Pinks!

Happy New Year's Eve!  I hope everyone is having a great time tonight!  I'm currently going polish free for a bit while I grow out some damage spots, so I won't be showing off a NYE mani this time.  Instead, let's take a look at the third installment of my Enchanted Polish week!  Tonight's post features some gorgeous pinks, so let's get to it!

Purchased by Me or Gifted to Me

For this mani, I used Life in Plastic, As If, and September 2013.

For the base, I started with a layer of As If, which is a gorgeous milky baby pink holographic with strong blue shimmers.  My bottle is a decant, so I can't accurately speak to application issues.  After this base layer was dry, I then took my handy Elmer's Glue that I put into an old Seche Vite bottle and painted the skin around my fingers.  I did this to make cleanup later easier.  Now, once I've finish the mani, all I have to do is peel off the glue, and it'll take the excess paint around my fingers with it!  I swear by this trick every time I do a gradient and often times when I do stamping.  It's a huge time saver in the long run!

After laying down a base layer of As If, I then sponged on a gradient using As If and September 2013.  September is a medium pink linear holographic with a slight golden flash.  I sponged on two layers of gradient, which came out nicely.

Next, I added on a layer of Life in Plastic, which is pink shimmered neon pink glitter topcoat.  Application was a tad difficult because the glitter to base ratio is a bit more in favor of base to glitter.  I had to dig out some of the glitters, and even then I had to deal with pooling on my skin.  It definitely required cleanup, but that wasn't a deal breaker for this mani since I already had to do some cleanup for the gradient.

September is no longer available, but LiP and AI do pop up at EP's suppliers every once in a while.  Otherwise, you can find them on blog sales.  

Neons and Neutrals

Week two of back to blogging, and I'm determined to keep it up!  Today's post is all about dichotomy - brights and neutrals coming together into one perfect manicure.  For today's mani, I used Enchanted Polish Afternoon Delight topped with a Lynnderella twinset - 7 Minutes in Heaven and Girl-Boy Party.

Purchased by Me

Afternoon Delight is a lovely nude linear holographic with a substantial blue shimmer.  Application was flawless without any need for cleanup.  I used two medium coats for full opacity.

I then topped AD with a layer of Girl-Boy Party.  GBP is a clear based polish packed with red, purple, pink, and blue glitters in hexes, squares, diamonds, blossoms, and bars.  It varies slightly from its sister Boy-Girl Party in that it has more shapes as well as more pink.  Like most Lynnderellas, this one was definitely heavy on glitter and light on base.  The glitter comes out of the bottle easily enough, but you will need to use the dab method in order to spread the glitters evenly across the nail.  It's also a very topcoat hungry polish, so even without the additional coat of glitter, I would have needed an extra coat of topcoat to calm all of those glitters down.

Lastly, I topped the whole thing with 7 Minutes in Heaven.  7MIH is a clear based polish packed with blue shimmer and neon matte glitters in hexes, squares, and bars.  Unlike GBP, 7MIH isn't quite as dense, which means that you do have to do a little more digging to get the glitter out.  The shimmered base also gives it a bit of a frosty look, but it wasn't too bad with the shimmer already in the base of AD.  I used one coat with a normal paint motion in order to get a little bit of a more sparse look so it wouldn't overwhelm the mani.  Because it's a little runnier, there was need to do a bit of cleanup from where the polish slid onto my skin from the nail.

I really loved how this came out.  The neutral base really makes the colored glitters pop, and the look is just perfection.  Unfortunately, all three of these are unavailable, but you can often find them up on blog sales.  Otherwise, you can purchase Lynnderellas here and here, and you can purchase EPs here.

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Release and Restock September 2014 Part 1

Tonight's post will be dedicated to the new Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer collection coming out this September.  I'm going to show you half of the release polishes today and will show you the rest on Wednesday.  This month's restock will include limited quantities of any excess stock of all older polishes I have on hand as well as the introduction of the second Siren in the limited edition Siren series (which you can see here), the Special Edition Terrific Twos (which you can see a full review of here), and the release of the first six polishes in the It Got Away from Me, Yeah... Collection - the Women of Doctor Who!  This post is going to be a bit photo heavy, so get ready!!

It Got Away From Me, Yeah... Part 1: The Women of Doctor Who

Is that a Technical Term, Jiggery Pokery?

Hot pink jelly base with silver, pink, and hot pink holo glitters.  This a slightly reformulated re-release of an older polish from last year's core line.  It has all of the same glitters, but the base is a little darker pink than the original neon pink.  

Here, I'm wearing one coat over Accessorize Lilac Sorbet on all fingers except my ring finger, which as two coats of JP all on its own.  

I used one coat of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top as it didn't need extra layers to smoothen it. 

I'm Dr. Martha Jones.  Who the Hell Are You?

Bright fuchsia creme with green to gold to blue shifting glass flecks.

