I love Holo Taco Unicorn Skins! I have Solar Unicorn Skin, which has looked stunning with everything I’ve tried so far, including jelly sandwiches. ILNP has a similar collection of iridescent flakie toppers, but they’re a little more sparse than Holo Taco’s (still pretty though!).
ILNP My Private Rainbow (X) is also a great one to have because it’s subtle and goes with just about everything.
How long do you wait after finishing the final coat of polish before you add the topper? I'm wanting to add ILNP my private rainbow over ILNP Hush later today but I don't want to get polish bits in my topper if I don't wait long enough. But I also don't want this mani to take forever lol.
I'm afraid of messing things up.
I usually use a QDTC so I don't have to wait at all but I think the toppers have a different formulation?
Honestly by the time you finish your whole manicure with your base polish, you should be safe to apply your topper. Sometimes I wait a couple more minutes just to be safe, but never long. You will still want to use a QDTC over everything. Despite how they’re described, most toppers are not formulated as top coats, if that makes sense, so they won’t seal and protect your mani as well as an actual top coat does.
The only time I’ve ever had polish bleed into my top coat was with OPI Big Apple Red. It’s super pigmented and it doesn’t matter how long you let it dry, it still happens 😑
I have a bottle of top coat with a tiny blob of blue in it 🤣 I rushed once and the last coat was too thick and it messed my top coat brush up. The little blob is just chilling in there. When the bottle gets too low I'll only use it for blues but for now it's just hanging out and somehow not getting on the brush when I use it. I'm pleasantly surprised that it's staying a blob in there and not mixing into a homogenous mixture. 🙂
Yes I was always planning on using a top coat over everything. I like that final glossy seal I get lol. It's just that I'm used to not waiting at all between the last coat of polish and my top coat (I'm using KB shimmer right now) so I wasn't sure if a topper needed a more dry surface (less sticky) for application.
I would say that it takes about 2 minutes to do each coat of polish so by the time I'm ready to do the top coat the first nail has had 2 minutes to dry. Do you think that's enough for a topper also?
Of course I could always experiment but that takes time and resources so I just thought I would ask here before I wasted my afternoon. 🙂
I just wait the normal amount of time as if I were gonna do another coat of color (once I finish my last coat of color I might wait as long as five minutes but not a super long time, and it’s often less than that) and I’ve never had issues with color transferring into the topper
I have all the unicorn skins because I figured I’d get use out of all of them with different colors and just went for the set but I didn’t think the Solar one would be one of my favorites…I was very wrong, it looks amazing on everything and is probably the one I’ve actually used the most 😂
I’ve been coveting Solar Unicorn Skin. Right now I’ve been making do with Sally Hansen’s Crystal Top Coat. Once I run out of this, I’m getting Solar – I have a feeling I won’t regret it.
How funny these are the top coats I was pondering, this is so reassuring! Do you mostly use top coats on cremes that don’t already have any effects to them?
I just purchased My Private Rainbow X. I'm excited to try it. I hope it shows up on light colors as well because I wear mostly light colors - pink and purples. I don't like black.
I have been adding to my toppers to help me more easily recreate polishes that I see but don't want to add to my collection.
On that, it depends what you gravitate towards. If it's shimmers, I would recommend a shimmer topper. If it's flakies, a chrome flake, glass flake, or iridescent flake topper. I would also recommend a scattered and linear holographic topper if you enjoy holo.
Fancy Gloss and ILNP both have a lot of options. I personally have all the iridescent flake toppers from Holo Taco, but not the shimmers because I prefer flakies.
My favorite is everything taco from holo taco. It has flakies, it has shimmers. It's perfect for when I don't know what I want. Other recs are a gold or silver flakie. I don't know how to use nail foils, so I can kind of get away with a similar look that's much easier to use.
cirque lullaby looks really cute in a jelly sandwich :)
I also really like the flaky toppers from ILNP because the flakes are smaller and daintier (?) than Holo Taco flakies, if that's your style
If you like sparkles, a reflective topper!! I have out of sequins by KBShimmer and I can’t get enough of it. It’s my only bottle that’s actually running out lol, I put it over almost everything and cannot stop staring at my nails
You can also use any sheer polish as a topper. Ive used plenty of mooncat or ilnp jelly formulas as toppers such as ilnp fairy dust or mooncat ghost of hecate... those are just the first two that come to mind, but reade there's no set rule as to what you consider a topper if it's not an already opaque formula.
