I Love Nail Polish's Nostalgia

I Love Nail Polish (ILNP) is one of my favorite brands that has come out of the indie polish boom, and if you've read any of my previous reviews you'll know it's mostly because of the amazing effort they put into packaging. With boxes, printed bottles, and a consistent brand image established long before most other indies ILNP elevated it's profile to being on par or above and beyond brands you can find in brick and mortar stores. So much so that I feel slightly conflicted about still referring to this brand as "indie". 

I've resisted ordering any of the recent Ultra Chromes collection because I knew I'd be let down. I have very unrealistic and magical expectations of multi chromes based on the bottles and I am inevitably disappointed when the nine colors showing in the cylindrical bottle aren't visible on my non-cylindrical nails. 

However I could no longer resist the pull of a pretty colored polish when they promoted Nostalgia for the holiday season. Nostalgia shifts between a bright green, pinkish red, and a bronze leaning gold. Perfect Christmas colors but not so pronounced that you couldn't wear it year-round. My swatch is two coats of Nostalgia over OPI Nail Envy and topped with NYC Grand Central Station. 

The formula on this polish was a dream, gliding effortlessly wherever I guided it, and the brush on ILNP polishes fans across the nail easily and isn't too wide or too thin. It was easy to get the right amount of polish on the brush and I didn't have any issues with dragging or lifting on a second coat. 

I do wish I had done a third coat to add a bit more depth even though it was opaque in just two coats. Everyone in my family loved watching this color shift, and although it didn't get me compliments from strangers it definitely made me happy for the time it was on my nails.

Do you own any of the Ultra Chromes from I Love Nail Polish? At what point does a brand stop being an indie and become a truly developed and established brand? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!

Dollish Polish Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake

It's a rare day when I throw on a blue nail polish. Not because they're not gorgeous, but because I feel like it takes a certain amount of confidence and personality to proudly wear blue nails. Many a lovely lady on the Makeup Alley nail board are self-proclaimed lovers of blue nail polish, and I figured that if it has created a fandom of it's own I should probably add a few more blue polishes to my collection.

Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake was part of Dollish Polish's 2013 Halloween collection, and is named after Friday the 13th. Even though I've never seen the movie (I'm not one for horror films) I can still strictly appreciate this polish for the crystal blue-green jelly that it is.

This teal leaning blue jelly is packed with various blue, teal, and silver hexes while also having large circle glitters. My swatch if five thin coats of Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake on it's own. Let's just say that while the formula was great, I'll definitely be layering this polish in the future! I didn't manage to fish out any of the large circles even with lots of finagling and twisting, turning, and upending the bottle. I was rather disappointed, but upon reading other blogger's reviews I'm going to blame it on the fact that my bottle is a mini rather than a full-size, so that's probably the main factor.

This polish is a stunner! When the light hits it the glitters sparkle and glimmer and it's truly beautiful. If you love blue nail polish you may need to add this one to your collection. I can't seem to find it on Dollish Polish's website at time of publishing, but you might have luck in blog sales!

Do you frequently wear blue nail polish, or is it a color you wear when you need an extra boost? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!

Revlon Autumn Spice + Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello strangers! About time I updated again eh? Today I'm featuring one of the new Revlon scented nail polishes, Autumn Spice. I actually managed to snag the last bottle from the display so this particular shade must be fairly popular even with the non-polish obsessed.

This swatch is two coats of Autumn Spice with a base of OPI Nail Envy and is topped with NYC Grand Central Station. The formula was easy to work with and surprisingly tidy to clean up in spite of all the particles in the polish.

Autumn Spice is a warm, dark chocolate brown with strong reddish orange shimmer particles. It's definitely been the most swatched from the Parfumerie Collection, and smells faintly of warm holiday spices. Personally I didn't think the smell was overwhelming or offensive when I was polishing, and it faded considerably when topped with top coat and dried. Although if you're sensitive to scented polishes or tend not to like traditionally "fall spice" scents you might want to skip this one.

The bottle itself of this collection is quite appealing. Despite the round black cap being plastic, it still lends a high end feel, and the glass bottle is weighty and the corners are nicely beveled. The brush was a nice medium width and easy to control and work with.

Well, I'm off to stuff my face with delicious once-a-year foods and watch the Macy's Parade and the following dog show. Every previous year we've always watched for the Great Danes in the dog show, but since our Dane passed a few years ago and we acquired a new puppy last christmas, we'll be looking out for the Bernese Mountain Dog. Does anyone else watch the dog show and single out your current dog's breed? What are some of your Thanksgiving Day traditions?

What is on your nails this holiday? Let me know in the comments! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving if you're celebrating!

Hare Polish Flight of the Flamingos

There are quite a few Hare polishes I've admired and lemmed over the life of the brand, but it wasn't until recently that I discovered it's fairly easy to get the colors you want through her etsy shop. This allowed me to pick up three colors I thought were gorgeous, Flight of the Flamingos included!

Flight of the Flamingos is from her "The Tropics are Calling" Summer 2013 collection, and is a pale dusty grey-pink jelly base filled with neon pink squares and hexes, smaller gold glitter, and a slight shimmer. My swatch is two coats of Flight of the Flamingos over two coats of Zoya Megan. My swatch includes base and top coats.

I found the formula a little tedious even when using the dabbing method. There was almost too much glitter being suspended to where I was unable to get an even layer of the jelly base color. On the plus side it was incredibly easy to get all the types and sizes of glitters without any fishing or special prep work.

I absolutely loved how this layering combination turned out! I'm always a little under-confident in choosing base colors for glitters but things always seem to work out fairly well.

