Horse Feathers by Sinister Benediction

WARNING: This post is extremely picture heavy! I don't know about you, but I get so excited discovering new indie polish makers! I'm (obviously!) a huge supported of the indie scene, and the creativity that each and every creator displays is just astounding. Today's polish was an insane discovery for me. You'll see why in just a tick.

Meet Horse Feathers by Sinister Benediction. The Etsy listing describes it as: "a high shimmer multichrome polish with a peacock teal base color that shifts to blue and violet. You can wear it alone, but it packs more of a punch layered over a dark base." All photos are taken in natural sunlight. 

Nail wheel swatches, L-R: three coats alone, two coats over Sinful Colors Black on Black, China Glaze Near Dark, Pure Ice Party Hard, Sinful Colors Inkwell and NYC Midtown Mink. Did you catch on yet? It's a MULTICHROME that DOESN'T NEED undies!! Granted, the color shift is much more apparent over dark colors, but it's still gorgeous on its own. 

Closeup of nail wheel. On the far left is three coats alone. The actual base color is rather brownish, with intense teal sparkle when worn alone. The next two nails are over black and Near Dark, a blackened green,

Over Party Hard, a dark navy, Inkwell, a blackened plum and Midtown Mink, a dark chocolate brown. I layered Horse Feathers over some of my darker colors to see if a not-quite-black base color would change the overall appearance of the polish, and for the most part, it didn't. Over Midtown Mink, the look is obviously brown, but the other colors all read mostly the same. At least, they were similar enough that I wouldn't rush out to buy a different base color if you have a black creme handy.

And now we get to the meat! These remaining photos show one coat of Horse Feathers over Sinful Colors Black on Black, topped with Out the Door. Photos are taken in natural sunlight. 

There is an awesome purple-ish color shift visible on the edges of the bottle that was a bit elusive in real life. It was occasionally visible on the edge of the nail, but I was not able to capture is on film :( The main colors I saw were royal blue, teal, and occasionally almost-emerald green.

You can almost see the purple on the tips!

Some of that almost-emerald on the lower edge of my middle finger. 

Aside from the fact that Horse Feathers can be worn alone- which is something I've never seen before, and I love-, I was very impressed with the polish. It applied without a hitch, smooth and perfect in one coat. The color shift from teal-blue-occasional green way gorgeous. I only with the violet came out to play a bit more. Perhaps next I'll try a full mani over Inkwell to see if that plum base will force the violet out a bit more. I do have two more Sinister Benediction multichromes this week, so be on the lookout!

Sinister Benediction polishes can be purchased on Etsy. In addition to the multichromes, there is a collection of color shifting glitter topcoats, and Metal Earth, a metallic collection inspired by the metals of Middle Earth, which I obviously need!

*This polish was provided to me for an honest review. 

Starlight, Starbright

Another Starlight and Sparkles today! These polishes are amazingly versatile, bringing amazing new life to your boring old dark cremes. Today is brought to you by Starlight, flagship/namesake polish of Starlight and Sparkles.

Starlight is a holographic topcoat, turning any color into a linear holo! Can't find that perfect hot pink holo? Now you can. Take your fave color, add a coat of this, and voila! My mani is Starlight over China Glaze Near Dark, a deliciously dark and swampy green. With the holo over the top, the green gets a bit lost, but . . . holo! 

Check out that gorgeous rainbow break <3

I have to admit, I am a holo convert. I want all of them. Every holo, ever made.

In the shade. Still trying to scatter a little bit, bless it's heart. 

The green of my undies is a bit more visible here, now that the holo isn't distracting everyone.

Like every Starlight and Sparkles polish that I have tried, this one applied amazingly, and was pretty much chip free at the end of the day. This polish is made with Spectraflair, and is 3-free and vegan. 

Starlight and Sparkles polishes can be purchased on Etsy. A full size bottle of Starlight runs $12. 

Dragon and the Goddess of Power

I made a mistake with this mani. I will admit that right up front. Among the polishes I received from Starlight and Sparkles were two color-shifting trios, with different particles sizes in each trio. I meant to use the two strong green polishes together, but I grabbed a wrong bottle :( Silly me. I do like the way it turned out, though. 

