Holo Taco Holodays: My Picks Swatch & Review

Holo Taco said that every day is a holoday, and I’ve really taken that to heart because I finally have my swatches of their holiday collection for you in May. Spring is such a great time to look at winter collections, isn’t it? Most bloggers like to be ahead a season, I prefer to be behind one. These polishes are all still available and they aren’t necessarily wintery shades so I have little heartburn about dropping this on y’all. These are the first polishes from Holo Taco that are neither cremes nor toppers. This is their holo glitter formula, which are several different sizes, and in some cases colors, of holographic glitter in a jelly base.

The shades all perform like you would expect: the lighter the jelly base, the more coats you need for full coverage. You either build opacity by building up the base or the glitters. Two of the polishes I have today had more opaque bases and reached opacity that way while the other two had lighter bases so the glitter coverage was what really needed to be built up. For a glitter polish, I would say that across the board these were really easy to apply, I actually ended up mostly painting them on like regular polish which is not something you can do with a lot of glitter bombs. I think Cristine knows that not everyone who gets her polish is going to be a power user of nail polish, so it makes sense that these were formulated to have as easy application as possible for someone who might just be used to a drugstore creme. That being said, if you use this polish and expect it to apply like a creme, you will be disappointed. Say it with me kids, different formulas require different application techniques!

For all my swatches, I used Ünt Ready for Takeoff as my base coat and used Superchic Lacquer Marvel Liquid Macro top coat where noted.

Holo Taco Frost Light, 3 coats plus top coat

I’m going to show off the polishes in the order that they appear on the website and holy guacamole, we are starting with my absolute favorite. May I present to you, the beautiful Frost Light. It is described as an “icy blue holographic glitter polish” and it has both silver and blue glitters in a blue tinted base. This is one of the most beautiful shades of blue ever, hands down. It’s kind of got that Cinderella’s dress blue going on: a sky blue and baby blue mixed together with a drop of periwinkle added. The holographic glitters just elevate this to magic fairy tale dreams status. If someone made me wear one of the polishes from this collection every day of my life, it would be this one. So damn good! I think the only way this polish could be improved would be by slapping down some Flakie Holo Taco on top, which I know I will do at some point!

Holo Taco Frost Light, 1 coat

 I used one thin coat to start the magic all off and application was smooth sailing. The glitter is really dense which made the polish easy to control. I did not do much by way of glitter manipulation, just an extra brush stroke here and there to try to get an even spread of glitter. The base is really sheer, but the tint is there.

Holo Taco Frost Light, 2 coats

In person, Frost Light almost looks perfect in two coats and I could see some people being happy with it here. It’s so blingy that it is easy for your eyes to miss some of the glitter gaps that will likely be there after your second and, I recommend, thin coat. I’m picky and I think I can fill in those gaps so I went in for a third coat.

Holo Taco Frost Light, 3 coats

Frost Light is absolute wintery blue glory in three coats. Here I cannot see any gaps between the glitters and that blue base is even more intense. With this coat and the second coat, instead of doing long smooth brushstrokes like you would do with the first coat and with a creme polish, I suggest using shorter, choppy brush strokes to try to wiggle glitters into gaps. Just gently ease the polish over the nail and I think you’ll be more satisfied with your glitter spread! I give this polish 800,000/10, it’s gorgeous and everything I need in life to be happy.

Holo Taco Midnight Spark, 2 coats plus top coat

Midnight Spark is the other sort of blue in the collection and it is described as an indigo. It is a very blue-leaning indigo, but there are both purple and indigo glitters in the indigo base so I don’t have a problem with the description. The base color here is much darker than Frost Light’s so this one builds up more quickly. You could use three coats for maximum glitter coverage, but it was looking pretty dang sparkly to me in just two.

Holo Taco Midnight Spark, 1 coat

I love that the first coat of Midnight Spark is a little sheer because you can really tell that there are different colors of glitters! The base, while quite dark, does have some uneveness in the first coat. I was more concerned with getting decent glitter distribution as opposed to base distribution. The formula was again easy to work with, one of the more painless glitter polish applications I have had in my life.

Holo Taco Midnight Spark, 2 coats

I only needed two coats of Midnight Spark to completely cover my nail! Any gaps between the glitters are filled in by the opaque, dark base. This one is breath-taking, maybe not as much as Frost Light, owner of my heart and soul, but Midnight Spark really is a stunner.

Holo Taco Rainbow Snow, 3 coats plus top coat

Rainbow Snow is your basic, silver holographic glitter bomb. I say “basic,” but I actually have never owned one before! I have plenty of silver holos, just not glitters like this. Since it is just glitter in a clear base, this one needs to be built up in three coats. Because the base is clear, you could probably use it as a topper as well but I somehow didn’t think about that until right now. Might have to try it out in the future!

Holo Taco Rainbow Snow, 1 coat

After one thin coat you get a good amount of glitter on the nail and it only requires a couple extra brushstrokes to get the glitter distributed the way you want it. However, you can easily see through the polish at this point, my uneven free-edge is sticking out like a sore thumb.

Holo Taco Rainbow Snow, 2 coats

Rainbow Snow builds up pretty well after a second coat. Perhaps some less picky people would be good with it here. You can barely see my nail line and honestly, in person to the naked eye those little gaps between the glitters are less apparent because your eyeballs get distracted by all the bling.

Holo Taco Rainbow Snow, 3 coats

Because I am picky, I think Rainbow Snow needs 3 coats to look completely awesome. Even in the photo you would be hard-pressed to pick out my nail line and 99% of those little gaps I saw after the second coat are now filled in.

Holo Taco Party Punch, 2 coats plus top coat

Party Punch is the last of my picks for this collection and it’s a banger. It is described as a vibrant pink, but honestly it’s such a dark pink that it looks red. I love pomegranate/berry red polishes and that’s the color category I would put this one in. It’s actually coming off as more pink in my photos than it looks in person.

Holo Taco Party Punch, 1 coat

Party Punch has decent coverage with one coat. The base color is a little uneven and sheer in some spots. It paints on really easily thanks the thinner yet dense brush that fans out. Since the formula is full of glitter, it pretty much stays where you put it.

Holo Taco Party Punch, 2 coats

After just two coats, Party Punch looks completely opaque to me! The base color is now even and it matches what I see in the bottle. Any glitter gaps are obscured by the more opaque base color.

This is such a fun collection! I can see how they work for the holiday season, but most of them work for other times of the year too. Party Punch would be really fun to wear in the summer and Frost Light is so glorious I cannot imagine I would refuse to wear it any time of the year. It is hands down my favorite, any one who doesn’t love Frost Light can fight me. I took all these photos in a lighting set-up that, while mostly ideal for color accuracy, is not ideal for holo. The fact that you can see the holo peeking through despite that is a testament to how blingy and rainbow-y these polishes really are! Like I noted earlier, these are some of the best glitter jelly polishes I have ever worked with. I would have liked to see an emerald green polish in this finish, but maybe we can get that in future collections! Come to think of it, I would also love a burnt orange, aquamarine, charcoal grey, lime green, black… all the colors, please! I do have the Unicorn Skins collection to review for y’all, as soon as I get my last winter release post up, I will finally start sharing some actual spring stuff. Will it already be June at that point? Probably. Thanks for sticking with me!

xx, Ashley

 

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