NEW 31DC: Purple

Ahh, purple. Another nice, girly color that I love to play with :)

Today I started with a base of Sinful Colors Amethyst, then went over it with two coats of Lacey Lou's Stockpile (now called Penguin Polish) Delightful Mermaid. I stamped using Sinful Colors Inkwell and RA plate SE-12. I'm loving these new Red Angel plates of mine, can you tell? This was also my first go at stamping over glitter, and I'm a bit on the fence about it. Perhaps the glitter was too large and the argyle pattern too small, but it feels a bit busy overall.

Check out the rest of the purple manis in the links below!

This is Halloween: Recreate Your Favorite

Today is the recreation of your favorite mani! I interpreted it as: your favorite from another blogger, during this challenge. And I have to tell you, there were some AH- Mazing manicures during this challenge! I though this was going to be the hardest choice ever! Until I saw this beauty. The second I saw it, I knew my search was over. Nothing else could compare! 

Of course, Polish Rainbow's Witches of Oz mani turned out way better than mine, but how could I pass this one up! I started with Maybelline Color Show Porcelain Party, then used some striping tape and Sinful Colors Black on Black for the tights. I wish I could figure out how to get my stripes evenly spaced! I used some French Tip guides and Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby, topped with Wet N Wild Hallucination, for the "shoes". My accent finger is a base of Lacey Lou's Stockpile's Sugared Cherries, with the wand dotted on in Sinful Colors Heavy Metal.

So there you have it! My homage to my absolute favorite mani seen in this challenge! 

Be sure to check out all the other recreations below!

Cheers,

-Liz-

An Appropriate Pairing: Delightful Mermaid by Lacey Lou's Stockpile

I love purples, and I don't tend to wear a lot of them, because if they become too blue-toned, I feel like my skin gets washed out. Rationalization aside, I LOVE purple.  

Meet Delightful Mermaid, but Lacey Lou's Stockpile. It is a sheer purple jelly base with such a huge array of glitters that my camera was freaking out a bit. I barely got any decent pictures of this lovely polish :( I used two coats of Delightful Mermaid in this mani, over A England's Lady of the Lake. Hence the appropriate pairing :) To be sure, mermaids are more commonly found in the sea, but I allowed myself a bit of artistic license.

This polish was a bit thick, but went on very easily. In the bottle you can see the array of shatter glitter that this polish is full of: it reminds me of all the beautiful flotsam and jetsam floating in the sea, collected by a mermaid with a hoarding disorder.

Lacey says that this polish was inspired by a solid perfume that she got from Unbound Eden Cosmetics on Etsy, also called Delightful Mermaid. (Unbound Eden has since moved to Storenvy.com)

This is the truest-to-color picture I captured (we all know how cameras hate purple). It is more violet than blue. And again with the lovely flakes of colored glitter! There are traditional hexes in here as well, but I think the irregular shapes are really what makes this polish, and what makes it fit its name! 

I'd like to layer this over a lighter polish next, to see the purple really stand on its own two . . . on its own merit!

Lacey Lou's Polishes can be purchased on Etsy. Full sized bottles run $9, and minis are $4.75. Be sure to Like on Facebook, and check out my reviews of Summer Nights and Sugared Cherries as well! I cannot say enough good things about this brand- have you tried it out yet? Which colors are you crushing on?

Cheers, dears!

-Liz-

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

Those Summer . . . Niiights

When I receive polishes from various indie brand to review, I try to let them pick the colors they send. This way, I can be sure that I get the polishes that they feel are truly their best work. If not that, then brand new, fancy colors. In my package from Lacey Lou's Stockpile, I got my first ever polish that I really wouldn't have picked myself. My loss.

Meet Summer Nights.

As before, Lacey does not give a detailed description of this polish in her Etsy listing, but says that it is full of hearts, stars and actual beach sand from California.

I think the sand idea is really neat, though it may have scared me a bit if I read that as a buyer! But don't worry- the sand is super fine, and did not effect the application of this polish at all. It does contain silver hearts and stars, as well as micro aqua and silver glitter, plus a super fine rainbow-y kind of glitter. I'm not a big fan of blue, but then I realized this was a topper, not colored. So what else would I put something called "Summer Nights" over than the ultimate night color: black.

Wow. Holy galaxy nails! I feel kind of bad now for being all "Meh" about it at first. 

Photos taken in indoor light, no flash. Creme black, two coats of Summer Nights, one coat SV.

Close up: behold the majesty of the universe! I think this would look amazing over a pearl black as well.

Application was problem free, very little fishing for any of the shapes. But some of the stars were very thin, and ripped as I was trying to paint them on. You can see a "good" star on my top finger two photos up, and a "bad" star in this photo. The bad stars ended up looking like shatter glitter. Still neat. If I had placed the stars rather than trying to paint them on normally, I doubt I would have had this problem. I used two thick coats of Seche Vite to make sure the shapes stayed in place. 

I was very surprised at how much I ended up liking this polish. I wore it for two days, and I'm an every night kind of polisher. I have an old bottle of Rimmel Deliciously Dark (an amazing almost-black purple creme) that I want to try this over next- I'll be sure to post an update when I do! If you're a blue lover, a dark navy would look amazing as well. In the Etsy listing, it appears to be layered over white, which I really don't think does it justice!

Lacey Lou's Stockpile can be purchased on Etsy, and liked on Facebook. 

Do you have any Lacey Lou's? Which ones reeled you in?

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

Peachy Cherries

It's High Summertime, shouldn't I be rocking neons on a daily basis? For some reason this summer I've been strongly leaning toward neutral-y colors: greys, tans and nudes. Of course, I'm always down for glitter :)

Today I have a lovely almost-neutral for you, Sugared Cherries by Lacey Lou's Stockpile.

(Ignore my nails- I promise I'll review that one later, and I promise you actually see the subject of this post on them shortly! I accidentally deleted my bottle shots from the day I was wearing it.)

I love handwritten labels on indie polish. Makes it feel, well, handmade :)

Lacey doesn't describe this color in her Etsy listing, but says that it's cherry season in her area, so she took lots of inspiration from them! I'd call this a lightish coral-y peach/pink packed with gold shimmer, smallish silver hexes, and some hexes that I couldn't quite decide what color to call them. Gold, maybe? Pinkish? The pinkish base color is a jelly, so it may be throwing my color receptors off. I'm also not sure if there is supposed to be red glitter in this or not: I can't see any in my bottle, but I did end up with two or three on my nails. Total, out of all ten. Hmm.

The hexes all look obviously silver here. 

Full sunlight. You can see a lone red glitter on my index finger. Three coats over bare nail, topped with SV.

Full sun again. See the gorgeous gold shimmer?

Shade. Don't let me semi-complaining about glitter colors throw you off- I adore this color, and I'm sure it will get pretty heavy play through the rest of the summer (if I ever make it through my untried pile!) and it'll be one of the first I pull out next spring when I need light, happy colors! It applied well, not thick at all, and the glitters were very forthcoming. It did dry slightly matte, and slightly gritty, but a thick coat-and-a-half of Seche Vite made it nice and glassy smooth.

All Lacey Lou's Stockpile polishes are 3 free, and are priced according to production time and supplies. Full size bottle range from $8 to $12. Find them on Etsy, and like the brand on Facebook! 

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