Polished Intentions

Happy Sunday everyone!

I was recently contacted by Joanna of Polished Intentions to see if I'd be interested in some of her shop's collection and I jumped at the chance based on the photos on the Polished Intentions Etsy shop.

I received Iceburg Ahead, Embers, and Nightmares and Gemscapes, three creme based lacquers with glitter throughout.

 From left to right: Iceberg Ahead, Embers, and Nightmares & Gemscapes.

Click "Read more" for swatches of all three!

Wing Dust Collections: Mongu at Midnight

I have a beautiful blurple based lacquer from Wing Dust Collections this evening -- Mongu at Midnight!

Mongu's base is amazing (I could have a polish with just the base color, no glitter!) and contains white and silver holographic hexes and blue and white bar glitter.

 I was able to achieve full opacity with two coats:

Consistency of Mongu was great and I love how rich and vibrant the base color is. There are bar glitters in this polish though, and as you can see in the photos these bars like to peek out of the base and require a generous coat of Gelous and a generous coat of a thicker topcoat. If you're okay with bar glitters then you'll really like this one.

 

If you are interested in purchasing this or other colors from Wing Dust Collections, visit the Wing Dust Collections Etsy shop. Make sure to become a fan of the Wing Dust Collections Facebook page and check out their blog as well!

Note: The product featured in this post was provided to me for my honest review.

Indie Polish Shops

So I've spent a fair amount of time updating the Indie Polish Shops page (see above) and wanted to make everyone aware of it.

I decided that the best way for me to organize it was by the shops I know/have purchased from and the ones that exist but I haven't had a chance to interact with. And then put everything in alphabetical order because that's just how I need to roll. 

So if anyone has a question about shops I've had experiences with, please feel free to ask! I've thankfully never had a bad experience as far as customer service goes. (Knocking on wood).

I also just want to say that there are many independent polish lines run by very skilled individuals who take time and care when creating their polishes. So please don't let a couple of bad apples sour you to the entire indie community. There are "those people" in every industry, but I can promise that we aren't all bad. In fact, the other polish makers I know are amazing, intelligent, and creative women. So if you haven't given independent lines a chance yet, give it some thought (or wait until mine is available soon!) I am not speaking for indie polish makers as a group, but I know that part of the reason I'm creating a polish line and my own creative business outlet is to have a little corner of the internet that would otherwise be in all of the small businesses that have closed due to the economy.

Those are just some thoughts. I'll probably have more posts like this in the future when I have something to say that's worth reading.

Glitter Bomb Out!

All That Glitters: Ruler Of My Heart

Today is the kind of lazy Saturday that I wish occurred more often. Nothing in particular to do, plenty of bad TV to catch up on, and a perfect day to paint my nails.

Because of a happy accident, All That Glitter's Ruler Of My Heart found its way to my home. And I'm so glad that it did because it makes an amazing topcoat for any color of nail polish!

 Here are some macros that show off the glitter! Ruler Of My Heart contains silver holographic hearts and fine silver holographic bar glitters.

Here is a shot lit from underneath to show how glowy Ruler Of My Heart is:

And here is a swatch of one thick coat of Ruler Of My Heart applied as a topcoat:

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase All That Glitters polishes!

Pretty & Polished: A Soldier's Liberty

TGIF is all I have to say today. While I do enjoy my job, it's nice to come to the weekend and be able to spend time with my kiddo and get back to creating polishes. Anyone doing anything exciting for the weekend? I might being a serious undertaking -- inventorying my non-indie lacquers. We shall see.

Today I have Pretty & Polished's A Soldier's Liberty. A Soldier's Liberty has a pale blue, slightly frosted/shimmery base with white glitter shards throughout. It's not an overly complicated polish and I like that. A lot of lacquers in the indie community are very complex with many different sizes, shapes, and colors of glitters dispersed throughout. So it's nice to be reminded that a polish doesn't have to be jam packed with a bunch of stuff to be really beautiful.

A Soldier's Liberty is a more recent addition to the Pretty & Polished line and I snagged it a couple of store openings ago in a mini size. 

