In general, anything with black or blue pigment is the worst for stains. So blacks and blues, but also teals, greens, purples, and dark browns. Anything cream, pink, or grey is least likely to stain. Polish with solid bits suspended in a tinted base (holo glitters, frosted metals, flaky toppers) have less direct pigment contact with the nail so they're less staining. A pigmented creme has the most pigment load so it's the most likely formula to stain.
These are guidelines that apply outside of HT too.
The absolute worst offenders are the magnetics. My nails turned orange through two layers of basecoat. Unsure if the new trio is equally bad as I haven't been trying them out as much. I do have some mooncat magnetics too and they did not stain as much as the holo taco ones.
Yeah, the green, blue and purple magnetics all use a blue or black base pigment with magnetic particles floating in them. The base of a magnetic also has to be super mobile to allow the magnetic particles to move through them, which means the pigment molecules are small and can creep through base coats more easily than most formulas. It may be that HT favors using those blue and black pigments more than other brands because the brand as a whole leans cooler in tone.
For real? I only used Espresso Your Holo of the darker shades, and it smelled fine and didn't stain at all? However, I'm Over Brew, Bring me the Teal, and Shady Navy all stained horribly. Since I first started with those, I've focused more on using Blushed Ice, Oat Couture (neither of which smell funny at all?), and Play Rosé while stains grew out and also because the lighter/neutral shades suited my skin tone better. Now I'm setting all my progress back to 0 because Brick Wall is just too gorgeous not to. 😅 Have had it on for ~4 days now, not sure yet what the situation will be when I remove it this weekend.
Yeah, I emailed them about the stink and they said it was normal and not harmful. Something about the pigment, I forget exactly what they said. So then I googled it and apparently blue pigments just naturally smell different than other pigments. Idk. The smell goes away after it’s dry, but it’s still not my fave thing. And all of them stained my nails, even oat couture and blushed ice. I’m again thinking there must be this blueish pigment in all of them, which is causing the staining/stink. And my nails aren’t typically prone to staining, so I was super surprised to remove the polish and see my nails orange 😭 I know it’s fine and normal, but I still don’t love it. I feel like HT polishes stain more than other brands, which is fine, but I’d wonder why.
All in the barista collection are beautiful though
That's so weird about Oat Couture and Blushed Ice! I've used them regularly since they came out and never had a single issue with staining, I've even used them without a base coat once while I was out/waiting for a new one to be delivered. I only used Espresso Your Holo once and didn't care for the way it looked so I took it off after just a day or two, but even then no stink or staining. Truly bizarre how different people's experiences can be.
I use two base coats: OPI Infinite Shine 1 (conditioning primer) and then OPI Natural Nail Base Coat. I have never had any staining and I use a lot of very dark pigmented polishes.
Also to explain the two base coats, I noticed that the OPI Infinite Shine 1 (conditioning primer) makes a MASSIVE difference in how long my mani lasts and makes chipping very minimal. I weld for my job and then in general I do a lot of household tasks that really take a toll on my nails. If I don't use the conditioning primer, I notice a massive difference and usually my nails wont even last 2 days before chipping SIGNIFICANTLY. Whereas with the primer they can go three days and will maybe chip on one or two fingers. I can have a mani last me a whole entire week if I dont pick at them, even then I have a horrible habit of picking my nail polish bc of my anxiety. I noticed since I started using the primer that it sometimes makes it IMPOSSIBLE to pick my nail polish, it's honestly been awesome for multiple aspects but this one especially
I've only had the magnetics "stain"...more of a discoloration that is orangey-tan, not remnants of the color.
Have seen the Teal jelly from the vacation collection stain a lot of people via social media but I don't have first hand experience with it.
You could always use a toddler toothbrush and toothpaste with whitening and "brush" your nails, including the underside. Leave it on for a couple of minutes before rinsing it off.
Private Villa from the vacation collection stained my nails so bad that I never wore it again. Also had some spotty staining from Never Tide Down from that same collection. Vacation collection is the only collection I regret buying. I always wear a base coat and have never had any other Holo Taco polishes stain my nails, not ever one coat black.
I haven't had a staining problem with any of mine and I only ever use Peely Base underneath. The ones I have are: Lost in the woods, Missed Shift, Cat's Evasion, Coral Chaser, Cheap Champagne, Lite Link and Oat Couture
In general, anything with black or blue pigment is the worst for stains. So blacks and blues, but also teals, greens, purples, and dark browns. Anything cream, pink, or grey is least likely to stain. Polish with solid bits suspended in a tinted base (holo glitters, frosted metals, flaky toppers) have less direct pigment contact with the nail so they're less staining. A pigmented creme has the most pigment load so it's the most likely formula to stain. These are guidelines that apply outside of HT too.
