The Lacquer Ring: Turquoise Shimmer

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

I have two exciting things to share in this post. Firstly, today is my fourth wedding anniversary, yay! I love being married, and hubby and I are very content with our furbabies and home projects. Four seems like so little to me since we have really been together for 9 years. Well, we dated when we were 18, broke up at 19, and got back together at 20... yeah so 9 years. We are really lucky to have continued to grow together in the same direction. We are still working towards that house in the country. My parents have the land all ready for us and everything haha!

Secondly, this is my first post as part of The Lacquer Ring. The Lacquer Ring is a group of nail bloggers who do themed posts twice per month. I am honored to be joining all of these girls!

Today's prompt is based around a color: Turquoise Shimmer. Luckily I just got my order of Octopus Party Nail Lacquer I snagged in the last restock and instantly knew I must use Piece of Caicos. Piece of Caicos is a turquoise holographic polish with a smattering of subtle blue-green flakies. I actually remembered to take a picture of the base alone this time, too.

Shelby Lou Nails
Octopus Party Nail Lacquer
Piece of Caicos
without flash

Shelby Lou Nails
Octopus Party Nail Lacquer
Piece of Caicos
with flash

And since I can't leave anything alone now... I decided to try adding sea foam on top. I had seen nails like this somewhere on The Internet and have read how to do them several times, but of course I can't find a tutorial that even looks close to what I did.

Shelby Lou Nails
Turquoise Seafoam

I started by doing the first few steps of a watermarble: Drop 3-4 drops of China Glaze White Out into the cup of water, let them spread, and then spray the polish with perfume 2-3 times. I used a stamper and dunked that in the cup instead of my finger and then transferred the image onto my nails like a stamp. I am very comfortable with stamping so this was easier than dunking my finger... with which I have yet to be successful.

Shelby Lou Nails
Turquoise Seafoam

I added the starfish using Zoya Wendy and MoYou London Doodles 07. I wish I had stamped a bunch of things from that plate on my nails before adding the seafoam, but that's for next time!

Shelby Lou Nails
Turquoise Seafoam

I'm so glad I challenged myself with these nails, I love them!  Make sure you check out the other posts this week below.

Have you loved your cuticles today?

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy Memorial Day

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

I hope everyone is enjoying a day off and some time with loved ones today! Somehow I have a day off and my husband doesn't haha.  Memorial Day is a day to honor those who died while serving in the US military. There are several veterans and current service members in my family, including my brother, and I take their sacrifice very seriously. While thankfully no one has died in service close to me, I honor those who have and whose names I will never know. Thank you to all the service men and women out there!

I haven't done some "real" nail art in awhile and really wanted to try some horizontal gradient-ing in patriotic colors. My base colors are OPI Angel With A Leadfoot (white), China Glaze Man Hunt (blue), and OPI What's Your Point-settia? (red). Man Hunt is apparently one of my favorite blues since it's 1/3 gone. And I'm also happy I broke down and bought the Gwen Holiday Collection (because: Gwen Stefani) so I had plenty of reds to choose just the right shade.

Shelby Lou Nails

Memorial Day

Featuring Gridlock Lacquer The Rockpile

I got a bit of a false start on my gradient since I originally thought I wouldn't need a colored base--hey it's been awhile. After a couple passes I decided to do a couple strokes on either side of my nail with the brush, then did my sponging over the top of that when it was dry for more vibrant color. I was dreading cleaning up the red and blue but it wasn't too bad with my handy liquid latex as a barrier!

Shelby Lou Nails

Memorial Day

Featuring Gridlock Lacquer The Rockpile

Over the top of my gradient I did a coat of Gridlock Lacquer The Rockpile. I bought this one at the recent Mix Your Own event I went to with Gridlock Lacquer. I love patriotic polishes so of course I needed this one. The formula was great! Really nice spread and literally like 3 dabs randomly across my nails. My only complaint is I didn't get any of the medium satin white glitters on my nails. However, not a deal breaker and I still am happy with this purchase. There are iridescent microglitters within the red white and blue mix which I love. I am really pleased with how this turned out!

