Indie Spotlight: LynBDesigns.Etsy.Com!

I received a package in the mail the other day in which I was sent two GORGEOUS polishes from the lovely LynBDesigns at Etsy.com to review and swatch for my blog. I would have had this up earlier, but had since broke my pinkie ON MY SWATCHING HAND and it's a little difficult to type since it's all bundled up. Luckily I was able to swatch the colors BEFORE my pinkie got messed up :) The two colors I received were Black Tie and Oswin Oswald. The owner of LynBDesigns, Jenna Miller, makes all of her polish by hand with blends from multiple glitters and pigments. Jenna has some great collections made in honor of different shows, games, or things in general. Some of her collections include the Baker Street collection, which is for Sherlock Holmes, the Dweam Wiffim a Dweam collection, which is for Princess Bride, and the Doctor is in collection, which is for Doctor Who. She carefully chooses different color combinations to match certain things from the media that she bases it off of. So with that said, here are the polishes I received:

As you can see, I received Black Tie and Oswin Oswald. Black Tie is from the "Dressed to Kill" collection, and Oswin Oswald is from the "Just Stories" collection, which is another Doctor Who collection.

Black Tie is a beautiful, creamy black, with gold flecks in it. The flecks in it, depending on the light that you look at it in, sometimes come off as  greenish gold color.

This is a better picture to show the beautiful gold flecks in it. The formula for this polish is awesome. This polish isn't thick, but it's also not thin like a lot of regular black polishes I have, it's the perfect consistency. You get a lot of flecks on your nail, which is always good so you don't have to keep layering polish which in turn makes it harder to dry fully. However, I do wish the flecks were more prominent, and by that I mean I wish they shined more. When applying them to your nail, they show wonderfully, but as it dries they become more dull or almost sunken into the polish. Although I do wish they had a little more shine to them, I do like the result that it brings. I'm someone who will wear just plain black polish, and sometimes it's a little too dark and dull, so the extra shimmer that this polish puts off while still bearing that creamy black is beautiful.

From left to right, nails 1 and 3 have two coats of Black Tie, and one coat of NYC clear coat. Nails 2 and 4 have two coats of Black Tie, and one coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy. I wanted to do a matte top coat to see if it could bring the gold out a little more, and as you can see it did end up dulling it just a tad so you could see that the gold flecks are in it, as nails 1 and 3 are kind of too glossy to see them. I had a really hard time trying to capture this polish on camera.

Here you can see a few flecks, but it looks predominantly black. My camera wasn't picking up the gold, so I tried taking another picture:

Usually I only take 2 pictures per swatch, but I had to do a third to try and get it the way it's supposed to be, and I didn't really have luck unfortunately :(



Oswin Oswald is a sheer, red, almost jelly polish with large white diamond confetti, silver hexagons, small red glitter and small holographic glitter. Now, I say holographic glitter because the silver hexagons give off a silver reflection, while the small glitter gives of a rainbowy effect in certain light. This is my new favorite polish EVER. I'm so in love with this color! :)



In this picture, the hexagons are showing up white, but they're aren't, they're silver :) Once again, this is a fantastic formula. It goes on extremely smoothly for a chunky glitter polish. I love that this can work as both an over coat, or it can be buildable to opacity to be worn alone. This polish really reminds me of one of Batman's nemesis' Harley Quinn. I however wish that the white diamonds came out more, BUT I actually like it doesn't overload the nails with them. It's a nice added touch to have just a few diamonds on the whole manicure rather than a bunch on 1 nail.



For my swatch I did two coats of Oswin Oswald over the first two fingers, two coats of it over 1 coat of Shades of the Season black on the third finger, and two coats of it over 2 coats of Hard to Get by Sally Hansen on my pinkie. I then put 1 coat of NYC New York Color clear coat over fingers 1, 3, and 4. Personally I like this polish over nothing, just on my normal nails. I feel that having it over white makes the color more pink, and I feel that it takes away from the shine and sparkle of the polish. I'm not crazy having it over black, but I'd definitely wear it like that. I'd love to put it over silver :)

Here you can see the awesome diamonds plastered on my nails :) I really love it! I think it looks awesome. This polish literally dries lightning fast. I was so shocked at how fast it dried.

Overall I feel that these polishes are a great addition to any polish fan's collection. Although I found a couple things I wish were different, I think that the pros out weigh what I didn't like!

I'd like to thank LynBDesigns for sending me out the bottles, I enjoyed swatching and working with them :)

If you're interested in purchasing these or looking at her other creations visit:

LynBDesigns.Etsy.Com

Indie Spotlight: Laquerlicious!

