Monthly Archives: May 2018

Manicure Tuesday: Jade Rainbow

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Welcome back! I’ve got a green look to show you this week for Manicure Tuesday. The striping tape wasn’t on my side, but I’m happy with the look I got. I used Philly Loves Lacquer’s Fortunate Rainbow and Elevation Polish‘s Yeti’s Healing Vibes.

I always feel a little sad talking about a brand that’s closed down. When I got into indie polish, PhLL was one of the brands I saw everywhere, and it took me ages to try them; I only have box-exclusive polishes from them, and never bought any of their core releases. That said, it was a huge shock to me when they closed up. I love every PhLL polish I have, and I regret that I didn’t go for more of them.

This Elevation Polish was a limited edition made to benefit the American Himalayan Foundation after the devastating earthquakes in Nepal in 2015. It’s a beautiful creamy jade with fine little rainbow flakies in it. It’s gorgeous! I know Elevation is a controversial brand now, but this is one polish from them I’m really glad I bought.

Both of these polishes are limited editions that have since sold out. Philly Loves Lacquer no longer makes polish. Elevation Polishes are sold in their online store.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch: GOSH’s Frosted Purple

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Welcome back, reader! My swatch today is one of the polishes I bought while I was in New York a few years ago. Many people buy postcards and t-shirts as souvenirs, and I bought nail polish. This is GOSH’s Frosted Purple; I’m wearing three coats without top coat.

Frosted Purple is a shiny glittery purple textured polish. Application was good; the product consistency seems a bit thin for a textured polish. It’s a good thickness to carry all the glitter and bits, but is very easy to work with. I had an opaque first coat, and used additional coats to build up the texture.

This polish reminds me of a druzy; it’s super textured and super metallic. It’s actually pretty unique for a textured polish. I was always skeptical of the Liquid Sand imitators, because a lot of them just weren’t that great and didn’t carry the same quality. This one does.

Truth be told, I don’t know where to tell you to buy GOSH. I got this in a Duane Reade in New York. I’m pretty sure you can order it online in any case.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch: Bee’s Knees Lacquer’s Don’t Open Dead Inside

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Another day, another swatch! This blogging from Starbucks thing is really working for me! I don’t know why I didn’t think to do this sooner. For today’s swatch, I have Bee’s Knees Lacquer‘s Don’t Open Dead Inside, which is another Indie Shop Atlanta event exclusive. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

I always read this as Don’t Dead Open Inside.

Don’t Open Dead Inside is a cool-toned brown polish with a strong green-to-gold shifting shimmer, iridescent flakies, and a smattering of holo. Application was great with this polish; I had an opaque first coat, and only used additional coats because I like the thickness of it. The polish dries with a glossy finish; I used top coat for shine and protection.

I have to say, I really dig this polish. I love the zombie-chic aesthetic it goes for, because it does it really well. It’s something unique in my collection; I don’t have anything like this. I also appreciate the kitchen sink approach to this polish, and this applies to all of the Bee’s Knees Atlanta exclusives; they’re so multi-faceted and complex. Zombie nails never looked so good!

Don’t Open Dead Inside was an Indie Shop Atlanta event exclusive; other Bee’s Knees Lacquers are sold on their website.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch: Finger Paints’s Psychedelic Hue

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Welcome back, reader! Even though I’m swatching a lot of new stuff from The Indie Shop Atlanta, I still have some swatches in the slush pile waiting to be published, and this is one of them. This is Finger Paints’s Psychedelic Hue; I’m wearing one coat over Sally Hansen’s Grey Area (gray), Deborah Lippmann’s She Bop (pink), and Zoya’s Chantal (nude), as well as a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Psychedelic Hue is a clear-based flakie topper with green-to-blue shifting flakies. Application was good; the flakies distribute very easily over the nail when brushing it on. The product consistency is on the thin side, but the flakies suspend very well. Drying times were good, and the polish dries smooth to the touch. I used top coat for extra shine.

