Zoya Remy

Happy Black Friday everybody!
I got up extra early to make my first black Friday purchase, I order the Loaded Lacquer Ha Ha Holiday collection that launced today at midnight CST, I just had to get my hands on them. Heather restocked a lot of other polishes too, so if you want to get your hands on some Loaded Lacquers, head over to the site and pick some up!

Today I have the second polish of the Zoya Ignite collection to show you. I already showed you Yuna, which I love, so I was eager to try the others.

Zoya Remy is a deep blue base with a strong golden shimmer. On the nail, the gold mostly gets covered with the intensely opaque base and you're left with a gorgeous deep blue that flashes green.

The formula is spot on, it's opaque in 2 thin coats, but you can absolutely get away with just 1 coat if you're in a hurry. It's easy to apply and it dries fast and shiny.

 

I love this color so much! The shimmer almost makes this look like a duo-chrome, flashing blue and green. I always love a good blue polish, but this one is so easy to work with and looks really pretty on the nail.

So far the Ignite collection is rocking my world and I only wish I picked up the entire collection. I'm still hoping to get my hands on Sansa and India.

Have you picked up any of the Ignite polishes and which one is your favorite?

X

Read more »

Loaded Lacquer Fall Duo

I've had this gorgeous duo sitting in my stash for a while, but with all the nice weather we've been having, I just wasn't feeling it yet. I thouht this gorgeous duo deserved one of those fall days, where the leaves are blowing in the wind and the sun peeks out behind just a few clouds to set all the gorgeous fall colors on fire. Because that's what these polishes make me think of every time I look at them.

So when that kind of weather happened over the weekend, I finally busted out the Loaded Lacquer Fall Duo.

This duo consists of 2 polishes (duh, it's a duo!), the first one is Rusted Pumpkin, a gorgeous rusty red/brown/orange jiggle (Loaded Lacquers term for her jelly polishes).

The second polish is called Dark Chocolate Truffle and this is a glitter topper with black hex in several sizes, brown hex, bronze hex, burgundy hex glitter and golden flakes.

The formula for both these polishes is really nice. The jelly is a little thicker, like most jelly's, but still easy to work with. It's opaque in about 2 - 3 coats, but since it's a jelly, you'll always see a little nail line. The glitter is a topper and although you could probably get this fully opaque in about 4 coats, I wouldn't recommend it. All the glitters lay flat on the nail, I didn't have any problems with glitters sticking up on my nails. Both dry fast and shiny, but I added a top coat, to smooth the glitter out.

You can get both these polishes scented and I decided to do so. The jelly smells like pumpkin and the glitter smells like chocolate. When you wear them both, you mostly get the chocolate smell, but with a hint of pumpkin. I have to admit, I really like it! The only problem is that I keep smelling my nails and people started to look funny at me... Oh wel...

I wasn't sure about Rusted Pumpkin when I first got it, I didn't think this would be my kind of color, but I'm glad I decided to pick it up anyway, because I actually love it on my nails. It works well with my skintone and pairs really nicely with the glitter. I think I'm going to get a lot of use out of this polish.

Loaded lacquer is available on this website. If you love glitter, you need to try this indie brand!
I'm already planning on picking up more, as Heather (the owner and creator of Loaded Lacquer) is set to release her Ha Ha Holiday collection on Friday the 28th of november.

Will you be picking up a couple of these gorgeous glitters or jelly's?

X

Read more »

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

A few weeks back, I saw Hare Polish was releasing a new 4 piece collection and I fell in love with 1 of the polishes. As Hare Polish tends to sell quite quickly, I was ready to pick this polish up at the time of the release. Of course I couldn't just order 1 polish, that's just not right, so I just picked up the entire collection, because I couldn't help myself, they're just all so gorgeous!

Today I have the first of the 4 polishes from this collection, called Interstellar Invasion, to show you.
Hare Polish Martian Mutiny is a teal jelly base with fuchsia  circle and smaller hex glitter, medium and small hex glitters in gold and red,  gold flakies and tiny iridescent blue flakies.

The formula is as I've come to expect from Hare, absolutely perfect! It glides on the nail, is opaque in 2 - 3 coats and I've never seen any polish dry as fast as Hare Polish! It does dry a little on the bumpy side because of all the glitter, so a good layer of top coat is a must to smooth it out and make it extra shiny.

