it off.  I actually got this color for my junior prom, but I think it's time to part with it.  Maybe I'll give it to DChan, another housemate, who seems to really like this color.

1: Sally Hansen Diamond Strength - 94 Black Diamond

The first polish I'll be writing about is Black Diamond from SH's Diamond Strength line.  Black Diamond is a black polish with little glass fleck particles/shimmer.  In dim/yellow lighting, the shimmer becomes more apparent, flashing between teal and purple.  It's really pretty in real life; these pictures don't do the polish justice.  Formula's a bit runny, leading to some cuticle flooding upon application; nothing that cleanup can't fix.  Application was decent, being sheer and streaky on the first coat, evening out on the second, and reaching almost full opacity on the third.  Black Diamond could probably use a fourth coat, but three coats already kind of tests my patiences when it comes to manicures.  With shorter nails, you could probably get away with three coats, but on longer nails, there will be VNL if light shines anywhere underneath your tips.

Check out the amount of shimmer that appears in this!

I think the teal and purple shows in this pic.  Enlarge to see!

Random fact: My netbook's color actually matches with this exact nail polish.  From the shade of black, to the iridescent shimmer, to the random flashes of teal and purple.  LOVE!

I feel like the polish impressed more in the bottle than on the nail.  However, the polish does have its moments where it's absolutely breath-taking.  I love shimmers :)

I bought this polish on clearance at Walgreens for about $3.  I believe they were getting rid of the old bottles to make room for the new ones.  Although if you ask me, the old bottles look WAY better.  I get what they're trying to do, making the bottles look more gem-like, but it looks awkward IMO.

I apologize for the sub-par lighting and pictures, but this is the best I have until I can construct my own light box :\ (and eventually get a better camera :3)