Nail-Venturous Lacquer - Robin Laid an Egg

What a shocker - another indie polish! =D I got really lucky the last time Amy opened her Etsy shop, and I was able to snag Robin Laid an Egg, as well as Hidden Potential. Robin Laid an Egg was  a HUGE lemming of mine, now happily fulfilled.

Blue glitter, pink glitter and yellow glitter of various sizes suspended in a milky white base. I just cannot get enough of these glitters in milky bases these days. I've never been one to really wear white polish, but these just call to me for some reason.

The formula on Robin Laid an Egg is pretty darn good for a white polish - I think I'd have wanted it to be the slightest bit more jelly than it is, but the glitters all show through really well and I didn't have to dig to get a good mix of glitter on the brush. I found it to be slightly thick, but it was nearly opaque in two coats. I was happier with at three coats, but it dried super fast even at three coats.

Amy's Etsy shop is closed for a while as she's taking a break from making polish for now. According to her Facebook page, she expects to be back in 4-8 weeks. Her shop is here, and you can sign up to be notified when she returns.

Yes, I have indie fever! Such a great time to love polish! =D

Wear update: I don't comment much on wear generally speaking because I usually change my polish too often to really be able to tell. But I ended up wearing Robin Laid an Egg for five days, and it looked perfect when I took it off last night. I had some growth, of course, but I didn't even have tipwear. I'm very impressed!

HARE Polish - Cosmo Blossoms

Today I have yet another indie polish to show you - Cosmo Blossoms, made by my buddy Nikole from HARE Polish. 

This is such an interesting color. It's a murky, greyed out lavender packed with various sizes of gorgeous green glitter. It doesn't seem like a combo that should work, but it does. 

The formula was a little thick, but it was pretty easy to work with. I'm very happy to say that I had full coverage in two coats and that I had to do very, very little cleanup.

I was going to point you in the direction of Nikole's Etsy, but it doesn't seem to be up at the moment. I know she's been struggling with the lacquer base shortage, just like so many other indie polish creators. Her Tumblr is here, and she does have a way to sign up for her mailing list. 

Happy Sunday evening, folks. Thanks for reading! =)

A Very Special Pahlish

My husband picked me up the other day for us to go out to dinner, and he handed me a bubble mailer from Pahlish. "Hmm," I say. "I didn't order anything from Shannon recently." As I'm tearing open the bubble mailer, my husband says, "Well, maybe it's something special." Boy, was a he right. I present to you Noelie; Queen of Blue.

If you know me, or if you've been reading my blog for a while, or even if you've just checked my labels and seen how many blue polishes I have, you know that blue is my thing... and now that is forever memorialized with my name on a bottle of polish!

I actually gasped when I took it out of the bubble mailer. The color is even deeper and richer than I was able to show in pictures. For some reason, all of my pics make the jelly base look lighter than it actually is. But trust me, this is one of the most beautiful creations I have ever laid eyes on.

Thank you so much again, my sweet friend. I can't tell you what a pick me up this was for me or how much I treasure my bottle of Noelie; Queen of Blue. 

Shannon really makes some insanely beautiful polishes, including the incredible Train Underwater. Pahlish is sold on Etsy. It looks like she's scheduled to restock this evening!

Hope your week was good. Thanks for stopping by!

Pretty & Polished Candy Coated

Did you guys know that milky glitters are my new Pokemon? I want literally every single one I see. It's not a finish I would ever have predicted that I would like, but there is just something about them that I absolutely love. The newest addition to my growing collection is Candy Coated from Pretty & Polished.

Yeah, it's pink. I know that approximately two posts ago I said that I didn't really like pink, but that is the power of the milky glitter. I want them even in shades I wouldn't normally wear! 

Purple and pink glitters in varying sizes suspended in a milky pink base. I was afraid that it would be really sheer, but what you see here is three easy coats. I did use Essie Ridge Filling Base Coat as my base for this since it is colored and I find that it helps under more translucent colors to sort of soften the visible nail line. 

