*Nothing to Disclose*

    Back to school season is in full swing at my house. I'm back to work, training for the new school year and picking up those last minute items my kids will need for the start of theirs. But that doesn't mean blogging get to take a back burner so I'm back today with the next letter in the Untried A- Z challenge. 

    It's not easy finding a brand name or polish name starting with the letter Q but I managed to find one to share with you today from my untried pile. Queen of Beauty from SinfulColors. 

     Sinful Colors is known for releasing limited edition glitter toppers for seasonal collections, but they are also known for re-releasing those toppers a year or two later for another seasonal collection. That just happens to be the case with the topper I'm sharing today so if you like it, keep your eyes open, it should be on shelves again. For the polish I'm sharing today I used a base of Black on Black which gave me full coverage with one coat. 

     First up is Queen of Beauty. A clear based polish with mini silver hex glitter. Now while I can't remember the original collection this was released in, I do know it originally came out in 2015 but popped back up last year for a St. Patricks Day collection. 

    I was pleasantly surprised at the formula, I expected the need to sponge on the second layer in order to get good glitter coverage but that was not the case. In just one coat I was able to get a generous amount of glitter on the nail. There were no issues with the glitter wanting to slide to the tip of my nail and every single one lays completely flat. This polish also dries without a hint of texture from the glitter. Shown here as 1 coat over black and a glossy top coat. 

    My overall thoughts are that I really like this polish for formula and ease of application. I like that the silver glitter is a true silver and would look great over a variety of colors. Using this in a full mani might be overkill unless some stamping or hand-painted nail art was layered over it. It also has the potential as an accent nail, especially for those holiday manicure we all love to create. 

    What are your thoughts on glitter toppers? Are they still on trend or have they seen their day? There's still plenty of time to join in the untried A-Z Challenge for the letter Q or join us in two weeks for letter R week. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

  

*Nothing to Disclose*

     I don't know about you but I am a huge fan of the Polish Pickup. Where else can you find the opportunity to buy from so many brands in one place? Brands that are old favorites and new brands at the same time. One of the New Brands for me is JReine back in April for the Across the Universe theme with a polish called the Galaxy Rocks.

*Nothing to Disclose*

    Today I have for you a very special polish that was created for a fellow nail blogger and classmate of mine Janna from The Girlie Tomboy. (Girlie Tomboy Nails) Colors By Llarow created this charity polish to help pay for medical bills during her fight against inflammatory breast cancer called One Headlight. Sadly she lost her battle in November and while we were no longer close she was the one who inspired me to get into nail art and the loss was greatly felt. That's why this post is a little bittersweet for me. I hate that this polish has been sitting here untried for so long, but happy to share such a beautiful, bright polish for the untried A-Z Challenge with all of you. 

     One Headlight is a neon pink leaning coral crelly polish with intense aqua blue micro-shimmer and aqua blue glass flecks. You know me, anything with glass flecks in it I have to see with a matte top coat.

     The formula on this is wonderful with even coverage on the first coat, even though it's a bit sheer. The polish builds up nicely after two coats but I still had a slight VNL. ONe Headlight dries to a matte finish.  I've shown this polish as two coats plus a glossy and matte top coat.

    I really like this polish in both the matte and glossy versions. Each option has a certain beauty to it, although I am leaning more toward the glossy version. 

    Which one do you like better? While you decide make sure to check out the other polishes for this weeks prompt.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

*Nothing to Disclose*

     I'm back today with another comparison post. This time I'll be comparing two polishes from the same company, Sinful Colors. It's not often that a company dupes itself but Sinful Colors had been known to at least come close on more than one occasion. Take my post on Cream Soda vs Orange Cream for example. Add to that it seems like every time Sinful releases a new collection someone in the Sinfully Polished group asks for a comparison to a previous color. That's why when coming up with ideas for my dupes series I went straight to my Sinful Colors stash. Today I'll be comparing Hush Money,  a core line color, to Gold n Roses from the 2016 Valentine's Collection.

     In the bottle, you can see that both colors have a nice rose gold tone. At first glance, these would appear to be the same color. It's not until you look closer that you can see there is a finish difference but the shades look exactly the same to me.  Is it the same once the polish is on the nail? Both colors will be shown as two coats plus top coat.

     Not exactly the dupes I thought I had when looking at the bottles. Gold N Roses (on my ring and pointer finger) is so much lighter and looks almost peach to me after 2 coats while Hush Money maintains that nice rose gold tone and full opacity. 

     

     The difference in finishes is more evident on the nail than in the bottle. Hush Money is a micro-shimmer and Gold n Ross is a glass fleck. 

