Polish Pickup August - At The Carnival - Indie Swatches

Hey guys! This month I have 2 polishes to show you for the August 2019 At The Carnival theme for Polish Pickup. I have Great Lakes Lacquer - Creatures of the Night, Brought to Light! and from my own brand Moonflower Polish - It's Not About the Parakeet!

Great Lakes Lacquer - Creatures of the Night Brought to Light!

Swatches are all 3 coats with no topcoat. This polish is inspired by Mommy Fortuna's Midnight Carnival from The Last Unicorn. Described as a midnight violet corrupted by a strong red to orange to bronze multichrome sheen. I will add that this has a sheer jelly base with a smooth application that dries to a shiny finish. Price is $12.50 and there is no cap. Lots of pics below.

Here's the application and video review:

Great Lakes Lacquer Social Media and Shop Links:
Facebook Fan Group: Great Lakes Lacquer Lovers
Instagram: @greatlakeslacquer
Facebook Page: @greatlakeslacquer
Shop: Great Lakes Lacquer


Moonflower Polish - It's Not About the Parakeet!

Swatches are 1 coat on the index and pinky, and stamped over black and white using the Pueen clear stamper from Walmart and Lina Nail Art Supplies License to be Sexy 02 plate. Finished with my own unreleased shiny topcoat. This polish is inspired by Sunset Shimmer from the My Little Pony: Equestria Girls series, specifically the episode where she and Twilight are trying to beat a ring toss game. The color is a bright shimmery orange with hints of red to green aurora pigment and iridescent green microflakes. You need to use it for black to get that flash of green to show up. Swatches and video below. Price is $12.50, cap is 75 (US) 5 (UK).

 Application and stamping video featuring my daughter and me here:

Moonflower Polish Social Media and Shop Links:
Facebook Fan Group: Painted Moonflowers
Instagram: @moonflowerpolish
Facebook Page: @moonflowerpolish
Shop: Moonflower Polish

 Both of these polishes will only be available at www.polishpickup.com August 2-5.

*I received the Great Lakes Lacquer as a press sample, in exchange for photography and a review. The Moonflower Polish is handmade by me.*

The Island Collection - Soothing Soul Nail Lacquer - Swatch and Review

*Press Samples*

Hey everyone! Long time no see. How's your summer going? Mine's been super busy, which is why I haven't had any posts in a while. I've painted my nails, I just haven't even photographed them, not even for IG! Le gasp. 😲 Today's review is for the new Island Collection from Soothing Soul Nail Lacquers. On to the swatches!

Actually, these all had a similar but great formula, so to save time (me writing and you reading), let's talk quickly about that first. All 5 colors in this collection will make you think of a nice beach vacation (which surprisingly for someone from the Caribbean who lives in Florida, I haven't had this summer...). They all have some nice strong shimmer effects, opaque in 2-3 coats (I'll specify for each color before the swatches), dried pretty shiny and quickly. What I love about the formula for these is that it self levels nicely and stays right where you put it, not runny or thick, just perfectly smooth and easy to apply. Ok now on to the swatches.

Lily Pad - shimmery jade green, slightly blue leaning. Swatches show 2 coats with topcoat.

Blue Lagoon - bright shimmery medium blue with the slightest hint of a darker indigo shade when it catches the light in certain angles. Swatch shows 3 coats with topcoat. This one is sheerer than the other 4 colors.

Island Breeze - blue periwinkle or grayish blue shade with hints of a pink-purplish shimmer. Swatch shows 3 coats with topcoat. You can get away with 2 thicker coats too.

Aurora - bright pink shimmer. Swatch shows 2 coats with topcoat.

Toes In The Sand - rose gold shimmer. Swatch shows 2 coats with topcoat.

The Island Collection will be available July 19 for $10 a bottle or $45 for the whole set.

Soothing Soul Nail Lacquers Links:
Shop: http://www.tssnails.com
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thesoothingsoul
Facebook Fan Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/tssnails/

Swatch Video on YouTube!

I received these polishes as press samples in exchange for photography and an honest review.

Chirality - Antonio Bay - June Polish Pickup - Indie Swatches

For June 2019's Weather Phenomena theme I also received Chirality's Antonio Bay as a press sample to swatch and review. Inspired by the 1980's John Carpenter film The Fog. Amanda of Chirality sent me this as her description "Beware as the fog begins to roll into the small town of Antonio Bay. It has a metallic base color with blue/green/pink and gold/pink shifting pigments, along with copper flashes. Depending on the light and angle, it will appear mocha, mauve, silver, bronze, soft pink, or many other variations due to the shifty shimmer. Opaque in 2 thick or 3 thin coats. For best results, start with a good base coat and finish with a shiny top coat."

My swatches show 2 coats with a shiny topcoat. This polish is very unique, depending on the light you'll see hints of a mauve cocoa chrome look with flashes of pink and blue. I tried my best to capture the hints of the metallic base along with the pink flashes. If you look closely at the macro you can also the bits of blue. It's even prettier in person and in the sunlight.

You can see the pinky mauve color stand out in the bottle shot as well. Antonio Bay will be $10 for a 15ml bottle at http://www.polishpickup.com from June 7-10.

