*Press Sample*

     Today I have a very special treat for all of you! Literary Lacquers is back! *insert round of applause* Not only is she back with a stunning new collection she is also having a sale on all of the older collections. Let's get some of the details out of the way before we get to the polish, shall we? 

     Literary Lacquers is back with a collection of 7 new polishes (Plus a special limited edition gift with purchase polish) inspired by the Sarah J. Maas series A Court of Thorns and Roses. This collection will take you on a journey through the 7 courts of the High Fae of Prythian. The full collection will be available at a slight discount for $70. The Launch Date is 4/22/19, noon Mountain time. And I can't forget about the Sale: 4/22/19 – 5/1/19, 25% off all older collections, Plus you can receive Starfall, a Limited Edition polish as a free gift with $50 pre-shipping purchase

     Veiled in Roses – Rosy pink packed with holographic and opalescent microglitter - $10
Inspired by the Spring Court’s beautiful manor house, an alabaster estate covered in roses and ivy, surrounded by meadows and forests in perpetual springtime.

     The formula on this is simply wonderful with a smooth application and even coverage. You get a ton of sparkle in each layer. There was a slight VNL after the first coat but as you can see it builds up nicely. Full opacity was achieved with the application of a second coat. Shown here as two coats plus glossy topcoat. 

     Adriata – Aqua opal, this polish is loaded with blue, green, and white opalescent flakies and microglitter $10. 
The Summer Court is home to the beautiful city of Adriata nestled in its half moon bay.

     The formula on this one gave me just a little trouble. The first few strokes were a tad splotchy. Almost like the flakes were all clumped together and needed to be separated on the nail. Which is exactly what happened after a few strokes of the brush. Once again I had a slight VNL after the first coat with full opacity after the second coat. Shown here as two coats plus glossy topcoat.

     Autumn Fire – Deep coppery red holo with microglitter - $12
Fire is the power of the High Fae that reside in the Autumn Court.

     High Lady of Winter – Soft grey holo with white, silver, and blue flakies - $12
This polish inspired by the frozen Winter Court is a little shout out to the fandom and my girl Vivianne, may her voice be heard

     This polish has a formula that has a smooth consistency and even coverage. While it was more opaque on the first coat than I was expecting, I still had a slight VNL. The addition of a second coat will give you full opacity. Shown here as two coats plus glossy topcoat.

     Sunstone Palace – Delicate metallic that shifts from copper to rose - $10
The books’ action only visits the Dawn court for a short period of time, but the description of the breathtaking palace inspired this lacquer

     The application is smooth and even with a nice dispersion of flakes on the nail. Again this was slightly more opaque than I was expecting but you're still left with a small amount of VNL after the first coat. Full opacity can be reached after two coats. Shown here as two coats plus glossy topcoat.

     Cursebreaker – Bright white gold metallic with a subtle green iridescence - $10
The mysterious Day Court is home to Helion Spell-Cleaver, his power of Cursebreaking is vital to something I can’t tell you about because it’s a spoiler. 

     The formula on this was surprising. I was honestly expecting it to be more of a topper than a regular nail polish. With its smooth consistency and even coverage, this polish is easy to work with and leaves only a slight VNL on the first coat. Curse Breaker builds up quite nicely to achieve full opacity after to easy coats. Shown here as two coats plus glossy topcoat.

     Court of Dreams – Black base with holo microflakes, silver flakes, and shimmer that shifts from blue through indigo to violet - $12
The Night Court is home to the mysterious and dark Rhysand and his hot muscular Illyrian warriors (ahem). No spoilers but fans self anyway.

     With a smooth consistency and even coverage, this polish is a winner in my book. I did have a slight VNL after the first coat but, it builds up nicely to reach full opacity after two effortless coats. Shown here as two coats plus glossy topcoat. 

