Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Pahlish Brand New Baubles & A Town Called Christmas December 2014 Duo: Swatches and Review

Blogger Discount
Hello! I wish I could have been more active these last few weeks but December is a busy month, so my apologies on the lack of posts. I did want to get one more in before the holiday stuff prevents me, which brings us to the absolutely gorgeous holiday Pahlish polishes. The December Duo is unfortunately not for sale any longer but Brand New Baubles is going to be a part of this month's A Box, Indied and that will be available on Dec 26th, so you will have a chance to grab that soon. 

Pahlish Brand New Baubles
Three coats
Dark navy blue jelly base with silver and color shifting blue flakes
January's A Box, Indied Exclusive, available only in Llarowe's shop on Dec 26th
A beautiful blue polish and I like the flake detailing, which Pahlish always does so well. 




Pahlish Quantum Locked Life Form
Two coats
Olive green creme with heavy gold shimmer.
Pahlish's A Town Called Christmas December 2014 Duo
Luscious is the first thing that pops into my mind with a color like this, though that may sound weird.



 Pahlish Hologram Projector
Layered over Quantum Locked Life Form
Clear based topper of blue, berry and gold glitter
Pahlish's A Town Called Christmas December 2014 Duo
Give that festive pop of color to the seasonal green base. 



LINKS!

Pahlish: 

Friday, December 19, 2014

Renaissance Cosmetics The Modern Vamp (Partial) Collection: Swatches and Review

Provided for Review 
Hello again! How about one more post before the weekend begins? Renaissance Cosmetics is a new-to-me brand and I was very excited to be able to try out a few polishes as I have admired them for some time. Meghan from Will Paint Nails for Food, is the creator of Renaissance Cosmetics and I can very much see what her experience as a blogger brings to her brand. 

The three polishes in this post are a part of her Modern Vamp collection, a six piece collection, with polishes inspired by some her Meghan's favorite TV and movie vampires. If you wanted to see the other three polishes, check out Meghan's or Emily's blog posts. 

Renaissance Cosmetics Cursed 
Two coats
Dusty blue creme with pink shimmer, white micro-flakes and red micro-glitter. 
Such a pretty blue! And the contrasting red glitter is a very nice added detail. 



Renaissance Cosmetics Footprints in the Snow 
Two coats
White creme base with slight red shimmer and black and silver micro-glitter. 
I think this was my favorite of the three, which may surprise you. The other two are no doubt complex and awesome but the subtle-ness of this white and it's specks of color are perfect. 



Renaissance Cosmetics Out of Darkness 
Two coats
Black jelly base with rainbow fleck and gold shimmer and added holo sparkle.
Since I was a major Angel fan, I am very happy to see that his inspired polish is dark and broody and just the right amount of shimmer. 



LINKS!

Renaissance Cosmetics:

*The products in this post were sent to me for unbiased review*



Hare Polish Pop, Fizz, Clink, Regency Miss, & Miss Joaquim: Swatches and Review

Provided for Review 
 Good afternoon! I some new(er) Hare Polishes to share with you all today. These all are available in different shops so I included exactly where each polish is accessible below it's description. On to the  photos!

Hare Polish Pop, Fizz, Clink
Three coats
Raspberry jelly/creme base with lilac dots and stars and gold glitter, flakes and shimmer
Exclusive to January's A Box, Indied, available Dec. 26th in Llarowe's shop.
You can practically hear the fizz through the screen. I love the little stars studded throughout. 



Hare Polish Regency Miss 
Three coats
Grape purple jelly/creme base with copper, pale pink, and various gold glitter and shimmer.
Park of Hare Polish's Jackalopes series and though it is not available now, it will be restocked at some point in her Etsy shop as well as through her retailers
Gold and purple compliment each other so well and I love how Hare uses them together in this polish. 



Hare Polish Miss Joaquim 
Three coats
Blackened purple jelly/creme base with lavender, neon pink, and blue iridescent glitter and purple shimmer. 
Exclusive to Rainbow Connection
I gotta mention the name, it's memorable and if you know what it references, which is a the Vanda Miss Joaquim, you can see totally see the inspiration. A beautiful polish, so I definitely recommend stalking Rainbow Connection for when this is restocked. 



LINKS!

Hare Polish:

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Crows Toes Overtime 'till Springtime from January's A Box, Indied: Swatches and Review

Provided for Review 
Hey guys! I have a new Crows Toes polish to share with you this morning. Overtime 'til Springtime is a contributing polish to January's A Box, Indied, along with polishes from Pahlish, Hare Polish, Different Dimension, and Black Cat Lacquer. 

