Holo Taco Unicorn Skins: Swatches

It’s now officially summer, let the misery commence. My air conditioner is working overtime, the threat of forest fires lays heavy on us all, a lot more super pasty legs are out on display… Southern Oregon at its finest, folks. Today I’m going to show off Holo Taco’s Unicorn Skins. They were released earlier in the spring, but the collection consists of two creme polishes and three toppers that can, and should, be used all year round! Unicorn Skins are iridescent flakies that shift between multiple colors, so they can look wildly different depending on what base color you put them over. While I do own some polishes that feature these types of flakies, I have never actually owned any iridescent flakie toppers until this point, so this collection has been super fun for me! I find myself constantly scheming which polishes I’m going to put them over; I can see these getting a lot of play time. Holo Taco has changed me into a topper person, I guess. Let the fun begin!

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a-england Poe’s Tale: Swatch & Review

Hello everyone! I had a completely different intro written out, but now that my country is going through its umpteenth reckoning with racial injustice, I thought that I should unequivocally state: Black lives matter. And, all lives do not matter until black lives matter. I am white and I am unfortunately not an encyclopedia of anti-racist resources. However, I have found one cool thing that everyone with internet access should be able to do! If you are either like me and are facing analysis paralysis with the large number of organizations out there that could use financial aid or if you, you know, are struggling financially because OH RIGHT, we’re also going through a global pandemic, then you should go to this video on YouTube. Don’t click through any of the ads, watch the video fully. All the revenue generated is going to the organizations listed in the notes. There are lots of helpful tips in the comments section to help get maximum monetization out of the video! Please stay safe and don’t stay silent (truth to power!) and let’s treat our fellow humans with all the empathy and compassion we have.

With today’s post, I am finally caught up with all the recent a-england collections! Watch them drop a new one the day I publish this… anyhoo, we are talking about the Poe’s Tale quartet, inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s poem The Raven. I assume that everyone reading this knows who Poe is, if you made through school without being exposed to any of his work I would be shocked (at least, in the Western world). We have four mostly darker shades and, surprise surprise, they all have amazing formulas! You know I’m going to waffle on about all these polishes, so I’ll shut up here so we can get to the polish.

a-england Tales From the Tower: Swatch & Review

Happy 100 blog posts to me! Yep, there have been 100 posts of me gushing about nail polish on the internet, but it doesn’t feel like enough. I still have so much polish to talk about, so don’t think you’re getting rid of me that easily! Today I have a full a-england collection to show you. It’s well in to spring now so of course it is perfect timing to talk about a collection that came out during the fall… I’m sure I have at least one reader in the Southern Hemisphere, yeah?

As soon as I saw the Tales from the Tower collection last year, it was an instant need. I adore all the base colors here and also adore the inspiration, having been to the Tower of London and because the Tower looms so large in medieval British history (an obsession of mine). This collection is a continuation of the pure excellence a-england gave to us with the British Subcultures collection. I have all eight polishes here, so you know there’s going to be a lot of pictures, let’s go!

Duri Cosmetics Retro Wave Spring 2020 Collection: Swatch & Review

{pr sample} Duri sent me the polishes in this post to swatch and review. All opinions are my own.

Duri reached out to me to swatch their spring collection and, not gonna lie, I saw a pretty green and that was all it took for me to say, yes please! Also, I have wanted to try the brand for a while and opportunities like this do not come knocking every day. I got my swatches up on Instagram pretty quickly, but fell into a bit of a blog slump. I guess I was feeling uninspired to actually write a post (I have been swatching consistently) but now I feel up to it again! I just love nail polish so much (wow, really Ashley, no one would have guessed) and I love the nail polish community. I think I needed a different form of escapism during this pandemic and since I have been working from home for about 4 weeks on and off, it feels like I’m just at home all day on a computer. I’ve gotten over that now and I am finally ready to give you guys an in depth look at the Duri Costmetics Retro Wave collection for spring 2020! I’m switching it up for the foreseeable future and my posts will be dropping on Wednesdays now. I would like to tell you that I used stats and blog analytics to decide this like a professional would, but actually I just realized that having a “deadline” on a weekend was not working out for me and mid-week posts seem more achievable. We’ll see. On to the swatches, there are six polishes in this collection and you know there’s going to be lots of photos.