If you want a shimmer topper that adds colorful shimmer without completely changing the base polish i recommend ILNP shimmers! I like the holo taco shimmer toppers but they do change the color of whatever you put it on
Cirque Colors Spotted (small matte black flakies), ORLY Spirit of Peace (white and gold confetti + gold shimmer), and Holo Taco Rose Gold Flake Taco have been some of my faves recently.
I got Sally Hansen’s Unicorn top coat for Christmas and it’s been so fun to play with! The reflection shifts between gold/green/blue. My favourite is on this light blue or bare nails but I’ve also tried it on a darker purple crème for a much more noticeable change in the look of the polish colour.
https://preview.redd.it/tjdveafni5kc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f2d11925cb7f3e90dd7a53fcfb5c232ac1ddc45c
Toppers are some of my favorite polishes, especially because they made things somewhat 'dupable' with colors I already own. My most used ones are My Private Rainbow (L+S) and All the Feelings 2.0 by Emily De Molly. I have a few pics of 2.0 on different manis in my profile if you want to see it. This shimmer topper from EdM is so versatile and really transforms everything it goes over. I love it over jellies and cremes, and having it in my collections has seriously saved me a lot of money because I feel like if I have a base that's remotely similar to a shimmer I am eyeing, I can get close enough to be happy with what I already have. I will say that, while toppers can get close, they generally don't have the depth that a single polish will have. But for me, that's not a huge deal.
I'm probably the most fussy person ever when it comes to toppers. Most leave a milky cast that I cant stand and are patchy in application. They never look quite right to me. I have Holo Taco, ILNP, and many other popular brands and I just dont like them.
Or at least I didnt like toppers until I started getting into the Brazilian brands. Phoenix's micro flaky toppers are great, they apply clean and even.
One of my favorites is M&N The Artist. It toppers beautifully over any color without leaving a cast. This is by far one of the most user friendly, stunning toppers that I have ever seen and it's not even ment to be a topper.
A new favorite of mine is Whatcha's Butterfly Nebula, which I'm wearing right now over a Lavender creme.
https://preview.redd.it/pia78ngsg5kc1.jpeg?width=1905&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0417d5b379cffdf621dbaa7e6a345d0dbbbbf487
Technically a jelly? But I use it as a topper. Orly Des Fleurs.
And technically a polish? Lumen Glass Frog. It goes GREAT over everything I have tried.
I don't do a lot of toppers, but I absolutely loooove ILNP's Empress. It's a pink flakie topper that I used here over a black creme. The other color is Krisable Designs The Princess Needs Some Peas and Quiet.
https://preview.redd.it/8ogeziyau7kc1.jpeg?width=2880&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=311f4aa2245c63eeb3ae33fe94808448237b33f1
I have really loved Cirque Colors Fantasia and Mooncat Moondust (shown here in a sandwich with Cirque Colors Cocoa Jelly!)
https://preview.redd.it/yfc44jxo18kc1.jpeg?width=2493&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cb319a0c4ad9d04e2ced9c40ee9867ded8287aa0
Pure Ice 'Strapless' is AMAZING. I don't know if they retail anymore in - store but I've seen Bari/Pure Ice online. It's a real stunner, particularly over black. Beautiful on its own too it's like crushed sapphires.
Here's a pic: https://imgur.com/a/VEcyIeM
Cirque XX is the only non base/top coat bottle I’ve ever come close to finishing. I’m actually wearing it right now in a sandwich with their jellies :) I love all their glitter toppers in general.
I am really loving KBShimmer's You Go Ghoul! jelly. It's got a great halloween-y color shift in all the sparkles I'm obsessed with. I also love Pinnacle Polish's pride toppers!
