Monday, June 27, 2016

Polish Your Dreams - Welcome to Wonderland

|Purchased by Me|

Today I have a swatch of one of the polishes from the Welcome to Wonderland collection by Polish Your Dreams.  I did mirror drop macros of the rest, because I love doing them!

Do you ever think to yourself, "Self, your nails are so long now!  Let's do a cool shape with them!"  I did!  I went from long square to this scary and uneven shape that was supposed to be coffin.  I messed up one and then the whole thing went downhill from there.  I now am rocking rounded nails because anything was better than this!  I can clearly only only do square, squoval and rounded on myself.  UGH!

The polish I swatched is called Off With Their Heads.  I do love a good true red!

Formula:  Tiniest bit thicker because of all the goodies in it, but nothing excessive.
Application:  Easy to apply. None of the glitters stick up, so it's pretty smooth.
Wear:  I wore this for 2 days with no wear shown.  

Removal:  The larger glitters might stick to the nail while removing.  Easy removal with no staining.
Polish Your Dreams Off With Their HeadsPolish Your Dreams Off With Their Heads
Polish Your Dreams Off With Their Heads
Polish Your Dreams Off With Their Heads
Polish Your Dreams 6 Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Polish Your Dreams Mad As A Hatter
Polish Your Dreams My Reality Is Just Different Than Yours
Polish Your Dreams The Champion of Underland
Polish Your Dreams All The Best People Are Entirely Bonkers
Polish Your Dreams The Choice Is Yours
Polish Your Dreams Beware the Bandersnatch

I'm a fan of Alice in Wonderland and I even read Through the Looking Glass when I was a kid.  I'm hard to please with the live action of movies, but I really liked the first one...of course Johnny Depp was in it, so maybe that swayed me.  What do you think of this Wonderland inspired collection?  Lacq it or leave it?

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Ever After Custom - Ariel

| Gift |

Hello again, lovelies.  Today I have a special mani to share.  Rachel, co-owner of Ever After, and I are in an indie only swap together and I was her partner for the last swap. She knows I'm obsessed with The Little Mermaid (my daughter's name is Ariel) and made me a 7 piece collection. I named  it 7 Sisters of the Sea.  I'll share my mirror drop macros of each one and the mani I did using Ariel.
Ever After Polish Arista
Ever After Polish Attina
Ever After Polish Adella
Ever After Polish Ariel
Ever After Polish Aquata
Ever After Polish Andrina
Ever After Polish Alana
I used Ariel first, because ARIEL!  I'm a bit partial, but I do what I want.  I used some vinyls from Lou It Yourself to really make it an Ariel inspired mani.  Who doesn't need a dinglehopper on their nails?  NOBODY, that's who!
Ever After Polish Ariel
Ever After Polish Ariel
I'm not going to ask you if you'd lacq it or leave it because it's mine!  All mine!  I don't share my The Little Mermaid polish well with others.  Surely you understand!

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Come On Barbie Mani

| Purchased by Me |

Hey everyone!  I hope you're all staying cool with summer now in full swing.  I know it's been rough in Kansas so far.  *wipes brow

I'm behind on blogging and posting in general, so I'm sharing one from a while back to play catch up.

I used every polish in the Barbie themed Awesome Sauce: Indie Box in this mani.  Miranda, co-owner of Ever After, challenged me to use them all.  Easy enough when they're all lovely!  If you want to get all the details on upcoming boxes there's an AS:IB FB page you can check out right here.

White:  Anonymous Lacquer - Bridezilla
Pink:  Cupcake Polish - Barbie Girl
Blue:  Ever After Polish - Malibu Barbie
Purple:  Lavish Polish - Let's Go Party
Black:  Vapid Lacquer - Demolition Barbie

I was able to stamp with Demolition Barbie with no issues.  Bonus!
For the chevrons I used my vinyl nail masques on my Uber Chic mat and colored it in to make a decal.  It was my first time trying the swirly designed vinyl and I had to add a lot of top coat afterwards to smooth it out...not sure how I feel about that at all.

Do you pre-order your own Awesome Sauce: Indie Box?  Do you lacq it or leave it?

Friday, April 15, 2016

Swatcher Spotlight Charity Duo - Jior Couture

Press Sample |

Jior Couture is giving back by featuring each of her regular swatchers and letting them choose a charity and create a polish duo.  I was up first!

Swatcher Spotlight Duo - Lelia
The charity I chose is called Darkness to Light. It’s goal is to help prevent and stop child sexual abuse. This cause is close to my heart as my daughter was sexually abused. I wish no child the pain and suffering of having to endure this awful crime. I talked with my daughter about this before choosing it and she agreed wholeheartedly. She’s a very strong young lady and so amazing…I’m lucky to be her mom.

Sacha's post containing my full bio is HERE on Jior Couture's blog.

Ariel's favorite color is turquoise, so we used that for a jumping off point. The first polish is called In Darkness and it's a dark teal crelly.  We went dark with no embellishments for the darkness you must feel when something like sexual abuse happens.  The second polish is called There Is Light.  We went much lighter to an almost mint color and added holo to represent the light and healing that comes after you've gotten help. I felt like it was also a nice play on the name of the charity.

