Cupcake Polish: December Sweet Addictions Box

Press Sample

Cupcake's December Sweet Addictions Box theme is Frosty the Snowman and features an all-holo lineup from Elevation Polish, Chaos & Crocodiles and of course, Cupcake Polish.



Elevation's polish is called Eyes Made of Glimmering Coal. It has a charcoal base and is jam packed with holographic and iridescent pigments. I used two coats, which applied like butter, and topcoat for the photos.






Chaos & Crocodiles there's magic in the air is a beautiful shade of straight up blue linear holographic polish. The formula was smooth and was easy to control during application. I wore two coats with topcoat, but may have gotten away with just one coat had I applied a heavier coat.





Merry and Bright is Cupcake's polish in this box. It's a pretty red holo with gold shimmer which makes the overall effect lean a little coppery/orange-ish. This polish also has teeny tiny red glitters throughout and was surprisingly smooth after applied! I wore two coats and topcoat for the photos.





The Sweet Addictions box for December will be available on Sunday, November 30th at 11am CST at Cupcake Polish's online shop.

Cupcake Polish's Sweet Addictions August Box

Press Sample

Cupcake polish is releasing a new Sweet Addictions box for August and I was allowed the opportunity to review it! In the box is a Cupcake teal holo polish called Topsy Turvy, A Philly Loves Lacquer glitter polish called Trilby and some super cute nail shields from Love, Angeline. Together, they'll whisk us away to the Circus! Let's go!



Topsy Turvy has to be the most electric teal holo I think I've ever seen. Doesn't it remind you of the super sparkly outfits all the ladies in the circus wear? You can expect a very strong, vibrant linear holographic effect and a subtle dance of golden shimmer from this polish. It is opaque in one thick coat, however; I used two thinner coats for the photos.







A Trilby is a hat with a short brim that's flipped up on one side. It's quite stylish and might be spotted at a circus. Trilby, the polish, is definitely more appealing with it's purple jelly base and confetti-like glitter. It even has tiny star shapes! I wore two coats over China Glaze Virtual Violet which adds a little shimmer behind the jelly, pretty neat effect! The polish looks great worn over white as well. If you want less glitter, just one coat over your favorite opaque polish will do it!





And lastly, a special nail art manicure done up with some Stuck on Love Nail Shields from Love, Angeline! This is my first time ever to use nail art shields like these, I'm only used to french tip shaped ones. As soon as I saw the shapes (elephants, squiggles/stars), I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them! I had a lot of fun creating this look and it really wasn't difficult at all. Some of the tiny pieces seemed fiddly to me at first, but a good ol pair of tweezers took care of that right quick! Super easy, fairly quick and heaps of fun to use!
I used WnW Black Cream, Cupcake's Topsy Turvy and OPI Flamingo Tini Pink and a bit of dotting to create the finished look.




The Sweet Addictions box is limited and launches Sunday July 27th, 11:00am Central at the Cupcake Polish Online Boutique! Follow Cupcake Polish on facebook for this and other news!

Dazzled: April Holo Grail Box

Nothing to Disclose

I had not ordered any of the indie boxes yet but when I saw the preorder announcement for the April Holo Grail box, I gave in. It consists of four limited edition holo polishes made by four different indie companies. The Dazzled shop is the only place to purchase this particular box. For April it contained polishes from Emily De Molly, Literary Lacquers, NailNation 3000, and Philly Loves Lacquer. The boxes are only available via preorder a month in advance. I ordered the box March 7 and it arrived in late April. The polishes are each very pretty - take a look!



Imperfect Harmony is a periwinkle blue with a subtle linear holo. For holo polish, I prefer darker or more vibrant base colors because the holo pops more than on lighter shades, but I do love periwinkle! The formula was smooth and almost buttery to apply and was opaque in two coats.




Literary Lacquers' Rare Book Room is amazing and my favorite from the box. It's reminiscent of rare leather bound books with gilded edges. Amy has captured it so beautifully with the red leaning brown base color and tiny golden glitters. The holo in this one is very strong and linear, even indoors. It's opaque in two coats and is a dream to apply.




I Love You A Lime is the first Philly Loves Lacquer polish I've tried I am really liking the complexity of this color. There's golden flecks in there that sometimes look darkened along with a subtle holo shimmer and a barely there touch of green. The formula was on the thick side and opaque in two coats.



Lastly is NailNation 3000's Once Bitten, a very juicy berry almost burgundy base color. The holo in this one is medium strength, I'd say; and the purple and pink hues in the holo are quite strong and give the polish a really magical glowy look!
I found the formula a little on the thick side but easy to use. This was opaque in one coat but I used two because I couldn't stop painting with it!



