Retro Sunday Squared - Halloween Month Kickoff with Vintage Fantasy Makers!

Happy Sunday my lacquered lovelies! I am so excited to bring you all today's edition of Retro Sunday Squared with my girl Dana over at Polished Claws Up! Dana and I are both huge Halloween nuts so we decided that all October, Retro Sunday Squared will be bringing you the best polishes of Halloween's past! Today may be the last day in September but we couldn't wait, so to kick off Halloween month, we're sharing with you vintage Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers polishes today.

Fantasy Makers is Wet n Wild's Halloween brand that they do every year. These days, Fantasy Makers polishes are packaged in adorable little tombstones but back in the day they were in regular old bottles. I am not sure the exact date of these polishes but I believe they are from somewhere around the early 2000's. Correct me if I'm wrong! Vintage Fantasy Makers are so fun because there are TONS of them out there and it's interesting to see how the brand has evolved over the years.

So without further ado, here are the two vintage Fantasy Makers polishes I have chosen to show you all today! Hope you enjoy and don't forget to check out Dana's Fantasy Makers picks as well =)

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First up is Fantasy Makers Sparklin'. I AM OBSESSED WITH THIS POLISH. Sorry for shouting but it really is that awesome. Sparklin' combines my two favorite things ever: shimmer and color shifting glitter. Combining glitter and shimmer together can get kind of tricky because often times the shimmer will overtake the glitter or vice versa. But this polish has the absolute perfect ratio of glitter to shimmer and together they pack quite a punch! Sparklin' has a green jelly base packed with golden shimmer and blue to green to gold color shifting glitter! YES! SO GOOD!

So here's 3 coats of Fantasy Makers Sparklin'! Don't forget to enlarge these pics, Sparklin' is definitely worth a closer look =)

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Next up is Fantasy Makers Glitterin'. Glitterin' is a black jelly base packed with red micro glitter. It is very reminiscent of China Glaze Lubu Heels or RBL Black Russian - but better because it was meant for Halloween! Yes, I got rid of my Lubu Heels because I wanted to keep this polish instead. You know me, I'm a sucker for anything Halloween! Red and black polishes are perfect for Halloween so this is a great addition to my Fantasy Makers collection =)

Here's 2 coats of Fantasy Makers Glitterin'. Enjoy!

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What do you guys think? Do you have any old school Fantasy Makers polishes? DO you have any of the more recent Fantasy Makers ones? Do share!

Thanks for stopping by today! Stay tuned all October long for a Halloween polish extravaganza here at The Scholarly Nail! I can't wait!!

Tone on Tone Fall Stamping

Happy Friday my loves!!! I've been wanting to try different kinds of nail art lately but when it comes down to it, I'm still a stamping junkie at heart. I am a huge fan of stamping - it's easy, the finished product looks great and there are countless awesome stamping plates out there with fun patterns. I haven't updated my stamping plate collection in awhile but I need to soon because there are so many great ones that have come out lately.

I figured I'd do another fall-ish manicure for today because, well, I flipping love fall. Just warning you all now, get ready for a TON of orange polishes to come in the next month or so. Orange is one of my favorite polish colors and plus with fall starting and Halloween just around the corner, I can't get enough of it! I love tone-on-tone stamping looks, which is patterns stamped in the same color family as the base color. It manages to be subtle but with a bit of a twist. Tone-on-tone designs are the perfect way to wear nail art to the office because from far away it looks like your average mani but up close it's a party on your nails!

I started out this manicure with 2 coats of Joe Fresh Pumpkin. This was gifted to me by my lovely twitter friend Caitlin. Joe Fresh is a Canadian clothing store that also has a fantastic line of nail polish. Joe Fresh Pumpkin is THE PERFECT PUMPKIN COLOR. Sadly, my camera wonks out with oranges but Pumpkin is a bit more yellow than pictured here. Imagine the exact color of pumpkin puree and that is the color of this polish. It's absolute perfection in a bottle. I stamped over it with Kleancolor Metallic Orange, which is the most amazing metallic orange color you will ever see. If you're new around here, I have a serious obsession with Kleancolor Metallic polishes. They are amazingly pigmented and great for stamping as well!