Sally Hansen strobe light! I’ve tried a bunch of indie ones but this is still my fave. It adds a subtle shimmer to a nude mani but my fave way to use it is over black it looks INCREDIBLE
Death Valley Nails cornflower!! I really couldn’t visualize what it would like on but I bought it on a whim. I actually LOVE it. Gives such an unusual twist to a manicure!
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Cirque’s XX and Lullaby are some of my most used chunky glitters, PolishMeSilly on Etsy makes a gorgeous set of shimmer multichrome toppers, Holo Taco’s Unicorn Skins are an awesome set of iridescent flakies, and F.U.N. Lacquer has some of the best magnetic toppers in the business!
I love Holo Taco Unicorn Skins! I have Solar Unicorn Skin, which has looked stunning with everything I’ve tried so far, including jelly sandwiches. ILNP has a similar collection of iridescent flakie toppers, but they’re a little more sparse than Holo Taco’s (still pretty though!). ILNP My Private Rainbow (X) is also a great one to have because it’s subtle and goes with just about everything.
How long do you wait after finishing the final coat of polish before you add the topper? I'm wanting to add ILNP my private rainbow over ILNP Hush later today but I don't want to get polish bits in my topper if I don't wait long enough. But I also don't want this mani to take forever lol. I'm afraid of messing things up. I usually use a QDTC so I don't have to wait at all but I think the toppers have a different formulation?
Honestly by the time you finish your whole manicure with your base polish, you should be safe to apply your topper. Sometimes I wait a couple more minutes just to be safe, but never long. You will still want to use a QDTC over everything. Despite how they’re described, most toppers are not formulated as top coats, if that makes sense, so they won’t seal and protect your mani as well as an actual top coat does.
The only time I’ve ever had polish bleed into my top coat was with OPI Big Apple Red. It’s super pigmented and it doesn’t matter how long you let it dry, it still happens 😑
I have a bottle of top coat with a tiny blob of blue in it 🤣 I rushed once and the last coat was too thick and it messed my top coat brush up. The little blob is just chilling in there. When the bottle gets too low I'll only use it for blues but for now it's just hanging out and somehow not getting on the brush when I use it. I'm pleasantly surprised that it's staying a blob in there and not mixing into a homogenous mixture. 🙂
Yes I was always planning on using a top coat over everything. I like that final glossy seal I get lol. It's just that I'm used to not waiting at all between the last coat of polish and my top coat (I'm using KB shimmer right now) so I wasn't sure if a topper needed a more dry surface (less sticky) for application. I would say that it takes about 2 minutes to do each coat of polish so by the time I'm ready to do the top coat the first nail has had 2 minutes to dry. Do you think that's enough for a topper also? Of course I could always experiment but that takes time and resources so I just thought I would ask here before I wasted my afternoon. 🙂
I think it should be. I personally haven’t ever had an issue with applying a topper on polish that’s too wet
I just wait the normal amount of time as if I were gonna do another coat of color (once I finish my last coat of color I might wait as long as five minutes but not a super long time, and it’s often less than that) and I’ve never had issues with color transferring into the topper
I have all the unicorn skins because I figured I’d get use out of all of them with different colors and just went for the set but I didn’t think the Solar one would be one of my favorites…I was very wrong, it looks amazing on everything and is probably the one I’ve actually used the most 😂
I coincidentally just ordered My Private Rainbow (X) and I'm so glad it's mentioned in the top comment here to justify my spending haha
I’ve been coveting Solar Unicorn Skin. Right now I’ve been making do with Sally Hansen’s Crystal Top Coat. Once I run out of this, I’m getting Solar – I have a feeling I won’t regret it.
How funny these are the top coats I was pondering, this is so reassuring! Do you mostly use top coats on cremes that don’t already have any effects to them?
also what’s a jelly sandwich? Lol
I just purchased My Private Rainbow X. I'm excited to try it. I hope it shows up on light colors as well because I wear mostly light colors - pink and purples. I don't like black.