I'm glad you joined me on my first indie box journey and hope you've enjoyed the photos!

Freaky Friday with Vivid Lacquer

Purchased by xoxoJen

So, freaky Friday? Perhaps I should have called it fast Friday because this is a really quick swatch and blog entry about a one of a kind sample I scored from Vivid Lacquer in last week's sale.
I decided to do a sort of speed post to challenge myself and because she's having another sale TODAY with more one of a kinds for just $5!!

If you follow Vivid Lacquer, you probably know that sales at her shop are quite a rarity. I was excited about last week's sale and then she went and set up another one for today!
So I wanted to share my experience with last week's sale in case some of you were hesitant or hadn't heard the news yet!



The polish I scored is called WTF F 12 14 and it came in the mail today! As soon as I opened it I knew I had to put it on my nails right away. I love it more than I thought I would when I saw the shop photos Friday last week.

On my swatching hand I currently have one finger of pink glitter called Smooth Operator from Lumina Lacquer that I tried out this morning to check opacity for when I wear it. On the rest of my fingers is Red Dog Designs Shamrock Shake texture with top coat except that my ring finger is also topped with I'm Drinking Stars from Literary Lacquer. I looked at my nails and thought, hmmm pink goes good with green and so my swatch of Vivid Lacuqer WTF F 12 14 was born. And then. Freaky Friday became a name for it, like ten minutes ago as I was typing the title. :D

I didn't do much clean up, so those teeeeeeeeny awesome black speckly glitters may show up on my skin in some of the photos. But that's ok, right? Cause look at the glitter! ;)
I wore one coat and did not dig or fish or redip for glitter at all. This was brushed on just like any other polish I'd wear.




You can really get a good look at those little tiny black glitters sitting on top of the white skull in this macro shot. I LOVE those!!!



Now, can you believe this polish was scratched from production, offered as a one of a kind and only $5? I know I keep repeating that but I just can't believe what a steal it was.

Are you still here? Reading? What!? Go Shop!
Not only is she offering one of a kinds and small batch protos, but she is also discontinuing several polishes from her core line and those are also only $5!

Red Dog Designs does St. Patrick's Day!

Press Sample

I had fun with the Red Dog Mardi Gras polishes and now I'm getting lucky with the St. Pat's trio! Gina has done a nice job of capturing the holiday with these three polishes, there's even a rainbow in every bottle!

Póg Mo Thóin!!! - Soft linear holo in a creamy sage color base.

I really love the shade of this polish its such a bright happy spring green! Perfect for St. Pat's or Easter and it has a golden shimmer in addition to soft holographic rainbow. I took a bottle shot outside in the sunlight to get a better capture on camera. It does show on the nail but because I shoot indoors, the lighting tends to soften it. I used three coats with topcoat for the swatch photos.

Shamrock Shake - Hex, square, and circle glitters, in finishes of holo, matte, and metallic, in various hues of green, and iridescent color change green-lime-gold glitters, including metallic green ‘shamrock’ glitters, sprinkled with micro holo glitter, in a clear base. (16 Different Glitters)

Jas and I both love this time of year when McDonald's offers their Shamrock Shakes so I grinned when I saw the name of this polish. I rolled the bottle in my hand and oooed and aaahhhed at all the green, gold, and rainbow holo glitter in there and then I spotted the clovers, so cute! I wore one coat over Póg Mo Thóin!!! I redipped the brush a few times to get two more clovers.




The accent nail features a water marble done in a clover shape with China Glaze Entourage and Jolly Holly topped with a holo topper from Vapid Lacquer. I learned how to do the water marble from watching the youtube tutorial from My Simple Little Pleasures. This was my second try and I'm pretty pleased with it as compared to the first time I tried it in 2011 following the other tutorial she made.

Blarney Stone - Various sized hex glitters, in shades of holo gold, holo green hues, holo black, and green, sprinkled with micro silver, green, and holo glitter, in a mossy green base. (10 Different Glitters) (THIS IS A TEXTURED POLISH)

Kissing the Blarney Stone is an old tradition said to endow the kisser with the gift of the gab. I've not kissed it myself, but I learned what it was because of this polish!
I wonder if rubbing this polish counts? I like the feel of textured polish and often rub it with my fingertips! Blarney Stone has a semi-rough texture compared to the rougher Zoya pixies you may be familiar with. I like Blarney Stone best because it doesn't seem to catch on things as much as the Zoya did, yet its still got a nice grit to it. The first three images are two coats alone and in the last three images I've added a topcoat.





Topcoated:





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