18K Midtown Magic

I bought Midtown Magic from Sallys a while ago but never got round to using it. It is by one of my favorite nail polish brands, China Glaze and at a glance it just looks like a black polish in the bottle.

However, in the right light it shows its true colours - a very dark plum base with a hint of chocolate-brown. It also has very fine golden shimmer running through it.

This polish was in the sale and I bought it a few months back but it's from Metro collection for autumn 2011.

I painted two coats of Midtown Magic then used one coat of OPI's The Man With The Golden Gun - 18k gold flakie top coat. 

I have mentioned before that I am not a fan of the OPI 18k topcoat (which I bought from Sally's in the sale) The clear base is quite thick and the gold flecks are so sparse. It takes a lot of effort to get the flecks in a noticeable place. I am glad I didn't pay full price, I would have been very disappointed.

The man with the golden gun on Her Majesty's secret service

I went to my local Sallys a few days back and saw they had their Christmas sales on. I wasn't that blown away by the few China Glaze 2012 Christmas collection polishes they had left so didn't pick any of those up.

 

However, I was thrilled to find OPI's James Bond polishes were reduced - my gobsmacking moment - when a £30 bottle of The Man With The Golden Gun was reduced to £13.

 

I layered this gold flakie over On Her Majesty's Secret Service:

 

 

 

The 18k real gold flakie top coat was a little bit of a pain to work with. The flakies are in a clear base which I found to be quite thick. The golden flecks are sparse as well which made it tricky to work with. I certainly would not have bought this for the full £30 price tag but for £13 in the sale it's ok to have for the collectors value.

 

Have you used this topcoat? If so what do you think - is it worth the hype?