A blog about a girl, her nail polish, and some delicious noms.
Posts tagged Etsy
Review: Pretty And Polished Pretty As A Peacock!
4Allo Everyone!
Welcome to Day 3 of my mini Pretty and Polished spam! Today I have Pretty As A Peacock to share with you all! This one is a beauty, so let’s get to the swatches!
Pretty and Polished – Pretty As A Peacock
Pretty As A Peacock has a dark emerald green base that’s filled with multi-sized blue, teal, purple, and green glitter. There’s a lot going on and it’s alllll good. 
Chels Marie was inspired by the plumage of male peacocks, and I think she nailed this one perfectly!
I layered 2 coats of Pretty As A Peacock over Paint Box Polish Northern Lights, but honestly I think Pretty As A Peacock is opaque enough to be built up on its own. I’ll have to try it next time I decide to wear it.
Here’s a macro shot for ya! This polish is busy in all the right ways!
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Final Thoughts:
So I have a bit of an obsession with birds. I have a small owl tattoo on my ankle, a HUGE phoenix spanning from my ribs to my knee, and I’m currently working on the sketching of my owl half sleeve with my tattoo artist! And peacocks are on my list of avian loves, so I’m sure I’ll find a spot to get one of them tattooed on me too. 
This polish is truly amazing and it definitely captures the spirit of the bird in the nail polish. I had no application issues whatsoever with Pretty As A Peacock, so that also constitutes as a win in my books! 
Purchase Info:
Pretty and Polished Pretty As A Peacock can be purchased from their online store, www.shopprettyandpolished.com. It 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!
* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.
Review: Pretty and Polished Happy Holodays Duo!
2Allo Everyone!
So we’re going to be going on a Pretty and Polished adventure for the next few days! AKA, I have a TON of new Pretty and Polished lovelies that I’ve been collecting for the past few weeks that I need to share with you all before I burst, haha! First up today is the Pretty and Polished Happy Holodays Duo! This duo consists of Ruby (a scattered holo jelly) and an un-named green/red holo glitter top coat.
Pretty and Polished – Happy Holodays Duo
IT’S A WRAP FOLKS. Stick a fork in me cause I’m done! This is SUCH a winning holiday combo! The glitter topper (renamed Holy Sh*t! by yours truly) is a gorgeous mix of green and red hex glitter in a clear base, with some of the glitters being holographic. I immediately turned to my boyfriend and said “WELP. Holiday mani locked and loaded!” He knowledgeably agreed. 
Shown here is 2 coats of the glitter topper over Ruby. Super easy formula to work with AND LOOK AT THAT MACRO. ♥
And here’s the base polish Ruby on its own, a gorgeous cranberry red scattered holographic jelly. I literally squealed out loud when I put this on my nails. It’s so damn pretty, and super pigmented! This is just 2 coats! And there was no staining after I took it off. Hai nails, me my new favorite red jelly polish! Formula was perfection as well, it wasn’t runny at all and Ruby practically painted itself on my nails. ^_^
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Final Thoughts:
Everything that is Christmas, and Santa, and evergreen, and winter lived in these two bottles of polish. But for reals, I have been a fan of Pretty and Polish for over a year now. She knows her stuff and her polishes are pretty fantastic folks. In my opinion, the Happy Holodays Duo are definite must-haves for the holiday/holoday season! ^_^
Purchase Info:
The Pretty and Polished Happy Holodays Duo can be purchased from Chels Marie’s new shop, www.shopprettyandpolished.com. The price of the duo starts at $9.00 for the minis and goes up from there. 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!
* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.
Review: My Paint Box Polish Holiday 2012 Picks!
5Morning Everyone!
I’m gonna try to knock out my holiday nail polish collections over the next week for those that want to see them. Today I’ve got my picks from Paint Box Polish to share with you all, Northern Lights and Santa’s Britches!
