Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have some super cute and sassy Valentine's Day products from Lolita Lacquer to share with you! Lolita Lacquer always stands out to me for making unique and beautiful mani bombs in addition to her fabulous polishes so I was pretty stoked to be asked to swatch for her again! I have plenty of pictures to show you, so let's just jump right in!
How adorable is everything? My swatch bottles are minis but only full sized bottles (15ml) will be available for purchase for the polish duo. Each polish in the duo is inspired by different Valentine's Day candies - Just Talking is inspired by the little conversation hearts and Red Hot is inspired by the cinnamon heart candies.
The first polish in the duo is Just Talking, a milky white crelly filled with pastel heart glitter, hex glitter, and small circle glitter. This has to be the best formula on a crelly I've ever used - each coat was nice and thin and each dip with the brush into the bottle produced just the right amount of glitter, including those darling little hearts! My swatch shows 3 coats plus topcoat and each coat self leveled nicely. Just Talking retails for $9 if you buy it as a single.
Just Talking in direct artificial lighting
Macro of Just Talking
The second polish in the duo is Red Hot, a squishy fiery red jelly polish filled with bubblegum pink shimmer. Can you even? Its so sexy and flirty and cute all in one and the formula is easy as well. Red Hot was a bit thicker than Just Talking but each coat self leveled easily. My swatch shows two coats plus topcoat. Red Hot retails for $9 if you buy it as a single.
Red Hot in direct artificial lighting
Macro of Red Hot
As I mentioned earlier, when you purchase the duo - you also get one conversation heart mani bomb in nice (Cutie!) or mean (As If!) and your choice of 4 scents - Avo Grass, Lollypop, Fluffy Candy, and Frosty. Here's the one I got to sample...SO adorable. Mira's mani bombs are some of the most unique I've ever seen in the indie market! These retail for $1 if you want to buy them separately from the duo.
The Valentine's Day Duo from Lolita Lacquer launches January 15th in the Lolita Lacquer Esty shop and will retail for $18 plus shipping. Again, you'll get your choice of mani bomb and cuticle oil as a part of the duo so its a super fun little package to get yourself for Valentine's Day! You can also follow Lolita Lacquer on Instagram for more swatches and information on the release of this duo!
Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have swatches from Living Dead Lacquer to share with you. These 3 polishes make up her Christmas trio and I'm super excited to show them to you. If you haven't heard of Living Dead Lacquer yet, she's a Georgia based indie brand that carries polishes and nail care products like mani bombs and cuticle oils. She makes some gorgeous polishes so let's jump right in to the swatches!
The first polish I swatched is Mistletoe Hung Where You Can See, a traditional leafy green jelly filled with tiny gold micro flakies and scattered holo glitter. This one was very sheer on the first coat but built up nicely in 3 thin coats. The formula was a bit on the thicker side but application was a breeze. My swatch shows 3 thin coats plus topcoat. The second photo is with a matte topcoat applied. Look how those flakies pop! The matte topcoat also brightened the green and almost made it lime-y which was fun because it totally changed the look of the polish.
Mistletoe Hung Where You Can See in direct artificial lighting
Mistletoe Hung Where You Can see with matte topcoat
Macro of Mistletoe Hung Where You Can See
Matte Macro of Mistletoe Hung Where You Can See
The next one I swatched in the trio is Sleigh Ride Together With You, an orange toned red filled with tiny gold micro flakies and gold shimmer. I don't typically gravitate towards orange based reds but the squishiness of this jelly made me love it! The formula is similar to Mistletoe, 3 thin coats for opacity. It was a little thick but application was easy. My swatches show 3 coats plus topcoat. The second photo shows it with a matte topcoat applied. The matte topcoat on this one brought out the orange!
Sleigh Ride Together With You in direct artificial lighting
Sleigh Ride Together With You with matte topcoat
Macro of Sleigh Ride Together With You
Sleigh Ride Together With You with matte topcoat
The final polish in the trio was the star of the show for me. I want to wear this all December long and put Santas and reindeer and snowflakes and, and, and ALLLL the things over this beauty. This is Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, a white crelly filled to the max of all of the most delicious Christmas glitter. Surprisingly, this one was opaque in just 2 coats which surprised me being that its a white crelly. Formula wise, Santa Claus Is Coming To Town was a bit on the thick side due to the glitter but I had no problems with application and all of the glitter came out easily with no fishing. My swatches show 2 thin coats plus topcoat. The second photo is with matte topcoat. I'm going to need a full size of this gorgeousness!
