(Hopefully) Short Hiatus

I feel like 2016 is off to a rough start-- anyone with me? This week on Thursday my laptop decided to up and die on me-- as in, it will (maybe) power on but nothing comes up on the screen. Super!! Tech support seems to think it's a power supply/cpu issue and not a hard drive issue, but it's still annoying and worrisome. It's still under warrenty because we were smart and paid for the extended one, but I still have to ship it off and they have to fix it, so I probably won't have a computer until February at this rate! 

Luckily, all my most important stuff is backed up so in case it is a hard drive issue, I will only lose a few bits and bobs; in this case, mostly nail polish swatches! Which will put me behind even more, but it could be worse. Hopefully it's a not a hard drive issue at all, but take a lesson kids: back up your stuff regularly (aka every day)! 

Needless to say, it will be difficult to update my blog while I have no computer. It is possible I might be able to use my husband's personal laptop but sometimes he had issues sharing so we'll see. ;) I will work up some posts in the meantime so as soon as I get my laptop back I can get back to it, but in the meantime I'm sorry to have to take a short break. I will try to post NOTD on Instagram: follow me @catray if you like! You can also follow me on Twitter @lacquerland where I will post updates and pictures too!  

I hope 2016 is off to better start for everyone reading this! I hope back to blogging asap! 

Enchanted Polish December 2015

Today I have another seasonal polish, this time from Enchanted Polish. This is December 2015, one of her monthly releases, and it's a deep evergreen holographic polish with a slight blue flash. This released with another polish, Holiday 2015 which is a complimentary red/berry color and I'll show it to you later!

December 2015 had a decent formula (gah, I only just wore this last week and now I seriously can't remember; brain drain!). It seemed slightly jellyish and the first coat was a little spotty, and I think I possibly ended up using three coats. The formula was slightly thinner than I expected, but not difficult to apply in any way. It has a nice strong holographic finish.

Artificial light (flash):

As you know if you have read this blog for a length of time, I am generally not much of a green fan-- I vastly prefer blues and purples. However, I do love a rich, deep green like this and I think it perfectly captures the evergreen color of the season.

Colors by Llarowe December Polish of the Month Blue, Blue Christmas

Today I have the Polish of the Month for December 2015 from Colors by Llarowe and it is called Blue, Blue Christmas. I'm assuming this is a take on song of the (mostly) same name. Blue, Blue Christmas is described as "a bright medium blue intense linear holo with intense sparkle shimmer." I would add that it also has a slight green tone to it as well, giving it something depth and not making it quite a straight up blue.

As with pretty much all the CbL polishes (especially the holographic ones), Blue, Blue Christmas was a touch thick, but not in a terrible way. It was a little streaky in the first coat, but two was just perfect. I didn't have any trouble applying, so no complaints there! I really enjoy using the CbL polishes because I know they will generally be easy to apply and usually dry down quickly and I can usually "slap" them on pretty quickly.

Artificial light (flash): 

I ended up missing the presale on the Llarowe site and had to wait for it to get to Harlow & Co up in Canada... and then ship it back to the US! The things we do for polish, yes! I'm happy to have this little beauty in my collection.

Sinful Colors A-Crush

IWednesday, hump day! Woo! Today I have another polish from the Sinful Colors Chalkboard Matte collection to share with you! This is A-Crush (which I guess is supposed to be a spin on A-plus?! Not sure about that.) and I would call A-Crush a periwinkle satin matte (as opposed to yesterday with Zoya Nyx, which was definitely not periwinkle, despite being described as such).

Ok, real talk: these photos are from August. It's now January. Safe to say, I don't remember a whole lot about this one. I don't think the formula was terrible, but I did see some bubbling when this dried. It's possible I applied the polish too thickly or didn't let it dry. Because I wore this in August, it was also very hot, and that may have affected A-Crush as well. This is at least two coats, possibly three. A-Crush dries to satin matte finish (as opposed to a true flat matte)-- it looks a bit more shiny in my photos than it does in real life, but I did not use a top coat here.

Artificial light (flash):

I think this color is gorgeous, but the bubbling is annoying. Again, with all the heat we had this summer, it may have affected the formula-- or perhaps my coats were just too thick, because I don't think I've seen bubbling in other swatches. Next time I wear this, I will try to apply thinner coats (or potentially add some thinner) to prevent bubbling. 

Zoya Nyx

Let's do our first Texture Tuesday of the new year! Textured finishes aren't really a thing these days, so I am slowly working my way through my Zoya Pixie Dusts until I'm done! This week I have Zoya Nyx to share with you! Nyx was released a couple of years ago as part of a spring collection and is described as a "perfect periwinkle with a sugared sparkle." The sparkle is silver, which gives this a more muted look. I also don't really think Nyx is very periwinkle either, to me it reads more of a Wedgewood blue. In any case, it's a nice color and it's blue, so-- I'm sold! 

Despite Zoya rating this a 5 on their opacity scale (5 being the most opaque), I found this to be slightly sheer in the first coat, and needed three to get it to the opacity I wanted. But it goes on very easily, so I didn't have any issues applying it.

Artificial light (flash): 

This is such a pretty blue-- I love the dusty, steely quality it has. It's a perfect stormy blue any time of year! 

L'Oreal Feeling Kilty

Hey look, it's 2016!! I hope everyone had a merry Christmas (or whichever holiday you celebrate) and very happy New Year! Today I have a polish that's a little more current, though I'm still behind-- I have Feeling Kilty from L'Oreal's holiday collection. I initially planned to post this before Christmas, but we went out of town for almost two weeks and blogging took a back seat to all the packing and family time! So I got a little bit of a hiatus and got some down time and now I can get back to blogging more regularly. So let's talk about the polish! This was the only one that really caught my eye, though the whole collection was nice and colorful, this was the only one I really felt motivated to buy. Feeling Kilty is a gorgeous slightly rose-toned gold polish. It's really a bit of a chameleon-- in some lights it looks more good and in others a bit more platinum. Either way, very pretty!

The formula was pretty good-- it's a metallic and a bit on the thick side and also a bit prone to brushstrokes if you're not careful. It also dries pretty quickly, so you need to be careful when applying it. I didn't have any issues, though it did drag a bit towards the tips of my nails as I applied additional coats. I *think* I used three coats here, because I remember thinking I should have stopped one coat earlier, though really, it looked just fine.

Artificial light (flash):

I certainly don't feel guilty wearing Feeling Kilty! (I'll be here all week, hardy har har!) This is a gorgeous metallic-- perfect for the holiday season (and beyond)! I don't know if this is the most unique color in the world, but I like it a lot.