Northern Lights
Northern Lights is really stunning! This polish is a gorgeous teal blue jelly filled with flakies and golden shimmer. We’re in love. At some angles it almost seems a little duo-chromatic, shifting from a teal to a deeper blue. I used 4 coats here since it’s pretty sheer, but I love jellies so I didn’t mind. I’ll have to try layering Northern Lights over a dark blue next time to see how that looks as well! ^_^
Santa’s Britches
Santa’s Britches is a red jelly filled with green, gold and silver (glass fleck-like) shimmer. This one was another sheer, yet buildable polish! I used 4 coats here.
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Final Thoughts:
This was my first experience with Paint Box Polish and I really enjoyed both of my selections from her Holiday 2012 collection! Northern Lights is basically amazing, and reminds me of our own northern lights where I live in the U.P. of Michigan! And Santa’s Britches it probably one of my new favorite nail polish names, along with it being a great holiday color! Both of the polishes I played with today had great formulas are were easy to work with.
Purchase Info:
Paint Box Polish is a 3-Free and cruelty free indie brand. You can purchase Northern Lights, Santa’s Britches, and others from the Paint Box Polish Etsy Shop. Pricing ranges from $4.00 for 6ml minis to $8.50 for full sized bottles of polish.
UPDATE! – Pam was generous enough to create a 20% discount code for anyone that reads my little ‘ol blog post, haha. To get the discount, make you enter the code NAILSWINTER20 when you checkout. This code is good for the next 30 days!
* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.
Takko Lacquer Winter Collection 2012 – With A Surprise!
5
Afternoon Ladies!
I have two blog posts for you today because I really wanted you all to have a chance to take a gander at these beauties before Sheryl re-opened her shop on Friday! I am pleased to introduce you to the Takko Lacquer Winter Collection! I’m on a glorious cocktail of cold meds so I’ll keep this intro short and sweet, so let’s get right into the swatches!
We’re All Mad Here
OMG Y’all. We’re All Mad Here is flippin GORGEOUS!! Plus its name is a nod to Alice in Wonderland, what’s not to love here?! We’re All Mad Here is a stunning deep blue jelly with green flakies and orange shimmer. I mean… WOW. Pictures really don’t do this one justice, you NEED to see it in person. We’re All Mad Here is a slightly deeper blue than what my camera was able to pick up, and the shimmer is noticeable in even low light! Take the shimmer you see in my photos and intensify it (closer to what it looks like inside the bottle), and that’s what you get in person.
This is 3 coats. You see a teeny bit of VNL in these shots but it’s not that noticeable in person. You could get away with 2 coats if you didn’t mind a little VNL. Application was a breeze, this polish spread like butter over my nails and built up nicely.
A few more shots of We’re All Mad Here with a macro so you can take in that glorious orange shimmah! ♥
Va Va Voom
Va Va Voom is a metallic deep wine red with strong scattered/mild linear holo finish. I DIE! The color and holo effect deepen depending on your lighting but the holographic finish is visible in almost all lighting. Shown above is Va Va Voom in direct light from my light box. This is 2 thin coats! Va Va Voom had a perfect formula. Not too thin but not so thick that I had trouble applying it. The dry time was very quick!
And here it is with indirect lightbox er… lighting.
And this is Va Va Voom with camera flash. If any nail polish deserves its name, this is it! Look how intense the red is now! I cannot wait until I get a chance to see Va Va Voom in direct sunlight, I think I might never take it off.
Introducing Takko Mani-Bombs!
And here’s the surprise I mentioned in my post title, introducing Takko Lacquer Mini-Bombs! These little beauties were created by Sheryl as a thank you for all the love and support the nail polish world has shown her since she opened her Etsy shop doors earlier this year. If you’re familiar with bath fizzies/bath bombs, this is a similar idea. But these mani-bombs are all about caring for your beautiful hands. You drop it in a container filled with warm water large enough to fit your hands, and it fizzes up almost immediately. Then the magic begins.
