Hey Everyone!!

I’ve got another nail polish from Scofflaw Nail Varnish to share with you all today. This time I’m wearing Scofflaw Flotsam & Jetsam. As soon as I saw swatches of this nail polish on the Scofflaw Facebook page I knew it had to be mine! I’m half asleep here so I apologize for the minimalistic post.

Scofflaw Nail Varnish Flotsam & Jetsam

Flotsam & Jetsam is a gorgeous pale mint jelly/creme hybrid that is filled with purple and turquoise shards and turquoise micro-shimmer. So pretty!! Application was a breeze and it was opaque at 3 coats. Though I think next time I’ll try layering it over a creamy white or minty green underwear nail polish.

Macro shot of awesome and win.

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Final Thoughts:

Flotsam & Jetsam by Scofflaw Nail Varnish is yet another great freshman release from the newcomer to the indie nail polish world. I’m really looking forward to trying more from her, and I can’t wait to see what she comes out with next! Have any of you tried Scofflaw nail polishes yet? If so, what are your thoughts? ^_^

Purchase Info:

Flotsam & Jetsam (and other Scofflaw Nail Varnishes) can be purchased at either scofflawvarnish.com or Llarowe. Prices and shipping vary depending on the site so check their shop policies individually. And for you folks not in the US, Llarowe does offer international shipping. ^_^

To keep up to date with upcoming collections, news and restock dates you can check out Scofflaw Nail Varnish on Facebook.

* (The product(s) in this post were purchased by me.)

A few were press samples or provided for review, noted as such below.

Morning Loves!

I do plan to show you all MOAR nail polish and a few makeup swatches in the upcoming weeks. I’m approaching the end of Hell Month (aka 50-55 hour weeks at work) so I’ll have time to play with my goodies again soon. In the meantime I have a compilation post of sorts to share to hopefully tide you over.

Now, I am by no means a professional when it comes to applying makeup. Nor do I even wear it consistently, maybe once or twice a week at most. My general philosophy with makeup is “errrr, just throw this and this together and see what happens…”. But every now and then I’m pretty pleased with how my makeup turns out! So I decided to pull some of my favorite more recent accidental miracles from my IG for your viewing pleasure. I hope you enjoy them! Unfortunately I can’t remember everything that I used for these said looks, but in the future I’ll try to take notes as I go!

Masquerade ‘King Cake’ !

This is probably one of my absolute favorite accidental looks ever! My friend had a Mardi Gras/Masquerade themed birthday dinner in February and I really wanted to do something Mardi Gras themed. I honestly think this turned out looking similar to the frosting on a King Cake! The purple, green, and white eyeshadows are from the Wet n Wild I Love Matte palette. I can’t remember what else I used, sorry! Eyeliner is Milani Color Brilliance in Green and Aqua. Lips are… Wet n Wild Vamp It Up I think?

Here’s a close-up up of the look.

And here’s my final look with my masquerade mask on! I’m wearing the Bone Machine 2.0 catsuit by Black Milk Clothing with a lace long sleeve top over it. ^_^

Smokey Gold EOTD/OOTD

*Waves fingers* Pay no attention to the clutter in the background, haha. I have a mild obsession with ALL gold eyeshadows. If I see a gold shadow, I am compelled to purchase it! I ordered quite a few sample eyeshadows from BFTE Cosmetics, and used a few for this look. I know I used BFTE Dragonslayer, and maybe BFTE Gable or Meteor Shower but don’t quote me on those last two. I also used Uzi from my Urban Decay Sustainable Palette. Lips are Wet n Wild Megalast 24 Carrot Gold layered over Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Rendezvous. ^_^

I was going out for a friend’s birthday weekend and I paired this look with one of my favorite dresses from Black Milk Clothing (Woman in Red Ep. 1) and their suspender hosiery, with a black shadow striped doleman top.

Sort-Of Blackened Peach… Mauve?

This one is more of a fail that I ended up really liking anyway, haha. It initially was my attempt at Nihrida’s blackened peach, but I quickly realized that I didn’t really have the right colors to re-create her look. I worked with what I had, and accidentally overdid my cat eye so this turned into more of a blackened mauve… No clue really what I used here: some BFTE shadows, some Wet n Wild shadows, and some from a super cheap mystery palette from Walgreens.

Hair Of The Now!

Annnnnd on a different note, here is my hair of the now! I did a side-by-side to show you what it looks like straightened vs. its naturally curly state. On the lower half of my hair I dyed it with Burgundy Wine by Special Effects, and I used Cherry Bomb by Special Effects for my top layers. I love it! It’s even brighter in the sunlight (more pics here and here)! Though I think I want to use even brighter, or more fun colors next time. Maybe a purple or a blue? We shall see… This is my first time using Special Effects hair dyes, and so far I’m pretty impressed. I dyed it back in the beginning of March and my hair is still un-faded over a month later! It’s a plant-based dye that I was able to leave on my hair overnight with no damage to my tresses (I did not bleach my hair first).

Le Nails of the… Few Weeks Ago.

Finally, so I don’t leave you without any nail pr0n in a post I will just leave this here… I first saw this triangle gradient look created by Lafemmelulu on Instagram (her profile is private). Her nails are ALWAYS flawless, and I just loved this look so much that I had to try it myself.

I used A England Camelot for my base (gifted to me by A England’s Adina, thank you!). And for my gradient I layered You’re Such a Budapest and Can’t Find My Czechbook from OPI’s Euro Centrale collection (press samples, review coming soon-ish!) over Milani White on the Spot. I’m really happy with how this turned out for my first attempt! I’ll definitely be doing this look again!

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That’s it for now folks! I hope you enjoyed looking at my ‘Fun With Eye Shadow’ pics. Would you all like more makeup centered posts here? I’m definitely still more of a nail polish [and sometimes food] centered blog, but I enjoy my eyeshadows and lipsticks. And if you all want to see more of that, I can certainly make it happen!

