Lacquerlicious: Ember Glow (and Charlie says hello!)

Good morning lovelies! Man, it has been a busy and not so fabulous week, hence the lack of constant posting. Between last minute shopping, the kiddos, work, and a pesky back injury acting up, it's been stressful. Thankfully doing my nails always centers me and pute my head back on straight. It's like my little slice of chemical smelling zen. ;) I also managed to even out my nails last night. My ring finger grows so much faster than the rest. Had to tame that baby! But enough of my yapping! Onto the polish!

Today I have a gorgeous polish from a relatively new Indie Brand to share with you all.  Lacquerlicious is the brain child of Michelle N. For a relatively new brand, Lacquerlicious has ALOT of polish available! I was blown away by the sheer number, all of them awesome. In fact, it was impossible for me to choose a few for review, so I sent a long list to Michelle and she picked for me.

Ember Glow was high on that last. This beauty is a combination of Red, Orange and Gold  holographic hex, an aquare glitter in a red jelly  base. What a combo! The name is very fitting - it definitely reminds me of glowing embers.

My camera hates this kind of red though, so I did my best to capture Ember Glow's ember-like quality. I used a few different lighting conditions to try to show just how amazing the colors in the polish are, truly glowing like fire from within.

All swatches are 2 coats of Ember Glow topped with 1 coat of Gelous and 1 coat of SV.

I  hate that my camera has such an issue with Red Jelly polish. Just another reason to buy that Canon Rebel, right? Despite my camera being pesky, look at the glowy nature of this baby! Rawr! IRL, the red is much more prominent, yet the orange glow is still visible. It's truly one sexy polish!

Formula:
I was very impressed with the formula here. Lacquerlicious polishes are usable straight out of the bottle - no thinning necessary despite this being a heavy glitter polish. It is on the thick side (like most Indie glitters) but wasn't gloppy and did not thicken during use.

Application:
Lovely! Ember Glow was a dream to apply. Despite the large amounts of glitter, this flowed on the nail nicely with no dragging, balding, or glopping. The glitter is abundant and distributed evenly, so no fishing or hand placing was needed. Despite being a sheer jelly base, I only needed 2 coats for opacity.

Overall I am very impressed with Lacquerlicious! This is the first of 3 polishes I have to share with you. I could've combined them all into one post, but trust me guys, these deserve their own posts.

All Lacquerlicious polish is 3-Free and can be found via LacquerliciousUnity on Etsy.  Full size bottles retail for $8.50, and there are sets available. Make sure you check them out!

And now, Charlie would like to wish you a Happy Holiday!

Hai! I has this tree! But mom cannot see me cuz I is hiding!!! Oh noes! I think she saw me!

Hey, do you see those dangling beads? I sees them too! I can has? I can has thems wif my claws and teefs? Mebbe I swing too! Oh noes! I hear mom running from the other room! Why she gimme these kitteh toys if she no lemme play!?!

Hmmph! Fine. I just sit here and wait till you go back to your polish table, human mom. You has to turn your back sometime. And I will be here waiting and swinging from this kitteh toy tree!

Just to close this chapter of Charlie's Corner, let me add that she did, in fact, swing from those beads. She did not however manage to hold on for long and her dismount really needs work. She swears she meant to fly off the tree and land on her butt, but we all know better. It's so hard to be Charlie...

But, let's get back to the important question....

What do you think of Ember Glow? Are you digging this glowing beauty as much as I am?

I'll be back later with a Holiday polish from Twenty Seven and have tons of awesome new polishes coming up! Ya know, barring the end of the world on Friday. Speaking of the Mayan Apocalypse, have you entered the giveaway that Gini and I are running? Check it out here! Be sure to get your daily entries too!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

**Product provided by Lacquerlicious for review purposes. See legal/disclaimer for more information. Kitteh lovingly adopted from Animal Humane of NM. Adopt homeless pets!**

China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection: Angel Wings! Plus bonus kitteh!

Good morning lovelies! Happy Sunday! Hope you all participated in Small Business Saturday. As a small business owner I can personally attest that it really does make a difference. Cyber Monday is only a day away as well, so be sure to visit my girl Lisa over at Twenty Seven Polish and use code 27WIN for 20% off!

Today I have one of the gorgeous holo glitters from the China Glaze Holiday Joy Collection. Angel Wings is a Gold Holo Full Coverage glitter. I'm very picky about gold polish - typically because it does interesting things to my skin tone - but this glitter is definitely worth a wear! It's beautiful and sparkly, indoors and out. I do wish that I had managed some sunlight shots of this little lady - on the way to visit a clients pups this morning the sparkle was blinding! Of course, I did not have my camera with me. Boo! But enough talk, let's see some polish (and kittehs)!

All photos are 2 coats of Angel Wings topped with 1 coat of Gelous and a coat of SV:

 This is such a beautiful gold. I almost passed this one up, but decided to grab the Holiday set that included this polish and a pretty nifty shot glass (It only makes sense that wen a lacquerhead does shots, it should be out of a China Glaze shot glass, right?) at the last minute. The set was only $8 and I had a 15% off coupon, so why not? I'm glad I didn't put this one back.

Formula:
Standard China Glaze glitter formula here - Not too thin but fairly even with minimal thickening during use. No glopping or gooping on the nail, but there was some gooping inside the bottle rim. i expect that with a full coverage glitter though, so no real bother there. It also has that "new glitter smell", a bit chemically (new word!), but not overpowering.

Application:
China Glaze always does a superb job with these glitters. Angel Wings applied smoothly and evenly with no dragging, balding, or glitter buildup at the tips. Dry time was fast, fast, fast! As always, this baby needs a coat of Gelous and top coat to be smooth to the touch as well as shiny - it dries slightly matte.  Pretty painless as far as glitter goes!

