Review: Layla Hologram Effect Nail Polish in Jade Groove

One of my favorite drugstore holographic polishes is Milani Cyberspace. I love icy pastel blues, but the thing about Cyberspace is that it's a scattered holo (larger, fragmented holographic pieces) not a linear holo (tiny holo pieces that blend together to create one cohesive holographic effect on the nail). To my knowledge, there are no drugstore polishes currently on the market that will give you a linear holo effect on the nail. Sally Hansen made some years ago and I was lucky enough to grab one of them at Dollar Tree a while back, but that Nail Prism doesn't have as strong of a linear holo effect as some of today's holos. So when I saw the Layla Hologram Effect polish display at my local Ulta a few weeks ago, I bit the bullet and finally purchased one.

Quick note: I blame (love) Scrangie for this one. It was her blog post about these Layla polishes (she swatches five of the eight shades in the range) that first created a lemming for me, so Scrangie, this one's all your fault!

 Layla Hologram Effect Nail Polish in Jade Groove

(retail: $15.50, 0.33 oz)

Layla polishes are made in Italy and they're free of toluene, camphor, formaldehyde and DBP. In addition to finding them at Ulta, they're also on Zappos (free shipping, of course). I will be the first to admit that $15.50 for a bottle of nail polish is pricey, and if I didn't want a linear holo so badly, I would have continued to wait impatiently for a drugstore brand to FINALLY release a linear holo collection (come on guys, what's taking you so long??).

What's the saying? With great beauty comes great pain? Well, this polish didn't really cause me pain, but it was a pain in the butt to apply. It's very sheer and streaky, so it required three coats, applied with the hands of a surgeon, to get this streak-free and opaque. But boy was it worth it:

Three coats of Jade Groove, in various forms of lighting:

As you can see, the linear holo effect is more pronounced in certain forms of lighting than others. But there is never an occasion when you CAN'T see that holo goodness. It's just stronger in brighter light.

IMPORTANT: in Scrangie's review, she talks about how these polishes come with an accompanying nail buffer (sold separately).  It is suggested that you buff the nails before application, and I am SO glad I read Scrangie's review first, because she saved me the money of having to buy their "special" nail buffer. Any standard nail buffer will do, so if you already have one, don't waste your money (thanks again for that tip, Scrangie!).

I did not apply a base coat, because I've read on many blogs that base coat makes application of holo polishes even more streaky (which would explain why Layla wants you to buff your nails first, creating a smoother base for application).

As for the finish, this is not a shiny polish by any means. However, due to the holo effect, I find you really don't need any extra shine. After a day of wear WITHOUT a top coat, I decided to experiment and apply Seche Vite to just my ring finger:

Not really much of a difference, to be honest. Yes, the surface is more shiny, but your eye goes to the holo effect, not the shine, of this polish, making a shiny top coat pretty unnecessary.

Looking closely at the pic above, you can see that, after a day of wear, I had some tip-wear on my index finger and a chip near my cuticle on my pinky finger. I was hoping that Seche Vite might control this, but I have heard from several sources that quick-dry top coats can diminish the holographic effect of these types of polishes.

Well, I actually didn't notice any diminished effect to the holographic effect after applying Seche Vite (yay!), but something else did happen:

A few hours after applying Seche Vite to my ring finger, I noticed that just my ring finger was starting to peel and lift. Sure enough, I was able to easily peel away the polish on just that finger:

Since it was so easy to peel away the polish on my ring finger, I decided to actively try to peel away the polish on my other fingers. After picking/peeling/chipping away as hard as I could on all of the other fingers, you can see that the core of my nail bed is still intact on all of the nails where I did NOT apply Seche Vite. This polish really clings to smooth nails and only wants to chip near the tips and cuticles. Therefore, I do NOT recommend applying a top coat like Seche Vite because it will peel right off the nail rather easily. I think your best bet is to go base-coat and top-coat free with this polish.

Removal: this is the easiest polish I have ever removed from my nails. No joke: using my 100% acetone polish remover, I barely had to apply pressure with my cotton pad and this polish was GONE. It probably took me under one minute to remove this polish from all ten fingers, with no lingering particles on the skin around my nails.

FINAL VERDICT: Is Layla Hologram Effect Nail Polish worth its $15.50 price tag? I think it really depends on how badly you want a true, linear holographic nail look. If your answer is "Very badly!" then I think, with all of its high maintenance demands (buffed nails, three coats, no base coat or top coat), you'll be happy with the final outcome. This is a true linear polish that dances in the light like no other polish in my collection. If you're not a hardcore holo polish devotee, you might find that the demands (and price) of this polish don't justify the final effect. That's entirely up to you, of course, but since I'm a holo freak, I'm happy I made the purchase.

If you're interested in purchasing a Layla Hologram Effect Nail Polish, check your local Ulta for a counter display (where I found mine) or order from Zappos to take advantage of their free shipping policy.

Do you own any Layla Hologram Effect Nail Polishes? Do you own any other brands of linear holo polishes? Thoughts?