Another quickie, this time with Arcane Lacquer

Hi everyjuan (thank you ediotz for that- every time I pronounce "everyone" in my mind it's like that now).
Anyway, that's a totally obscure reference to e-drama that I'm guessing 99.99% of you will find completely meaningless, so onto something we all know and love, nail polish :)
Today is just a very quick post featuring a couple of new Arcane Lacquer releases, Strutter and Lividity Setting In. Both are fabulous on their own, as usual (Bec makes fantastic polishes) but they also look great together in a subtle, vampy gradient.

I only have a few, sub par swatches of Lividity Setting In, but here's a couple to give you an idea of how lush these colours are;

Lividity setting In

Lividity setting In is a deep, deep eggplant purple with a gorgeous gold shimmer effect that I totally failed to capture in these pics- I will take some better ones over the next few days and you can see just how lovely it is.

Strutter

Strutter is a stunning deep burgandy with a subtle gold shimmer running through it and it is one of my current favourite polishes, full stop. It is so rich and lush and yummy.

And here they are together, such a fantastic match;

And there you have it, a very simple but very effective gradient using two gorgeous polishes from the wonderful Arcane Lacquer.
Arcane Lacquer is (are?) also releasing a Halloween duo that looks amazing- the always lovely Christine over at Serenity Nails has a review of them up now and her swatches are fantabulous, so go check them out...they've been added to my "must have" list (even though I'm technically on a "no buy" boohoo).

Welp, I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend... it's school holidays here so I'm just going to be chilling with the kid for the next couple of weeks.
In other news, I have emailed the vet clinic where I had my job interview, just to touch base and keep my name fresh in their minds and I really, really hope I get the position as I need to be working at a vet clinic for 15 hours a week if I want to get in to that veterinary nursing course next year *fingers crossed*. I will definitely post about that when I find out, either way.

Oh, and I also have some very exciting news regarding a lovely Aussie indie polish that I'll be revealing soon, so keep an eye out for that one.

Until next time, ~love and polish for all~
Em xox

Here's some Pretty Serious polish for your viewing pleasure

Hi guys, how are you today? The sun is out where I am and it's so lovely after such a cold, wet winter. Of course, I know that we still have plenty of cold and rainy days ahead, but the tree in our front yard is covered with blossom, flowers are starting to poke their heads up, the birds are singing and you can just feel that winter is at an end. Hooray!

Anyway, I just bought a couple of polishes from Pretty Serious Cosmetics the other day as they were having a sale and just had to take a bunch of pics too, so here's some of them, from me to you, with love.

The beauty on show today is Haddonfield, named after the Halloween movies and part of Pretty Serious's "Killer Fangirls" trio which also includes "Crystal Lake" inspired by Friday the 13th and Elm Street inspired by, obviously, A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Haddonfield is a fabulous orange jelly filled with gold shimmer, orange microglitter, larger holographic hexes and random shaped black shards...it's the most divine colour- a deep, rich orange that reminds me of ripe tangelos.
I reckon this would make the perfect Halloween polish if you celebrate that sort of thing (I don't as it's not a holiday we celebrate here) but I also think it would look amazing with a little black dress, as it has a certain luxe feel. IMHO it's definitely beautiful enough to be a "special night out" polish.
Oh and you get a very cool collectors card (each of the Killer Fangirls trio comes with its own card that gives a cute nod to the polishes namesake). Here's a pic of the Haddonfield card;

 

And now onto the polish itself. Application wise I only needed two coats, no dabbing required, easy peasy application and two coats of Seche Vite to smooth and seal it all.

Haddonfield

I can't praise this polish highly enough, I love it. I think the colour is incredibly wearable, especially for an orange. The depth, the unusual black shards, the gold shimmer... it all adds up to a really eye catching, glamorous nail polish that I would encourage anyone to try, even if you don't normally do orange. I think you might be pleasantly surprised :)

Haddonfield

So, what do you think? Haddonfield, Crystal Lake, Elm Street and oh so many other goodies are all available at the Pretty Serious Cosmetics online store. Oh, and Kaz has a new range coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

Until next time ~love and polish for all~

Em xox

WOWZERS! Femme Fatale's "Nightsong Grotto"

Oh boy, I am so excited to show you today's polish! But first, I should get the usual stuff out of the way... Hi, how are you all? I hope you're well. I'm o.k- not great, a bit depressed, a bit lonely, but I'm getting through it. I am also waiting on a ridiculous amount of nail polish... damn you, all those facebook nail polish groups that are full of people like me ;)

Alrighty then, now lets get to it. Today I want to show you a simply sublime polish by Femme Fatale Cosmetics called "Nightsong Grotto". This is a teal jelly filled, almost overflowing, with all sorts of glitters. I love the combination of glitters used here, it makes this polish so, so interesting and gives it so much depth. Ohhh, I just love it! *rubs hands gleefully*
So, pictures :D

Isn't it gorgeous? What I love about it is the addition of the hot pink glitter, it makes this polish pop on the nail like nobodies business;

I just cannot convey how amazing this polish looks on the nail. It's so beautiful. And it's a great polish to use as well- the jelly base is the perfect consistency to achieve opacity in three coats whilst still allowing the glitter to show through each layer, giving it a delicious squishy depth that makes jellies so appealing to me.