I adore flakie top coats. This one’s pretty basic as far as flakie toppers go; of course, this one’s been around a while and they’ve come a good way since then. I wanted to show this one over a few different colors, and unfortunately, the bright natural sunshine kind of washed it out over the lighter colors. With the lighter shades, the individual flakies aren’t as defined, but the shine and iridescence are still visible. Over the darker color, it looks fantastic; everything is nicely defined and exciting. The following photos were taken in the shade, attempting to show off the color better over the lighter colors.

I believe Psychedelic Hue was discontinued by Finger Paints; other Finger Paints polishes are available at Sally Beauty Supply.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Smoky Marble

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Welcome back to Manicure Monday! Full disclosure, I’m not super happy with these photos, but because I love how this marble turned out, I’m posting it. It’s been raining here for a week straight, and even though I was in the middle of washing dishes, I had to take advantage of a brief moment of sunshine. My nails are wet and flat here, the tips of the nails are all chewed up-looking because I didn’t do a great job trimming, but I’m happy enough with the result to post it. My polishes are Enchanted Polish‘s October 2014 and Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Niagara Sunrise.

I paired these two because they both have a strong and warm shimmer that complements the other. October 2014 has this lovely olive shift, where Niagara Sunrise’s is a soft but fiery orange. October 2014 also benefits from being a holo. These two have so much dimension on their own, and some of that gets lost in this marble, but I’m happy with how it turned out.

I did a dry marble for this. I poured a thin stripe of each polish onto a Ziploc bag, marbled them together with a dotting tool, then let it dry overnight. I tweaked the drip marble method a bit; as cool as drip marbles are, I feel like marbling it with a tool gives me more control over the way the colors mix. By the time I’ve gotten what I want with a drip marble, the colors are so blended together I can’t tell them apart.

Enchanted Polishes are sold on their website. Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are sold in their online store.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch: Bee’s Knees Lacquer’s RIP Nameless Horse

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Hello, reader! Welcome back! Today on the blog, I’m continuing my swatches of polishes I scored at The Indie Shop Atlanta 2018! This is a Bee’s Knees Lacquer event exclusive called RIP Nameless Horse. I know this is a Walking Dead reference — they made quite a few polishes with this theme — and having never seen the show, I really have no idea what it’s referring to. Feel free to school me! I’m wearing three coats of RIP Nameless Horse with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

RIP Nameless Horse is a brick red holo polish with some iridescent flakies. As with the last Bee’s Knees I swatched, application was very nice with this; the polish has a thicker consistency, but it also covers very well, almost opaque on the first coat. The holo flame is also pretty strong, even indoors. The polish dries with a glossy finish; I used top coat for extra shine and protection.

Before The Indie Shop, I knew Bee’s Knees was popular; I offered my services as a polish fairy/pack mule, and Bee’s Knees was the only brand I was asked to shop from. Between #ForClementine and this polish, I’m starting to see why. These polishes are intense. They glow. They have such a big payoff. I love using polish like this, because it’s really a dream to use.

RIP Nameless Horse was an event exclusive for The Indie Shop Atlanta; other Bee’s Knees Lacquers are available on their website.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch: Creative Cuticles Nail Polish’s Purity

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Welcome back, reader! I have another Indie Shop Atlanta swatch for you today. This is my first-ever Creative Cuticles Nail Polish! I’ve been admiring CCNP from afar since I found out they were local to me, and I’m super excited about trying them out! This is Purity; this polish is part of a collaboration between CCNP and Ribbits Stickits. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

I love handwritten labels!

Purity is a deep frosty green polish with some fine golden glitter. Application was easy; I had no issues at all with the product consistency or drying time. The polish is pretty well-pigmented, which is great for coverage, but is unfortunate for the glitters; they get lost in the base a little bit. Also, there still seems to be a bit of visible nail line, despite the coverage. The polish dries quickly and with a satin finish; I used top coat for shine.

This is a pretty nice polish, and I definitely want to try more CCNPs. The base color is very rich, and the set it comes in is a pretty good deal; you get the polish, a small bottle of Ribbits Stickits’s acetone additive, and a full-size of their liquid latex skin barrier. If you’re an avid nail polisher like I am, both of these things will come in very handy for you.