Dragon and Din, from Starlight and Sparkles. Dragon is part of a trio of color-shifting topcoats with a fine particle size, along with Unicorn and Phoenix. Din is part of a trio with a slightly larger particle size, along with Farore and Nayru. I had no idea what these were named after, so I had to Google it. Apparently Din, Farore and Nayru are the three Golden Goddesses of Hyrule in the Legend of Zelda series. I'm as geeky as all get out, but I never was much of a gamer :)

From the back. You can see how I grabbed the wrong bottle, right? I meant to use Dragon and Farore. Issa from Starlight and Sparkles describe the color shift of Dragon as "bronze gold to green, and flashes orange and teal at the extremes of it's color range." Likewise, Din (the Goddess of Power!) "shifts through red, orange, gold and green."

I did an every-other-finger mani over black with these, because I really wanted to see the difference in the particle sizes. It's pretty obvious over the black polish. This is one coat of each polish, over black, topped with Out the Door. Photos are all in bright sunlight.

Index and ring finger: Din, middle and pinky: Dragon. Green and copper showing up strongly.

I love the bronzey color of dragon at this angle . . .

. . . and the more olive tone it shows here. 

Just like Unicorn, both of these polishes delivered on the duochrome. In basic indoor light, Dragon showed mostly green, and Din showed mostly a dark gold. Both applied great, and wore like a charm. Very minimal chipping. 

When I mention chipping, this is why. I'm not going to name the above polish, because I don't want it to be blamed for the horrible photo. I'm pretty rough on my hands, and I spend most of my work day digging into things with my nails, and this is what my nail look like at the end of the day a good 50% of the time. So when I say that a polish wears well and doesn't chip, listen to me! 

Starlight and Sparkles can be purchased on Etsy. Both of these trios can be purchased as minis for $9.50, or in full size for $22.50. 

*These polishes were provided to me for an honest review.

"What use is Wizardy if it cannot save a Unicorn?"

The movie version of The Last Unicorn was my absolute favorite film as a child. When it was finally released on DVD several years ago, I think I literally squealed aloud in the store. Of course I bought it, and watched it immediately! Wow. It really is NOT a children's movie. Creepy as hell! Still excellent of course. And no, I have not changed my reviews from polish to film, but that movie is always the first thing I think of when unicorns are mentioned. And today, I have Unicorn, by Starlight Polish. See, it all ties together!

Issa from Starlight and Sparkles says it is a  "colorshifting duochrome topcoat, meant for layering over other polishes." Also: "Unicorn shifts from cool green to blue, and flashes turquoise to vivid indigo at the extremes of it's color range."  This is one coat of Unicorn, alone, on a nail wheel. Obviously, it's a layering polish :) But I wanted to show off the actual "sparkles" of the polish, which tend to get a bit lost over a dark color.

Because I'm boring (and I don't own any navy cremes) I layered this over a basic black. One coat black, one coat Unicorn, one coat Out the Door. Gotta love a mani with only 3 layers! All photos taken outdoors, on a bright and sunny day.

Direct sun. Royal blue was by far the most predominant color in the sunlight.

Mostly shade. Some of the emerald is peeking out at the top of my ring finger!

Mostly green, again in shade.

Here we see a bit more color shift between the blue and green. The green showed off the most indoors (especially under the fluorescent lights at work), with the royal/indigo showing more outdoors. There was a gorgeous teal flash as well, but my camera didn't seem to see it :(

This polish is, in a word, spectacular! I caught myself surreptitiously peeking at my hands every now and then to see the play of light on the colors. A coworker even marched over from 20 feet away to admire this color, because she saw the color shift from that far away! I get compliments on my nails from time to time, and I make sure to file them away to share! 

This went on super easily- I had more trouble with the black. One thin coat of Unicorn was enough to bring out all the colors this polish had to offer. I even wore it for three days with only minimal (for me!) chipping on my right hand. I'm pretty rough on my hands at work, so any polish that I can get more than a days wear out of gets an A+ in my book. 

Starlight and Sparkles can be purchased on Etsy. A full size bottle of Unicorn can be had for $8, or a mini for $3.50. There is also a mini set featuring Unicorn along with Dragon and Phoenix (both of which I have, and will review shortly) for $9.50. 

*These polishes were provided to me for an honest review.