I was lucky enough to receive a few samples from an indie polish maker Michelle Neasbitt or known by her Etsy shop as Laquerlicious! These are beautiful, handmade polishes made with the high quality, cosmetic grade glitter. Not only are these handmade, but they're also 3 Free meaning her formula has no toluene, formaldehyde, or dibutyl phthalate which is AWESOME because if you're a polish maniac like myself (Haha...wordplay on my blog name...I'm awesome) and change your polish on an almost everyday basis, you'll know that it's important to not saturate your nails with harmful chemicals (even though you really shouldn't be doing that in general anyways.) So there is a little background on the polish itself.

These are the three polish samples I received (P.S. I fixed my light box...so now I can take better pictures, still need a higher MP camera):

The three polishes, if you can't see, are Zebra Kisses, Salt Water, and Stained Glass. Holy beautiful, right? Now, I won't lie if I don't like a polish that has been sent to me for review, or that I bought for review, and I have to honestly say, it's very very hard to find a single flaw in these polishes.

Salt Water is a clear base with large white & teal hexagon glitters, medium sized teal  & white square/hexagon glitters, and small teal & white square/hexagon glitters. This beautiful polish (which I should add, teal is one of my FAVORITE nail polish colors) is a buildable polish and by its density, I believe it could be buildable to almost opacity.

With full glitter overcoats or polishes, it sometimes can be a pain in the butt to get them on the brush to actually apply them to the nail, but this polish is beyond easy to apply. It spreads on perfectly without keeping the glitter all on the brush. One little dip into the bottle and the brush is covered greatly. One thing I find interesting is that in certain lights and angles, some of the teal glitters have a beautiful blue shimmer to them. It really adds to the effect of "Salt Water" a.k.a the ocean.

For my swatches, I decided to do it over 1 coat of Julep's Harley. I thought the combo of white & teal with silver would give a futuristic look. The first two nails have one coat of Salt Water, while the last two have 2 coats. You can see that in another coat, it filled up the nail very well which leads me to believe it could be built up to almost full opacity.

On to the next beauty!

Another beautiful polish, this is Stained Glass. This is another clear base with HUGE/large chunky glitters in a variety of colors (pink, blue, orange, silver, yellow, green, teal). But this isn't just a normal glitter overcoat polish...these glitters are friggen HOLOGRAPHIC!!! Yes. I'm a HUGE holographic fan, and when I got this I nearly squealed in excitement. I can't stop looking at it. And in advance, my camera could NOT pick up the beauty of these glitters...so these pictures won't compare to the real thing. You'll have to go and purchase it on her Etsy shop which I will link below (trust me, you'll love it).

For a thick based super big glitter polish, this goes on surprisingly beautifully. I found only having to dab a few glitters onto super bare spots on my nails. Other than that, just brushing them on worked perfectly for me. This is a polish that would look great over anything and would be perfect for birthdays, new years, ect.

This is over 2 coats of Sinful Colors Inkwell. The first two fingers again have 1 coat, while the last two fingers have 2 coats :) This justifies me saying it wouldn't capture the beauty...

Last but not least, my favorite:

ZEBRA KISSES!!! Totally head over heels in love with this polish. I can't even explain my joy. I really can't. This is a beautiful clear base with black and white glitter shreds. These shreds are awesomely MATTE though! This is honestly my favorite overcoat of anything I've ever tried out, EVER. The confetti flakes remind me of when I sharpen crayons (yes...I love coloring) and you get the little shreds of crayon everywhere.

Now I found a minor flaw with this, that actually turned to work out in the polish itself's favor. The problem was that I couldn't get a lot of the flakes on my brush/nail, BUT I find that the effect this gives off with LESS of the glitters is better than a ton of it. So it's not really a "con".

UGH LOOK AT IT! So friggen beautiful! It really, oddly, reminds me of something out of the 80's or 90's! I love it so so much! This is over 2 coats of Sally Hansen Pretty in Hot Pink!

Once again, first two fingers are 1 coat of Zebra Kisses, last two fingers are 2 coats.

Another widespread pro about all 3 of these polishes is that they all dry super fast, and they all come off extremely easy. I found that I didn't even have to soak my fingernails like I've had to do with Sally Hansen glitter overcoats.

These are super high quality nail polishes, and I would recommend them to any polish fanatic/addict.

To buy these polishes, go to:

www.etsy.com/shop/LaquerliciousUnity

or

www.bigcartel.com/laquerlicious

Follow Laquerlicious on their social media sites:

Instagram- @CreativeNailChick #Laquerlicious

Facebook- www.facebook.com/laquerlicious

Twitter- www.twitter.com/nailchickmich