In theory I hope to have something new for you all next week. And I would reaaaaaally like to catch up on the ridiculous backlog of nail polishes I need to swatch. But I can’t have everything I ask for, can I?

Morning Everyone!!

I hope you’re all doing well this fine Thursday afternoon! Work has been keeping me plenty busy this month, as I’m averaging about 50-55 hours per week lately! But I managed to find time to play with the new Rescue Beauty Lounge Emoting Me collection that Ji sent me for review!

Ji of Rescue Beauty Lounge had this to say about her newest collection:

“May my goods come out greater than my own, every time I walk
towards your path. Please usher my footfalls, guide me to be where
to be, what to do, what to say, what to write, and to whom. Let me
embrace every moment you’ve given to me with clear vision,
strength, peace, love and grace. Let me be with you every moment
to moment in your magical kingdom. Let me be at your service, my
heart is open to you and use me for something greater than my own.
Thank you for your abundance, blessings, and your love. Thank you
for this beautiful gift of today.”

This is my daily mantra and how I greet each day. I subconsciously
and consciously recite it from that exquisite place sandwiched
between my sleepy-dreamy blur and the lustering lights of a brand
new morning. It took me many years of seeking, practicing, and
learning to reach this point in my life. I feel stripped naked, revealing

and sharing my private daily mantra, but this is my story and also the
story that is within all of us: we are all emoting.

I’m convinced that if one is ready to truly learn, this generous
universe paves the road in front of us. The trick is knowing when to
admit the desire to take that first baby step.

Sadly for me, my desire to take this first step came five years ago,
when my beloved mother-in-law suddenly left this earth. Our sunny,
delightful home came under a dark gray rolling fog that thickened
with our gloom. Lingering questions struck me during this time: Can
emotional darkness be contagious? Are we enjoying this sorrowful
place just a tad too much? It was time for me to open my own eyes
and to start my first step toward my own path and to seek my true
self. I became an observer of my own life.

I read self-help books and came across many sparklingly wise words
and phrases that we’re told should accompany our daily lives. But by
painfully peeling the layers off of my own ego, I learned that I’m
responsible for my own emotions and the energy I give out.

My everyday practice is simple: I’ve stopped labeling myself. I’m not
so evolved that I levitate in the lotus position in the snowy mountains
wearing my flowing pair of tai chi pants. I process and feel every
emotion, just like everyone on this earth, but I keep my daily ego in
check by knowing that I’m responsible for what I give out and what I
receive.

No matter what the circumstances, these are the seven words I
repeat persistently:

The seven words she mentions are the seven nail polishes that made up the Emoting Me Collection. I used the RBL base coat and top coat for all my swatches shown here today. Let’s more on the lovely lacquers, shall we?

Thank You

Because I’m my own worst critic, I first thank myself, then I thank
others, and lastly, I thank the universe. I know that I am loved and,
even in negative circumstances, in order to grow, lessons must be
learned. It may be tough in the beginning, but when I close my eyes
in gratitude and start with a bare, neutral nude, a cast of beatific

Opalescent pink shimmers radiates with thankfulness.

The shimmer in Thank You is so pretty! At first I initially thought it was just a golden shimmer, but in different lighting it shifts to a pink and then green! I have never been disappointed by a RBL nude shade and Thank You is no exception. I used 3 thin coats here to achieve the level of opacity I prefer.

I tried my best to capture the subtle shimmer in Thank You. In this photo you see a mostly gold shimmer and at the curves of my nail you can just make out the shift to pink. The green shift didn’t want to come out and play for my camera, haha!

Be Humble

I know that I can’t be too self-congratulatory or judge others. I always
remind myself to stay modest. I try to grey out my ego with this taupe
lightness and allow hope to float in pink, blue, and lavender
shimmers.

Be Humble is so stinkin’ pretty!! This light taupe has a lot of lavender undertones and the hidden shimmer is a great addition. I couldn’t stop staring at my nails when I had it on. This would be a great work appropriate shade with a nice little punch from the subtle shimmer to kick it up a bit. The formula for Be Humble was slightly thicker than the others in this collection, but not so thick that it caused too many issues with application. 2 careful coats is all you need, maybe 3 if you don’t wait long enough between coats for it to dry.

The subtle shimmer comes out to play a bit in this macro shot of Be Humble. ^_^

Forgiveness

To forgive and to ask for forgiveness is the ultimate emotional
cleanser, but why is it so difficult for me to open my heart and admit
that I’m wrong? Guilt and regret are useless emotions. When I forgive
someone, or even when I forgive myself, I step into the serene
opaqueness of this dove-lavender color and then I am able to let go
and move on.

I definitely agree with Ji on this one. I have no room in my life for regret, I take everything as a learning experience. ^_^

Forgiveness is a gorgeous muted lavender creme, 3 thin coats here. And WOW is it ever glossy, even before top coat! This one got the BSOA (Boyfriend Seal Of Approval) and was dubbed as a “really cool shade of purple”. Lavender my dear, lavender. Application was a breeze and the formula was thin and easy to work with.

Smile

First, I always smile at the sky at least once a day. It is a privilege to
be in this universe. When I lift my face to the sun and bask in its
gloriousness, I blink my eyes and see this dazzling red light, a neutral
red, and full of sunny, shimmery goodness. Like a smile, this color is
contagious.

OMGGGGGGG Smile is a faaaabulous nail polish! This little beauty is a vibrant shade of coral-red with pink undertones that is filled with orange micro-shimmer. I’ve power-marathoned through seasons 2-5 of Mad Men over the past weekend to catch up to the season 6 premiere. And everyone had such gorgeous manicures on that show, it had me craving a red shade to wear on my digits. Smile landing in my lap on Monday afternoon was a sign from the heavens.

I used 3 coats here but you could probably get away with 2 coats on shorter nails.

Macro shot to try to capture the shimmer in Smile. It’s extremely subtle but it can be seen in indoor and outdoor lighting.

