Pahlish - Train Underwater

As you all know, I am loving all the new indie polish creators. The latest is a friend of mine, who just launched her line known as Pahlish. She sent me this baby, Train Underwater, and I am floored by how amazing it is. (You'll want to click and make these bigger!)

Train Underwater is a dark blue, almost blurple jelly base, packed full of blue and red and aqua glitters. It also has aqua hex glitters - not many of those actually made it onto my nails, but the effect is positively stunning nonetheless.

I actually squealed when I took Train Underwater out of the envelope. But as beautiful as it is in the bottle, I wasn't prepared for just how incredible it would be on the nail. It really kind of took my breath away when I started to apply it.

The formula is really great. Two easy coats for full coverage. It dried pretty fast as well. It is a thirsty glitter though, so be prepared for that. I used one coat of Gelous and one coat of Pro FX on this mani.

I really kind of never wanted to take this off. =D I'm really even more excited now to try more shades from Pahlish, and I can't wait to see what else she comes up with. Simply amazing. Pahlish can be purchased on Etsy. The store is here.

Happy Tuesday, folks! Thanks for stopping by!

** Note: This polish was sent to me as a gift. I can't really say it was sent to me for review, because that wasn't really why it was sent. But I thought it important to note that I didn't purchase it. I would buy it though! It's amazing! =D **

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

If you follow nail news at all, I'm sure by now you've heard about Fantasy Fire, Max Factor's dupe of the infamous Clarins 230. Fantasy Fire is only available in the UK, but thankfully I have friends there who volunteered to obtain this awesomeness for me. =)

This is one coat over my previous mani, which was three coats of Verity Deep Violet. Just like Clarins 230, Fantasy Fire is VERY sheer. It comes in a teeny, tiny bottle, so you would never want to try to get it opaque on its own.

What we have here is a sheer purple jelly with the most insanely sparkly multichrome pigment suspended inside. It's primarily a deep red/burgundy, but it flashes to orange and even green. I was lighting challenged the day I took these pictures (the clouds kept obscuring the sun, and I haven't set up a lightbox in my new home yet). I managed to get one shot where you can see the green tinge.

Honestly, I feel like this is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. The shimmer is just breathtaking. And the combination of Fantasy Fire over Deep Violet is just perfection.

I also experimented with taking some shots inside with an OTTLite bulb. While not perfect, I feel like these came out pretty good. At least I feel like I can use this as a stop gap measure until I get a lightbox set up again on days when the sun is in hiding.

*sigh* I just love this. 

Thanks for reading!

Verity Deep Violet

I have several buddies who have been extolling the virtues of Verity Deep Violet for several months now, so I finally moseyed over to eBay to find out what the fuss is about.

Well, hello there. Deep Violet really is all that and a bag of chips, a perfect purple jelly.

These pictures are three coats. It was almost good at two coats, but since visible nail line makes me twitchy, I went ahead and did three.

The formula is outstanding - perfect consistency, goes exactly where I want it. I had to do very little cleanup because the formula made the application a walk in the park. 

I snapped a couple of pics of it in the shade too, since it does pull a bit cooler in the shade than in full sunlight.

My friends say that Deep Violet is amazing for jelly sandwiches as well, which I intend to test pretty soon! It really is simply stunning. I love it when a little brand I've never heard of manages to make something that is this shockingly good. =D

Happy Saturday, y'all! Thanks for reading!

Hits Speciallita Zeus

I've been on a quest for my perfect black holo for a while now, and I think I've finally found it in Hits Speciallita Zeus.

These photos show Zeus at three coats. I don't mind three coats ordinarily, but these Hits polishes come in these teeny tiny bottles, and one 3-coat mani made a noticeable dent in my bottle. I'll layer it over black next time, I think.

The formula is really, really great, and the brush is perfect. I guess maybe it's just the Mari Moon Hits that had issues with the brushes being terrible. 

Yeah. Beautiful. Perfect. I shall be needing more than one bottle of this for sure.

Happy Thursday! Thank you for reading! =D

Models Own Aqua Violet

Aqua Violet is, as the name implies, a duochrome polish that flashes from Aqua to Violet. It is part of the Models Own Beetlejuice collection.

This is what it mostly looks like on me - metallic aqua. It's a little brighter than this picture appears, but not lots more. The violet part of it is a little more shy than I was expecting, but you can definitely see it in these pictures.

This is three coats, and it needed all three for opacity. The formula leaves a bit to be desired. It's not the worst formula I've ever used, but it was thick and goopy while also being slightly runny and hard to control. o.O 

All in all... Aqua Violet is pretty, but it didn't really rock my world like I thought it would. Next time I wear it, I'll try layering it over black or dark blue and see if that helps. *sigh* I hate it when a giant lemming isn't all that and a bag of chips like your head made it out to be!