Products:
Gridlock Lacquer

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Rainbow Tie-Dye Nails

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

I hope everyone who celebrates had a lovely Easter yesterday! I spent it at my grandma's with a bunch of my crazy family. We enjoyed another edition of Old Home-Movies featuring my confirmation party when I was 13 (ugh) and my brother shoving my cousin off of a water fountain because she wouldn't let him get his own drink of water (circa age 10 for him?). I missed my brother since he lives out-of-state now but you know I will be bringing up this little long-lost gem the next time we talk teehee.

I did some extra-fun nails for Easter that I am calling Rainbow Tie-Dye Nails. I believe I first saw something like this from IG@madamluck some time ago, and then I saw a version done by my other nail buddy IG@joyrserio not too long ago which finally motivated me to try it! They remind me of multicolored Easter eggs and were a big hit!

Shelby Lou Nails
Rainbow Tie-Dye Nails
Featuring OPI Sheer Tints

I realized that I somehow do not own a full-coverage silver glitter (how is that possible?!) so I kind of made my own silver base. I started with two coats of OPI This Gown Needs A Crown, topped with a thin coat of China Glaze Glistening Snow. For the chunky glitters I used one coat each of KBShimmer Ice Queen and I Love Nail Polish Silver Spoons.

Shelby Lou Nails
Rainbow Tie-Dye Nails
Featuring OPI Sheer Tints

For the tie dye I used my OPI Sheer Tints mini set which includes I'm Never Amberrassed, Be Magentale with Me, Don't Violet Me Down, and I Can Teal You Like Me. I blobbed on the colors one by one and overlapped them randomly.

Shelby Lou Nails
Rainbow Tie-Dye Nails
Featuring OPI Sheer Tints

I think I do need to get myself a full-coverage glitter because this is very thick on my nails with all the layers. I used Pretty & Polished's Swift Sparkle Topcoat and I am really impressed with how well it dried all those polishes. I went right to bed after my TC and I woke up with absolutely no dents or smooshes!

Shelby Lou Nails
Rainbow Tie-Dye Nails
Featuring OPI Sheer Tints

I highly recommend this type of mani to everyone. I think you really can't go wrong and it was so easy to do with a really big payoff. My birthday is Wednesday and I was hoping to do some cupcake nail art... I don't know if I can bear to take this off though!

Shelby Lou Nails
Rainbow Tie-Dye Nails
Featuring OPI Sheer Tints

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Jindie Nails Christmas Swatch Spam

Press Sample--Jindie Nails Polishes
Purchased by Shelby Lou--All other products

Today's post is brought to you by nubbins. I hate winter because my nails take twice as much care. I tried rounding them out after a couple broken corners, but I hate them round. I know I'm just not used to it and really they looked fine, but I just dislike it on myself. I wish I could rock the short rounds like some of the greats such as The Dalai Hannah, Wondrously Polished, and The Polish Playground!

In case you are not already in the Christmas spirit, here are a bunch of lovely Jindies to help out. Personally, I was in the spirit around November 12th though--don't judge me.

Shelby Lou Nails
Jindie Nails Holly
Shown over China Glaze I Need A Re-Fresh Mint

Above is Jindie Nails Holly over China Glaze I Need A Re-Fresh Mint. This swatch shows one coat with the red glitters fished and dabbed on. Really nice formula for the little glitters and the red ones were easy to get! The white bow I had from Born Pretty Store and used it in almost all of my swatches. You can pick this polish up in Jindie's etsy store.

Shelby Lou Nails
Jindie Nails The Snow Must Go On

This is Jindie Nails The Snow Must Go On, one of my favorite holiday crellies! I love the lime green glitters mixed in and the teeny stars. Lovely formula, I did three thin coats and then dabbed a few stars and red circles where I wanted them. There are plenty of all the glitters so they were easy to grab. This one is available on the Jindie Nails website.