Pause

Violet is the color of the chakra that marks the union of the soul with
the body, mind, and divine consciousness. With this come bliss,
satisfaction, and rest. Being in the present moment is probably the
hardest challenge I have. When I stare at the depth of this multi-
faceted mid-violet silky shimmer and be at one with this color and
nothing else, then I know I am in my present moment.

Because my digital camera gets blue and purples confused regularly, I thought I was going to have issues capturing the true royal purple color of Pause. But this is quite accurate hue-wise to how it appears in person. The shimmer is much more prominent in real life though and my camera did take issue with the glowy fuchsia and pink micro shimmer. I just could not get it to play nice for my camera!

Pause has great coverage and a superb formula. All I needed was 2 coats here.

This is as good a shot of the micro-shimmer as I could get of Pause. Pictures really do not do this one justice, you just have to see it in person. ^_^

Become One

I imagine that one brilliantly sunny day in April when I looked up to
see the sun flickering through a cascade of innocent leaves. This

Opaque green takes me to those young; verdant leaves in the spring
and reminds me that nature is our best teacher of life cycles.

Become One is a bright grassy green creme. I think everyone needs this shade of green in their collection! But I’m a sucker for anything green so I might be ever so slightly biased. I actually have 2 other nail polishes in my collection that in my mind seem quite similar to this one, I’ll post a comparison between them soon!  Application was great, I did 3 thin coats here for full opacity.

Turn It Around

Once I understood the universe’s law of polarity, everything made
perfect sense. Negatives can’t exist without positives. If I never allow
pain to wash over me, then joy becomes meaningless. From this
color’s dark mossy green pond, a vivid, glittering cast of copper
shimmer welcomes me back to joy.

Turn It Around… Oh my… Remember like, 2 seconds ago when I said I was a sucker for anything green? Because HOLY SHIZZZZ I flipped out when I opened the box for this one!! Earthy forest green mixed with chunky flecks of golden-yellow, copper and bronze!

What is this?! I can’t even…!! Mama likes! Turn It Around simultaneously reminds me of Spring and Fall mixed together into liquid nirvana for my nails. I used 2 coats here and the formula was nice and smooth.

Just… Look… At… That… SHIMMERRRR!! I was not expecting a shade like this for a Spring collection, and I am SO here for this right now.

Be Humble vs. Insouciant vs. Forgiveness

I did do a quickie comparison of RBL Be Humble, Insouciant, and Forgiveness for y’all since I had all three sitting on my swatching [coffee] table. Definitely not dupes, but it’s nice to see a side-by-side every now and then when your memory of the colors gets hazy. ^_^

#1 is Be Humble, #2 is Insouciant and #3 is Forgiveness (3 coats each). All great colors.

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Final Thoughts:

The Emoting Me collection is another great addition to the Rescue Beauty Lounge family. Each shade has an elegant story behind it and I can completely understand Ji’s vision for each color and what she had in mind as she created each nail polish. My stand-out favorites in this collection are Smile and Turn It Around. Honorable mentions go to Forgiveness, Be Humble and Pause being faves for my boyfriend. Thank You, Forgiveness and Be Humble are great neutral office friendly choices for those that have tone it down for work or if you just prefer softer shades. And while I do love Become One, I’m not entirely sure if it’s a must-have if you already own another grass green creme like it. Though the ones I plan to compare it to may not be readily assessable, so in that case… Become One is a possible must as well!

Which ones do you like the most?

Purchase Info:

Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polishes are exclusively available at www.rescuebeauty.com for $20 per bottle. The 48 hour Pre-Order starts 4/12/13, so make sure you’re signed up for the newsletter email blast to take advantage of the pre-order! The Emoting Me collection will be available to the public at the end of April.

Rescue Beauty Lounge nail polishes are created with resin and high molecular polymers to improve flexibility, durability, and high shine. They contain no harmful Toluene, Formaldehyde, DBP, and Formaldehyde Resin. They do not test on animals.

* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.

Hey Everyone!!

Lookit, two posts in… Well, less than a month! I’m working on posting more often. But I’ve been doing this weird thing called ‘leaving my house” on my days off from work. Puts a damper on my usual Netflix Marathon-n-Swatch… A-thons. And there’s also this whole “I’m working almost 50 hours of overtime in April why did I do this to myself” mess that I got myself into. Soooooo, yeah. It’ll be a blessing no matter how many posts I manage to crank out this month. O___o

I did add a nifty little feature to my blog where you can check out my forever active updates on Instagram. You can see it to your right —————————————————————>>

Anyway, I have a new indie brand to share with you all today. Presenting one of my new pretties I picked up from Scofflaw Nail Varnish! She is a pal of the one and only NerdLacquer (who recommended her to us lacquer-heads on her Google+ page), and so far I am not disappointed with the two nail polishes I grabbed from her debut collection!

Koi Pondering

Behold, Koi Pondering!! I fell in love with this beauty instantly from the swatches that Scofflaw shared on her Facebook fan page before her premier release. As per my usual addict fashion, I set an alarm and used my Ninja Skills to snag this and one other polish from Scofflaw the day of her initial release.

Koi Pondering is a gorgeous blue jelly with orange, yellow, white hex glitters in various sizes and micro-shimmer. Application was super easy and it was opaque after 3 thin coats.

Macroooooo time!! The shimmer in this one is really beautiful. And I love the fact that I didn’t have to go hunting for the glitter to get it to apply evenly on my nails.

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Final Thoughts:

Koi Pondering by Scofflaw Nail Varnish has left me quite impressed! I hadn’t purchased nail polish in a long time, like months, until I discovered this brand. The combination of color and glitter in unique to my collection and I enjoy the professional level of her indie brand with the bottle and gorgeous label/font right from the start! Her prices are reasonable for an indie brand so if you’re looking for something new I would recommend giving Scofflaw a try! I already have my eyes on a few others of hers that I need to snag in the next restock.

