Enchanted Polish Prism of Darkness

To close out this week of Enchanted Polish, today I have a fun collaboration shade to share with you from Enchanted Polish and the blogger Fashion Polish! This was a collaboration for Fashion Polish's bloggaversary. The inspiration was her love of physics and prisms and vampy polishes. Prism of Darkness is described as a "deep purple holographic with color-shifting simmer." 

Perhaps not shockingly, this had a great formula! Prism of Darkness is nicely pigment and goes on smoothly. I probably could have gotten away with two coats but I used my usual three coats to make sure there weren't any thin spots on my giant nail beds. 

Here a couple of shots without the flash so you can see the green duochrome switch!

This polish is stunning! I love duochrome holographics and this one is definitely unique to my collection. I love how strong the shift is-- you don't see this sort very often. What a lovely polish; this collaboration was a real winner! 

Happy Friday and have a happy weekend! 

Enchanted Polish January 2016

Next up, I have January 2016, so this poor polish is already over a year old! Ack. I think this happens to all of us nail polish bloggers, though! Only so many polishes you can wear at one time!  January 2016 is a pinky beige nude creme with a strong yellow green shimmer.

I was expecting this to be a little bit tricky to work with, but I really didn't have any problems! The polish is on the thinner side,but is pigmented and flows easily on to the nail. I did use a light touch to avoid streaking, but that honestly wasn't too much of an issue! I used three coats here to make sure I didn't have any thin spots!

This color is a lovely nude, though I think it's maybe a touch too pink for my skin tone and gives me slight lobster hands. The contrasting green shimmer, though, is a lot of fun and makes it feel different from most nudes. It certainly makes it fun and unique and I love how much the shimmer stands out. Even though it doesn't quite suit my skin tone, I like this a lot! 

Enchanted Polish December 2016

Today I have another one of Enchanted Polish's monthly mystery polishes to share with you-- this one is December 2016. (I actually have the whole year... because I remember to purchase them during every preorder but of course I am behind, please don't act so shocked.) Last year Enchanted switched to doing shimmers for the monthly mystery polish instead of holos, which displeased some people, but I love shimmer so I was happy to see the change of pace. It remains to be seen if/what type of finish she'll do this year, assuming she keeps doing the monthly mystery polishes at all. December 2016 is a red creme with a strong green-gold shimmer running throughout.

December 2016 was a little thick, and definitely thickened up as I used it though I didn't really have any issues applying it. I used three coats because I felt like two coats still gave me some thin patches, and thicker coats can lead to some "streaks" in the finish due to the heavy shimmer-- in fact, the shimmer also gives the polish a metallic look and feel but it definitely isn't metallic. But it wasn't too bad in the end, as you can see!

Here's a bottle shot so you can see the shimmer:

On the nail this doesn't look quite like it does in the bottle, it's still really pretty. The overall effect of the shimmer gives the final appearance a more rusty red look than I anticipated; that said, it's quite unique looking and I liked the finished look. Definitely a unique one! Probably one of my favorites from the last year of mysteries!

Enchanted Polish Holiday 2016

This week is going to be a mini Enchanted Polish themed week because it just so happens that I've got several polishes from the brand that I need to share with you! In addition to her monthly mysteries, there's always an Enchanted Polish holiday mystery polish. Though the monthly mysteries were all shimmers last year, the holiday polish for last year was a holographic. Holiday 2016 is a beautiful orchid purple holographic, and while it doesn't immediately jump out and say "holidays!" to me, there is something delightfully whimsical about this polish and I think it works. Plus I am a sucker for anything purple!

Holiday 2016 was up to the usual Enchanted Polish standards and I didn't have any issues with it. It was nicely pigmented and applied smoothly and easily. I used my standard three coats but two would probably be sufficient for most people! 

Of course I love this! Were we really thinking I might not? Hahahaha, yeah, rhetorical question. Or no question! This was really lovely in person and I find the color amazing and wearable. Look at how it glows! I'm really happy to have this beauty in my collection; what a gorgeous color!

Happy Monday! Hope everyone has a good week!

Enchanted Polish November 2016

Today I have another monthly mystery from Enchanted Polish to share with you-- November 2016. Actually, I wore this before I wore the October mystery polish, but didn't manage to get up on the blog as soon as I wanted. (The best laid plans, yaddda yadda.) Really, this was to my advantage because now I actually have material to blog about. First things first... how do I even describe this polish? I have trouble pinning it down to one thing, because it's kind of a chameleon! November 2016 is a purple toned grey taupe neutral with a delightful pink shimmer!