Candy Coated dried fast even at three coats, and the formula was perfect - not too thick, not too thin, and I didn't have to fish for the larger glitters at all. 

I love this so much that I wore it for three days. Yes, I wore a pink polish for three days. o.O And I'm pleased to say that it looked just as good on the third day as it did when I put it on, no chips or tip wear in sight.

Pretty & Polished is available on Etsy. As with most of the indie brands right now, there is a cycle of the shop being open, quickly selling out, then closing again while she processes orders. She's scheduled to open again on Wednesday, 4/25. 

Thanks for reading!

Catrice Heavy Metallilac

Recently Catrice discontinued some of their older shades and introduced some new ones, and Heavy Metallilac is one of the new shades. I actually waffled on this one, but my swap buddy Nola convinced me that I needed it, and I am so glad that she did!

I tend to struggle a bit with purples - warmer toned purples tend to make my skin almost look dirty, and that's why I was concerned about Heavy Metallilac. I think that what saves it for me is that it looks a good bit darker and cooler at the edges of my nails with that warm glowing pop in the middle. Amazing.

Application was quite good on Heavy Metallilac, as it is with most Catrice polishes I've tried. I was concerned that it would have lot of brush strokes since it is a metallic finish, but it applied pretty smoothly with only very faint brush strokes.

I will say that I wish Catrice hadn't changed their brush. The old Catrice brush was one of my very favorite brushes of all time. My nails are pretty narrow, and the new more rounded brush was almost too wide for my pinky nails. For me, this was definitely a situation of, "If it ain't broke, don't fit it." *sigh*

Here are a couple of shots I took of Heavy Metallilac in the shade. I almost feel like it looks even more metallic in the shade. Just stunning. 

Even though I'm not a fan of the new brush, Catrice remains one of my favorite polish brands. I love their assortment of colors and finishes, and the formula has always been top notch for me. I feel quite lucky to have access to them through my swap buddy. I wish that they would start distributing them in North America because I feel like they would be really popular here!

So that's it for Heavy Metallilac. Hope your week is starting off well. Thanks for reading!

Zoya Beach Collection - The Pinks

Yes, I am slowly making my way through swatching Zoya Beach! My cuticles are feeling much less brutalized now that I've switched back to my normal hand lotion. (Which is Gold Bond Ultimate Healing with Aloe, for the record. My cuticles were NOT pleased with the generic version, sadly.)

Today I have the three pinks from this collection, Reagan, Lara and Shelby. 

I'm still not sure what Zoya was thinking with releasing a collection with three pinks. Maybe it's just because I'm not a huge fan of pink, but I really would have liked to see some more diverse colors here.

Reagan is the darkest of the shades, an almost berry leaning magenta shade.

Lara is the middle child. This one is really rather eye searing on me in person, almost crossing the border into neon territory. 

And the lightest one is Shelby, which is also my favorite of the pinks, oddly enough. I expected to like Reagan the most, but I found Shelby to be very, very flattering with my skin tone. 

The formula across all three polishes was uniformly great. I used two coats for all of them and I was quite happy with the results on all three with just two coats. All in all, these really are quite lovely polishes; they're just not terribly exciting to me. But if you're in the market for some pink cremes, you really can't go wrong with these. =)

It's also worth noting that the Zoya Earth Day Polish Exchange is back this year. You can find the details here. If you're wanting any of these, now would be a good time to order!

Thanks for reading!

** Products provided for review **

Pahlish Dance Across the Sea

Gah, I can't believe it's been almost a week since I updated. Life + work = busy Noelie! 

Anyway, the polish I have to show you today is another favorite of mine from Pahlish. This shade is called Dance Across the Sea, and I think you'll agree that it's quite aptly named!

Dance Across the Sea has a sky blue base that is both milky and packed with shimmer. Suspended within that base are medium and large blue hex glitters. It kind of gives it the effect of bubbles floating in the sea. Looove it. =)

The formula is quite good and easy to control. I needed three coats for opacity, but that's more or less what I expected, otherwise the larger hexes wouldn't show up very well.

