Olive Ave Polish Flora 2021: My Picks

Any collection that has two greens and two purples in it is just screaming my name. Throw a topper in there and I am 100% sold!!! Olive Ave Polish’s spring collection this year did just that and I think it is a brilliant follow-up to their 2020 spring collection, also named Flora. I reviewed a trio from that collection last year, but this year I ended up getting five of the six polishes and not just a trio. I initially started out supporting Olive Ave Polish because I wanted to support Walker, the owner. She’s one of my favorite nail YouTubers and we both like blues and greens, so I figured I would get along with her nail polish. Well, it’s a year later and I can honestly say I’m now buying Olive Ave Polish because it’s good stuff! Yeah, I still like that I’m supporting her, but this polish is so good that I would probably buy it even if I didn’t know there was a person with a love of polish and great values behind the brand. There’s a lot to be excited about in this collection, like two-coat pastels, so let’s dive right in!

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Holo Taco Unicorn Dream Unicorn Skins Swatch & Review

Since Holo Taco has just dropped their second release this spring, it’s about time that I talk about the first spring collection! I thought I was doing well to have this post scheduled for this week, but I planned that waaaaay before knowing there were going to be two new full collections added to their permanent lineup. The first drop this year was a follow-up to last year’s spring collection: more unicorn skins! There is now a full rainbow of unicorn skin toppers available; this year they have added toppers with a mostly blue, green, and yellow hue. But, because they are unicorn skins, they are much more colorful than that! Over the past year or so I have been having a moment with toppers, so these are a very welcome addition. The collection also included two new creme polishes, but I’m just going to be reviewing the unicorn skins themselves today because that’s what I care most about.

Cadillacquer A Beautiful Mess

Cadillacquer A Beautiful Mess, 3 coats plus top coat

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Last year, St. Patrick’s Day was the first day all of the restaurants in Oregon were closed to dine-in. I went to my local Irish pub to get some takeout on St. Patrick’s Day and then the next day they shut down completely, not re-opening for takeout until earlier this year. It’s only a few blocks away from where I live so I was quite disappointed to have fewer takeout options within walking distance, but balance has been somewhat restored in the universe. Today we’re taking a look at a gorgeous green polish from Cadillacquer, perfect for the occasion! It is called A Beautiful Mess and is from the Shameless collection. I’ve never seen the show Shameless, so I can’t offer you any knowledge of the inspiration. It is a green jelly base that is packed with tiny green to gold flakies, turquoise microglitters, and those beautiful, prominent bronze-orange-red multichrome flakies. I hope you love this one as much as I do!

a-england Moments With Virginia: My Picks Swatch & Review

It’s my first nail polish review of 2021 and it’s none other than a constant favorite, a-england! If all goes to plan, it is going to be very a-england-y on the blog this year. I am going to be starting a color comparison project that I hope will be helpful for some. However, today we are looking at one of the four new collections a-england dropped on us at the end of 2020. It is based on works by Virginia Woolf and, I have to admit, I haven’t read much of her work. I had to read A Room of One’s Own for either a lit or geography class (cannot remember) but that’s it. I do have several of the books that inspired these polishes on my enormous to-read list, hopefully I will get around to those at some point. But I definitely got around to trying the polishes first. I am the proud owner of six of the seven new shades, the seventh being a light pink called Shakespeare’s Sister. I’m not a fan of pink, but definitely am a fan of these rich jewel shades. So perfect, there are colors here I would wear all year round!

Holo Taco Frosted Metals Collection: Swatch & Review

Merry Christmas everybody!!! This is the last full review of the year and I am finally getting back to doing Holo Taco reviews. The Rainbow Collection and Multichrome Collection have not made their way to the blog yet despite being swatched, but I’m certain they will make an appearance at some point! The Frosted Metals collection is another untraditional holiday collection from Holo Taco (see previous year) and it features a finish I have not seen a ton of in the nail polish world. All of the polishes are packed with a super reflective metallic foil silver flake. I find this to be a much more enjoyable way to wear metallic polishes because you get a lot more dimension and none of those annoying visible brushstrokes! As of writing this post, I think there are even still some of the beautiful box sets available for purchase, so if you want to get yourself/your nails a great gift, you still can!

