Love, Angeline Polish Spellbound Collection - Charmed

 Press Sample

*Product(s) Featured provided for review. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information** 

Hello Lovelies! Happy Wednesday! I'm still working on swatches and trying to catch up. Now that nothing is going wrong, it actually feels like I'm getting somewhere!

Wednesday also means Mish Mash Challenge day, but before I get to posting my challenge mani, I wanted to share an awesome Halloween polish with you all.

I know...Halloween already? This year has been the worst year on record for me, but at the same time it has flown by. Not that I'm complaining! I live for the Holiday Season and Halloween is the start of it all in my house. In fact, I usually put the Xmas tree up the day after Halloween. Halloween also means awesome new Indie polishes! Woohoo!!!! I'm seeing so many awesome collections popping up - my wallet is already crying. One of the most anticipated for me was Love, Angeline's Spellbound Collection, and I am lucky enough to have a couple beauties from Spellbound to share with you all.

Today's Halloween Polish is "Charmed" from Love, Angeline's Spellbound Collection. Charmed is a pumpkin orange polish with scattered holo, and it's another surprise fave for me. I normally shy away from  this type of Orange since it's another shade that makes my skin tone look funky, but this polish is just so beautiful that I couldn't help but fall in love. I swear, Natosha has yet to make a polish that I don't instantly fall head over heels for.

It's also fitting that I'm posting this today - Natosha is having her baby today! I am so excited for her (although she still needs to send me her address so I can send her a gift!) and cannot wait to see his little baby face! Natosha is such a sweetheart, and I am so blessed not only to know her, but to be able to swatch for her as well. I know I'm not a huge name, but Natosha trusts me to make her polish look good, and that means the world to me. I never take those things for granted. So Congrats to Natosha and family! May your newest little one know love, laughter, and happiness every day.

And now, back to the polish!

This is 2 coats of Charmed topped with HK Girl Top Coat:

Unfortunately I was not able to capture the holo in the macro shot, but look at that color! It's actually a touch more vibrant IRL, and tends to shift just a touch depending on lighting. It's just a perfect pumpkin orange polish and a great start to the Halloween season. Even though my skin tone really wants to reflect the orange in this, I want to wear it over and over again.

Charmed's formula is up to Love, Angeline's usual standards of excellence. No thickening during use, and perfect consistency. Application is excellent with no dragging or balding, and dry time is ultra fast, even before top coat. The only thing that I do need to mention is that this is a heavily pigmented polish and may temporarily stain your nails. I say temporarily because even though I had some staining on removal, it came right off with soap, water, and a nail brush with minimal effort. I'd just double up on the base coat and you should be fine, but if you *do* have some staining, know that it's not going to linger on your nails past a hand washing. That's not even real staining to me, but I thought I'd mention it since I wouldn't want anyone to worry should they grab this beauty and find some pinkish tint left after removal. :)

You can find Charmed and the rest of the Spellbound Collection at Love, Angeline on Big Cartel. Full size polishes run $8, save for holos which run $10. Natosha has also released her fall Deep In The Enchanted Forest Collection, and you have to see these! I was lucky enough to receive a few to share with you all, and I'll have those coming up within the next week as well. The cool thing about that collection is that you have the option to choose your finish for several colors - creme or holo - essentially doubling the colors available. These polishes are one of the reasons I'm so excited about catching up, honestly. I am a complete Love, Angeline addict and you should be too! Don't forget to follow Love, Angeline on Facebook and Instagram for sales info, re-stock information, new releases, and swatches. And don't forget to say Congrats to Natosha on her newest bundle of joy!

What do you think of Charmed? Are you as excited about Halloween collections as I am?

I'll be back this evening with my Mish Mash Challenge Mani, and I have more from Love, Angeline, Polish TBH, Cinema Swatch, Lac Attack and more coming up!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber







*Product(s) Featured provided for review. Please see Disclaimer/Legal Page for more information**

Press Sample

NOTD: Another Untried! Revlon Sparkle APlenty

Good morning lovelies! Happy Friday!! I'm having a pretty good morning so far...it's payday! Which means I've already managed to order more A England (including The Knight Base Coat and The Shield Top Coat, which I plan to review here...I know we're all consantly looking for the best out there, and I've heard these are incredible!) and score some awesome Indie polishes from a blog sale! Woohoo!

Today's NOTD is another from my stash of untrieds. Revlon Sparkle APlenty is from the single shade Runway Report Collection (can you call that a Collection?), and was highly sought after. I managed to snatch it up as soon as the display hit the floor at Wags, and was so excited about it! Then it sat on a shelf just staring at me all dejected-like. Poor thing!

Sparkle APlenty is a dark grey/black (it's debatable) jelly packed with Silver Hex and microglitter, as well as Black Hex and microglitter (If you think it looks familiar, it's a pretty good dupe for OPI Metallic 4 Life from the Nicki Minaj Collection). Despite sounding simple, there's actually alot going on in here (it freaked my camera out!). You can see all of this in the bottle, but it loses it's translation on the nail, both over black and on its own. I chose to wear 2 coats over A England Camelot, my go to Black Creme.

Pretty, right? I'm actually kind of on the fence about this one. I really wish the the Black Glitter was actually visible. I tried this one alone first, and the Black glitter really does fade into the jelly. The only time you can see it, is when a black glitter overlaps a silver glitter. Pretty, but not all the unique.  I was hoping for more oomph.

