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Elevation Polish Excitement!

Nothing to Disclose

My dearest readers!  I’m so delighted to be able to share these two polishes with you!  One is a super versatile holographic flakie topper and the other is a beautiful linear holo!  I bet you would just like me to get right onto the review…but are you sure you don’t want to chat a bit about the weather or work or…ok ok ok!  Polish it is!

First up let’s start with that super versatile topper I mentioned.  Aguja St. Exupery:

Aguja St. Exupery (over LynBDesigns - Happy Wallabies)

Aguja St. Exupery (over LynBDesigns – Happy Wallabies)

For this swatch I paired Aguja St. Exupery with LynBDesigns – Happy Wallabies (a pale pink with white flakies.  Happy Wallabies did stain my nails bright red so if you have this polish and haven’t used it yet please be aware.  It is discontinued).  Aguja St. Exupery gives not only that linear holo effect that is so well loved in the indie polish community but also is packed with a golden shimmer and taupe flakies.

Aguja St. Exupery (over LynBDesigns - Happy Wallabies)

Aguja St. Exupery (over LynBDesigns – Happy Wallabies)

In this picture you can see the flakies and shimmer but not as much of the holo.  Trust me though it may be shy on camera you get this topper out into the sunlight and it is as effervescent and outgoing as you could want!  Picture shows ONE coat over undies.

BONUS:

Aguja St. Exupery (over various undies)

Aguja St. Exupery (over various undies)

I was playing around with my swatch wheel and some blues and an off-white with this topper and look at how nifty it looks on other colors!  I don’t remember which polishes I used here, I believe it’s a Wet n’ Wild and the blues are Julep polishes.

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; LynBDesigns – Happy Wallabies; Elevation Polish – Aguja St. Exupery; Glisten & Glow – HK Girl Topcoat

Next up is my favorite holo of all time.  Anyone who knows me KNOWS that I have a passion for blue polishes.  Specifically dark teal-leaning navy blues.  Without further set up let’s just get on to the awesome.  Here’s Darkest Storm:

The Darkest Storm (with an accent of Alchemy Lacquers - Borage prototype)

The Darkest Storm (with an accent of Alchemy Lacquers – Borage prototype)

Oh.Em.Gee.  I am so in love with this polish and I’m not even a huge holo fan (*gasp* I know, but I’m such a sucker for the glitter!)  This polish is just AH-mazing!  (The accent nail is a prototype of an upcoming polish, it has been tweaked for final release so it will look slightly different from this picture, I will have pics of the final polish as well).

The Darkest Storm (with an accent of Alchemy Lacquers - Borage prototype)

The Darkest Storm (with an accent of Alchemy Lacquers – Borage prototype)

Just look at that beautiful holo!!  This pic shows two coats to full opacity.  The formula is really nice and didn’t give me any troubles at all.  It’s highly pigmented without being crazy thick or hard to work with!

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Elevation Polish – Darkest Storm; Alchemy Lacquers – Borage Prototype; Glisten & Glow – HK Girl Topcoat

These two polishes were some of my first from Elevation.  I have been so impressed with the formulas and the colors thus far.  I think I’m a convert and I have already started stacking up my collection with a few discontinued ones.  Trust me though as I get more that are still available I’ll be sharing them with you!  Elevation restocks twice per month (the 7th and 22nd) and you can find out all about it at their website as well as keep up to date on all the news!

 

 

Amazing Multi-Blogger Giveaway!

Oh My!  At the risk of sounding like George Takei, oh MY!  Ok so I love George Takei so I’m not really worried about sounding like him – I’d be honored.  But I digress!  I am going to just leave this AH-MAZING giveaway here for you to enter!  There are a ton of great prizes and you might find some pretty awesome bloggers and discover some new indie brands  – who doesn’t love that??  Don’t forget to enter via the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post!  May the odds be ever in your favor!


Multi Blogger Giveaway!


Prize Pack 1 from Glamour Granny (US only):

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Carnival Glass, Poe and Vynails from Royal Lacquer.


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Geirangerfjord and Trollveggan from Big Spoon Lacquers
 

Prize Pack 2 from BoomShakaLacquer (US only):


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Nimue and Hecate from Daphine Polish


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Hellebore and Fireweed from Alchemy Lacquers




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Floor 500, Rose and the Dalek, Moon Over Paradise and Moisturize Me 

from Gothic Gala




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 mystery prize from Ellagee





Prize Pack 3 from Les Essais Beauté de Schette (Worldwide):


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$25 Dazzled gift certificate








Prize Pack 4 from The Crumpet (worldwide):
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Llarowe gift certificate








Prize Pack 5 from Amanda Loves Polish (US only): 
 


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Don’t Panic and Calypso from Carpe Noctem Cosmetics


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 Carnivale and unscented cuticle oil from Northern Star Polish


 

Prize Pack 6 from Decently Fashionable (US only):


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 3 surprise polishes from Pretty Bitch


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 mystery nail art package from Decently Fashionable






Prize Pack 7 from Short Nails Need Love Too (US only):

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A Star to Sail By and Maui from Indigo Bananas

Sweet Tart and a mini glass file from Model City Polish

 

New Polish from Alchemy Lacquers!

Provided for Honest Review

Greetings and Salutations!  I come bearing pictures of a NEW Alchemy Lacquers Shade!   As you may know I am a Lab Assistant for Alchemy Lacquers.  I love it that I get to try out several different polishes that are in various stages of development it’s tons of fun!