     Starfall - Deep navy holo with microglitter and opalescent green flakes
Amy really wanted to call this polish My Other Ride is an Illyrian Warrior but decided to go with the more sedate Starfall. Starfall is a holiday celebrated in the Winter Court on a night where star spirits migrate across the sky.

*Nothing to Disclose*

     It's time once again for the Untried A-Z Challenge! It's week 19 and that brings us to the letter S. I can't believe there are only 7 more weeks for this challenge, it has flown by but there's still time to join in if you want. Everyone is welcome and the more the merrier. 

    I've gone back to my mainstream collection of polishes this week to bring you a beautiful polish from Color Club. To be honest, I don't reach for Color Club polishes all that often, but that may be because I don't own that many. I haven't bought any in about 3 years and I think I had maybe 6 polishes from the brand until they released the new holo's at Walmart which added 12 more to my stash. Which explains why I completely forgot that Color Club came out with some duo-chrome polishes. They had an entire collection actually called the Oil Slick collection which was a limited edition collection back in 2015. 

     Sorry Not Sorry is a pink to gold shifting metallic duo-chrome polish that takes on a hint of copper depending on the lighting. 

    While this is a very pretty color and great for fall the formula can be a bit tricky. The consistency is really nice but wants to steak when applied thinly. A regular coat will not cause any issues and leaves behind even coverage with no VNL but not quite full opacity. Shown here is 2 coats plus top coat.

     Sadly this polish suffers horribly from brushstrokes, I avoided them by using the sponging trick I shared in my review of the Orly Pastel City Collection. I absolutely hate brushstrokes in my polish and love that I've found a way to avoid them. 

     I know I must have really liked this color when I bought it but when I pulled it out of my helmer I was experiencing buyers remorse. Until I had it on my nails that is. It's actually a pretty nice color and I like the subtle color shift. I actually own two more colors from this collection and I've become inspired to pull them out and try them.

    Now its time to share my the mani fail. I mentioned last week that I've been hooked on watching Naio Nails on Youtube. Well, she always does these over the top nails with lots of bling and I've got lots of nail bling gathering dust in my nail room so feeling inspired I decided to bling up my nails.

    I definitely need practice with this, and a better way to apply them to my nails. Dipping my dotting tool into top coat and then applying the rhinestone resulted in lots frustration. Especially when it came to placing all the tiny microbeads between the larger stones. I'd like a way to be able to place them and then move them a bit if needed. I think I need to invest in some nail glue. 

    This didn't turn out quite how I wanted but it was fun to play around with my rhinestones again. And we all have mani fails whether they get shared or not, and I think they help us grow as nail artists. 

      Do you have any tips on how to apply them? What do you think of Color Club polishes? Let me know in the comments and don't forget to check out what other people picked for their letter S. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

*Nothing to Disclose*

     For today's post, I've reached back into my VIP bag from Polishcon Chicago and emerged with V.I.Polish from Girly Bits. I've already shared one polish from the VIP bag with you which was Con Artist and I figured it was about time I shared another. Afterall it has been almost 8 months since the convention and 5 months since I actually wore this polish. 

     

*Press Sample*

     Who's ready for St. Patrick's Day polishes? If you answered yes to that question than I've got the post for you. Paint it Pretty Polish is releasing a gorgeous St. Patrick's Day duo on Friday, March 9th but if your a member of the fan group you have a chance to win. Want to see what you could win? Well, let's get to it then. 

Irish You a Happy St. Patrick's Day

     Color: A yellow gold nail polish with green and holographic micro glitters. 

     Application: Smooth application with even coverage. I had some VNL after one coat and thought I may need 3 for full coverage. Irish You A Happy St. Patrick's Day builds up nicely and full opacity was reached after two coats. There are a few brushstrokes but they are very minimal and the glitters help to conceal them. Shown here is two coats plus top coat.

     

     Yellow gold is not a color that plays nicely with my skin tone so while I think this is a very pretty polish it's not one for me. However, in the summertime when I have a bit of a tan, I would probably like it more on my nails. 

