My most worn polishes: Indie

When I did my most worn polishes post, I decided to split it up into two posts, mainstream polishes and Indie polishes. You can see my most worn main stream polishes here and today I have the indie polishes I've worn the most.

This was a really fun post for me to do, because I rediscoverd a couple of polishes and actually wore one of them straight away!

Let's start with the very first indie polishes I ever bought. Darling Diva Seriously Serious and A Christmas Story. I have the old packaging, Darling Diva has since updated their bottles. I love both of these polishes and have worn them a lot. As you can see, I've made a big dent in both bottles and I'm going to cry when I run out, because both these polishes aren't available anymore.

Next up we have Girly Bits Smurf Dance (again, old bottle with the cute rhinestone) and Nail Pattern Boldness Flipping Out Hard. I love Smurf because it's a fun glitter and because I call a good friend of mine Smurf (she's tiny...) and this polish reminds me of her. FOH is one of my all time favorite polishes. It's just so fun and bright.

Dollish Polish Expecto Patronum is one of those polishes that I really wanted, but as it was discontinued, I couldn't get my  hands on it. I got my bottle by swapping it with a friend for another polish and I absolutely love it! Luckily Dolly decided to bring it back, right after I got mine and it's still available. 

Crowstoes Bone Daddy I not only love for the color, but the name makes me laugh every time. It's not particularly funny, but my dirty mind makes it funny. 

Pipe Dream Polish Cha Ching is one of those polishes that sneak up on you. I didn't expect to love this as much as I do, because I wasn't into silver or  holographic, but this is my gateway polish into silver. I love it so much and I've actually become a huge silver polish fan. This is still one of my favorites though.

And last but certainly not least, my favorite indie brand Loaded Lacquer. I could have included all my Loaded polishes, because every time I'm in the mood for a glitter, it's the first brand that comes to mind. Some of my favorites are Get Lei'd, Paradise Overdose, Cave of Skulls, Cuts like a knife, Foolish Hearts and Do the Snowbot. 

What are your most worn and most loved indie polishes?

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Girly Bits Fright Night

Spring is just around the corner and I've been loving light, airy colors, but yesterday I was in the mood for something dark and vampy. I debated if I wanted a black or red nail and decided to go for both.

You know I love my dark colors, but my biggest weakness, besides red polish, is a black jelly base, packed with red glitter. I think I own one from every brand, but I keep buying them. I just can't help myself. Today I have my favorite of all those polishes to show you.

Girly Bits Fright Night is, like I said, a black jelly base, packed with various sizes and shapes of red glitter and teeny tiny red bar glitter. This polish was released as part of the 2012 Halloween collection and has since been retired.

The formula is nice, it's opaque on its own in about 3 coats, but I like it better layered over a black base. The glitter comes out easily and you don't need to manipulate it at all to get it spread evenly on the nail. It dries really fast, but a little on the dull side, so I'd suggest a good layer of top coat to smooth it out and make it shine.

This is just a single coat over one coat of China Glaze Liquid Leather and I love how this looks. You could definitely do more coats if you want more glitter, but I think this is perfection on a nail.

I'm normally not the biggest fan of bar glitter, but these are so tiny I don't mind them. I Actually really like them, they're extra fun!

This is the old Girly Bits bottle and I love the little rhinestone on it. I understand the label had to be updated and even though I like the new bottle, I still prefer the rhinestoned one. Fright Night is no longer available, but there are a lot of other, gorgeous polishes you can try from this brand.

You can pick up your Girly Bits from their website or you can get them at Llarowe or Harlow&Co.

What's your favorite Girly Bits polish?

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Hare Polish Attack of the army from Albiorix

Another Monday, another week.
Is it just me, or are the weeks just flying by? I always get this feeling in March, I think it has to do with the fact that February is such a short month. One good thing about time flying, is that spring is almost here! I really can't wait for some sunshine. But as it's still cold and wet outside, I decided to go for a dark, vampy color on my nails.

Hare Polish Attack of the army from Albiorix is a very deep and vampy purple jelly base with a mix of fuchsia and pink small circles, bright red glitter, bright blue glitter and purple shimmer. This base is so dark, it looks black most of the time, but when you paint it, you do see it's actually dark purple.

This polish was released as part of the Interstellar Invasion collection, the same collection that Martian Mutiny that I showed earlier was part of and Nikole from Hare Polish describes the inspiration for this collection as follows:

This collection has a full-on-galaxy-war type of vibe, and was born from my affinity for 1960's/70's pulpy/sci-fi art. Imagine warring armies from enemy galaxies destroying whole planets with laser cannons and giant space robots from the nearest black holes - these were the types of things floating through my brain while making this collection!

The formula was excellent, the first coat was a little sheer because of the jelly base, but it was fully opaque in two. The glitters came out easily and spread out on the nail nicely. This polish dries just as fast as any other Hare polish, but it wasn't very shiny, so I would suggest a good, thick layer of topcoat to get a shiny finish.