So here's 2 coats of Joe Fresh Pumpkin stamped with Kleancolor Metallic Orange. Enjoy!

What do you guys think?

Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you all tomorrow!!

Top 20 Autumn Polishes and China Glaze Harvest Moon Swatched!

Good morning everyone!! I've been seeing lots of "Top Autumn" posts going around in the past week or so and I thought I would join in on the fun! Fall is my absolute favorite season and I'm so excited that it's finally here. I love everything about it, from the cooler temps and falling leaves to Halloween and pumpkins to boots and sweaters and everything in-between. Another thing I love about Autumn is the colors. Not just the vivid colors of the changing leaves, but also the murky grey skies and the muted jewel tones of fall fashion. Don't get me wrong, I love me some neons but there's nothing quite like a deep, glowing red polish to put me in a great mood.

I had a really tough time choosing a top 20 and I feel like I'm really missing a lot of gems here. I wanted to try to represent a wide range of color families in my list and I'm pretty happy with what I've come up with. I ended up deciding on my choices by writing a list of the colors (i.e. not the specific polishes) that I thought were essential for fall, and from there I picked a polish that fit into each category. I will list the runner's up in each category as well, just for fun =)

So here's my Top 20 Autumn Polishes for 2012. In bold, I have listed the colors pictured and in parentheses I have listed the runners up!

 (L-R)

Metallic Bright Red: Sally Hansen Hot Sauce (Runner Up: OPI Danke Shiny Red)

Red/Orange Duochrome: MAC Bad Fairy (RU: Sally Hansen Prisms Amber Ruby)

Red w/ Copper Shimmer: Maybelline Autumn Leaves (RU: L'Oreal 405)

Vampy Red: China Glaze Branding Iron (RU: Revlon Vixen)

 (L-R)

Bright Orange Shimmer: Wet n Wild Inferno (RU: China Glaze Riveting)

Pumpkin Orange: Joe Fresh Pumpkin (RU: OPI Ginger Bells)

Orange-Copper Foil: China Glaze Harvest Moon (RU: Kleancolor Metallic Orange)

Gold Glitter: Milani Gold Glitz (RU: China Glaze Fireside Glow)

Mustard Yellow: China Glaze Trendsetter (RU: Hard Candy Hot Rod)

 (L-R)

Dusty Green Creme - Avon Olive Green (RU: China Glaze Westside Warrior)

Green w/ Gold Shimmer: Sally Hansen Project Runway (RU: BB Couture Grenade)

Green/Gold Duochrome - Chanel Peridot (no RU)

Olive Green Shimmer - NARS Mash (RU: China Glaze Wagon Trail)

 Dusty Blue-grey: Essence Into the Dark (RU: MAC Blue India)

Teal: OPI Ski Teal We Drop (RU: YSL Wintergreen)

Purple/Blue Duochrome: Nubar Peacock Feathers (RU: Ludurana Reluz)

(L-R)

Plum Creme: Misa Sorry Just Can't Help It (RU: China Glaze Urban Night)

Deep Purple Shimmer: OPI Every Month is Oktoberfest (RU China Glaze Cowgirl Up)

Brown Shimmer: Sephora by OPI 212-Sephora (RU: China Glaze Ingrid)

Metallic Brown: Urban Decay Barlust (RU: China Glaze Side Saddle)

Honorable mention:

Anything not previously listed from the China Glaze 2011 Metro and 2008 Rodeo Diva Collections

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Now I have for you a polish I have been dying to swatch since it came out, China Glaze Harvest Moon. Harvest Moon was part of this spring's Capitol Colors collection, which is perhaps the most fall-ish collection to ever be released not in the fall. Harvest Moon is a gorgeous orangey-copper foil. Pictured is two coats but it really could have been a one coater had I not been taking pics. This color just screams autumn to me and the name is perfect as well! Formula was decent, it took a bit longer to dry than I would have expected, hence the smudge on my ring finger. The dry time isn't too crazy though and is definitely manageable.

Here's 2 coats of China Glaze Harvest Moon!

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So what do you all think? Do you agree with my top polishes for autumn? Disagree? What are some of your picks for the best fall polishes?