Overtime 'til Springtime is a clear based topper with gunmetal, silver and bronze glitter. I love Crows Toes glitter toppers and this is a crazy gorgeous addition to her line. Easy application for me, I did one coat over a base color in each of the photos below. This polish is an exclusive to January's A Box, Indied, so make sure to get yours when it is available on December 26th in Llarowe's shop

Crows Toes Overtime 'till Springtime
Layered over Polish My Life Pink Sandals



Crows Toes Overtime 'till Springtime
Layered over Elevation Polish Queen of the Night 



LINKS!

Crows Toes:

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Pipe Dream Polish A Night in Vegas (Cremes) Collection: Swatches and Review

Purchased By Me
Good morning! Sorry for the silence, after doing over a week or so of double posts, I needed a break. I do have a lot of things to share will you all though, so let' jump back into it! 

For today, I have Pipe Dream Polish A Night in Vegas Collection. I bought these a few months back after seeing a ton of Instagram polish ladies post their watermarble looks. I don't watermarble well (like, AT ALL) so if there are polishes that are known for working well with watermarbling, and they are neon to boot, well of course I must own them. It's been months now though and I haven't had a chance to use them for a watermarble look but I wanted to go ahead and post my review anyway. 

 I do like that this is a color coordinated set, I have 7 polishes that play really well off each other and I have done a number of looks on my IG with them. None of the formula or application for any of these is problematic, but they are on the thin side. This is what may make them work so well if you do use them for watermarbling but I do prefer more opaque polishes. The polish colors are bright and vivid, no doubting that, but they are not unique, colors very similar have been released before and will be released again in the future. 

Okay so are these worth the hype and restock stalking? Well, I say yes but tentatively.  
I like them, quite a bit actually, but I think that polish hype can be a tricky thing. Before I bought this collection, I had my selection of Color Club neons, I used those over and over during the summer months and they still remain my favorite brand for neon polishes. As I mentioned, I have yet to watermarble with these, maybe my opinion will change once I do but I reviewing this collection not because of one particular technique but how they are as a whole. 

So if you have the chance to get the Pipe Dream A Night in Vegas set, I would recommend them. However, I know that not everyone has been able to get them, and you can't, do not stress out! There are alternatives and if you have your heart set of owning this collection, I know that Pipe Dream Polish is hard at work to restock as often as she can, follow her social media (links at the end) to see when her next one will be. 

Pipe Dream Polish 110 Degrees
Three coats
Neon coral orange creme w/ slight orange shimmer.



Pipe Dream Polish All In
Three coats
Bright ocean blue creme with slight blue shimmer



Pipe Dream Polish Happy Hour
Two coats
Turquoise creme with slight gold shimmer



Pipe Dream Polish High Roller
Three coats
Neon green creme 



Pipe Dream Polish Light of Day
Three coats
Neon yellow 



Pipe Dream Polish On the List
Three coats
Hot pink with slight gold shimmer



Pipe Dream Polish V.I.P. Pass
Two coats
Magenta creme with slight purple shimmer.



LINKS!

Pipe Dream Polish 


Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Elevation Polish Darkness Collection and Yeti Was a Shadow 2: Comparisons

Provided for Review 
Purchased by Me
Hello again! As I mentioned in my earlier review of Elevation Polish's Darkness Collection, I have a separate post of comparisons. A few from that collection are reformulated versions from previously released SBPs (or Small Batch Prototype) and the others just had similar enough Elevation's that I thought this would be a helpful post. 

Small Batch Prototypes are just that, prototypes that Lulu (Elevation's creator) has created on small scale. Sometimes Lulu will take a SBP and reformulate it for a full collection release, so it will be similar to it's original SBP but a tweaked better version. In the case of The Kek, I did not do a comparison, primarily because I do not have the original Kekekabic, but also because it's a re-release, not a reformulation, so there will not be any difference between the first SBP version and it's re-released core version. 

Comparison between Darkness of the Arctic 2 and SBP: Darkness of the Arctic
A full swatch photo of Darkness of the Arctic is posted on my blog here.
SBP Darkness has a more sheer, lighter colored brown jelly base and it looks like the flake/shimmer is heavier but that probably more due to the lighter base color. 


Comparison between Hovd @ Dusk and Haleakala
Haleakala is not a SBP but a core polish released in the Jan '14 Heights of Hawaii collection and a full swatch photo can be seen here.
If you place the bottles of Halea and Hovd @ Dusk side by side, they will look very similar but once you have them on your nails you can see that they are quite different shades of purple.
Hovd @ Dusk is darker, a more cool and blue toned purple and is a creme based holo compared to Halea's jelly based holo formula.
Both do have a nice medium density holo flame though. 


