Tag Archives: Indie polish

Following up on yesterday’s introduction to Shimmer Polish Bella (named after my pretty dobe girl), I immediately wore Cleo, a purple jelly that was calling to me to try and lift up my spirits a little.

Cleo is a beautiful purple jelly base with purple, blue and a ton of iridescent glitters which give it a bit of an opalescent, mermaid-scale reflection. Cleo is absolutely beautiful even in the bottle.

I decided to layer it over one of my favourite OPI purples, Vant to Bite My Neck? from the Euro Centrale collection. I used only one coat of each, if you can believe, and finished it off with two coats of top coat (as these glitters can sometimes be top coat eaters). I thought I had a lot of favourite Shimmers but how can I not add this to the list?

Look at the different colours in this macro:

Do you love Cleo as much as I do?

Get your very own Shimmer Polish here on her Etsy shop! Follow Shimmer Polish on Facebook to participate in their contests and see more gorgeous photos and new creations, and follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

~xo

(Product provided for consideration and review. All opinions are my own.)

Shimmer Polish Bella

February 8, 2014

Dior Vernis, Glitter, Nailpolish, Obsessed, Shimmer Polish

10 Comments

As some of you who follow my social media streams may know, I’ve been a little quiet lately… unfortunately I lost my father a few days ago. The only positive in his passing is that he did not suffer long; he was diagnosed with a very aggressive and advanced cancer that would have destroyed his insides. It is a rotten disease that needs a cure; a cure that must, in our advanced society, surely be forthcoming. I also want to thank you for the many wishes and condolences you have sent our way…

Moving on to happier things, I wanted to introduce you to the beautiful Bella from Shimmer Polish! I recently reached out to Cindy to create a custom Shimmer… something vampy but different from her other vamps that I love. She came up with this beauty, a black jelly base with tons of burgundy glitter, hints of silver, and reflections of gold and red in sunlight. I asked Cindy to name it after my beautiful Doberman-mix Bella.

Bella’s black jelly base is quite sheer, so I layered it over the gorgeous crelly Dior Vernis Nuit 1947 to maintain the jelly qualities I so love. I used only one coat of the Dior, and added two thin coats of Shimmer Polish Bella, topped with two coats of top coat:

Look at this beautiful macro (click to see full size pic):

What do you think of my gorgeous Bella?

Get your very own Shimmer Polish here. Follow Shimmer Polish on Facebook to participate in their contests and see more gorgeous photos and new creations, and follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

~xo

Colors by Llarowe – Tribute to Michael Jackson Part 3

September 6, 2013

Colors by Llarowe, Holos, Nailpolish, Obsessed

3 Comments

Happy Friday!

So far I’ve shown you four of the gorgeous polishes from Colors by Llarowe’s latest collection, Tribute to Michael Jackson (catch up here and here), and today, we wrap up the collection with the final three. (There is an eighth polish named Thriller but unfortunately, I don’t have that one to show you swatches.)

The final holo I have for you is another jaw-dropper: Beat It (Just beat it, beat it, no one wants to be defeated…). Beat It is described as a deep charcoal holo with blue flash, and just like Dirty Diana and Smooth Criminal, the holographic effect is insane! I used two coats for the swatches below, and even without top coat, Beat It dried to a high shine:

and with flash so you can see the beautiful holo effect:

Next I have a red wine-coloured polish (Leah Ann, how did you know??) named Billy Jean. A Deep red wine crelly with intense golden red to green shimmer, no photo can do this polish justice. The wine cream-jelly base is incredible on its own, but the tiny shimmer adds such depth to this polish, making it dance in light and reflect hues of gold. I used two easy, self-levelling coats for the swatches (seriously, this was one of the nicest formulas!), with a coat of top coat to bring out the shine and shimmer:

Indoors:

And a macro shot so you can see the tiny golden shimmers in this polish:

Last but not least, I have for you Bad, a slight duochrome indigo blue with subtle pink shift. Llarowe’s website advises finishing with a good quality top coat as it dries to a satin finish. Another beauty, it leans purple and even hints at green flash in certain light. Bad has a slight metallic finish, so brush strokes may be slightly visible; however, it’s an easy polish to work with. You can see some of the pink and green reflection in the photo below. I used two coats with top coat:

And one more where you can see it shifting slightly green on my middle finger:

This collection launched on August 17th and is currently mostly sold out, but make sure you head over to Llarowe’s shop for all the restock news! (I know Llarowe is out of pigment for Beat It but promises it will be back soon!)
All Colors by Llarowe polishes are 3-free and cruelty free, and come in a 15 ml square bottles with easy-to-open rubber-grip cap. Don’t forget to follow Llarowe on Facebook, Pinterest and on Instagram!

