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!

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!