Shleee Polish Hoth

Hey all! I'm back! Did you miss me? It's honestly been nice having some time off because I've been busy with a new project-- my very own Star Wars podcast! I was invited to co-host a new podcast called Fans of the Force! It's exciting, if a little nerve-wracking-- but I'm having a lot of fun talking everything Star Wars!

Kicking off my second annual Star Wars month, I'm starting with some polishes based off the planets in a Galaxy Far, Far Away! Today I have Hoth by Shleee Polish. If you have never watched the movies (and you should), Hotlh is home of the Rebel Alliance in The Empire Strikes Back is covered with snow and ice. To capture that, Hoth is a mix of light blue and silver microglitter in a clear base.

Because this is microglitter mix in a clear (or slightly tinted) base, it's not incredibly opaque when first applied. I used three coats and the finish product is mostly opaque, but not totally so. The silver microglitter is super reflective, so it's pretty difficult to notice in real life. This polish is a little thick, but not terribly so. It builds up pretty nicely, though you might want to use two layers of top coat, as the glitter tends to eat it and one coat wasn't quite smooth enough for my liking.

This is a beautiful way to capture the icy coldness of the planet Hoth. I do wish it was a bit more opaque, but in all honesty, Hoth was so reflective that you couldn't really tell. While these aren't my favorite type of polishes, this wasn't too bad. I like that Shleee Polish releases Star Wars polishes on a regular basis, and I will have more to show you later!

Colors by Llarowe Arc de Triomph

Today I have the polish I actually wore for Christmas! Colors by Llarowe Arc de Triomph was a limited edition polish for the Indie Shop California event, but several makers were kind enough to release extras/make more available to those of us who couldn't attend. I saw a bunch of swatches of these polishes and instantly fell in love-- especially because I have been to Paris and so these polishes called to me. Plus I'm a fan of the CbL line anyway, so it wasn't a real hard sell.

Arc de Triomph is described as a "silver linear holo with gold flake and golden shimmer. This polish looks different in every light. It will look silver, taupe or brown based depending upon your lighting." This is so true! I thought the gold flakes and shimmer would make it appear more golden but it was definitely more silvery and darker than I expected. The formula was good-- a little thick as a lot of CbL polishes tend to be but in a good way. This went on easy and I didn't have any issues. I probably could have used two coats, but did my standard three to make sure my coverage was complete. 

I have to say, at first I was a bit disappointed in Arc de Triomph, mostly because I felt that the photos/swatches I had seen of it made it look a lot different than how it looked in person. I think I just didn't realize from the outset that it was actually more silvery and a lot of the photos I saw made it looks more silver/gold when I would say it skewed darker silver/platinum. BUT... I still ending up liking this. It looked lovely on and worked well with everything! It was maybe a bit darker than I wanted but that's ok because it worked out in the end. Unfortunately the holographic masked the flakies in these photos, but you could definitely see them in low lighting.

Unfortunately, this polish was a limited edition run and is now sold out and I don't think it will be back, but you never know! Happy Monday-- hopefully you have a holiday or at the very least a quiet day.

Nine Zero Lacquer Twinkle Lights

Hey all! I took a little bit of an unintended break over the holidays, but between traveling, said holidays, and being sick again... blogging wasn't really on my mind. Well, it was, but I could not muster the energy or time to get anything accomplished. So let's get 2017 off to a festive start! Today's polish is actually from Nine Zero's 2015 Christmas collection and it's called Twinkle Lights and is described as a "silver holographic with semi-transparent rainbow glitter." This sums it up nicely!

Twinkle Lights was pretty easy to work with. The first coat was a bit sheer, but it built up nicely. I used three coats and there is still a little hint of visible nail line but it's not distracting-- the polish is so sparkly that you definitely don't notice! The red, blue, green, and yellow glitter are fun pops of glitter but not hugely distracting; because they are semi-transparent they glow a bit but blend in nicely with the holographic sparkle. My only very very minor quibble would be that the yellow glitter gets a little lost, but it's a fun surprise when it pops out and reminds you it's there!

