Polish Post: Finger Lickin' Lacquer "Love You," "Octopus," and "Here I Go" Swatches and Review

As Rebecca Black would say - It's Friiiiiiday!!!  TGIF!!  And for those of you celebrating Labor Day, happy 3-day weekend!!  Gotta love those :)

On this lovely Friday I have a fruity post for you!  I'll be showing you three polishes from Finger Lickin' Lacquer's Washed Out Neons collection.  I received a special discount code from this maker for purchasing her product, and wanted some of her new neons to be the first purchase, because I just love their color!!

So without further ado, here is "Love You:"

Because these faded neons look the same in and outdoors, I only took indoor photos for you :)

Love You is a creamy pink that smells like a strawberry daiquiri.  These neons have a very thin formula, and therefore require a few more layers to get it to its best color.  I wore 3 coats of Love You over a solid white base.  If you try to wear these without any sort of solid base coat, you will not achieve opacity - or you will after about 20 or so coats, not too sure :P  But you can do other artsy things with it, like "jelly sandwiches" and "watercolor" nail art.

Considering how many layers I had on, the polish dried fairly quickly.  I was able to put on cuticle oil and rub it in without doing damage to the polish about 15 minutes after applying it.  It was dry to the touch in less than five, but still affected by pressure.  It dried to a nice shiny finish, requiring no top coat.  I did want to note that if you choose to use a topcoat, from my experience, you won't lose the scent of the polish.  I know - crazy!  But I have used 3 different types of topcoats in the past over scented polishes, and the smell always comes through.  Sweet deal, if you ask me ^_^

Next up is "Octopus:"

Octopus has a wonderful grape smell to it, and took 4 coats to achieve the proper color (again, over a white base).  Everything else was the same as Love You - even the dry time despite an extra coat!

The final color I have for you is called "Here I Go:"

Here I Go is my favorite of the three - I just love the baby blue color!!  This polish has a sweet fruit punch scent (sorry I had no fruit punch, but I'm sure green grapes are in it, right? :P ) and also took 4 coats to match the color in the bottle.  Everything is the same as the others, too :)  

There are six washed out neons in total.  I wanted to mention that if you wish to have these, but don't want the scent, you can order them unscented!  She offers that option with all polishes that have a scent, it's pretty great!  

Here are some links for you:

Website: Here

Shop: Here

Facebook: Here

Instagram: Here

Twitter: Here

Hope you enjoyed this post, and have a wonderful Friday and weekend!  Don't forget today is You-Pick-My-Art on my Facebook Page!  I will be posting the options for vote around 10am PST.  See you all very soon <3

*Note: While I did receive a special discount code for purchasing product from this maker, links I provide are NOT affiliate - i.e., I get no kickback when you click on them through my post.  I have simply provided them for your convenience :)

Polish Post: Squishy Face Polish "Dusty Rose" and "Plumeria" Swatches and Review

How is everyone's week going so far?  It's almost over now, and then comes a 3-day weekend (thank you, Labor Day)!  I will be swatching the crap out of it :P  Lots to show you coming up!!

Today I've got two polishes from the brand Squishy Face Polish.  At the end of July, this brand was having a clearance sale - she got a new job and was clearing out her stock in order to close her shop for a bit.  I was a little disappointed, because I had just learned about this brand and really liked the colors she had available.  Fortunately I was able to snag two really pretty polishes before they were all gone.  The first of those colors I have to show you is called "Dusty Rose."

Outdoors

Indoors

Dusty Rose is a gorgeous rosy pink (as its title states), with a lovely holographic effect in the sunlight.  Application was nice and smooth, and the polish was opaque in 2 coats.  It dried very quickly to a flatter finish, as you can see in the photos (no topcoat added).  There was a slight amount of staining around my cuticles, but it came off rather easily with a few rounds of cleanup using a strong acetone remover.  Overall, it's a really nice polish.

The other color is "Plumeria."

Outdoors

Indoors

Plumeria is a light plummy purple color with a beautiful linear holographic effect in the sunlight.  The formula on this polish was a little thinner than Dusty Rose and took 3 coats to make it completely opaque.  Dried in the same amount of time, though, which is always a plus, and required no topcoat because it had such a nice shiny finish.  This color is definitely my favorite of the two :)

While the Squishy Face Polish shop says it is down for maintenance currently, I would still keep your eye on it.  She may very well re-open in the near future.  Here are some links for you:

Facebook: Here

Shop (currently down for maintenance): Here

Instagram: Here

I'm certainly hoping to see her back soon, maybe with some new colors!  One can only hope ^_^

I hope you all make it through your Thursday - Friday is right around the corner!  That also means another round of You-Pick-My-Art tomorrow :D  Stay tuned to my Facebook page to see what the choices will be this time!

