Friday, November 11, 2016

The Color Box: Green


The Color Box is a blogger and brand collaborative box lead by Julie from Blue-Eyed Girl, Manna from Manna's Manis and myself. The idea was to have a single color themed box of custom blogger designed polishes. In each box we invite new and well-known brands and bloggers. The fans vote for the color, and the box is a pre-order launch that lasts a full week. Each brand also has the option of listing their polish in their own shop after the box has been shipped.

This month's box color is green! My second favorite color, as purple will always be my number one. ;)

Beautiful polishes, yes?

xoxoJen's photo of The Color Box Green

After having met Adrienne & Sarah at Polish Con Chicago, it was an amazing pleasure to work with Fair Maiden to create a Color Box polish. I was very impressed with their skill in creating what I had envisioned on the very first try! These ladies are super talented - if you haven't tried their polishes yet, you definitely should!

xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair
xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair
xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair

xoxo, Jen & Fair Maiden - Hidden Lair - A medium shade of a lime leaning olive green with a super holo flame. Varied lighting brings out a lime glow from within. This is a one coater! I always swatch with two though, so this is two coats with topcoat. I wore this polish for more than a week, and it never chipped.

Swatch photos are all taken under the same lamp, just at different distances and angles so you can see the many faces of this polish.
The first three swatch images are my usual positioning from the light source. I hope you love Hidden Lair, I certainly do.

xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair
xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair
xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair
xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair
xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair
xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair
xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair
xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair
xoxoJen's swatch of Fair Maiden Hidden Lair

Manna’s Manis & Great Lakes Lacquer - Manna's Magical Masterpiece - Sea Green with blue to green shifting shimmer, purple shimmer, and a dash of scattered holo.
I wore three coats of this shimmery goodness along with topcoat. The formula was fluid and super easy to apply. I use a heavy hand when I paint, so I wanted to mention this is a bit sheer and may need more coats if you paint with a lighter touch/thinner coats than I do.

xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer Manna's Magical Masterpiece
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer Manna's Magical Masterpiece
xoxoJen's swatch of Great Lakes Lacquer Manna's Magical Masterpiece

Ida Nails It & LE Polish - Succulent Stargazer - a light jade green crelly with silver and pink shimmer and pink microflakes and platinum mega flakes.
Loving this calming soft shade of green with a bit of glam. I wore two coats with topcoat. Formula was smooth and easy.

xoxoJen's swatch of LE Polish Succulent Stargazer
xoxoJen's swatch of LE Polish Succulent Stargazer
xoxoJen's swatch of LE Polish Succulent Stargazer

Just The Polished Tip & Nevermind - Princess Ozma - Shimmery emerald green with holo micro flakies.
Fairly new to the Indie scene, Nevermind launched their brand at Polish Con in September. I think that they and Karina from Just the Polished Tip did a wonderful job with their polish. It's such a vibrant, rich shade of green packed with holo sparks! I wore two coats, love the brush and the bottle cap (unique!) and the fancy labels. Formula was fantastic, I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Nevermind.

xoxoJen's swatch of Nevermind Princess Ozma
xoxoJen's swatch of Nevermind Princess Ozma
xoxoJen's swatch of Nevermind Princess Ozma

The Polished Hippy & Blue-Eyed Girl - Green's Alexandrite With Me! - Deep green holographic with two types of green to purple shift, green-blue-purple UCC flakes, and aqua to green Shifting flakes.
Loving the shiftiness of this, totally nailed the gemstone it's inspired by! I wore two coats of this glimmery mystical polish with a coat of topcoat. Formula was fantastic!

xoxoJen's swatch of Blue-Eyed Girl Green's Alexandrite With Me
xoxoJen's swatch of Blue-Eyed Girl Green's Alexandrite With Me
xoxoJen's swatch of Blue-Eyed Girl Green's Alexandrite With Me

The box pre-order starts on November 25 and runs through December 2 at The Color Box shop. We also have a facebook group and an Instagram account - come join us!



RULES:
1. Open worldwide.
2. NO giveaway accounts, spam, or empty accounts. Winning entries will be checked and those will be disqualified.
3. You must be 18 years or older.
4. You will have 48 hours to respond to email to claim your prize. After 48 hours another winner will be chosen.
5. The Color Box hold no responsibility once the package has been dropped off at the post office.
6. The only required entry is your email address, all others will then be unlocked and are optional.
7. If you are already following someone, be sure to still put your info. That's basically a free entry!
8. Giveaway runs from November 11th until 11:59 pm EDT November 20th.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Anonymous Lacquer: Impossible Dream

The polish was a custom that Anonymous Lacquer made for blogger Inky Whiskers in April of 2015. It became available for purchase in May of 2016, and I was happy to finally have an opportunity to buy it, and so glad that I did.

xoxoJen's swatch of Anonymous Lacquer: Impossible Dream

Impossible Dream from Anonymous Lacquer is a very pretty raspberry holo. I wore two coats with topcoat.

xoxoJen's swatch of Anonymous Lacquer: Impossible Dream

I hope you've enjoyed the review and photos and would love to know what you think!

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

The Polished Hippy: Chicago 2016

Lemming obliterated! I no longer need Essie Starry Starry Night. I have Chicago 2016 in my life!

For approximately 7 years - yes SEVEN - I have had a lemming for Essie Starry Starry Night. That changed last night when I painted my nails with Chicago 2016.

xoxoJen's swatch of The Polished Hippy: Chicago 2016

Chicago 2016 has a beautiful blue jelly base packed full of reddish shimmer and the perfect amount of tiny holo microflakes. The shimmer tricks the eye and makes the polish appear to be purple at first glance. Opaque in just two coats. Much depth, Many squish, WOW!

xoxoJen's swatch of The Polished Hippy: Chicago 2016

Where did I get this amazing, magical, stunner of a polish?
I had the pleasure of finally meeting Arian of TPH at Polish Con 2016. Known to many online as An, she is a delight to converse with and is quite thoughtful. She created this beauty herself and then gifted a bottle to me while we were setting up at Polish Con. I'm not usually one to gush, but this polish has made my day, twice!

xoxoJen's swatch of The Polished Hippy: Chicago 2016

I am adding the below photo, while quite blurry and lighting quite crummy, to show off the reddish shimmer as it shows in most regular lighting situations.

xoxoJen's swatch of The Polished Hippy: Chicago 2016

Thank you so much An! I'll be wearing this polish until it jumps off my nails by itself! <3
Also - I was going to write 'orange' in the description above instead of purple, but I thought it would be more fun to confuse others and call it purple. :P