Again, this is another polish I wish I had worn earlier but it's so pretty that it makes up for any delay! I love how sparkly this is and I think it perfectly captures the delight of holiday lights-- something I personally love and wish we would keep up all through out winter when it's so grey and dreary. Twinkle Lights is a fun holiday polish that frankly doesn't feel too "holiday" if you catch my drift. I feel like you could wear this are other times of the year and people wouldn't necessarily think it was for Christmas. I loved this! If you like this, it's still available on the Nine Zero site, along with a golden version called, appropriately, Golden Lights.

Happy New Year!

Level Up Lacquer Captain Phasma and NerdLacquer Phasma

I guess technically I could have made this a Two-fer Tuesday but instead we get... Two-fer Thursday...? Roll with it! Today I have two polishes dedicated to one of the newer villains in the Star Wars universe-- a lady to boot! Level Up Lacquer Captain Phasma and Nerdlacquer Phasma are inspired by the eponymous lady storm trooper introduced in The Force Awakens, identifiable by her tall stature and shiny chrome armor. I believe she is the first female villain we've seen on the big screen. Unfortunately, her role wasn't that large, so hopefully she gets an expanded role and more depth in future movies.

Captain Phasma is described as a "silver/grey cream with a linear holo effect." I would say that in my experience, this polish definitely has a more jelly like consistency than what I would expect from a creme, so to be a smidge more descriptive, I would call it a stormy grey holographic jelly. The first coat was pretty sheer, and this had a slightly thicker consistency that made it want to drag. I used three coats to make it opaque, though it does still have a squishy appearance on the nail.

Phasma is described as "a 'chrome plus' which contains the usual foily chrome bits plus a crapload of silver, white, and holo microglitter, plus a dash of linear holo which doesn't really display to full effect, but does add a bit of opacity. As you see in the pics, this is like, the sparkliest silver nail
polish ever. Kinda demi-matte velvety-feeling on its own, but very glassy slick with topcoat." The first coat was fairly sheer, but easy to apply. It was a bit on thick side, but wasn't difficult. It dried down quickly to a matte finish and built up nicely.

I like both of these! They are similar but not the same-- again, a lot of creativity from various indie makers! I like the darker, harder color of Captain Phasma and the intense sparkle from Phasma. No complaints here! As I said earlier, I hope Phasma gets an expanded role in future films; it's nice to have women in prominent positions on both sides (good or bad)!

Which one of these is your favorite? 

Julep Jenica

I know we're heading into spring (at least we were last week) but at the same time I was craving some dark. But not too dark! I do tend to follow general trends for the seasons-- and usually I like brights and pastels as we move into spring. But even with the change of seasons, I found myself craving something dark. So I picked up Julep Jenica, which was in a Maven box at some point, though it has been so long now that I can't remember which one it was. Jenica is described as a "wrought iron metallic" and I think that sums it up pretty nicely.

The formula of Jenica was good. Just a touch on the thick side, but generally I didn't have any trouble applying it. As a metallic, you do have to be a bit careful of brushstrokes, but I certainly did have a problem with them while I was applying it. I think I only needed two coats to get the coverage I wanted. Jenica also dried fairly quickly, which is pretty common with a metallic finish.

I really like Jenica-- it reminds me of very shiny graphite. I haven't featured many Julep polishes lately, but I generally find them to be decent, especially since they changed to their oxygen formula. No complaints from me; this polish was easy to work with and I really liked the color; it was exactly what I wanted!

Seahawks Sunday: Liquid Sky Lacquer Go Hawks!

I usually don't paint my nails for the Seahawks because I tend to have my nails painted for the Husky games on Saturdays, but this week is an exception because my husband and I are attending the game tonight! So I wanted to a) paint my nails and b) get up a quickie post to show you!

This is a pretty simple mani-- I had Go Hawks! from Liquid Sky Lacquer kicking around-- it's a mini bottle that she released one of the years the Seahawks played in the Super Bowl. It's a glitter topper with blue and green hex glitter and small green microglitter in a clear base. I initially thought I might layer it over a grey base, but decided to use silver instead. The closest silver I had on hand was A England Excaliber, so there you have it! I used two coats of Excaliber and then dabbed one coat of Go Hawks! on top. I think it looks good!

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Hope you all are having an enjoyable Sunday! Go Hawks!