Thanks for stopping by today! See you all tomorrow =)

Vintage Hard Candy Scam

Happy Hump Day my lovely readers!! Today I have a vintage Hard Candy polish that I didn't get to show you all last week called Scam. Scam may be my absolute favorite of all my vintage Hard Candy polishes and of course, probably the most difficult one to capture on camera as well.

Hard Candy Scam has a bright magenta base that is absolutely packed with blue shimmer. The blue shimmer in the magenta base gives the polish an overall purple tone. Scam is from the original 1996 release of Hard Candy and is extremely difficult to find these days so I feel very happy that I was able to get my hands on it! But like everything else vintage, you just never know what is going to pop up so if you are interested in collecting vintage Hard Candy, just keep your eyes peeled!

These swatches are pretty subpar today, but I am showing you these ones because they capture the color the most accurately out of all the ones I took. Each one is in a different lighting setting to try to capture the subtle nuances of the polish in every light possible!
Here's 3 coats of Hard Candy Scam. Enjoy!

What do you guys think? Do you have anything similar in your stash? 

Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you all tomorrow =)

Pretty Serious VT100

Good morning everyone, happy Tuesday! Today I have a super quick post for you all. I realized that I still had some Pretty Serious swatches that I haven't shown you guys yet, and I figured what better time than when she is having a sale!! This week only, all Pretty Serious products from the Hello World collection are 50% off! You can find the collection here at Pretty-Serious.com.

Today I have swatches of Pretty Serious VT100! VT100 is an AMAZING bright green polish packed with large pieces of gold shimmer. This is one of those polishes I like to call "brocaded shimmer." I am in LOVE with this polish, and when I was swatching all my Pretty Serious polishes I made sure to save this one for last so I could wear it as a full manicure. I got so many compliments on it! Anyways, the formula was superb and on par with the rest of the Pretty Serious polishes that I tried. Oh, and it's from the Hello World collection so it is only 4.95 AUD this week!

Here's 2 coats of Pretty Serious VT100. Enjoy!!

Ahhh so amazing! What do you guys think!

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Retro Sunday Squared - Vintage L'Oreals

Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you have all had a fantastic weekend! Today on Retro Sunday Squared with myself and Dana over at Polished Claws Up! have decided to swatch some vintage L'Oreals. I LOVE vintage L'Oreal polishes, and have pretty much doubled my collection of them thanks to an amazing lot that I found on eBay UK (and my wonderful friend Esther who muled them for me!). I had a hard time picking which two to swatch for this post because I own so many fantastic ones. I finally decided on Future Jade and Laquiresist Ocean, two of my more recent acquisitions. I'm not sure of the exact dates of these polishes, but I am guessing they came out some time in the 1990's.

Don't forget to check out the awesome L'Oreal polishes that Dana has swatched for today over at Polished Claws Up!

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First up is L'Oreal Laquiresist Ocean. This polish was one of my most wanted polishes for EVER and when it finally popped up on eBay UK I was stoked beyond belief! Ocean is a gorgeous deep ocean blue polish packed with large silver shimmer. It walks the fine line between wanting to be a foil and wanting to be a shimmer. I just LOVE this one. It has a bit of a night sky-esque quality to it while still maintaining its individuality. I don't think I have anything else quite like this in my stash so I am so happy to have finally gotten my hands on it!

Without further ado, here's 2 coats of L'Oreal Laquiresist Ocean.

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Next up is L'Oreal Future Jade. I don't really have too much to say about this polish except it may just be one of the top 5 greens in my entire collection - and that's a compliment considering green is my favorite polish color! Future Jade is an emerald green with golden green shimmer running throughout. It's such a bright and rich color, and then that shimmer that makes it a definite home run. It was a bit sheer, but I love sheer shimmers because the depth of the polish intensifies with each coat. I'm so glad to have this bad boy in my stash!

Here's 3 coats of L'Oreal Future Jade. Enjoy!

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What do you guys think of these vintage L'Oreals? Do you have any old school L'Oreals in your stash?

