Candy Lacquer: xoxo Jen and Fairyland

xoxo,Jen polish provided as a gift.

In August, I was on the hunt for a purple and neon green chunky shape packed glitter topper. I was lemming it hard. Could not find one anywhere!(that should be written in all caps!)I had this wonderful vision of it, but it simply didn't exist.

One afternoon as I was doing my nails, I remembered a recent purchase I had made from Candy Lacquer not too long before my lemming hit. (Thanks Traci, for showing me the brand!) I had bought Fairyland, which is a gorgeous pastel holo glitter topper. See? Amirite?




One coat worn over Lacquer Lust S-mauve-mente. Just one coat and I got all that glitter, what a payoff! And those shapes! And that holo! Definitely a scrumptious topper!

So, a few days later I went back to the Candy Lacquer website to see if they might have something close to what I was looking for. They had a purple and pink polish I liked, and a turquoise and green polish I liked, but not a purple and green blend. So - I thought hey, I'll contact them and see if they do custom polishes.

I was a little nervous about asking, since I didn't know or have a relationship with the brand or its owner.

I wrote a quick message, hovered over the submit button, and finally pressed it. Eeeee!! I was excited, and I had only just sent the request. -geeked-

A few days later, a very kind reply from Sandra of Candy Lacquer arrived in my inbox. ^.^ When I read it, I was nearly heartbroken because Sandra doesn't do custom polishes. She did ask what I had in mind though, and mentioned that perhaps it'd be something she would consider creating in the future. I just knew she could make the perfect polish, so with excitement and hope, I wrote a fairly detailed message back and crossed every finger, toe, and eyelash.

After a few days, I began to get that sort of sinking feeling because she had responded to me so super fast before.
Little did I know what she had brewing. She wrote back on about day ten, with a photo of the polish and asked for my address! She had already made a polish for me!! And was ready to send it to me!!! She even told me it was a GIFT!!!! (notice how the exclamations increase? xD )

I squealed out loud - Jas came running to me to see if something was wrong. I had to just point at our emails on the screen and the bottle photo she had sent, I was too excited to speak!
Afterward, I replied back with my address. I blinked, and the polish was in my hands. I kid you not, she ships super fast.

Are you tired of reading? Are you ready to see my custom polish?? Shouldn't I use one more question mark for good measure???
Meet xoxo Jen (no, not me, the polish)! -trumpets sound and angels sing- ok, I know its corny, but really Sandra totally nailed my lemming.

She's pretty amazing. Sandra, not the - well the polish is amazing too! I wore it twice, each time for a week. A very rare occurrence in my world. :)

One coat over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls




One coat over Essie Viva La Vespa





Please show Sandra some lovin, she deserves it! You can do so by liking her Facebook page and visiting her shop. Right now she has some awesome holiday and limited polishes in the shop. You can also spread the word about Candy Lacquer, Sandra is nothing short of amazing!

Polish Addict: Birthday Polish

Product provided as a birthday gift.

I recently had a birthday in September, and with that Laura from Polish Addict sent a birthday polish to me!
She didn't expect nor ask for a review, but I thought it was pretty and wanted to share some photos of it. Plus, I wanted to show my appreciation and thank her. :)

Its a pretty pastel pink with multi-colored glitters inside. It seemed a little sheer at two coats, so I wore one coat over Pure Ice Pink Ice.




What's your favorite polish to wear on your special day?

A bit of nostalgia...

Today I was looking through my stash for the perfect pink undies to use for a pink polish I recently received as a gift and I stumbled upon Pure Ice's Pink Ice. As soon as the bottle caught my eye, I remembered the very first time I took a photo of my nails with polish on them, and the polish was Pink Ice.

I thought it would be neat to share a bit of nostalgia and where my swatch photos obsession began.