     Gold N Roses is a much thinner polish with an obvious VNL after 2 coats. Hush Money is very opaque but not a one coater. I still had a slight VNL after one coat but it builds up quite nicely. Part of me wonders if I'd added a third coat of Gold N Roses if the colors would be closer to dupes. I just can't get over how different they look on the nail. 

      It turns out that these two are not dupes at all. Do you need both in your collection? I'd say that's up to you. Personally, I prefer Hush Money, it's more opaque and has a richer rose gold tone. I'm not giving up on Gold n Roses yet though. I'm going to have to wear it with a third coat to see if I can build up to slightly darker color or at the very least get rid of the VNL. Which color do you prefer? Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

*Gift*

     Hello, fellow Nailistas. I've got a quick post to share with you today featuring Con Artist from Nvr Enuff. I received Con Artist in my V.I.P bag from Polishcon Chicago last fall. I'm a bit ashamed to say that I wore this back at the beginning of October and am just getting around to blogging it now.  In my defense, it's a great polish for fall or winter so I'm still seasonally appropriate right?

     Con Artist is a dusty mauve nail polish with iridescent glass flecks and a smattering of gold micro glitter. I get a warm cozy feeling just looking at it. 

       The application was smooth and even with tons of glitter in each coat. Two easy coats are all you need to reach full opacity. Shown here is two coats plus a glossy top coat.

      After wearing this for a few days I decided to add an accent nail. I reached for some nail vinyls and my bottle of Lumina Lacquers Soliel to create this. 

     What do you think of the finished look? I know this post was short, sweet and to the point but I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!

*Press Sample*

     Today I have the Alice in Lacquerland Collection from Literary Lacquers and I am so excited to share it with you! This long-awaited collection is filled with fun and sparkle just like the story that inspired it. Get ready to set your alarms because this collection releases today Dec 26th at noon mt and I'm sure it's one you won't want to miss. 

   

     This will be a long post with a ton of pictures! I have 6 collection polishes and 1 gift with purchase to share so let's get some particulars out of the way right now. Each polish is shown as 2 coats plus topcoat and I photographed them all in my lightbox using daylight LED bulbs. Let's jump right in shall we.

Tulgey Wood

     Color: A rich caramel brown linear holographic nail polish with copper and gold glass flecks.

     Application: Tulgey Wood has a smooth formula with even coverage. I was surprised at how opaque this is. I only had a slight VNL after 1 coat. This polish builds up nicely to a perfect opacity after 2 coats. 

     

Six Impossible Things

     Color: A scattered holographic glitter nail polish in a burnt orange base with gold and copper micro glitters. This color reminds me of the bittersweet plant that used to grow in my yard as a child. 

     Application: The formula for this one is a bit thin on the first coat and can be patchy if applied thinly. Six Impossible Things builds up nicely after 2 coats but still shows a slight VNL that's more evident in my photos than when looking with the naked eye. 

Grin Without a Cat

     Color: Purple multi-chrome polish that shifts from purple to gold to pink with magenta shimmer and microglitter. This one doesn't have an obvious color shift to it which makes it unique for multi-chrome polishes. At first glance, I actually thought it was a shimmer finish because I was only getting a light to dark purple shift until I moved my hand around. Then I was able to get the hints of gold to appear. 

     Application: This polish went on a bit uneven for me on the first coat and wanted to pull away at my tips. I'm not entirely sure if this was because of the polish itself or the new sticky base coat that I'm trying out. As you can see I was left with a smooth even finish after 2 coats but there is still some shrinkage at the tips. 

The Golden Afternoon

*Press Sample*

     Happy Wednesday everyone. I'm sorry to have just disappeared last week but I needed a mental vacation to prepare for the end of summer and heading back to school. My summer vacation officially ended yesterday but my kids still have about 2 weeks left of theirs. We've been having so much fun and going on so many mini vacations that the school year crept up on me and I was not entirely prepared. But everything is in order now and I'm glad to be back to blogging. I'm kicking things off with 2 gorgeous polishes from Literary Lacquers. I have the Book Club polish and a special Birthday polish to share with you today. Both polishes are LE's but will be available for purchase starting tomorrow Aug 24th through Sept 8th. I'll have more details about the launch later on in the post but for right now let's get to the polish.

     The book club LE is Thousand Different Strokes of Light, a taupe polish with blue glass flecks and scattered holographic micro glitter. 

     The formula has a smooth application and complete control over where the polish went on the nail. The glitters do give this polish a bit of a grit to it when wet but that didn't affect how the polish applied at all. And there was no texture left once the polish dried. I had nice almost full opacity after 1 coat. Shown here is 2 coats plus top coat.