I love this color, especially for fall and winter and when you pair it with this kind of gorgeous glitter, I'm in love! It's dark, but not too dark that it looks almost black and because it's a jelly base, it doesn't overpowers the glitter, it's just colorful and fun.

Hare Polish is available on the Hare Etsy page and on Llarowe.
If you haven't tried this brand before, I'd suggest giving them a try, you won't be disappointed!

What's your favorite indie brand?

X

Read more »

China Glaze Seeing Red

When China Glaze released a collection based on The Giver, I was all over that! Not because I loved the movie, but because I have a huge not so secret crush on mister Alexander Skarsgard, who plays Father in that movie. He is pure perfection and I've told my husband many times I wouldn't hesitate about kicking him out if this blonde Viking showed up on my doorstep. Oh, the things I'd do to that man.... anyway, I digress...

When I saw the colors for this collection, I loved them all, but decided I would only pick up a couple. So of course I ordered 10, lol. The fact that I'm only missing 2 of the entire collection, is kinda making me want to pick those up too, but I've resisted so far!

China Glaze Seeing Red is a gorgeous red cream. When I first saw this, I wondered if I needed this in my stash, it's a red cream, how many red creams do I need? Well, all of them as it turns out, because this is a totally unique color to my collection! It's a dusty, brick red, perfect for fall!

I love the color, but what really sold me on this polish was the formula. This is a 1 coater! You don't even need to do a thick coat, this is a true 1 coater, so a single thin coat is all you need. I did do 2 coats, just to see if it would deepen the color, but it didn't change anything in terms of opacity or color, it's just as gorgeous on the first coat.

It's easy to apply, glides on the nail and dries fast enough and super glossy, I'm so glad I decided to pick this up after all. If you love red polish, definitely check this one out!

Do you love red polish and what's your favorite fall red?

X

Read more »

Blogger problems: taking pictures

Not a post about a gorgeous polish today, but something I've been struggling with for a while now and the main reason why I haven't been posting as much as normal.

Everybody who's tried to take a picture of a mani in the middle of winter, has probably come across this problem: getting the color to show up accurately!
It's been so grey and dark outside, even in the day time, that I've been having major problems with my swatches. I just can't get a decent picture to save my life! I have started to take my polish bottles to work with me, so I can take a picture as soon as I have even the slightest bit of sunlight, but that's just not always convenient as I work full time. 

I end up with pictures looking like this, a little dark, a little dull, a little blurry and not quite color accurate, with a lot of glare... Not what I want to be showing!

Polishes used for those who want to know: China Glaze Icicle and OPI Lincoln park after dark. Triangles done with nail guides from Beyond the Nail.

This has been bugging me for a while now and I've decided to take action! I've been searching the web for the best solution, but I haven't found my ideal one yet. The most common solution seems to be to take the pictures in a light box, but my iPhone doesn't want to take normal pictures when using a light box. So I've decided my first step has to be a decent camera. Nothing too fancy, just a standard point and shoot. I think the fact that I take all my pictures with my phone is one of the big reasons they're not that good.

But hunting for a nice camera leads to my next problem: what's the best camera for me? I want a camera that is affordable, easy to manage with just one hand (since I'll be taking pictures of my other hand) and has a macro option so I can finally show close ups of all those gorgeous glitters!

Source: tweakers.net

I looked at a lot of different camera's and came to the realization I need help! So here's where you (hopefully) come in!

As I'm a total camera newbie, I have no clue what I should be looking for! I've asked for help in store, but most people don't seem to understand why in the world I would want to take perfect pictures of my nails. Seriously, one guy started laughing until he realized I was serious...
They keep talking about pixels, zoom and all that fancy stuff that I just don't care about!

What camera do you use for swatch pictures? What's a good point and shoot camera? What kind of specs should I be looking for?

Help me, please!

X

Read more »

Cadillacquer Pink Teddy Bear

Today I have such a gorgeous polish to show you, I just can't get enough of it. This has been on my nails for 4 days already and I really just don't want to take it off. Luckily, I really don't have to, as I only have the slightest bit of tipwear on 2 of my nails. The rest of my mani looks absolutely flawless!

Cadillacquer Pink Teddy Bear is a black base with a pink, slightly color shifting shimmer and a scattered holo dusting. This is part of the Breaking Bad collection and was first released in 2013.

The formula is bang on. It's easy to paint, dries really fast and shiny and it's opaque in 2 thin coats. It's so opaque, that if you do a slightly thicker coat, you might be able to get away with just 1 coat if you're in a hurry.