Purchase Info:

Koi Pondering and other Scofflaw Nail Varnishes can be purchased at either scofflawvarnish.com or Llarowe. Prices and shipping vary depending on the site so check their shop policies individually. And for you folks not in the US, Llarowe does offer international shipping. ^_^

To keep up to date with upcoming collections, news and restock dates you can check out Scofflaw Nail Varnish on Facebook.

* (The product(s) in this post were purchased by me.)

Morning Lovelies!

I honestly didn’t think I would ever be able to say this, but… NERDLACQUER IS BACK Y’ALL!! I’m so SO thrilled to have Amanda of NerdLacquer back in the indie space. I certainly missed her gorgeous nerdling nail polishes. My first indie nail polishes I ever bought were NerdLacquers back when she had first created her teeny Etsy shop before the indie polish boom. She’d suddenly disappeared one day due to personal life circumstances (which you can read about [HERE] if you have a Google+ account), and I faithfully and patiently hoped for and awaited her return. I’m so so so happy that once again I have to chance to get ALL THE THINGS from her portion of the indie nail polish world.

No joke, I set an alarm to be ready for when she opened her shop for the first time again in almost a year. She had new pretties based on LOTR and I NEEDED THEM. But as I was adding things to my cart it looked as if the two polishes I had eyed up had sold out from under me. Kick dirt, there’s always next time right? So I ended up snagging All of Time and Space, one of her polishes that I’d been lusting after for about a year, and I was content. Fast forward to a week or so later and not only does that one show up, but the two LOTR collection polishes I’d been after were in my package too! I thought at first, WOW, she must have used magic psychic powers and known that I’d wanted those and included them for me. HOW COOL!

But see-what-had-happened-was… That I had already bought them via paypal, but forgotten about it in my panicked nail polish shopping frenzy. Derp. Well, I’m happy that in my blackout I managed to snag ‘em so let’s get to showing them!

The Eye

The Eye is a cayenne red-orange jelly packed with black, orange, gold, red, and holographic glitter. It’s based on (you guessed it…) The Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This is definitely my favorite of her newbies and the one I was after the most. The application was great and I only needed 2 coats for opacity!

I love that Amanda included THE EYE on the top of my bottle. Anyone else get one on theirs?

TDBSLWCHSHITD

TDB… OMG the name on this one!! O__O TDBSLWCHSHITD stands for “THE DWARF BREATHES SO LOUD WE COULD HAVE SHOT HIM IN THE DARK” according to Amanda’s description on her shop page. Once I read that it made me lol heartily. I wasn’t sure how I would like this one but after seeing it in person I’m sold.

I’m just gonna drop the rest of her description here because it’s made of win:

“Soft gold-flecked spring green of Lothlorien. A sunny green shimmer plus loads of white, golden, and leaf-green glitter on your fingertips will make you feel like you’re in Galadriel’s own garden…with a snotty elf making snide remarks about your lack of intrusion skills.”

I used 2 coats here. It was a little lumpy without top coat so keep that in mind if you prefer a smooth finish. The glitter likes to hide inside the base at times, so thin coats work best. ^_^

All of Time and Space

And lastly, one of the classic NerdLacquer nail polishes that I had been lusting after since the beginning — All of Time and Space! This nail polish is beautiful! The Doctor Who themed AoTaS is an ethereal semi-sheer crystalline minty turquoise with silver shimmer, plus silver and fuchsia glitter. I used 3 coats here, but perhaps could have used a 4th to make sure my tips were fully covered. I cannot wait to layer this with my baby blue and pale greens! Or maybe purple to match with my purple version of one of my favorite hoodies from Threadless!

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That’s all I’ve got for you today! I hope you all enjoyed my mini NerdLacquer spam! I actually have 2 or 3 more that I’ve yet to share with you on the blog. I must get around to correcting that, eh?

And for those that want to stay updated on NerdLacquer releases, looks like the only sure-fire way to get updates directly from Amanda herself is to follow her on NerdLacquer’s Google+ Page. You can also randomly stalk her e-shop, nerdlacquer.com for updates like I do. I am almost positive that she is restocking TODAY at 3pm CST!!

I do know that both Harlow & Co. and Ninja Polish plan to begin stocking NerdLacquer nail polishes again soon, so it might be in your best interest to (politely!!) e-stalk these gals too.

Morning Lovelies!

I hope you’re all having a great Monday, or as great as a Monday can be anyway. Today I’ve got some very special nail polishes to share with you all. I’m excited to have the opportunity to review several nail polishes from the Australian indie polish creator, Alanna Renee! These special little treasures came to me all the way from Australia through the joint effort of Alanna herself and my wonderful IG pal, Natalia. Thanks so much ladies!! I especially loved the little Aussie koala stuffed animal and the nummy Caramello Koala candies stowed away in my care packages.

I was given the option to pick out whichever Alanna Renee nail polishes that I wanted to try, and Alanna ended up throwing in a fourth one for me to play with as well. Enough of my rambling, let’s move on to the swatches! I’m using my new light box for the first time so hang in there with me while I adjust, haha!

Tranquil

First up is Tranquil, a gorgeous turquoise filled with lavender hex glitter, small light blue and purple hex glitter, large turquoise square glitter and small indigo flakes. This one is sooo pretty, but the lavender hex glitter was a little difficult to get out and turquoise square glitter flat out refused to leave the sides of the bottle. I inverted it, but I think I need to take a toothpick and jab the sides of my bottle to loosen their grip on the glass. I think I managed to get a single piece of square glitter on one nail, haha!



You see all that beautiful lavender and turquoise hex and square glitter in the bottle? Yeah, it’s still in there. I’ll wear this one again soon and try some other techniques to get that glitter to play nice. If I have better results I’ll update this post!