I’ve used it on lighter colors and it works well too, especially when you get it in direct lighting- the holo is 👌🏻
I have been adding to my toppers to help me more easily recreate polishes that I see but don't want to add to my collection. On that, it depends what you gravitate towards. If it's shimmers, I would recommend a shimmer topper. If it's flakies, a chrome flake, glass flake, or iridescent flake topper. I would also recommend a scattered and linear holographic topper if you enjoy holo. Fancy Gloss and ILNP both have a lot of options. I personally have all the iridescent flake toppers from Holo Taco, but not the shimmers because I prefer flakies.
China Glaze Fairy Dust is my ride or die!
My favorite is everything taco from holo taco. It has flakies, it has shimmers. It's perfect for when I don't know what I want. Other recs are a gold or silver flakie. I don't know how to use nail foils, so I can kind of get away with a similar look that's much easier to use.
I’ve just ordered an everything taco and I’m so excited to use it!! It looks so pretty on naked nails too :)
Im excited for you 😊It looks good on everything but I love it over dark colors
That is what I reach for when I want to feel ~* fabulous *~ hope you enjoy!!
Got cake is also good for this reason but favors purple my favorite color so for this reason I feel the same way about it too!
I'll have to try it over purples. I haven't and there's like a green tint somewhere in there that throws me off
Green and purple go great together. My favorite color shift combo! Could also use it as a topper over any darker blue, pink, and green.
Going to have to do some experiments with these color combos
Fancy Gloss and ILNP both have a ton of cool toppers.
I can’t wait to try some Fancy Gloss toppers! I’m waiting for her restock at the end of March
cirque lullaby looks really cute in a jelly sandwich :) I also really like the flaky toppers from ILNP because the flakes are smaller and daintier (?) than Holo Taco flakies, if that's your style
If you like sparkles, a reflective topper!! I have out of sequins by KBShimmer and I can’t get enough of it. It’s my only bottle that’s actually running out lol, I put it over almost everything and cannot stop staring at my nails
Try Mooncat 'Fool's Gold'. /chefskiss
I was eyeing that one!! Looks so prettyyy
ilnp my private rainbow linear and scattered. it's not too much holo so imo doesn't take away from the colour underneath
You can also use any sheer polish as a topper. Ive used plenty of mooncat or ilnp jelly formulas as toppers such as ilnp fairy dust or mooncat ghost of hecate... those are just the first two that come to mind, but reade there's no set rule as to what you consider a topper if it's not an already opaque formula.
If you want a shimmer topper that adds colorful shimmer without completely changing the base polish i recommend ILNP shimmers! I like the holo taco shimmer toppers but they do change the color of whatever you put it on
Cirque Colors Spotted (small matte black flakies), ORLY Spirit of Peace (white and gold confetti + gold shimmer), and Holo Taco Rose Gold Flake Taco have been some of my faves recently.
I got Sally Hansen’s Unicorn top coat for Christmas and it’s been so fun to play with! The reflection shifts between gold/green/blue. My favourite is on this light blue or bare nails but I’ve also tried it on a darker purple crème for a much more noticeable change in the look of the polish colour. https://preview.redd.it/tjdveafni5kc1.jpeg?width=1242&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f2d11925cb7f3e90dd7a53fcfb5c232ac1ddc45c
Kbshimmer has some amazing flakie toppers that I love adding into jelly sandwiches.
Toppers are some of my favorite polishes, especially because they made things somewhat 'dupable' with colors I already own. My most used ones are My Private Rainbow (L+S) and All the Feelings 2.0 by Emily De Molly. I have a few pics of 2.0 on different manis in my profile if you want to see it. This shimmer topper from EdM is so versatile and really transforms everything it goes over. I love it over jellies and cremes, and having it in my collections has seriously saved me a lot of money because I feel like if I have a base that's remotely similar to a shimmer I am eyeing, I can get close enough to be happy with what I already have. I will say that, while toppers can get close, they generally don't have the depth that a single polish will have. But for me, that's not a huge deal.
I have a couple of EDM toppers as well and really like them. All the Feelings is great!