Shelby Lou Nails
Jindie Nails Just Elfing Around
Shown over Essie Borrowed & Blue

Jindie Nails Just Elfing Around is a lovely red, white, and pale green glitter topper. I have it shown over Essie Borrowed & Blue. This is what I think of when I think of Christmas indie polish! Jensent me an 8ml bottle of this but I think I want buy myself a full size. I can see this over pinks and greens, too. I easily painted on the little glitters and dabbed on the bigger ones. You can purchase this one through Jindie's etsy shop.

Shelby Lou Nails
Jindie Nails Through The Eyes Of A Child
Shown over Essie Going Incognito

Jindie Nails Through The Eyes Of A Child is a shimmery Christmas glitter topper that has everything but the kitchen sink. Every shape of Christmas glitter is in there and I don't think you could get them all on your nails in any one mani. I painted on a shimmery coat and then fished and dabbed the other larger shapes. I did three coats of topcoat to get a completely smooth finish. It occurred to me that dabbing the big shapes on first may have decreased how thick this felt on my nails. I have it shown over Essie Going Incognito. Unfortunately I don't see this one in either Jindie shops right now.

Shelby Lou Nails
Jindie Nails A Surprise Inside
Shown over Orly Coachella Dweller

Lastly is A Surprise Inside, one of the Santa's Secret Sack exclusive polishes. I love this one! I have shown one coat over Orly Coachella Dweller, the accent nail has two coats. You could easily wear this in two coats on its own. I found that applying it like one of the Zoya PixieDusts was easiest. I think I love this one because it reminds me of faded vintage ornaments. And the holo glitters aren't too shabby!

You can purchase Jindie Nails polish through her website or etsy store listed below. Check out the other Christmas goodies she has while you are there!

Products:
Jindie Nails
Jindie Nails on Etsy

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Subtle Stamping with China Glaze & a-england

Purchased By Shelby Lou

I have been so tired lately. Is it the change in weather? Probably just staying up too late playing with nails. Make sure you check out the facebook-only giveaway that I am part of this month with the Hobby Polish Bloggers. You could win up to $165 in cash to blow on polish! It ends September 30th. Make sure you stay tuned in October for some fun things I have planned for my 1st Blogaversary, too!

I have been so drawn to purples lately, is something happening to me? I swear I am not usually into purple but I wore it all last week and then have another purple on as we speak. Here is a quick swatch of an oldie but goodie, China Glaze Jungle Queen. This beauty is from China Glaze's On Safari collection from Fall 2012. It's one of those collections I love wearing again and again.

China Glaze Jungle Queen

Then of course I decided some stamping was in order after I wore this for a day. Because I'm always like:

STAMP ALL THE THINGS
-Shelby Lou Nails

I used a-england Ascalon with an image from MoYou London Fashionista 07. I love the subtle sparkle it adds in the brocade pattern! I am branching out more and more in my stamping colors and it pleases me greatly.

China Glaze Jumgle Queen
Stamp: MoYou London Fashionista 07 & a-england Ascalon

Tell me what colors you are reaching for this fall!

Products:
a-england
MoYou London

Have you loved your cuticles today?

You Polish Dolphins Tell No Tales

Omg Dolphins! I can be such a novelty whore. Once I pulled my sh!t together I decided I really only needed one dolphin polish. Because dolphins... but how often can I wear dolphins? I chose You Polish Dolphins Tell No Tales. It is described by You Polish as "A matte, iridescent, and holographic mix of blue, teal, turquoise and green with silver holographic DOLPHINS!"

You Polish Dolphins Tell No Tales
Shelby Lou Nails

I tried DTNT over a light color first and I really hated it... it just looked like glitter vomit, in a bad way. So I went for the darker color and hello! Gorgeous. All the glitters are displayed for your viewing pleasure. I decided to really go for the novelty and do some nautical stamping and studs.

You Polish Dolphins Tell No Tales
Shelby Lou Nails

I found for me doing a thinner coat of the DTNT and dabbing my dolphins was better than dabbing a big glob on my nail and smooshing it around. There's a lot going on and the base is packed, which is good! I did add some thinner to mine, but I really think it's because I am thinner-happy anyway.

