Friday, February 28, 2014

Kawaii Lacquer Spring collection

I've got three beauties from Kawaii Lacquers new spring collection to show you guys today! 

Peepin' Party
A yellow crelly with tons of different colored pastel glitters. Perfect for spring, this is literally spring in a bottle. Swatch shows three coats with topcoat, matte topcoat on ring finger. 
I hate peeps but I love this! 


Oh my goodness that macro though. I love this so much. 

The Blues
Light blue crelly with loads of neon and pastel glitters. The combo of neon and pastel is perfect. Swatch shows three coats with topcoat, matte topcoat on ring finger. 
Jamie kills me every time with dot glitters, they are my weakness. 


Spring Flutters
Pastel glitter bomb with a little bit of shimmer. I love this one just as much as the others. Swatch shows 1 coat with placement over a gradient. 
There's that shimmer I was talking about. It actually may be more of a scattered holo though. 
If I could just be shrunk down small enough to swim in a polish I would choose this one. Every time. 

So which is your favorite? I love them all but my secret favorite is Spring Flutters. Don't tell the other two. 

Make sure you follow Jamie (@kawaiilacquer) on Instagram and give her a like on Facebook so you can be the first to get these when they're released! 



Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Battle of the base coats! Ready! Set! Fight!

Today I have a different kind of post for you guys. Felicia aka FAT Lacquers has a new base coat/top coat combo and I've got the base coat Appetzier for review. If you follow me on IG (@thejuiceboxlacquer) then you may have noticed a lack of nail posts lately and it's because I was testing this out. 

I decided to compare it to my two other most used base coats to see how it stood up, and then I also did polish over a naked nail as a control. 

Day 1: just painted. I have two coats of  each listed base coat followed by two coats of OPI It's Frosty Outside. 
Day 2: everything still intact other than my pointer finger but that is purely users error. It got smooshed when I was feeding Grayson. 
Day 3: giant chips in the yellow stopper nail but that's really no surprise, I'm actually surprised it lasted this long. By this day my thumb nail with no base coat also had some minor chips on it. 
Day 4: more chips on my middle finger but everything else still looks great. 
Day 5: again more chips but nothing anywhere else. 

Overall I am seriously impressed with this base coat, it provided excellent wear time and definitely gave the polish something to grip on to. I don't think I could have made it chip if I tried. It's worth noting that I was not particularly gentle with my hands either, I wash dishes and take care of a 6 month old! If you're looking for something to make your mani last longer before chipping definitely check out Appetizer from FAT Lacquers. 

Make sure you follow Felicia (@fatlacquers) on Instagram!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Gamer Gloss Fox Hound

There's a new indie brand in town called Gamer Gloss! I love the idea behind this brand so much. I am a card carrying nerd/geek and anyone that truly knows me knows this fact. 
So today I have their very first collection called Fox Hound. All the polishes are inspired by the villains in the first Metal Gear Solid game. A few of these had unmixed pigment and the glitter was sparse in most of them. The pigment issue will be fixed in all polishes so fear not! 

The first one I have to show you is Decoy Octopus.
This is a green sheer jelly with holo silver hex and black hex. The above picture is when warm.
When the polish is cold it is a darker, more opaque green. 
The above is in transition. All pictures show 4 coats with topcoat. This polish started out pretty sheer but built up easily and dried quickly. 
The glitter was very sparse and I had to fish for the larger silver hex but I enjoy the look of sparse glitter. 
This one had pigment bits

Next up is Psycho Mantis
This is a sheer yellow jelly with black micro hex. I seriously enjoyed this one. I actually really love yellows on me and this was no exception. Swatch is 4 coats with topcoat. 
Oh yeah, plus it glows. The glow was stronger in person my but my camera hates me. 
This one had unmixed pigment also. 
Try to ignore those two tiny pieces of fuzz. 

Vulcan Raven
This one is a sheer gray shimmery jelly. I don't have anything quite like this in my collection. Swatch shows 4 coats with topcoat.
I love the glitter mix on this one, it's so sparkly in person and the gray base is interesting, it manages to look sheer but there's no VNL. Magic. 
There's hearts in here too but I could not fish one out. 

Revolver Ocelot
This is a chocolatey brown crelly with gold micro hex. Swatch shows three coats with topcoat.
This one had unmixed pigment but it wasn't as noticeable because of the crelly base.
I like the gold hex in this one, but I wish there was more of them. 