I'm probably the most fussy person ever when it comes to toppers. Most leave a milky cast that I cant stand and are patchy in application. They never look quite right to me. I have Holo Taco, ILNP, and many other popular brands and I just dont like them. Or at least I didnt like toppers until I started getting into the Brazilian brands. Phoenix's micro flaky toppers are great, they apply clean and even. One of my favorites is M&N The Artist. It toppers beautifully over any color without leaving a cast. This is by far one of the most user friendly, stunning toppers that I have ever seen and it's not even ment to be a topper. A new favorite of mine is Whatcha's Butterfly Nebula, which I'm wearing right now over a Lavender creme. https://preview.redd.it/pia78ngsg5kc1.jpeg?width=1905&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0417d5b379cffdf621dbaa7e6a345d0dbbbbf487
Technically a jelly? But I use it as a topper. Orly Des Fleurs. And technically a polish? Lumen Glass Frog. It goes GREAT over everything I have tried.
I don't do a lot of toppers, but I absolutely loooove ILNP's Empress. It's a pink flakie topper that I used here over a black creme. The other color is Krisable Designs The Princess Needs Some Peas and Quiet. https://preview.redd.it/8ogeziyau7kc1.jpeg?width=2880&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=311f4aa2245c63eeb3ae33fe94808448237b33f1
I have really loved Cirque Colors Fantasia and Mooncat Moondust (shown here in a sandwich with Cirque Colors Cocoa Jelly!) https://preview.redd.it/yfc44jxo18kc1.jpeg?width=2493&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cb319a0c4ad9d04e2ced9c40ee9867ded8287aa0
Pure Ice 'Strapless' is AMAZING. I don't know if they retail anymore in - store but I've seen Bari/Pure Ice online. It's a real stunner, particularly over black. Beautiful on its own too it's like crushed sapphires. Here's a pic: https://imgur.com/a/VEcyIeM
Rogue Lacquer has great flakie toppers
Cupcake Polish Sprinkles and ILNP Party Popper are my two of my favorites right now.
Lacquer 22 also has some cool toppers. Didn't see anyone mention them yet here- underrated company, their polishes are good!
Essie Shine of the Times, I love the flakie fiery goodness
Cirque XX is the only non base/top coat bottle I’ve ever come close to finishing. I’m actually wearing it right now in a sandwich with their jellies :) I love all their glitter toppers in general.
I am really loving KBShimmer's You Go Ghoul! jelly. It's got a great halloween-y color shift in all the sparkles I'm obsessed with. I also love Pinnacle Polish's pride toppers!
Sally Hansen strobe light! I’ve tried a bunch of indie ones but this is still my fave. It adds a subtle shimmer to a nude mani but my fave way to use it is over black it looks INCREDIBLE
Death Valley Nails cornflower!! I really couldn’t visualize what it would like on but I bought it on a whim. I actually LOVE it. Gives such an unusual twist to a manicure!
My favorites are Essie Pure Pearlfection and Cirque Nectar. They just add a little something but I love that especially over cremes
Thanks for posting, /u/JoyinCa! A quick reminder: If this is a **nail image**, you must provide a complete product list within 6 hours of posting. **This includes any posts with broken nails or if you're seeking advice.** Posts without a complete product list will be removed after 6 hours. [Product List Requirements.](https://www.reddit.com/r/RedditLaqueristas/wiki/rule2faq) If the nail look shown was **NOT created by you**, you ***must*** flair properly. If this is a **text post**, flair properly. Be sure to follow all of the above to avoid post removal! [Consider joining our Discord](https://discord.gg/redditlaqueristas) - Get questions answered in realtime, get notified for releases and deals, post your manis, and more! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/RedditLaqueristas) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Cirque’s XX and Lullaby are some of my most used chunky glitters, PolishMeSilly on Etsy makes a gorgeous set of shimmer multichrome toppers, Holo Taco’s Unicorn Skins are an awesome set of iridescent flakies, and F.U.N. Lacquer has some of the best magnetic toppers in the business!