Here's the other polishes and stuffs I used for this mani. I hope this gives you ideas on how to mix all your stash items together for a look!
China Glaze Man Hunt
You Polish Dolphins Tell No Tales
MoYou London Sailor 05
Pure Ice Silver Star
INM Northern Lights holographic TC

You Polish Dolphins Tell No Tales
Shelby Lou Nails

Overall I think this version of the dolphins is about as sophisticated as dolphins can get. I can also use it and keep the dolphins off my nails if I was so inclined. I like having a cutesy polish for the rare occasions I have need of it, but unless you are an avid dolphin collector or lover you might not need more than one. Okay maybe two because I had a hard time leaving Dolphins Are A Mermaids Best Friend out of my cart... I think I might keep a small decant of DTNT and give most of the bottle to my dolphin-and-general-animal-lover little cousin. The dolphins might be too big for her dainty nails but we shall see. Anyone else succumb to the power of the dolphins?

Products:
You Polish

Have you loved your cuticles today?

KBShimmer Make My Gray

I wanted to take a moment for a few blog updates.
First off, I have been getting a lot of love and new people checking me out, so thank you!
I have just joined twitter and you can follow me here. Full disclosure... I have no idea what I am doing yet.
I also recently switched to commentluv for my comments. This allows you to share your own blog with me so I can check out what's going on with my lovely readers. It's not clear to me if it's mobile friendly, but either way let me know how it's working for you. I have a blog because I want to connect with other polish fiends, so, seriously, talk to me :-)

And now for some amazing polish. It's no secret that KBShimmer is one of my favorite brands. Today I have a look I did using Make My Gray. I know I'm never the first to show a polish swatch so I try to give you a look instead to inspire you and show you more ways of having fun with a polish.

KBShimmer Make My Gray is a light gray crelly with neon coral, teal, pale aqua, and gunmetal glitters in matte, satin, metallic, and holographic finishes. Mostly all hex shapes but I also see a smattering of squares and micro bars!

KBShimmer
Make My Gray

I think one of many reasons KBShimmer is so immensely popular is because of their formula. Easy coats with perfect glitter distribution. I used three thin coats in my look. It was amazing coverage, no VNL in sight.

KBShimmer Make My Gray
Accent of China Glaze Surreal Appeal with studs

My accent nail is China Glaze Surreal Appeal with some studs from I-don't-know-where. I just love this look altogether especially the coral! I love me some coral. This is such a unique polish and a must-have in my opinion.

KBShimmer Make My Gray
Accent of China Glaze Surreal Appeal with studs

I will have some more KBShimmer this week so stay tuned! I am also planning a giveaway with some other amazing bloggers and I will be giving away some KBShimmer products....

Products:
KBShimmer

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Jindie Nails Rainbow Connection Exclusives: Rainbow White & Midnight Dancer

***Provided for honest review by Jindie Nails

I have some exciting polish today! Jindie sent me two exclusive polishes for Rainbow Connection, an indie brand supplier in the UK. Jindie consistently impresses me with her creativity and formula which keeps her among my top favorite indies.

The first polish I have is Midnight Dancer. She (yes, I made this polish a girl) is a deep blue jelly packed with all sorts of blue, gold, and red holographic glitters and shimmer. Big gold holo circles in here! I feel like there are hidden gold flakies, but this may be the shimmer playing tricks on me. This is a polish you can get lost in.

Jindie Nails

Midnight Dancer

Exclusively for Rainbow Connection

With all the goodness going on in here I was a little worried. Luckily the formula was good--not too thick and easy to work with. Shown is essentially three coats. I started with a thin first coat (paint carefully this can be a stainer!). I didn't want all of my circles to be dabbed on top, so in between the second and third coats I started placing a few. There were some red dots which were a little shy but I diligently fished to get some! I used two thick coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top for a smooth finish.

Jindie Nails

Midnight Dancer

Exclusively for Rainbow Connection

If you are a circle glitter fan Midnight Dancer is a polish for you. I love the color combination and how much shimmer is packed inside. Plus, when my husband saw this he went, "That is cool." I always feel like polish approved by men gets extra points ;-)

Jindie Nails

Midnight Dancer

Exclusively for Rainbow Connection

The second polish is Rainbow White. She is a white jelly with satin, matte, and metallic glitters in white, red, orange, melon, aqua, teal, and blue. Shapes include circles, squares, hexes, and stars! Really lovely colors and glitter mix.

