Nail Polish Review: "Featured Guest" by Holo Taco
Holo Taco, a Canadian nail polish brand founded by YouTuber Cristine Rotenberg, boasts of its devotion to speciality finishes and "no boring crèmes." Created in 2018, it has since become a cult classic for many nail polish lovers and collectors.
Holo Taco's most recent release, "the Gala Collection," marked the brand's third anniversary. In celebration, Holo Taco released five limited edition polishes in a black and white theme. In addition to featuring a classier, more elegant color story, the Gala Collection introduced two new formulas to Holo Taco's lineup: a black glitter polish with square and round glitters called "Smokeshow," and a gray micro-glitter polish called "Highest Bidder." What's more, the Gala Collection shepherded in a new specialty topper called "Reflective Taco." For those of you who don't know, "taco" is a play-on-words for "top coat," something Cristine has been saying as a joke since her early days as a content creator. The collection's remaining two polishes, "Featured Guest" and "Blacklisted," both feature repeat formulas.
In today's review, I'm going to cover "Featured Guest," mostly for convenience's sake, as I happen to have been wearing it for the last week! To provide a full scope of the polish, I want to address four factors about the polish that will inform my overall review: Color, Opacity, Ability to Self-Level, and Finish/Effect.
Color: According to the Holo Taco website, Featured Guest is described as a "subtle dove grey, nearly-white crelly base with a delicate dose of holographic flair." Upon first glance through the bottle, FG appears as Holo Taco claims: a light gray with "delicate" holographic glitter. On my own skin, however, I would say that the color leans heavier into the gray scale than "nearly-white." This is likely because I am quite pale and cool-toned, and most colors appear darker on me. I would also like to mention that FG leans on the cool side, so those of you with yellow/olive undertones might not like how this looks on your skin.
Opacity: FG is quite sheer, needing 3-4 coats depending on the length of your nails and how careful you are with your brushstrokes. This makes sense considering it's described as a "crelly," (meaning it's a mix between an opaque cream polish and a jelly polish) so it's meant to be slightly sheer.
Self-Leveling: I found FG not to be great at self-leveling: the polish is sheer, yet somehow thick, so there was a good amount of lumpy-ness and visible brushstrokes that didn't even out and settle over time. Of course, a good glossy top coat will hide most sins (I'm currently using KB Shimmer's "Clearly On Top Quick Dry Top Coat"), so that helped a lot with the uneven appearance.
Finish/Effect: The holographic sparkle in this polish is what I would call subtle, but not invisible or dull. Indoors and in indirect lighting, it's mostly undetectable. However, under the sun the polish the holo sparkle is objectively noticeable, and it looks quite delicate and pretty with the light gray base. It's a linear holo, meaning the holographic glitters are arranged in lines on the nail, as opposed to a scattering of glitter. I've definitely seen more impressive linear holos (some of which can be found in Holo Taco's own lineup), but I've also seen weaker linear holos.
My overall review: Thumbs up. Featured Guest is a unique polish that most won't have in their collection. It requires multiple coats to build up the opacity (though you could probably layer one coat on top of a cream polish in a similar color to avoid all those layers), and it isn't super self-leveling, but it's nothing a good glossy top coat can't fix. The holo sparkle is subtle in this: if you want something blinding, perhaps don't reach for this one. However, if you need a professional, classy polish that won't be distracting (but still has something a little special), look no further. Unfortunately, this was a limited edition polish that is now sold out. Your best option is to find a second-hand version for sale online. Beware of "scalpers," though, as they'll try to charge you upwards of hundreds of dollars for polishes like these. You're safer going to r/holotaco on Reddit to find people willing to sell/trade.
That's all I have for today, thanks for reading my review! I'll be back next week with something else to review.
Sources: holotaco.com (2022), kbshimmer.com (2022)
So thorough! And I appreciate you quoting the marketing info and then offering your own take/perspective nice move. (Honestly didn't think you were actually going to do nail polish, but fun that you did!)
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