Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Sue Me Lacquer

Hi there!! Today I have for you a pretty new indie line called Sue Me Lacquer. I had seen a dark blue jelly that she made that I loved so I contacted her about swatching!! Before I even start on the polish let me tell you how awful this winter has been to my hands!! I had one break making dessert for Thanksgiving and they haven't stopped since!! Peeling, tearing, the works! Warm weather is on its way so hopefully we are done with all this because I have no nail left lol. I also have been playing with my lighting again. I just can not seem to get it to where I need it. I will get it though eventually... I have to, right?! So here are the polishes sent to me by Susan :) I really liked them all!! The formula on a few were on the thick side but I have been assured that they are being reformulated as I type! And again please excuse my winter fingers! This polish is called Monkey Love. This polish is a  sheer yellow metallic with orange/coral hexes, red metallic and holographic micro glitters and red hearts. I used 2 coats over 2 coats of Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty. It really Made the yellow pop. I couldn't get the best pictures of this. It reflected the light like you would not believe and I didn't want to matte it because you would lose the shimmery finish!! The formula on this was one of the thick ones but a little thinner fixed it right up!! It was smooth and dried nicely. I did have to dab on some hearts but not all. I just left my bottle upside down for a few minutes before swatching. 



This one is called Bloody Valentine. This was also a thicker one but thinner fixes all!! Not really but it did fix this issue :) BV is an awesome jelly polish. The squishiness is just to die for! It was a dream to work with as well. 3 smooth coats without undies. Its definitely darker than blood red but its a unique color to say the least. It a blackened reddish brown. Almost like a dried blood stain. Does that make sense? Either way I liked it more and more the longer I wore it. I did have to fish a little for the heart but hey, its a pretty big glitter. I haven't come across a polish yet to have perfectly floating hearts!!! Besides the fact that it has red hearts and black holo hearts! It also has lots of red holographic microglitter. Which I totally love. It gives the dark polish a pop and flash of brightness. The dry time on this polish was amazing!! Probably the second fastest of any indie I have tried! I only used my seche vite topcoat to add a little extra shine.





Forever Alone is a black crème polish with scattered holo glitters. No matter what I did I could not capture any holo. Mostly to the fault of New England weather. Being on a third shift schedule and hardly seeing the sun doesn't help either. nut I did get a good bottle shot of the holo for you so you could see just how beautiful FA really is. This really could be a one coater but I used 2 coats because it didn't dry completely smooth and I wasn't sure if it were the polish or user error. Its not bumpy or anything but you can definitely feel the texture of the glitter. you can actually see it under my top coat. Which was weird because after the top coat it was like glass! Without topcoat it also dried to a waxy, semi-matte finish.





Like they say, save the best for last!!! Ruby Kisses is a cranberry colored sheer jelly jam packed with holo goodness. This is a pretty colored version of china glaze fairy dust in my opinion. This one needed no thinning. I used 4 thin coats of perfection. I can not say enough about this polish. I have already made plans to buy this in a full size. Its so versatile. its sheer enough to layer over almost anything. I just love it on its own though! Its just super beautiful!!! Make sure to check out Sue's store for these polishes as well as others!! It will be worth it!! :)






Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Maybelline Color Show ~ Street Art Collection

Hi all!! Are we ready to be snowed in? I am in Connecticut and its due to start in a few hours!!!!!! I have been absent for a few so I am taking advantage of this lazy weather to bring you swatches of the Maybelline Color Show Street Art Collection! This is a glitter packed collection that I had to have. I am not a huge fan of lots of glitter unless it is matte glitter. And even then I am a little weary. I just love my shimmer :) These happen to catch my eye while browsing my local walmarts selection. They have been making their cosmetics section much better lately. To the pics!! First up is Wild at Heart. By far my favorite in this collection. I love red so much (as long as its not polish lol) especially when its over a pretty pink polish!! I used 1 thick coat here. Like glitters normally do it dried really fast. I find that they all were really jam packed with glitter which is great but it definitely thickened up the formula. I also noticed the brush was full of little glitters that kind of just hung out there. That being said they all applied pretty easily and smoothly. With Valentines day coming up I added a heart and dragged my top coat until it smeared. it started as an accident but as soon as I saw the first red streak I was like "ooohhhh, that's unique". At least from what I have seen!!





Now here is my least favorite. This is Pink Splatter. It looks white. That is my biggest issue with this polish. I already have a bunch of those! I put this over a shimmery charcoal color for a sharp contrast hoping that would help show the pink but it didn't help very much. I may come back to this one when I find a better base color. The first 2 pics have a matte top coat.





 
This one is pretty awesome. Its called Nighttime Noise. Blue is definitely up there with my top favorite colors. This one I was very happy with!!




Here is Blue Beats. I really like the undie I chose for this. Totally makes the blue pop!!!



And last but no where near least is Green Graffiti. This was the first one I needed and the first one I swatched. You cant see just how bright the green really is. this may be another I revisit!!




So, all in all, this collection didn't wow me at all. its ok but not a must have. Maybe only grab 1 or 2 if you must!! ta ta til next time ladies :)

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Pipe Down this Love is Bliss

Hello again!! How are we doing on this wonderful Saturday morning? I am way more awake than anyone should be at this time but that's why I am here. The other night I swatched polishes from a new Valentine's day trio. The name of the collection is Pipe Down this Love is Bliss. Such a clever collaboration :) In order all the polishes included in this title are Pipe Dream Polish, owned by April; Love, Angeline, owned by Natosha; and Bliss Polish, owned by Yvette. I absolutely had to have this trio and I cant even explain why. I was just so drawn to it. Probably because of the insane price!! $21 for 3 full size limited edition indie polishes!!! And not just any indie polishes, 3 of the top indie brands out there. So naturally I was beyond excited to get these :) Before they got here I was most looking forward to Sticky Kisses from Pipe Dream Polish. This is a soft light purple crelly with medium pink metallic and matte glitters and dark purple metallic and matte glitters. All hexes in 3 different sizes. It also has the slightest shimmer. Such a beautiful polish!! Now, while I do love this one, I was totally amazed  by Love is Blind from Love, Angeline polish. It is the most amazing charcoal grey crème jam packed with  an amazing assortment of rainbow flakies!! I have a great macro shot of this!! And lets not forget the ever so important red polish!! A staple for most nail polish addicts. I am sure you have heard me say a red is a red. and then say why the red I am showing is an exception. maybe reds are way more versatile than I had previously thought. This jelly polish is the most jelly polish I have ever seen or used. it was almost a little goopy. most likely from the cold so I just added a few drops of thinner and I was good to go. Another jam packed flakie polish but this time its a flash of bright purple and some fuschia. Here, let me show you...
This is four thin coats alone. no top coat or undies



For Love is Blind I used three thin coats although it really only needed an easy breezy two. I did use top coat for this and I used a matte coat on my ring in the last two pics.






And last but not least is Sticky Kisses. For this I used three coats and top coat on all but my ring finger. again I matted that finger in the last few pics!




 
See the super fine shimmer in the macro shot below??? Super pretty!

 
Hope you like the polishes as much as I do!! :)