Chirality Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chiralitypolish/
Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/chiralitynailpolish/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/chiralitypolish

Facebook fan group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Chiralitypolishcollectors/

Shop: www.chiralitypolish.com

Sassy Cats Lacquer Ocean Wildfires - June Polish Pickup

Sassy Cats Lacquer Ocean Wildfires for June's Polish Pickup is a turquoise jelly polish with red-gold-green aurora shimmer and copper shimmer. It also has ultrachrome chameleon flakies that shift copper-green-gold and iridescent flakies that shift red-green-gold and blue crystal flakes. June 2019's theme is Weather Phenomena, Mohrayma of Sassy Cats was inspired by a viral photo of the recent California wildifres over Malibu. Ocean Wildfires is intentionally made to be sheer in 2 coats, to really let all those shimmers and flakies pop. You can layer it up to 3 coats for a deeper teal shade, or use as a topper in 1 coat. I have lots of swatches below!

Here's what it looks like in 3 coats:

Here's what it looks liked used as a topper over a cobalt blue creme polish:

Video Swatch:

Ocean Wildfires will be available June 7-10 for $12 at http://www.polishpickup.com.

Sassy Cats Lacquer Links:

Shop: https://sassycatslacquer.myshopify.com/
FB page: https://facebook.com/SassyCatsLacquer/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/sassycatslacquer
Fan Group: https://facebook.com/groups/sassycatslacquer/

*I received this polish as a press sample to swatch and review.

Game of Thrones Nail Art - House Stark

I'm ready for tonight's finale. It's probably going to be disappointing, but my nails are done. I've been a fan of the Song of Ice and Fire books for years, so this has been a long time coming. I'm not gonna ramble about it here though.

Ok so I did these in a hurry cause I was about to leave for a Scouts event with my family and I wouldn't have time the rest of the day to get them done. It's not the best and I haven't done nail art besides stamping in a while, so I'm a bit out of practice. I used China Glaze OMG for the silver holo, the new version that came out in 2018, Galactic Gray for the dark gray holo, and OMG a UFO for the green holo. I only did a silver to gray gradient in most of my nails and a silver-green-gray in my accent nail. In retrospect, it would have looked better to do the same to all my nails or a silver to green, since those are the House Stark colors. Oh well. I had seen a few silver to dark gray gradients for House Stark manis and since I was pressed for time, I did the same. For the direwolf, I used a water slide decal from Fangirl Polish, she has a bunch of fandom themed decals, go check her out.

Let me know your thoughts about the series finale below! Did you do any nail art for it?

5th Blogiversary Giveaway

 OMG! This blog is 5 years old now. It's not a baby anymore. To celebrate I'm hosting a giveaway! There's a bunch of prizes valued at over $100! 😱 I've asked a few of my maker friends, brands I've worked with in the past, and even new to me brands to help out and I couldn't be more pleased. Here's the list:

• Moonflower Polish - 1 mini stamping set of your choice (up to a $36 value depending on set)
• Alter Ego Body Care - $10 voucher for her shop
• Zombie Claw Polish - $15 voucher for her shop
• Beautometry - 1 set of water slide decals
• Color4Nails - $35 voucher for her shop
• Green Goddess Creation - 4 sets of water slide decals
• Chaotic Glitz Polish - various polishes
• PolishPak - 1 PolishPak (nifty little travel bag for your polishes, keeps them safe)
• Poetry Cowgirl Polish - $30 voucher to her shop
• Nail Hoot Indie Lacquer - $15 voucher to her shop
• Sassy Cats Lacquer - 1 scented top coat
• Lantern and Wren - 3 full size stamping plates ($45 value)
• Fangirl Polish - 3 sets of Star Wars themed water slide decals (because they are super cute and it's my favorite fandom).

So, the rules:
1 winner to be chosen randomly via Rafflecopter. My close personal friends and family, plus the makers who donated are prohibited from participating. Winner must be a member of the online nail polish community, no giveaway/fake accounts. I will verify, if I doubt the authenticity of the winner I will select another one. Must be 18 years or older and US resident. The only required entry is your email, so that I can contact you if you win. Other entries are optional but very much appreciated as all the sponsors are small indie brands. (Let's support small women owned businesses!). No purchases necessary to win, and being a customer of any of the sponsors does not increase your chances of winning. Giveaway will run from May 7 to May 14.  I will contact the winner and give them 48 hours to reply. After that time period they forfeit their prizes and I will select a new winner. If for some reason the winner is not interested in one of the prizes, I will select a new winner specifically for that prize. Giveaway rules can be modified as I see fit.

Ok, I think that's everything! Use the Rafflecopter widget below to sign up! Thank you so much for those of you that have stuck around for the past 5 years!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Supermoon Lacquer - Beta #110 - Indie Polish Swatch

I've got a massive amount of Supermoon Lacquer polishes that I've rarely ever posted about. I think I swatched 2 of them years ago. This is Beta #110. Occasionally, Mardi will have random mystery style prototypes for sales, otherwise known as Beta Batches. You don't know what you're gonna get but it'll always be super pretty. I grabbed a bunch last time she had a sale. Anyway, this one here is a more reddish purple/violet creme base with what look to me like aurora shimmers. They shift from blue to purple and hints of a golden-pink. And there's just a bit of very fine scattered holo in it too.

Swatch is 2 coats with top coat. Formula is a bit on the thicker side, but it's also super opaque and I'm sure you could probably stamp with it. You could probably get away with 1 thicker coat if you wanted to also. Photos looks weird, they photographed super dark so I had to edit them a lot in Photoshop. Polish color is now accurate, even though my skin looks odd. I have a fancy new DSLR and I'm still learning how to use it for nail photography.

That's it! If you like this polish, make sure you head on over to the The Howling Boutique's Wolfpack group on Facebook so you can be in the know for the next time there's new Beta Batches and other releases. Thanks for reading!