Indie January - Candii Polished

When I do polish reviews and swatches, I like including both swatches on the nail and bottle shots because sometimes the two look very, very different.  That was the case with all three polishes I tried from Candii Polished.  I thought that they were opaque polishes, but they were all best layered.

My Mystery.  I can't even remember how many layers this was.  I think over 4.  I couldn't get the VNL to go away.  I thought this was a dark brown polish with a scattered holo, maybe a duochrome, but I couldn't achieve it.

Dahlia.  I painted one nail with one layer of Dahlia and realized it was the same thing as My Mystery - a topper.  So, I painted my nails with Pure Ice Black Rage, and put Dahlia on my ring finger and thumb, and My Mystery on the other fingers. 

My Mystery imparts a golden/purple scattered holo, and Dahlia a silver/multi-colored scattered holo sprinkling.  Barely.  Color me disappointed, because I got hardly any bang for my buck.  

I figured I was in for more of the same with Candii Polished Holo Moly! and I was right.  I started with 2 coats of Revlon Spanish Moss and an accent of Holo Moly!

I added a couple of layers of Holo Moly! to all the fingers.  Even after 4 coats, it barely covers.  Spanish Moss looks pretty with the topcoat, though I think I would get similar results from a couple of coats of Chick Polish Hipster Chick.

If you're just getting into polish layering, these offer a pretty, if often subtle, scattered holo.  But, my recommendation would be to just buy a bottle of China Glaze Fairy Dust if that's what you're looking for. 

If you'd like more information about Candii Blossom Cosmetics and Candii Polished, check out their Facebook page, and their shop.

Sunday Stamping with Indies - Enkelini

Sorry so late.. but it's still Sunday, at least where I am! I did two challenge manis to make up for it.

I decided to use Enkelini holos for both looks.  If you haven't tried her polishes yet, you are in for a treat.  I did have some VNL with the lighter holos after 2 coats, but they are some of the brightest and vibrant colored holos I've tried. 

Lainey Lou.  Juicy orange holo.  It's so rich!

 

I then stamped the arrows in Finger Paints Black Expressionism and plate Mash-37.  After some topcoat and drying time, I used a piece of clear tape to cover that part of the nail and paint the other half with a gorgeous maroon - Mahogany Row.

Then I reversed the direction of the stamp and used Finger Paints Paper Mache to stamp white arrows.  I wasn't even thinking about why I liked these two colors together, and then I realized - Hokie Colors!  I'm a graduate of Virginia Tech, and these are my school colors.  Subliminal after effects, 20 years later...

For the second mani, I used Enkelini Pimp My Pink.  This is probably the brightest pink I own - certainly the brightest I can ever remember wearing.  It's not neon, just BRIGHT.  Very girly, candy-pink.  I paired it with some bright pink lipstick, too, and felt pretty hot.  Gotta do something to dress up my nubbins...  yeah, my nails have always been short, but a few broke, and it seemed the only thing to do was take them all down.

Five Fingers, 5 letters in my name!  Striping tape and a modified hole reinforcement, and I made some letters.

  I then used Finger Paints Black Expressionism and the Mash-46 stamping plate to create this:

I wish I had known how to do this in high school, this would have worked so well in the '80s.

I don't usually mix stamping with other forms of nail art - it was a challenge to think about how to incorporate the two!  What would you have done?

If you're interested in seeing more from Enkelini, please check out her Facebook page.  She has an Etsy shop, and is also selling polishes through Color4Nails.

Indie January - Literary Lacquers

I loved the idea of a book and polish nerd. :)  The cat's eye glasses on the label was a classic touch for me.  I had to check out this Indie now!

An Honest Puck.  I admit it, I dig the browns, especially browns with a splash of a jewel tone, like blue, or in this case, green.  One of the great things about this polish is that it is offered in both a bar glitter added and a bar glitter-free version.  Of course, I opted for no bars. 

This is a full-coverage glitter, no undies.  Great application, and the base is thick enough to be opaque in 2 coats, and be able to get a nice clean line around the cuticles.  I will admit that a darker brown would go better with my skintone, but that's just me.  Maybe if I could actually get a tan... even living in Florida, my fate is to be pale, pale, pale.