(Direct Sunlight) 


Comparison between Lost in the Darkness 2 and SBP: Lost in the Darkness
A full swatch photo of SBP: Lost in the Darkness is posted on my blog here.
Lost in the Darkness 2 is obviously a different shade of green then the SBP version and has a higher density holo. It's also has a more opaque formula, I applied two coats for each polish and you can see that the SBP version is a bit sheer compared to Lost in the Darkness 2.


(Direct Sunlight) 


Comparison between Queen of the Night and Hovd Darkness 
Hovd Darkness is not a SBP but a Llarowe Elevation exclusive and a full swatch photo can be seen here
These are probably the closest to each other than any of the others I compared. 
Queen is red in tone compared to Hovd's cooler blue toned purple and it has a better, slightly more opaque formula. Unless you are a HAVE ALL THE PURPLES kinda of person, if you already have Hovd Darkness, you probably don't need Queen of the Night BUT I would still recommend getting it to see which you prefer yourself. 


(Direct Sunlight) 


Comparison between Yeti Was a Shadow 2 and Yeti Was a Shadow
A full swatch photo of Yeti Was a Shadow is posted on my blog here
The first version of Yeti Was a Shadow (which I will now be calling Yeti Shadow) was not a SBP but a gifted polish that was included in some orders placed from March 2014's 7th of the month restock, more details about that are here. The newer version of Yeti Shadow is more charcoal and less blue in coloring, though they are both cool toned gray polishes. It also has a stronger holo flame than the first version. 


(Direct Sunlight) 


LINKS! 

Elevation Polish:

Elevation Polish Darkness Collection (plus The Kek & Yeti Was a Shadow 2): Swatches and Review

Provided for Review  
Hey guys! Today I will be sharing Elevation Polish's upcoming Darkness Collection, which will be released during their Dec 7th monthly restock (remember 9 pm CST) in their shop. Looking at the line-up this month, you can see why it's called the Darkness collection, all the shades are dark colors but in a variety of finishes. While I do like to wear colors that are not season appropriate, like neons in the middle of winter, I do tend to crave darker colors when the weather turns colder so this collection was exactly what I was needed right now. In addition to the Darkness collection, Elevation is also releasing a new core polish, The Kek, and a limited edition Yeti Was a Shadow. 

If you are curious to see how a few of these compare to their original SBP versions, I will be posting a separate comparison blog post later today. 

Elevation Polish Darkness of the Arctic 2
Two coats
Dark dark coffee brown jelly base with gold, bronze, and copper flake shimmer.
 Everything about this wonderful, the name, which brings to mind a dark cave somewhere in the far north, the blacked "bittersweet" chocolate base, and the heavy gold shimmer, which sparkles so well in the sun. The only critique is that it's a little on the thick side but it's not problematic when I applied it, just worth noting. 



(Direct Sunlight) 


Elevation Polish Hovd @ Dusk 
Two coats
Dark grape purple linear holographic with gold shimmer.
The gold shimmer is most evident in this one compared to the other holos in the collection and it adds a lot of warmth the the cooler blue toned purple. 



(Direct Sunlight) 



Elevation Polish Lost in the Darkness 2
Two coats
Dark emerald linear holographic with light gold shimmer
 I am going to start sound like a record on loop but man oh man, this color! It leans more blue in tone and that holo is strong as can be. I think this is easily could be my favorite dark green holo.



(Direct Sunlight) 



Elevation Polish Queen of the Night
Two coats
Blackened plum creme
Imagine your dream creme polish formula.....and you get this, with it's rich purple color. Without a doubt my favorite of the collection. It's neither too thick or thin, just the right consistency. It will look streaky with the first coat but despite the clout that a "one-coat-wonder" has, I always do two coats when applying a polish (black is the exception), so that wasn't a bother for me. I see myself pulling this out over and over again to wear for layering as well as by itself when I want something vampy. 



(Direct Sunlight) 


Elevation Polish The Kek 
Two coats
Khaki olive green linear holographic with a pink flash.
Formally a small batch prototype (SBP) polish, The Kek has returned as a new addition the Elevation core line and will be available for the foreseeable future. If you were able to get the original Kekekabic, then you can probably skip this as it's has not gone through any type of reformulation.  
I like the flashes of pink you see, that's more evident in person than in the photos. 



(Direct Sunlight) 



Elevation Polish Yeti Was a Shadow 2
Two coats
Dark gray linear holographic with light gold shimmer
Dark without looking flat, always an important detail but especially with gray polishes. This is an addition to always awesome Yeti line, and as with the previous Yeti polishes, it will be a limited edition polish for the month of December. 



(Direct Sunlight) 



LINKS! 

Elevation Polish: