First of all, I’m sorry I took a month long hiatus. It’s one of those things that snowballs after a few days. My son has had a lot of health issues and might have to have brain surgery so we’ve been focusing on that. Things are slowing down a bit now so I should be back in the swing of things.
To kick it off, here are some swatches of Zoya’s Godiva polish from the Fall 2013 Pixiedust collection. It’s GORGEOUS.
This post is purely comprised of swatches for House of Usher by Pretty Jelly. All photos were taken with indirect natural lighting (no lamps, just cloud-covered sunlight). I’m not doing a review for this polish but will say it’s absolutely GORGEOUS! Liz (the creator of Pretty Jelly polishes) really does take great care in creating high quality products. Without further ado… I present to you House of Usher!
Remember to click any photos you want to see enlarged. The bigger the photo, the clearer the polish!
A bit of an aside: It has been my experience that some indie polish sellers are more or less “half-assing it” when it comes to measuring, mixing, and showcasing their products. It’s not necessarily because they don’t care but rather because of possible inexperience. I try to give the benefit of the doubt when trying out a somewhat low quality indie polish and assume they might be new to hand mixing polish.
However, there are also sellers out there who are just plain lacking when it comes to passion for their craft. It’s obvious when their product ends up shoddy or lacking in some way. (And by “shoddy” I mean their polishes are often too runny or thick, have too little or too much of certain ingredients, they aren’t mixed well, the quality of the various supplies are low end, the polishes aren’t creative, etc.) I am guessing a lot of them end up like this because they don’t want to spend the amount of time it takes to create truly wonderful polish (or maybe they just plain lack an artsy “eye” that’s required to truly excel in the indie polish world).
I mention all of this in order to truly show how special brands like Pretty Jelly are (as well as Mentality Polish, Spellbound Nails, etc.). They’re special because of their thoughtful creative process, attention to detail, good taste, and their ability to remain unique in a sea full of carbon copied products. It’s because of brands like these that indie polish has taken off as much as it is and it’s because of the owners so many are inspired to take up nail art as a meaningful hobby.
It might sound silly to say that indie polish is inspiring to many but that’s the honest truth. It speaks to a lot of people and often makes high quality polishes obtainable for the average nail aficionado (whereas before you would often have to spend time looking for certain brands in certain stores and cough up lots of money for specific trends). Now high quality polishes that are truly unique and even one-of-a-kind are just a few clicks away!
And it’s all because of people like the ones I just mentioned.
I didn’t mean for this post to get so long and serious but it all needed to be said. I mostly wanted to mention that the indie polish genre is something a lot of people do but only a few people do really well.
This post is basically just shameless self promotion and little else 😛 I just wanted to share some swatches of my newly “minted” glitter polish, Sweet Sixteen. As of today there are four available via Vixen Polish on etsy.com. Swatches and information are below. (Remember to click the photos to enlarge them!)
(Indirect artificial light.)
(Direct artificial light.)
(With Seche Vite topcoat.)
Sweet Sixteen is my first go at using mica pigments to genuinely create an entire bottle of polish from absolute scratch (whereas before I would often use specific pre-made pigments or even mixtures of other polishes via “frankening”).
Sweet Sixteen is a very versatile polish as it can be used in three ways:
Another thing? This is probably my favorite polish I’ve made thus far! I can’t say I’ve seen anything quite like it and I am thrilled with not only how well it applies but also how versatile it is. It’s also the first time I’ve made my own polish 100% from scratch, pigments and all.
Lastly, it’s a great “go-to” polish whenever you can’t pick something out (I have this problem A LOT–I just can’t choose which color I want to use because I have so many–and so I have “go-to” polishes like Maximillian Strasse-Her by Essie, Queen Vic by butter London, and Chic by Revlon.
What are some “go-to” polishes you use? And what do you think of Sweet Sixteen? Any critiques or recommendations are always welcome!
Pretty Jelly is an indie brand I came across on etsy.com the other week and after browsing the selection I ordered myself two bottles: London Bridge and House of Usher.
Both polishes are gorgeous, apply wonderfully, and are worth every penny paid. This isn’t a formal review of Pretty Jelly’s polishes but I still wanted to say the two I’ve tried are awesome and I will be ordering from PJ again in the near future.
Right now I only have photos of London Bridge but I should have a post on House of Usher soon. Definitely check out the links because her swatches are superior to mine and truly showcase how beautiful these polishes truly are! In the mean time I’ll continue trying my best to swatch away (and continually learn in the process…)!
(Click on photos to enlarge.)
(Try to ignore the redness. It was from a darker polish I had removed prior to applying London Bridge. Sometimes you just can’t remove every single bit when it comes to dark polish!)
So what do you think of London Bridge and Pretty Jelly polishes in general? Have you ever tried them before and if not, would you consider this indie brand in the future?
Today I have tons of swatches of Spinning Again by Essie. I thought it looked like the perfect fall polish to break out now that the leaves are starting to fall and the temperatures are starting get crisp in the mornings. It’s not a new color for Essie but it’s certainly a good one. It’s sort of a brick red which is something you don’t see all that often in a lot of polish lines (at least I haven’t) and while I didn’t like it much at first it has really grown on me since I tried it out! Like all Essie polishes it applies smoothly and you can achieve the following effect in just two coats.
One more thing: Most of the photos were taken indoors using direct sunlight but the last three photos were taken with indirect sunlight (so indoors during the daytime but not in the path of a direct light source). The color of this polish obviously varies from one light source to another but it’s more brown than red when all is said and done!
And the last photo is just for fun. I thought it looked kinda cool!
(Remember to click to enlarge photos!)
Enjoy!
Over a year ago I did a review post for Tiffany Impostor by Finger Paints. This single post has been responsible for more hits on my blog than any other entry. Apparently a lot of people search the term “Tiffany Impostor” on google.com and for some crazy reason my post is high enough in the search results that people actually click on it!
I mention all of this because it really shows how popular this polish is. It’s obvious why: It’s gorgeous, Finger Paints is a great brand, and in a sea full of “Tiffany” colors it somehow manages to be one of the best.
Given its consistency in being awesome no matter what season it is or what style is current, I usually end up wearing the stuff once every couple of months. This time, however, I decided to try something a little different. Instead of using a regular topcoat I decided to use Revlon’s matte topcoat. I was NOT disappointed!
I’m going to include two old swatches of Tiffany Impostor without the matte topcoat and then add the swatches that were done today with the matte.
(Above photos are without matte topcoat.)
I think I might like Tiffany Impostor even more with the matte topcoat! What do you think?
Just a couple ‘o swatches of Queen B. I saw it on display with China Glaze’s fall 2013 collection at Sally’s and had to pick it up. It’s a deep violet creme polish and while it looks great on its own it looks even better with a matte topcoat. I wish I had taken photos after I added the topcoat but I’ve already removed it all. Just take my word for it: Queen B looks great as is and if you happen to have a matte topcoat around, give it a shot on top of this gorgeous color!
Remember to click on the photos to enlarge them!
Man, the broken tips on my middle and ring fingers really affects all of my swatches right now and it’s so frustrating. Ah well, you can still see how gorgeous Queen B is and that’s all that matters!
This should be the first of several posts today. I’ve been on “vacation” visiting family in South Carolina and haven’t had the time or energy to update much.
First one is dedicated to Glamrock by Nina Ultra Pro. I LOVE NUP polishes and wish I had more of them! Not only is the polish of great quality but I love that the brushes they use are so wide that you can paint [a coat on] a nail in as little as two strokes. It makes it so much easier to reach the cuticle in one clean line because the brush automatically fits the curve at the base of the nail. It can be made really wide with little pressure and fit wide nails which is great for thumbs and toes. Sometimes I have trouble making my cuticles look smooth without doing actual cleanup but NUP polishes make it a lot easier to accomplish a clean look with little effort.
On to the polish though. This color isn’t new from what I can tell but I hadn’t seen it before in stores or online. I’m not sure why that is because it’s absolutely gorgeous! It’s something I would definitely consider on New Year’s Eve or a night out on the town and it looks great both indoors and out no matter what time of day. To me it looks almost as if they used a black base color and simply went crazy with the silver bits of glitter they added but I’m not quite suer that’s the case. It doesn’t really matter either way though because this nail lacquer is beautiful!
Before I post swatches I must say that I broke not one but two nails this past week 😦 One of them is really obvious and the other is only somewhat bad. It always sucks when this happens! You either file the rest down so they can all be similar or cut your losses and risk your swatches looking awkward. As you can see I tried my best but it wasn’t avoidable in every single one.
Click on photos to enlarge so you can really see how gorgeous this is!
Strength is a rich brown polish that’s perfect for fall and can be purchased at Mentality’s etsy page for just $8.00.
I got my shipment from Mentality polishes finally! It included six bottles of polish and the one I’m reviewing today is called Laura. Naturally I wanted to start with it because not only is it my favorite, it’s also my name. I was not disappointed!
This is the third shipment I’ve gotten from Mentality in the past two months. It definitely won’t be the last. I now have 12 or 13 of her polishes and use them frequently. Quite honestly this indie brand makes one of my all time favorite polishes to date!
My collection of Mentality polishes.
The order I got yesterday, minus a bottle of Virginia.
On to the swatches for Laura! This polish is a beautiful and unique silver color with light green undertones (or is it a light green color with silver undertones?). Like all Mentality polishes it applies smoothly in just two coats and dries quickly. This one also has a matte finish which seems to be popular with Mentality as well. It wears well and even withstood a day full of hand washing dishes, wrangling toddlers, and cleaning rooms without a single chip. Usually most polishes end up with at least one chip by the end of my day and it’s almost always because of the dishes. I might as well get rid of our dish washer since I have to pre-wash them by hand and it’s like, what’s the point? But I’m getting off track, haha.
So… I really do recommend this brand to anyone. Click the link above and check out the Mentality etsy page! Below are some swatches.
I’m not sure why the focus is so screwy on this. It looks like I Photoshopped the crap out of it but I really haven’t!
This one is a little better but it got cloudy outside and made the photo darker. I’m against heavily altering nail photos (a.k.a. too lazy and unwilling to pay hundreds of dollars for Photoshop) and I’m pretty sure it shows but at the same time it’s nice to see what polish REALLY looks like in swatches. A lot of times I see photos and think, “This person clearly Photoshopped the crap outta this. Is this even remotely what the polish looks like..?” Does anyone else think this too? Anyway…
I have more swatches prepared for this polish but they have to be added to the computer first! I also have swatches ready for Not For Sale (Mentality). They will be up later today!
Rookie Nails 