Bewitch(ed), Bothered, and Bewildered...

Hello, Fireflies!

Were you spooked by that full moon on Friday the 13th?  Did it bewitch you? 

Will this polish bewitch you?  It is Picture Polish Bewitch, a plummy-brown with shimmer and maybe some flakie action going on.

I love complex polishes like this!

To play off the gold shimmer, I added some gold studs and a little yellow-gold rhinestone.  Kinda looks like grape leaves to me now.

I love adding studs to dress up a mani.  I don't keep them on for long.. I'm a picker.  But they are fun for a minute! 

Grapes? or weird bowl haircut from the 70's?  I can't decide now which it looks like more.  Macro pictures are not always kind to nail art!

It's all there in Black and White

With all of the colors I'll wear on my nails, the most eye-catching ones may just be a white or a black nail.  I use these in nail art a lot, but not so often on their own.  Maybe one of these will convince me otherwise.

Picture Polish White Wedding.  This polish was done in conjunction with Llarowe, and it's a very pretty white with a subtle pink/green flaky shimmer.  It's impossible to capture in photos, but it's there in Real Life.  If I was going to wear plain white, the shimmer makes it look like I did it on purpose, and didn't just paint my nails with White-Out, like I did in grade school.

Contrary Polish Frozen.  Part of their 2012 Winter collex, this is a glossy white with blue shimmer.  I really liked this.  I will say that if I plan on wearing white, I need to do a more careful polish application, because it shows every patch or uneven application!  Whites are fairly unforgiving.

Cult Nails Tempest.  This is a true white creme gloss.  This one is a little more forgiving because of the high shine, but leans a little more towards that White-Out look.  This is a great base for nail art, though.  One of my faves.

On to the blacks.

First up is A-England Lancelot.  Does this look black to you?

Would you believe that the first coat goes on red?  I think the second coat is supposed to reflect that red, but I just can't see it.  Not in any pix, not in Real Life.  It just looks black to me, and it makes me feel a little cheated because I want there to be red in there.

A-England Camelot.  The only way to tell these apart is to do one coat.  Camelot is pretty much a one-coat black, where Lancelot is much more red and streaky on the first coat.  Camelot is so thick and glossy that it freaks out my camera, and I couldn't hardly get it to focus on the polish.

Cult Nails Nevermore.  Another darling of the nail polish community, Nevermore is a one-coat black.  It is great for a quick, classy, vampy mani.

Do you like wearing black and/or white?  Would you rather wear it as a base for another color or nail art?  Any favorites?

Picture Polish Perfect

It's hard to remember that PiCture pOlish is technically an Indie, because they look so professional!  They are one of the lab-created Indies, originating in Australia, and they've come a long way to be here with me!

Cosmos.  I like blue polish, I can not lie.  I have actually been trying to not buy so much of it because I know I have a lot - and how many blues do I need?  I couldn't resist Cosmos, though, because it really did look like nothing I have.

I took a pix after one coat because I just loved the color.

I did get more of a midnight-blue effect with two coats.  It's a little lighter in my pix because I'm using an Ott Light, and it's reflecting.

Mallard.  Deep green with green and gold flakies.  Flakies....  can't get enough.

I used Nails, Inc. The Wyndham to amp up the green flakies.  I'm glad it didn't completely cover the golden orange ones, but I wish I had a flakie that had that color, too.  I love the way the bottle looks, too; like some kind of primordial soup.

Both of these are collaboration shades, made in concert with bloggers who gave their opinions on what kind of polish they'd like to see.  There are bunches more of these collaborative shades (I reviewed Krypotonite and Demeter HERE) as well as other polishes and the Ozotic line.  You can order directly from them in Australia on Picture Polish's webpage, or find them on one of their distributor sites, such as Llarowe, Ninja Polish, or Overall Beauty.

Did you like these as much as I did?  Would you wear any polish, so long as you had a flakie topper?  (I think I would....)

Indie January - Two Birds

Today I want to show you polishes from Two Birds, two sisters who love crafts and make some pretty awesome polishes.

Crossroads.  This was part of their Halloween collex from 2012.  I didn't discover it until after that, and loved it so much, it topped my list of fave polishes for 2012.  Orange milky bases are pretty rare, and this one is so juicy.  I love how the purple and orange glitters just pop.  No problems with application, no fishing for glitter.

I also loved how it matched one of my fave shirts!

Strawberry Limeaid.  On my ring finger, I started with one layer of the glitter, but realized it needed undies, so I used NYC Peach Sparkle, a supposed dupe for NARS Orgasm.  This was an LE I asked someone to buy for me, as it was only readily found at Rite-Aid.  It's sheer, but pretty.

I love how vibrant the peach looks after putting on Strawberry Limeaid.  It definitely has more pink than Crossroads, but still has that ripe, juicy feel to it. The lime green glitters are unobtrusive, but add subtle contrast.  I think this is a clever mix of colors!

Old Magic.  This one was hard to photograph.  I don't think the pix do it justice.  In Real Life, the blue is a jelly, and the glitters are more noticeable, but still subtle.

I think Picture Polish Festival added a nice punch of flakie goodness.  I think you can also see that the blue is more jelly here, and not as dark.  I did not want to take this off!

With all the Indies on the market now, it's refreshing to see some colors and textures are still fresh.  Are you a fan of the orange base?

If you'd like more information about Two Birds, they can be found on Facebook, and also have a store on Etsy.

A piCture pOlish says a thousand words

I'll be honest - I've seen Picture Polish around for a while, but I wasn't tempted to buy any of their polishes.. until these:

Demeter and Kryptonite are part of the blogger series of polishes that Picture Polish made in conjunction with beauty bloggers.  Demeter is a stunning brown scattered holo, and Kryponite is a deep green scattered holo.

I made some reverse stripes in the polish, putting green over brown or brown over the green.  It didn't matter which was on top, both colors shone true, deep, dark, and gorgeous.

Unless you live in Australia, their polishes may be a little pricier than some of the other indies.  Probably the distance they have to travel from Oz might have something to do with it.  I don't regret buying these, though.  They are unique, beautiful, and well-made.  Llarowe, Harlow & Co, and Overall Beauty carry Picture Polish, and each one has their own exclusive color that only they carry.

Do you own any piCture pOlish that you love?