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town in direct artificial lighting
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town with matte topcoat
Macro of Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town with matte topcoat
Now that you've seen them, I know you want them! Head over to Living Dead Lacquer's SITE on November 13th to pick these up, exact launch time is to be determined. You can find out more about the release on her Instagram. If you'd like to see a live swatch, click below:
Hey y'all! Today on the blog I have six shades from the OPI Starlight Collection to share with you. These polishes were provided to me as a part of the Preen.Me VIP program to swatch for ya'll and to show you some nail art looks that I did with them. Today's post is the swatch portion and I will have some nail art looks for you coming soon, so look for that!
From Preen:
"(The Starlight Collection) is made up of 18 ethereal shades that range from classic to cosmic. This new holiday collection includes everything from subtle shimmer to all-out sparkle."
The first shade that I swatched in my portion of the collection is By The Light Of The Moon, a bright silver metallic polish with silver hex and black micro glitter throughout. Guys, I hate to start off a post negatively but...no. This polish was such a disappointment for me. Its SO BEAUTIFUL in the bottle but definitely doesn't translate to the nail at all. The metallic base is very streaky, easily overworked, and leaves many brush strokes behind in a way similar to OPI Push And Shove. The glitter is completely covered in most places by the metallic base, leaving the finish looking lumpy and uneven, even after more than one coat of topcoat. This is the second time I have seen OPI try to do glitter in a metallic base (Pineapples Have Peelings, Too comes to mind) and it just doesn't work well. My swatch shows two coats plus 2 coats of Seche Vite and words cannot express how much I disliked the way it looked on me.
By The Light Of The Moon in direct artificial lighting
Macro of By The Light Of The Moon
Luckily, the second one I swatched was leaps and bounds better in formula, color, and application. This one is Center Of The You-Niverse, a black base with silver microflakie shimmer running throughout. I think this one will make a great base for nail art - its opaque in two thin coats and has a great payoff with the shimmer. I actually loved the formula on all of these, they were very true to OPI's standard formula and very easy to control on the nail.
Center Of The You-Niverse in direct artificial lighting
Macro of Center Of The You-Niverse
The third polish I swatched is my favorite, this is Cosmo With A Twist. I think it could best be described as a black jelly with iridescent indigo and purple microflakie shimmer throughout. I was quite frustrated that I couldn't get a color accurate photo on this one, my camera kept picking up all of the blue and none of the gorgeous purple but you can see how it really looks in my macro shot. The formula on Cosmo was perfection, two easy thin coats that went on like butter. I don't own a ton of OPI and I always forget how much I love their brush! I can't wait to use this in some nail art!
Cosmo With A Twist in direct artificial lighting
Macro of Cosmo With A Twist
Can we talk about glitter toppers for a second? I hate them, typically. They are never dense enough, they don't lie flat, and they're never as pretty on the nail as they are in the bottle. That is not the case with Infrared-y To Glow! Meet one of the only glitter toppers I might actually ever use! I am not sure what you'd even call the shape of those glitter but they're funky and fun pink and gold metallic glitters mixed with scattered holo glitter. I'm wearing it here in 2 coats over I'm In The Moon For Love. I had no issues with fishing for glitter but the dabbing method worked the best for me to get the large glitter off the brush.
Infrared-y To Glow in direct artificial lighting
Macro of Infrared-y To Glow
Perhaps the biggest disappointment in the collection for me was Press * For Silver. This is a gorgeous antiqued silver metallic polish but GAHHHHH the brush strokes! I saw Jen from +jeninthemorning sponge on the second coat of hers and it eliminated the brush strokes so I just may try that when I get ready to wear it again. This one is shown below in 2 thin coats plus topcoat. The major redeemer for Press * For Silver is that it stamps and I have a nail art look coming up to show that to you.
Press * For Silver in direct artificial lighting
Macro of Press * For Silver
The final polish I have to show you is my second favorite - I'm In The Moon For Love. This one is a beautiful eggplant creme with subtle shimmer running throughout it. This was another one with a typically easily OPI formula and it was a joy to apply. I've also used this one in a nail art look upcoming soon.
I'm In The Moon For Love in direct artificial lighting
Macro of I'm In The Moon For Love
That rounds out my post about 6 of the 18 shades from OPI's Starlight Collection sent to me by Preen.Me. You can find these and the rest of the Starlight Collection from OPI, directly on Preen's site, and wherever OPI is typically sold. Follow Preen on Instagram for more information, swatches, and giveaways! If you'd like to see a live swatch of these 6 polishes, click below to head over to my Youtube channel:
What do you guys think of the OPI Starlight Collection? Will you be picking any up?