I love this color and this polish was the reason I wanted this collection in the first place. Deep, vampy base with a multi colored mix of glitter, everything I want in a polish and with a perfect formula to top it off. I'm a big fan!

Hare Polish is available on Etsy, her stock tends to sell out quite quickly, so keep an eye out for restocks!

What's your favorite Hare Polish?

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Lacquester Dark Days Vamp

The thing I love most about the internet, is that you can find a lot of polish loving people on it! I love talking about polish and one of my favorite places to do just that is Instagram. I've gotten to know quite a few really nice ladies while browsing around, looking for polish inspiration. One of those awesome girls is Lori (Lacqueredlori).
When she tagged me in a swatch, because she knew I would love the polish, I just couldn't help myself and had to order it, especially because it was a polish from a Dutch indie brand!

Lacquester Darkest Days Vamp is a gorgeous deep burgundy shade. Lori knows me so well, because this polish has my name written all over it!

The formula is very nice, maybe just a little thicker than the average polish like a lot of indie polishes, but very easy to paint, fast drying and opaque in 2 coats. It dries shiny al on its own, but I would recommend adding a top coat to prolong your mani and add extra shine.

Do I even need to tell you how I feel about this color? It's so stunning and has so much depth to it, I just can't get enough of it. I love these vampy shades, especially the reddish kind, like this one.

Lacquester is an indie brand owned and created by Caroline, a Dutch nail polish lover. Her polishes are 5-free and not tested on animals. I ordered a couple more polishes and I love all of them. I would definitely recommend checking out this indie brand!

You can find Lacquester on her site, she ships internationally!

Do you like vampy colors, like me, or are you more a pastel kind of girl?

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Pretty & Polished Tears of Dionysus

For the polish I'm showing you today, I kept looking at the nametag on the bottle, because I just can't seem to remember how to spell it... That's what happens when you name your polish after the Greek god of intoxication!

Pretty & Polished Tears of Dionysus (you see, impossible!) is a deep, dark purple jelly base, packed with blue and purple hex glitter. I've seen a few versions of this polish, with just blue glitter, just purple glitter and mine, with both blue and purple glitter. On the Pretty & Polished website it's listed with just purple glitter, but mine definitely has blue in it.

My friend Yv, mijnkleinegeheimpjes, calls this polish "vloeibare Anc" which means Liquid Anc, because it's dark and twisty, just like me :')

When you look at her swatches, you'll see her polish only has blue glitter, no purple to be seen...

We both double checked our labels and they both definitely say Tears of Dionysus.

Although they're both absolutely stunning, they are definitely different!

The formula is nice, but a little on the sheer side because of the jelly base. You'll need at least 3 coats to get this opaque on its own and I still had some spots  you could see my nail through it. As I like my polish to be really opaque, I decided to layer it over OPI Viking in a Vinter Vonderland and the swatches I'm showing is just 1 coat over this base.

This polish is named after an old story about the gem Amethyst:

"The legend of the origin of amethyst comes to us from Greek myth. Dionysius, the god of intoxication, was angered one day by an insult from a human and swore revenge on the next mortal that crossed his path. Violent tigers should carry out his wish. Amethyst, a beautiful young maiden on her way to pay tribute to the goddess Diana was to become the victim. Diana turned Amethyst into a stature of pure crystalline quartz to protect her from the brutal claws. Dionysus wept tears of wine in remorse for his action at the sight of the beautiful statue. The god's tears stained the  quartz purple, creating the famous gem."

Reading this story, you'd definitely expect this polish to be purple, not blue, but I'm kinda glad I have the blue glitters mixed in. It give this polish extra depth and complexity and I absolutely love how this looks on my nails!

Pretty & Polished is available on their website and they do ship internationally, lucky for everybody outside the USA!

Which version do you like better, just blue glitter or blue and purple combined?

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Dollish Polish Yo-ho Yo-ho a pirates life for me

Another Monday, another new week! Did you all have a nice weekend? I had a nice and quite couple of days at home with my hubbie. We went out to lunch, did some chores around the house and just spend some quality time together. I have to say, it's one of my favorite ways to spend my weekend.

Today I have a gorgeous polish to show you, Dollish Polish Yo-ho Yo-ho a pirates life for me is a red jelly base, packed with blue, gold, red and magenta micro glitter as far as I can tell. This polish was inspired by the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and it's of course based on the famous pirate song.

The formula is really nice for such a dense glitter. It's easy to paint and opaque in 2 thin coats. The glitter comes out easily, without overloading the nail and it dries fast and shiny.

As you know I love my reds and this gorgeous glitter is no exception. I love the deep red base, paired with the multi colored glitter. It gives it a lot of depth and makes this a really fun polish to wear.

The fact that I keep think of Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp in their pirate outfits... well, that's just an added bonus!

Unfortunately this polish was discontinued, but did you know Dollish Polish has an Etsy store where she sells discounted polishes? This can be discontinued polishes or newer ones, she did have this one for sale a few weeks ago and she does regular restocks. If you want to check what she has to offer right now, click here!

