Tag Archives: swatch

Swatch: Elevation Polish’s Hitsujiyama Park

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Welcome to another swatch! Today’s swatch is Hitsujiyama Park from Elevation Polish; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Hitsujiyama Park is a baby pink polish with a faint holo effect and fine pink shimmer. This polish has a Goldilocks consistency, one that applies smoothly but doesn’t flood cuticles. It’s also fairly opaque; I got full opacity on the second coat, but even one generous coat might be enough. The polish dries with a satin finish; I used top coat for shine.

So one thing I want to note is that I used my camera flash in indoor lighting for these photos. Do you ever find yourself delving into a holo-heavy nail art look, only to find that it’s going to be cloudy all week? If I remember correctly, it stormed on the day I took these, and ambient lighting in my house wasn’t adequate, so the camera flash was the best way to get the holo. The holo in this polish is so barely-there, which I love. It’s an afterthought to the delicate pink base. It’s super dainty.

Hitsujiyama Park and other Elevation Polishes are sold in their online shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype CH 5.2

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Welcome to another swatch post! I’m trying to get one out every day this week. I have so many you haven’t seen yet! This gorgeous beauty is a Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer prototype called CH 5.2; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

CH 5.2 is a kelly green jelly with gold-to-green shifting flakies. Application was easy, as it always is with BEGL polishes; the product consistency, despite being totally full of flakies, is buttery smooth and very easy to work with. It dries with a satin/matte finish; I added top coat for shine.

 

This is a fantastic polish, and I’m kind of sad it wasn’t available in a wide release as-is. The gold flash is a lot more intense in person, as is the shift. Also, it’s green, and I feel like BEGL greens are some of their best work. I definitely love this one.

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are available in their online shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch: e.l.f.’s Smokin Hot

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Welcome back! Today’s swatch is a pretty basic one. Everyone knows I love a red creme, and even though this is one you can’t get anymore, it’s a good one to have. This is e.l.f.’s Smokin Hot; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Smokin Hot is, as I mentioned, a red creme. Application was good; the product consistency was on the thicker side, but I believe this is due to the age of the bottle, as well as previous uses. I forget if I thinned it out or not, but it still applied well. I had full opacity by two coats, but I always like to go for three. The polish dried with a glossy finish; I used top coat for protection and shine.

This is a polish I probably didn’t even need to swatch. As with most red cremes, what you see in the bottle is what you get on your nails. I can’t complain about this polish at all.

This polish was released in a Disney Villains themed set, which has since been discontinued.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch: Bluebird Lacquer’s Shine Bright Like a Rhinestone

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Welcome back, reader! My swatch today is yet another Indie Shop Atlanta buy. It’s funny; in case you missed it, Indie Shop 2018 locations were announced today, and they’re returning to Atlanta in March, so I’ll have the chance to go and buy more polish that I won’t even get to swatch until next year. I do hope I’ll see my favorite makers again though! Anyway, this is Bluebird Lacquer‘s Shine Bright Like a Rhinestone, and it’s one of the best polishes I bought last year. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Shine Bright Like a rhinestone is a clear-based microglitter polish with silver flakies, silver glitter, a little bit of holo, and a blue-to-purple shifting shimmer. Application was easy; the product consistency is easy to work with despite everything in it. As with most microglitters, coverage builds up to full opacity; I got full opacity on the second coat. The polish dries to a smooth finish; I used top coat for extra smoothness and shine.

Shift!

I’m afraid I didn’t really do this polish justice. There’s so much going on in it, and it was so much better in person. For example, the blue shimmer, which gives the polish an icy glow, isn’t easily seen in these photos. Aside from that, I love this polish. I love any polish that turns my nails into disco balls, but this one has been a nice change of pace with the extra shifting shimmer. It was a ton of fun to wear.