*Note: Links I provide are NOT affiliate (i.e. I do not get any sort of kickback if you click on it through my post).  I simply provide them for your convenience :)

Polish Post: Model City Polish "Pour Me Another" and Mystery Polish Swatches, Review, and Nail Art

Good Morning (or Afternoon/Evening, wherever you are :D )  Hope you all survived your Monday and are ready to seize the rest of the week!  Today I've got three polishes from Model City Polish to show you.  The first polish is a Limited Edition called "Pour Me Another:"

Outdoors

Indoors

Pour me Another, I believe, was made for the creator's venture to Cosmoprof in Las Vegas a little while ago.  It's a beautiful red-wine colored crelly packed full of holographic awesomesauce.  Opaque in 3 thin coats for me, application was a dream (as usual), and dried fairly quickly to a nice shine (no topcoat in the pics above).  There was NO staining, either, which I certainly appreciate, considering a lot of polishes in this color tend to stain.  Lovely polish, and since it is Limited Edition, it won't be around much longer - in fact, I'm almost positive whatever is in the shop right now is all that is left, and it is showing a small amount is available.  Better get one now! :)

Last week I ordered a "Mystery Bag" she put together with two unreleased polishes in very limited quantities.  The polishes are unnamed, so here is Mystery Polish number 1:

Outdoors

Indoors

At first I thought this polish may look good as a glitter topper, so when I applied the first layer, I left "Pour Me Another" on my pinky and pointer fingers to see what it would look like over that color.  It does not look good as a glitter topper :P  So I went ahead and applied two more coats to all the nails to bring it to opacity.  This polish reminds me of rainbow asphalt.  The polish is packed with black, silver, and holographic micro glitters, and looks really gorgeous in full sunlight.  I like that it is different from any other polish I have - I bet it would look great on the toesies ^_^  It dried to a light texture, so I added two thin layers of topcoat to even it out and make is shiny.  

And here is Mystery Polish number 2:

Outdoors

Indoors

Sometimes I can't stand how "shiny" my cuticles and the skin around my nails looks when I apply cuticle oil before pictures :P  Just looks silly to me.  

So, normally I don't reach for white or any other sort of solid colored crelly that is packed with glitters.  In general, I just don't like them as much, and always thought they'd apply weirdly or look funky.  My mind has been changed now, thanks to this polish.  When I first unwrapped it, to be honest, my initial thought was, "Oh, man, a white crelly :( " I decided to swatch it anyway, since I hadn't ever worn one before.  I fell in love, I really did.  The application was so smooth, and these bar glitters were not a hassle, nor did they clump together.  They spread out nice and evenly, and this polish was opaque in 2 coats.  There was a very, very light texture from the glitters, so I added a topcoat to make it smooth.  I'm very glad this polish was in the mystery pack, because I have never given these types a chance, and now I most certainly will!

The second mystery polish reminded me of something, too, when I saw it - ice cream!!  So I did some nail art with it ^_^  Check it out!

The pastel colors are Love You (middle pink, smells like strawberry daiquiri), Here I Go (blue ring, smells like fruit punch), and Octopus (pinky, smells like grape) - all by the brand Finger Lickin' Lacquer.  

Here are some links for you for Model City Polish's shop and social media:

Facebook: Here

Instagram: Here

Shop: Here

She is out of her mystery bags, though I'm sure she will probably do it again in the near future.  As I said before, though, there are still a few of those LE Pour Me Another polishes left, and I would seriously go grab one now.  She always ships her product promptly, too - I got a tracking number a few hours after I placed my order with her.  Seriously, amazing!

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!!  See you all tomorrow <3

*Note: Links I provide are NOT affiliate (i.e. I get no kickback when you click on them through my blog).  I simply provide them for your convenience :)

Nail Art: Flight of the Phoenix

I am having an unusually productive Monday so far - went running this morning for the first time since May (now that the weather is *finally* cooling down), and went straight to yoga for an hour and fifteen minutes of vinyasa (don't know how good of an idea that was, we'll see how I feel later on in the day :P ).  Pretty good so far!  And tonight, I GET TO USE MY NEW BOW FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!  Can you tell I'm excited?  It's been all dolled up with nowhere to go since Wednesday - I am PUMPED! :D

So to continue this awesome Monday, I want to show you the nail art I created from last Friday's You-Pick-My-Art theme of "Fire."  I designed a Phoenix, and this is how it turned out:

I feel very "meh" about this art.  AFTER I painted it, and it was too late to go back, I saw a different way to paint this that would have turned out better.  Oh well, c'est la vie, I will improve the design on a later date and restore my dignity :P

I used one of Above The Curve's "Friday the 13th" polishes for the base coat.  It's a gorgeous dark brown with a holographic effect in the sunlight.  It was the perfect color as a backdrop to complement the fire tones of the Phoenix.