Jindie Nails
Rainbow White
Exclusively for Rainbow Connection

The formula is excellent, exactly what I expect from Jindie! She really knows what she's doing with her jellies. Overall nice glitter spread. I used three thin coats and then a little fishing and dabbing for the stars and wherever I wanted to fill in. I used two thick coats of KBShimmer Clearly On Top for a smooth finish.

Jindie Nails
Rainbow White
Exclusively for Rainbow Connection

Thoughts: I LOVE this white jelly and all the accent nail color possibilities. Midnight Dancer might be my husband's pick, but this one is mine. White jelly heaven, yes please!

Jindie Nails
Rainbow White
Exclusively for Rainbow Connection

I decided to do a look with China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle and a white bow a la The Lacquered Owl (love her, go check her out!). *Sigh* this mani makes me want summer.

Jindie Nails Rainbow White, made exclusively for Rainbow Connection
Accent of China Glaze Too Yacht To Handle with bow from Born Pretty Store

You can purchase these polishes exclusively at Rainbow Connection. Please note, Rainbow Connection does not ship outside Europe due to Royal Mail restrictions.
For other great Jindie polishes check out Jindie Nails!

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Skittle with Polish Addict Love & Theft

I'm not feeling too wordy today... more on that tomorrow. I've also worked six days last week, I am beat.

Today I have a skittle inspired by Polish Addict Nail Color Love & Theft, both the colors and the name. You can see my review of Love & Theft here.

Pinky: OPI Emotions
Ring: Sinful Colors Candy Coated, stamped with image from Vivid Lacquer VL 009 and Mentality Scoundrel
Middle & Index (& Thumb, not show): Sinful Colors Candy Coated, PANC Love & Theft

Products:
Polish Addict Nail Color
Vivid Lacquer
Mentality

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Dollish Polish Poor Unfortunate Souls Skittle

I haven't been able to wear as many skittles as I used to since I changed jobs. I have found I don't need strictly traditional work-appropriate polish, but I think the skittle mani might concern patients haha! Here is one I did for a weekend. Poor Unfortunate Souls is one of those polishes I HAD to have, which is hilarious because it took me forever to finally wear it.

Pinky: China Glaze Bump In The Night
Ring & Middle (& Thumb, not shown): Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Lilac You, Dollish Polish Poor Unfortunate Souls
Index: Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure I Lilac You, stamped with Nailz Craze NC02 & Mentality Scoundrel

Remember how to put together a skittle mani? Pick your undies (I Lilac You) for your glitter (Poor Unfortunate Souls), use a neutral from the glitter for pinky accent (black), then stamp the neutral on the index (black swirls). Show me your skittles on my facebook page!

Selected Products:
Dollish Polish
Nailz Craze

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Happy Jindie-ween! A day late....

I really meant to have these up on Halloween, and I'm sorry to do Jindie Nails such a disservice in this late post. When I drafted this post one of the polishes was still available... and now as I'm going to add pictures and try to get this finally posted they are both sold out. Fail. I have been a mess this week! I'm transitioning to a new job and coordinating this move is driving me insane... my stomach has literally been in knots. This is for sure the right move at the right time, but change is hard :-/
Anyway, at least I have pretty polish to help me destress!

Be-Wear The Polish

Assorted glitter shapes and finishes in varying shades of green, gray, black and purple
Swatched over China Glaze Absolutely Shore and a gray creme.

Apparently this topper also has glow-in-the-dark glitters, I didn't realize that though and have no pictures. I think I've said it before, the novelty of GITD polishes are just lost on me anyway. I still love this topper, especially over the neon purple! I used one coat and then some dabbing to fill in a few spaces. Really excellent formula and I love the extensive variety of glitters!