Sinful Colors Blue Sensation

Let's get Monday off to a great start by starting with a polish I absolutely fell in love with: Sinful Colors Blue Sensation. This is a polish from one of the three (!) collections Sinful Colors put out this fall. I didn't see a display with this polish at first, but when I saw it on other blogs, I knew that I had to have it and had to comb a few drugstores in the area to find it (no one store received all the fall polishes).

Blue Sensation is a shimmery steel blue that dries to a satin matte finish. It has a very good formula and goes on smoothly and I only needed two coats for opaque, even coverage. It dries in good time and not so fast that it's prone to dragging. My photos (without top coat) are making the satin matte finish invisible, but it's there. Nice and smooth! My photos also make this seem icier and lighter than it is in real life-- there is a strong silver shimmer in the polish but it translate to a more steely grey than icy silver in real life.

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I have to say, this is probably one of my favorite polishes this fall! I'm not really good about picking up (or wearing) polishes as they come out, but this has a gorgeous color, great formula, and the satin matte finish I love. So this is a huge win for me and I would definitely encourage you to run out and grab this if you see it!

Happy Monday all!

Seahawk Sunday: Mango Bunny The Twelves

Hey all! Another Seahawks Sunday post... and probably the last one for a little while, because college football starts on Thursday and then I'll be pretty preoccupied with Husky Football (sorry Seahawks-- at least you finally won a preseason game)! Don't worry, I still have some Seahawks themed polishes that I have to share with you so those will make an appearance later on! This week I have another indie polish brand to share with you, Mango Bunny. This is another brand I have been introduced to through my PNW polish addict group and so far it's been a winner (I have some other polishes to show you, coming soon)!

Mango Bunny The Twelves is a white crelly with blue, green, white and silver glitters in it. The first coat was a little sheer, but three coats is perfect to make this polish opaque. Depending how carefully you applied it, you might be able to get away with two coats. The glitters were nicely distributed throughout, though the did want to come to migrate towards my free edge, so I did have dab a bit to make sure I got good placement on the nail.

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I was really happy with this! The glitters don't disappear into the base, though I did need to dab a bit to get the glitters spread across the nail. It does build up nicely and easily. A clearly a winner, because the Seahawks also won this week! 

Different Dimension Lyra

Today I have a pretty amazing polish to share with you, and introduce a new-to-me brand! (Technically there has been a Different Dimension polish on the blog before, but only as an accent nail-- this is my first real, proper post featuring the brand!) Today I have Different Dimension Lyra. This polish is part of Different Dimension's Shooting Stars series, which is a series of limited edition polishes that are released on Friday evenings and listed until they sell out. And as the title of the series suggests, they are named after stars! Lyra is beautiful silver holographic with multi-chrome flakies and silver flakies! You'd think that could be overwhelming, all the different elements harmonize beautifully to create an epic polish! 

I was not disappointed with Lyra at all. The formula was great and I had no issues at all while I applied it. Of course, I have no notes, but I'm pretty sure I only needed two coats. Because of all that's going on, I do have a lot of photos-- it was hard to choose! 

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Natural light:

This is my first Different Dimension polish and I think it's official: I'm in love! Lyra is totally stunning. This polish has so much going on and it's irresistible! I couldn't stop staring at it-- every lighting situation brings out another aspect of this polish and it's never boring. I didn't want to take this off. Unfotunately, Lyra is long sold out now, but Different Dimension has a lot of other stunning polishes for sale.

Two-fer Tuesday: Nerdlacquers!

Veering off from my typical polish posts, today I am bringing you some fun glitters! I have two Nerdlacquers to share with you. I would consider Nerdlacquer to be one of the original indie polish makers-- she was definitely creating some very unique polishes before there was the large explosion of makers and indie polish became a more mainstream thing. After a long absence, she returned to the nail polish world, but still has fairly sporadic restocks, though when I have bought polishes from the store they have arrived in a timely manner and I haven't had issues. I picked up these two polishes in a random restock and finally decided to swatch them. (I have all the Star Wars polishes as well, but am saving those for December-- The Force Awakens, omgyay!)