Have you snagged any of these Tribute polishes yet?

~xo

(Products were provided for consideration and review. All opinions are my own.)

KBShimmer – Fall 2013 Collection

August 16, 2013

KBShimmer Bath & Body, Nailpolish, Press release

4 Comments

KBSHIMMER ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF SEVEN NEW GLIMMERING POLISHES

KBShimmer Fall Polish Line Set For Release September 1st, 2013

KBShimmer is excited to announce the addition of seven new fall colors to their 3-Free glitter polish line. Owner Christy Rose says “With a bit of chill in the morning and school buses out in force, I can’t help feel that fall is almost here. I am ready put away the neon and embrace the warmer, softer tones that accent the feeling of Autumn.”

“The fall KBShimmer line up has a bit for everyone, from the glitter lover to those that want a more subtle look.” says Rose. “We are again expanding our matte line with both a fun cranberry red, and a blue toned gray. For those that love the look of jelly polishes, we offer three versions in black, red, and a blue with hints of purple. A white crelly, and a unique teal with heavy pink shimmer completes the new collection. We think this is our most diverse collection yet, and the perfect start to the season.”

KBShimmer – FALL 2013 COLLECTION

Vicious Circles: A blood red jelly loaded with silver holographic circles in two sizes, sliver holographic hex glitters and holographic sliver micro slices. Best in two or three coats.

Every Nook & Cranberry: A cranberry satin matte polish with a subtle pink and gold shimmer. This polish with its blue undertones is one that will work on many skin tones. Best in two coats.

You Autumn Know: A white crelly polish loaded with fuchsia, gold, and orange glitters. Micro bars accent the fall pallet of this polish. Best in three coats, or two coats over white.

Teal Another Tail: A dusty teal green polish with a strong pink almost duo-chrome shimmer. A color I imagine would be on a mermaid’s tail. Best in two coats.

Turbulence: A satin matte finish slate gray polish inspired by storm clouds. Silver flakes are surrounded by micro blue and fuchsia sparks inspired by lightning and rain. Best in two coats.

You Go Ghoul!: This Halloween polish is one that you will wear year round. A black jelly sparkles with glitters in grape, berry and orange for a polish even a witch would love. Best in two coats over black or three coats alone.

Excuse Me, I Blurped: A shade not quite blue, not quite purple shade with glitters in many shades of blue, purple, with a hint of copper. Best in two coats.

Shipping September 1, 2013

KBShimmer products can be found at KBShimmer.com. For sales outside of the US visit Harlow & Co.

So which one are you most excited about??

Colors by Llarowe Part 3

July 16, 2013

Colors by Llarowe, Nailpolish

6 Comments

Today I bring you three more Colors by Llarowe polishes by the store of the same name (see some other Colors by Llarowe reviewed here)!

Focusing on blue hues, the first colour is Paradise Found, a shade from the Beauty of Nature collection. Paradise Found is an ocean-blue jelly polish with a hidden blue sparkle and a lilac sheen. If you like jellies, this is a gorgeous medium-blue shade with excellent application and super-high shine. I had no staining on the nail, but like some bright blues, it can leave a little murkiness around the cuticles if you smudge it during removal. I would recommend using small fresh cotton balls on each nail to avoid that. Here are two coats in artificial light:

And a macro in direct sunlight:

Montana Sky, from the same Beauty of Nature collection, is a polish with a similar blue jelly base to Paradise Found, but filed with blue shimmer and iridescent glitters. Application was similar to Paradise Found, and I had no trouble with the chunky glitters. Glitter payoff was great. I applied two coats over 1 coat of Paradise Found, which gave me very good coverage:

Look at the gorgeous, delicate shimmer and the depth of the polish in this macro shot:

The third and final blue hue for today is Bluebonnets, a Limited Edition charity polish with all proceeds going to victims of the Granbury, Texas tornadoes. Bluebonnets is another royal blue jelly base, this time with pink shimmer and instead of blue, with iridescent glitter pieces. Bluebonnets has very subtle, small square glitter pieces, and application was amazing, with even and generous glitter distribution. Here are two coats over a coat of Paradise Found:

I love that the pink shimmer gives Bluebonnets a slight blue-purple sheen! The pink shimmer is really visible in a macro shot:

Final verdict: As mentioned, none of these blues stained, which is always a huge bonus with blue lacquers. All the polishes are swatched here without topcoat, and were extremely shiny on their own.

