Elevation Polish Forest Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Hey lacqueristas,

Press Sample

Today I have my monthly installment of Elevation Polish awesomeness.  This month's collection is called the Forest Collection and it features a host of soothing deep rich colored polishes that are sure to spike any polish lovers' desires.  As usual Lulu has done an outstanding job of creating a collection that has a little something for everyone.  The Forest Collection is packed full of neutral shimmers, devastating crellies jammed with iridescent glitter and of course holographics.  Coming hard on the hills of the Summit 2 Collection the Forest Collection feels like a twist in the usual offerings we see over the summer i.e. neons, neons, and more neons with a little matte glitter thrown in for flair.  I have to say I throughly enjoyed the change of pace.  Now let's get started...

Pointless Forest 2

Described as a teal glitter polish by Lulu which vastly understates the deliciousness and the rich depth of this polish.  What we have here is a scrumptious deep green crelly finish that leans teal.  It is also packed with gold, blue, purple, and more square shaped iridescent glitter.  

It's hard to look at it directly because the polish feels like it shifts with the light.  It is by far my absolute favorite of this entire collection and is the very definition of complex perfection. I regretted taking this mani off the minute it left my fingers.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/ Topcoat: Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter-A-Peel / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #1

Leadlight polishes: Homemade blends ;)

Stamping plate: MyOnline Shope Jr 16

I tried to capture the subtle hints of glitter glimmering through the polish along with the pastel beauty of a garden.  

Avenue of the Baobabs 

A gorgeous taupe polish packed full of deep raspberry pink shimmer that subtlety shifts depending on the lighting.  Oh my! I cannot tell you how I love polishes like this!  And of course because the base is taupe and essentially a neutral it's immensely flexible as a base for nail art.

 However, because I was so in love with this color I decided to play it nice and soft for the nail art here. If you look closely at the enlarged swatches you can see the shimmer including these intense blue flecks that I didn't notice until after I started editing my photos!

Mani-louge

Basecoat/ Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote /Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Stamping polish: China Glaze L8G8, Sally Hansen Color Foil in Titanium Flash

Stamping plate: Konad M63 and M64

In the end I think I still overwhelmed the base color a bit despite keeping the art relatively spare.

Shilin Stone Forest

A dusty grey black flecked shimmer mixed with holo pigment. I love grey polishes! I think they work well as neutrals to high contrast color nail art.  In this case Shilin was so soft it seemed at times to be easily overwhelmed by any change.  The holo pigment itself was difficult to capture lurking even in the sunlight, and as you can see from my photos I got the best depiction indoors in my lightbox.  I choose to keep the nail art for this one exceedingly simple as once again I fought not to overwhelm the delicacy of the polish with too much art. 

Indoors

Outdoors

Mani-louge

Basecoat/ Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote /Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #1 

Stamping plate: MoYou London Pro 04 XL and Pro 07 XL

Hinglajgarh Forest

Described as a bright green I think this polish actually leans toward sage green with a strong linear holo.  In my opinion the richest representative the Forest Collection.  I love this one as well! Then again what's not to love? It also happens to be a very near one coater which is always winning in my book. 

Indoors

Because this is the Forest Collection I tried to capture that same feel in my nail art.  I'm not sure of my success, but I love how this one turned out.  It was jungle themed.

Well jungle themed and tribal. I love how this came out!

Outdoors

Mani-louge

Basecoat/ Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote /Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #1 and #7

Accent polishes: Elevation Polish Aconcagua, Streetside NYC, and Puncak Jaya

Stamping plate: Winstonia W02

So what do you think?  A rather different collection than we are used to seeing in the summer right? I'm glad to see some pretty neutrals for the summer as well!  The Forest Collection will be available for purchase on the Elevation Polish Big Cartel site on July 7th at 10PM EST and July 22 at 10AM EST. Pricings typically ranges from $8.50-14 USD.  Don't miss out on another great Elevation Polish collection!  I hope you enjoyed the swatches and art and I'll see you next post...

These polishes were sent for my honest review which I honestly would have purchased anyway.  For more information please see my Disclosures Policy.