It was 2009, and I had just gotten the coolest new slider phone with a -gasp- camera built in! So I did my nails and when I finished I decided to take a photo of them. I had seen a few people on flickr doing this and I thought it was neat! Because I had a cable to connect the phone to my pc -omg awesome feature!- I decided to pull the photo off the phone and upload it to my flickr account. See, I had flickr, a blog on other topics, and a (now defunct) LJ. I decided to use Flickr for this and uploaded the photo there first. I got a few comments on the photo!

I was excited, and the whole thing felt great to me! The phone, the camera on it, being able to put it ONLINE OMG. So - here's that photo in its original state. No watermark, hopefully no one will want to take it from my page. :)




Fast forward to tonight, when I spotted that bottle again. I have not worn Pink Ice since then, and it still applies like a dream.

Pink Ice is a soft pastel pink full of iridescent shimmer. Its sheer enough that it might make a great topper for a pink or white cream polish as well. I used four coats and some VNL is still visible because of the bright lighting, but its ok 'cause it's getting used for undies and sometimes vnl can be a little sexy, amirite?




I hope you've enjoyed this little bit of nostalgia with me - and I'd love for you to share yours with me via inlinkz or comments. The inlinkz is open to the end of November. :)



Click here to get the InLinkz code

Vivid Lacquer: Spaaaace!

Vivid Lacquer products provided for review.

Before we embark on this exploration of Spaaaace! with Vivid Lacquer, we must have a ship (read undies), yes? How about a blue Most Sinful ship? Part of the Sinful Shine collection, this is my go to royal blue because it glides on like butter, makes awesome undies for other polishes, can be worn alone for a quick mani since its sooo glossy, hasn't stained my nails, and is the most vibrant royal blue in my collection. Its brighter and more vivid than Essie's Butler Please and Model's Inc Baker Street - much closer to OPI Blue It Out of Proportion, Essie Bouncer, It's Me and SC Endless Blue. I used two coats in the photo below.


Ok so now that we've got a "ship" let's go to Spaaaace!

Spaaaace! Is a vibrant royal blue jelly packed with glitters including tiny white and yellow hexes, rainbow flakies and holographic gold and silver glitter that twinkle various colors. The polish looks like a galaxy in a bottle - can you find any shooting stars in the photos?


I've layered one coat over our "ship" of Most Sinful. The Vivid Lacquer polish went on smooth and dried fairly quick. After drying it was fairly smooth to the touch, no issues with any of the glitters poking out. I've added topcoat to get a super glossy effect.

Vivid Lacquer polishes are available at Etsy and you can follow the brand on facebook.

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Yay!

Congratulations to Blitzme M! You've won a bottle of 42 from My Ten Friends!
Huge thank you to all who participated in the giveaway - you all made it fun with all your nice comments and involvement!

My Ten Friends: In Space, No One Can Hear You Scre-

Products provided for review.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Scre- is the new My Ten Friends (MTF) Halloween collection that is launching on the brand's birthday!
The set consists of three beautiful or should I say spooky glitter polishes: Galaxy of Terror, Vampire Planet and Alien Blood. MTF is also re-releasing 42, a polish that had been discontinued for some time. Good things come in threes, so in addition to these special launches, the first ten orders placed will get Astronaut ice cream added to their box and she's doing giveaways! (one of them is here at xoxojen!) Its a huge party and you're all invited!

Vampire Planet is a gorgeous vampy glitter polish. When I got it out of the bottle onto my nails I was in awe! Its stunning! Its got this beautiful raspberry jam base, packed with purple sparks, black matte glitter and lots of magic! It applied a little thick so some finessing was used to cover the nail; however, Mei Lynn is working to thin it slightly for easier application.




Galaxy of Terror is absolutely packed with glitter. This could be a one coater if applied heavy, but I used two thin coats. The bright red glitter simply pops among the silver holo glitters and charcoaly base.




Alien Blood is the one that caught my eye immediately when I opened the package of the set. I'm a sucker for square glitter and that bright green color is one of my favorites. It applied like a dream and in two coats was opaque. I could wear this polish for weeks and love every minute of it!