It Ain't Over Till It's Clover

*Nothing to Disclose*

     Today is my first post in a year-long challenge that I've set up for myself. If you read my post on making 2018 a great year for my blog then you already have a hint as to what this challenge might be. Or maybe you've figured it out based on the title of this post, maybe not. Either way, I'm excited to get this challenge started and I hope that many of you will decide to join me whenever you can. I have an event set up on my facebook page with all the details. 

     Just what is this year-long challenge? It's for all those untried polishes I know we all have sitting around in our collections. I'm calling it the Untried A-Z challenge and the premise is simple.Every other week I'm going to blog about an untried polish in my collection starting with the letter A and working my way to Z. See I told you it was simple. Plus there are 26 letters in the alphabet and 52 weeks in a year so it works out perfectly! 

     Now you can go any route you want to with this. Use the brand name or polish name as your letter. You can choose to do a straight swatch or incorporate nail art into your look. As long as you go in alphabetical order that's really the only rule. Why alphabetical you might ask? Have you seen the amount of untried nail polish I own!? Just take a peek at my collection list and you'll get the picture.  There are so many polishes to choose from, and just how exactly was I supposed to decide? Going alphabetically will help narrow it down a bit and keep me on track. So have fun, join in and let's get this challenge started!

     For my letter A polish I went with a polish that's relatively new to my collection but still untried. Nevermind Polish Aamon from the Daemounum Collection released last summer. This collection is still available for purchase if you find yourself wanting a bottle.

*Press Sample*

     Available this week is the gorgeous Secrets of the 7 Seas Collection from Parallax Polish. A stunning collection depicting the different wonders you can find in water, and highlights different facts about the ocean. There's a lot to get through and a ton of photos so I'll keep my words short and sweet.  Let's dive right in shall we...

       3.5° is described as a Gold- blue linear holographic polish. Fun Fact: The average ocean temperature is 3.5 degrees.  To me it looked a bit more like an icy blue linear holographic that wanted to photograph more silver than blue. But I did get a few flashes of gold from time to time.

     Sea Foam is a shimmery teal polish that doesn't leave brushstrokes. Yes you read that right, 0 brushstrokes! Fun Fact: Algae breaks down in the ocean, which then gets thrown against the shore in waves on the beach. This agitation creates sea foam, the bubbles you see at the beach. 


     Application was once again smooth, but a little sheer on the first coat. Builds up nicely but has a slight VNL after 2. Not as noticeable to the naked eye as it is to my camera.

     Challenger Deep is a matte black polish that glows purple in the dark. Sadly I dropped the ball and didn't get to photograph this one in it's glowing state. A fact that I will remedy as soon as I get the chance. I had it in the back of my mind to take those photos but it was a distracting day at my house and blew it. Fun Fact : Challenger Deep is the deepest part of the ocean, in Mariana's Trench. The matte black matches the color of the ocean, with a glow in the dark to represent bio-luminescence of living creatures. 


     Application was again streaky on the first coat. Typical of most matte polishes in my opinion, and evens out after the 2nd coat.  As you can see there is also a bit of a bumpy texture that adds character to and separates this from your usual black matte polish. I should also note that the texture is a bit magnified by my camera.  Because of the matte finish I have chosen to show this without top coat.

     Coral Reef is a solar changing polish that goes from clear to purple and contains purple micro glitter. Again I was unable to get any color changing shots but that is because the sun has been hiding for the last 2 weeks. Yes I'm starting to get cabin fever and yes I will get sun shots as soon as the weather wants to cooperate. Fun Fact: This polish is inspired by coral bleaching- where coral loses it's color because of too warm or cold- which is represented by the solar changing of this polish. 


     Application is smooth with tons of glitter in each coat. Because of the clear base 3 thin coats were needed to reach a an opacity that I was happy with.


      This polish was also surprisingly opaque after 1 coat with smooth even application. And isnt that just a gorgeous shade of blue!