I'm bummed that I didn't get a chance to post the conclusion of vintage Hard Candy week yesterday, I promise I will show you very soon! The weekends get pretty crazy around here so I just didn't have the time. Anyways, thanks for stopping by today and I will see you all soon =)

Vintage Hard Candy Week - Fall Shimmers

Happy Friday my lovelies!! Being that tomorrow is the autumnal equinox, I thought I'd show you two awesome fall shades from my vintage Hard Candy collection, Hype and Luscious. I was finally able to reach the Hard Candy archive site so I now have more accurate dates for all the collections and will go back and correct my previous posts with the exact dates. If anyone is interested, here is the site with all of Hard Candy's old collections listed by year and season: The Hard Candy Nail Polish List

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First up is Hard Candy Hype, which is one of my favorite vintage Hard Candy polishes in my entire collection! Hype is from the fall 1998 line and is a lovely milk chocolate brown color with copper shimmer throughout! Browns were hugely popular in the 90s, especially in cosmetics, so this one just screams 1998 to me for sure! I love how the copper shimmer stands out against the milk chocolate base. I have been wearing this color all week and have gotten tons of compliments on it. 

The best thing about this polish is that it is still available on eBay! There is a seller who has 2 bottles of this left for $6 a piece. If you like it, definitely go grab yourself a bottle!

Here's 3 coats of Hard Candy Hype!

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Next up is Hard Candy Luscious. Luscious was from the original 1996 Hard Candy release, but it was originally titled Porno. I also have a bottle of Porno but it was in desperate need of thinning so I swatched Luscious for you instead. Rest assured that the two colors are the exact same, just with different names. Luscious is a lovely deep red metallic shade with gold shimmer.

Unfortunately, my camera did not pick up on the gold shimmer very well so it looks more metallic and brushstroke-y than it does in real life. My polish BFF and fellow vintage fiend Dana over at Polished Claws Up! did a swatch of this yesterday and her pictures capture the shimmer far better than mine do so go check it out! Either way, this is a fantastic deep metallic red and definitely a winner for autumn!

Here's 2 coats of Hard Candy Luscious. Enjoy!

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What do you guys think?

Thanks for stopping by today and I will see you all for the conclusion of Hard Candy week tomorrow!

Vintage Hard Candy Week - The Blues

Good morning everyone, and happy Thursday!! Schoolwork tends to get pretty crazy at the mid-week point so I'm sorry I missed you all yesterday. I'm back today with two of Hard Candy's iconic blue shades, Hick and Sky. I call these shades iconic because they were two of the company's most popular shades and when I think of Hard Candy, these are a couple of the shades that immediately come to mind. Blue was one of Hard Candy's signature shades and they did quite a few good ones. Another one of my favorite Hard Candy blues is Manic, which I swatched here a while back: Hard Candy Manic.

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First up is Hard Candy Hick, which I believe came out sometime around 1998. There used to be this amazing old Hard Candy reference site but it was recently taken down so a lot of these dates are from memory. Anyways, Hick is a fantastic periwinkle blue with silver glitter. The glitter is not gritty and all, and it dries to a very smooth finish.

Hick was one of the original shades that made it into the big, flat bottles when Hard Candy was bought by LVMH and the line got a huge overhaul in 2001 and most of the old shades went down the drain. That's another reason why Hick was so iconic is because it stood the test of time when the majority of the old Hard Candy shades were discontinued.

Here's 3 coats of Hard Candy Hick. Enjoy!

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Next up is Hard Candy Sky, the nail polish that started it all. Sky is a simple sky blue cream that has a teeny hint of blue shimmer but it was so subtle that I couldn't even capture it in pictures. You just have to believe that it is there. Application was pretty meh, pretty runny and hard to keep from flooding my cuticles but that seems to be the standard for these vintage Hard Candy cremes.

Sky was created in Hard Candy creator Dineh Mohajer's dorm room in 1995 by mixing a few polish colors together to get the perfect shade of baby blue to match her sandals. People went absolutely gaga for it, and when she brought a few bottles to Fred Segal to sell, they sold immediately and the brand Hard Candy was born. When Alicia Silverstone showed up on David Letterman wearing Sky nail polish in 1995, the brand absolutely exploded in popularity and Dineh began selling Hard Candy at retailers such as Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Sephora. Hard Candy grew to have a huge cult following and was beloved by teenagers, fashionistas and celebrities alike.

Sky is the only color that has been seen in every single Hard Candy line, inlcuding the Wal-Mart reincarnation. It is THE color of Hard Candy and is the reason why it became so popular in the 90s. I have three different versions of Hard Candy Sky in my stash but I have chosen to show you the original one today. 