Even with the stubborn glitter, Tranquil is really beautiful. I’m a sucker for this color of nail polish and the glitter that did come out of the bottle really accented the base color nicely. It was like creating a jelly sandwich without having to layer two different nail polishes. This is 2 coats with a little bit of dabbing for a 3rd coat after fishing out some hex glitter.

Ablaze

Oh hell yes, you already know that Ablaze is my shizznuckle. Ablaze is a complex mix of yellow, orange and red shreds and yellow, orange, red and black hex glitter in a fiery orange jelly base. YESSS GAWWWWWD I am in love!! I used 3 coats here. There’s an epic crapton of things going on in this polish, so you definitely need a top coat to get everything nice and smooth. And as will all nail polish with shard glitter, making sure those pieces lie flat before adding top coat is a must for a smooth finish.

I want this on my toes. I don’t even care how atrocious the future glitter removal will be for it, haha! I will use the foil method on my toes if I have to. It’s just that serious. O_O

Milky Way

Milky Way was snuck into my care package by Alanna for me to try out. It’s a pretty glitter topcoat made up of orange-to-green and blue-to-purple colour shifting glitter of different shapes and sizes in a clear base. While it’s not anything particularly new to the glitter topper world, Milky Way is very pretty and application was superb. All I needed was 1 coat over my black base for a nice effect. The formula is very easy to work with versus most glitter toppers that have thick and sometimes goopy suspension bases. I see myself coming back to this one a lot to jazz up my vampy nail polishes.

Reptar

And finally, my favorite in my humble collection of Alanna Renee nail polishes…. Reptar!! I was already in love with the look of this nail polish from photos. And then I saw the name!! I mean, who else wasn’t obsessed with the Rugrats as a kid? Or babysat someone who was obsessed with the Rugrats for the more distinguished crowd. If you’re not familiar, Reptar is pretty much the most badass dinosaur (behind the HBICs in Jurassic Park anyway). I mean hello, Reptar On Ice anyone?

Alanna Renee’s Reptar captures the essence of the original source flawlessly. It has orange and lavender hex glitter and smaller black, white and neon green hex glitter in a light green base. I LOVE this one. I ended up keeping Reptar on my nails after my swatching session and I’ve made a point to show it to everyone. It even got the coveted Boyfriend Seal Of Approval™!

I used 2 coats for full coverage. Reptar dries gritty and it has a monster appetite for topcoat. I used 2 coats of Gelous AND China Glaze Fast Forward topcoat. And today (2 days later) it’s back to being a little gritty to the touch. But in the days of Liquid Sandzzzz/etc. this is quite acceptable, and I actually like the texture.

And one more group bottle shot for you all because I was messing around with my new pop-up light box. It even comes with 4 backdrops! Fancy, eh?

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Final Thoughts:

I am absolutely smitten with the four Alanna Renee nail polishes that I currently own. I think all of them are great, but my favorites are definitely Ablaze and Reptar. If you’re looking for a great glitter topper, Milky Way is the one for you. And Tranquil would be flawless if not for the temperamental square and hex glitter, though I still love it even though it’s the ‘problem child’ of the group. :p

There are currently 10 nail polishes in Alanna Renee’s collection. And now that I’ve tried these four I definitely want to try the other ones!

Alanna Renee nail polishes are Big 3 (Toluene, Formaldehyde and DBP) free, and the full list of ingredients can be found [HERE] via her website.

Purchase Info:

Alanna Renee nail polish is currently only available for purchase in Australia at alannarenee.com, they retail for $7.99 AUD per 12ml bottle. Unfortunately due to the strict international shipping regulations with nail polish (classified as dangerous goods), international shipping is not offered at this time.

BUT!!!! Alanna is working with Shoppe Eclecticco in Singapore and Color 4 Nails in the U.S. to stock Alanna Renee polishes, and they both offer international shipping (pricing not confirmed yet)! So keep an eye out for news from Alanna Renee on when those two stockist will start supplying her collections. ^_^

To keep updated on Alanna Renee collections, news, etc… You can follow her on her blog, Facebook and Twitter.

* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.

Morning Everyone!

So I’ve been sitting on these swatches of the Pretty and Polished Save The Dauphine collection for entirely too long. I actually swatched these back at the end of January and edited my photos, but I just couldn’t find the motivation to actually type up my post about them. -_-

But better late than never I suppose! Unfortunately it looks like the collection was moved to a limited edition status while I was sitting on my thumbs, and only two of the four polishes from the collection are still readily available. But perhaps they’ll pop up some time in the future on another site’s blog sale! ^_^

I was actually INCREDIBLY pumped about this collection when Chels Marie first announced it. My mother literally named me after the late queen of France (Marie is my first name, Antoinette is my middle name) so I pretty much had to own this collection when it was released. HAD. TO. And once I had the polishes in my possession, they did not disappoint. Let’s get to the swatches (that I’m sure you’ve already seen before haha).

Hameau

Hameau is a really pretty eggshell/off-white jelly-creme hybrid filled with iridescent shimmer and small blurple and green multi-sized hex glitter. This one was an instant favorite for me. It’s a little on the sheer side, but I only needed 3 coats to reach opacity. It was incredibly easy to apply.

Let Them Eat Cake

Let Them Eat Cake, seriously you all do not know how many times I’ve heard this joke throughout my life. IT’S ALWAYS HILARIOUS. Truth is, the queen most likely never even uttered the phrase. But alas, it’s etched in history forever. That being said, THIS version of Let Them Eat Cake is not a lie (yaseewhatididthere..?) and it’s actually quite gorgeous.

This polish is a pale pink crelly (jelly/creme hybrid) filled with yellow, red, pink, lilac and white glitter in multiple shapes and sizes. LOVE. Again I needed 3 coats, this one was a little tricky to apply compared to Hameau but with patience (and a little bit of Gelous before adding top coat) I got everything to smooth out.