Today I have a lovely lovely polish and the best news is that it’s out now so you can go and snag your own bottle!  Here is Elixir No. 3

Elixir No. 3

Elixir No. 3

Elixir No. 3 is a charcoal gray jelly with a blue to purple iridescent shift.  Oh yeah and it’s filled with holographic sparkle glitters!  It’s so pretty!  Here you can see the sort of icy blue shine that it has!

Elixir No. 3

Elixir No. 3

Here you can see a little more of the blue to purple shift!  As I expected with Alchemy Lacquers I’m delighted with the formula on this polish.  It is a bit sheer but this is two coats with no undies!

Polishes Used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Alchemy Lacquers – Elixir No. 3; Glisten & Glow – HK Girl Topcoat

I really love Alchemy Lacquers and I really hope that a lot of people go and check out this up and coming indie brand!  You can visit their site, Facebook, or Instagram to get all the gossip.  Don’t forget to go get your bottle of Elixir No. 3 (or any other of their amazing polishes) at their Etsy Store.

 

My new gig…Lab assistant?

 Provided for Honest Review

My lovely readers welcome!  I bet you’re thinking, “huh she got a new job, so what, show us polish grr!”  But no I have not!  I also have no background in science or medicine whatsoever unless you count freshman biology!  So what could I possibly be talking about?

I’m talking about nail polish, natch!  Recently I became a Lab Assistant for Alchemy Lacquers.  The head alchemist over there was recently looking for Lab Assistants to test and swatch polishes, report  on how they wear, the formulas, and also to review them!  SO you know I had to jump on board for that.  I’m going to share three polishes with you today but there will be more in the future as well!

Let’s start with my favorite today…who doesn’t like to shake things up now and then?   The reason it’s my favorite is because it is probably one of the most versatile polishes I own and I will be snagging a backup bottle I can tell you that!

Without anymore fanfare…Unicorn Horn!

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So now you’re probably saying to yourself…huh that’s one funny looking polish it’s all different colors.  But NO what Unicorn Horn brings to the table is amazing!  It is a micro glitter topper that will take your mani right over the top!  I wanted to show how it will work over a variety of bases.  There is an insane amount of multi-colored metallic micro-glitter packed into a clear base…SO MUCH SPARKLE.  I cannot express this enough.  I have micro glitter top coats…but they are not multi-colored and that really sets this one apart in my opinion!

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I showed it over a nude/mauve color (upcoming review look for that!), navy blue (I don’t own a black polish, don’t judge me), white, and an amazing purple (another upcoming review!).  You can see that Unicorn Horn works with all of them!  You can also see some of the colors in this picture since the sun came out to peek at me through the window!

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Here’s another shot.  I really wanted to show what kind of sparkle factor you can expect with this polish!  I had zero issues with formula and I actually did wear test this polish along with another one so the wear on it is great! This polish also did not dry to the consistency of sandpaper that you might expect…it really was quite nice and a nice topcoat was all that was needed to smooth out the glitter a little.  These pictures show ONE coat over undies.  Yes, there is that much glitter in ONE coat!

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Sally Hansen – White On; Essie – Midnight Cami; Carpe Noctem – Sapphire Abyss; Ruby White Tips – Constance; Alchemy Lacquers – Unicorn Horn; Glisten & Glow – HK Girl Top Coat

Next up is the amazing Hydra Venom!

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Hydra Venom is a seafoam green shimmery polish with what the maker describes as a blue interference.  What that means is that it gives it a slight duochrome effect and in some lights it may look more blue than green.  In fact these pictures were taken with indirect sunlight, but when I went into other rooms where the only light source was incandescent lights it looked almost baby blue at some angles.

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The polish went on a bit sheer at first, but reached full opacity in two coats.  It wore like iron.   I wore this mani for almost a week and I had little to no tip wear.  For me this is impressive because I type for a living and I’m not exactly the easiest on my hands at all and I often do things like wash dishes…by hand…without gloves *GASP*.   Yes that is Unicorn Horn on the middle two fingers…I did a double accent with it to see how that worked and it worked beautifully!

Polishes used:  Sally Hansen Complete Care – 4-in-1 Treatment; Alchemy Lacquers – Hydra Venom; Alchemy Lacquers – Unicorn Horn; Glisten & Glow – HK Girl

Last but certainly not least is Quicksilver!

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This is a wonderful full coverage (and I really mean full coverage) glitter polish.  It’s full of glitz and glam while retaining a sophisticated air and style.  I could totally see this one being worn with a spectacular red or black dress for a formal event.  I will not let this stop me from wearing it to school with jeans and t-shirt though!

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Excuse the weird shadow – I was trying to catch some of the detail of the glitter and well…the polish still looks great that’s what matters!  It’s blingy like crazy!  It’s different sizes of metallic silver glitter, micro-glitter and small hex glitters.  All in a clear base.  There is no base color it’s all glitter!  The picture shows two coats with NO undies!  When it’s on it gives this kind of disco-ball effect and the coverage is amazing!  I’ve had full coverage glitters…but they don’t really always live up to the name…this one does!

Polishes used:  Glisten & Glow – Stuck on Blu; Alchemy Lacquers – Quicksilver; Glisten & Glow – HK Girl

Overall I am super impressed, Alchemy Lacquers is really showing that she has the chops even though she is still up and coming!  I absolutely love that she has a theme and she holds to that theme beautifully, right down to having her tester/swatchers called Lab Assistants!

Unicorn Horn and Quicksilver are both currently available at Alchemy Lacquers’ Etsy store!  Hydra Venom will be added to the Alchemical Imaginarium collection in an upcoming release!

You can keep up to date on all things Alchemy Lacquers at the website or their Facebook page!  You can also see swatches, works in progress, and other nail goodies on their Instagram feed.