Crunchy Frog, inspired by Monty Python, is described as a "rich Swiss chocolate brown, lightly killed, and delicately topped with the finest grass green, olive, and lime glitter. The sprinkling of silver white is the bones." I think the color combination is cool, and while this applied fairly easily, I had a lot of trouble getting any of the 'bones' aka the large silver glitters, onto the brush and so there aren't any on my nails. Wah wah. I used two coats here and a shiny top coat to smooth everything out.

Exterminate, inspired by the Daleks from Doctor Who, is described as a "deep blackened bronze with golden, blue, and black glitter." This is a really fantastic polish and applied like a dream-- I didn't have to do any fishing for the glitters. The black glitter in this case is micro glitter, which is not my favorite (at least in black, I feel like it looks random) but it worked here. I used two coats and a top coat here!

Crunchy Frog: 

Exterminate: 

Of these two, I think Exterminate was my favorite. I like the gold and blue in the brown base and it applied smoothly and I didn't have to try to fish for any glitters, like I did (and failed) with Crunchy Frog. But my bottle of Crunchy Frog is truly in desperate need of a good shake and I didn't have enough time. Maybe if I can get the glitter redistributed it would be easier! I also wished I had photographed these in natural light, because I feel like you would be able to see the glitters better-- maybe some day I will reswatch! I hope you enjoyed this post! I think these polishes are a lot of fun and they are definitely unique to my collection.

If you are interested in perusing what Nerdlacquer has to offer, polishes retail for $10 and are only available on her site. She restocks pretty sporadically, though there is a small selection of polishes currently available, including these two if they strike your fancy!

Zoya Tomoko

It's Monday and time for another Zoya Pixie Dust! Confession: for awhile I was getting Zoya Godiva and Tomoko confused. Which is not really fair of me, because they are definitely not the same. Tomoko was originally released as part of the Fall 2013 collection and is described as a "romantic champagne silver with a matte, textured, sparkling metal finish." This is pretty spot on. Tomoko definitely has a more sparkly, metallic look to it than Godiva, which is a more beige neutral.

As with the previous Pixie Dusts, Tomoko was easy to use. I think I used two coats here-- this was a little on the sheerer side just due to the nature of the lighter color, but two coats still gave good coverage. It dried quickly and wore really well, as these textures tend to. This one was a nice sparkly metallic, especially if you want to spice up a neutral look.

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Another hit from the Pixie Dust line! It really is a bummer that Zoya decided to discontinue this line-- I hope that some day Zoya will revamp the line or bring it back.

Colors by Llarowe 2015

Hope everyone has had a good weekend! We had a good one, though we didn't get as much done around the house as we should have. Ah well-- I did get four loads of laundry done, which is something. Tonight I have another polish from the New Year, New CbL Collection, 2015. When I first saw this collection, I definitely thought this polish was one of the more unique polishes in the collection. so I decided I needed to have it. Buy all the polish, am I right?

2015 is described as a "silver linear holo with silver and gold flakes and holographic micro glitters." I would also add that the silver and gold flakes gives this polish a greenish tone, which definitely amps up the uniqueness. I think polish looked beautiful in all lighting-- the holo effect was definitely more prominent in high or direct light while the glitters came out to play more in low light situations.

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Sorry I'm not very inspired in my writing tonight-- I do find this polish to be very pretty, but am currently lacking the words and imagination to say as much. I did get a lot of compliments on this polish, which I always love. Have a good Sunday and Monday everyone!

Seahawks Super Bowl Manicure!

The big day has arrived: the Super Bowl! Honestly, I'm really only excited because the Seahawks are playing for the second year in a row. We are planning on dragging the kids to one (or possibly two) parties tomorrow and then will probably skip halftime in favor of putting them to bed. So of course I had to do a manicure to support my team!

I have a bunch of Hawks inspired polishes now, so it was a struggle deciding which polishes to use. But I got an idea into my head and luckily that worked out.

Here are the polishes I used:
-Fairytale Finish Beast Mode
-Cult Nails Lethal
-Cult Nails Deal With It
-LVX Azzurrum

On to the pictures!

Hope everyone enjoys the game tomorrow! 