My pictures don't do this polish justice at all, the shimmer is much more noticeable in real life and absolutely gorgeous! The holo is so finely milled, that you don't really get the rainbow effect, it just adds depth to the base.

I absolutely love this polish! When I first got it, I thought it was pretty, but I didn't expect it to have the can't stop staring at my nails effect. Let me tell you, I was wrong! It's simple, but stunning and it looks different in every light. If you love darker polish, this is the one to get!

Cadillacquer is available at Llarowe, Harlow&Co and I got mine at Hypnotic Polish. Every single polish I tried from this brand has a perfect formula, so I highly recommend checking it out!

Are you familiar with Cadillacquer and, if so, what's your favorite polish?

X

Read more »

China Glaze Nice Caboose

I have so many gorgeous polishes that are sitting in my stash, untried, that I'm almost too embarrassed to buy new polishes... almost. I always try to shop my stash for a couple of months a year and always fail miserably...  I'm going to give it another go until the end of the year and hopefully this time I'm a little more successful than previous years! (the only exception to this will be the Loaded Lacquer Holiday collection, no way I'm skipping that one!).

Today I have a gorgeous untried polish to show you. China Glaze Nice Caboose is a shimmery deep, vampy pink berry purple that was released with the All Aboard collection. In the bottle I can see some really weird flakies, but they don't really translate onto the nail and I have to say, I'm actually really glad.

The formula is very good, easy to paint opaque in 2 thin coats, almost 1, but not quite. It dries fast and really shiny and it didn't stain my nails.

Even though I love purple polish, I don't tend to wear it a lot. I really have no idea why...
This one I did wear and really enjoyed, because it's such a Fall appropriate purple and the shimmer gives it so much depth.

Even my husband loved this polish and that doesn't happen a lot, he tends to stick with red, lol. I picked up a couple more from the All Aboard collection and they're all really gorgeous. I can't wait to try those!

Do you wear a lot of purple polish and do you have a favorite?

X

Read more »

Kaleidoscope by El Corazon Magic Flower

Sometimes you just want a fun, bright and fresh color on your nails, even if it's cold and raining outside, so the polish cheers you up every time you glance at your nails. I've found the perfect polish for that! It's fun, bright and absolutely gorgeous and to top it off, it has a really nice, easy to paint formula!

Kaleidoscope by El Corazon Magic Flower is a bright green cream with a greyish blue micro glitter. This polish was part of the Dreams about Spring collection, just like First Snowdrop I showed you earlier. I got this polish at Hypnotic Polish and it's still available there.

Like I said, the formula is really nice, easy to paint, opaque in just 2 thin coats, fast drying and it's shiny all on its own. My pictures are 2 coats without topcoat.

I love this color! It's bright and fun, but somehow not too in your face. Even though this is definitely a Spring and Summer Polish, I wear it all year round, because I'm a firm believer in wearing whatever color you want in whatever season you want!

I only own two of the Kaleidoscope polishes, but both are gorgeous with a perfect formula and they are really affordable. I think I will be picking up quite a few more of these in the not so distant future :D

Were you familiar with this brand and what do you think?

X

Read more »

China Glaze I sea the point

I love blue nail polish and my absolute favorite blue of all time has to be Essie Butler Please. But although that color is to die for, the formula is incredibly crapy. So I'm always on the hunt for a polish that gives me color like Butler, but with a much better formula. I had high hopes for the polish I'm showing you today, let's see if I found my perfect version of Butler.

China Glaze I sea the point is a bright, in your face blue cream polish. This was released as part of the Off Shore Summer 2014 collection.

The formula, I was crossing my fingers when I was painting this and although it's not a bad formula, it's not perfect either. Its a little patchy because it dries extremely fast, so working quickly when applying without going over the same spot too often is a must. It does level nicely while drying though and it's opaque in 2 thin coats.

I love this color (duh!), it's bright blue, but it's a little dustier than Butler. It reminds me more of Sally Hansen Pacific Blue (old formula), but it's not quite the same either. They are however all 3 close enough so you don't need all of them, except when you love blue polish as much as I do, than I'd totally recommend getting all three!

The biggest plus though for this polish, is that this didn't stain my nails! Normally when I apply a vibrant blue polish, I have to double up on base coat, or accept the fact that I'm going to look like I killed a Smurf for a couple of weeks. This one was easy to remove without any staining.