PolishTBH Anniversary Collection Review

Lovely lacquer ladies,

I had an honor bestowed on me these days! You know I am fairly humble when it comes to blogging and my nail art too.  It's because I look around and everywhere I see ladies with some crazy and amazing talent.  It's hard even think I match up so when a polishmaker takes the time to send me some of their products or ask me for opinions I take it really seriously, and I'm also extremely touched to be chosen.  Today I have that privilege as I'll be sharing a very special collection with you from PolishTBH from Chrissy's one year anniversary collection.  Just a warning this post is pretty pic heavy!

I discovered this brand thanks to Mimi of MakeupWithdrawal.  Because of her swatches I've clicked "add to cart" more times than I can count, and that's how I discovered the awesome splendor of the PolishTBH Diagon Alley Collection and the amazing cuticle oils she makes.  See my Harry Potter inspired nail art here.  I have a few more coming down the pipes so stay tuned, but today I'm just totally blown away.  I have three unique beauties for the 1 year bash and each one is somewhat a homage to the incredibly talented and still shockingly sexy (yes I said it) Britney Spears.

First up is Teal the World Ends.  The name is a a play on the song Til the World Ends.  This is a teal creally-ish polish sprinkled with white and black matte bar and hex glitter with holographic teal hexes interspersed throughout with spare holographic microglitter.  You want to know the greatest part about this polish (even though Chrissy has hit on two out of my four polish turn-ons right now) it's a THERMAL!!!  This little pretty transitions from the deep teal color to a pale blue when warm.  I honestly own nothing like this in my collection and I have a lot of thermals!  Opaque in two coats and stealing my heart in transition.  Thin coats with time to dry in between works best to minimize glitter drag.

 Warm

The gradient here is Essie Sweet Talker and stamped with Essie

No Place Like Chrome using Dashica SdP 47 and Fab Ur Nails Fun 2 plates

Transitioning

Almost to my nadir

Cold (or the natural state of my nails)

Brithday Tutu.  Is a pink gelee glitter topper packed with iridescent pink hexes and microglitter.  This one was a bit tough for me because I couldn't figure out what kind of base to pair with it.  Ultimately I think it worked best in a jelly sandwich layered to show off its beauty.  Pictured here layered between and over Colorama Espuma.  A little goes a long way with this one as the base was thicker than I expected.   It's necessary to be patient between coats otherwise you may not achieve the seemingly delicate effect I got here. I love how this one turned out the best!

I stamped over this polish using Color Club Eternal Beauty and Konad Special White for the Ballerina.  I used Konad plates M63 and S8

Finally I think I saved my favorite from the collection for last! Fantasy Anniversary Edition made me gasp when I took it out of the wrapping.  Liquid fire in a bottle! Almost too hot to maintain eye contact with.  This is one of those complex polishes that will flash fire at every angle that you move your nails.  Fantasy is a brownish-blackened jelly polish crammed with gold holographic hexes and microglitter.  Opaque in 3 thin precise coats.  Fantasy you are my everything.  I could not take it off nor did I dare create art over top of it!

So now you have my honest thoughts on this collection.  I think if you could only afford a couple you must definitely get Teal the World Ends and Fantasy Anniversary Edition.  Although in all honesty I think Birthday Tutu is the most versatile of all three.  Chrissy said TtWE will likely be her last thermal polish, which I think is a shame, so don't hesitate to pick it up!  The Anniversary Collection has already released.  You can purchase PolishTBH  here.  And while you're over there seriously consider trying the cuticle oils.  I loved the mini I got when I purchased the Diagon Alley collection so much that I immediately went back and bought 2 in the full size! Thank for reading and stay tuned for some awesome follow up nail art!

In case you didn't get it above these polishes were sent to me for review.  My opinions however are entirely my own!

Holloween 2013: PolishTBH Dark & Difficult Times and Thestral Harry Potter Inspired Nail Art

"Dark and difficult times lie ahead. Soon we must all face the choice between what is right and what is easy."

