I’ve got a LOT of collections to catch up on, so you’re going to keep hearing about my great blog catch up for a long time and you can deal with it. But as mentioned I’ve got a LOT of Holo Taco collections and I just like the idea of eventually having a little archive of them all. Now I can’t promise I’ll go right in order as I love bouncing around to random collections hitting my fancy at the moment but maybe someday I can have a page to keep a timeline and link to all of the different collections in order… Big ideas here when I have to keep actually getting posts up first.
This collection released in July 2025 for Holo Taco’s 6th Anniversary, and it’s crazy to think it’s already been 6 years! I’ve been loving the journey Holo Taco has been on so far, and I’m so excited to see what the next years bring us!
As an avid watcher of Cristine of SimplyNailogical before she started the brand, this collection and theme feels like a reference to her ALWAYS working and her partner Ben always requesting if they can finally take a vacation. Holo Taco, the brand, says it’s because we’re all taking a trip through different nail polishes finishes and destinations, complete with a suitcase inspired collection box. And it’s a GORGEOUS box. I’m so impressed at the attention to detail they take with their collection boxes.
The polishes are stored inside, in a drawer that slides out and look at that blue velvet finish.
And each of the polishes comes within a special, rich gold metallic box to keep up that bougie feeling.
Now this was a more limited edition collection that did sell out fast. They did bring it back from the vault once, so there’s a chance they could still come back again. For now, you can still buy two of the shades off the Holo Taco website. I don’t love posting about super limited edition polishes, but like I said we’re here to make a little archive of past collections.
We have 6 shades here, including a new top coat. Let’s get on into the swatches!
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This first name might seem out of place for a vacation collection, but it’s instead referencing nail polish HISTORY. This name is pointing to a specific nail polish pigment, lovingly called “Unicorn pee” that was used in many formulas back in the day, most famously in Clarins 230. Even more fun, especially as a lover and big proponent of blogs, you can read even more about this on Cristine’s (the founder of Holo Taco, SimplyNailogical’s) own nail blog!! She also has links to videos she had made about it on her YouTube, over ten years ago back in 2015 (though the pigment did exist even before that.) Cristine might no longer be posting on her own personal blog, but see this is why I want to maintain my blog – someday in 2036 there might be someone looking for information on this specific Holo Taco collection and find themselves here. I can only dream.
Knowing all that, it only makes sense that this first polish is called ‘Unicorn No. 1’, do you get it. It has a cooler toned purple jelly base filled with that inspired shifty bright red-orange-gold shimmer all throughout, mimicking the effect of past Unicorn Pee polishes. Now I do take my swatch photos in bright lighting inside of my lightbox, so that flash of orange is going to be very strong in my swatches. It won’t pop this much in your day to day in indirect lighting, but it’ll still be gorgeous. Just always like to temper expectations here.
This does have a jelly base that’s more sheer to allow that the pigments to peek through for that famous look. So I did have to build it up, with either 3 thinner coats or 2 thicker ones. But it builds up beautifully and creates this stunning shifty finish and I do love it, I can understand the hype.
Now don’t worry about not having direct lighting, because in lower lighting instead you get a SHIFT. The base itself pulls on over to a just full color orange shade, making it magical in any lighting and angle. It’s mesmerizing overall.
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This next polish is called ‘Sky Lounge’ and listen, with it on my nails it does make me feel like I have access to a sky lounge, I feel almost BOUGIE wearing this shade. This is an insanely bright metallic cobalt blue shimmer shade and it has an aqua blue glow throughout it. I’m really hyping it up but I promise pictures aren’t fully capturing the true glow.
This one is more of a dense shimmer so it’ll also require some building up. It really starts to layer up and come alive with a 2nd coat, and I did end up adding a 3rd just to fill in any last spaces. It’s smooth overall with no grittiness and can you tell I like this polish? Because I absolutely do.
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Now that last shade was mesmerizing but so is this one!! Theses polishes are all so cool okay!! This specific one is called ‘Precious Cargo’ and it’s a multichrome AND a holographic and it has a STRONG holographic finish, what more could you need? The base color of this one is hard to fully set down as it’s always shifting through with the holographic shimmer as well as the multichrome finish. It’s a maybe brown, maybe rusty red, it’s hard to say.
I find Holo Taco formulas tend to be thicker, but overall I don’t mind that as I find them easy to control on application and I never find issues with dry time. This is one that’s definitely thicker but with that I was able to get it easily opaque with just 2 coats. Now as mentioned with the Unicorn shade above, my bright lights will really blow up any shimmer and sparkle effect, as will having your nails in direct sunlight. But in lower lighting, this one is again a shifty magical shade, and don’t worry, that sparkle will still be visible no matter what.
And here’s that SHIFT. It’s another shade that has me staring at my nails so much. Vacation is the time where you can go all out with your nail look, and this gives you everything in one bottle.
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Next up, we get to the 2nd blue of the set, but this one . This is ‘Wanderlust’ and it’s instead much warmer and gives us a golden look, like the bright sun sparkling on the ocean. It’s a deeper blue, almost purple jelly base filled with an iridescent shimmer that pops with teal, green and golden sparkles.
As it’s a jelly base, it’s again more sheer and needs some building up. I did find this has a thicker formula so it can skip a little on the nails if you don’t have enough on the brush, but otherwise paints on smoothly and easily. It can be opaque with 2 coats, but because of my thinner application I did add a 3rd coat to cover up any last patches and build up that color further.
Just like the other shades, in bright light we have bright sparkle and in more indirect lighting we have SHIFT. This one goes from that more golden tones on over to a bright turquoise shade, like a lovely little mermaid tail.
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Okay now this next one doesn’t have multichrome pigments or holographic sparkle but it’s still exciting to me. ‘Icon on Board’ has you covered for the vacation mood of just wanting some bright nails. It’s a super bright neon pink shade.
This is a crelly, being squishier than a creme, so I built it up with 3 thin coats. That crelly finish gives it a juicy finish and shine and it might be hard to believe, but I do love it just as much as the sparkle.
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And last but certainly not least we had an exciting topper added to the Holo Taco lineup. This is ‘Magnetic Taco’ (if you’re unaware of the lore, “taco” comes from Cristine saying “top coat” in her videos and people always mishearing it instead as “taco”).
This is a clear base filled with a magnetic shimmer so you’re able to add a little magnetic finish to any base, or just a shimmer in general. I put this over ‘Icon on Board’ and whew that magnetic finish is so cool! On my pointer and middle fingers I magnetized it into the traditional cat eye finish, and on the ring and pinky fingers I left it as a shimmer top coat in case that’s what you’re feeling as well. I have nothing like this in my collection and I think it’s so creative and fun! It’s all about dressing up any shade you might have.
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And that’s the set! We have a lot of complex and sparkly and magical finishes in this set, and they feel perfect for being on vacation. We also balance it out with a neon and that had a lovely formula as well. I had no issues with any of thes formulas and I loved the overall finish and theme! Are you interested in any of these shades?
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Upcoming Posts
Glam Polish Hotline Bling collection • Pleasing x Fantasia collections • Clionadh Slickadelic collection • ILNP Illusions collection • Mooncat Midnight Rodeo collection • Holo Taco Camping collection
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