All of these polishes are 3-free and cruelty free, and come in a 15 ml square bottles.

Head over to Llarowe to see what’s available! Don’t forget to follow Llarowe on Facebook, Pinterest and on Instagram!

Do you have any Colors by Llarowe polishes yet?

~xo

(Products were provided for consideration and review. All opinions are my own.)

Colors by Llarowe Part 1!

June 5, 2013

A-England, Colors by Llarowe, Nailpolish

4 Comments

I am so excited to share today’s post with you! In anticipation of tomorrow’s launch, I have for you a preview of three Colors by Llarowe, a brand-new line of polishes by the store of the same name!

The first three colours you’ll see are all gorgeous, holographic polishes, and I hope you will like them as much as I do.

The vampiest is Black Gold, Texas Tea, a limited edition polish collection to benefit the tornado victims in Granbury, Texas. Only a small amount was created, with all proceeds going to a fund for the victims. BGTT is a jet black linear holo, and very pigmented. In order to prevent staining (Leah Ann does warn of the staining potential on her website), I used 2 coats of basecoat, and I had zero staining. One tip: when removing highly-pigmented polish, be generous and use a clean piece of remover-soaked cotton on each nail, let sit for a few seconds, and wipe off with one good swipe. Then use a clean tiny piece of cotton to clean up any edges.

Here are two coats of BGTT over 2 coats of base coat, in the shade:

Look at that AMAZING black! And that SHINE!!

And in artificial light:

Now wait for the incredible holographic sparkle in sunlight:

Next up, a tie for my favourite of these three, Rare Bear, from the Cheetoman & the Gang collection, named after her band of crazy kittens. How cute is that?? Leah Ann says that Rare Bear has the most intense blue/grey eyes, which inspired this medium gray-blue holographic. A portion of the proceeds from sale of this polish will benefit the ASPCA.

Another easy application with incredible shine, I wore 2 coats over A England’s base coat for these pictures. Look at the gorgeous steel-blue visible in artificial light:

And in the sun, wow!

Finally, the third polish for today is Sparkles are a Girl’s Best Friend, a hot pink crelly holo base with purple flash and multi colored sparkle. This polish is a tribute to Leah Ann’s best friend Emily. And girly it is! hot pink, fun, summery!

Here it is full sun:

I just love that shade of pink!!

Unfortunately all my shade shots of Sparkles were slightly fuzzy, so I don’t have a picture for you, but trust me, it is so pretty!

Final verdict: I was really, really impressed. The holo on these was incredible. It was highly noticeable, even on the very first coat. The base that was used is high-shine, even pre-top coat, and the colours were perfect. For a first collection, these are must-haves!

All of these polishes are 3-free and cruelty free, and come in a 15 ml square bottles. The future bottles after the initial launch will have those amazing soft-touch caps that we’ve come to love!

And they LAUNCH TOMORROW over on Llarowe! Don’t forget to follow Llarowe on Facebook, Pinterest and on Instagram!

~xo

(Products were provided for consideration and review. All opinions are my own.)

A Princess Bride…

August 14, 2012

Beauty, Dollish Polish, Nailpolish, Obsessed

4 Comments

Today I have for you a polish I have been after for months! Dollish Polish’s Drop Your Sword!

I have tried and tried to purchase this baby but could never seem to catch it when the store was open, or it wasn’t offered in Dolly’s shop. My good friend and sometime-guest-blogger Mai had purchased this as one of her very early indies and was kind enough to share. Now that is a true friend… 😉

For some reason, I don’t seem to remember Drop Your Sword as being a pale blue, but that’s exactly what it is: a light baby blue with a gorgeous faint blue shimmer, with the occasional gold micro and hex glitter tossed in. It really is a pretty polish; more so in the bottle, unfortunately.
I wore two coats of Drop Your Sword over A England’s The Knight basecoat, followed by a coat of China Glaze’s Fast Forward Top Coat. The application was a little tricky… the polish was very quick to drag if I dared go over an area twice. So I tried to apply a thin coat and let it dry before the second coat, but I do wish it had been a little easier to use.