As of this writing, Bluebird Lacquer is closed for the holidays, but will reopen.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch: Disney’s Villain Varnish in Queen of Hearts

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Welcome back! This year I want to get back to posting on a schedule like I used to, but before I can do that, I have so many unposted swatches I have to get up first. Today’s post is about a polish I love and received as a Christmas gift several years ago. This is Disney’s Villain Varnish in Queen of Hearts; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Queen of Hearts is a burnished shimmery gold polish with some holo flakies. Application was good; the polish has a smooth and workable consistency, and dries with a glossy finish. Because of the frosty shimmer, it leaves some brush-strokes if one doesn’t apply carefully; they aren’t too bad, but they do happen. The polish dries quickly to a smooth finish.

As large as my polish collection is, I don’t have a polish like this one. I love how it reminds me of something in a thrift store, something tarnished but has endured. I’m a little disappointed that the one they called Queen of Hearts wasn’t red — that one’s Cruella de Vil — but I like it very much.

Disney no longer sells this set, but they do have nail wraps and other beauty items in stores and online.

This polish was a Christmas gift.

Throwback Swatch: Bluebird Lacquer’s Looking Spritely

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Hello hello! It’s another swatch! Today’s polish is Bluebird Lacquer‘s Looking Spritely; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Looking Spritely is a cobalt blue polish with some iridescent and shifting flakes and holo accents. Unfortunately, because it was cloudy and gross on the day I took these photos, the holo is hidden. The polish was really easy to apply and work with; the product consistency was just right, and I had full opacity in two coats. It dries to a smooth finish; I used top coat for extra protection and shine.

Because of the lack of sunshine, I was not able to do this polish justice. The holo is the crown of this polish. I mean, it looks great here; in blistering Florida sunshine, we’d probably be seeing all the holo and none of the flakies, so I guess that works out. My point is that there’s a ton happening in this polish in person, and there’s way more sparkle.

Looking Spritely was, I think, an Indie Shop Atlanta exclusive, but I’m not sure. For the moment, Bluebird Lacquer is on a break while they process holiday orders.

I bought this polish myself.

Throwback Swatch: Dainty Digits Polish’s Stream of Enchantment

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Welcome back, reader! I still have swatch posts to catch up on, so I’m getting through them. This is Dainty Digits’s Stream of Enchantment; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

I love handwritten labels.

Stream of Enchantment is a sky blue polish with shifting flake glitters. Application was easy; the product consistency was just right. As you can see, it’s on the sheer side, so there’s a lot of visible nail lines (when my nails are this long, I don’t mind it), but it works well with layering the glitters. The polish dries to a smooth finish; I used top coat for extra shine and protection.

This is my first Dainty Digits Polish! I got to meet maker NeNe at The Indie Shop Atlanta and bought her event exclusives. I love them! She did two different takes on the same polish, a day version and a night version, just changing the base color. This is the daytime version, and it’s so cheerful. I love it. I was hoping the glitters would be bigger, but there’s a lot of them, and the sheerness of the polish helps you see every single scrap of it. This would definitely be a great base for nail art.

Stream of Enchantment was an event exclusive. Dainty Digits is now Baby Girl Lacquer; other polishes can be purchased from their online store.

I bought this polish myself.
I have an extra bottle I’m saving for a giveaway!

Throwback Swatch: Bluebird Lacquer’s It’s Fall Over Me

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Right, so during the month of November, I was insanely busy with starting a new job, starting a volunteer job leading writing groups for National Novel Writing Month, actually writing a novel for National Novel Writing Month, and cooking a Thanksgiving dinner for nine people. Now that novels are finished and Thanksgiving is over, I’ve finally got the time to share the swatches I’ve been collecting.

This first one is It’s Fall Over Me from Bluebird Lacquer; I’m wearing two coats over e.l.f.’s Smoking Hot (red), Butter London’s Tea and Toast (tan), Sally Hansen’s Black Out (black), China Glaze’s White on White (white), and Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Lighthouse on the Lake (blue), topped with Seche Vite and Essie’s Matte About You matte top coat.