Greatest Treasures.  These Indies have me so pegged.  Introduce a great holo, and I'll come sniffing around.  And not too many companies are doing coral holos like this one.  I did show you one from Daring Digits that was close in color, but this one is much better both in consistency and rainbow.  And the color is so pretty and flattering to a lot of skintones.

Do you appreciate an Indie offering different versions of the same glitter?

If you'd like to see more information about Literary Lacquers, they have a Facebook page, and a shop on Etsy.

Indie January - Jindie Nails

Jindie Nails came out of nowhere and just bowled me over with her awesome polishes!  I can't wait to show you some of the neat creations she has!

Swoon.  This is the one that got me.  Blue milky base with blue and translucent neon green and pink glitters.  Tons of glitter that went on smoothly.  I need an industrial-size bottle of this one.

Candy Land Remix and Choose Me.  Choose me is a micro-glitter-shimmer in a berry color.  I thought it would be chunkier, but I'm glad it's not.  I decided to pair it with the Candy Land Remix (remix to include the small neon glitters as an LE edition)  They were fun to wear together.  I love the bright cheerfulness of these two polishes.

Just Claws (formerly Mrs. Claws.)  If you put this next to Choose Me, they are hard to tell apart, but on the nail they are different.  This is holo!  Beautiful, easy application.

I saw this look on Dressed Up Nails for a minimalist watercolor, and I really liked it, so I thought I could maybe do something with these polishes.  I added Peripera P026, a shimmery-chrome pink, and China Glaze On The Prowl, a red-toned purple, then used a black striper to create the wave.

Water 4 Elephants. Grey and blue together.. so awesome.  I painted an accent nail in Revlon Fashionista, a dark teal, and then tried a glitter gradient over that.. but Water 4 Elephants is opaque in one coat, so it's not the best for gradients.  I did a small French tip with the Fashionista on the other nails, and really liked the final result.

Bruised Ego.  This is a fun microglitter!  My ring finger is 2 or 3 coats of Bruised Ego with no undies!  I didn't think it would be opaque on its own, but I was wrong.  I used Pure Ice Black Rage on my thumb and Milani White on the Spot for my other fingers and tried a reverse glitter gradient.  Boy, howdy, was this not fun to clean from around my cuticles!  Tiny dots everywhere.  But so worth it.  Next time, I'll be neater!

Stomping Gilbert Grapes.  Very punny!  lol.  I really like this color combo in the milky glitter.  The purple, pink, and green go really well together.  Very pastoral, soothing, but the pink makes it fun.  Perfect Spring polish, too!

Jindie Nails has amazing customer service, too.  I see her really going above and beyond to make sure that her customers are taken care of. 

Does customer service for Indies mean anything when you're shopping, or is it just about the polish?  Do you like the fancy packaging and little notes?  What makes you want to go back to a particular Indie?

If you're interested in learning more about Jindie Nails, you can find her on Facebook, and also on Etsy.

Indie January - Pretty Jelly

When a nail blogger comes out with a line of polish, you expect it to be amazing, right?  Well, blogger Liquid Jelly has made some amazing holo polishes that I really liked - and you know how I feel about my holos. 

Glamorous Thief.  This is an ice-blue holo - that's right, not silver, not cobalt, but ICE blue.  There really aren't many holos I've seen in this color range.  Most blues tend toward the darker shades.  This one is awesome.  Great color, nice rainbow.  Made a nice base for some nail art, too!

I took this idea for a colorblock mani from a Pinterest pin and changed up the colors.   I took some pieces of striping tape, alternated one long piece either vertically or horizontally across the nail, and then added a piece on either side, offset, to create a tiled look.

I used Diamond S-Teal-er and Bullet Rouge for the other colors.  I loved both of them.  Very pigmented, lots of depth.  

Grape Escape.  This is an amazing purple holo.  Look at that rainbow - lots of color.

I decided to try one of these new 'earthquake' manis I've been seeing on the blogs.  I painted the bottom 1/2 of my nails with Bullet Rouge, and then took a black striper and made a jagged line between the two of them.  Grape Escape and Bullet Rouge go together so well, even the rainbow matches from the top to the bottom.  I love how the yellow part of the rainbow comes out in both colors, it makes me think of a sunset.

What do you think of these nail art techniques?  Do you have a fave from these four polishes?  Are you as excited as I am to see what Pretty Jelly will come up with next?

If you'd like more info on Pretty Jelly, you can go to Liquid Jelly's Facebook page, or to their Etsy shop.