See the gorgeous blue flash?

And here is a macro shot. Please excuse the slightly drier hands and cuticles that day…yikes.

This polish isn’t glitter-heavy, which I kind of appreciated.

One last pic… I wish there had been sun that day! 😦

Dollish Polish can be purchased from Llarowe, Overall Beauty and her online shop (psst! She’s opening tomorrow afternoon with some select polishes!)

And follow her on Facebook for all the latest news and updates!

Pale, Paler, Palest…

May 13, 2012

China Glaze, Nailpolish, Obsessed, Whimsical Ideas by Pam

1 Comment

I recently raved about Hatched, a beautiful pale yellow glitter polish from Whimsical Ideas by Pam. I was so happy with that polish, especially since my search for a gorgeous pale yellow had been long (and mostly fruitless).

Today I have for you Kitty Glitter, another polish from Whimsical Ideas by Pam. This is a beautiful pale blue polish with medium-sized silver hex and tiny silver glitter.

There were no application issues with the glitter, but the base polish is rather sheer, not in a jelly way. I think next time I will definitely use it over a base colour for better coverage.

Here it is with a base coat, 2 coats of Kitty Glitter and a coat of China Glaze’s Fast Forward top coat – the fastest-drying, shiniest top coat.

Indoors – daylight

Direct sunlight

Direct sunlight alternate shot

You can see the beautiful Tiffany-blue base in these shots. I just wish this polish provided a touch more coverage. Hatched was opaque at 2 coats whereas I think Kitty Glitter needs a third coat or a base colour.
Having said this, my favourite shot of Kitty Glitter was this, where it reflects the beautiful blue sky and almost appears silver.

Kitty Glitter and Pam’s other polishes can be purchased from her Facebook page; however, sad news for my international and fellow Canadian readers: she recently changed her policies and now only ships to US addresses. I was so disappointed as I had another order planned.

So what do you guys think? Was this too sheer? Just right?

Juicy Fruits of Polish…

May 7, 2012

Aphrodite Lacquers, Beauty, Nailpolish, Obsessed

7 Comments

This is probably the fastest I have rushed to post an entry to my blog after receiving nail mail!

So this is how the evening started. I got home to hubby’s announcement of “nail mail!” (Even he has the lingo down.) Followed by, “…but I think one of them is broken…”

Umm… thank you, USPS / Canada Post?

This was Grapetini – one of the most candy-like, prettiest indie polishes I have seen, courtesy of Aphrodite Lacquers. Rest in peace, Grapetini : (

I was heartbroken. I had been waiting for these gorgeous jelly glitters since discovering Aphrodite two weeks earlier…

Thankfully there were two survivors!

Both of these polishes are just gorgeous, and I had a tough time deciding which one to go with. I finally decided Rum Runner was the way to go. (It was either rum or Rum Runner after the loss of Grapetini… )

Rum Runner is. simply. stunning.

It is the perfect berry jelly, with just enough glitter to look like a jelly sandwich. It has pink and holo glitter pieces with tiny silver specks blended in, and the polish has a lady-like, pretty quality to it. Not too much glitter for those who aren’t glitter fans.

I used a base coat and 3 coats of Rum Runner in these pics, with a coat of Gelous and top coat.

Is this not beautiful??

It looks like a juicy berry squished into a nail polish bottle with some stars grabbed from the skies and tossed in for effect. Just darling.

And to top the beauty of these polishes, Rebecca, Aphrodite Lacquers’ creator, is such a sweetheart, patiently answering all your questions and shipping super-quickly. If you haven’t discovered her collection, join her Facebook page here or run to her Etsy store and admire those gorgeous pictures! I promise, you will not be disappointed!

I think my next order will be the rest of the collection. (Oh and a Grapetini replacement!!)

Next up, I will try Aphrodite’s Ambrosia and share pics with you guys! ~xo~

And here’s a quick update with a daytime shot of this beauty:

—The Obsessed

The Obsessions and musings of a product junkie…

Archive

Tag Archives: Indie polish

Colors by Llarowe Spring/Summer 2017

Shimmer Polish Cleo

Shimmer Polish Bella

Colors by Llarowe – Tribute to Michael Jackson Part 3

KBShimmer – Fall 2013 Collection

Colors by Llarowe Part 3

Colors by Llarowe Part 1!

A Princess Bride…

Pale, Paler, Palest…

Juicy Fruits of Polish…

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