Battle of the Vampy Holos

You guys ready for a post that will knock your socks off?!? I don't know about you but it is still hot here in California, still very much summer, but I'm longing for the colder weather and the changing leaves of the fall – my most favorite season. And what goes hand in hand with fall – the gorgeous dark and sultry vampy tones. From eggplant to garnet and wine to mulberry – I've got a sampling of 20 different polishes from my collection. So let's get to it shall we?!?!



For my sanity's sake, I'm not going to link to each individual polish here (to be honest maybe one or two of these aren't available to purchase any more) but I'll post to the brand's sites so you can peruse at your own leisure if you'd like. Also I'll just be discussing color and consistency of these polishes, but there were no difficult formulas and I think all were 1-2 coaters!



Welcome to the wine inspired shades, otherwise known as the vampy colors I am MOST drawn to when browsing vampy nail polish.



Ok, this is in order from thumb to pinky and matches the photos below here. First we have Lilypad Lacquer Life on the Dark Side, then we have ILNP Black Orchid, Darling Diva BEWBS!!!, Smitten Polish I Never Drink Wine and Elevation Polish Paris.





As you can see above, in direct light these all look very similar. Life on the Dark Side has golden flakies in it which sets it apart from the rest and gives it a slightly more raspberry hue. Black Orchid, BEWBS and I Never Drink Wine are all very similar, though I Never Drink Wine is slightly lighter in hue. Paris is the darkest and raisin in color.



Welcome to my collection of garnet/hickory type shades.



Now I grouped my vamps together as best I could while looking at these in the bottle, so forgive me if some of the groups aren't as cohesive as the others. From thumb to pink we have Elevation Polish Bog Laurel 2, Colors by Llarowe Obsessed with Marilyn, Bear Pawlish Bathory, a-England Briarwood and Bear Pawlish Close But No Cigar.





Clearly Bog Laurel 2 is the most pink of this whole post, I would even argue it isn't quite vampy enough. Obsessed with Marilyn is more dark raspberry leaning. Bathory is almost an oxblood red. Briarwood has a more scattered holo finish and is a blackened oxblood that leans pretty brown. Close but no Cigar is a warm brown holo – unlike anything else in this post clearly.



Now let me show you my more eggplant/purple leaning vampy polishes.



These shades are more dark purple leaning, sometimes even dusty purple. From thumb to pinky is ILNP Homecoming, Cadillacquer Redwood, Literary Lacquers Rebecca, Always Rebecca, a-England Sleeping Palace and INLP Poetry.





Homecoming is a gorgeous dark royal purple with faint golden flakies which give it a lovely golden glow. Redwood, Rebecca and Sleeping Palace are all similar in color – a dusty eggplant purple – but differ in holo finish. Redwood has a linear holo finish with several matching flakies giving it depth. Rebecca is a linear holo with scattered holo micro glitter. Sleeping Palace is more scattered and opaque when compared with the others. Poetry is the odd duck out in this group, but it is a lovely brighter shade of magenta-leaning purple with matching flakies.



And we'll wrap up this post with the mulberry leaning shades.



This is Painted Polish Vampy Valentine (Holo), Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer Cuts in my Heart, Elevation Polish When the cherry meets the spoon, Elevation Polish Bromeliad and Bear Pawlish Mulbeary Lane.





Vampy Valentine Holo is a linear holo with scattered holo microglitter. It is very jam-like in color. Cuts in my Heart smidge darker than Vampy Valentine and just a tad more plum in color. When the cherry meets the spoon is more sangria colored to me and has these awesome cool colored multichrome flakies throughout and is more jelly in consistency. Bromeliad is the most purple of this set and I would say it is a gorgeous creamy magenta leaning violet with a golden flash. Mulbeary Lane is the most red leaning of this group, but is close to mulberry in color due to its bright violet holo flash.

Whew, you guys, that was a ton of effort and I am spent! Just finished my glass of wine and I am ready to head to bed. This heat wave has totally zapped me of energy so I'm acutally pretty proud of myself for slugging through this.

So please, reward me for my hard work and share with me your favorites from this epic showdown in the comments section. My favorite vamp family is the wine colored family which I covered first and I just love all five of those polishes I show cased there (I can't choose between the ILNP, Darling Diva and Smitten Polish). Some others that stand out to me are INLP Homecoming, Literary Lacquers Rebecca, Always Rebecca and Elevation Polish When the cherry met the spoon.