Sniper Wolf
This is a sheer blue shimmery jelly with holo micro glitter. Swatch shows 5 coats with topcoat. While that sounds like a lot remember that I do extremely thin coats and dry time was really fast so by the time I finished painting my hand I could go back over them again.
Check out that holo glitter. 

Liquid Snake
This is an orange crelly with gold glitter shards. Swatch is 3 coats with topcoat.
This one had unmixed pigment also, but again it was not as apparent because of the crelly base.

Last is Metal Gear
This is a glitter topper that has silver holo hex and black hex. I did 2 coats over Sinful Colors Pistache. It was good at 1 coat but I was tempted to see if I could get it opaque so I tried two. 
This macro shows it with matte topcoat. 
This one is with glossy topcoat. 
Oh I enjoy this macro so much. 

Overall I like this collection. Most were on the sheer side but dried quickly so it was not an issue for me. Which is your favorite? 

Head over to @nerdysuperbree on Instagram to be the first to know when this collection launches. The projected launch date is mid-March!

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Stuck On Love Nail Shields

My friend Natosha over at Love, Angeline Polish sent me some nail stencils to try out. She's going to be carrying them in her shop in about a month and she has the cutest designs ever! They're called Stuck On Love nail shields, and I think that is the cutest name ever. 
Here are the two designs I was sent
And some skinny chevrons
 
I love the design of the first one, it's so intricate and fancy. Makes nail art super easy to do and I'm all about easy. 

Here's a mani I did using both designs
I love love love the first design as much as I thought I would, it looks vintage and very cool on the nail. The skinny chevrons are neat, I like that they're pretty small which would be awesome for people with short nails/short nail beds. 

The skinny chevrons are a touch delicate to work with because they're so skinny but as long as you use tweezers with them you're fine. For the vintage-y design my nails were small enough that I could cut it in half and get two nails out of one stencil. If you have longer nails than you obviously couldn't do that haha. 

Overall I really like these, I enjoy the different designs she has, they're not just chevrons and lines. Over on Natosha's Instagram (@loveangelinepolish) she's shown off some even more cool designs coming up, ikat chevrons, houndstooth, a honeycomb pattern and tons more. 

Again, these will be available in about a month so keep your eyes peeled! 

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Jellies, jellies everywhere (Laquerlicious)

I, and I think everyone else in the world, loves a good jelly. And today I get to show you some gorgeous ones by Laquerlicious. 

Caught Red-Handed
This was 3 coats with glossy topcoat! Those that know me know that I don't really like red polish but I think this may have converted me. I enjoy this to the moon and back!
Here's a macro of that gorgeous squishy goodness. 
I also used Laquerlicious matte topcoat because everyone knows how gorgeous jellies look matte. 
Here's the matte macro. 
There's tons of holo glitter in this so it's very sparkly in person. 

These next two I had swatched when my nails were longer.

Born In The Purple
Three coats with glossy topcoat but it was opaque at two. I just wanted more glitter, always more glitter haha. Purple and blue polishes are my weakness and this was no exception, I love it so hard! 
Circle glitter that makes my heart flutter. So much circle glitter. 
I used Laquerlicious matte topcoat again (quickly becoming my new favorite matte topcoat). Matte makes the glitter pop so much!
Check out how smooth that is, I'll have to do a comparison between matte topcoats soon. I just have to say that I normally use Butter London's matte and it is very matte but I find that it chips quickly. With this one I can wear a mani for a few days and it's just as beautiful as day 1!

Lastly is In Like Flynn
Three coats with glossy topcoat. I can honestly say that in my stash this one is completely unique and I love it. 
I love love love the mix of green/pink/fuschia glitters in this! 
With Laquerlicious matte topcoat. Again, it looks stunning matte. 
There's some super sneaky flakies going on in here and I had no idea until I did the macro, but it adds so much depth to this polish. 
Again, there's tons of holo glitter in there so it's super sparkly!
Do you like them matte or glossy better?
The formula on all three of these polishes is perfect, buttery and smooth, just how jellies should be. I love every Laquerlicious polish I've used so far. The matte topcoat is wonderful, full review of that will be up in a few days! 

Make sure you follow Laquerlicious on Instagram (@creativenailchick), and on Facebook for updates.