Lacquistry Cotton Candy - Swatches and Review

In the past few months, the nail polish world has seen a major influx of indy polish makers. These small companies like Nerd Lacquer, Dollish Polish, Lacquistry, and Nail-venturous (to name a few) are all created by fellow polish lovers who create unique, handcrafted polishes and sell them on sites like Etsy. People are rushing to buy these awesome polishes left and right, and they are selling like hotcakes!! Some of the more popular shops have to close down the same day they open to fill the 1000+ orders they receive within 24 hours of opening. They are selling out for good reason - these polishes are truly amazing, and most of them unlike anything that you would be able to find that is produced by traditional big-box brands such as OPI, Revlon, Butter London and the like.

I am absolutely thrilled at the outpouring of new and exciting polishes coming from indy companies lately. Unfortunately, there may be a lacquer base shortage on the horizon so the future of several of these brands is uncertain. Hopefully, these companies can find a new base supplier and keep on creating these wonderful polishes. While a lot of new collections coming out from major nail polish retailers have been making me yawn lately, I know that there will always be something new and exciting coming out from my favorite indy brands.

Today I have for you an indy polish made by Jenna over at Lacquistry on Etsy. The name is Cotton Candy, and was inspired by Jenna's love of Bubblicious Cotton Candy gum. It is an amazing blue glitter in a hot pink jelly base with fuchsia hex glitter scattered throughout. This is probably one of the most unique polishes that I own, and I absolutely adore it!

As amazing as Lacquistry Cotton Candy is, the application process is a bit more tricky that your average nail polish.  I actually had to remove my first try at painting my nails with this polish because I was just not loving how it was turning out. Because of the different sizes of glitter in the polish, the large hex glitters tend to clump together and you have to sometimes manually place where you want the hex glitters to go. It was actually pretty frustrating, and I'm no stranger to difficult-to-apply polishes. But it's just the nature of these types of glitter polishes and with a bit of patience I was able to get a much better application the second time around.

The blue glitter in a sheer hot pink base gives such a cool effect to this polish, and the hex glitters really add something special. The pictures tend to exaggerate the pink jelly base, whereas in real life it's not quite as noticeable. My pictures seem to make the blue appear more purple than it really is, perhaps because of the pink base. In real life, it is the perfect, bright medium blue color with no purple tone to it. My sad photographing skills just could not capture how blingy and glowy it really was. It definitely reminds me of the pink and blue swirled Bubbilicious Cotton Candy gum!

All in all, Lacquistry Cotton Candy is an amazingly awesome and unique polish that requires a bit of patience to apply. But once you get past the tricky application process, this polish will smack you in the face with awesome. The first two pictures are natural light and the rest are artificial light indoors. Don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge. Hope you enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by!

It's Just Another Manic Monday - Vintage Hard Candy Manic

Happy Monday everyone! Today I thought I'd swatch one of my vintage Hard Candy polishes for you guys. Considering it is manic Monday, I figured Manic would be the perfect color for today! Manic Monday (if you don't know - BUT YOU SHOULD) is the famous song that was released by the Bangles on January 27, 1986. While that date isn't especially significant, the next day, on January 28, 1986, the US space shuttle Challenger exploded during launch and killed all seven astronauts on board. It was the first time in NASA manned space flight history that a crew was killed during a mission, and was a very sad day for the United States. 6 days later, on February 3, I was born. How is this significant at all to this polish? It's not, just thought I'd throw out some random trivia for you guys!

Anyways, if you know me, you know that I have a slight obsession with vintage Hard Candy polishes. It all started back in middle school when I began seeing ads for the brand in YM and Teen magazines, and when the lovely little square bottles started popping up at Sephora and other department stores in my area. I was hooked. The brand was revolutionary for its time, as there were not many "fun" nail polish colors on the market. The story begins when the founder of Hard Candy, Dineh Mohajer, mixed up a sky blue polish one day to match her shoes. People flipped out, she created the brand Hard Candy, next thing you know Alicia Silverstone wore Sky polish on Letterman one night and the rest was history. The original Hard Candy line is long discontinued, and although the line has been revived and is being sold in Wal-Mart stores in the US, I still prefer the old stuff =)

Manic is from the original Hard Candy release back in 1996 and has been discontinued for many years. The formula was a bit thick and goopy, so I added a few drops of thinner and it was just right. Manic is a vibrant royal blue/purple shimmer and I am absolutely in love with it! Unfortunately, no matter what lighting source I used, I just couldn't capture the true awesomeness. Imagine these pictures with a hint of a purple flash and you will have the right idea of Manic.

Here's 2 coats of Hard Candy Manic, first outdoors then indoors with diffused flash. Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by! I will see you all tomorrow =)

Essie Starry Starry Nights

Good afternoon my lovelies! Today, I am SO EXCITED to write this blog post! I have for you on this first day of December, Essie Starry Starry Nights. If you are new to the polish world, you may not know why I am so damn excited about this. Starry Starry Nights is a long discontinued polish that is lusted over by many, but owned by few. Some people luck out and find bottles of this polish at old nail salons, and some people just bite the bullet and pay upwards of $300 on eBay. I was very lucky to get my hands on this polish through a very generous swapper on MUA, as I thought I would never see this polish in my entire life. It is said to be based on Chanel's Ciel de Nuit polish, but over time has come to be just as coveted as the Chanel, if not more so. And for good reason - it is an absolutely stunning nail polish.

Starry Starry Nights is a beautiful midnight blue jelly polish with fine silver sparkles throughout.  The sheer, jelly quality allows the glitter to shine through and appear almost as the stars in the night sky would. It is beautiful. The application wasn't without flaws - the first two coats were as streaky as could be but the third coat evened everything out perfectly. It is an old, non 3-free polish which means it's a bit runny and smells quite strongly. Despite the glitter, it dried to a smooth finish and only required one coat of Seche Vite to provide a shiny surface.

There are several viable dupes out there, though some are just as hard to find as the Essie polish itself. Many people have frankened dupes using Wet n Wild Nocturnal, a deep blue jelly polish, with fine silver glitter. These dupes are all fantastic, so if you want to try your hand at the franken, you will more than likely have excellent results! I made a franken of it and was quite satisfied until I got the real thing. There's nothing quite like the real thing sometimes =) So girls, don't give up hope! You never know what you will find or who you will meet that will fulfill your greatest polish lemmings!

Anyways, here are waaaaaaaaaay too many pictures of Essie Starry Starry Nights. Here is 3 coats of SSN with one coat of Seche Vite. Don't forget to click to enlarge, you'll want to see the detail on this bad boy!

Outdoor, natural light

Indoor, artificial light

Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow =)