Custom Hues!

I wanted to share the custom polishes I ordered from Heather's Hues!

First up is Mojito.  Mojito is a mint green crellie base full of iridescent glitters.  I used three thinnish layers for depth and then stamped over it with little green mint leaves!

Next is Bellini.  This creamy peach polish is full of pink flakies and sparkle.  I used three very thin coats.  It's a little patchy, but nothing of consequence!  It's so gorgeous.  It's the perfect peach.

Finally there is Limonata.  I had originally though to call it Pink Lemonade, but Limonata fits the 'theme' much better.  This is a pale pink crellie full, FULL, of matte pink, yellow, and iridescent glitter.  I used three coats here and it's so packed with glitter it's crazy.

Heather was so great to work with.  I described what I had in mind for each 'mixer' and she brought them to life!  The turn around time was quick, although I realize as a mom that it might have taken long.  Honestly, they'd have been worth the wait.  I love them!

NWP: Montly Mailing

Recently, as in less than two weeks ago, Native War Paints started a monthly mystery mailing.  I dutifully set an alert to remind me, being in a completely different time zone, and made sure I was one of the first to sign up.  Luckily so, Mr. Native War Paints gave a running narrative and it was clear that the subscriptions sold out fast.  As in.. about an hour.  Each month is 17.99$ which includes shipping and is paid automatically via Paypal.

I am pretty thankful I got mine!  The box arrived yesterday, so even shipping across the Atlantic, it arrived super quick.  Included in this months Avenger's themed box is:

The First Avenger  (full) - This is the perfect Steve based jelly blue complete with a very slight red shimmer to it as well as a smattering of flakies for depth.  It's nicely opaque in two easy coats.  For this mani I used three thin coats just to build depth with the flakies.

Genius Billionaire Playboy Philanthropist (mini) - I suppose nothing Avengers would be complete without an Iron Man themes something.  This topper is full of red and gold glitters.  It's not a glitter bomb, the glitter is sparse.  Here I layered two coats over a gilded gold polish.

You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry (full) - This polish is a nod to the big green guy.  It's a green jelly base with various shaped purple and green glitters.  One coat is pretty transparent and the green utterly sickly, it's perfect.  For this mani I used four thin coats, again, just for depth with the glitter.  It's not going to be opaque without multiple coats, so two would still get the effect, it gets chunky to work with.

What do you think?  Did you subscribe?

Formula X

 This is a repost of an entry I wrote last year!  This was way before I discovered Indie!  I hope you enjoy it!

Sephora launched a new line of lacquer this Fall called Formula X.

What it is:
A classic shade of lacquer revisited—this lacquer comes in a striking array of bold and brilliant shades that will revolutionize your wardrobe of signature favorites.

What it does:
Timeless staples just got a brilliant makeover. Infused with an amazing luminescent ingredient that enhances color and overall shine, it also features a fast-drying agent that gives you a smooth, flawless finish in no time. Sephora’s patented no-compromise formulation offers everything you’ve ever wanted in a nail color: invincible wear, incredible saturated color, and ultimate shine.

What it is formulated WITHOUT:
- Parabens

What else you need to know:
This polish is a three-free formula. The brush design was engineered to complement the highly pigmented formula, giving you the most even and precise lacquer application.

They moved away from carrying their own custom OPI colours and formulated their own brand.  When it first started to become available on the website, I felt like they'd no doubt sent out a bevy of press kits, everyone seemed to be posting the same review on The Twenty Two, which as the name implies is a set of twenty two mini sized lacquers in a variety of shades and finishes.

At one point, they offered a little red bottle as a 100 point perk and on a whim I picked it.

It was the single best little bottle of lacquer I'd ever used and I was shattered when I shattered it on the marble floor of the bathroom.

When Sephora had their VIB sale recently, I bought not only The Twenty Two (which I'll skip reviewing, I know you've seen it all before), but a few other shades.

From left to right there are Naughty Newton, Love Chemistry, Volatile, Potent, Curiosity, Genius, Dark Matter, Fathom, and Desire.

The shades are super saturated and creamy.  They are so opaque you can get away with one nice coat and go.  They dry super quickly because they're not gloppy and look smooth and very chic.  The testament to this is Potent.  Being a soft pink, I almost expected to have to work it up with several coats.  I only needed one to get the true colour.