 Macro shots of the polish:

And here is a swatch of A Soldier's Liberty on the nail! I used three coats with one coat of Seche Vite topcoat.

 

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase A Soldier's Liberty and other Pretty & Polished lacquers!

Pretty & Polished: Swing

Today . . . was a day. I'm glad that it will be over shortly so that tomorrow can be a fresh start. And to bring me into tomorrow, I have Pretty & Polished's Swing. Swing is a bright jelly red with black and white glitter dispersed throughout. It's a bright, cheery color and this particular manicure made me smile big time, for a reason that you can see in my swatches.

Do you see what I see in the photo below? On my middle finger? You might be thinking that it's just a dud hexagon. But I think that it's Pac-Man, munching on a pac-dot/ black hex glitter. It makes me smile in a big way when I look at my nails.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase Swing and other Pretty & Polished lacquers!

Aqua Daisy: Purple Heart

I'm posting at an earlier time because I will be a very lucky girl this evening -- I have tickets to Drake and I'm so excited to see him live. I think I'm getting to the point where I might be the old lady at concerts. That also means that I've surpassed the point of caring what I look like at concerts and will be in jeans and a hoodie. 

So here is another great polish from Aqua Daisy -- Purple Heart. Purple Heart is a dark purple jelly with hex and square glitters throughout. You can see that some of the glitters appear to have a colorshifting, holographic quality to them in the photos below.

 

Gratuitous macro glitter shot. 

And here she is on the nails. Such a beauty! Application was flawless and dry time was fast. And no staining on the nails despite the dark color of the base. Overall I was a very happy camper.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on how to purchase AquaDaisy lacquers.

Pretty & Polished: On Equal Ground

Happy Tuesday! I hope that everyone had a relaxing long weekend. Whenever I have a long work weekend I tend to get my days a little mixed up. Today really felt like a Monday even though it's Tuesday, but I guess that will just make the week go by more quickly. 

Anyways, today I have swatches of Pretty & Polished's On Equal Ground. I acquired On Equal Ground the last time that Chelsea opened up shop. She released three new colors and On Equal Ground is one of them. It's a multi-colored glitter topcoat with red, blue, green, gold, and purple hexes in two different sizes. I didn't attempt to use On Equal Ground by itself but I think that it would take a few too many coats to use it on its own.

A macro of the glitters!

And here are two coats of On Equal Ground.




Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to buy On Equal Ground and other Pretty & Polished polishes!

Dollish Polish: Expecto Patronum

I've been waiting and waiting to try out Dollish Polish's Expecto Patronum.  Expecto Patronum is a highly sought after polish of Dolly's and I'm still not quite sure how I ended up with it in my cart. All I know is that I'm thankful that I did. 

So after sitting on my shelf for far too long, I finally decided to try Expecto Patronum last night. It looked amazing in the bottle and didn't disappoint on the nail!

Expecto Patronum has a white jelly base with turquoise-hued hexes dispersed throughout.  The glitters are similarly sized and colored but the slight variations in both add layers of complexity to this polish.

Application was a dream. I had full opacity in two thin coats.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase Expecto Patronum and other great lacquers from Dollish Polish!

Aqua Daisy: Succulent

Aqua Daisy is a new-to-me Etsy store that sells polishes, hair ties, and barrettes.  I kept coming back to the Aqua Daisy shop and finally broke down and made a purchase. I scored two polishes during the week and they arrived yesterday. Needless to say, Aqua Daisy has VERY fast shipping.

One of my purchases included Succulent, a mint hued, creme based polish with two different sized pink hex glitters dispersed throughout. 

For all photos I used two coats of Succulent with one coat of Seche Vite topcoat.

The application on this polish was seriously flawless. Almost complete opacity with one coat but I always apply two to get as much depth as possible. There was just the right amount of glitter in Succulent. Not too much that it affected application but definitely not too little either. This was an excellently balanced polish and you can tell a lot of work was likely put into this to obtain the perfect formulation.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase Aqua Daisy polishes.

365 Days of Color: Summer Dream

Happy Friday everyone! Here is another beauty from 365 Days of Color! Up today is Summer Dream.