~ Albus Dumbledore

Lovely lacqueristas ;)

I hope everyone is doing fabulously on this sunny Sunday afternoon!  It's been quite the weekend including some lost nail mail so I'm feeling a bit frustrated, but plodding along fairly steadily all things considered.  Today I've got some gooduns for you ;) I have discovered another great indie brand that takes my breath away - PolishTBH.  Chrissy owner/creator of the brand created a collection that had me from the word go.  The Diagon Alley Collection  is an entire collection inspired by the infamous shopping grounds from the Harry Potter series.  There are 6 delicious shades in the collection 2 of which I will be featuring today along with some kick ass nail art!

Dark and Difficult Times is blueish gray polish that contains a mix of holo black and charcoal glitters and red and green color shifting flakies inspired by the sky in the setting of Harry Potter  It is incredibly beautiful and one of the main reasons I fell in love with this collection!  Though it is known that I have a horrible weakness when it comes to gray polishes.  This little precious flashes fire every time I look down.  It's opaque in 3 careful thin coats.  Because the base is a bit thick thinner coats work best with this polish.

Thestral is a sheer black jelly with crammed with various sized and shaped black matte and holo glitter, lavender hexes and micro silver glitter.  Inspired by that noble race of creatures that could only be seen by those who have viewed death. This polish was actually created by the 7 year old son of PolishTBH and the proceeds will be going to his new Xbox.  How cute!  Cuteness aside this polish is gorgeous!  Opaque again in three thin careful coats.  What's crazy is how complex this polish is.  It changes from angle to angle and has a lot of hidden depth.  Way to go Mikey!

Mani-louge

Base/Topcoat: Glitter Base (testing)/Sally Hanson Diamond Flash

Base colors:  PolishTBH Thestral & Dark & Difficult Times

Stamping Colors:  Essie Blue Rhapsody, Konad Black & White, Color Club Beyond

Stamping Plates:  Apipila P.10, Nailways Darker Period Halloween, Konad Charming Nails Plate

 

For the nail art I chose to use one of my new sets of plates from the latest collection of Nailways plates called Darker Period - Halloween.  I will do a separate post to review these later.  I also chose to use my newer Apipila plate P.10 which has a several awesome images from Harry Potter.  This manicure literally fell together with ease as a result. I also used a bit of advanced stamping technique here to double stamp which you can see in the lightning bolt and the spider web.

So thoughts? I enjoyed creating Halloween inspired nail art while keeping in mind the nostalgia I love so much about this series of books.  Having done this mani makes me want to read them all over again, but ain't nobody got time for that ;)  You can find the complete Diagon Alley Collection here on the PolishTBH website.  If you buy the whole collection you get a bonus cuticle oil which on top of smelling amazing are phenomenal! Alrighty thanks for reading and see you next post!

Making CrowsMas I Mean Christmas...

Hello polished prisoners,

I have been gone far too long I know it!  Life has been kicking my ass! Yup literally and figuratively I suddenly very poignantly understand the phrase "everything that matters just breaks in two".  Well I can only push forward the same as ever polishing my nails and hoping for the best.  Well striving for my best...so it's basically almost Christmas around these parts.  I wanted to do a 7 days of  CrowsToes Christmas but I'm thinking of doing something a more gurilla style to pay homage instead.  So let's start the show...

Mani-louge 

Base coat/topcoat: CND Stickey & Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Base color: OPI Big Apple Red and IMN Northern Lights in Silver

Glitter accents: CrowsToes Making Christmas

Stamping polishes: China Glaze Passion and Millennium and Konad Special White

Stamping plates: Sugar Bubbles Special 01 & Special 02

CrowsToes Making Christmas is a sinful mix of green, red, and silver microglitters.  It spreads like a mother..ahem it spreads awesomely ;) Let me tell you something.  I am in a lusty like relationship with my CrowsToes polishes.  People who complain about the formula or the density of these polishes have surely not let their beauty touch their souls, aside from which I have never had any such problems, but oh well maybe I'm biased by all the the brilliance.  Lauri is a freaking genius! There hasn't been a single polish that I've seen by her that hasn't sparked a covetous grinch like desire within me.  Also for the sake of full disclosure I purchased all of these polishes myself so I have zip to gain from singing their praises.