There was no need to fish for any glitter, in fact I sometimes had to put some back in the bottle, but it all went onto the nail with no dramas. I did do a little bit of glitter placement with my last coat, but that's only because I'm pedantic and like to have everything looking "just so" before I finish up. I then added two coats of Scehe Vite and my nails were good to go. In fact, the jelly base was so easy to work with I had virtually no clean up either, which was awesome!

I love that Nightsong Grotto looks so different depending on the light, and how the various glitters all seem to play off each other and come to life as you move your fingers.
Thankfully Nightsong Grotto is currently available at Femme Fatale Cosmetics, so if I were you I would head over there now and snag a bottle. This really is a stunner and I suspect it will be one of those polishes that people will be trying to track down in the years to come.
Sophie, the gorgeous gal behind this line, is also a sweetheart and the customer service at Femme Fatale is excellent.
Really, I can't say enough about this company. And even better they are an Australian stockist for other indie brands, both Australian and international and they don't just stock nail polish either, they have all sorts of beautiful products to ohhh and ahhh over.

Anyway, that's it for me today. I've had a bit of a rough day, a few tears were shed and I left a couple of facebook groups after feeling like maybe I wasn't the right fit for them. Oh well, live and learn.
I hope you are all well and it makes me feel really good knowing that I have my very own small but dedicated readership who support and stand by me- it means a lot <3

Until next time, love and polish for all!
Em xox

The one that started it all; Emily De Molly's "Cosmic Forces"

Hullo hullo, how is everyone today? It is absolutely full on where I am at the moment, the weather is just wild! Gale force winds, torrential rain and hail... my beautiful poppies that I planted have really taken a beating and I'm worried they won't make it after the last couple of days ;_;
I'm no green thumb, but I planted those tiny seeds and watched them germinate (it took for freaking ever!) and I was so excited to have my own pain management centre growing in my back yard, but this bloody weather may have put paid to all of that. Luckily I have more seeds, but I can't even get out there to plant anything as things stand.
And I certainly can't get outside to take pretty pictures of nail polish, so all of my photos are currently taken in my kitchen under the delightful glow of our ~el crappo~ fluorescent light... it adds that special something, managing to both reduce exposure and leech out any colour at the same time, which is quite a feat really. I do my best to adjust the exposure without bleaching or over saturating the colour of the polish, but you'll have to excuse me if the pictures aren't as uniform as they normally are.

Anyhoo, today I decided to break out Emily De Molly's "Cosmic Forces", the polish that started it all in terms of my current nail polish obsession. I had never even heard of "indie nail polish" until that fateful day, and the images my googling produced had my lusting after that polish like nobody's business. So I went and had a look at Hayley's online store and that was that- I was lost, absolutely smitten and ran headfirst into becoming a polish hoarder post haste.
So, onto the pictures...

O.K, if you're at all familiar with Aussie indie polishes then chances are you've come across this polish before, and for good reason. Emily De Molly was one of the first to use large, holographic circle glitter in a polish like this and it really made people sit up and take notice. And you can see why- it has the most remarkable effect, as if there was something magical going on- a doorway into another dimension perhaps or the reflection of distant stars somehow trapped and held in a bottle of bright purple jelly... whatever the case, it was a significant development and you can now find large circle glitter in many polishes as people appreciated just how amazing it can look.

Cosmic Forces is part of a trio which includes "Oceanic Forces" (which I have reviewed here) and "Dark Forces", which is a blackened jelly containing the same striking combination of glitters. I am currently waiting on a bottle of Dark Forces that I have bought through a destash sale and will definitely be reviewing it as soon as I am able.

 

Formula wise this is a bright purple jelly that is filled with glitter of various types, the aforementioned holographic circle glitter clearly being the star of the show. The larger glitters do require fishing, but I find standing the bottle on its lid for 5 minutes or so before applying definitely helps in getting a hold of those pieces.
I did find this polish to be tricky to apply when I first used it, but that was primarily down to my inexperience with polishes of this kind. Now that I use glitter jellies all the time I find Cosmic Forces a lot easier to handle.
It has thickened up somewhat since I first bought it, but I just add some Seche Restore and it's all good to go. Please note that Seche Restore isn't 3-Free, but I'm sure you could find a 3-Free thinner if that's important to you, just don't use nail polish remover to thin things up as you will end up destroying the polish and then you'll be sad face and I'll be sad face and it's just not a good idea.
I also don't bother with undies as Cosmic Forces achieves opacity easily in three coats, plus you get that fabulous depth and complexity that comes with layering several coats of jelly if you skip the undies, and it's the depth and squishiness that I find so appealing about this polish.

