Sweet Heart Polish: Disney Duo inspired by POTC

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Ahoy Mateys! Avast!

Sweet Heart polish collaborated with Ellagee for the next Disney ride inspired duo. It launches on August 31st and is inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean themed ride. I was so excited to have the opportunity to review this duo because Disney theme parks are near and dear to me. The box consists of two polishes, a Doubloon keychain and some candies all packed up in pretty red organza bags!



Ellagee's polish is called Drink Up Me Hearties Yo Ho! and is a beautiful golden Doubloon shade that sparkles a heap because it's packed with shimmery micro flakies! I used three coats for opacity yet I think that a single coat would be sheer enough to wear over your favorite dark creams to give them a kiss of gold! The formula was smooth and easy to apply.





Sweet Heart's polish is Inflame & Ignite, inspired by the burning room. A fantastic room inside the ride, filled with the scent of burning wood, raging flames and chaos - even a teetering table and chair that just might come crashing down! This micro glitter is packed with reds, golds, and silvers, plus holographic microglitters. It's opaque in three coats on it's own as shown here or you can use it as a topper over another polish.





The box comes with a cool Doubloon keychain as shown here, and I've done up some proper pirate nail art! I used the Ellagee polish in this set as my base color, stamped it with a Vivid Lacquer stamper and plate VL023 with Konad black, and then topped it all off with the Sweet Heart Polish from this set. These polishes go great together when layered!



I nearly always learn something when I'm researching to write my reviews and this time I learned that Talk Like a Pirate day falls on my birthday every year. I also found this handy webpage, complete with a pirate translator and name generator!

Savvy?
The set launches on August 31st at 2pm Central at both the Sweet Heart Polish shop and the Ellagee shop for $22 plus shipping.

Literary Lacquer LE: To Blossom

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Amy of Literary Lacquers is celebrating her birthday on Sunday, August 24th, with a special birthday polish that she created. The polish is limited edition and will be a pre-order only.

The inspiration for her birthday polish this year was a quote and flower as you see in this image:



To Blossom is a unique color to my eye, it looks kind of mauve-ish, but it also has shades of purples and pinks and reds that I can see, and the holographic pigment and glitters add a whole other dimension of color. It's really beautiful!
Capturing all the different colors on camera proved challenging, but I did my best! I wore two coats, but I almost stopped at one. Had I not been shooting under bright light, one coat would be sufficient. I also topped it with topcoat but it felt fairly smooth even without it.






The polish will be available in numbered bottles by pre-order only in the Literary Lacquers shop on August 24th from 6 - 8 pm Central time. All polish will be shipped out by September 1st.

If you've enjoyed the review and photos, please let me know in the comments!

Cupcake Polish: Sweet Addictions September box

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September's Sweet Addictions collaborative box from Cupcake polish has a Marie Antoinette theme. Featured guests in the box are Pipe Dream Polish and Serum No5 along with the box's creator, Cupcake Polish. The box includes 2 full sized polishes, one mini polish and a sugar scrub. The box is packaged very well with bubble wrap around the polishes and pink shreds in the bottom of the box. There are also a few business cards included from the brands.



Dauphine is made by Pipe Dream Polish and is a cool toned nude crelly packed with small pastel blue, teal and white glitters. The polish was opaque in two coats and topped with Gelous and KBShimmer topcoat for a smooth glossy look. The formula was good and easy to apply with the flat brush. The cap of the bottle has some texture which makes it easier for me to open and her logo and label are splashy!





Versailles is made by Cupcake Polish and is a lavender linear holo with a smattering of pink and purple shimmer. The holo is very strong even under studio lighting. I used two coats and KBS top coat for the finished look. The formula is very easy to control and applies smoothly. The square bottle allows for easy opening and is adorned with a fanciful label.






Cake Revolution is made by Serum No 5 and is a mini sized vanilla crelly with a rainbow of pastel glitters and gold micro glitter. This polish also glows purple in the dark!
I wore two coats over Illamasqua Scorch. The formula was a little textured due to the gitd pigment which dries quickly so you'll need to use fewer brush strokes and work quickly when applying each coat. The polish has a matte finish so I topped it with Gelous and KBShimmer top coat for a smooth glossy look. I used a flashlight to charge the glow for the glow in the dark photo.






Serum No. 5 also contributed a 2 oz. sugar scrub in the delicious scent of dark chocolate hazelnut. SO in love with this scrub - read why below the photo. :)



Other than nail polish, I'm a bath and body junkie and I love scrubs. I've used hundreds - from commercial to indie; I've even made a few! I've been working through my scrub stash for about two years now without buying more and still have two shelves full. I was super excited to see a scrub included in this box, but also skeptical because I've found my holy grail scrubs already.

And well...this one zoomed right up to holy grail status.

If you're familiar with scrubs, you know that there are a few different kinds: oily, bubbling, and somewhat bubbly yet moisturizing at the same time. Some scrubs contain salt while others are sugar scrubs and then there are also different sized granules of salts and sugars from large to very fine. Some granules are more square and have rough edges, those work well on callused skin but can feel harsh to softer areas. Some granules are rounded and soft which feel amazing to softer areas of skin like the hands, arms and legs.

The Serum No5 scrub has soft bubbles and a velvety cream feel. It contains fine sugar granules which are rounded and feel good on the hands, arms and legs. I tested this with handwashing first and then on my legs. I like to use a scrub on my hands about once a week to help the skin feel soft and smooth and I always use a scrub on my legs before shaving for a really close and smooth shave.