They wear amazingly well, but I never do my nails without the CND Sticky Base Coat and a Seche Vite top coat.  I did notice that they had nicer longevity than most.  I work often with my hands, so my nails almost always chip, but these stayed very crisp for almost a weak.  They actually started to wear before they chipped.

I was most impressed with the glitters.  You didn't have to layer these either for some nice opacity and hence they didn't flake or chip.  Naughty Newton is a sugar finish with some lovely glitter.  The winner of the glitters I've tried, between these and The Twenty Two, is Love Chemistry.  It's a gorgeous rose gold combination that is totally on trend this Winter.

They range in price from $10.50US for the solid shades to $12.50US for the glitters.  There are several ranges of lacquers; New Classics, New Neutrals, Sparklers, Shifters, Transformers, Brilliants, Lusters, Holograms, Celestials, Chromes, Electrics, Translucents, and Superwats.  They also have top coats as well as base coats and a couple other basics.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

It's a very impressive collection that I highly recommend.  They have just about any shade or look that you might be looking for and are well worth the price!

ETA:
These polishes SMEAR like crazy when working with them and art.  You can stamp with them, but they won't stay put and using them with vinyls is a super tricky!

Effective!

I ran across Revlon's Transforming Effects Matte Pearl Glaze the other day and having heard nothing about it, thought I'd give it a try.  I see people use Holographic Pearls, which is from the same range, but I'm not sure why MPG hasn't gotten more love, it's amazing!

They describe the finish as pearl, which means that it's got a slight shimmery pink to it.  It sort of reminds me of an opal finish and so I promptly tried it over a black and white design.  This is Drip Drop Nail Paints Tighty Whites and Yoga Pants.  Unfortunately it smears the stamped image, but knowing that I worked with it in a thicker coat and didn't fuss.

 I then tried it over a glitterbomb, Fairytale Finish's Pixie Wings.  It's just remarkable.  I tend to love the look of matte glitter, but with the added pink sheen, it's just otherworldly.

 Lastly I tried it over a simple (ok, not-so-simple) white crelly, this is Drip Drop Nail Paint's Spring Grab Bag 002.  It's just so dang cute!  I was thinking I'd start over with this look, layering in a floral stamped look!

This is what I came up with!  Knowing that MPG smears, I used Mundos de Unas, since that stuff doesn't budge.  I do recomend masking your skin off with something when you use these stamping polishes, though, because they don't budge.

Have you tried this polish?  What do you think?

Friday Favourites

I think I'm the worst blogger ever.  I have a list of posts I want to write and tutorials to create and this is only my second post this week... what am I doing with my time?!

This week only have one favourite, but I think it's a big one.

Candied Apple Polish

I placed an order for some customs as well as some polishes for my upcoming giveaway and when the box arrived, tucked inside was a special surprise!

This is Grata, the polish of #gratitude itself and a very thoughtful birthday gift!  It's so unique and I have to admit it had me crying as I opened it!  Wait till you see it on!

I've posted about CAP before, back last year on my old blog, but it's been migrated over.  You can read all about it: here.

I really love the style of CAP polishes.  They're very well thought out and full of a myriad of different glitter shapes and sizes and even the most complex colour arrangements look beautiful.  I've placed dozens of orders and have dozens of both Mystery Apples and Custom Apples and even using the same polish over you never quite get the same thing, which makes them, IMO, a good investment!  

This isn't even all of them, this rack is now full and overflowing onto a shelf.  Am I done collecting?  No.  As long as Alison makes polishes, I'll keep supporting her and creating amazing manis!

Above is my Audrey Hepburn series, Ann (from Roman Holiday), Holly (from Breakfast at Tiffany's) and the eponymous Sabrina!  I do hope to have more created but right now she's closed to taking custom orders in preparation for a move.

I had a chat with Alison the other day and I asked her a couple of questions about some specific polishes and she gave me some great insight into her process and as always, I was impressed at her integrity!

What are you grateful for this week?

Parental Advisory Warning

Let me just preface this with an admission.  I am painfully prudish.  I can't help it.  I blush and have a very hard time swearing or even reading swear words on labels.  So purchasing from Parental Advisory Polish was a BIG step for me and one I am so glad to have taken.

I set out to place a preorder for the Spring collection, and when I did there was an issue checking out.  I emailed the owner and she went above and beyond to figure things out for me and soon I was waiting in anticipation for my order to be shipped.  It arrived carefully packaged in a personalized box, colourful and secure.  