Cosmic Forces is, without a doubt, one of my all time favourites. It holds a special place in my heart as being my first ever "must have" indie, as well as being part of my first ever online polish order.
And it's just so freaking beautiful, I love it. I feel as if there's some sort of sorcery going on here, as if someone's managed to capture something rare and wonderful and trapped it in this bottle, ready for me to re-expolore whenever I get the urge to wear the universe on the tips of my fingers.

Emily De Molly is currently taking some time off after the birth of her first child, a healthy bouncing baby boy (congratulations Hayley!) but you can still purchase her nail stamping plates and nail gems, and as for the polish just keep checking back.
Also, if you belong to any indie nail appreciation groups chances are you'll hear about any store re-openings as Emily De Molly is a much coveted polish, and I know a lot of people are waiting for her return.

For product info, shipping and so on there's Hayley's Big Cartel store as well as her Etsy store. My advice is to just keep checking in periodically and get in there if you get the chance- I already have my list of "must haves" that I will be ordering the minute her store goes live again ;)

Anyway, that's it from me today. I hope you enjoyed my review and the photos- as I said, they weren't taken under the best of conditions, but while the weather remains this revolting I will be taking all my pics inside until further notice.

Until next time, love and polish for all,

Em xox

Giving it another go- Femme Fatale's "Sea Pony"

As some of you might remember, I acquired some Femme Fatale Cosmetics polishes awhile ago but was somewhat underwhelmed with them when they arrived- I bought several polishes at the time; a couple of international brands that they stock, and some that they produce themselves.
Now, Femme Fatale's service was excellent and I couldn't ask for more in that sense, but their polishes were quite different from what I was expecting, both visually and they were really quite difficult to apply when I decided to swatch them. It all left me feeling pretty ~sad face~ at the time, as I had high hopes having seen them swatched elsewhere.
Anyway, after some advice from the lovely Tara over at Loki's Lacquer I tried adding some thinner to the two polishes I was having trouble with, and also decided to layer them over  similar coloured undies, and thankfully both polishes look much better on now than they did the first time around.

What you see swatched here are Snapvine on my index and ring finger, and Sea Pony on my middle finger and pinkie. Both are "crelly" polishes- that is, not quite opaque or thick enough to be called a creme, yet not sheer and squishy enough to be classed as a jelly, hence the name crelly. And, as per usual with the nail polishes I chose, there's oodles of glitter in there too.

After adding the thinner and having a play with both polishes over various undies, I decided to do a full mani with Sea Pony, which I have layered here over Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure's "Good to Grape" (which is a great match colour wise).

This is a really pretty, cheerful mani and I only needed one coat of Sea Pony over the base colour for these swatches, which is awesome. The glitter pay off is excellent too- in fact, it can be a little overwhelming. I found the best way to apply this was to use a very thin coat and then dab the glitter around the nail until it's sitting how you want it. I then used three (yes, three!) very generous coats of Seche Vite over the lot to give it a smooth, glossy finish.

I'm definitely glad that I gave this a second shot, and using 4 drops of Seche Restore really did make a huge difference as to how this went on. Truth be told I was at a total loss with what to do with it as it was and thought I might even have to toss it. So I'm stoked that it hasn't gone to waste, and that I have such a cute, usable polish in my collection.
However, although the application was made much easier, I still think this is a tricky polish to use, and here's my thoughts as to why;
Crellies and glitter are a delicate combination- you want the base to be opaque enough that you get decent coverage and nice colour vibrancy, but you need it sheer enough that it won't completely cover up your glitter, and that is a difficult balance to strike.
You also want your glitter to spread out easily and evenly onto the nail, and that wasn't quite the case here. I found the glitter tended to clump together which made getting a little bit of everything- without going overboard- somewhat difficult. I suspect matte glitter probably clumps a little easier, simply by virtue of the surface being matte and not glossy, so that might have been a contributing factor.
But, and this is the reason I have made such an effort with this polish, Sea Pony is soooo pretty! The colours are just lovely and the combination of bright orange and pink against that gorgeous purple is really eye catching. It reminds me of long, languid summer sunsets where the sky is a riot of colours and the clouds are stained deep pink and tangerine.
Sea Pony is also a particularly feminine polish... I'm not sure what it is exactly that makes it feel that way to me, but it does and I like that very much.