Louis Louis

Louis Louis is fricken fabulous! I was not expecting to love this one as much as I did but oh my damn this color is fabulous! Louis Louis is a tarnished gold filled with tiny blue hex glitter and red round glitter. I’ve never seen anything quite like it! I used just one coat of Louis Louis over black to make the colors really pop.

The Diamond Necklace Affair

Last but not least, we have The Diamond Necklace Affair. Marie Antoinette just could not catch a break. This polish is a reference to the incident that placed blame on her regarding a crime against the Crown Jewelers. This polish is a glitter topper, so it has a clear base and it is filled with opalescent and light blue glitter in multiple shapes and sizes throughout. You can layer this over virtually anything and yield a variety of results. Shown here, I have 1 coat of The Diamond Necklace Affair over A England Galahad. I love this combination! But I bet this would look gorgeous over a darker nail polish as well.

This one was a little tricky to apply since it’s so thick due to the suspension base. The dabbing method worked best for me, but I had to be careful that I didn’t accidentally pick up glitter again with the brush as I was dabbing. No Gelous was needed before adding top coat for a smooth finish.

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Final Thoughts:

Even with The Diamond Necklace Affair and Let Them Eat Cake requiring a little bit of patience to apply, I have nothing bad to say about this four polish collection. I absolutely love every single one of them, with Let Them Eat Cake, Hameau and Louis Louis being my favorites. But seeing as I share a name with their inspiration, I might be a smidge partial.

If you can get your hands on the entire Pretty and Polished Save The Dauphine collection I highly suggest you pounce on them when you spot them out in the wild.

Purchase Info:

Pretty and Polished nail polishes can be purchased from their online store, www.shopprettyandpolished.com. Each polish retails at $5.00 for the mini and $9 for the full sized bottle. You can also still find Pretty and Polished on her Etsy Shop. Though it does look like the remaining Save The Dauphine Collection nail polishes have been slightly discounted.

For updates and previews of new collections, follow Pretty and Polished on Facebook and Twitter!

* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.

Morning Ladies!

Let me dust off my keyboard and tell you that I’m SUPER excited to be able to show you the new Takko Lacquer Spring 2013 collection today! Sheryl contacted me a bit ago to see if I’d be willing to review the collection and I of course said yes! I have loved every single one of her beautiful and unique nail polishes in the past so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity the see her new babies.

I was worried that once I got them I’d still be in my non-blogging slump, but once I saw them in person I dusted off my camera and lightbox straight away! Hell, I even managed to swatch a different collection that I’ll be showing you later this week as well.

This post is gonna be PICTURE HEAVY. I couldn’t settle on just 3-4 pictures of one of the polishes and you’ll see why in just a few minutes. So grab a chair and your drool bib, ’cause shit’s about to get real. ^_^

Whimsical

Whimsical is a gorgeous pastel lavender purple with iridescent light blue shimmer. This one had a thicker formula that was the trickiest to work with, but not unsalvageable! It reminded me of the formula for Takko’s The Electric Apple NYC. Thick and doable in one coat you’re very careful. I needed 2 coats here because it didn’t want to level itself. That said, once I added my top coat it smoothed everything out for me that I couldn’t do myself. :p

I’m not usually one for pastels but this one actually works for me! Look ma, no lobster hands!

Glittergasm

The name Glittergasm works perfectly for this nail polish. The colors Duke, THE COLORS!! It’s like a glitter explosion in a bottle! And the star glitter actually wasn’t super difficult to get out of the bottle. I had to do very minimal fishing and I managed to get at least one star on almost each nail. On one of my nails I had two stars and I didn’t even realize I’d already pulled one out on the brush. This is 2 coats of Glittergasm over Whimsical, no ‘dabbing method’ needed.

Maneki Neko

Maneki Neko (aka the Lucky Cat) is a gorgeous holographic silver, light gold and green full coverage glitter. This is only 2 coats people!! And even before I added my topcoat this polish was incredibly smooth to the touch. No Gelous or Glitter Tamer needed before I added my top coat. ^_^

Opium

Opium is intense!! It’s a murky brownish black jelly but it’s absolutely filled with multichrome shimmer! I took about 89483.5 pictures of Opium to try to capture all of the color shifts from burnt orange, to red, to green, to yellow and back! I apologize if some photos appear a little blurry, but the green shift was shy and only wanted to come out to play in low-light settings.



MOAR color shifts! Application was a breeze, I only needed 2 coats for full coverage!



And a few macro shots so you can get a better look at the shimmer. It’s like a grungy Unicorn Pee.

Pucker Up

YAASSS CORAL!! I love coral nail polishes, it’s as close to me loving a pink nail polish as I can get haha. Pucker Up is a divine shade of coral jelly/creme hybrid with pink and gold shimmer. This is 2 coats and the formula was great.

Marie Antoinette

And last but definitely not least, Marie Antoinette! I might be slightly partial to this one because that’s my name too. No really, it is. Ask my mom! Marie Antoinette (teehee!) is a gorgeous pastel blue with pink hidden shimmer. I looooove it! But I’m always a sucker for these baby blue shades. I used 2 coats here, and the formula on this one was perfect.

In low light settings the shimmer is quite subtle but still visible.

And with direct light the pink shimmer really comes out to play. This polish has my heart. I ended up keeping it on after I finished my swatching session for the night. ^_^

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Final Thoughts:

It’s pretty obvious that I’m completely in love with what Sheryl has come out with for the Takko Lacquer Spring 2013 collection. This is one of the few times that I’ve been completely thrilled with a spring collection, which are usually filled with nothing BUT pastels that I can’t get away with on my skintone. I loved the range and variety of hues that she’s offered up with this collection. And even the one ‘problem’ formula wasn’t even really that big of an issue. If I had to pick favorites….. Maneki Neko (hello St. Patty’s Day!!), Marie Antoinette (duh), Opium and Pucker Up.

Which ones did you like the most?