Using a spoon, I scoop about half a melon ball's worth of scrub into my hands. I use a spoon because when other oils and/or water are introduced into the scrub jar it can cause the scrub to go bad fairly quick. Rubbing the scrub into the skin without water first allows the skin to absorb the moisturizing oils in the scrub; this one contains Jojoba Oil and Sweet Almond Oil along with the oils from the soap. After I've rubbed it in a bit, I add a splash of warm water to work up the suds and creaminess from the scrub and when most of the sugars are melted I rinse and pat my hands dry with a towel. After using the scrub, my hands felt moisturized and soft and smelled of delicious chocolate. SO much love for this scrub, I can't even. If you get this box, I'd love to hear what you think of the scrub!


scrub ingredients: Organic Refined Sugar; Shea Soap [Coconut Oil, Palm Oil, Safflower Oil, Glycerin (kosher, of vegetable origin), Shea Butter (refined naturally crushed), Purified Water, Sodium Hydroxide (saponifying agent), Sorbitol (moisturizer), Sorbitan oleate (emulsifier), Oat Protein (conditioner), Titanium Dioxide (mineral whitener used in opaque soaps)]; Jojoba Oil; Sweet Almond Oil; Mica; Fragrance; Phenoxyethanol (and) Caprylyl Glycol

The September Sweet Addictions box will be available at the Cupcake Polish shop August 31.

If you've enjoyed this review, please let me know!

Literary Lacquer: Wrinkle In Time Collection

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The most recent colorful collection of polishes from Literary Lacquers is the Wrinkle in Time Collection which was inspired by the book, A Wrinkle in Time, written by Madeleine L'Engle. Each polish has a smooth easy to apply formula and all but Tesseract were opaque in two to three coats.


Top Row L to R: Who Which Whatsit, Happy Medium, Megatron, Strong Steady Hand
Bottom Row L to R: Swallowed Up in Blue, Tesseract, Aunt Beast, Camazotz

First a quick word - I've chosen to share the green polish first because today the nail art community is joining together to do green manis for mental health awareness under the hashtag fightforlifeandlive. There's always hope, just a phone call away at 1-800-273-talk.

Who Which Whatsit is a lime green linear holo with green shimmer. The holographic rainbow is super strong in full sunlight and the golden part of the rainbow really stands out against the green.
"The three Mrs. Ws, Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit are the mysterious women who find the Murry children and Calvin on Earth and lead them on their adventure to rescue the missing Mr. Murry from the evil Dark Thing."





Happy Medium is a beautiful bright golden mustard yellow linear holographic polish with yellow flakes. Capturing the holographic rainbow proved difficult for my camera, but it's definitely there.
"The Happy Medium lives on a planet where everything has been evened out to a medium gray, but she herself is a different kind of “medium,”. And she is indeed happy, though it seems she gets to be that way through pretending unhappy things don’t exist."





Megatron is my favorite of the collection due to the vibrant holo effect, the glitter and of course, because it's purple! Amy says it's the sister to Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster and Raspberry Cordial, so if you like the effect of those you may like this one too.

"Megatron is inspired by the nickname of Meg Murry, our awkward but loveable square-peg of a heroine. Meg’s struggle in the book is one of learning to embrace her idiosyncrasies, to see her faults and differences as strengths."





Strong Steady Hand is a super vibrant coral jelly packed with holographic micro glitters. This is one of those polishes that you just can't stop looking at in the sunlight. It sparkles every color of the rainbow and the jelly like base adds dimension to the finished look.

"In A Wrinkle in Time, Calvin is mentioned over and over as being strong and having a steady hand for Meg, taking her hand over and over again to reassure her and give her strength."





Swallowed Up in Blue is a sky blue linear holographic with a strong pink shimmer. The studio lighting I use washes out the pink shimmer in my photos, but it's definitely there and more visible on the nail in person.

"This polish represents Charles Wallace, the third of our trio of young adventurers. Charles Wallace Murry is a precocious five-year-old boy, the youngest son of the Murrys. Charles Wallace has a gift of understanding things that fall outside of normal human experience."






Tesseract is a pearly subtle linear holographic polish. I can see iridescent micro flakies in this which lends a certain depth to the polish. I wore Tesseract in two coats layered over OPI My Boyfriend Scales walls, which is a perfect color match. For a brighter white, one coat of Tesseract over a pure white polish will do it!

"In the story, Mrs. Who and Charles Wallace explain to Meg that they will be traveling by "wrinkling time" through a tesseract and that "the fifth dimension's a tesseract. You add that to the other four dimensions and you can travel through space without having to go the long way around."





Aunt Beast is a tarnished silver linear holo packed with taupe micro flakies. Adding to the uniqueness of the polish, the micro flakies also add a look of texture, although it's completely smooth. Beautiful in low or bright lighting, it's the first charcoal grey polish that has grabbed and held my attention - I keep wanting to put it back on!

"Aunt Beast is a character who takes care of Meg on the planet Ixchel after Meg is "frozen" by the Black Thing. The character has four arms, no eyes, and numerous long, waving tentacles instead of fingers. Tall, gray in color, sightless and telepathic, Aunt Beast has a motherly, nurturing attitude toward Meg."





Camazotz is one of those mysterious polishes that keep you guessing at what color it -really- is! Is it deep purple? or dark blue? or black? Amy says it's a black linear holo with a blue and red shift, but I still think it's fun to pretend that the color changes when I'm not watching.

"A planet of extreme, enforced conformity, ruled by a disembodied brain called IT. Camazotz is similar to Earth, with familiar trees such as birches, pines, and maples, an ordinary hill on which the children arrive, and a town with smokestacks, which "might have been one of any number of familiar towns". The horror of the place arises from its ordinary appearance, endlessly duplicated."





The entire Wrinkle in Time collection is available now at the Literary Lacquers Etsy shop.
Which ones are your favorites?