Overall I am glad that I bought both Sea Pony and Snapvine, but I do think you will need to fiddle with them to get the application down pat and have it looking good on the nail. However, I also think it's well worth the effort, as they look fabulous on, so there's no regrets here.
Femme Fatale Cosmetics have a wide range of products, including makeup, and they also stock quite a few international  brands which can be hard to get a hold of otherwise (I ordered my two Dance Legend polishes through Femme Fatale). Plus their customer service is excellent.
So, I would definitely recommend having a look at what they have to offer as they have a great range, and you should find something to suit just about anyone.

Anyway, that's it from me for today- I've been so tired, it's kinda ridiculous. I was in bed before 7pm yesterday and didn't wake up until 8.15 this morning... I hate being this tired, it's not a nice feeling and it makes getting things done hard too. I saw a doctor today and I'm seeing my normal GP next week, but I suspect it's just a combination of the blues and this cold, dreary winter weather making me want to hibernate ;)
And it really is wild out there today- trees down all over the place, power outages, howling winds and driving rain... definitely a good day for snuggling on the couch with my kid and my cats, watching Horrible Histories and eating toasted cheese sangas.

Until next time, love and polish for all <3
Em xox

In anticipation of Emily de Molly reopening her store, here is "Oceanic Forces"

Today I want to share one of my favourite polishes, Emily De Molly's "Oceanic Forces"- there are two other "forces" polishes in her store- Cosmic Forces and Dark Forces, and I will get around to reviewing both of them soon because they are all really beautiful.
Now, Emily De Molly was the first ever indie polish I heard about and bought, so her polishes will always have a special place in my heart. Of course, it doesn't hurt that her polishes are a-freaking-mazing; the formulas are superb, the colours sublime and Hayley's customer service is, like most indies, also fantastic.
She currently has two stores, an Etsy store and her main Big Cartel store, which has a list of international stockists for buyers outside Australia (her Big Cartel store also stocks the Emily De Molly nail stamping plates and some nail art gems).
Now, I have titled this post "in anticipation of Emily De Molly reopening her store" as Hayley is currently on maternity leave, but truth be told I honestly have no idea when her stores will reopen. So this is more of a "I really hope her stuff is up for sale again soon!" post as I missed out on a few of her polishes last time around and am dying to get my grubby little hands on them ;)
Anyway, onto the pictures!

Oceanic Forces is a teal coloured jelly polish filled with small holo hex glitter, microglitter and large circle glitter, with the circle glitter being the star of the show as you can see from the photos.
Now, in my opinion, this is a polish that requires some effort to use- you need to fish for the circle glitter and the jelly can get a bit thick as you get further down the jar, but I've found a couple of drops of Seche Restore gets the jelly base back to the right consistency and standing the polish on its lid for 5 minutes before use helps make the larger sized glitters easier to get to.
However, it's certainly not a hard polish to use- it doesn't flood the cuticles, it's not lumpy or bumpy and opacity is easy to achieve in two or three coats. It's more that you need to take your time using it and take care with the application.
But I'm also a bit pedantic about glitter placement and so on, so if you don't mind having some nails without the circle glitter then you're not going to be spending quite as much time getting things "just so". Personally I have to have those things looking how I visualise them or I'll have to start over again, but I'm kinda neurotic so I'm probably not the best example to go by ;)

With this mani I did things a little bit differently as I wanted to see how this would look layered over a teal microglitter (Powder Perfect's "Elation" which I have reviewed here), so the thumb, index and middle finger are two coats of Oceanic Forces over Elation, and the ring finger and pinkie are three coats of Oceanic Forces by themselves, all of them topped off with two generous coats of Seche viche.
I thought I would prefer it over the microglitter base, because glitter! But I actually prefer it as it's supposed to be worn- I think you get more of that fabulous squishiness and depth without any undies. So sometimes less is more, even with glitter (something I never thought I would say, that's for sure haha).

So, what do you think? I love this polish. It's very much a ~stare and admire~ lacquer, watching how the light hits those big, beautiful circle glitters. They're like amazing doorways into another world, a magical vortex that just happens to be on my fingernails... how awesome is that?!

I really hope that Emily De Molly opens up for business again soon (although you can still buy her nail stamping plates and nail gems through her Big Cartel store) as there are so many more polishes of hers that I am eager to try.
Luckily you can still browse her polishes on her Big Cartel site, they're just not available for purchase right now, but if you want to go and have a look I'd definitely recommend doing so- you can write out a list of polishes to buy when she is back up and running. Having something to look forward to is always fun imho :)

Anyway, that's it for me today. I have swatched and uploaded a couple of polishes over the last few days that I need to blog about, I've just been a little flat and finding it hard to be enthusiastic about blogging- in fact, I've found it hard to be enthusiastic about anything right now. I'll be seeing a different GP on Tuesday as my doctor is away on leave, but hopefully there won't be any issues refilling my pain meds (they can hardly just stop them- I'd be a very sick puppy if they did that). But I don't know what, if anything, can be done about my current mental state. I guess time will tell.

Until next time, love and polish for all <3
Em xox