Sugar Bubbles.  Tamira why have you not mentioned this brand before? Eh cause its a new and happening Brazilian indie plate maker who recently stole all of my freaking heart.  Love at first stamp? You betcha.  I will throw a quick review together tomorrow of what I got from her so far but for now you can check my nail art supplies tab for the downlow.

So here we are Making Christmas with Crowstoes.  I love everything about this mani but all good things must end as I have so much more to show you.  CrowsToes polishes can be purchased at either Llarowe or Overall Beauty, and Sugar Bubble can be found here.  Thanks for reading and toodles!

Stormy Weather

Hello polished prisoners,

Happy Monday my lovely ladies!  I hope you had a great weekend and are looking forward to the upcoming holidays. I am but I also have quite a bit of work coming up so things are gonna be hectic.  Well it is the holidays so I expect that.  In any event did you know a storm is coming?  Lightening strikes, moonlit sprinkles, and sunshowers ahead so beware and tuck all friable parts out of sight!

Mani-louge

Base: China Glaze Pelican Gray & Sinful Colors Cinderella

Sponging: OPI I Have A Herring Problem, Sinful Colors In the Mist, Darling Diva Polish Space Beetle, China Glaze Haunting, and Wet N' Wild Black Creme; Barielle Slate of Affairs, and Zoya Feifei

Stamping polishes: Konad Special Polish in Yellow, White, and Pastel Blue, China Glaze Millenium

Stamping Plates: Konad UK Charming Nails Plate Q1, Konad M79, Bunny Nails BuNa 01, BM01, and SH08

One of my favorite instagramers Storms and Stars was having a little contest with the theme storms and stars ;)  Initially, I had so many ideas but I loved the concept of starry showers and lightening the most and decided to go with that theme.  This one was actually another mani that was quite a bit of work but for several reasons including base complexity, stamp placement, and overall effect.  I've been told now for the umteenth time that I'm OCD and today I'd finally have to agree.  I will admit I couldn't settle well on this one and it took me a while to figure out what I wanted, but I love the final picture.

What do you ladies think?  One thing that bugged me is that I realized I don't have any plates with an image of the sun except for my BM01 plate and I have a lot of plates!  I would think the sun would be a common kind of image to put on a plate but for some reason it's not prevalent at least not in my collection.  Maybe I should buy more plates ;) ;)  Lol trust me when I say that's not it at all!  I already have too many and more coming.  I need to finish my stamping catalog one of these days and get that page up so you all can check it out.  In any event thank you so much for reading stay tuned for more fun!  Toodles...

Gray Matter Abstracted...

Hey lacquerista ladies,

Having seen the yumminess of Pound of Glitters' Gray Matter I knew I had to create a little magic on top of such an amazing polish!  I think I might slightly be getting over my phobia of stamping over glitters and it's really for the best.  I should have listened to NailsIT about this long ago.  Oh well.  I did find however, that stamping over a polish like this requires a bit of pickness about the colors for stamping since this polish was overwhelmed really easily when I tried it with darker colors,

Lord look at the depth on this!  Love it!

Mani-louge

Base color: Pound of Glitter Gray Matter

Stamping Polish: China Glaze TTYL and Color Club Cold Metal

Stamping plate: Konad M63 & M64

Fire! The subtle way TTYL is peaking out is awesome :)

So thoughts?  I absolutely adore the way this came out, but I may be a bit biased ;)  I ultimately chose to layer a holographic polish over this holographic glitter and then use a foil to contrast.  For those of you that don't know the Foiled Collection by Color Club are some of my most reached for bottles when it comes to stamping along with the China Glaze OMG Collection.   Amusingly these two Konad plates were my first real stamping plates.  I fell in love with the patterns and had to have them thus began my obsession.  So my love affair with stamping and holographics continues.  Speaking of holographics those who follow my Instagram might know a little about what's up my sleeve next ;)  Thanks for reading and see you next post!  Toodles...