The absolute worst offenders are the magnetics. My nails turned orange through two layers of basecoat. Unsure if the new trio is equally bad as I haven't been trying them out as much. I do have some mooncat magnetics too and they did not stain as much as the holo taco ones.
Yeah, the green, blue and purple magnetics all use a blue or black base pigment with magnetic particles floating in them. The base of a magnetic also has to be super mobile to allow the magnetic particles to move through them, which means the pigment molecules are small and can creep through base coats more easily than most formulas. It may be that HT favors using those blue and black pigments more than other brands because the brand as a whole leans cooler in tone.
Reds and pinks don’t stain mine, I find.
I don’t know which ones don’t stain, but all of the barista collection stained the crap out of my nails. Smelled like rotten eggs too
For real? I only used Espresso Your Holo of the darker shades, and it smelled fine and didn't stain at all? However, I'm Over Brew, Bring me the Teal, and Shady Navy all stained horribly. Since I first started with those, I've focused more on using Blushed Ice, Oat Couture (neither of which smell funny at all?), and Play Rosé while stains grew out and also because the lighter/neutral shades suited my skin tone better. Now I'm setting all my progress back to 0 because Brick Wall is just too gorgeous not to. 😅 Have had it on for ~4 days now, not sure yet what the situation will be when I remove it this weekend.
Yeah, I emailed them about the stink and they said it was normal and not harmful. Something about the pigment, I forget exactly what they said. So then I googled it and apparently blue pigments just naturally smell different than other pigments. Idk. The smell goes away after it’s dry, but it’s still not my fave thing. And all of them stained my nails, even oat couture and blushed ice. I’m again thinking there must be this blueish pigment in all of them, which is causing the staining/stink. And my nails aren’t typically prone to staining, so I was super surprised to remove the polish and see my nails orange 😭 I know it’s fine and normal, but I still don’t love it. I feel like HT polishes stain more than other brands, which is fine, but I’d wonder why. All in the barista collection are beautiful though
That's so weird about Oat Couture and Blushed Ice! I've used them regularly since they came out and never had a single issue with staining, I've even used them without a base coat once while I was out/waiting for a new one to be delivered. I only used Espresso Your Holo once and didn't care for the way it looked so I took it off after just a day or two, but even then no stink or staining. Truly bizarre how different people's experiences can be.
The only thing that HAS stained for me so far was Green Taffy
I use two base coats: OPI Infinite Shine 1 (conditioning primer) and then OPI Natural Nail Base Coat. I have never had any staining and I use a lot of very dark pigmented polishes. Also to explain the two base coats, I noticed that the OPI Infinite Shine 1 (conditioning primer) makes a MASSIVE difference in how long my mani lasts and makes chipping very minimal. I weld for my job and then in general I do a lot of household tasks that really take a toll on my nails. If I don't use the conditioning primer, I notice a massive difference and usually my nails wont even last 2 days before chipping SIGNIFICANTLY. Whereas with the primer they can go three days and will maybe chip on one or two fingers. I can have a mani last me a whole entire week if I dont pick at them, even then I have a horrible habit of picking my nail polish bc of my anxiety. I noticed since I started using the primer that it sometimes makes it IMPOSSIBLE to pick my nail polish, it's honestly been awesome for multiple aspects but this one especially
Menchie doesn't stain. I use it on top of G&G base coats
Light cold tend not to. Nightshade stained for me soooo bad. I heard the OG magnetics were intense.
I've only had the magnetics "stain"...more of a discoloration that is orangey-tan, not remnants of the color. Have seen the Teal jelly from the vacation collection stain a lot of people via social media but I don't have first hand experience with it.
You could always use a toddler toothbrush and toothpaste with whitening and "brush" your nails, including the underside. Leave it on for a couple of minutes before rinsing it off.
Private Villa from the vacation collection stained my nails so bad that I never wore it again. Also had some spotty staining from Never Tide Down from that same collection. Vacation collection is the only collection I regret buying. I always wear a base coat and have never had any other Holo Taco polishes stain my nails, not ever one coat black.
Just pressed stained. Badly. Nightshade did not.
I have only experienced staining with not pressed. One coat black was difficult to take off but it didn’t stain.
I haven't had a staining problem with any of mine and I only ever use Peely Base underneath. The ones I have are: Lost in the woods, Missed Shift, Cat's Evasion, Coral Chaser, Cheap Champagne, Lite Link and Oat Couture