Love Thy Polish - Speckled n' Freckled

Are you a jelly lover? I wasn't. Then I realized, that if you abhor VNL and love two-coaters like I do, you can have a lot of fun with jellies if you use them for layering:) So, this post is about jellies that are great for that purpose, and you jelly lovers, I know there are a lot of you out there, you can just use them the good old-fashioned way!

So, let me introduce, without much further ado, three new jellies from the Speckled n' Freckled collection that was released by Love Thy Polish this very weekend. And! They are not plain jellies, oh no! They have black glitters in two different sizes in them:) Formula and brushes were perfect. I used the small bottles, but have larger bottles from before and the brush is great in both!

First - Vermillion Dollar Baby - my favourite!

As you can see, it looks a lot duskier in the bottle than it will on the nail, even if you use on its own (check out these pictures, and faint dead away when you see Christina's nails!!) Me? I layered it over OPI Die Another Day.

And - Fauxreal Fuschia!! (Over a dusky purple Sally Hansen. I used a polish that was a few shades lighter to make it pop a bit - I wanted to see those speckles and freckles:)

Last but not least - Smoke and Dust - which was the only one that I used on its own:) Four coats, next time I will layer two coats over white. This is a nice, soft, grey:)

These polishes were sent to me for review:)

Love Thy Polish - Synthesize

One of my most pleasurable holo experiences ever, was had with Green Eyed Monster from Love Thy Polish. And now - I've had another one! Emma, the owner of Love Thy Polish, is a true holo artist, and when she looked for swatchers through Instagram for her new core holos, I jumped at the chance and offered my services. With a scant 224 followers on IG though (@bookpolish), I never thought she'd pick me - BUT SHE DID (I'm doing a little dance here:))

So without much further ado - I present to you: SYNTHESIZE! A unique, deep periwinkle purple with a magnificent linear holo. Perfect formula and brush!

Should you find yourself suddenly hankering for this polish, I have good news: it was released this very weekend and you can head right on over to Love Thy Polish and get one. If you're too late, you will probably be able to find it on Norway Nails, who also carries this brand:)

Flormar - WL08

This gorgeous green was a gift to me from the wonderful Aylin at Posh Nail Art. She was my Secret Santa in the Christmas swap in our equally wonderful Facebook gift exchange group, Lacquered with Love, and she completely spoiled me.

This is part of Flormar's Wet Look series with super shiny crellies. I did use Poshé on this for drying purposes, but it was equally shiny without it! The brush in these bottles is flat and nice to work with. The formula was stellar - I was good in two easy coats, but added a third one because... well, because I'm neurotic about vnl?

Accent nail is Pahlish Toxic and Timeless!

La Bella Vernice - London

I tried my second polish from La Bella Vernice - London! When I saw it in pictures, I got the idea that it would be a bit ruddy and have a burnt quality to the color, but it turned out to be pink! I'm not usually a lover of pink but this was so crispy fresh that even I loved it. Had I been a pink-lover, I'm assuming I would have been hospitalized for adoreitis (plese laugh just a little?) Scattered holo I think it's called anyway, with all those beautiful holographic microglitters dancing around in the sun. Three very easy coats with an obediant, your-wish-is-my-command-kind-of-formula.

Head over to bellavernice.com to check out the goodies!

La Bella Vernice - Ariel

I belong to a fabulous gift ("gift" means nail polish) swap group - Lacquered for Love - on Facebook, and when it turned out that one of our members was an incredibly talented indie polish creator in the making, I jumped on the chance to try a few of her polishes out and show it around. I specifically asked for Ariel, which I had seen swatched, and I was not disappointed!

For those (a handful) of you who have read my blog before, you know that I'm not too sure about the terminology, although I am improving. So either this is a course shimmer or a fine glitter in some kind of dark jelly base. And! It has a very clear and obvious shift from turquoise to blue/purple. It can be worn on its own or layered. I chose the latter and used one careful coat of OPI Ski Teal You Drop and one coat of Ariel on top, which was more than enough for a stunning effect! It glided (glid?) on, smooth as can be and I topped it of with Poshé. Also, it was super easy to remove, even with my sensitive, environmentally friendly remover (Green Depend).

This is a very versatile lacquer and I recommend it to all:) Go check Ariel and her friends out at La Bella Vernice!

Nail Art - gradient

This week I paired up Orly's Mayhem Mentality with Zoya's Amy for a punchy-looking gradient. I had a mani to scare little children and blind the elderly! It was a bit of a hazzle though since I first tried to layer Model's Own Red Sea over MM and even Nfu Oh's 5?. That wasn't quite the success I had hoped for and I had to remove the polish on two nails, and to save time I started handling duct tape for the other soon-to-be-sponged nails, and well... Duct tape and wet nail polish isn't really a match made in heaven, is it?

Since my own pictures turned out to be so fabulously crappy color-wise, I'm relying on a belief that you guys really actually know what Mayhem Mentality looks like in real life (i.e. nothing like my pics) and for those of you who don't, I have borrowed an image from someone who is better than me at photographing neons - my second cousin Linda of Nailorama!

This is my entry for Nail Art Sunday at LeLack's

The novel I'm showing is Anne Rice' Witching Hour - she was way ahead of the game in the 80s and 90s when she wrote about the supernatural, vampires, witches, and various creatures of the unknown. Weird, wild stuff:)

My botched attempt at layering - The Model's Own gave whopping wonderful  jelly sheen, but was impossible to apply:( Clumpy and gummy.

The best image I could find of Mayhem Mentality (courtesy of Lindas Nailorama)

Make Up Store - Charmaine

I used to say I didn't like holos. Then Charmaine caught my eye at Make Up Store; I applied a bit to one of my nails and suddenly couldn't walk straight on my home. And Charmaine isn't really considered a "real" holo. It's not in MUS holo range for instance. To me, it will always be a holo. My first holo love (it's also a one-coater and doesn't need aqua-fix).