Are you a Pirates of the Caribbean fan like me, or did you skip the movies?

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2014 Favorite 14!

I've been sitting in front of my Helmers for hours, I've looked through all my posts, Instagram pictures and swatch wheels in order to find the polishes I really loved in 2014 so I could do this post. I pulled out a lot of them, but I just couldn't do a post with 50 polishes, so I had to put just a few away again until I was left with just 14, the best of the best, the ones I truly loved this past year and kept going back to.

Here are the 14 that made the cut, in no particular order, because deciding which one was my absolute favorite... well, I just couldn't do it!

So, here we go!
If you want to read more about one of the polishes, just click on the name.

1. Zoya Veruschka

I hunted, I coveted, I rejoiced when I finally owned this at the beginning of 2014 and than didn't paint it until December... But around Christmas I pulled it out wore it in back to back mani's, because it's just so stunning!

2. Girly Bits Gravedigger

I love a nice dark jelly base with a crapton of glitter in it and this is absolutely gorgeous!

3. Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Such a shifter! Is it red? Is it purple? It's both!

4. Kaleidoscope by El Corazon First Snowdrop

Clean, stunning with a hint of glitter and a perfect formula!

5. Picture Polish Vampire

I think this is me in a bottle... Dark, twisty, simply stunning!
And the text on the bottle could've come from me :D
This particular polish is actually my most liked swatch on Instagram, so a lot of you seemed to like it as well :D

6. Pipe Dream Polish Graffiti Tag

This polish started my love affair with white bases filled with neon glitter.

7. Colors by Llarowe Conny, you saucy minx

Just look at it, need I say more?

8. OPI Sorry I'm fizzy today

Not my usual color, pink, but because it's almost neon, it really pops. This particular polish works so well with my skin tone, this was my go to summer polish.

9. China Glaze neon gradient

Ok, so this is not a polish, but a polish combination I was obsessed with during the Summer. I think I wore this particular mani at least 4 times, I just couldn't get enough!

10. OPI My boyfriend scales walls

Just a simple off white cream, but I love how clean this looks on the nail and it's the perfect base for nail art. I love this so much, I actually just repurchased this polish, because I completely used up my first bottle.

11. China Glaze Lotus Begin

I'd never thought I'd add a pastel purple to my favorite polishes, but here it is! I wore the heck out of this polish, on it's own, in nail art, as an accent, with an accent, you name it, I wore it.

12. China Glaze Grass is Lime Greener

Crappy formula, but so so worth it! I made all my friends buy this polish, because it's just stunning!

13. Loaded Lacquer Cuts like a knife

2014 was the year I discovered Loaded lacquer and fell in love with this brand. And when I say fell in love I mean L O V E! I own a lot and have a lot of favorites, I could've done a 2014 favorite 14 Loaded Lacquer polishes easily, because I love them all! But this particular one made my heart flutter the first time I painted this on my nails. Red, glitter, with a bit of oomph to it. Be still my heart!

14. Zoya Tomoko

This has to be my favorite Pixie Dust, at least it's my most worn by far! This polish is my gateway polish into metallic colors, because I used to not like gold, silver, or any metallic shade at all! Now I'm kinda addicted to white golden polish and I just purchased a few silver ones.

And because I can't help myself, I snuck in a sneaky extra! I absolutely love this polish, but I love the cherries even more. I think this might be my favorite nail art of 2014 and it's just so simple.

15. Picture Polish Chillax

That's it, all 14 (and a sneaky extra) of my favorite, most worn polishes for 2014! I can't wait to see what indie and mainstream brands come out with in 2015, I've already seen some amazing new collections.

What's your favorite polish for 2014?

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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?

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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?

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Girly Bits Gravedigger

I love everything Halloween and I'm really bummed we don't celebrate the holiday here. This is one of my favorite times of the year, because of all the new Halloween collections coming out!
Every year I tell myself I'm only going to pick up a select few and every year I go totally bonkers and buy way to many. This year I'm trying to stick to my promiss and to help me do that but still fill my Halloween nail polish needs, I'm going to wear all my untried Halloween polishes from previous years!

The first polish I wore this year is Girly Bits Gravedigger. This is a black crelly base, packed with orange, pink, purple and green small and larger hexes and squares. It was released as part of the 2013 Fall collection, but I've still seen it available.

The formula is really nice. It's easy to paint and I love the Girly Bits brush. It's nice and flat, wide, but not too wide and it fans out nicely, dispersing the glitter evenly over the nail. It dried really fast and shiny, but with all glitter, I'd recommend using a good top coat to smooth it out.

Oh, this is just so pretty! I was afraid the black base would cover the gorgeous color of the glitter, but no such thing! It's dark, twisty and fun, perfect for Halloween! I wore this for almost a week, because I just couldn't bring myself to take it off and I got so many compliments on it.

The glitter really does stand out, it's not overpowered by the black base at all, I can't believe I've never worn this before, it's instantly made it to my favorites list. Perfect in every way!

What's your favorite Halloween polish?

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