Saturday, December 31, 2016

Polish Con: Week 4

xoxoJen - Official Polish Con Blogger
Unable to attend Polish Con NYC 2017?
Never fear! The creators and vendors of the event got together and are creating polishes available for sale to everyone before the Con! How cool is that? The releases are done weekly on Sundays at 8am Central. This week's launch will feature week 4 polishes from Ever After and Pahlish.

I Want To Be A Part Of It
A lavender base that twinkles like fairy dust and is packed with shifting flakes. The formula was buttery and applied evenly; I wore three coats and topcoat.

xoxoJen's swatch of Ever After I Want To Be A Part Of It
xoxoJen's swatch of Ever After I Want To Be A Part Of It
xoxoJen's swatch of Ever After I Want To Be A Part Of It


No Sleep Til Brooklyn 
An indigo jelly base packed with silvery flake and shimmer. The formula was very fluid and applied evenly; I wore two coats and topcoat.

xoxoJen's swatch of Pahlish No Sleep Til Brooklyn
xoxoJen's swatch of Pahlish No Sleep Til Brooklyn
xoxoJen's swatch of Pahlish No Sleep Til Brooklyn

Recap of the Week 3 Polishes in case you missed those.

I hope you've enjoyed the review and photos - grab yours Sunday morning after 8am Central over at http://polishconvention.bigcartel.com/products

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Literary Lacquers: Visions of Sugarplums

Visions of Sugarplums is this year's limited edition gift with purchase at Literary Lacquers. A $24 purchase total will include a mini size and a $48 purchase total includes the full size bottle. It's a sparkly grapey shade packed with glitter and tiny pink stars! I wore two coats with topcoat for the photos.

xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquers: Visions of Sugarplums
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquers: Visions of Sugarplums
xoxoJen's swatch of Literary Lacquers: Visions of Sugarplums

Amy, having just graduated college, is now studying super hard to pass the four exams to become a CPA. With that she is changing her business model a bit. As of January 2, 2017, the shop will temporarily close. It will re-open for pre-orders with limited stock on the first weekend of each month beginning in February. There will be at least 1 new polish and 5 or 6 classics from the stock revived each month. She's also started a newsletter which will include Literary Lacquers launch dates and other information. You can sign up with your email address - easy peasy!

In addition, Amy is offering a discount - Everything in the shop will be 20% off with code HOLIDAY2016 from Friday, November 25 - Sunday, January 1.
I'm excited for Amy and so happy that she is able to continue LitLaq while also investing in herself and furthering her career.

Monday, December 19, 2016

Black Dahlia: Holo Metals

Black Dahlia created the Holo Metals collection with the Holidays in mind. Each polish is holo and contain shifting shimmer.

Brass Tulip is a vibrant antique gold-leaning beige multichrome holo that shifts from red to orange and gold.

xoxoJen's swatch of Black Dahlia Brass Tulip
xoxoJen's swatch of Black Dahlia Brass Tulip
xoxoJen's swatch of Black Dahlia Brass Tulip

Iron Lotus is a medium gray multichrome holo that shifts from blue to violet to red and jade green.

xoxoJen's swatch of Black Dahlia Iron Lotus
xoxoJen's swatch of Black Dahlia Iron Lotus
xoxoJen's swatch of Black Dahlia Iron Lotus

Steel Magnolia is a darkened plum multichrome holo that shifts from blue to green and violet

xoxoJen's swatch of Black Dahlia Steel Magnolia
xoxoJen's swatch of Black Dahlia Steel Magnolia
xoxoJen's swatch of Black Dahlia Steel Magnolia

Steel Magnolia has the most apparent shift, while the other two are more subtle, but definitely present. The formula is excellent for each. I used two coats for each photo; however the two darker shades would be one coaters when applied evenly. I really enjoyed wearing each of these, the way they shift is quite pleasing.

Have you ever ordered from Black Dahlia?
If not, you definitely should! These are available right now along with many other pretty polishes.


Friday, December 16, 2016

Polish Con 2017: Week 3

xoxoJen - Official Polish Con Blogger
Unable to attend Polish Con NYC 2017?
Never fear! The creators and vendors of the event got together and are creating polishes available for sale to everyone before the Con! How cool is that? The releases are done weekly on Sundays at 8am Central. This week's launch will feature week 3 polishes from Anchor & Heart and Ellagee.
Going forward, I will be reviewing every shade available each week.

Anchor & Heart
Taryn is the creator of Anchor & Heart and I've gotten to know her just by lurking in her group and friending her on facebook. She has the most precious kiddos, which she loves dearly. I often see her being kind to others in business and on her personal page. She's thoughtful of charities and encourages others to make donations too. She always has cheerful words to share and a fun, gentle sense of humor. All of these things come out in her products, packaging, customer service, and even in marketing - Anchor & Heart is an experience you won't want to miss!
To find out more about her brand, check out her Etsy store's about page.

