Happy Halloween!

Halloween nails!

Smitten, You're Turning Violet, Violet with Enchanted Pumpkin Guts on top

Loreal: Brownie Points

Today's nails feature Brownie Points from Loreal. It reminds me of Dove dark chocolates, which are my favorite!



Application was ok, it seemed to get tacky pretty quickly, so I had to work fast. I ended up with some lumps and streaks and I was afraid it wasn't going to turn out too well. After two coats and HKG top coat, it looked great! I was pleasantly surprised!

Lovey Dovey Lotus

Sounds like a loveable flower yeah? I do love these polishes!

First I wore Lotus from Zoya, a beautiful greyed out purple with hidden shimmer.

I didn't top coat this one, because its getting glitter bombed with Lovey Dovey!


Lovey Dovey is a gorgeous glitter polish from Lynnderella which contains gunmetal and lavender hex glitters, in a kind of grey jelly base. Its discontinued, but is still found available in the polish communities on occassion.


Isn't it pretty? I was drawn to this polish because of a recent purse purchase I made.


Purple is my favorite color and I've been wanting a silvery purple purse for nearly two years and I've been searching all this time and finally found it. Then I found the polish to match!


You can find other Lynnderella polishes on her ebay store. She has a holiday collection coming up!

What's your favorite Lynn or purse color?

Witches Warts and Mystics Fortunes

Happy Halloween! :D

I had a happy discovery at Walgreen's a few weeks ago when I found the Loreal LE Project Runway polishes. I chose my favorite of the three to try out first, The Mystic's Fortune. In the bottle it was the most gorgeous glowy blurple I'd laid eyes on.


On the nail, not so much. The beautiful glowyness has mostly vanished and it was kind of gloopy during application. I used one coat of Seche Vite top coat and the polish ate it.


Perhaps with more topcoat and some sunlight it'd be like the bottle shot, but I decided to go ahead and top it with glitter instead.

Witches Warts from Lacquistry is absolutely stunning in the bottle and on the nail. It was a joy to apply and just look at all those holo glitters! So sparkly! This polish contains holo green, black matte, green matte glitters, each in different sizes. Take a look!


Jenna from Lacquistry says she is on a constant path of creation and inspiration making polish for lacquer-heads from a lacquer-head. Her polishes are made with a clear base and glitters, micas, and pigments - no frankens. All of her polishes are B3F and available via her Etsy Shop.

What are you wearing for Halloween?

Hit Polish: Sunflowers

Giveaway Prize

"There is no blue without yellow and without orange." -- Vincent Van Gogh

This was my answer in a recent naming contest held by Hit Polish on her facebook page.
She chose three winners, and I happened to be one of them!


Sunflowers has light blue, yellow and orange matte glitters in squares and hexes as well as a coppery orange micro glitter.


It was a breeze to apply, no dabbing or reswiping or digging in the bottle.


I wore one coat of Sunflowers over Loreal's Brownie Points, which is a stunning dark chocolately brown.




The glitter is fairly flat so without topcoat its surprisingly smoother than most glitter polishes. I went ahead and topped it with HKG though, because I like a glassy look!



Sunflowers is available on November 1st at the Hit Polish shop on Etsy.

What's your favorite Hit Polish?

Hallowhimsies!

Pam at Whimsical Ideas has created an awesome trio for Halloween that she calls Hallowhimsies and sent it to me for free to review.


Two coats each, no undies.


I've already posted about Wicked, so it won't be included in this post.

Both Boo! and Once Upon A Time needed undies, so I decided to start with My Pointe Exactly! from OPI. This is three to four coats.


The first whimsy is Boo!

It looks like a ghost in a bottle, doesn't it? It flashes a coppery/reddish shimmer which looks slightly different depending on the lighting and what its layered over.

I tried Boo! over a few different colors and snapped a photo to share. From top to bottom is Essie She's Picture Perfect, WnW Black Creme, and Revlon Royal.


And finally here it is over the OPI MPE!


Once Upon a Time is a pretty pastel mix of matte green and purple hexes with tiny silver glitter.


I added it on top of Boo!


Then added Hard Candy's matte top coat for this photo.


I think Pam has created a beautiful collection for Halloween and cannot wait to see what she has in store for Christmas!

Revlon: Spooky Skull

Different Dimension PR Sample

Spooky Skull is a very sheer white polish with a hidden barely pink shimmer. I wore this over two coats of Revlon Powder Puff.



Afterward I topped it with more... from Different Dimension.

See my previous entry for this and three other Different Dimension polishes.

Urban Lacquer #75

The second polish that I got for free and tested from Urban Lacquer is number 75. A grey jelly base with purple, fuchsia, turquoise, and silver glitter in a mix of squares and hex shapes.


The formula was thick, I think a couple drops of thinner would make it perfect. I used two coats alone and am happy with how opaque it is.

So sparkly and unusual compared to other indie polishes I have in my collection.

