Glitter Holo Topcoat Comparison: Part One - The Flakies

Before I drive into the comparison, a want to note a few things. Many of these polishes have been provided to me for review. I have indicated in each individual polish's post whether they were provided for review or not. You can get to the individual posts by clicking on the polishes' names below. Whether I purchased the polish or was provided it for review, all polishes will be reviewed fairly and all opinions are my own. 

I want to thank all the makers who have provided polishes to be included as well as those who encouraged me to undertake this beast of a comparison. Special thanks to Lauren (@lwarzy) for her help swatching some HTF polishes and her donation of swatch sticks. She actually bought the same exact base colors I was using to be able to send me accurate swatches. 

There are polishes included in this comparison that are no longer for sale directly from the maker. Why did I include these if they're hard to buy you ask? Including hard to find polishes can help determine if hunting down the polish is worth it, or maybe someone already owns one of these and wonders how it stacks up against the competitors. I do hope if you fall in love with one of the discontinued polishes that you're able to hunt one down in a destash. 

I will be breaking the glitter holo topcoat category into three separate posts since it will be extremely picture heavy. There are 17 polishes in this category. I've put them in groups based on how similar they looked. This first group are the ones I consider holo topcoats with flakies. Part 2 covers the chunky glitters and Part 3 covers the holo glitters.

The order of the polishes stays the same in all pictures below. Click the links for more pictures and information about each polish.

From left to right:

1. Enchanted Polish - Instant Galaxy

2. Elevation Polish - Yeti Stone Warrior

3. Elevation Polish - Aguja St. Exupery

4. Pahlish - Freckles In Our Eyes

5. Plain stick with no holo topcoat

Each stick is a base color with one coat of the holo topcoat followed by one coat of Seche Vite topcoat. 

The polishes used for the base colors are as follows:

Black - Funky Fingers Dark Knight

White - Funky Fingers Gesso

Sea Foam Green - Torrid Mint Nail Polish

Red - Fresh Paint Burning Flame

First here are all the colors together. 

None of these polishes really stood out to me over black because their flakies don't show up well. The least graying appears to be #1.

I really loved these polishes over white since they flakies really stood out. My favorite is #1 because it's subtle and beautiful. The most unique appears to be #4 with it's sort of copperish flaikes. 

It's interesting how different each holo topcoat looks over different colors. The graying effects are less noticeable over the sea foam green while the flakies are nicely highlighted. I thought all four polishes performed well here.

I wasn't really a fan of any of the polishes over red. It's a harder color to work with because it heavily shows any graying issues but doesn't display the flakies well either. 

Overall, I would say #1 and one of either 2, 3 or 4 would be my recommendations from this selection. The glitter holo category is hard to have a complete winner because each polish is much more unique than say a linear holo topcoat.

I'd love to hear which one is your favorite. Leave a comment below and let me know! 

Click here to go to Part 2.