Nerd Lacquer The Lando System

Wow, this is another oldie! Moving on to another planet, Nerd Lacquer The Lando System is inspired by a line of dialogue in The Empire Strikes Back when Han and Leia are trying to discover a safe port to hide from the Empire. The best option is Bespin, run by Han's old friend and conspirator, Lando Calrissian. 

The Lando System is described as a "soft orchid of a Cloud City sunset with rose, copper, and lavender glitter, plus an /insinuation/ of sky blue shimmer." I did turn the bottle upside down a few days before using this to make sure the glitters were suspended evenly, which I think definitely helped, as I didn't have to do a lot of fishing for glitter. This applied pretty well; I didn't have to do too much dabbing or fishing. I used three coats, but feel that two coats would have been fine. I used one layer of top coat, but feel like I should have added another one because it didn't end up being quit as smooth as I wanted.

I'm generally not a huge fan of crelly glitters, but I think the combination here is pretty unique. The shimmer makes a nice contrast, and I also feel like the colors help to make this unique as well. I was happy with the way it applied, especially after all this time. I think this nicely captures the colors of Cloud City as portrayed in the movie!

Nerd Lacquer Beggar's Canyon

Another oldie, both in terms of the polish and the planet! Nerd Lacquer Beggar's Canyon is several years old at this point (cough, I just realized I bought this back in 2012, yikes!), and the name is a call back to an area of Tatooine where Luke used to practice his speeder and sharpshooting skills when he was growing up. We also get see this location in The Phantom Menace, when Anakin podraces to win his freedom. Kind of a cool callback, if you're into those sorts of things!

 Beggar's Canyon has an antique bronze gold base and has an assortment of gold, orange, and purple glitters in it. The glitter is pretty well dispersed through the polish and I didn't have to do too much fishing, though I did turn this upside down a few days prior to using it just to make sure that wasn't an issue. This covered well but I did use three coats; I suspect that I probably could have gotten away with two.

Sadly, I can tell the glitter in this polish has faded-- the purple glitter (and the orange and gold ones) used to be much more vibrant-- just searching for other swatches via Google will show you how badly this has faded. I guess that's what happens when you just let these polishes sit around for so long before wearing them! I also don't find this shade of gold very flattering with my skin tone, though it might have looked better if I had worn it ages ago when the glitter stood out a little more. That said, I do find the glitter mix interesting and pretty and wish I had worn this a lot sooner instead of waiting. Ah well! Maybe some day this will get remade, but currently it's been discontinued.

Happy Friday and May the Force be with you!

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? 

NerdLacquer Kylo

Now back to actual villains, today's polish, NerdLacquer Kylo, is the bad big fan from the newest film. I'm not sure how spoilery I should get, although probably if you actually cared about spoilers, you've probably already seen the movie, but I'll be careful (I get that it can be hard to see thing in a timely manner, believe me)! Anyway, Kylo Ren is one of the new villains in the new trilogy and spends a lot of time tromping around in all black and a mask, trying to emulate the late, unlamented Darth Vader. I think there was a lot of complaining in the fandom about Kylo not really being an effective villain, or being a lame retread, which I won't get into here: I think Kylo has a lot of potential and actually I found his rages to be quite scary so I hope he gets more complex as the newest trilogy moves forward.

Moving on to the polish, Kylo is described as a "glowy and menacing wicked blood red with flame and violet (violent?) shimmer and black microglitter." I like that this polish is red and not a predictable black (given that Kylo idolizes Darth Vader)-- I feel like the red captures Kylo Ren's rage, frustration and insecurity a lot better. Formula-wise, this was good! Nice consistency, not too thick or too thin, with a good distribution of glitter/shimmer and it went on easily and built up nicely. I used three coats. The shimmer adds so much depth to this polish, I love it! I especially love I can actually see the violet shimmer, as I feel like it could be overwhelmed by all the red.

In the end, I like Kylo a lot better as a polish than the unfortunate Hocchhh Kssshhhhh from Monday, though overall Darth Vader still beats Kylo Ren out as a better villain; time will tell if Kylo really steps up to the plate as a villain. Hopefully, like his namesake polish here, he gets more depth and interest!

NerdLacquer Hocchhh Kssshhhhh

Technically this could be a quote, I suppose, but I'm using NerdLacquer Hocchhh Kssshhhhh to kick off a week of Star Wars Villains! And today we're starting with the biggest and baddest villain of them all, Darth Vader! *cue Imperial March* "Hocchhh Kssshhhhh" is supposed to be the sound of Darth Vader's breathing. Say it out loud and it will totally make sense (well, as long as you have actually seen Darth Vader before). But Darth Vader is the most intimidating, fearsome villain the Star Wars universe has produced and made a huge stir when he first appeared on screenin A New Hope.

Hocchhh Kssshhhhh is described as a "sheer black with black hex, black square, black bar, and black micro glitter, finished off with big charcoal holo hex. The micro holo shimmer scattered throughout is The Force." It is on the sheer side, but does build up. I didn't have the easiest time applying it-- the glitters wanted to clump together and I had a difficult time spreading it around.

I decided it might be easier to see the different glitters if I matted Hocchhh Kssshhhhh, so I picked up a new matte top coat (Revlon) and it's working much better than my Zoya one, so I think there's something off with the my bottle and it's not just user error. Anyway, matte: 

Ok, I have to be honest... I was not in love with this as I wanted to be. The first coat was pretty sheer (which is in the description) and the glitters were a bit clumpy and it was a little thick and hard to spread around. Plus... I just don't know if the glitter mix really speaks to me. I think it looks pretty but I just don't love it. Which is a shame, but it is what it is!

NerdLacquer But She's Got It Where It Counts

I debated put this polish in the famous Star Wars quotes section, but technically this quote is a little more obscure so I figured I would pair it with yesterday's Dollish Polish Millennium Falcon, because NerdLacquer But She's Got It Where It Counts comes from Han defending his ship to Luke, who is a bit dismayed when he sees it in A New Hope and calls her a piece of junk. (Though seriously, Luke?! You've never even left Tatooine so let's cool it with the judgements, mmkay?)

NerdLacquer But She's Got It Where It Counts is described as a "concrete grey with silver microshimmer, plus silver, white, charcoal and rust glitter." Despite having this polish for at least a year already and the fact that it's been sitting in a drawer for awhile, it was still pretty easy to use! I did give it a few good rolls and turn it upside down for a time to redistribute pigment and glitter, but didn't have any issues getting glitter out of the bottle. The formula wasn't too thick or too thin, there was nice glitter distribution and you could either do three thin coats or two thicker coats depending on the look you wanted. I ended up doing two coats because a) it covered pretty well and b) I was lazy and didn't want to do a third. I think it looks fine with two.

I felt like this polish needed to matted, because... it's based on a junky looking old spaceship. Of course it needs to be matted! But could I find a freaking bottle of matte topcoat? Hell no. (Hmmm I think this is why people organize their shit.) But finally I found my Zoya Matte Velvet topcoat and went to town. (Side note: I found a needed a couple coats of this to really matte it... also, you're only getting three fingers because I messed up my pinky!)

This is a funky combo of glitters but I think it really accurately captures the feeling of the Millennium Falcon. She may not the shiniest ship on the block, but she's unique and beautiful in her own way and that counts for a hell of a lot more! 

NerdLacquer General Effing Leia

If yesterday's polish represents the earliest incarnation we see of Princess Leia in A New Hope, today's polish represents her older, wiser, more mature and still kickass incarnation we see in The Force Awakens. I mean, the name says it all: NerdLacquer General Effing Leia! Not a princess anymore, but a full fledged General, which we didn't see in the original trilogy, even though pretty much everyone else got the title by Return of the Jedi. Glad they have remedied that 33 years later! General Effing Leia is described as a "muted plum base with a regal and complex silvery-green shimmer."

The formula was pretty good; a tad on the thick side but generally easy to use and I didn't have any issues applying it. It was opaque enough that I probably could have gotten away with applying two coats, but did three because that's my jam these days! I'll be honest, at first I was a little put off because my bottle didn't look nearly as purple as the photos on the NerdLacquer site, but the polish does dry darker on the nail than it looks in the bottle, so that might be the issue. I think the silver shimmer also greys it out a bit in photos, so it may be a bit more purple in real life.

Gorgeous, is it? This definitely has a regal quality to it and the shimmer really elevates it and gives it a lot of depth. And purple, despite not being a color we really see Leia in, definitely fits her regal personality and hey, she was a princess (and her mother was a queen)! So it totally works. Plus, Leia is definitely one of the strongest characters in the whole franchise, if you need reminding:

Make way for the General! 

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!