42. What is 42 anyway? Its the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. The polish was one of the first polishes MTF launched back in October 2012. Due to glitter source changes, this one was discontinued and has now been reformulated! yay!

First, a comparison of the original and new 42 in the bottle and on the nail. The original is more of a periwinkle blue while the new version is a little more teal; however layering the new version over blue may get a very similar result to the original. I wore two coats of each on the nail for the side by side comparison. The new formula seems to be more sparkly and holo, which I absolutely love!



Because I'm nostalgic and a bit of a procrastinator, I'm sharing my photos of the original 42 from way back in November of 2012 that I had not blogged yet. (eep!) This is two coats alone.




And now the new formula which will be available tomorrow! 42 still has a similar look with gorgeous huge chunky hex glitters, the bright matte blue glitters and all the sparkly micro glitters. I love how the base color allows the glitter to show through, yet is opaque in two coats. The jelly base lends a certain flexibility to the polish, allowing it to be worn over many different colors for a completely different look!




Win your very own bottle of 42 from My Ten Friends!
a Rafflecopter giveaway


In Space, No One Can Hear You Scre- and 42 will be available October 15, at 10:10am PT (11:10am MT, 12:10pm CT, 1:10 ET) at the new Nail Polish to the Stars online shop. Join the My Ten Friends birthday bash giveaways over at facebook!

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Urban Lacquer: Island of the Dolls collection and Anniversary

Products provided for review.

The Urban Lacquer Halloween 2013 collection consists of four polishes which were inspired by the Island of the Dolls (Isla de las Munecas). Located outside of Mexico City, the "island," a floating garden on a canal, is home to hundreds of decaying, mutilated dolls. Creepy right? I think its perfect for a creepy halloween set and the artisan, Brenda, has done a great job with her interpretation of it. I also received a special anniversary polish that Urban Lacquer created in celebration of the brand's one year anniversary!



Each order will come packaged with a creepy doll head, like the one I received. (if you don't want one, add comments to your order!) The polish is wrapped in the usual black tissue, as you may already have seen in a previous post of mine.



Appease Her was made with Don Julian's actions in mind. He would tie doll parts to tree trunks to appease the spirit of a dead girl he had found in the canal and to keep away evil spirits. He would state that he believed that the dolls were somehow still alive but forgotten.

In this polish you can see the ghost of those spirits, shifting and floating within the polish. I wore two coats with topcoat of Appease Her.





The dolls Don Julian fished from the canal and placed in trees is what inspired this polish, Canal Dolls.
It's filled with pinks, lavenders, blues, reds and an eye catching glow of green shimmer. I've worn one coat over Appease Her.





"Spiders and insects have taken up residence in the hollow parts of most of the dolls." - Delena, WebUrbanist review

Torso of Spiders' green base color reminded me of Slimer from the Ghostbusters movie and its packed with green, black, silver and burgundy glitters in small sizes. I wore two coats over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. Love the square shapes in this!




Finally, Don Julian, the legend who created the Island of the Dolls. He died in 2001, but the legend carrys on and many people still visit the island today.
Don Julian, the polish, is a blend of black, orange and yellow glitters sprinkled with gold holo stars. I love those yellow dot glitters, they look like moons! I wore two coats over Cover Girl Purple Freeze.




I'm Fun at Parties is a Limited Edition polish created for the one year anniversary of the Urban Lacquer brand. Since this is a special polish, there is only one way to score a bottle! The polish is confetti like and is packed with bright fun colors! I especially love the bright neon green pieces, and the huge pink and blue hexes.
I wore one coat over Urban Lacquer's Little Black Undies.




To find out how to get your Limited Edition bottle of I'm Fun at Parties, follow Urban Lacquer on Facebook. This collection launches at the Urban Lacquer shop on Monday October 14th, at 2pm CT which is Noon PT, 1pm MT, 3pm ET.


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