Palate Polish Spring/Summer Haul Part II

Palate Polish Cookies & Cream, 1 coat over Cauliflower, Pistachio, Spirulina Smoothie, & Lavender Macaron

Hey friends, long time no see! This post was supposed to be up last week after my camping trip, but then the wildfires hit (not only Southern Oregon, but all of Oregon). I evacuated for one night and let me tell you, never want to experience that kind of terror again. If you even THINK about saying “Can 2020 get any worse?” just stop yourself because YES IT CAN! But, I digress, I have had these swatches for possibly months now and I am really excited about these polishes, it’s time for you to lay your eyeballs on them. This is the second Palate Polish haul I did earlier this year. They had a 5 for $50 sale and you know I can’t pass that up!

I’m going to start with the first polish here, which is the black and white topper Cookies & Cream. This is one of my new favorite toppers and probably my favorite of the black and white ones I already have. It has a variety of black and white circular/hex glitters, which means you can see the base underneath really well and it gives a splattered polka dot effect. It also looks fantastic over… everything? I think the only colors it won’t look good over are plain black and plain white, but hopefully someone will prove me wrong. It has a great density in one coat which is so key for me in a good topper. I put it over the other cremes I got in this haul!

Aurora 5-Free Nail Lacquer August 2020 PPU: Weird Science

*GIFTED* I have been an avid Polish Pickup fan for a couple years now, unfortunately for my bank account. It combines the fun themes of subscription boxes with total freedom of choice of products, your “box” can be as spendy or thrifty as you’re feeling that month! Kim from Aurora 5-Free Nail Lacquer reached out to me and asked if I could swatch their August contributions and I jumped at the chance. It’s exciting to get a polish before the rest of the world, okay? Anyway, Aurora is offering not just one but TWO polishes this month, one a regular polish and the other a special effects topper. I have been having a moment with toppers this year so I was super excited to see it in the lineup! This month’s theme for Polish Pickup is Weird Science, which some brands have taken very liberally for their inspiration. Aurora went right for it and based both their polishes on the film Weird Science (which I haven’t seen, is that a bad thing?). Kim provided me with descriptions so luckily you don’t have to read through me floundering about trying to describe all the elements in these!

Palate Polish Spring/Summer Haul Part I

For some reason it’s been a million years since Palate Polish has been on my blog, so now I have two posts planned! Because of my utter lack of self-control, I placed two orders during the spring during two different sales. I had spring and summer shades in mind and yes, okay, it ended up being spring and summer greens and blues in the first order! I had meant to order a purple, but it was out of stock. I ended up picking up Margarita (a newer shade), Sweet Mint, Blueberry (another newer shade), Cornflower, Cotton Candy, and Robin Egg during a 6 for $60 sale. Unfortunately Cotton Candy and Robin Egg are now discontinued, but I’m going to show them all to you anyway. Sometimes you can still snag discontinued Palates at some of their online stockists!

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!

Olive Ave Polish Flora Spring 2020 April Showers Trio: Swatch & Review

It’s still technically spring and thankfully, it still feels like spring here in Southern Oregon. Summer is my LEAST favorite season, it’s too damn hot and, on top of that, it’s forest fire time. Two of the three summers I have spent here so far have had 1+ month of the valley being completely surrounded by fires and filled with smoky air 24/7. Can you tell why I don’t look forward to warmer days? Anyhoo, we should talk about something far more pleasant, like the inaugural Olive Ave Polish collection! I have been watching Walker on YouTube for quite some time now and am super stoked that she decided to put some of her creative energy into her own polish line! The best part is that she tends to love blues and greens like someone else you know, so I’m really benefitting a lot from this new venture. I got this trio as a backer on Kickstarter and couldn’t be more pleased. We have a shimmery green, a bright blue mint, and a cornflower blue. This may be a spring collection, but I can see myself wearing some of these in summer or winter too! I know this review is up suuuuper late and that she already has a summer collection out (I got a few from that one too), but these are still going to be restocked for the foreseeable future so I think it’s entirely appropriate to take a look at these beautiful polishes now.