L'Oreal Masked Affair

Ok, you've probably seen this polish a million times already, but now I've got it! L'Oreal Masked Affair has already become a hard to find polish as of all the polishaholics are snatching up this little gem! Masked Affair is a limited edition polish that is part of the L'Oreal Dark Sides of Grey collection-- based, if you can't guess, on the book/movie 50 Shades of Grey. Here's my quick aside: haven't read the book nor do I plan on seeing the movie; I certainly don't begrudge anyone enjoying it, but there are definitely better books in the same genre if you are looking for them!

Anyway, back to Masked Affair. This polish is a drugstore holographic, which is a mythical beast akin to the unicorn, which is why this polish is flying off the shelves. Masked Affair is a lavender tinged silver holographic and very soft and pretty. The formula on this was decent-- not the best I've ever seen but not terrible; just ok. It was a little sheer on the first coat and a bit prone to dragging. But three thin coats covered well. I do think that my top coat dulled the holo effect a bit, but it is a softer holographic flair in general, not a strong linear effect. Personally, I find this to be very pretty and flattering! It's not the most original polish ever made, but it's definitely nice to see something like this from a drugstore brand.

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So what's your take on Masked Affair? Have you made an effort to find it or are you passing on it? I'm glad I picked it up and I hope L'Oreal (and other brands) continue to try new things with their drugstore polish lines.

Cult Nails Lethal

Today I have another polish from the Cult Nails Passionate Dreams collection-- Lethal! Lethal is a silver foil polish, though when it dries it has a matte chrome like finish. This will be brief, because I don't really take notes anymore when I "swatch" so I'm going from memory here. To the best of my recollection, this is two coats of Lethal and I no issues applying the polish at all.

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For some weird reason, even though I wear a lot of silver jewelry in my day to day life, I find myself more attracted to gold polish instead of silver. I'm not really sure why that is, but it was a thought that crossed my mind the other day. But when I wear a silver polish, I'm like a magpie and incredibly attracted to how shiny it is, and Lethal is no exception to that. This is a great silver polish if you're in the market for one! Which color metallic polish do you like wearing the most?

Ozotic 517

Given all the nice weather and bright sunshine we've been having in the PNW, I decided to pull out some old swatches-- but they're holographic, so let's just say I've been waiting for the sun to come out so I could show them off. Ozotic 517 is a silvery blue linear holographic polish. I used three coats here, but and the polish was a little on the sheer side, but I don't recall having any issues with it when I applied it. The blue does get a little lost when you apply this, but it's definitely not a straight-up silver holographic. While I did use a base coat (Cult Nails Get It On), I did not use a top coat so you see 517 in all its glory.

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Isn't this gorgeous?! The holo is very strong, even when not not seen under a flash or in the sun. I think the blue softens the overall look of the polish-- I like it more than just a straight-up silver holographic polish.

Unfortunately, this particular polish has been discontinued, but luckily there are tons of other polish makers who have stepped up to fill the void since Ozotic discontinued their holographic polish line-- Hits, Jade, FNUG, Dance Legend, etc. I would recommend checking out Llarowe, Harlow & Co, or Ninja Polish for large selections of holographic polishes.

Julep Leslie

And the last polish I have for you from my October Maven's Choice box is Julep Leslie. Again, this was a new polish introduced with the October Maven boxes and I decided to add it to my box. Julep describes Leslie as a "black and silver specked shimmer." I would go farther and say Leslie is a black creme based polish that is packed with silver flakies (I think, and it's definitely not glitter) because the silver all seems to be irregularly shaped when you look at macro shots.

Leslie is just slightly on the thicker side in terms of formula, but is definitely easy to control and apply.  I used two coats here and not top coat. What's interesting is the way Leslie dries down. With all the shimmer, it dries down smooth, but to a sort of semi-matte finish. It's still got a little bit of gloss to it, but definitely isn't as shiny as say a jelly or some creme polishes. I'm a little bit flummoxed on how exactly to describe it, actually. I guess I'll just stick with semi-matte, even though that might not be the proper term.

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This feel perfect for a Halloween inspired polish. It's dark, but not necessarily goth (in my mind, anyway). I kind of like that the silver isn't in your face but definitely doesn't disappear into the black base. However, this shade is definitely not unique in the world of nail polish and several brands have very similar polishes (though perhaps not dupes)-- Orly, Sonia Kashuk, Sephora by OPI, China Glaze and Sally Hansen have all produced similar shades in the past.