I expected the formula on this to be on the thinner side; to my delight, it was not! The polish was decently pigmented, though my brush had a few wonky strands that made the actual polishing interesting. But this applied very smoothly and I had to be careful not to get too much on my brush so it didn't pool on my nails. I probably could have used two coats but decided to do a third, like I usually do. No issues, though, and even the wonky bristles didn't impact me too much!

Overall, this color is kind of funky but I like it a lot. Some people might find the color difficult to wear, but it's very pretty. Frankly, I'm not even sure if I can really pull it off, but I'm game to try it at least once! And like I said, despite the funky color, I actually do like this quite a bit! What do you think of oddball colors like this?

Enchanted Polish October 2016

A couple weeks ago I was really on a green kick and lucked out because I had several very lovely green polishes just waiting to be taken for a spin! Today I have one of the Enchanted Polish monthly mysteries to share with you, October 2016. This year the mystery polishes are all shimmers (as opposed to her usual holographics) and as a shimmer fan, I'm loving it! October 2016 is a serene sea green creme with a strong blue shimmer.

The formula on the first coat was a little thin; a bit thinner than I would have expected, but not difficult to use. I used three coat here to reach the level of opacity I wanted. Two coats might have worked, but I wanted to make sure I didn't have any thin spots. The shimmer is gorgeous and strong and doesn't get lost in the deeper base color, as you can see from my photos!

I loved this polish more than I expected! To me, it looks like glass and I love it so so much. I have warmed up to green polish a lot as I have blogged-- well it's still not usually the first color I reach for, there are a lot of gorgeous greens out there and I would add October 2016 to that list. This goes on the list for one of my favorite polishes of last year! The blue shimmer combined with the base is just such a lovely combination and I can't get enough of it!

Enchanted Polish Congratulations

Let's kick off the week with a bang, as it were! Today I have an older Enchanted Polish, Congratulations, which is actually happens to be available right now-- it was re-released this year and has been in stock for awhile. I believe it was originally released in 2013. Congratulations is a beautiful bronze holographic with a slight gold/green duochrome shift. I've had this sitting around for some months, but the color seemed appropriate for the fall season so I decided to wait until fall and then grabbed it to use!

The formula on this was a little thin, compared to some other Enchanteds, but not difficult to work with. The first coat was a bit sheer, but built up nicely. I ended up using three coats, but that's pretty standard for me, as I have probably mentioned a few thousand times. You might be able to get away with two coats but I felt three was what I needed to get the opaque coverage I wanted! But other than being on the thinner side, I had absolutely no issues and it applied easily.

The rainbow on this is just stunning, isn't it?! So freaking beautiful. I love how strong it is, it's just entrancing. I didn't find the duochrome to be very strong in this polish, compared to others from the same collection (like The Youth or Future Reflections) but it was still hard to tear my eyes off it. So beautiful! 

Enchanted Polish August 2016

Happy Thursday! My posting schedule is shifting a little again, like I mentioned in Tuesday's post I will either have a reduced number or no posts the last couple of weeks in October due to some traveling, but also I realized I need to wear some more polishes! I'm running out of previously worn/photographed polishes to talk about and so my posting schedule will also probably be a bit lighter. Currently I'm only changing my polish about three times a week just due to scheduling, and I don't have much in reserve right now! I honestly need to go back into my old hard drive because I'm pretty sure I have unworn polishes there that I need to share with you, so maybe I'll have time for that one weekend soon. Today I have one of the Enchanted Polish monthly mystery polishes to share with you-- this year the monthly mystery polishes are shimmers (instead of holographics) and the one I'm going to share with you now is August 2016.

August 2016 is a neutral toned beige with pink shimmer. I only used two coats here!! That's pretty impressive for a nude polish. Honestly, though, I only used two because I knew I would be layering a glitter topper over it-- if I had been wearing it alone I would have put on a third coat just to be thorough. But really, it almost doesn't need and I'm really happy with the formula. I did use a lighter touch, anticipating possible dragging/streaks which may have helped, but it does look really good!

Sometimes a clean, elegant nude manicure is what you need and August 2016 fits the bill. I think the pink shimmer gives it a nice depth and keeps it from being just another neutral polish. I think this would be flattering across a wide range of skin tones as it walks the line between being too pink or too yellow. The formula was great, which is plus because the base is so light. Even at two coats this is mostly even and there is maybe one minimal thin spot. I'm impressed!