Indie January - Kunimitsu Nail Potions

I'll admit it, this Indie is special to me.  I'm glad to consider Jessica, the founder of Nail Potions, as a friend.  She's a great person, and she makes beautiful polishes.

Love is a Kitten.  When I saw her wearing this, I asked her to set one aside for me!  I love these white creamy polishes, and the small sprinkling of glitter is so dainty and pretty. 

Kunimitsu is the name of Jessica's beloved cat that has since passed away, but is remembered on every label of Nail Potions.  I wasn't able to paint the real Kunimitsu, so I just did a little silhouette of a kitten in her honor.

Bananas Foster.  I started with yellow undies for this clear glitter topper.  It's so hard to find really nice pastel yellow polishes, but this Joe Fresh is a winner!  2 coats of Butter and no streaks, no chalkiness.  Really nice.

So cute and sunny under Bananas Foster! I love this glitter, it just looks like slices of banana and drizzles of caramel.

Cinnamon Raisin.  This was love at first sight.  A nude crelly?  Yes, please!  And the purple and black glitter with a tiny bit of holo.. it's perfectly named, and looks great.  I really like this one.  

You Are Loved.  This is another clear glitter topper, so I put it over a red glass fleck - OPI You Only Live Twice, and a golden shimmer from Barbara Daly called Pirate.

You Are Loved is an LE polish that will only be available until Feb 3.  This is a very unique promotion - for $2.50 you can send a mini of this polish to anyone in the US.  It can be anonymous, or not.  You can send it to someone specific, or ask that Nail Potions send it to someone they think would like it.  It's a great way to put some positive energy out into the world!

Isn't it cute with the different colored hearts and hexes? 

If you'd like to find out more about Nail Potions by Kunimitsu, you can find her on Facebook, or at her shop on Etsy.

Indie January - PolishTBH

What is Polish TBH?  Polish To Be Honest.  I was expecting something naughtier, but I was probably just projecting myself!  What a great name, and her polishes are honestly pretty good.

Circus.  I was most excited for this one.  I love a grey jelly, and this one is more blue, which is even better.  My only thing about this one was that I would have liked more glitter - it took me about 3-4 coats to get this much.  Doesn't really read 'circus' to me with only a few bits of glitter.

So, I put on a layer of Girly Bits Canadian, Eh? and *loved* it.  This is what I wanted.

Fantasy.  This is a fuchsia jelly with blue glitter.  I like this combo a lot.  Very vibrant, very fun, a simple strong accent with the blue glitter.

I decided to see what it would look like with Twist on top.  Twist is a clear base with silver hearts and black hexes and then smaller glitters in blue and white and fuchsia - the same color as the base of Fantasy, which is why I thought they would look good together.  I love this for a more amped up look.  Very blingy!

How I Troll.  Those who know me, will be saying, but, but, this has BAR glitter, Nidia!  You don't like bar glitter!  And, usually, they'd be right.  I don't often like it, and usually go out of my way to avoid it.  Well, This was sent as a freebie with my order, and I actually love it.  The bar glitter is more like 'sticks and stones' which I also like, and not like hair on my nails, which I dislike.

Plus, this one has a jelly base!  Even better, a color-changing jelly base.  In the bottle, it was hot pink, then it warmed up to a clear/light pink on my nails.  When I ran my hands under cold water, it turned back to hot pink!  In this pix, it's starting to warm up again, so you can see that it's clear towards the cuticles, but pink at the tips.  Those with long nails will probably have a long-lasting gradient, as the nail tips will always be dark, and the warm parts of your fingers light.  Awesome!!

Hidden.  This polish is soo squishy. I love everything about it - the jelly squish, the glitter, the color.  It was a little thin (as you would expect a jelly to be) so be careful that it doesn't flood the cuticles.

 Isn't it beautiful?  I didn't expect to like it as much as I do!  It really is a great polish.

Midnight.  Last, but not least.  One of my faves.  It may look black in my pix, but it is clearly a dark purple in Real Life.  You can see around my cuticles the dark purple.  I love the light and dark glitters in the jelly.  This is a stunner!

What do you think?  Do you like color-changing polishes?  Dark jelly glitters?  Do you prefer Circus with a few red glitters, or amped up with Canadian Eh?

If you'd like to see more of PolishTBH, you can find them on Facebook and on Etsy.