Here's 2 coats of Hard Candy Sky. Enjoy!

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Hope you've all enjoyed today's vintage shades of Hard Candy! Thanks for stopping by and I will see you tomorrow with more history lessons, I mean vintage Hard Candy swatches!

Vintage Hard Candy Week - GLITTERS!

Hey everyone! Moving right along with vintage Hard Candy week, today I have some awesome glitters to show you!! For those of you just joining in, Hard Candy was originally a niche brand back in the late 90's and early 00's that was sold exclusively in high-end retailers such as Neiman's and Nordstrom. Hard Candy, along with Urban Decay, were at the forefront of nail polish innovation and did tons of edgy colors and finishes that no other polish brands were doing at the time. I firmly believe that the nail polish world is where it's at today largely because of brands like Hard Candy that helped break the mold.

Hard Candy did some fantastic glitters back in the day, probably the best of which were the Christmas collection from 1996, which included colors such as XXXMas, Jingle Balls, Icky Eggnog and Seasonal Psychosis. Sadly, I don't have any from that collection (save a decant of XXXMas) and they will forever be at the very top of my lemming list. However, I have managed to snag a few other awesome glitters and I'm so excited to show them to you today!!

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First up is Hard Candy Space Boy. It was part of Hard Candy's original release back in 1996 and it is still one of the best glitters I own today! Space Boy is a super chunky silver holo glitter that was opaque in 2 coats. It was a very hungry glitter and I probably should have used a coat of Gelous to smooth it out but I didn't so it ate straight through the coat of Seche Vite I used. But I didn't mind the grittiness because it was still as blingy as ever!

I have lots of silver holo glitters in my stash but there is just something special about this one. Perhaps it has something to do with the matching glitter holo ring that came with it, but I always find myself pulling this bad boy out and admiring it! It's just that awesome. I am probably going to end up wearing this again for New Year's Eve or some other big party because this polish deserves to be seen!

Here's 2 coats of Hard Candy Space Boy! Enjoy =)

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Next up is Hard Candy Galaxy. It came out somewhere around 1999, and it as awesome today as it was back then. Galaxy has a black jelly base packed with micro and small hex gunmetal glitter. LOVE LOVE LOVE this one!! Although it looks sort of similar to a few polishes that are out today (OPI Metallic 4 Life comes to mind), Galaxy was in its own class back in the 90's. This is another one that is worthy of a special occasion, it's so awesome!

I'm kind of disappointed in my pictures of this one, I've been so busy lately that I haven't had much time for swatching and everything has to be done super quickly. I apologize for the bluriness!

Here's 3 coats of Hard Candy Galaxy. Enjoy!

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And for fun, here is a postcard that showed all of Hard Candy's original 1996 release polishes, including those awesome Christmas glitters I told you all about earlier. One day I hope to own them all mwahhahahahhhhhhh! I'm getting there, considering I already own 26 of the ones on there =)

Image Source

What do you guys think of these vintage Hard Candy glitters?

Thanks for stopping by and I will see all of y'all tomorrow with even more vintage Hard Candy!

Vintage Hard Candy Week - The Fugly Cremes

Good morning everyone! I have a super duper quick post today to kick off vintage Hard Candy week - the fugly cremes!! These polishes are two of the ugliest in my entire collection, yet somehow I have great affinity for them. The colors are Hot Rod and Shag, both from Hard Candy's Fall 1997 line that consisted of unusual creme colors. Not only were these polishes ugly, the application was a nightmare. They were suuuuuuper duper runny, and I flooded pretty much every single one of my cuticles. So I have to apologize for these swatches, they are kind of messy. But despite the fugliness and the horrible application, these polishes are essential for my Hard Candy collection and I'm glad that I have them!

Here's 2 coats of Hard Candy Hot Rod, an orange leaning mustard yellow.

And here's 2 coats of Hard Candy Shag, a lovely greyed-out puke green creme. Enjoy!

Despite their messiness and non-skin flattering shades, I can't help but love them! What do you guys think?

Thanks for stopping by and see you all tomorrow for more vintage Hard Candy goodness!