This is three thin coats, but I only really needed two coats for full opacity.

Dries satin.  I wore this with and without topcoat.  Obviously, this polish is based off of Martha Jones.

You Just Want to Mate?!

Bright red creme with orange, red, and gold shimmers.

YJWM goes on smoothly in three easy coats.  The shimmer is so much more noticeable in person than it was in my photos, but it's definitely there.  

It dries glossy, but I used a coat of Alter Ego She Shines on top.  It was smooth, so I didn't need to use an extra layer of topcoat.  This polish is based off of Donna Noble.

The September sale will include the first six of the fifteen polishes in the It Got Away from Me Yeah... Collection - the ladies of Doctor Who.  The Gents of Doctor Who and the Doctors will be released in October and November respectively, so I will announce those colors and names as it comes closer to their release.  All polishes in the IGAFMY collection will remain available from their release through the restock in November.  Other new items that will be released this month include the newest Siren from the numbered limited edition Siren collection and Terrific Twos, the polish I created to celebrate my blog's second birthday!  Both of these will be offered only during this sale.  There is very limited stock for both the Siren and Terrific Twos, so make sure you get there early!

All items will go on sale at my store here this Sunday, September 21, at 3:30 pm edt! Make sure to come back on Wednesday to take a look at the rest of the Women of Doctor Who!   Happy shopping!!

The Polish Bar Summer of 2014 Collection

So, I received these next two polishes a looong time ago, had some bad breaks and bad skin issues going on, and put them to the side.  Then, I completely forgot about them because I'm a bad blogger.  My bad!!  Buuut, Janice is super cool and totally let me off the hook about it.  And what's even luckier is that these guys are still available on her store!!  So, without further ado, let's get to work on Sail Away and Pink Cosmos!

Press Samples

Sail Away

Color: Medium teal holographic with silver sparkles.

Finish:  Holographic – pigment gives polish a rainbow in the sunshine.

Bottle / Brush:  Round mini bottle – wand and brush are just long enough to reach the bottom of the bottle.  However, the fact that it’s a mini makes application a little tricky.  Requires a steady hand to apply evenly without pooling.  I really do think that the issues I had with application on this guy was because of the mini bottle.

Opacity:  Medium – achieves opacity at three to four coats.

Glitter Application:  N/A

Consistency:  Thick – thick or it can be clumpy, but is easily remedied with some polish thinner.

Overall Ease of Application:  Medium – applies well with minimal pooling, dragging, streaking, or balding.  However, tends to clump up a little if you go over spots that were still wet.

Stampability: Not tested for stamping.

Dry Time: Medium – dry to the touch with minimal smudging in 3-8 minutes.

Overall Thoughts:  Much like The Polish Bar's other holos, this little baby dries to a high gloss finish.  I just love how she manages to get that gorgeous shine in her finished product!  You don't really need a topcoat, but I use one anyway because I'm way too impatient to wait for it to dry.  This particular polish was a bit on the thicker side and tended to clump up a little without self-leveling.  However, I wholeheartedly believe that the mini bottles are the main culprit for application issues because the brush doesn't fan out enough to cover my nail in only a few swipes.  I probably could've added a touch of thinner to it, but I was running out of time and couldn't really wait for any possible bubbles from shaking the thinner in to die down.  The silver shimmer in both of these is just so pretty and gives these polishes just a little more depth than an average holo.


Pink Cosmos

Color:  Hot pink with silver shimmers.

Finish:  Holographic – pigment gives polish a rainbow in the sunshine.

Bottle / Brush:  Round mini bottle – wand and brush are just long enough to reach the bottom of the bottle.  However, the fact that it’s a mini makes application a little tricky.  Requires a steady hand to apply evenly without pooling.  Again, I believe that the issues I had with application was because of the mini bottle.

Opacity:  Medium – achieves opacity at three to four coats.

Glitter Application:  N/A

Consistency:  Thick – thick or it can be clumpy, but is easily remedied with some polish thinner.

Overall Ease of Application:  Medium – applies well with minimal pooling, dragging, streaking, or balding.  However, it tends to clump up a little if you go over spots that were still wet.

Stampability:  Not tested for stamping.

Dry Time:  Quick – dry to the touch without smudging in under 3 minutes.

Overall Thoughts:  Unlike most of The Polish Bar's holos, Pink Cosmos actually dries matte!  Because of that, you'll need to work quickly when you apply, or you run the risk of clumping.  Again, I think that the mini brushes on the bottles make application a little more difficult because they don't fan out very wide.  However, because it's matte, it does dry much more quickly than the high gloss holos.  The silver shimmers are probably more noticeable in Pink Cosmos than in any of the other polishes from this collection that I've reviewed.  I own a lot of pink holos, but I really love that added sparkle!

You can purchase The Polish Bar polishes at their store here.  Follow Janice on Facebook and Instagram for news and updates!