Laquerlicious Polish Review!

Reviving my blog for swatches & reviews of five fabulous Laquerlicious handmade indie polishes!

Please click on images to enlarge :)

First up we have "Supreme Queen", part of the Laquerlicius shimmer collection.

This is 2 coats, over Essie "Where's My Chauffeur?" and Seche Vite topcoat.

This color is beautiful!  I got many compliments on it.

 Hard to describe - almost like a light grayish blue.  Kinda reminds me of a robin's egg!  

There are tons of beige, royal blue and teal shimmery glitters in a blue-gray base.

Here is "Emerald Glaze", part of the Laquerlicious glaze collection.

This is 2 coats, over OPI "Cuckoo For This Color" and Seche Vite topcoat.

Despite looking very opaque in the bottle, Emerald Glaze is actually quite sheer!

It's jam packed with gorgeous green, teal and purple tiny glitter in a green base.

The purple glitter offers an amazing pop of color against the green/teal.  

I absolutely loved the way this looked on my skin tone :)

This lovely color is "Divine Doll", part of the Laquerlicious shimmer collection.

2 coats, over Essie "Play Date" and Seche Vite topcoat.

I have become a purple addict, so this polish was right up my alley :)

A beautiful shimmery combination of purple, beige and a hint of teal.

This is the perfect polish for anyone who loves a cheerful purple!

This gorgeous glitterbomb is "Bottle of Bubbly", from the Laquerlicious New Year's 2014 collection.

This is one generous coat, over Spoiled "Visually Slimming" and Seche Vite topcoat.

An incredible mixture of silver and gold holo glitters in a clear base.

There are all sorts of shapes & sizes in this polish!

Round, hex, micro, stars and bars just to name a few.

Application of this polish was a dream, didn't really have to dab at all or fish for glitter!

Definitely have plans for this baby as New Years Eve mani.

Last but not least, "Countdown to Midnight", also from Laquerlicious New Year's 2014 collection.

1 generous coat, over China Glaze "Stone Cold" and Seche Vite topcoat.

This glitter bomb is made up of varied sizes of round white, black, pink, purple and teal glitters in a clear base.

This is a super fun, playful polish.  I really enjoy the contrast between all of the colors.

This is the type of polish that would go well with just about any color as a base, so the possibilities are endless!

Application was fairly easy, although I did have to dab and fish a bit, but that doesn't bother me at all.

Final verdict is that these polishes were fantastic.

I fully believe in supporting indie polish makers and really I loved the unique glitter color combinations that Laquerlicious has to offer! 

They dried super quickly, application was a dream and Michelle (IG @creativenailchick) was a pleasure to work with.

I will be using many of these polishes again in the future.

All of the polishes that were reviewed are currently available for purchase at www.Laquerlicious.com :)

Haul, Review & Gradient Swatch: "Love, Charlotte" Polish

A few days ago I got these really awesome nail polishes at a store called Charlotte Russe.

It was very unexpected because Charlotte Russe is known for reasonably priced trendy clothing & shoes.  

I don't shop there, but my friends wanted to see what they had.

I'm glad we stopped in there because I never knew they had their own brand of polish called "Love, Charlotte"!

I was a little hesitant at first, because I figured they would have a really bad formula, but I tested all of them in the store and the application was great and not streaky at all.

The colors don't have names on the bottle but I got a light pink which was "Pastel POP" brand, hot pink, purple, fine silver hologram glitter, large silver holo glitter & a large mixed light & dark purple and silver holo from the "Love, Charlotte" brand.

 

I decided to do a sponge gradient (click here for a mini-tutorial on sponge gradients)

I used the light pink, dark pink & purple and topped it off with the fine silver holo glitter!

 The sun finally came back out so I got a shot in the sunlight too!

If you live near a Charlotte Russe store, I would totally recommend stopping in to check it out!

They do have some polishes on their website, but there was definitely a better color selection in-store.

They were also on sale in the store but not online!

They were 2 for $3 and I also got an extra 10% off my purchase for giving them my email address, so I got all 6 polishes for around $18. 

Have a wonderful Sunday :)

Review: Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect polish

Everyone loves glitter.  And what's better than regular glitter?  HOLOGRAM GLITTER!

This is a review of Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect polish. 

After reading reviews of other holos and looking at photo swatches, I decided on Layla Cosmetics brand.

All of them looked really pretty, but at $15 each I limited myself to 3:

"Mercury Twilight" which is a silver holo, "Flash Black" which is a charcoal/black holo and "Ultra Violet", my personal favorite of the three, a silvery-purpley-lavendar-ish holo.

The thing about holographic glitters is that they're really weird to work with.  The first time I'd used these, I was so excited to have holographic glitter nails that I skipped all of my normal pre-mani steps - file, buffer, base coat - and it came out really dull and streaky.  

Apparently, you're supposed use an "aqua base coat" (wut?).  I thought maybe another coat would help because more glitter is always better right?  Alas, it only made it horribly streaky and just not very pretty.  Then I put a coat of Seche Vite top coat over it, because it's super glossy and that should make it better... except it made it WORSE!  The top coat actually made it less prismatic.  What gives?  Why are holos so different from any other polish?!

After some research, and trial & error I found out a few things:  

If you are painting on natural nails, it's best to use a high shine buffer to smooth out ridges on the nail, and acrylic nails don't usually require any base just normal buffing.  

Seche Vite top coat is easier to find and a good alternative to aqua base coat.

Apply a heavy first coat, and wait at least 5 or 10 minutes before applying a second coat, otherwise the brush starts to pull off the bottom coat and it ends up very streaky & patchy.

I also discovered that the holos look very different in different types of lighting.

I painted 3 coats of each color on a nail tip, and took photos in various types of light.  I also painted the right half of the nail lengthwise with top coat so you can see how dull it makes the holo.  This kinda sucks because no top coat means it will chip or flake a little faster than a regular polish.

These photos below are from when I took my acrylics off for a week or so.  

I buffered my natural nails and used Seche Vite as a base coat, and no top coat.  The top one is a tape mani with all 3 colors and the bottom is just 2 coats of "Ultra Violet".  

They lasted pretty well for about 3 days, just a few small flakes came off on the free edge of my nail.  

 Pros:

It's absolutely beautiful!  

There is no other way to get that super crazy pretty glittery prismatic shine. 

If you can get a decent looking thick first coat, you don't have to use a second, so it will last forever.

If you have Seche Vite on hand, you don't need to buy an aqua base coat.

Layla brand was on the cheaper end but still really good quality and very prismatic.

Cons: 

They're hard to find, so they are a little pricey;
These were $15/bottle on Amazon, and I've seen Gosh holo go for $50 and up on eBay. 

Long wait time to dry between coats.

Top coat kills the hologram effect so it flakes off more easily.

Can't use normal base coat.

Conclusion:

They're really pretty, but definitely take some getting used to working with. 

If you have some extra cash to splurge and you love shiny things, go for it!

Have you ever used holographic glitter polish?  What are your thoughts?