Purchase Info:

Takko Lacquer nail polishes can be purchased at the Takko Lacquer Etsy Shop! They retail between $9-15 per .5 fl oz bottle of polish. She DOES offer international shipping! Check out her shop policy page for more details on that.

Takko Lacquer nail polishes are also now available at Mei Mei’s Signatures. You’ll have to check her e-shop out for pricing and shipping policies.

The Takko Lacquer Spring 2013 collection will be available this Friday on Etsy.

To keep up to date with restocking news and other updates you can follow the Takko Lacquer Blog, the Etsy Shop, @TakkoLacquer on Twitter or her new Instagram account!

* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.

Long time no type, eh?

I think the last time I updated was ohhh… Almost two months ago! Which is the longest hiatus I think I’ve ever taken from my blog. Sorry about that folks, time flies when you’re busy doing other things. Or doing a bunch of nothing. Or a mix of both? I really didn’t mean to be away for so long, but I just needed a break from the blogging grind. It was starting to become more of a chore instead of being fun. And honestly, I STILL don’t have swatches for you all today but I hope to get back to swatching in the near future.

What have I been up to, you ask? Well, not much actually. Relaxing, working, spending time with friends and the boyfriend. Also reading, BECOMING OBSESSED WITH BLACK MILK CLOTHING, and most recently getting over the flu. The flu sucks. A lot. It’s been a week since it started and I’m still not at 100% functionality. I’m still running on fumes. :/

In the meantime, I will spam you all with photos from my Instagram account that you may or may not have already seen if you follow me there.

Food Subscription Boxes

I’ve gone a little nutty over food subscription boxes as of late. But hey, I love food. More than nail polish most days and I enjoy being able to try new things. So I cancelled my Birchbox and signed up for three food boxes. I’ll include referral links for the ones that have them just in case anyone wants to use it.

Goodies Co. is part of the Walmart brand. Yes I know, eeeeviillll Walmart but this food box is amazing! Everything in their box is organic and most of it was also vegan and/or nut free. The cinnamon sugar popcorn, oatcakes and apple chips were heavenly. I think it’s still in beta mode and you can sign up for an invite at www.goodies.co, the subscription is only $7 per month including shipping. And it’s the largest of the three that I signed up for. Click the photo for more details on what I got in my December box.

Love With Food is the ‘mid-range’ food box that mainly deals with gourmet noms. This was my January box and while the cookies were a little crushed this time everything was really tasty. I LOOOOVED the plantain chips and the chai! This box is $12 per month. What I love about this box is that for every subscription box they send out, they also donate a meal to the needy. How awesome is that! While you nom, you’re helping someone else nom too. You can sign up with the link I provided at the begging on this paragraph, or through my referral link [HERE]. Once again, click the photo for more details on what was in my January box.

Petit Amuse is the smallest subscription box of the three I’m signed up for, and the most ‘expensive’ at $12 a month. But they specialize in small-scale Artisan/Small Market style foods that you really can’t find shopping at your average store in town. I love the little surprises I get each month. This is a photo from my December box. I already ate half of my January box and forgot to photograph it.   You can sign up at via the link I provided at the beginning of this paragraph, or my referral link [HERE]. Clicking the photo will take you to the IG page where I describe by December box contents. The nougat and honey were ammmmaazing. ^_^

Other Noms

Biscoff is a cookie spread, and it is like crack. So friggin addicting! I haven’t even used it as a spread, I’ve just been eating it from the jar with a spoon. It reminds me of the filling inside Nutter Butters. I just ordered a jar of Crunchy Biscoff which has bits of cookie spread in the mix. O___O

Pomegranates might be my favorite fruit, and they’re relatively cheap where I live ($1.90 each I think) and I’ve been hitting the jackpot with picking them out lately. Such a wonderful mix of tart, sweet and crunchy. Yum yum yum!

Geekery

While I still read and love The Walking Dead, I’ve been branching out heavily into my comic and graphic novel loooove. I already flew through Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series and all its spinoffs, and I just finished up reading Runaways. Here’s a few more I’m obsessing over lately. ♥

If you love comics and you are not reading Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga yet Imma have to hurt you. IT IS SO GOOD!! I’ve loved Vaughan’s work since Y: The Last Man and while Saga is only 9 issues in it’s already becoming a favorite of mine and pulling at my heart-strings. Fiona Staples artwork for the comic is fricking superb! The first trade paperback was just released a few months ago and covers issues #1-6.

CHEW is another one that I just started reading at the suggestion of my friend. I love it! It’s quite dark and humorous at the same time. I should have TPB vol. 5 and vol. 6 in my mitts today which will get me caught up to issue #30.

I just started reading Bill Willingham’s Fables earlier this month and I am in LOVE. I’m about 50 issues into the main story and getting ready to dive into Jack of Fables, one of the many spin-offs from the main series. Comics + Folklore = So much love!

Selfies! And My Growing Black Milk Collection

So… If you’re friends with me or follow me on Instagram, you’ll already know that my love of Black Milk Clothing is undying. I have a growing collection of their lovelies so I figured I share a few photos of me wearing some delicious nylon. :p

Most of the pieces in my collection are/were limited edition items, so they are no longer available for sale on their site.

This is my prized possession, the Woman in Red Ep. 1 dress! I’ve yet to wear it in public yet but it’s definitely one of my favorite pieces! I was trying to winterize it a bit by matching it with leggings and these shoes I got at Target for $9 bucks!!!

Another museum piece (aka retired), the Not Impressed Bunny dress. I friggin love the bunny’s “And not a single f*ck was given” face he is giving. I’m assuming the bunny is a male, who really knows.

My latest (now sold out) piece, the Egypt leggings!!! I love, LOVE, LOOOOOVE these. And I was so happy to have been able to snag a pair before they sold out.

So my room is always messy. Deal With It.  I think I have about 9 or 10 items from Black Milk so far. They just released part one of their LOTR/Hobbit collection. My bank account is already afraid.