LDTTWC Day 5: We Can Do It!

Hey polished prisoners,

Happy Monday and October!  I'm hoping this post comes out well as I'm trying it from my new blogger app as my electricity is off in my apartment! These days it really feels as if I'm living under a dark cloud of apartment disasters.

Ok so today's art is all about a woman in history that inspires me. Well there are a lot but one lady always puts me in a great mood - Ms. Nina Simone. She was a classical pianist, an Aftican American activist, and one of the best damn jazz singers I've ever heard! I admire her a great deal and I was devastated by her passing in 2003. So this mani is most assuredly dedicated to her honor.

Mani-louge

Base color: L'Oreal Notting Hill Nlues and OPI Alpine Snow

Gradient: Orly Stone Cold

Stamping Polishes: Konad Special Polish in Light Blue, China Glaze Millennium and Passion

Script: Kiss Nail Art in Silver Glitter

Stamping plates: MJ Medium Plate and Dashica SdP

Can you see Nina's name? Honestly I need to update this because I realized I can't put the HTML code in with this app. Sheez! Well I hope you like what you've seen thus far. Stay tuned for my next post and thanks for reading! Toodles...

Falling Leaves...On Sundays I Stamp!

Hey polished prisoners,

Aigoo I am so behind schedule! Yesterday I had every intention to post up day 2 from the challenge, but I had an unexpected visit from my mum so that got blown to bits lol!  And today the AIS challenge for a Leafy mani almost stumped me.  I've told my friend Vicky from Boombastic Nails that I still have fails 9 out of 10 times when I go to stamp and today it went exactly like that.  I sort of realized these fails are the result of poor color choice, and so I'm going to be making an effort to make sure I put my stamping colors and base colors together with a bit more care in the future to prevent frustration when the colors don't show up as I've imagined them. Okay so enough rambling...let's get onto the art!

Orly's Buried Alive...wait I have to do this and then I can talk about the color.  "I shall leave you as you left me.  Buried alive...buried alive."  "Kaaaahhhhhhhhnnnnnn!!!! (echoes...echoes).  LOL!!! I'm sorry I had to and yes I'm a huge dork!  Anyway, Orly's Buried Alive looks like it should have debuted in the fall instead of the summer.  It is so rich so rich I knew when I saw the theme for this weekend that it had to be the main color for the mani.  And because I made this choice this is exactly why my first few attempts at this mani resulted in fails.  It's so dark and beautiful holos and lighter colors, even my beloved cG Passion, got sucked into its depths and disappeared never to be seen or heard of again! It took me a while to realize metallics and foils were going to be the only type of finishes that would work on this polish.

I ended up changing the base color of the water marble.

Mani-louge

Base coat: Revlon Rapid Dry Base Coat

Base colors: Orly Buried Alive (stamping) & Essie Sand Tropez (Marble)

Stamping colors: Color Club Art Club Name Unknown (green), Color Club Antiquated & Hot Like Lava, Essie Good As Gold & Nothing Else Metals, Sally Hansen Snappy Sorbet, and Konad Special Polish in Yellow

Marble colors: Color Club Artsy Crafty, Orly Buried Alive & Night Owl, OPI Big Apple Red & Lemonade Stand By Your Man, and Milani Juicy Glo

Stamping plate: BM04

Holy smokes right?!? So many freaking polishes! In my defense fall is very color rich and so even this amount of polishes doesn't quite cover the spectrum of all the beautiful colors that abound at this time of year.

I love the shimmer exploding all over this mani!

You may be asking why the water marble?  Well it was a last minute decision.  One of the things I love about marbles is that they very effectively capture the transitions of colors and fall is really all about transition.  So what do you think?  Even though this challenge pushed me and I had multiple fails I'm very happy with the final results.  Thanks for reading and stay tuned for my vintage mani for day two of the LDTTW challenge!  Toodles!

