Indie Crush Manis

Hi everyone! Today I have two manis from earlier this month that I never posted. They both feature "bigger" indie polishes that I had on my must-have list for awhile, and was lucky enough to find through a blog sale! As a burgeoning nail blogger, I tend towards the smaller and lesser known indies in hopes of us growing together, but I can't deny that I am often drawn towards the more established brands, if only to find out if they live up to the hype. 

Take away message: they do!

Moon Child by Lumina Lacquer

This is the second glitter bomb by this indie trailblazer I have gleefully added to my collection. In addition to pink and silver microglitters, this amazingly complex polish contains a dreamy mix of large hex, star, diamond, moon, flower, heart, butterfly, and dot (!!!) glitters in pink, white, purple, and holooooo. This photo shows two dabbed coats over a Color Club mint polish, with some placement for the sake of evenness and variety. Since so many of the components of this polish are relatively large, I noticed some curling of the glitters that were placed on rounded areas of my nail (you can see it most notably on my thumb). I don't believe this to be a flaw in the polish, I would just recommend that anyone working with this or a similar polish finish it off with a generous coat or two of top coat.

The Worst is Over by Happy Hands Nail Polish

I love the cute, homemade looking labels of this polish line, and have admired several collections from afar (most notably, the Arrested Development inspired line....I'm such a sucker for any polish-pop culture crossovers!) This polish is a lovely lavender crelly with micro and small hex glitters in several shades of blue and orange. Application with this one was perfectly even, the brush grabbing a variety of glitters in each stroke. The mani shown here is three thin coats of The Worst is Over with an accent nail of OPI Liquid Sand - Tiffany Case. 

Hope you enjoy! Are there any "big indies" that you've been dying to try?

Circular Reasoning

Happy Columbus Day my polished friends! Especially after reading this infographic by the Oatmeal, I don't really understand why this holiday is observed, and I don't even get a day off for it. Lame.

Anyhoo, today I have some shots of the other polish I ordered from the Juicebox Lacquer's "Alive" collection, Circular Reasoning. Based on my aforementioned love for circle glitters, I'm sure this doesn't surprise anyone.

Circular Reasoning is a glitter bomb in a clear base featuring a rainbow of circle and hex matte glitters in a variety of sizes. Here I have two dabbed coats over a no-name teal polish by Color Club, topped with Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure top coat.

I love how whimsical and fun this polish is, and I imagine it would complement a variety of colors. I will say it took me a few coats to get used to the formula and to "grab" a good amount of glitter for each stroke. I don't necessarily think this qualifies as having to fish for glitters, and I think the process was more labor-intensive (ha!) since I was working with a mini bottle. As with many glitter-laden polishes, you just have to figure out the best way to work with the formula. I achieved the best results with this particular polish by giving it a good shake in between coats/fingers, and swiping the brush in a circular motion in the bottle.

If you follow The Juicebox Lacquer on Instagram, then you should have seen that she'll be coming out with a new line of glitter bombs sometime this fall/winter. I would recommend this polish and will likely be picking up a few more. She creates some really unique and interesting glitter combos!

Paint Job Nail Lacquer Swatches & Art

Today I have some polishes to share with you that I recently picked up from Paint Job Nail Lacquer. When I first began my trip down the rabbit hole of polish addiction, Paint Job was one of the first indies I found on Instagram. Their polishes were unique, cleverly named, (they entire line follows a car theme) and had a ton of variety and options. I don't know why it took me so long to add some Paint Job polishes to my collection, but I must say they were certainly worth the wait!

Junk in the Trunk

A neon pink jelly packed with multicolored square and hex glitters, show here with three thin coats with no top coat.

When I first received this polish, I instinctively tried it (on one finger) over a white base, which I usually love, especially for neons, but it really didn't work with this particular shade of pink. Pairing with white, in my opinion, hid some of the complexity of the glitters (there really are SO many in here!) and just made the whole look kind of juvenile. I think it would be adorable over white on someone younger, but for me, I'll stick with the squishy, jelly look for this one. 

The amount of pigment in the jelly base made this polish easily buildable, and with the amount of glitter, you could definitely get way with one even coat for a more subtle, sheer look.

Overdrive

A bright royal blue jelly with blue and iridescent glitters in varying sizes. Shown with two coats over Sally Hansen - Blue Me Over on every nail except the index, which is three coats on its own. My camera really dropped the ball on capturing this one; you can see the complexity of the polish much better in the bottle here, but in real life it transfers to the nail beautifully. As with Junk in the Trunk, I was surprised to find that I preferred this one without undies as well, though the blue base really does make the color pop!

Camber

A deep charcoal crelly packed with silver and holo microglitters. It might actually be more of a jelly, but it's so pigmented that I achieved full coverage in two easy coats without a base. This one is definitely my favorite--a perfect fall shade, but it's a lot more interesting to look at than basic black. 

Being a neutral, but still complex, Camber is perfect for incorporating into nail art without being too flashy or over the top.

Here, I added some gold studs and accents of Lacquerlicious - Glittery Glam. The multicolored shards in Glittery Glam were the perfect complement to the rainbow of holo the Camber reveals in the sun.

This one is a somewhat abstract interpretation of turquoise, inspired by these lovely studs from the Born Pretty Store. I applied the studs using Seche Vite over a base of Milani - Almond Bliss, and did triangle accents of using Camber over OPI - Fly. One of my instabuddies was clever enough to coin the phrase "macroise" to describe this (like macro turquoise? get it?!) but I also like meta-quoise, (as in meta-turquoise) because there's actual turquoise, and also the abstract version, and....I'm a nerd. Hope you like it :)

All of these polishes are currently available from Paint Job Nail Lacquer, and you can follow them Instagram for promotions and new releases!

Beauty Queen

First of all, a huge congratulations to IG@ale1mtz for winning my blog launch giveaway! Thank you to everyone who entered and celebrated the start of my blog. 

Tonight I have a dynamo of an indie polish to share with you. I saw some early swatches of this polish a few weeks ago and was immediately enamored. I couldn't resist picking it up on presale, and had to swatch it immediately upon arrival! This is Beauty Queen by The Juice Box Lacquer, a black jelly polish with a mix of magenta, gold, and holo glitters.

This is two thin coats topped with Seche Vite. The jelly achieved full opacity very easily, and there was no fishing for glitters. I did dig out a few extra of those big holo circles, because how couldn't I. Real talk: I am quickly developing a circle glitter addiction, and this beauty certainly has not deterred my thirst!

Bottle shot -- this polish is truly unique. The shapes and colors of glitters really stand out in the black base, and there's a perfect ratio of glitter to base in each stroke. As I do with all polishes like this, I sat the bottle upside down for about 5 minutes and gave it a good shake before application.

Another angle to highlight the complexity of this gorgeous polish.

This polish is from the "Alive" collection by The Juice Box Lacquer, and is currently available, along with many others. You can see all this lovely label has to offer by visiting their website or following on Instagram.