The mani-bombs release Vitamin E and Aloe Vera to nourish your skin, cuticles and nails. It then leaves behind a Shea Butter and sugar scrub combo that you use to scrub, exfoliate and moisturize your skin, help with peeling nails and dry cuticles. I used one of the mani-bombs before I swatched We’re All Mad Here and Va Va Voom. They have a very light powdery scent, it’s almost undetectable. I couldn’t smell it but I also have a cold. My boyfriend said it smelled nice though, so it shouldn’t overpower your lotions or perfumes. ^_^ My hands felt absolutely amaaazing afterward. The sugar scrub was very gentle, and once I rinsed off the leftover scrub the shea butter was easy to massage into the skin on my hands (and elbows, hah!) and my cuticles. It absorbed into my skin after a few minutes and didn’t leave any greasy residue. I’m sold!
And you want to hear the best news about the mani-bombs?
They’re FREE!
As a thank you for all of her customers, Sheryl will be including one mani-bomb as a free gift with each purchase for the rest of 2012! This will start on Friday, November 16th.
And one last miscellaneous photo for you all. It looks like there was a slight label change! On the right (Kiss The Sky), you can see the old slightly rounded frosted label and on the left (We’re All Mad Here) you have the new clear rectangular labels. Nothing drastic, just something I noticed! ^_^
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Final Thoughts:
Sheryl never ceases to amaze me with everything that she has to offer. She seriously produces some of the best indie nail polishes out there in my opinion, and she is such a sweetheart! So if you hadn’t guessed yet, I absolutely adore both of Sheryl’s new babies. We’re All Mad Here combines several of my nail polish loves: blue, green, orange, flakies, and jelly! The list of red polishes that I love is pretty small, but Va Va Voom has a place on that list now because it is EVERYTHING. Perfect formula, a gorgeous rust hue and holographic finish. Be still my heart. I really can’t pick a favorite so you basically need both of these suckers.
And the mani-bombs are perfect and just in time for the winter months that always take a toll on my nails and skin. I hope you all enjoy them as much as I do! Sheryl will be including instructions on how to use them in each package since they’re a little different from a typical bath bomb.
Purchase Info:
Takko Lacquer nail polishes can be purchased at the Takko Lacquer Etsy Shop! They retail at $15.00 per .5 fl oz bottle of polish. She DOES offer international shipping! Check out her shop policy page for more details on that.
Another great thing is that she restocks often, usually about once a week. So if you missed one sale you have another chance to snag your favorites the following week! She’s opening up her shop again this weekend on Friday, November 16th at around 1pm so mark your calendars!
To keep up to date with restocking news and other updates you can follow the Takko Lacquer Blog, the Etsy Shop or her new Twitter account!
* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.
Review: New Fall 2012 Takko Lacquer Collection!!
23
Morning Lovelies!
I hope you’re all having a great Wednesday! I’m pretty pumped because American Horror Story (wiki|FX site) is having their season 2 premier tonight!! Sadly I have to work so I’ll miss most of it but I have my DVR set. Did anyone else see the season 3 premier of The Walking Dead (wiki|AMC site) this past Sunday? HOLY CRAP. 
I’m a HUGE fan of the graphic novel series and I was pretty displeased with season 2 (aka, the longest farm visit ever and how hard is it to keep an eye on Carl?!), but this first episode of season 3 definitely made up for it.
Today I’m also excited to be able to share the new Takko Lacquer collection with you!! Sheryl blew me away with her last collection from this summer so when she contacted me with news of her four new pretties I was already getting excited before I even knew what they looked like! Then she posted her inspiration boards on her blog and I just about died.
Well these pretties showed up at my home on Monday and I had to… HAAADDD TO swatch them right away. This is a VERY picture heavy post so I’ll be putting the images behind a cut today. I’m going to show you everything on its own AND also layered over black because…. oh man, they’re glorious! Let’s get right into it, shall we?
Review: Cagedbird Nail Lacquer
13
Morning Everyone!
I have two nail polishes to show you from Cagedbird Nail Lacquer today. Cagedbird is an indie brand that is new to me. From her Etsy page she described Cagedbird Nail Lacquer as “a variety of both handmade from scratch nail lacquers and custom blended nail lacquers using craft and cosmetic grade glitters with existing polishes.”