It’s Fall Over Me is a clear-based glitter topper with iridescent shifting glitters of various sizes. The shift is definitely reminiscent of the flakies in Essie’s famous Shine of the Times. Application was easy; the product consistency is wonderful in that it’s not thick enough to be goopy and difficult to use, but it’s not thin enough that it drips off the brush. The glitter delivers very easily, but I definitely wanted more than I got on my first coat, so I used two. In the future, I might try sponging it on to get that heavy glitter coverage without the thickness of multiple coats of lacquer. I used two coats of top coat as well, just to smooth down any glitter texture that was left.

I bought this at the Indie Shop Atlanta, and it had my heart as soon as I saw the bottle. I am such a sucker for these opalescent kinds of glitters, because there’s always something going on with it; it’s the easiest way to give a look dimension and style without getting knee-deep in nail art. It also looks interesting over any color, even white, which is obviously not the ideal undies for this polish, has a unique effect on it.

When I was talking to maker Lou at her booth, she told me I had to try it with a matte finish, so I did, and here are the photos of that. I definitely prefer the glossy finish, but I have to admit that the glitter looks pretty cool mattefied. I feel like the matte finish makes the shift a little less dramatic, but it still does happen, and still looks pretty cool.

Unlike everything else I’ve shown you from my Indie Shop Atlanta haul, this is a polish you can actually still buy! As of this writing, It’s Fall Over Me is for sale on the Bluebird Lacquer website.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Sunday: Crystal Knockout’s Pegasus Landing

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Welcome back to Swatch Sunday! Today’s polish is a new-to-me brand called Crystal Knockout (formerly DazzleGlaze). I loved meeting them at The Indie Shop in Atlanta; they’re from Florida, and I always like meeting the neighbors. They were selling a big range of products, even making their own jewelry. I regret that I didn’t buy any of the jewelry. Anyway, so here’s their VIP bag contribution. This is Pegasus Landing on its own (three coats) and over both China Glaze’s White on White and Sally Hansen’s Black Out (two coats) with one coat of Seche Vite.

Pegasus Landing is a shimmery white gold with gold glitters and rose gold flakies. This was very easy to apply; the product consistency good, even with all of the glitter in it. The bigger glitters was a little shy, but with repeated coats, I still got a good amount on my nail. I did a terrible job at showing the rose gold aspect of the polish; it was probably my favorite thing about it. The polish dried well but I did wish I’d used a second layer of top coat.

I didn’t expect this polish to work so well on its own, but I definitely prefer it alone than over white or black. I love how well the gold stands out over the black, but it’s definitely best without undies. I don’t really have any other polishes like this one, so it’s got a cool uniqueness factor. Lots of polishes like this with really creamy shimmery bases and chunky glitters don’t work, but this one does.

Pegasus Landing was an event exclusive. Other Crystal Knockout products are sold on their online shop.

This polish came in an event VIP bag.

Swatch Saturday: Bluebird Lacquer’s Realm of the Fae

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Welcome back to Swatch Saturday! Today’s post is late and I do apologize, but it may be the norm for a while. Just bear with me! Today’s post is all about Realm of the Fae by Bluebird Lacquer; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Realm of the Fae is a deep purple holo with a pink/orange shift. Application was great; I had perfect opacity at two coats, and the product consistency is very easy to use. The holo effect is best in sunlight, but the shifty shimmer is best indoors. The polish dries quickly and with a smooth satin finish. I used top coat for shine.

You guessed it, this polish was an Indie Shop Atlanta exclusive. There were so many! I like this polish a lot. The holo isn’t too strong so it doesn’t overpower the shimmer, and there’s just enough shimmer in it to add dimension to the look. It’s gorgeous.

Realm of the Fae was an event exclusive. Other Bluebird Lacquers are available on their website.

I bought this polish myself.