Does anyone else worry you'll pick a horrid base color and have to re-do the whole manicure? Do you have a foolproof method of choosing base colors? Let me know in the comments. Thanks for reading!

O'Keeffe's Working Hands Hand Cream Review

Product Name: O'Keeffe's Working Hands Hand Cream
Price: $6.99 for 2.7oz ($2.59 per ounce)
Where to Buy: Drugstores, Super stores
Main Moisturizing Ingredients: Glycerin, Paraffin
Available Fragrances: Unscented
Additional Details: This product is made in the USA.

First Impression: In terms of packaging it looks manly (accurate for who it's marketed towards) but I really like the clear green plastic, and the grippy ring around the top is so great for opening it and closing it with lotion coated hands! It truly is odorless and just a rather nondescript white product. Everyone in my family immediately bought into the claims of the product and ended up opening it up and using some before I had even had a chance to try it and review it!

Absorption Rate: The cream took approximately ten seconds to rub into my hands, and felt completely absorbed within twenty seconds.

When you first open the tub up the cream has a sort of hard shell on top that you have to push through. The viscosity of the product in the tub is basically zero. You have to very intentionally scoop some out with your fingers, this isn't a product where too much will accidentally come out on you.

This product has a rather strange texture. When you scoop a small amount out of the tub it's kind of chunky and fluffy, not uniform or creamy. I used a very small amount (as instructed on the back of the tub) for my absorption time test and I think that if I had used a normal amount the results would have been different. The lotion left my hands feeling sticky and when I rubbed them together I got tiny bits of skin and product balled up. As someone who is used to my hands feeling soft and moisturized after using a hand product I didn't like this feeling at all. My hands didn't feel soft, they didn't feel moisturized, and I just wanted to wash them.

Right smack dab on the package it says "Guaranteed relief for dry hands that crack and split", and on the bottom it says "Unconditionally Guaranteed" so if you for any reason buy this product and don't like it it looks like they're willing to refund you. I personally don't have hands or feet that are cracking or splitting, but luckily someone in my family did so I was happy to see an accurate test of this product's claims.

My family member didn't really notice much of a difference after one night which was a slight let-down. We all kind of expected it to be a miracle product based on the name and claims, but we kept our hopes up and tried it again the next night... and nada. No difference, not even on the cracked and split areas.

I'm not sure if it's just ineffective for me, but I was really disappointed by this product and I'll probably be calling about that guarantee! I'm pretty confused and bummed about this rather negative review since this hand cream has mostly rave reviews on Makeup Alley

Purchase or Pass?: I'm going to let you make your own personal calls on this one. My recommendation is that unless you've purchased this product before and know that it works for you, there are less expensive drugstore options that will give you faster and more noticeable results. If a friend has a jar try it out and see how you like it before you buy.

What do you think of this product? Is it something you've tried or are interested in trying? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!

Emily de Molly Cosmic Forces

I can't help but feel a little braggy that I own this polish, mostly because I majorly hustled butt and typed my little fingers off during a cutthroat indie restock a few months ago! There's a certain sense of accomplishment when you successfully navigate a popular brand restock, and I feel like there should be a congratulatory cookie in the package when it arrives for your achievements.

Alas, my package arrived sans cookie but did have a perfectly gorgeous bottle of Emily de Molly's Cosmic Forces inside! Being a major purple polish lover I swooned and savored that little bottle. So much in fact that I've pretty much refused to use a drop until this manicure. Why is it when you acquire a serious lemming that it also comes with a need to hoard the bottle forever?

This lovely little bottle of lacquer is a rare bird, where everything in it just seems to work. You know how some indies are pretty, and some are gorgeous, but then there are those that just seem like every detail has been perfectly curated and it all just blends together effortlessly? Yup, this polish is one of the latter.

Now that fall is approaching I figured it was a perfect time to use this rich, dark, red-violet purple jelly polish. It's filled to the brim with various sizes of lavender and hot pink hex and circle glitters including some extra large holo circles that are darn near impossible to get out of the bottle. I fished and fished (and even left the bottle upside down overnight) but couldn't get a single one! Humph.

This is three coats of Cosmic Forces. The jelly base applied beautifully, and the smaller glitters didn't require much special placement at all. There is so much gorgeous depth and sparkle to this nail lacquer and I'm so glad I stopped ooh-ing over the bottle and actually wore it.

What hard to get Indie polish are you currently swooning over? Do you ever not wear a polish because you love it so much? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!

Update: I know I missed the last three days in September, and that's because the package being shipped to me with the last two lotions for review arrived today, a whopping five days past it's estimated delivery day. Which has thrown off my September schedule, and been incredibly frustrating since it made me miss my deadline by 24 hours. As soon as I have a chance to truly test the lotions those reviews will be up! Apologies, sometimes things are out of your control.

OPI Care to Danse?

Right off the bat I have to admit that I'm a tad disappointed in this polish. Not because it isn't beautiful in it's own right, but because it's just not what I was hoping it would be! Does that ever happen to you guys? Well either way I present to you OPI's Care to Danse?. My swatch is three coats with base and top coat. Application was easy enough, and I found that it improved if I waited longer between coats and used a light touch with a bit more polish than usual on my brush.

I was really hoping that this would read as a super pale lavender when worn, but it actually appears to be more of a barely tinted white. Disappointment aside it won't be hard for me to franken the true light lavender jelly I'm craving and this certainly doesn't dissuade me from wanting to own the rest of the Ballet Collection.

When was the last time you were disappointed by a polish? Let me know in the comments! Thanks for reading!