Aphrodite Lacquers The Romance Novel Collection – Swathces and Review

Yet another new indie brand for me today, Aphrodite Lacquers. I have six polishes to show you, all from the so-called “The Romance Novel” collection. These are, according to the creator Rebecca, vibrant jelly polishes, with names straight out of your poolside read. Maybe not the most fall-appropriate collection, but there’s always a chance to wear these for a lovely sunny vacation down south, right?

The six lacquers in this collection are all variations on a theme. They all have a lovely squishy jelly base, with microglitter and hexes matching the base, and they all also have white hexes.

In this collection you’ll find
Tempt – Blue jelly base, packed full of sky blue micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter
Forbidden – Purple jelly base, packed full of amethyst micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter
Secret – Hot pink jelly base, packed full of dark pink micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter
Kisses – Fuschia jelly base, packed full of fuschia micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter
Enchant – Aqua jelly base, packed full of green micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter
Smolder – Dark red jelly base, packed full of bright red micro glitter and hexes, and white glitter

Let’s take a look, shall we? Pictures are in the same order as the list above.

The formulas on all of these were good, although not completely consistent. Secret, Enchant and Tempt were a smidge more thick than the others, but still very nice and easy to apply. Kisses, Smolder and Forbidden had a thinner formula, but the glitters are still very well suspended, and there’s no problems in applying the polish. Secret, Smolder, Enchant and Tempt needed two coats, while Kisses and Forbidden are on the sheerer side and needed three generous coats. All are shown on their own, with topcoat.

Aphrodite Lacquers are sold at Etsy, and the price is $8 a bottle. Also check out Aphrodite Lacquers at Facebook and Twitter for news and updates about the brand.

These products were sent to me for review.

Two beauties from Dollish Polish

Another new indie brand today! Well, not new, but new to me at least. After all, Dollish Polish has been around for a long time, but I’ve just now gotten around to trying my first Dollishes! I snagged a couple of glittery beauties when I made my last Llarowe order, and I have a sneaking suspicion that there’s going to be more Dollish bottles around here in the future. I really like both polishes I bought, and I hope you’ll appreciate the review as well!

The first one I tried, is from the Super Mario Brothers themed collection. Now, I just had to have at least one of these, because I love Super Mario! Princess Peach was my nickname in different forums for the longest time, so naturally I picked up Dollish Polish A Peachy Princess. This one has a pink jelly base with varying shades and shapes of pink glitter, some matte, some metallic, some holographic. I think this glitterbomb captures the essence of Peach perfectly!

A Peachy Princess is sheer, but because I wanted it to look like it does in the bottle, I didn’t want to layer it. It took four coats to be reasonably opaque, which is acceptable to me. The formula was a bit thick, and I had to stir around a bit in the bottle to get the bigger glitters out, but it was quite easy to apply anyway.

Next, I have Dollish Polish The Many Shades Of Mr. Grey. I have to admit I got this one mostly for the name (*blush*). I got a little hung up on Fifty Shades there for a minute. But the polish looks gorgeous anyway, it has loads of different-sized grey-shaded hex glitters in a clear base. This one definitely needs undies, so to make my many even more “shades of grey”-ish, I did a gradient (grey-dient? Har-har!) with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, nailstation dress code and China Glaze Concrete Catwalk.

One generous coat of The Many Shades of Mr. Grey made this mani pretty gorgeous, in my opinion! The formula is great too, easy to spread and apply.

You can find Dollish Polish here (full sized bottles $8.75, minis $4.50) or at Llarowe ($11 a bottle).

OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls

OPI is my go-to brand for beautiful basics, I love their cremes and jellies. Paired with my favorite brush and excellent formula, they rarely disappoint. From the Spider-Man collection, today I’ll show you OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls.

At first glance, this looks like a regular white creme, but it’s actually not quite white. It’s slightly greyed-out, making it a cool and kinda grungy take on the simple white canvas. I think it’s really chic and strangely exciting for such a “boring” color.

(Sorry for the fuzz and lint on the nails in these pics, I didn’t notice until I saw the macro shot on the screen, and then I had already put more stuff over my mani! Damn fuzzy chairs!)

Looks pretty white, you say? Let’s see it next to a regular white creme, China Glaze Snow. As you can see, the OPI clearly has a grey tint to it.

The formula was slightly on the thin side, but good. It’s a bit streaky on the first coat, but it evens out very well in the end. It’s opaque in two thick or three thin coats, I’ve used three coats here.

What’s your favorite basic or neutral polish with a little twist?

Candeo Mallard

How do you make an awesome mani even awesomer? ADD GLITTAR!!!

I thought Candeo Mallard would be a match made in heaven for Rimmel Mania, and I was right. Mallard’s shimmery semi-sheer lilac base loaded with purple shimmer, silver, lime, and green hex glitter looks gorgeous over Mania when it shifts from deep blue to green. I’ve said it before, but I have to say it again; I’m so impressed with the color combinations of the Candeos. Melinda comes up with mixes that sounds like they wouldn’t work at all, but it all comes together so beautifully, and I think all the Candeo bottles I own are pure magic.

The formula is as usual impeccable. It’s thin enough to spread easily on the nail, but not too thin, and the glitters are all very well suspended in the base. Shown is one coat of Mallard over Mania.

Candeos are sold directly from Candeo Colors ($9) or from Llarowe ($11).

Rimmel Mania

Warning, extremely rubbing-it-in-your-face post incoming!

Don’t you just love it when you finally fulfill a longtime lemming? I never thought I’d have Rimmel Mania on my nails this lifetime, but in an unbelieveable stroke of luck, it’s finally mine! I think I fell in love with this stunner after seeing Pretty Random‘s swatches (don’t go there if you don’t love to get extremely frustrated, her VVVHTF swatches are gorgeous and will break your heart). Unfortunately, it’s (of course) discontinued and very hard to find, and no matter how much I searched for it, I couldn’t find it. But finally I struck gold, and managed to swap for it with a very nice girl from MUA. Yay!

Mania has a blue-to-green duochrome with lots of golden shimmer, it’s like Bloom San Francisco (Bianca) on steroids. I just had to make a collage, because I couldn’t limit myself to only two pics! Please click to enlarge.

The formula was pretty good, and I got even coverage in two coats. The brush, however, was a bit weird. It was bristly, stiff and uneven, which made application a bit of a challenge.

Which big lemmings have you fulfilled? Which ones are you still searching for?