Sarah (the lady behind Cagedbird) sent me two of her polishes for review, Antoinette and Rose Gold. Let’s move on to the swatches!
Antoinette
Antoinette is a very sheer cream nail lacquer containing gold, rose pink, pastel blue holo and pink holo glitter, fine iridescent glitter and silver glitter. Antoinette is also my middle name (yes… my name is Marie Antoinette, for real. ) so I’m already partial to this polish! I ended up trying out Antoinette on its own this time around and I used 4 coats here. You can still see a bit of VNL but it doesn’t bother me. Next time I’ll layer it over a pale blue, jelly white or pink and see what it looks like.
I love love LOVE the mix of glitters in Antoinette. It’s such a delicate polish and it makes me crave french macarons. Application was pretty good, it has a thicker formula but it was still easy to apply. Dry time was a little slower than usual but I also had on 4 coats of polish.
Rose Golden
Rose Golden is a mix of metallic glitter in both medium yellow gold hexes and rose pink in various sizes. I loooooove this one! This is just 1 coat of Rose Golden over L’Oreal Cockatoo’s Mystery. Rose Golden has such a heavy glitter ratio you could probably reach opacity with it alone after 2-3 coats.
This one was an absolute breeze to apply and I didn’t have any issues with glitter placement (no ‘dabbing’ is necessary).
Here’s a swatch of L’Oreal Cockatoo’s Mystery by itself. It’s a pretty muted taupe/greige from their LE Project Runway collection (borrowed from my fellow lacquerhead/knitting/crochet machine roomie ).
And here’s one more bottle shot of Antoinette and Rose Golden for you. I love the mini bottle shapes and the cute ribbons!
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Final Thoughts:
I really enjoyed both of these polishes. Both Antoinette and Rose Golden had great formulas, good brushes and I really have no complaints. I also like the fact that they provide the full list of ingredients for their polishes on each product link. Cagedbird Nail Lacquer is on my radar now. So I’ll have to browse her Etsy shop to see what other goodies Sarah has to offer from now on. ^_^
Purchase Info:
Rose Golden and Antoinette can be purchased from the Cagedbird Nail Lacquer Etsy Shop. They retail at $5.00/ea for the 5ml bottles and $10.00/ea for the 15ml bottles. The shop looks a little bare-bones right now but you can follow Cagedbird on their Facebook Fanpage to stay updated on restocks and any other news. ^_^
* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.
Review: Aphrodite Lacquers SandBar Collection Swatches!
17
Hey Everyone!
I’ve got another fun indie brand to share with you all today. This time we’ll be looking at Aphrodite Lacquers SandBar Collection, which is a series of 6 summer ready jellies! You know how I feel about jellies, they’re close to my heart so I was super excited when Rebecca contacted me about these gems.
I used Cult Nails Get It On & Wicked Fast for my swatches today. But honestly all of these dried so fast and were so shiny and smooth without topcoat! Clicking the photos will bring you to the original sized… you know the drill.
Grapetini
Grapetini is a purple jelly polish with lavender glitter, light purple holo glitter, and tiny silver glitter/shimmer. 3 coats here, I really liked this one. It’s a smidge lighter in real life, my camera likes to spaz out with purples.
Mai Tai
Mai Tai is GORGEOUS! Super sexy red jelly with red hex, holo and silver shimmer. 3 coats here, though a careful 2 coat would suffice.
I had a strange pigment deposit on my first attempt with this polish. You can see the little blotchy looking areas after one coat in the above picture. I just rolled the bottle more vigorously and my second try was issue free.
Ambrosia
Ambrosia is one of the more sheer jellies in the bunch, but still pretty. It’s a light pink jelly polish with fuchsia glitter, holo glitter, and tiny silver glitter/shimmer. This was 4 coats. I’ll be layering this next time I wear it.
Blue Lagoon
Blue Lagoon is another sheer one, again 4 coats and still a lot of VNL. This blue jelly polish is filled with aqua glitter, light blue holo glitter, and tiny silver glitter/shimmer. I can’t wait to layer this one over a dark blue!