Enchanted Polish The Youth

I'm going to try a slight change in my post schedule-- I've been aiming for five posts a week but am now going to hit four instead because I've been falling behind! I'm hoping giving myself a break day (Wednesday in this case) will help me stay on top of things! Today I have another polish that I actually wore awhile ago: Enchanted Polish The Youth. This was a re-release, just like Future Reflections.

The Youth is a green to bronze shifting duochrome holographic. Like most Enchanteds and from what I recall, the formula was good. I used at least two coats, but probably three coats because I'm like that.

I know you are looking at the photos above and saying "green?! Cat, you are full of it!" But truly, I am not lying! Here I've got a slightly different lighting situation so you can see the green tone of the polish (and really, it was green in most lights-- the flash brought out the bronze tones).

Look at that!! Pretty stunning, right? I love this, maybe more than Future Reflections! There's something about a green duochrome that I just freaking love! Pretty much one of my favorite ways to wear green! I love this one so much! Hope everyone is having a good Monday!

Enchanted Polish Future Reflections

Today I have I an older polish to share with you-- Enchanted Polish Future Reflections was originally released waaaay back in 2013, but I was pretty new to the indie polish scene back then and did not get my hands on this until late 2015/early 2016 when it was re-released (and now seems to be permanently stocked?). At least, these polishes certainly don't sell out as fast as they used to, due to the influx of other indie nail polish brands on the market!

Future Reflections is uselessly described as an ultra holo duochrome on the Enchanted Polish site, and I was say that it's blue to purple duochrome with a linear holographic finish. There's maybe a faint touch of green in there too. Because I wore this back in February and it is now *coughcough* September, my notes are sparse (truthfully, nonexistant) so I don't remember much about the formula except that it didn't give me any particular troubles. EP's tend have pretty good formulas, so I'm sure it was on par with her usual standards. I used either two or three coats, but I can't remember. Maybe two because my nails are shorter here, haha!

 Here's more of a look at the shift:

And you can maybe see some green here:

Overall I thought this polish was really fantastic. Holographic duochromes are some of my favorites for wearing in the fall/winter months because the shift comes out in the grey weather and the holo stands out if we get some sun! Either way, you win! This was lovely and easy to work with and I'm definitely going to be pull these types of polishes out more this year!

Enchanted Polish Dom

So yesterday I had a sweet and simple creme that I shared with you and today I'm turning the tables and showing you a super supe sparkly holo. This beauty is Enchanted Polish Dom, which was part of a limited edition trio that was released early this year (or late last year). Dom is described as a "
champagne gold ultra holo and glitter." And I'm guessing that Dom is a play off the champagne brand Dom Perignon, which is a very expensive brand of French champagne. 

I used three coats for this manicure. The first coat was a bit sheer but I didn't have any issues building it up at all! It was easy to apply and dried quickly and was very smooth! No complaints at all, but Enchanted Polish tend to have good formulas!

This is so blingtastic that it's super distracting in real life. I mean, look at that holo!! It's so gorgeous! The holo is very strong and I love that the gold has a slight darkness to it; gives it a bit of an edge and also a more neutral tone that's very wearable, despite all the sparkle. This is probably on my top 10 list for favorite polishes this year!

Enchanted Polish Winter

You might be wondering how I am choosing to showcase a polish named Winter the day after the 4th of July. In Seattle we have an inside joke that summer doesn't actually start until after the 4th of July (which can sometimes be very rainy and winter-like) so I thought it would be funny to share this polish on the "unofficial" start to summer here in the PNW. Really, of course, we've been having some great weather, though coincidentally, the weather forecast for today is saying rain! So there's a bit of weather irony for you. Or something, I don't know. I found it funny.

Anyway, today's polish is Enchanted Polish Winter and as the name might imply, was released during the winter season (as part of an LE trio). Winter is a "dove grey holo" and if it looks familiar, it's because I used it as a base for some nail art awhile ago. Here I have used two coats and it actually looks pretty good, though if I had been wearing it alone I probably would have opted for a third coat. That said, I was a little worried about the formula with such a light color, but it was actually pretty good. I used a very light touch to ensure that there weren't any streaks and that definitely prevented any problems there might have been.

I think this is really pretty! I love the soft grey with the rainbow flair from the holo and think this color works year round. I just love it! It's not necessarily unique but I don't care, because I think it's very elegant and gorgeous.

HPB Presents: Spring Watercolor Manicure

Look at me! Actually participating in a nail art challenge this month! This month, the Hobby Polish Bloggers decided on a spring themed mani for their monthly link up, so I decided to create a watercolor-type manicure using spring colors!