The In Death CCNP x Ribbits Stickits collaboration set is still available from the Ribbits Stickits site. Other Creative Cuticles Nail Polishes are available on their website.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch: Bee’s Knees Lacquer’s #ForClementine

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Hey, reader! I decided to try something new: blogging from Starbucks before work! I come here to drink coffee and kill time before work, so I might as well do something with the time I waste. Hopefully this means I’ll be able to deliver more actual blog posts, because I’m so behind. I miss you guys. This is my first Bee’s Knees Lacquer, and it’s the one from The Indie Shop Atlanta VIP bag. It’s #ForClementine; I used three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

#ForClementine is an intensely shimmery cobalt blue polish with shifting shimmers in flakies in pink, purple, green, and gold. Application was great; even though there’s a lot of pigment and sparkles in this polish, the consistency was very good and easy to work with. It was very easy to achieve full opacity with this one for the same reason; it was nearly opaque on the first coat. It dries with a satin finish, again, because of the pigment; I used top coat for extra shine and protection. One thing I also want to note is the smell; it’s quite a bit different from other polish, or perhaps it’s just a bit stronger than usual. It does carry across the brand.

I do want to mention that I failed to do this polish any justice, because it’s much more beautiful in real life than I show it here. The shimmers are much more luminous and intense than in these photos. It’s so shimmery, so colorful, and the natural sunlight really washed it out. I managed to capture the shift, at least; the shift is very strong and it’s absolutely gorgeous.

I do apologize for the photo quality here. The color is what matters!

#ForClementine was a VIP bag exclusive. Other Bee’s Knees Lacquers are sold on their website.

I got this polish in a VIP bag, which I bought myself.

Manicure Tuesday: Fine-Apple

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Happy Tuesday, reader! Yesterday was a busy day, so I’m only getting to posting Manicure Monday today. It turned out to be a good thing, since yesterday was rainy. For this look, I used Revlon’s Parfumerie scented polish in Beachy over Chaotic Glitz‘s Gold Rush. The scaled design was done with Ribbits Stickits‘s Mermaid’s Tale vinyls.

Originally, I’d planned to wear Beachy alone. Since it is a scented polish, I didn’t want to interrupt the scent with top coat or anything else. The more I thought about it, though, the more I knew I had to get at least one more polish in here. I have too many to just use one at a time. It’s just as well; the scent always leaves my nails as soon as I wash my hands, anyway.

Gold Rush is stunning. It’s such a bright, dazzling golden glitter, and I wish I hadn’t covered so much of it up. At first, I worried there might not be enough contrast between Beachy and Gold Rush, and that the design wouldn’t be immediately visible, but I kind of like it. Beachy is a frosty polish and reflects differently than Gold Rush, so in different lighting conditions it does show up differently. I didn’t occur to me until I was finished that it was halfway to pineapple. I’m still thinking about going in with some green glitter to finish it up.

Revlon polishes are sold in stores. Gold Rush and other Chaotic Glitz polishes are sold in their etsy shop. Ribbits Stickits vinyls are sold on their website.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Tuesday: Frosty Blue Glitter

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Happy Tuesday, reader! I meant to post this yesterday, but I had the day off and went swimming with friends. That’s also the reason this mani looks a little chewed-up, I forgot to take the pictures before I got in the pool. In any case, here’s a gradient I did with First Frost and The Years Have Been Short, both from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer.

First Frost is still one of my favorite BEGLs, and I was super excited about using it. It was one of the first BEGLs ever made, and one of the first indies I ever bought. I adore this polish, and I loved using it this week.

The Years Have Been Short is like a grown-up version of First Frost, if you’re into that. The glitters aren’t as chunky, but the white crelly base and the glitter colors are pretty similar. This was why I paired them up; I wanted a look that was only slightly different, but still very cohesive.

First Frost and The Years Have Been Short were both discontinued by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer; other BEGLs are available from their online store.

I bought these polishes myself.