MDJ Creations A Quantum World: Swatch & Review

It’s my first normal review post of 2020, replete with more pictures than you’ll ever need, and for me this is a special one. I have worked with Melissa of MDJ Creations before and when she reached out and offered to send me her most recent collection, A Quantum World, I was all over that! MDJ Creations is an indie brand that has been around for quite a while and they are one of the few indies that do not release a million collections a year, which I appreciate! I also love that her collections tend to stick around. Of course, the most important thing is the quality. Melissa is not afraid to play with a variety of finishes and she always nails it. A Quantum World features gold flakies, colorful circle glitters (I love when she uses these, see my recent swatch of the old Music of the Night), and lots of holo!

Deborah Lippmann Liquid Metals gift set: Swatch & Review

Long time, no see. That’s becoming too familiar a phrase around here, isn’t it? This post was originally meant to be up, oh, before Christmas. I think I need to start splitting up reviews of any collection more than four polishes because clearly I cannot handle longer posts! But, I put so much work into this one that I couldn’t not share it with you guys. Also, as of writing this, Deborah Lippmann still has this set available! The Liquid Metals set is a six piece collection of, surprise, metallic polishes! These are not chromes, just good old fashioned metallics. They are in the Gel Lab Pro formula, which for all intents and purposes means you get a paddle brush. It really helps with the appearance of brushstrokes, although the polishes do have varying degrees of brushstroke visibility. It’s a long one and you know how I always have a bunch of pictures, so we really need to get started. I highly recommend listening to the songs these polishes are named after that I have helpfully linked – there are some good ones!

MDJ Creations Phantom of the Opera REMIX Collection Swatch & Review: Part II

If you have not read Part I, do your homework kids! Go read it! I have the second half of the Phantom of the Opera REMIX collection by MDJ Creations to show you today. All the products in this post were sent to me for review for my pictures and honest opinion. We are going to be covering the last two song-based polishes in the collection as well as the polishes based on the two leads. Just as a reminder, this collection is launching this Friday, October 19th at 5pm CST. Let’s get right to the polishes so you can keep building your wish list!

MDJ Creations Phantom of the Opera REMIX Collection Swatch & Review: Part I

I have a super, fantastic, mega-ultra awesome post for you all today! This week, you are getting a sneak peek at a yet to be released collection from MDJ Creations, an indie polish maker that I have long admired. I wore one MDJ’s polishes from the old Phantom of the Opera collection and hinted strongly that I would love a re-release so I could grab the ones I missed. Melissa decided to do one better and release an ENTIRELY NEW collection based on Phantom of the Opera and she was kind enough to send me all of them (and more) to share with y’all. I am completely overwhelmed by her kindness. One of the extra goodies were some macro lenses, which I have been meaning to get for ages! This post is the start of my experimentation using them! I will of course give you my honest review of everything, but as Phantom of the Opera and nail polish are my two religions, you know I will be a bit biased. It is an eight-piece collection called The Phantom of the Opera REMIX collection and it will be releasing on Friday, October 19th at 5:00 PM CST. I have the first four to share with you today (the top four in the photo) and the next four on Wednesday. There are six polishes named after songs and two after the main characters. I am going to go in song order and do the two leads last. I’m going to shut up now and get to the pretties.

Deborah Lippmann All Fired Up Fall 2018: Swatch & Review

There is no better way to kick off fall than with new polishes from Deborah Lippmann! It is rare that I actually grab an entire collection, but this one has a combination of unique and too-pretty-to-resist shades, so my autumn-loving, jewel tone worshipping self had to have ’em all. I am happy to report that they are even prettier in person than I thought they would be and are all two coats or less! The All Fired Up collection is in the gel lab pro formula. To me, this means a great paddle brush and putting up more dough per bottle, but if the system works for you, then that is great and I am all for it. I personally am not here for polish longevity, I just want a good color on my nails to amuse me for a few days before I replace it. These all fit that bill! I hope you will join me below the cut because Deborah Lippmann really got in the seasonal spirit and our nails are all the better for it.