And for shiggles, a most recent photo of yours truly sporting mah new bangs! I cut them myself, not bad eh? And yes, I’m wearing shorts in my house but we don’t control the heat and it was like 80 degrees in my bedroom. Or I might have still had a fever. Did I mention I’m getting over the flu?

Save The Dauphine!

And look! Nail polish! See, I still know what this stuff is. These are bottle shots of Pretty & Polished’s Save The Dauphine collection based on Marie Antoinette. And since that is my name (for real y’all!) I had to have it. HAD TO. I plan to swatch it very soon. ^_^

♥

Thank you all for indulging me in my spammy spam spam post today. Typing this out has actually been pretty fun, and I miss you all very much. Let’s hope I find my swatching mojo soon because I have a shitload huge backlog of nail polishes to share with you all.

Oh My Glob Everyone!

I was so friggin pumped when I realized that Pretty and Polished was making the Mathematical!! collection based off the show Adventure Time! As you may well know by now, my boyfriend and I are completely obsessed with the show. We even dressed up at Princess Bubblegum and Finn for Halloween! I set my alarm for the minute these got released and snagged 5 minis from the 8 polish collection. I’ll more than likely go back for the full sized bottles at some point because this collection is totally shmowzow!

If you’re not familiar with Adventure Time, I’ll try to briefly describe it to you. It’s an American tv show on Cartoon Network that follows a 14-year-old boy named Finn the Human and his yellow dog named Jake (who has magical powers) through the post-apocalyptic world called Land of Ooo. Some other outstanding characters in the show are: Princess Bubblegum, the ruler of Candy Kingdom; The Ice King, kinda evil but mostly just wants to marry all the PRINCESSES!!; Lumpy Space Princess, who is pretty much a lumpy valley girl; Marceline, the coolest sorta evil-but-not-really hipster vampire; Lady Rainicorn, Jake’s girlfriend (he’s the only one that understand what she’s saying…) who is half rainbow and half unicorn; and Beemo/BMO,  the most adorable handheld gaming system ever. There are TONS of other characters and lots of back-story. So if you enjoy reading check out the wiki and wikia pages! ^_^

Enough of my rambling, let’s get to the swatches!

I’m Not A Banana!

First up is I’m Not A Banana! This one is based on Jake the Dog. The yellow jelly is a perfect match for his fur color, and I love the black and white hex glitter! This one was pretty sheer but I was able to build it to an opacity I liked after 4 coats. I didn’t have any issue with getting the hex glitter out of the bottle and it dried relatively quickly for as much as I used. I’ll have to search through my yellows to see if I have something similar to layer it with next time. Maybe Cult Nails Feel Me Up?

King Of C-C-Cool

King of C-C-Cool is based on the Ice King and it’s so awesome! I have nothing like this polish in my collection at all. It’s a blue squishy creme/jelly base filled with blue micro-shimmer, tiny red square glitter, blue and yellow hex glitter, and white diamond glitter! I absolutely LOVE this one. I used 3 coats here and had no issues getting a good amount of each type of glitter on my nails. No dabbing necessary even though there’s so much going on!

Lumps

My Lumps represents the ever awesome Lumpy Space Princess, and is a sheer purple jelly filled with yellow and purple glitter shards and blurple micro-shimmer. This was the only one I chose to layer out of the group. It looked too sheer to build up on its own but in hindsight I believe you can get this one to opacity after 4 coats. Shown here is 3 coats over A England Guinevere. You can’t even really see my base polish at all anymore (except for maybe my pinky which I think I accidentally only did 2 coats of My Lumps ).

This is another unique one for me in my collection. I loved the yellow flash in the purple! The glitter was fairly easy to place, just make sure you wait between coats so you don’t drag it. And a good top coat will keep the surface smooth.

Peebles

Peebles is named after Princess Bubblegum (who is often referred to as PB or Peebles in the show). This one is a squishy bubblegum pink jelly with fuchsia micro-shimmer and pink and yellow hex glitter. I looooooove this one, but I may be partial because PB is my favorite character in the show. I used 3 coats here.

The Young Hero

And lastly, we have The Young Hero! This one is named after Finn the Human and it’s another favorite for me in the collection. The Young Hero is a squishy white creme/jelly hybrid filled with blue and yellow small glitters, small blue hex glitter, light blue square glitter and light green hex glitter. LOVE!

I’ve been wearing this one for a few days now. The cashier as PetSmart stopped me dead in the middle of my transaction to gush about my nails when I had this on! She thought I’d put the glitter in there myself.


You all get TWO macro shots of The Young Hero because you’re that special to me, haha. That and you can see the green hex glitter in the first macro.

Application for The Young Hero was a little tricky. It was hard to get it to level out to even coat on some nails but I managed to get it all under control at 4 thin coats. If you wait between coats or layer it over a white base (I didn’t do either of those things, haha) you might have an easier time of it. But it was totally worth the effort because this final result is effing gorgeous!


And here’s a few bonus shots of the mini bottles with the new Pretty and Polished labels. I love that each bottle has little colored polish drops that reflect the colors inside each individual polish! Very cute!

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Final Thoughts:

Even if I weren’t partial to Adventure Time I would still give my picks from this collection an A+++++! Every single polish from the collection is entirely unique to my stash and they all have something great to offer. Not to mention, they’re just so dang fun! I think each one accurately represents the whimsical (and slightly off the wall) nature of the television show, and each polish is a perfect representation of the characters that inspired them. Dare I say that if I made a top 10 indie collection list for 2012, the Mathematical!! collection would be on that list for sure!

Do you need these? Get the math outta here with that question, heck yeah you need them!

Purchase Info:

The entire Pretty and Polished Mathematical!! collection can be purchased from their online store, www.shopprettyandpolished.com. Each polish retails at $5.00 for the mini and $9 for the full sized bottle. You can also still find Pretty and Polished on her Etsy Shop.

For updates and previews of new collections, follow Pretty and Polished on Facebook and Twitter!