Getting close up shows off the glitter shapes and colors:

This polish most likely won't be available at the grand opening, Brenda is working to make the formula better. :)

Brenda had us each fill out a survey for the polish testing so I've included that here too.

--What do you think of the formula? Was it easy to apply? How many coats did it take to achieve the desired color/coverage?
For the most part it was easy to apply. It was a little on the thick side, and left a few bald spots. Perhaps thinning the base would fix it? The color was opaque in two coats which is awesome!

--How long did the polish stay on your nails?
I just put it on last night, and I'm using Yellow Stopper underneath it so its gonna peel off in a couple days. I am sure it would last a while though, I haven't met a polish yet that doesn't last at least 7 days on me.

--What do you think of the color? Were you satisfied with the level of pigmentation (if applicable)?
Its very pretty, but its not my top choice from what I've seen you create so far. :)

--Would you purchase a polish from UL?
Absolutely!

You can get yours on Sunday October 21st, 7pm cst at her grand opening!

Urban Lacquer Grand Opening!

Urban Lacquer is a new indie polish brand that I had the honor of testing a few prototypes for. The grand opening will be Sunday October 21st.

Brenda from Urban Lacquer sent two polishes to me for free to test, first is #64 which is now named "The Blue" in acknowledgement to all of the gals at the blue forum that helped test the polishes.

The Blue is packed full of square and hex shaped blue and turquoise holo glitter. The base is slightly tinted turquoise, but it can be worn over most colors or on its own.



I chose to wear The Blue over Revlon Blue Lagoon, which really makes the glitter pop!


When I wore this polish, it reminded me of my vacation to Hawaii and how the Pacific ocean reflects the sun, so gorgeous and calming.



The bright green flash you see on the nail is the holo glitter at work! Its so freaking sparkly, I couldn't stop looking at it while I wore it!

Brenda had us all fill out a survey for each polish, so I've included it below:

--What do you think of the formula? Was it easy to apply? How many coats did it take to achieve the desired color/coverage?
Formula was very smooth and easy to apply. A good amount of glitter went on in one coat and was spread around pretty evenly. I love a glitter bomb, so I used two coats and it was just right for me!

--How long did the polish stay on your nails?
I've been wearing this nearly a week, and took the swatch photos today.

--What do you think of the color? Were you satisfied with the level of pigmentation (if applicable)?
I absolutely LOVE the turquoise color of the glitter, the holo glitter, all the different shapes and sizes as well.

--Would you purchase a polish from UL?
Absolutely! Yes!

--Thoughts, suggestions, criticism, etc - please provide any additional feedback! Also, feel free to post swatches - I would love to see any photos!
I received a HEAP of compliments from my coworkers. They all love it, even the gal that ONLY wears pink! Its like wearing princess's jewels on my fingers. So sparkly, very eye catching and beautiful.

Be sure to visit Brenda at Urban Lacquer on Sunday to get yours!

OPI Euro Centrale - First Look!

OPI just posted a preview of a new collection.

This is a copy of their photo from the above link:


Due to be released spring / summer 2013.

What do you think of them?

New Facebook Group

I've created a Facebook group so that we can better track indie polish sale dates / restocks / launches.

I'm asking for you to come and post dates / times and a link to the shop when you spot an indie sale or links to new indie shops. I will then add it to the Google calendar or Indie shop page.

As a member of the group, feel free to share your indie NOTDs and talk about the latest and greatest indies.

My hope is that this will become a collaborative source for everyone to use when stalking for restocks / sales / collection launches and discovering new shops.

The group is open to everyone. Come join us and bring a friend or three!

Pahlish: Lovesong Writer

An absolutely stunning red jelly packed full of glitter, there is even some purple in there!



Pahlish will be releasing their fall collection, Bright Eyes, on October 19th.
The four polishes in this collection are:

Stroke of Luck
Goldmine, Gutted
Lonesome Ocean
Your Lover is an Actress

Pahlish makes a lot of gorgeous glitter polishes and is available on Etsy.

Whimsical Ideas: Wicked

PR Sample

Wicked is part of Pam's Halloween collection and is inspired by the Broadway show.


Taking a closer look, there are huge black circles (Elphaba's hat?), white hex (Glinda's dress?) and small red glitter (Elphaba's lips, Glinda's hair, and Dorothy's slippers?) all floating in a shimmery green tinted sheer base.


I chose to wear Twist and Shout underneath it to stay true to the shade of green intended for this polish. I took a side by side bottle shot to compare the two. Twist and Shout is just a half a hair lighter than the Wicked base color in the bottle.


I used three layers of Wicked and while applying I noticed that sometimes I got black circles on the brush and sometimes I didn't, so I did do some fishing to get a few extra circles. Love those!


Topped with Hard Candy Matte-ly in Love - I think this photo shows off the shimmer in the base a little better than the glossy photo.


Wicked is quite unique, as I've only ever seen two other indie companies use circle glitter like this. Visit Whimsical Ideas by Pam to get yours!

I think it's perfect for halloween, and I just might wear it again in March for St. Pat's.
What is your favorite Green or Halloween polish?