Happy Mardi Gras, y'all! =D

Nostalgic Nail Lacquer Duckie

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I simply adore these boutique polish brands that are popping up these days. The latest of these that I've tried is Nostalgic Nail Lacquer. The shade I have to show you today is called Duckie, and it's part of Nostalgic's Pretty in Pink themed set, Bizarre Teenage Love Triangle.

Duckie is a mint green jelly with chartreuse, green and blue glitters. It is fairly sheer on its own, so I did three coats of Duckie over one coat of Colour Alike Catnip, which is a mint green creme.

The formula is good, though as is typical of these types of sparse glitters, I had to do a bit of digging and fiddling to get the amount of coverage I wanted from the glitter. It is completely worth it to me though. I absolutely adore this. It makes me think of spring time and Easter eggs. =)

The drying time was surprisingly fast once I had all the layers on there and added my top coat. I was expecting to have to wait quite a while for it to dry, so I was quite pleased when that turned out to not be the case.

And there you have it. I couldn't be happier with this polish. Nostalgic Nail Lacquer is available on Etsy, though she's currently out of stock as of the date and time I'm writing this post - apparently she's been inundated with orders, which I actually really like to hear with these independent brands. I love that the lacquerhead community is embracing these creations!

Happy Friday, and thanks for reading!

Hits Speciallita Unconventional

Hits Speciallita is a Brazilian brand, the company responsible for those insanely awesome Mount Olympus themed holos that have been making their way across the blogosphere. I have a couple of the holos myself, but I haven't worn them yet. My first mani adventure is Unconventional, a violet to red duochrome.

I had a really hard time capturing the darkest color shift. It almost looks like a blackened red until you notice that the darkest shade is actually a deep bluish violet.

This is one seriously amazingly sexy polish. Here's the lightest shift I was able to capture, a bright, warm red.

Please forgive the bubbles. I couldn't see them at all until I was looking at these pics - macro is a harsh mistress. I'm choosing to blame the bubbles on the brush, which is pretty much the worst brush I've ever encountered. It's large and mop-like, while at the same time being oddly stiff. The brush in this one was also wonky with stray hairs poking out. I trimmed what I could, but yeah... the brush SUCKS.

The formula is a little on the thick side, which I'm pretty sure is exacerbated by the terrible brush. The pigmentation is great though - this is two coats, and I almost could have gotten away with one. It's nice to have a duochrome that doesn't need to be layered over another color - although I suppose layering this one might not be a bad idea given how small it is - only 6ml.

The sad thing (or the happy thing, depending on your point of view) is that even for the problems with the brush and the itsy little bottle, I do not regret buying this polish for a single instant. It's stunning in person, and these pictures absolutely do not do it justice. I'm considering buying a backup of this polish, wonky mop brush and all.

Unconventional is available on Llarowe.

Happy Thursday, folks. Almost the weekend! Thanks for reading. =)

PSA $20 for $40 at bloom.com

Gilt City is offering a $20 for $40 Groupon type deal for bloom.com. In addition, if you don't have a Gilt City account yet and you use my referral invitation, you'll get 20% off your first order. Full disclosure, I will also get a credit if you use my link, which is here.

The 20% off should show up under Special Offers in your account once you sign up. When I got mine, I used a friend's referral. It didn't show up as credits, but it did automatically deduct the credit when I added the bloom.com deal to my cart. Also, the bloom.com deal can be found on Gilt City under Atlanta (that's where I found it, at least.)

Happy polish (or makeup!) ordering, and thank you a ton if you use my link. =D

Catrice After Eight

Anyone who is a fan of After Eight Thin Mints will immediately realize that this shade looks a bit familiar. =)

Image Source

Catrice After Eight is a blackened green shimmer. There's the tiniest hint of blue shimmer in After Eight as well, but it's not really visible on my nails except in direct sunlight. The shade is beautiful even when the blue shimmer isn't evident though. It makes me think of plush green velvet.

The formula is first rate, just like all my other Catrice polishes. Application was completely effortless with two coats providing total opacity. The first coat looked like it was going to be pretty sheer, but it built up really well on the second coat. 

One of my favorite things about this polish is that while it is very, very dark, it is always green on my nails and never just looks like I'm wearing black polish. Polishes that just turn black on my nails are a HUGE pet peeve of mine. When I want black nails, I just wear black polish. =) 

Anyway... that's After Eight! Catrice is a line that I really wish was available in the US. Thankfully I have friends who are willing to indulge my Catrice habit in exchange for packages of goodies from the US. ^.^

Happy Sunday, folks! Thanks for reading!