I used Enchanted Polish Winter (a light grey) as my base, and then used saran wrap to sponge on Reign Beau (teal), Disco H2O (cornflower blue), and Dope Jam (pink). This was a pretty easy manicure to do, but I had a couple of issues-- I think I got too heavy with Disco H2O, and that covered up too much of the teal Reign Beau. But I love the way the pink of Dope Jam looks over the others. I also should have used a latex barrier for my cuticles, because I was too afraid of getting polish all over my fingers and so I think some of the grey edges look a little funny to me.

In the end, this looks a bit muddy to me, but I still like it! I do think it has a watercolor feel to it, even though I wish the colors were a bit more separate. Ah well! I just need more practice! What do you think?

An InLinkz Link-up

Belated Valentine's Day Manicure

Yes, I know it's March... and we're heading into the downhill slide towards St. Patrick's Day and Easter. But because I am back at blogging (I still have to get back into a groove as I am woefully out of practice) I wanted to share the manicure that I sported for Valentine's Day before we get too much farther away from it.

Back in January, I saw Dollish Polish post on their Instagram page about releasing a Valentine's duo inspired by Han Solo and Leia Organa from Star Wars. Being that Han/Leia is my OTP (one true pairing-- goddamnit JJ Abrams for breaking them up) stemming from my SW obsession that started back in middle school, there was no way I was going to pass up on this duo! Based on the famous lines that Han and Leia, the duo consisted of I Love You, described as a candy pink with a scattered holographic finish and I Know, a glitter topper featuring matte red and pink hex glitter in a shimmery holo base (the actual description says red, and there may be a slight tint to it, but I didn't really see that it affected the color of my base polish).

For my manicure I decided to use I Love You for the majority of my nails, and then use I Know on an accent nail. For the base color of my accent nail, I pulled out Enchanted Polish Faerydae, a pale pink holographic to layer I Know over. Yes, it breaks up the whole Star Wars theme, but... we do what we have to, right? Really, I should have pulled out Dollish Polish Millennium Falcon to really complete the manicure-- maybe next time!

Sadly for me, though I loved the way this looked, this manicure was a nightmare. Not because the polishes were bad (they were totally fine) but because my head as completely in the clouds when I did it. February was a very rough month for my family (my dad ended up in the hospital, our water heater exploded, one of my sons had a seizure) and when I did this manicure late at night on the 13th, my head was just off in the clouds and I was probably tired and I didn't pay any attention to what I was doing-- so I ended up using top coat as my base coat and vice verse. Let me tell you; it doesn't work that way! Even though I remedied the base coat as top coat situation by slapping a real top coat on my nails, this manicure ended up peeling off in sheets. Lesson learned: don't mix these two up! So I ended up removing this pretty quickly, which was a real shame because I loved how it looked. I will have to redo this properly at some point in the future because I absolutely loved all the polishes. At least the photos look ok, right?

Have you every had an ridiculous/silly/stupid mishaps when applying a manicure?

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.

Purple Friday: Apple Cup Edition: Enchanted Polish November 2014

And... here we are what will most likely be the last Purple Friday post of the year! Today is our big rivalry game (the Apple Cup) against our cross-state university, and this year they are doing quite well, while UW is only doing okay... which could make it a very painful game. I certainly hope it's a good game, and that we win, but I'm trying to stay realistic (but still optimistic). We are having brunch with friends and then doing a quickie tailgate (aka just drinking) before the game. We have friends visiting town from California (we were all in band together) and it will be fun to spend some time with them-- away from the kiddos!

I initially had grand plans to do some amazing nail art for the Apple Cup, but with Thanksgiving and my mediocre nail art skills... yeah, it wasn't going to happen. I wish! Maybe next year! So once that idea fell through, I wasn't feeling particularly motivated or inspired to pick a polish. With the help of my husband, who occasionally has a passing interest in my polish hobby, helped pick one out. We settled on Enchanted Polish November 2014, hoping that this will bring us some good luck because the Huskies won the Apple Cup in that month and year. November 2014 is a deep, eggplant purple with a strong linear holographic flame. The formula was good, and went on very smoothly-- I just needed two coats! Love that.

Artificial light (flash):

This is such a gorgeous, deep, dark mysterious purple-- I think it's so lovely! The holo flame is nice and deep (though not totally overwhelming) and it's such a beautiful color. Why have I waited so long to wear this?! At least that tragedy has been remedied!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Cougars!