I hope you like the art!  This Friday will be another round of You-Pick-My-Art, so stay tuned to my Facebook page!  I will have some more art coming your way this week, as well, using one of the mystery colors from Model City Polish's Mystery Grab Bag :)  Have a GREAT Monday, everyone!! <3

*Note: Links I provide are NOT affiliate (i.e. I get no kickback when you click on it through my post). I simply provide them for your convenience :)

Polish Post: A England "Dancing With Nureyev" and "Saint George" Swatches and Review

Happy Saturday!!  I'm still waiting for my coffee to kick in, so rather than boring you with mindless small-talk (since that's all I'm good for pre-caffeine) then let's go ahead and jump right into the polish and pictures :)

I've got two beautiful colors for you today from the UK brand A England.  The first polish is called "Dancing With Nureyev."

Direct Sunlight

Indirect Sunlight

Dancing with Nureyev is a grey/purple with tons of sparkle and a scattered and linear holographic effect.  The linear holo (when it appears to shine in a line on the nail) is mostly seen in direct sunlight, whereas the scattered holo (spread throughout the polish) can be seen even indoors, which is awesome for a holo-freak like me :)  The polish is thicker, and believe it or not, is opaque in one coat.  The fact it is on the thick side did not make application a pain, and it went on smoothly to a nice shine.  I am not wearing a topcoat in the photos above, though I would suggest adding one if you want that sparkle and shimmer to pop.  Dry time was incredible, as it was good to go in less than 5 minutes.  The only caution I'd advise is to make sure you are applying in the same direction.  This polish seems to have a bit of a metallic shine to it, and you can see lines if you swipe in a different direction.

The second polish is called "Saint George."

Direct Sunlight

 Indirect Sunlight

St. George is a gorgeous dark forest green with the same linear and scattered holographic effect as Dancing with Nureyev.  Application was the same, too, and also was opaque with one coat.  This polish seemed to dry to an even shinier finish, and again, I used no topcoat in the pictures.  This polish is lovely!  There are a few things I had issues with, however.  While this polish is b-e-a-utiful, it is a Pain-In-The-Booty to clean up.  It stained the crap out of my skin.  It took me a good 20 minutes just cleaning up the little spots of polish on my skin around the nails.  Big ole pain.  I had to use the strongest acetone remover I own to get it all off - anything non-acetone won't make any kind of a difference.  So, just keep that in mind if/when purchasing this color.

The only other issue I had was with the presentation on the website from which I purchased St. George.  I picked up this color when Llarowe was having a sale a few months ago.  I bought it based on the swatch photos on the website, which show the color as a more teal green.  After receiving the polish, and noticing it was considerably darker, and not very teal in color, I looked up swatches via google image search, and saw how many others showed the true forest green shade that it is.  That being said, when you look at swatches of polishes you wish to purchase on Llarowe, take it with a grain of salt, and look up images through google to get the most accurate you can before purchasing.

I want to point out that I am NOT blaming Llarowe - I don't believe they are not responsible for the swatch photos (other than the ones for their own brand) - I think they receive them from the sellers, who receive them from swatchers and bloggers.  I am also NOT blaming swatchers, or insinuating they are taking false pictures.  For all we know, the blogger that received St. George could have gotten one from a batch that pulled a little more teal than the rest.  There's a lot that goes into it.  The only point I am trying to make is that you should look at several different swatch photos before deciding to purchase a polish, because polishes in general look considerably different outdoors, indoors, in different artificial lighting, etc.  I did not do my homework, as I should have, but fortunately for me, in this case, I like the polish anyway :P

Here are some links on where you can find A England polishes, and where to keep up-to-date:

Facebook: Here

Website: Here

US Supplier: Here

Instagram: Here

That's all for today.  Looks like "fire" won for this week's You-Pick-My-Art, so I will be working on that to show you a design on Monday.  Have a great weekend, everyone!! <3

*Note: Links I provide are NOT affiliate (i.e. I do not get any kickback when you click a link through my post).  I simply provide them for your convenience :)