I think next time I wear it, I'll do one coat over a similar blue creme base just to see how it looks that way. I'm very happy with it like this though, it's just a matter of curiosity for me!

Total love!

Pahlish is available on Etsy, her shop is here. Her shop is closed right now, but she's supposed to restock on April 27. 

Hope you all are doing well, and thanks for reading!

FingerPaints Hipnotic

Yay, more magnetics! Even though they are everywhere, I'm not tired of magnetic polishes yet. I was at Sally's the other night, and I picked up a couple of the new Finger Paints magnetics. I'll mention right off the bat that these appear to be completely identical to the Color Club Magnetic Force polishes. The bottles, the magnets, even the names are the same. So if you have those, you really don't need these because I am certain they are the same exact polishes, just with different brand names on the bottles.

So with that out of the way, here's what we have. Hipnotic is an absolutely lovely berry shade. The formula and brush are both fab, no complaints whatsoever.

One of the things I like the most about these is the magnet. Each polish comes with one (though they do all appear to be the same wavy pattern), and I especially like that the magnet is housed in an overcap that comes off. This makes it super easy to use, rather than fighting a magnet that's actually at the end of the brush like the Layla magnetics.

Likewise, I really like that the magnet has the little step to help with positioning. I had a really easy time both centering the magnet over my nail AND making sure I didn't touch the magnet to my wet polish. Awesomely awkward one hand pose showing the magnet over my nail:

I held the magnet over each nail for about 20 seconds. I think the pattern was forming faster than that, but I wanted to give it plenty of time. It worked great, no complaints at all.

If you're not over the magnetics thing yet, now is a good time to pick these up at Sally's, since all polishes are B2G1 for the entire month of April. =)

Thanks for reading!

Zoya Arizona

I'm slowly making my way through the Zoya Beach collection for you guys. My cuticles have been rebelling lately, so I'm trying hard to not do any extended swatch sessions while I get them back into shape. Hopefully it was just a change in moisturizer, and they'll be back to normal soon. *crosses fingers*

Today I have Arizona, the bright orange creme from the Beach collection.

I don't own many oranges. In fact, Arizona brings the number of oranges in my stash up to FOUR. Yahoo!

I actually find Arizona oddly flattering though. I think the key for me liking orange is that it has to be a pure orange, not red or coral leaning at all. This one certainly fits the bill. The formula on Arizona is good, though a little thin.  These shots were taken at two coats, but next time I wear it I think I might go for three. You can't really see it in the pics, but there were some little sheer patches here and there. Three coats should make it just about perfect though.

And I took a few pics of it in the shade as well, since the sun was making it look a little bit more searing than it actually is. =)

So what do you think? The formula is what I've come to expect from Zoya, but the color is a really pleasant surprise for me. ^.^

Thanks for reading!

This product was sent to me for review.

Dollish Polish Expecto Patronum

You know how awesome it is when you really want a polish, and then when you finally get it, it actually exceeds your expectations? That's what happened to me with Expecto Patronum. =)

I had wanted this polish for months, and I finally bit the bullet last time Dollish Polish restocked. I ordered this one and Cold Winds Are Rising (Game of Thrones, yeah!), and I decided to wear Expecto Patronum first. Because it's white, and because it's a jelly, I expected to have issues with streaking and opacity. The little bits of beautiful teal peeking out convinced me that any work I had to do to make Expecto Patronum look good would be worth it. 

This is the part where it exceeded my expectations. After one coat, I actually gasped at how pretty it is. After two coats, I was shocked that I wasn't seeing streaks and that it was almost opaque. Three coats, and it was perfection.

The end result is this delicate, ethereal beauty. It dried quickly, even at three coats, and it's smooth with just one coat of top coat. I really can't believe how much I love this polish.

I mean... wow. Just wow.

Dollish Polish is available at Dolly's Etsy Store for now, but she has said that she's relocating soon, so keep an eye on her Etsy page so you know what's up. Just like a lot of the indie brands these days, she does close the store occasionally so that she's able to keep up with the demand. But I promise, this polish is completely worth it.