Included in the set were:

• Air Tight - A dusty sky blue LOADED with holo sparkle!
• Angry Pirate - The perfect Spring teal. Great holo shimmer and silky formula will make this one of your new favorite polishes!
• Slam Pig - An exact match to a pink Highlighter, you will not be disappointed with this one! Slam Pig dries to a "Latex" looking finish.
• I-69 - A creamy bright purple with all sorts of holo goodness!
• Fluffer - The perfect neon green. Bright, fun and opaque in only 2 coats!
• and a mini cuticle oil

Four of the shades have a hint of holo in them while the pink, Slam Pig, seems to be a straight cream and by straight I mean as straight as a bright neon can get.

The formula was easy to work with and dried matte with a bit of a texture, but it made it really easy to tell if the layers where even.  There is no need for a white base for the polishes to be vibrant, either.

I was tempted to leave it matte but sealed it with a top coat and blinded my camera trying to take pictures, it hates neons.

I feel like this is a great set of 'basics', perfect to use to accent othter polishes but strong enough to stand on their own as well as for bases for glitter bombs or stamping.

You can buy the polishes separately here for 7$ each.

Pond Mani

I've been participating in the Little Mermaid Mani Challenge this month and loving it!  Today was Pond Mani and since I've never done one, I had to Google.  Turns out I have done one.... way long ago.

What a Pond Mani is is a sheer polish layered over several images to build layers within the translucency.  Since I can't freehand for anything, I used a stamped image in white and then layered my sheer over it and then applied a final stamped image over top.  It's almost exactly what Shelsea an I did with our Minsky Manis!

• Apply a base coat.
• Using your mask of choice, wrap off the edges of your nails.  I'm using a sample I got from Glitter Daze.  This makes clean up so much easier.
• Using a white polish (I used White Out from Just Rica) stamp your base image.  This will be the one that will be in the background.
• Let it dry or it might smear, jellies are not like top coats and do not float.
• Once it's dry, load up your brush and apply two even coats of your jelly.  In both manis I used sheers from Doctor Lacquer.
• Once it's dry, this polish actually gets a little matte, stamp your top image.
• Apply a top coat.
• Tidy up!

You can of course use any combination of images for whatever effect you're looking for.  I stayed within the aquatic theme with mine!

With Glitter and Gratitude,

Mani of the Month: February

Today I'm bringing you my monthly review of the Mani of the Month kit!

As always, it contains special limited edition items from Heather's Hues, Dream Polish, and Nails Redesigned.  And as always, you are probably going to kick yourself if you missed it because it's amazing.

Simply amazing.

It contains:

From Dream Polish

• A 5 ml Gem Stick Base Coat in Bed of Rose
• A 5ml Gem Glam Top Coat in Bed of Rose
• A 5ml Cuticle Oil in Bed of Roses

From Heather's Hues

• A polish mini in Bound By Your Love
• A full sized polish in Love Hurts (thermal)

From Nails Redesigned

• A sheet of vinyl hearts in various shapes
• A sheet of vinyl feathers
• A sheet of vinyl handcuffs
• An assortment of gems

Bed of Roses is probably my favourite scent from the box yet. It's a true, pure rose scent.  It's not perfumey, it's just the real clean scent of roses.  If you haven't already, you can read my previous review of the Gem Glam Top Coat and the base coats here. 

I'm crazy about the vinyls this month!  I just made some feathers for myself, so I loved getting these sparkly white ones!  Unfortunately my nails are trimmed to nubbins right now and the vinyls are a little too large.  I'm anxious for them to grow out so I can use the handcuffs!

I'm going to go ahead and officially name Heather's Hues as my favourite thermal polish maker.  I love thermals and I do have a lot of them.  There are some brands whose thermals are so thin they never quite get opaque and many many thermals don't really change colours as designed.  Every one I've gotten from Heather's Hues has been amazing.  In fact, I used Mucho Smoocho, a thermal not included in the box as the compliment for this mani and it's just as stunning.  There is an obvious shift and it really lingers so you can see the process.

 I've got a macro here, you can see the swirls underneath are Mucho Smoocho, the perfect pink accent for Love Hurts.

This month's box is another stunner, did you get it?  Have you pre-ordered March's?