Go Big or Stay Home has a sultry purple base, packed with shifting shimmer and sparkling flakes. The formula was buttery and applied evenly; I wore two coats and topcoat.

xoxoJen's swatch of Anchor & Heart Go Big or Stay Home
xoxoJen's swatch of Anchor & Heart Go Big or Stay Home
xoxoJen's swatch of Anchor & Heart Go Big or Stay Home

Ellagee
Laura of Ellagee describes herself as a sparkly unicorn and general do-it-all person at the business. She has been a nail polish collector and frankener since she was a teenager and then started making her own polish for as a hobby in 2012. Early in 2013, her dream of opening her own shop came to life on ellagee.com! Since then, she has crafted and shipped over 18,000 bottles of nail polish joy to happy nail polish lovers around the globe.
She enjoys bright colors and rainbows and by extension, unicorns! Her mascot, Percy the Unicorn, joined the shop in 2015. He is the essence of the colorful fun she strives to bring you in polish.

Wish You Were Here has a squishy grape jelly base packed with sparkling flakies of all sorts! I wore two coats with topcoat for that extra glassy squishy shine!

xoxoJen's swatch of Ellagee Wish You Were Here
xoxoJen's swatch of Ellagee Wish You Were Here
xoxoJen's swatch of Ellagee Wish You Were Here

I hope you've enjoyed the review and photos - grab yours Sunday morning after 8am Central over at http://polishconvention.bigcartel.com/products


Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Jolie Polish: Rose Gold

I recently purchased my first Jolie Polishes to use for stamping. She has beautiful metallic shades and a very nice holo.

I hadn't yet decided what design to use them for when, a reader, Kelley and I were chatting on facebook. She told me she was going to do festive nail art with Christmas trees and I loved that idea! So I told her I might do some too, and here they are!

xoxoJen's swatch of Jolie Polish Rose Gold

I used the Rose Gold from Jolie and it was a great stamping experience. I just put one moderately loaded swipe across the top of the design, scraped and stamped. Each time I did this, the stamp lift and transfer were fantastic, no redos!

xoxoJen's swatch of Jolie Polish Rose Gold

It's such a nice breath of fresh air to have a stamping session go so well. On top of that - I didn't notice any overly strong odor with these - in fact, I didn't really notice an odor at all. Color me happy with this purchase!

What are your favorite designs to stamp for Christmas?

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Great Lakes Lacquer: Small Batches & LE

xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer Small Batches and LE

Great Lakes Lacquer is doing a special release of various small batch pours on December 15th at 1pm Central. There are going to be at least five more colors available than what I've reviewed below. These are limited from 10 to 20 bottles of each and will not be remade. Once they're gone, they're gone. I've also included one of the December LEs at the end of my review, Fade to Winter, which has already launched.

Every Little Thing: Every little thing counts. A medium red based purple with blue and pink shimmer and a scattered holo finish.

xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer Every Little Thing
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer Every Little Thing
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer Every Little Thing

DO NOT Pumpkin Spice Everything: Mariah is not a fan of pumpkin spice, apparently! A slightly burnt orange with bronze and gold flake and red to gold multichrome flake.

xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer DO NOT Pumpkin Spice Everything
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer DO NOT Pumpkin Spice Everything
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer DO NOT Pumpkin Spice Everything

That's Not How Any of This Works: A shout out to current events. A midnight blue multichrome that shifts from purple to blue to red with blue micro flake and a scattered holo.

xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer That's Not How Any of This Works
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer That's Not How Any of This Works
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer That's Not How Any of This Works

There's Garlic In His Soul: A white crelly type polish filled with gold to bronze multichrome flake, gold and bronze micro flake, and bits of dark gray micro flake.

xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer There's Garlic In His Soul
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer There's Garlic In His Soul
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer There's Garlic In His Soul

FU2016: I really have to hope that 2017 is better. An indigo multichrome that shifts from purple to red to gold to green with a light linear holo or strong scattered holo, depending on your view point.

xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes LacquerFU2016
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes LacquerFU2016
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes LacquerFU2016

The below are the same polish, just at different angles and distance from the same light source. Can you believe it!?

xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes LacquerFU2016
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes LacquerFU2016
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes LacquerFU2016

Fade to Winter (December LE) is a cornflower blue (warm) to slate blue (cold) thermal with blue/purple shifting shimmer and scattered holo. The polish color is an ode to the stolen blue sky of summer.

xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer Fade to Winter
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer Fade to Winter
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer Fade to Winter

I used two coats for each polish except Fade to Winter which was three coats. The formula for each is buttery and smooth and the wear time on me is fantastic. I wore Fade to Winter for nearly a week with no chipping.

I hope you've enjoyed the photos and review - which polishes are you loving?