Rum Runner
Rum Runner is a really pretty strawberry reddish pink filled with dark pink hex, holo and silver shimmer. 3 coats here.
Margarita
Savin’ the best for last, this one is Margarita! A juicy green jelly with green hex, holo and silver shimmer. I looooooove this one! I used 3 coats to deepen the color, but 2 is perfectly fine and opaque as well.
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Final Thoughts:
I really liked all of these polishes, though hands down my favorite is definitely Margarita. A green jelly? HELLO! Blue Lagoon and Ambrosia were a little too sheer for me on their own but I’ll use them in my next layering experiment to see what I can come up with. ^_^
I had the pigment deposit happen to me a few times while applying, but since she’s starting to add a few metal beebees to each bottle in future batches I’m hoping that issue will resolve itself. And all of the polishes are indeed 3-Free.
Purchase Info:
You can purchase any of the polishes from the SandBar Collection from the Aphrodite Lacquers Etsy Shop for $8.00 per 15mL bottle of polish. Rebecca has swatches on the shop of all the polishes over other colors to give you an idea of the layering possibilities as well. You can check the feedback section for the colors that are out of stock right now. You can also follow the Facebook Fanpage for store updates. ^_^
* The product(s) in this post were sent to me for unbiased review consideration.
For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.
Spam-A-Thon Thursday: Enchanted Polish Swatches!
261 year ago
Hey Folks!
I’m back again with another Spam-A-Thon Thursday. This time we’ll be looking at swatches from the Etsy seller, Enchanted Polish! This post is going to be hella long and picture heavy, so I apologize to those who have slower internet connections because there are a LOT of pictures here people.
And of course the day I want to swatch 8 million gorgeous holographic polishes is the day that we have rain from dusk till dawn, so I had to settle for indoor shots. Still pretty, but you really need to see these babies in the sun to fully appreciate them. Check out Jen’s post for some kick-ass natural sunlight photos! ^_^
I used Cult Nails Get It On Base Coat and Wicked Fast Top Coat for all my swatches today. I’ll show indoor lighting shots first, camera flash (aka “fake sunlight”) shots second, and macro shots last for each polish. Clicking on any picture will bring you to the original sized photo.
Swatches galore await ye beyond the page jump. Tally-HOOOooooooOOoooooo!
An Old NOTD: Pretty And Polished Jawbreaker!
13Morning Lovelies!
Today I’ve got an old NOTD to share with you fine people. I bought Pretty And Polished Jawbreaker and Toy With Me mini bottles at the same time and immediately fell in love with both. I’ve swatched both of them, but I wasn’t happy with my pictures of Toy With Me so I plan to re-do my pictures for that one at a later date. But today it’s all about Jawbreaker. This polish… So much love. ♥
Pretty And Polished – Jawbreaker
Jawbreaker is perfectly named because it looks just like the candy it shares its name with! This milky white based polish is filled with blue, green, yellow, and purple glitters in all shapes and sizes.
I used 2 coats of Essie Marshmallow as my base and then layered 2 coats of Pretty And Polished Jawbreaker over it, perrrrrrfection! Jawbreaker is opaque on its own after 2-3 coats, but since I only have a mini bottle I want to try to use as little of my precioussssssss as possible.
For the best results, I inverted the bottle for about 15-20 minutes and shook it a bit to loosen the grip of the larger hex glitter pieces from the sides of the bottle.
And a macro shot to share with you all. It’s a thing of beauty, so you’re gonna need to maximize this picture. For science.
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Pretty And Polished is definitely one of my favorite indie/custom polish makers out there. Her polishes really stand out and catch my attention, which in a market that’s currently flooded with indies right now it difficult to achieve. I only have three of her creations right now but I love them all! Hopefully I can show you guys Party In My Yacht and Toy With Me soon. ^_^
You can check out the Pretty And Polished Etsy page to see when she is opening up shop again. If you look at her feedback section you can get an idea of what her polishes look like and see some of her past creations. I’ve got my eyes on Sand Art, Pool Party, Green Garden, Forever Rose and Bayou Blitz!