Even though this was released a while ago, it should still be available at the normal China Glaze selling points. If you love blue, you need to give this a try!

What's your favorite blue polish?

X

Read more »

Zoya Yuna

This Fall, Zoya released a two part collection called the Ignite and Entice collection. The Entice part has all cream polishes and the Ignite part has all shimmer polishes. Although I loved (almost) all of the colors, I only picked up a few of the Ignite collection. I am planning to pick up 1 more of the Ignite collection if I can get my hands on it and as for the Entice collection, I don't have any just yet, but there are a couple that I do really like, so I think they might make it to my collection sometime in the near future.

Today I have the first of my picks from the Ignite collection to show you. Zoya Yuna is a gorgeous dark grey base, packed with golden shimmer. The combination of the gold with the grey base, almost makes this polish look green in some lights, but it's definitely grey.

The formula was perfect! Easy to apply, opaque in 2 coats, it dried really fast and with a shiny finish. The shimmer doesn't make this feel bumpy at all, it's absolute perfection and a hidden gem in this collection.

I wasn't even going to pick this one up, but when I placed my order, I needed 1 more polish to fill the box (something to do with a fixed shipping fee and I always feel like I'm wasting money if I don't pick up the maximum amount of polishes...) and I threw this one in.

I thought it looked really nice in the bottle, but when I applied it and saw the color on my nails, I was in LOVE! It's a calm and very sophisticated color, but that golden shimmer packs a punch! This will be a fall favorite of mine from now on and if you love grey polish or even if you don't, you need to try Yuna.

Did you pick up any of the Ignite or Entice polishes and which one is your favorite?

X

Read more »

Lilypad Lacquer You got my attention

Happy Monday! Did you all have a good weekend? I did a little shopping and spend some quality time with my husband. Nothing beats a nice, quiet weekend every now and again.

Today I have a new to me indie brand to show you. It's my one and only polish by this indie maker, but I have a feeling that will change in the near future!

Lilypad Lacquer You got my attention is a gorgeous bright purple base with a very strong scattered holo and blue, iridescent flakies.

The formula was absolutely perfect! I love the brush, it's flat, but not too wide and dispenses the perfect amount of polish. It was opaque in 2 coats, dried really fast and reasonably shiny and was basically everything I want in a polish formula!

The color is absolutely stunning! It's a bright purple and the scattered holo is very noticable on the nail and because of the flakies, this is still very pretty in low lighting. When you do get out in full sun though... oh boy... pure holo goodness!

I think this is a perfect spring and summer polish, but we've been having such nice weather, I decided to bust it out. It's a newer edition to my collection and I have to say, I love everything about it.

Lilypad Lacquer is an Australian indie polish maker and you can buy her polishes on Etsy and Larrowe, but I got mine from Hypnotic Polish.

What do you thing about this gorgeous polish?

X

Read more »

Loaded lacquer Brain Breath

Happy Halloween everybody!!!
This post was supposed to go up yesterday, but I had a few issues with my pictures, so I'm a day late... but better late than never, right?!

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know I love pretty/ugly colors, especially the murky green ones like Zombie Zest, Walker Bait and It's Alive. So when I saw a murky green polish in the Zombie Hayride collection, I knew instantly it would be another winner.

Loaded Lacquer Brain Breath is a murky, slimy green jelly base with a very strong copper, almost pink shimmer.

The formula is a touch on the thicker side, but still very easy to apply. Because of the jelly base, you do need 3 coats to get it fully opaque, but it dries so fast, 3 coats isn't a problem at all! Because it's a little thicker, you could get away with 2 thick coats, but I prefer 3 thin coats.

I love this color, but I think the majority will say this is a disgusting color to put on your nails. But what did you expect from a polish that's called Brain Breath... it has to be a little disgusting! I can just picture a zombie grunting to another zombie before a hot date: "I just ate lunch, do I have Brain Breath?"

The shimmer in this polish is what makes this a winner for me. It gives it just a little extra and it makes it pop on my nails. I've had so many comments on my nails today, positive and not so positive ones, but this baby gets noticed! If you like your polish a little different than most, I'd definitely recommend checking this one out!

Loaded Lacquer is available here, but the site is currently closed for a holiday and restock. The shop will open again in November and I can't wait, as the Holiday collection will be revealed. I already know I need every single one of them (obsessed much? Lol!)

What do you think about this polish? Gorgeous or disgusting color?

X

Read more »