And here is your bonus kitteh!

Someone decided to sneak up, slightly ninja-like, and get nice and comfy on my photo backdrop! Does she look concerned that she might be in the way? Nope! Not Charlie! As we all know, she is well within her kitteh right to be wherever she feels like laying at the moment. Especially in a warm spot under the daylight lamp.

Charlie is a Flame Point Siamese of the Applehead variety (versus Modern). Please note that she does have some cross-eyed action going on and most times acts as if all she can see is food and the tip of her nose. Oh, and my polish table. In kitteh world, all those bottles and brushes and things are a kitteh obstacle course that must be conquered several times daily. Preferably while frantically chasing invisible mice. Never one to be left out, Charlie decided she needed a little manicuring. 

See the nose wrinkle of concentration? Charlie is very serious about her claws. Especially when she is sharpening them on the couch. Or the bed. Or someone's lap.

Here charlie has extended a paw, showing off her hard work. Claws are safely sheathed and the dainty paw is nicely groomed and smells like cat breath.  We are all familiar with that scent since Charlie insists on grooming our hair and faces while we are trying to sleep. She will groom us until we are wet with kitty slobber and need to get up and shower before going back to bed.

 See? All neat, clean and pink. Kitteh Manicuring is srss biznezz.

What do you think of Angel Wings? Yay or Nay? And more importantly, is it Charlie's color?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

 

31 Day Challenge (v.2!), Day 29: Inspired By The Supernatural feat. A England Camelot

Hello Loves! Welcome to Day 29 of the 31 Day Challenge! I can't believe we are so close to the end. It's been so much fun doing this challenge with everyone. I've learned so much (again) and made some great friends along the way. The end of this challenge is going to be very bittersweet indeed.

Also, this post is pretty pic heavy, but be sure to stay tuned - I'm sharing some personal pics at the end this time!

Today's challenge is Inspired By The Supernatural. This prompt has always seemed kind of odd to me, given the other challenge themes. It just seems a little out of place. However, I had alot of un with it this time around.

I love the Paranormal and watch a lot of Paranormal Investigation type shows. I love T.A.P.S, Ghost Adventures, Paranormal State, Haunted History, the list goes on. If it's based on the paranormal, odds are I've watched it. One of the most interesting things to me are EVP's - Electronic Voice Phenomena. I'm a huge skeptic, believe me, but hearing some of those EVP's is just awesome and creepy at the same time. Since EVP's are so interesting to me, I decided to use them as my inspiration for today's challenge.

I started with a base of A England Camelot, my go-to black and the best black polish out there IMO. If you don't have Camelot, you need it. I have yet to find a black that maintains consistency, is fully opaque in one easy coat, and applies as perfectly as Camelot. Then I grabbed Heaven Nail Lacquer in True Blue and my medium striper brush and created some EVP frequencies. I know, they look a lot like a heart monitor, but trust me, they're EVP's. :) For my accent nail I incorporated the letters EVP, using the same fuzzy line technique as the other nails. I topped it all off with a coat of Seche Vite (which is still bubbling like crazy over most of my polish. I can't wait until my A England Top and Base coats arrive!!) and VOILA! EVP Nails!

I'm really happy with how these came out! It's kind of fun to have Paranormal Nails! They're also a pretty good conversation starter. ;)

This is what my son, Dexter, thinks of this manicure:

Dex really needs a haircut!


And this is my Manicure Companion, Charlie Cat. She usually hangs out next to me while I'm working on my nails (getting cat hair all over me). She also would like to let Adina know that she has a kitteh crush on Tristam, and would like to share some catnip with him.

Be sure to check out the Supernatural Manicures that the Varnished Vixen's have conjured up!

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
 -Kimber

31 Day Challenge (v.2!) Day 13: Animal Print!

Morning Ladies! Before I post my challenge mani for today, I have to warn everyone that I am changing my comment settings. I have been getting an insane amount of comment spam, so I'm going to be accepting comments from registered users only - no Anonymous comments. I hate to do it, but "Anonymous" is spamming me like crazy!

Now, onto the mani!

Today's prompt is Animal Print, and since Leopard, cheetah, zebra, tiger, etc pop up often (although I love them and was very close to doing leopard print), I decided to take it a bit more literally.  I'm silly that way.  I also chose to show them right side up since I didn't want anyone to have to flip upside down to see what my accent nail is. ;)

For this literal mani, I used OPI I Vant To Be A-Lone star as my base color (I love this color. I used it last time I did the challenge as well), and used black acrylic paint for the nail art. I also added some sparkly blue and silver for a little teeny tiny pop. Check it out!

Kitteh! Kind of a lumpy kitteh, but it's still a kitteh! And hey, paw prints are technically animal print, right?

I'm pretty happy with how this turned out, even if my kitteh is a bit wonky. It's hard to create a standing cat on a tiny nail! Kudos to those who do it well!

Be sure to check out the Varnished Vixens and their Animal Print Manis! These ladies rock!

 Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner
-Kat at Hooked On Polish
-Diana at Nails By Diana
-Aly at Wonderland Beauty
-Meredith at Perfectly Polished
-Nicole at The Color Republic
-Kate at The Painted Pony Nails
-Cee at Absolutely Cee
-Sam at Polished Art
-Nail Narcotics
-Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed
-Shelby at Shelby's Swatches
-Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful
-Mixed Mama
-Joanna @ Sweet Polish of Mine
-Patty Greenberg
-Liz and Lisa @ Lozlosa 
-Mari at Nailista
-Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 
-Gini at Sassy Paints 
-Chameleon Stampede 
-Pam at Nail-E-Glance
-Me, Myself, and Polish 
- Robin Sparkles  

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber