Philly Loves Lacquer - Summer Down The Shore Collection

Hello everyone! Today I have a fab new collection from Philly Loves Lacquer to show you (the polishes were sent to me for review). I had been waiting patiently for these to arrive only to find out that they had been held up in Customs (grrrrr!). But they finally arrived at the weekend so I could get swatching! 

Starting with the glitter bomb that is Meet Me At Morey's. This has so many different kinds of glitter in it I wouldn't know where to start. Its shown here as two coats over Love Those Wildwood Days (more on that one later!) and with one coat of top coat.

Next we have the colour I used for the base above, Love Those Wildwood Days. Its a beautiful light sky blue scattered holo. I loooove the tone of this blue. Its poictured here with two coats and no top coat.

Wildwoods By The Sea is next and I love this sea green, teal-esque (yay, new word!) scattered holo. I rarely find polishes that I'd be happy to wear on their own without nail art, but this is one of them. The pictures show two coats and no top coat.

Next up is the champagne frosty goodness of Island Beach, another fab scattered holo. This one needed three coats, but the finish was excellent.

This next polish, On The Way To Cape May, is my favourite of the bunch (along with Wildwoods By The Sea). This surprises me as I'm not usually a huge fan of reds. But this red is full of strawberry-toned, juicy awesomeness and comes with a side of red and silver shimmer. This again was three coats and no top coat.

Last but not least from my selection, we have Watch The Tram Car Please. A fun yellow crelly with blue and green glitters. Shown here is three coats and one coat of top coat. I usually get annoyed applying this kind of polish, but this one was surprisingly easy.

Overall I love the collection, and the only reason I wouldn't wear the crelly is that yellow is not a fan of my skin tone! The stand out shades for me are On The Way To Cape May and Wildwoods By The Sea, plus there is another colour in the collection called Under The Boardwalk that I think would probably have been my absolute favourite (a charcoal grey with a purple shimmer). I'll be stalking the shop until the collection is released for that one!

The Summer Down the Shore collection will be available from 1st June at the Philly Loves Lacquer shop. Full size bottles will retail at $11-12. The entire collection will be available at $85 for full size bottles or $42.50 for the mini size bottles. You can also buy a "4 pack" (your choice of any four from the collection) for $42.50 for full size, or $21.25 for minis.

Sam xx

A renewed glitter obsession! L-A Glitter Nails Review

Hello everyone! My second post for today is so I can share with you a polish maker that I found on Etsy this last week. Lyka-Ann of L-A Glitter Nails had such beautiful looking glitter polishes on show at such low prices, I couldn't resist! I bought three, Grape, Apple and Sapphire. They arrived within a couple of days prettily wrapped in tissue paper and ribbon and looked stunning in the bottle.

 

However, until you've tried them you can never be sure with glitters, but OMG these were awesome! Packed with glitter, no issues with settling, the colours are ridiculously vibrant and they went on like a charm!

Grape is a vibrant, electric magenta shade, truly eye-catching. Apple is a zingy (is that even a word?), bright and fresh apple green (no surprises there eh?) and Sapphire is a deep sparkling royal blue.

I decided to try out some nail art with them to show them off straight away, and went with a glitter abstract. The base is LA Colors Lilac Frost, and I then freehanded sections of the three glitters using a striping brush. I used three coats, but two probably would've done. I finished with a coat of Seche Vite.

These arrived yesterday and I have already been back for three more, so I have Orange, Lemon and Peacock on the way. Can't wait until I have enough for a glitter rainbow! :) The shop also has a selection of duochromes which are next on my list. Go and check out L-A Glitter Nails Etsy shop, you won't be disappointed :)

Sam xx

February Indie spotlight - TarasTalons from The Tara Emporium

Hello everyone! As promised, I'm keeping up with my promise to get more involved with the Indie Polish scene and swatch at least one indie maker whose polishes I couldn't resist each month.

I couldn't let this month pass without buying from the lovely Tara and her Emporium. She makes the most gorgeous polishes and has such a huge selection of colours and finishes, I didn't know where to start! As a result I spent a long time in the Etsy shop deliberating, and to avoid drooling on my new laptop, I opted for a grab bag of 4 mini polishes and let Tara choose for me :)

The polishes arrived individually wrapped in brightly coloured tissue paper and bubble wrap - and I opened each one like a little birthday present (as they happened to arrive on my birthday too!). 

The first one I opened was Popping Candy. Its a pinky lilac with a reflective blue flash and a generous sprinkling of darker pink glitter. Definitely one for me with my sweet tooth! I'm not a lover of pinky colours as a rule, but there is so much going on in this polish I love it!

The next up was Holo Dolly - I was so happy to get a holo (and am already planning to go back for more!)! This one is a deep blue holo polish that glides on beautifully. It also has blue micro glitter to add even more depth to this lovely polish.

Next up is I Have No Idea. A limited edition glitter topper full of large blue hex shapes, smaller grey and green hex shapes and creamy yellow dots. I usually struggle with this kind of glitter topper as the shapes are sometimes hard to get to, but there are simply so many shapes packed into this mini bottle that I had no problem at all. I layered it over Color Club East Austin for some extra contrast.

Last but definitely not least, we have Goldmine. On first inspection I though it was a simple glitter but once I layered it over black I realized that there was a lot more to it than that! It has gold glitter in different shades, shapes and sizes in a black base, but it really does remind me of the walls of a gold mine, with all the glittering, metallic goodness showing through :)

So in case you hadn't quite picked up on it, I've become a instant fan of Tara's Talons with this purchase and am already planning my next one. I'm going to be a big girl and pick my own next time though... ;)

Sam xx

Belle Glamour Polish Review

Hello everyone! Today I have something a little different for you! As stated in my list of New Year intentions (note that I didn't say resolutions!), I promised more swatches and to look at some indie polishes. I'm pleased to say that it starts now!

Today I am reviewing four polishes from Belle Glamour. They all arrived after fantastic service from the lovely Catriona, all individually wrapped and labelled in bubble wrap and tissue paper. I ordered four 5ml bottles to start with and selected a variety of colours and finishes.

I'm going to start with Chocolate Kiss, a light pastel brown with a purple-ish tinge, but it is like looking at chocolate milk on your nails and I loved the colour, so rich and luxurious. The formula is thick enough that it is opaque after one coat (although I painted two because I'm like that), but still easy to work with. I can definitely see myself using this polish in nail art, but its also a great stand alone colour.

Next up, we have the Limited Edition polish, Bluebelle. This is an eye catching deep blue with a sprinkling of holo hex glitter that helps create an instant jelly sandwich effect. I found the formula on this one a little harder to work with, and it took four coats to get it opaque, but the glitter was easy to manipulate in the thinner formula and it was worth perservering for the finished result as you can see from the photos:

The third polish is called Splatter Bomb - no prizes for guessing why! There is so much multi coloured glitter packed into this creamy white polish that it is almost opaque and fully glitter bombed with just one coat! Again, I went for two, but it didn't need a base colour and there aren't many glitter polishes that you can say that about! Considering how much glitter there is crammed into it, the polish went on surprisingly smoothly (the brushes are a great help with this) and the finish evened out beautifully with a layer of top coat.

 Last but not least is my favourite of the four, a blue holo polish called Wave. Omg I love this! The holo effect is subtle but is definitely there, and the colour is a beautiful marine blue that has a very subtle green tone. Very rock and roll mermaid! Two coats to get it fully opaque, although I probably could've got away with one and it was so easy to work with. I can't find a bad word to say about this one at all - its fab.

So, I was very happy with all my selections from Belle Glamour, but I have to say that Wave (the holo) was my standout colour, closely followed by Chocolate Kiss. I loved the colour and formula on those two, so I can safely say that I will be going back for more pastels and holos :)

So there you have my first Indie review - who else do you think I should check out? Let me know :)

Sam xx