Purple Friday: Colors by Llarowe Grape Jelly and Enchanted Polish Rainbow Juice (with pulp)

Another Purple Friday post eeking in before the clock rolls over-- but not for lack of effort on my part, though! I got my manicure done and took pictures and then my internet wouldn't work! Darnit! But we're rolling now, so quick, let's get on with it! This week we're playing a team with a worse record than we have, so hopefully we can win!

This week I actually did have a manicure in mind-- specifically, making a jelly sandwich because I was wanting to play with some polishes I had lying around. I pulled out Grape Jelly from Colors by Llarowe, which is a sheer, deep purple jelly. I applied two coats making sure to let them dry in between coats!) and then layered a coat of Enchanted Polish Rainbow Juice (with pulp) on top of that. Rainbow Juice (with pulp) is a holographic glitter topper with small holographic glitter and larger flakies. Then I layered another coat of Grape Jelly on top of that! Grape Jelly is definitely a bit on the streaky side, so my coats aren't terrible even, so I'll have to work on that. I don't think the finished product looks too bad, though! It may not be the most unique look out there, but it does have a nice sparkle!

Artificial light (flash):

I really love this look! It's not perfect, but suddenly I have a great urge to buy a bunch of jelly polishes and make jelly sandwiches with Rainbow Juice (with pulp). I think this would look fabulous with pretty much any color!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Beavers!

Enchanted Daydream

Today I have a fun, pretty polish to share with you! This is Enchanted Polish Daydream, which was a polish that was available this summer and these swatches have been sitting around for awhile because I've had a lot of other polishes that I've swatched! Hope everyone had a great weekend-- mine was pretty busy, though generally good. Even though my football team lost, womp womp. And my kids were acting like little terrors, hah. Oh well! Daydream is described as a "light aqua blue holographic" and I would say that it looks pretty mint to me, as opposed to aqua, but there definitely is blue in there. I feel like this color is a sweet, wistful feeling to it, and the name really suits it.

Like most Enchanted's, this polish had a great formula. It went on easily and I'm pretty sure I only needed two coats to get perfect, opaque coverage. I love a no-muss, no-fuss formula! Given that I generally am applying my polishes in the evening, after my kids go to bed and we've eaten dinner, I also love when a polish goes on easily and quickly.

Artificial light (flash):

I suppose in the grand scheme of things, Daydream isn't really all that unique these days--but I still find it to be very pretty! And the easy formula and application are always a winning combination in my book. Happy Monday all!

Purple Friday: Enchanted Polish August 2015

And here we are at the first Purple Friday of the year! College football season is here, woo! My husband and I have actually traveled to Boise for the first Husky game of the year, which also happens to be tonight! This will be a tough game, made moreso by the fact that our current head coach is the former head coach of Boise State! Those games are always rough. Even with that, we are looking forward to some time away and getting to tailgate and enjoy the game without the kids. A mini-vacation before the reality of fall sets in!

To kick off the season and my Purple Friday posts, and I decided to grab Enchanted Polish August 2015. (It's close enough, right? We're only four days into September.) August 2015 is a gorgeous vibrant, medium violet purple linear holo. I only needed two coats and it went on super smoothly. I love it when polishes practically want to paint themselves on my nails. Enchanted Polish may be on the pricey side for an indie polish brand, but they are worth every penny. This did dry slightly darker on the nail than in the bottle, but it's a stunning purple.

Artificial light (flash):

I think this is a perfect purple to kick off Husky football season! It's my favorite time of the year and I have a lot of awesome purple polishes to share with you!

Go Dawgs! Beat the Broncos!

Enchanted Polish December 2014

Hope everyone had a decent Monday and your week is off to a good start! Mine was pretty good, though it was a rainy day in my corner of the PNW and it feels like winter is back again (or for the first time, given how mild our winter was). Come back, spring! I have another beautiful polish to share with you today! This is Enchanted Polish December 2014, which is one of the limited monthly releases the brand puts out. December 2014 is a bright sky blue with a scattered holographic finish. As with all the Enchanted Polishes I have used so far, I had no issues applying this and it went on smoothly and easily. Two coats was perfect! The holographic effect is much more subtle than some EP's-- while there is a slight linear quality to it, it is mostly scattered. I don't mind the scattered finish; in fact, there are times when I prefer it over the linear finish.

Artificial light (flash):

Gorgeous! Definitely reminds me of a cold winter's day, when the sky is cloudless and the sun shines but there's little warmth.

Short and sweet post tonight, but I'm trying to get back in the groove (again) after being sick (again).