Pretty & Polished: Boot Camp

I'm kind of running low on my blue indie lacquer stash (note to self: must get more!) so today I have a green - Pretty & Polished Boot Camp is up, a shimmery, matte green lacquer with bar, hex, and square matte glitters.

 And here is Boot Camp on the nails:

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase Dollish Polish!

Two Birds One Store: Fly-Ceratops

Sometimes you purchase a polish because you've heard good things about it. Or because you trust the brand. Or love the color. And, every once in awhile, you buy a polish based on nothing but its name. That happened to me with Two Birds One Store Fly-Ceratops. Thankfully, it ended up working out really well for me :)

Fly-Ceratops has black, blue, and neon yellow-green matte hexes and makes a great topcoat. I'm not sure if you could build it up to wear on its own without having 4 coats, but it might be do-able.

Here is how I'm wearing Fly-Ceratops:

Click "Read more" for additional photos, the color I used as my base, and information on where to purchase Fly-Ceratops!

NotTooPolished: Watermelon

It seems like summer just started and it's already more than half way over. But before it ends, here is a very summery lacquer that you need to pick up: NotTooPolished Watermelon!

Watermelon is an incredibly fun pink-based lacquer with black and white hexes and black round matte glitters:

Here is Watermelon on the nails. I don't own any lacquers with black rounds in them and was a little hesitant because I thought that they were going to be difficult to apply, stick off of my nails, or be impossible to fish out of the bottle. Thankfully, I experienced none of that and application was flawless!

All photos were taken in artificial light, without flash, and show three thin coats of Watermelon with one coat of Poshe fast dry topcoat to finish everything off.

The depth of this lacquer is great and I was surprised at how good the coverage was -- no visible nail lines!

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Watermelon. It's a really fun polish and was incredibly easy to apply. Go pick one up!

NotTooPolished lacquers can be purchased on Etsy. And while you're perusing the internet, make sure to check out the Not Too Polished blog and Facebook page. Like the page to show some love!

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

Blue Mondays with a-England Order of the Garter & Pretty & Polished: Forgery

First, some Official Business: I am so close to 100 followers on the Tough As Nails Lacquer Facebook page and once I hit that mark, there is going to be an amazing Indie Polish giveaway happening on the blog! The giveaway will feature Tough As Nails Lacquer, Pretty & Polished, All That Glitters, Dollish Polish, Lynnderella, and more! So if you haven't liked the page on Facebook, do so ASAP.

Okay. Now that that's out of the way -- Happy Blue Monday, everyone! Today I have another great combo, this time from a-England and Pretty & Polished.

Check out a-England Order of the Garter, an amazing blue shimmer:

 Here are two coats of Order of the Garter, no topcoat:

And here is Pretty & Polished Forgery, an amazing glitter holo matte topcoat. So genius. Chelsea makes some of my all time favorite polishes.

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and the finished look of Forgery over Order of the Garter!

So  + =s . . .

 Swoon. Love this manicure. This is one coat of Forgery over two coats of Order of the Garter.

 Closeups to show off the holo:

I truly love both of these brands and highly recommend both of them. Application was great on both.

 

a-England lacquers can be purchased here (shipping from England) or here (shipping from the US, but to many countries). Make sure to like the a-England Facebook page, too! 

Pretty & Polished lacquers can be purchased here from Chelsea's Etsy shop (and coming soon here). Check out Pretty & Polished's website here or check out Chelsea's Facebook page to stay updated on her polish line and get notices on when polishes will go up for sale.

Pretty & Polished: Tart

I had purchased a bottle of matte topcoat a while ago but hadn't tried it until recently. Not quite sure why I waited so long because I really like the effect! And I used it with Pretty & Polished's Tart.

Tart is a really fun and funky polish. It has a pink/lavender base with purple, blue, gold, white, and pink hexagon glitters suspended throughout.

Bottle macros:

Tart is so pretty on. It has a really great base color and the glitter color combination is a winner. I would stick to wearing this one on its own because it leans more to being a creme than a jelly.

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

Amy's Nail Boutique: Cotton Candy

I went to a concert the other night and saw someone selling cotton candy. Big, fluffy, pink, and blue. So it was perfect timing when I received my latest purchase from Amy's Nail Boutique, containing Cotton Candy. Cotton Candy is a very unique blue and pink matte glitter nail polish. Amy seems to specialize in matte glitters and she's created another great one with Cotton Candy.

There are at least two different types of blue matte glitters in Cotton Candy, which give it extra dimension. Here is a macro shot:

 

I tried out a variety of methods when swatching Cotton Candy and ultimately decided to go with it as a topcoat over a base color. 

For my base, I used a Sephora by OPI mini. I didn't keep the box set that this came in, but I believe that it is Casting Call. It's a fairly run of the mill pink creme with slight blue undertones. I chose it because I thought it would compliment Cotton Candy nicely, and I think that it does.

Here is are two coats of Cotton Candy over one coat of Casting Call:

Click "Read more" for additional swatches and information on where to purchase Cotton Candy and other polishes from Amy's Nail Boutique.

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!

Dollish Polish: I'm a Material Girl

I was lucky enough to have my first indie polish purchase be from Dollish Polish.  Dolly creates unique, highly desired polishes and sells out very quickly when she does open shop.

One of the beauties I scored was "I'm a Material Girl" -- a collection of black, pink, and white matte hexagon glitters of varying sizes suspended in a clear base.