Press Samples, post disclosure page
Hi friends! I accidentally decided to swatch way more polishes for December than I previously planned to so expect quite a few blog posts popping up over the next few days! Today’s blog post is for the new Declassified Tacos Set [001] by Holo Taco. This collection is made up of 5 polishes that were originally part of other collections but never got released!
The Declassified Tacos Set [001] is available right now on the Holo Taco website. On top of this interesting collection, one of my favorite Holo Taco polishes EVER Existential Crisis has also been restocked! This polish originally was released a few years ago and sold out FAST. I posted a blog post about it last year if you would like to see swatches check out that post.
As always, I will have links and more sale details at the end of the post. If you would like to see these polishes in other light sources, check out my live swatch video!
Live Swatch Video
Holo Taco is a US based nail polish brand. Their polishes are in 12ml bottles, 10 free, cruelty-free, and vegan.
Fifty Shades of Greige
Description: Pale neutral beige polish in a linear holographic formula
Fifty Shades of Greige when I tell you the holographic in this polish is STRONG I mean it is STRONG. The base itself starts off pretty sheer, more sheer than I expected, so you will need to build this one up to get the most opacity.
This is such an interesting color. I feel like on me, it pulls almost pink toned but it’s an odd shade of beige. I am not usually a greige fan but the color of this one spoke to me.
Since the holographic in here isn’t a glitter, it dries down very smooth but flat. You will need top coat to have a glossy finish. This will be pretty easy to remove but messy due to the holographic pigment.
My photos show Fifty Shades of Greige in 2 coats plus glossy top coat. This is going to be a 2-3 coater depending on personal preference and maybe nail length.
I don’t know why but I thought this would be comparable to Toe Beans (Holo Taco Holo Royalty Debut Trio). Side by side I don’t think they’re all that similar.
I also thought this might be comparable to Oat Couture (Barista Bundle) as I thought the base colors would be kind of similar. The holographic elements between the two are different and the base colors aren’t as close as I thought.
Foiled Again
Description: a bright green frosted metal polish with scattered holographic glitter
Foiled Again is a really interesting shade of green. At first I thought it was a pine green. It’s brighter than a pine green but not as bright as a spring green either.
My bottle of Foiled Again was really thick. I ended up needing to use a little bit of nail polish thinner to my bottle to make it easier to work with. Before thinner, I was able to make this opaque in two coats. After thinner, I needed three coats to reach full opacity.
The flakies and holographic in this polish do not dry down overly textured nor do they seem to be particularly glitter hungry. One coat of top coat smoothed everything out nicely for me.
If you are new to the frosted metals polishes, they do NOT photograph well. I would go so far as to say they look kinda ugly in photos but are beautiful and so multidimensional in person! You can kind of see the beauty in video format but the frosted metals are just one of those polishes you have to see in real life to really appreciate.
My photos show Foiled Again in 2-3 coats plus glossy top coat.
Overshadowed
Description: Steel blue-grey metallic subtle duochrome polish with scattered holographic glitter
Overshadowed when Holo Taco says this is a “subtle” duochrome they mean it! I didn’t even catch the color shift in this one until much after getting my swatches done. It is very slight, it mainly comes across as “this looks grey but also blue depending on what angle you catch it on”.
This is another polish that starts off sheer and needs to be built up. Even though this is a metallic, it isn’t a chrome like the One Coat Chromes release. This is more along the lines of Greyt (HT x Julien).
There are some brush strokes in this polish but for the most part, they disappear as the polish dries down. I actually liked this polish way more than I thought I would!
My photos show Overshadowed in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. This will likely be a 2-3 coater depending on personal preference.
I thought this was most similar in color to Greyt from the Julian collab. It has more a blue tone to it than Greyt did as well as having the added holographic element.
Rose Gold Flake Taco
Description: a rose gold metallic asymmetrical foil flakes in a clear base
Rose Gold Flake Taco I am so surprised that this topper got pushed on the back burner! Rose Gold Flake Taco had a fantastic formula. Since this is in a clear base, you can add it over any base color.
This isn’t the kind of topper that you can build up on its own without using a method like the sponging method to stack the flakes together. The flakies all spread out evenly and easily without giving off any texture.
My photos show Rose Gold Flake Taco in one coat over Royal-Tea Blue plus glossy top coat. Nothing in here dries down textured and removal will be fairly easy.
This is a rose gold version of the gold flake taco that came out in the Tea Cremes collection.
Sacrificial Lacquer
Description: a dark red magnetic polish with a medium red magnetic stripe
Sacrificial Lacquer is one of the polishes in this release that I was kind of looking forward to. I know, shocker but as I keep saying I am a reformed red nail polish hater!
Much like Foiled Again, I needed to add some thinner to my bottle to make it easier to apply. Once I added thinner, it was still on the thicker side but easier to work with.
I used a ring magnet for my swatch photos and the Holo Taco magnet for my live swatches. This magnetized very easily for me. I didn’t really love the magnetic effect for this polish. In general, I prefer my magnetics to have some color shiftiness to them or at least the magnetic effect to be a different color than the base color. I do like the shade of red that the base is but not the magnetic effect.
My photos show Sacrificial Lacquer in 2 coats both magnetized and unmagnetized. This polish dries down a little dull so you will want top coat for a glossy finish. I think this might be a potential stainer so make sure to wear base coat.
Final Thoughts
Overall I thought this was a nice release with a little bit of everything in it. The color story isn’t super cohesive but these were all supposed to be part of other collections so I won’t hold it against Holo Taco.
I am not sure if the reason why some of my polishes were thick was due to how cold it has been here in Connecticut. But again, a little bit of thinner and they applied really nicely.
My top picks from this release are going to be Fifty Shades of Greige and Rose Gold Taco with Overshadowed being a honorable mention.
Holo Taco
12ml, 10 Free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | TikTok
Sale Information
The Declassified Tacos Set [001] bundle is available right now on the Holo Taco website. The polishes are priced between $13-15 each with the bundle priced at $65.
The polishes in this release are seasonal so they will be restocked when/if they sell out and will return next year.