Let's Do The Time Warp Challenge - Day 1

Hey polished prisoners,

I'm excited to share my nail art from my first challenge ever with you guys! I have really hesitated in signing up for challenges because of the time commitment and my own stamina issues, but I felt like this one set up by Neverland Nail Blog was infinitely do-able oh say compared to something like the 31 Day Nail Art challenge.  The theme for day one is - I Should Have Been Born In.  Basically you pick an era and make the magic happen.  There are many era's I love however I will say as a black woman there are just some points in history that I'm grateful I didn't live through while there are others that I wish I'd seen up close and personal.  One of them is the 70's! Yes when totally groovy afro's abounded, bell-bottoms were all the rage, and Scooby-Doo took the world by storm.  Ah yes I love the 70's!

Peace, love and hairgrease ;)

Mani-louge

Water Marble: OPI Elephantastic Pink, Red, Lemonade Stand By Your Man, Org-re The Top Blue, and Funky Dunky, Sally Hansen Going Green

Stamping polish: Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl

Stamping plates: BM07 & BM09

There are a lot of ways to interpret the 70's but water marble seems the most approriate somehow.  That pyschiadelic feeling from the wave of psychotrophic drugs that was abundant during that time feels the most rich.  There were also a lot of bold and hideous patterns! Lol!

I honestly enjoyed this theme so much I want do more takes on it! I had a lot of ideas, but I didn't want to do an overwhelming mani where you didn't know where to look first so I even kept the stamping relatively simple.

People kept grabbing my hand today to look at this manicure.  This was probably my most successful marbling yet!

You may have noticed the water marble is different from the final product if you read my instagram or take a good look at the pictures.  It's because when I was adding the stamping I had a small mishap and had to redo the marble on my index finger.

You can see the shimmer of Lemonade Stand in the setting sun...

So what's the verdict? Groovy and gravy or reeking of the establishment?  Hahaha.  Please check out the other designs and their themes below.  Thanks for reading and I'll have the next entry up on Saturday.

Chameleon Abstract feat Sonoma Nail Art My Three Glitters

Hey polished prisoners,

There's nothing I love more than finding an amazing drug store polish on the cheap except for when it's a HTF lemming.  When I was in Rite Aid some time ago I discovered Chameleon Polish by Scherr - a line of super pretty shifing duochromes that retail for about $3.99.  I picked up one on a whim and now I'm so glad I did! I bought Calypso a purple to gray/blue shifting color.   In a word it's gorgeous!  I wanted to do a simple gradient with Calypso so I sponged it over Essie's Turquoise & Caicos - one of my favorite blue polishes of all time, and added some simple stamping to turn up the flavor.  Here's how it turned out...

Mani-louge

Base coat: Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat

Top Coat: Out The Door (boo)

Base Color: Essie's Turquoise & Caicos

Gradient (dry sponge method):  Chameleon Polish Calypso

Glitter Accent Nails: Sonoma Nail Art My Three Glitters & CND Effects Gold Sparkle

Stamping polish:  Konad Special Polish in Black Pearl

Stamping Plate: SH23

Insert angry face her-  Out the Door smeared my perfect stamp! I'm all out of poshe and I've never felt more desperate!

I chose to add glitter accent nails because honestly I'm always slightly unnerved when all of my nails match.  It's okay every once in a while, but I prefer a little variety within a mani.  SNA's MTG's provided the perfect touch without overwhelming the gradient. 

The gradient before stamping.  I think this is super pretty too!

Honestly there probably isn't a black and while matte polish that I've met that I don't like. However I will say MTG's is toward my top picks when it comes to these types of polishes.  It's funky and unique and I love that the glitters are squares. I added CND's Gold Sparkle just for a touch of sheen without going too overboard.

 

So this is pretty.  Yup - just plain ole pretty.  When I finished this mani I felt like I'd had a return to girly without the bling or gleam. I need to do more mani's like this one.  Do you like it? Am I the only one in the NP sphere still totally obsessed with gradient nail art? I hope not lol! Thanks for reading and see you next post! Toodles...