Be-Wear The White Polish

White crelly with assorted glitter shapes and finishes in varying shades of green, gray, black and purple

Now this is my favorite, I'm so glad I snagged it. I love white crellies like this so much. I used a white base coat, then I did a coat and smooshed (this means gently pushing...?) the glitters around, then did some dabbing where I wanted to fill in.

I really like these polishes, I think they are very appropriate for year round use, too! You can purchase Jindie Nails here.
Did you purchase any Jindie Halloween polishes? What is your favorite Jindie?
Take a minute to moisturize your cuticles :-)

Jindie Nails For Fall 2013: Shimmer Me Timbers & Midnight Rainbow

I've finally got some Jindie Nails to show you! This year Jindie came out with five shades for her "Fall Chic" collection and this line also debuted her new 9ml bottles. The new 9ml bottles are amazing! So easy to use and plenty of polish. I had to use a topcoat bottle for the pictures though because I couldn't pose witht he long skinny ones. I've got two of the jellies to show you today, one as a traditional swatch and one as a skittlette inspired by the polish. I did these swatches on different days, and the skittlette I felt turned out better on my right hand. Apparently I am ambidextrous when it comes to nail polish.

I want to discuss formula as they were the same for both. Jindie has some glorious glitters, jellies, and crellies which require some extra patience in applying. Shimmer Me Timbers and Midnight Rainbow both have giant circle glitters which require some fishing and dabbing, worth the effort but you might need a little practice.

Jindie Nails - Shimmer Me Timbers

2 coats basecoat--major stainer, double up on base and paint carefully!

3 coats Shimmer Me Timbers

2 coats KBShimmer Clearly On Top

Shimmer Me Timbers is an emerald green jelly with all sorts of glitter in gold, green, purple, holographic, squares, circles, hexes, and more! I like this a lot, I love greens. There is some VNL but nothing that bothers me.

Application is tricky, I had to do this swatch twice haha. For this swatch I did a thin first coat with no glitter. Then I did another coat with whatever glitters decided to be on the brush. Lastly I did a third coat by fishing and dabbing.

Oops, forgot the watermark! And a little lobster-y here :-/

Jindie Nails - Midnight Rainbow

Index: China Glaze liquid Leather, Image from Nail Craze NC 02 stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Silver Sweep

Middle, Ring, & Thumb: China Glaze Liquid Leather, 2 coats Midnight Rainbow, 2 thick coats KBShimmer Clearly On Top

Pinky: Zoya Dahlia, 1 coat topcoat

Midnight Rainbow is a black jelly with rainbow shimmer and holographic circle glitters. I did a first coat with just the shimmery jelly part then dabbed and fished the big circles onto the nail.

I was initially going to stamp with a color, but I think the silver and black really feature the polish much better.

I will have some more Fall Jindies tomorrow! Did you pick any up yet?
Remember to love your cuticles as much as you love your polish :-)

When a man picks a polish...

I'm sure you've been there. You have hundreds of bottles in front of you but the choices are too overwhelming and you can't decide what to wear. I had one of those days recently.

Luckily my husband was home! I asked him to pick a color for me. He immediately said "candy apple red." Obviously he is a car fanatic and one of the (many) cars he's always wanted is a 1987 Porsche 911 Turbo in candy apple red. And also the 1976 Trans Am from "Smokey and the Bandit." We actually played "East Bound and Down" for our first introduction at our wedding! Anyway, I digress...

I pulled out China Glaze Cranberry Splash from the Holiday 2012: Holiday Joy collection. It is the perfect glowy candy apple red AND husband-approved. The formula on this is amazing, a careful one-coater.

Of course I couldn't leave it plain so I added some studs. My husband asked me why I needed to add studs to such a perfect color. I think I answered something like, because I'm a girl, haha!

My husband liked the color so much he actually asked me about other car colors which I might have in polish and we went through my stash for awhile. Aww, bonding! Did you know that the first modern nail polish was basically car paint? Yikes, talk about toxic!

What guy in your life would you ask to pick your polish? What do you think he would pick?
Make sure you take a minute to moisturize those cuticles!