Summer Dream is a cool minty teal jelly with brightly colored glitter dispersed throughout.  It really is a great color for a summer manicure! I'd love to be wearing it poolside right now.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on how you can purchase Summer Dream or other polishes from 365 Days of Color.

Windestine: Pumpkin Pie

Here is my second Windestine purchase -- Pumpkin Pie!

Pumpkin Pie is very appropriately named.  I think Pumpkin Soup would have been the only more color-accurate name for this polish.  Orange can be a difficult color but this shade is great for a lot of skin tones, even my very pale skin.  The formula was perfect.  I'm kicking myself for only purchasing two minis from Windestine and am going to have to keep an eye on the shop for more purchasing possibilities. 

This particular polish had an amazing formula, an orange jelly base, and silver holo glitters throughout -- but not so many glitters that I had any difficulty when I (sadly) had to remove the polish from my nails.

Click "Read more" to see additional swatches of Pumpkin Pie and information on where to purchase Windestine polishes!

Amy's Nail Boutique: Galaxy Far, Far Away

Hi my name is Eliz-a Bee and I'm a Star Wars fan and not afraid to admit it.  Love Star Wars. Love blue polishes. Love polishes that are able to combine my love of Star Wars and blue. So obviously Galaxy Far, Far Away (GFFA) was right up my alley and I knew I had to have her in my cart when I spied this color on Amy's Etsy page.

 

Check out that brilliant blue and the glitties throughout!

 

 

 If Princess Leia wore polish it should have been this color. 

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and more information on Amy's Nail Boutique!

365 Days of Color: Funfetti

Sunny's 365 Days of Color currently has two awesome collections of sweet polishes. And I emphasize the "sweet" because some of her polishes are named after delicious treats -- like Funfetti!

This polish is really fun.  A great white jelly base (not too thick, not too sheer) with almost every shape and color of glitter contained within. Hexes and squares and bars, oh my!

Isn't it great?! Such a fun polish.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and info on where to buy Sunny's polishes!

Windestine: Spica

Windestine is another Etsy find. As is typical of indie polish lines, the Windestine shop opens and closes due to the amount of time that shop owners devote to creating the lacquers.  But I was able to snag a couple of lacquers on a recent shop opening.

Up first is Spica -- a blue jelly with various sized hex glitters, some holos, and crescent glitters.  It's yet another example of my deep love for blue polishes.  I just can't stop buying them!

For all swatches, I used two coats of Spica with one coat of Seche Vite top coat to finish things off. 

Click "Read More" to see additional swatches and find out where to purchase Windestine's beautiful lacquers!

Amy's Nail Boutique: Pink Lemonade

Amy and I are both members of a Facebook group so I was privileged enough to see her polishes before they hit her Etsy shop.

As soon as she opened Amy's Nail Boutique I hopped over there as fast as possible to pick up a couple of shades.

One that I had been eyeing is Pink Lemonade, which has fine pink and yellow matte hex glitters in a clear base. LOVE. I guess this could be called Floam's pretty little sister if I had to make a comparison, but check it out for yourself:

Click "Read More" for swatches!

Pretty & Polished: Phoenix

Pretty & Polished's Phoenix is a rather new addition to owner Chelsea's line of brilliant lacquers.  My indie polish collection is probably 50% comprised of Pretty & Polished polishes and I enjoy each one I've tried.

Check out Phoenix!

Phoenix is comprised of canary yellow matte hexes and small and medium sized red metallic hexes. So unique!

Here is a shot in natural light, no flash.

 Click "Read More" for additional swatches and information on where to buy Pretty & Polished lacquers!

Pahlish: Dance Across the Sea

Happy Sunday everyone!

Dance Across the Sea is another beauty that I purchased from Pahlish. And another blue! I must be in a Blue Period Picasso-style because when I review my last lacquer purchases they are predominately all blue-hued.

 Look at that beautiful color!  A true sky blue base with sky blue hexes and smaller holo glitters.

 Here she is on the nails! Two coats are shown.

 Click "Read More" for more swatches and information on where to buy Pahlish pahlishes!