Let's start with In Darkness.  It does lean a little more green than the pictures show.

Formula:  Buttery smooth.  Not too thick or too thin.
Application:  Covered completely in 2 coats.  Can pool at sides of the nail if you use too thick of a coat.  I added glossy top coat, but it is very shiny without.
Wear:  Three days with no chipping or dullness.  Very minimal tip wear.
Removal:  As expected.  No staining.
Jior Couture In Darkness
Jior Couture In Darkness
Jior Couture In Darkness

There Is Light

Formula:  Great formula, very smooth.  Not too thick or too thin.
Application:  Covered completely in 2 coats.  I added glossy top coat.
Wear:  I wore this color after the ombre was applied and had no issues, but I didn't wear it alone for any amount of time.
Removal:  As expected.  No staining.
Jior Couture There Is Light
Jior Couture There Is Light
Jior Couture There Is Light
Jior Couture There Is Light

Some stamping with There Is Light & an ombre using both.  <3
Jior Couture In Darkness & There Is Light
Jior Couture In Darkness & There Is Light
Jior Couture In Darkness & There Is Light

20% of all sales from this duo will be donated to Darkness to Light.  Please join us in supporting this worthy cause.  Thanks for popping in today!

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Anonymous Lacquer Customs Trio

| Press Sample |

Long time no talk! Sorry I've been MIA. Today I wanted to share with you the Customs Trio by Anonymous Lacquer. It will be available first to her Adorably Anonymous, on April 15th. Public sales will happen on April 29th.

Mildred had group members post photos of their custom polishes that she made and opened up the floor for voting.  The top three choices were remade for sale with the original owner's permission.  Boy, am I glad this happened!!!

First polish I used is called Perez Pink.  I can only describe it as a barbie pink holographic.  It's really gorgeous!  Don't ask about the stamping...I have no good explanation of the color choices.

Formula:  On point.  Not too thick, not too thin.  Very smooth.
Application:  Covered completely in 2 coats.  It could pool on the sides of the nail if you go too heavy with the coats.  I added glossy top coat.
Wear:  Three days with no chipping or dullness.  Very minimal tip wear.
Removal:  As expected
Anonymous Lacquer Perez Pink
Anonymous Lacquer Perez Pink
Anonymous Lacquer Perez Pink
Anonymous Lacquer Perez Pink
Anonymous Lacquer Perez Pink

Second polish up is called Impossible Dreams.  An orchid toned purple holo that you really must have!  My first time using gold flakes, so I'm not too sure how I'm feeling about that, but I do love the mask charm.  ;)

Formula:  Great formula, same as the first.
Application:  Covered completely in 2 coats.  Could pool at the sides of the nail if you go too heavy with the coats (I may have done this.) I added glossy top coat.
Wear:  N/A Only swatched.
Removal:  As expected
Anonymous Lacquer Impossible Dreams
Anonymous Lacquer Impossible Dreams
Anonymous Lacquer Impossible Dreams
Anonymous Lacquer Impossible Dreams

Last polish in the Customs Trio is my favorite, by far.  701° Fahrenheit is my dream color.  Kind of a peachy coral holo with larger holo glitters.  I did a gradient using all 3.  It got a little tricky since this one has some extra larger glitters, but I liked it anyway.  

Formula:  Very smooth even with the added glitters.  Not too thick, not too thin.
Application:  Covered completely in 2 coats.  I added glossy top coat.
Wear:  I wore the gradient for several days with no issues, but not this polish alone.  I have it on my toes right now, day 3, and it's still beautiful.  I feel like polish on my toes could survive a nuclear strike though.  LOL!
Removal:  A little hard to say since I removed after I had applied the gradient.  The added glitter made it harder to remove than a straight holo, but nothing crazy.

Anonymous Lacquer 701° Fahrenheit
Anonymous Lacquer 701° Fahrenheit
Anonymous Lacquer 701° Fahrenheit
Anonymous Lacquer 701° Fahrenheit
Anonymous Lacquer Customs Trio
Anonymous Lacquer Customs Trio

I'm curious if you'll be picking this trio up.  Lacq it or Leave it?

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

MDJ Creations Lumina

| Press Sample |

Good morning, polish people!  Only a couple of days until the weekend!  Let's hear it for Friday afternoon!

Today I've got a gorgeous nude polish from Melissa of MDJ Creations to share with you. Lumina is described as a holographic jelly polish that is cream based with a linear holographic rainbow in direct light & has a subtle color shift shimmer from blue/green to pink/violet/red, depending on the light angle.  It's really a gorgeous polish.  Shown is 2 coats with top coat.  Formula was great and went on like butter.  2 coats completely covered my nail line, which I was very happy about.
MDJ Creations Lumina
Direct sunlight shot on my way inside.
MDJ Creations Lumina
Here is shown with Green Goddess Creations Rainbow of Flowers nail decals.
MDJ Creations Lumina
Shown here with Bundle Monster XL210 plate & Mundo de Unas stamping.
MDJ Creations Lumina

What do you think of this beauty?  Lacq it, or leave it?  Thanks so much for stopping by today!