Llarowe's A Box, Indied for October 2013: Swatches & Review

Llarowe is a renowned indie stockist in the nail polish world and the single biggest reason for my credit debt. She recently came out with "A Box, Indied" which is a monthly indie offering of five unique polishes exclusive to the box. I tried to limit pictures as there are five polishes but this post is still picture-heavy!

A Box, Indied

October 2013

Jindie Nails - Screaming Halloween

3 coats OPI Fiercely Fiona
2 coats Screaming Halloween plus a little extra fishing and dabbing
1 thick coat CND Air Dry

 

Let me begin by saying I love Jindie. Not only does she make incredibly unique polishes, she is also a complete sweetheart! Unfortunately for me, this color makes me look like a zombie. I love the concept though, just look at the bottle shot, yum!

Any of you gals blessed with any significant amount of melanin (I swear I have none haha) would probably be able to pull this off with no problems.

Black Cat Lacquer - Came Back Haunted

1 coat China Glaze Liquid Leather
2 coats Came Back Haunted
1 coat CND Air Dry

This was my first experience with Black Cat Lacquer, no complaints here! This is a sheer black jelly with multi-colored shreds and holographic micro shimmer. I swatch in the middle of the night and my lightbox kills holos (sadness, I am working on a solution) so the holo shimmer actually looks simply multi-colored in my photos but I promise it's there. 

Make sure you shake the bottle well and turn it upside down for a bit as the larger shards are sink-y. I think this looks like shredded Halloween candy wrappers from a frantic sampling of trick-or-treat spoils haha. It also looks like confetti and I could see this for New Year's manis, too!

Polish Me To Go - Luna Verde

3 coats Orly Day Glow (white) and 3 coats China Glaze Kiwi Cool-Ada (accent)
2 coats Luna Verde, no topcoat

Polish Me To Go is also new for me. Luna Verde (love the name!) is a sheer lime green with silvery flakie shimmer. I had a hard time figuring out how to wear this. It is incredibly sheer so I wanted to try it like a topcoat and sort of by itself. It looks nice as a topcoat but the glow is very subtle. On the other hand it doesn't look that exciting over white, but the glow was incredible! I had no idea what I was doing while trying to photograph this in the dark, but I'll show my picture anyway so you can see the difference over dark verses light colors.

In person the glow was pretty awesome and not blurry like my crappy photos look, I'm sorry I couldn't do it justice. Glow-in-the-dark polishes are fun, but I only see them glowing for the few minutes before I fall asleep so I feel like the novelty is wasted on me.

Lacquerlicious - No Tricks, Just Treats!

Undies are China Glaze Gaga For Green, Sephora by OPI Hi Def, China Glaze liquid Leather, China Glaze Grape Pop
1 coat No Tricks, Just Treats! plus some fishing and dabbing
1 coat CND Air Dry

Another new brand for me! This polish is a Halloween glitter bomb, I couldn't even begin to list the glitters involved in this chaos so just refer to the bottle shot...

Wow! Anyway, I initially tried this over a light purple and a light peachy orange. All I will say it it looked awful and I recommend black or bold colors like I'm showing you now. I prefer it over the black and dark purple, I feel like it just looks like a mess over lighter colors.

Ethereal Lacquer - Devoured

3 coats Devoured
1 coat Glisten & Glow HK Girl Top Coat (doesn't dull holos!)

Now this is what I'm talking about! Devoured is a very deep plum holographic polish. I know the holo market is pretty saturated right now but this is classy, sexy, vampy--the quintessential fall polish. I probably could have stopped at two coats, but I used three for photographic purposes. If you see anyone giving theirs up just throw your money at them and take it.


Surprisingly there are still October boxes and subscriptions available on Llarowe's website here. I think a lot of people passed because of the swatches, but there are some real gems in here. And really, can I NOT buy something that is exclusive and/or limited edition?! I do have the subscription and I hope to continue showing you the monthly offerings to either sign up yourself or track down just what you *need* from blogs and personal sales.

That was a lot for one post, thanks for sticking with me!
I hope you took some time while reading to moisturize those cuticles ;-)