Formula:
Sparkle Aplenty has a very odd formula. The jelly is fairly runny, but the glitter is so dense that it globs together. This made was very frustrating and made glitter placement a complete pain. The brush was also VERY fluffy, which didn't help.

Application:
 Due to the runny jelly and clumpy glitter, this was not fun to apply. Since I wore this over Black, I ended up just dabbing the brush around in an effort to get the glitter to lay somewhat evenly and flat. It has a tendency to stick up from the nail, which led to alot of poking at it to get it to lay down. The jelly also lends a very greyed out cast when worn over Black, yet looks fairly dark when worn alone. I'm wearing 2 coats here, but this needed a good 3 coats on its own. Dry time was fairly slow, and it dries gritty so if you like things smooth, a good coat of Gelous or Glitter Tamer is in order.

I really wanted to love this, but I'm just not wowed. This is the first time I've picked up a Revlon Glitter and was just "meh" about it. It's just not consistent with their usual quality. Unofortunately, this is going to end up sitting on a shelf, or donated to someone who will love it.

What do you think of Sparkle Aplenty?

I'll be back tomorrow with another challenge post, as well as the start of lots of A England polish!


Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber

Maybelline Color Show LE polish in Boho Gold

Hello Ladies! Happy Wednesday! I apologize for the lack of regular posts lately. It's been hectic around here! Hopefully things will stay calm for a bit. I have a slew of polishes I really want to share with you guys!

Today I'm sharing the last of the Maybelline Color Show LE Polishes that I grabbed awhile back. Boho Gold is another duochrome, and if you think you've seen this done before, you're correct. This girl is yet another Peridot dupe. I almost didn't pick this one up, but the duochrome seems fairly strong in the bottle and I wanted to see if that translated to the nail. Plus, I'm a sucker for duochromes and this color is GREAT for stamping.

I have to say that this polish didn't let me down. The duochrome shift was strong on the nail, evident in most lighting. I still don't really like this color on me as a full mani, but I do love to stamp with it, so it's definitely a win.

Here is Boho Gold on her own. I tried to capture the duochromey goodness, and I was mildly succesful. Be sure to enlarge and look close! Also, keep reading after these pics - there's more!

I'm kind of torn over this one. On one hand, the duochrome really does shine IRL. On the other hand I think I like to softness of the gold in OPI Just Spotted The Lizard a bit more.

Formula:
I did like this formula more than JSTL. Boho Gold applied smoothly and had great consistency.

Application:
Again, I prefer Boho Gold to JSTL. There was considerably less drag at the cuticle, and I used less polish with BG. JSTL required at least 3 coats for opacity, whereas BG only *needed* 2. I added the extra coat for color emphasis.

However, since I don't necessarily like this color on me as a full mani, I decided to grab my stamping plates and change it up. I used one of my Mash Plates (I forget the number. Sorry guys!), and Konad Black for the stamping. I really liked the outcome, and bonus! The duochrome was still very evident through the stamping!  Again, enlarge and look closely!

I really loved this with the black stamping. I can't wait to use Boho Gold as a stamping polish now!

What do you guys think of this polish? Are you loving these Peridot Dupes or wishing there weren't so many?

I'll be back tomorrow with Rainbow Nails for the 31 Day Challenge!


Thanks for stopping by and Happy polishing!

Maybelline Color Show LE: Avante Green

God afternoon ladies! Since it was Green day for the challenge, I decided to keep with the green theme and show you another polish from Maybelline's LE Color Show Collection today.

Avante Green is a stunning metallic green duochrome that shifts from a beautiful green to teal, and in the right light, purple. I had a hard time capturing the duochrome on this girl, mostly because it doesn't have a ton of it. I had hoped this one had a more pronounced shift, but what it does have is just beautiful. This polish is also rumored to be dupe of the China Glaze Bohemian Lustre Chrome polish Unpredictable as well. I'm not too sure since Unpredictable was out of stock everywhere I looked for it, but from what I've seen through blogs, it's very very close. You certainly don't need both. And, if you come across the Color Show LE display at Walgreens, there's a coupon for $2 off if you buy 3 polishes.

I tried to capture as many of the colors as possible here. If you look closely at the shots where my nails are tilted back, you can see the teal and the purple sneaking around the edges.

Details:
1 coat Nail Tek Foundation II
3 coats Avante Green
1 coat Seche Vite

I have to tell ya, this is my fave from this collection. IRL it is so vibrant. I could not stop staring at it.  It was dangerous while driving though, since that's when I noticed the duochrome the most. Gotta love those driving angles!

Formula:
Not a lot of issues here, save for some dragging and balding at the cuticle. It wasn't bad enough to put me off this polish, and did even out eventually. Otherwise this was a smooth, silky formula.

Application:
This girl flowed so nicely! It stayed right where I put it, and required minimal cleanup (I always clean up since I have this thing about my lines being as neat as possible!). I did have to use 3 coats to even out the dragging/balding at the cuticle, but I'm finding this issue seems to be common with metallic finishes lately. It's not as bad as with the Essie Mirror Metallics, but it is there, and did need all 3 coats to even out.

Overall this is a fabulous drug store polish and if you haven't been able to grab the Bohemian Lustre Chromes, then this girl and the other 2 metallic duochromes in this collection are worth a trip to Walgreens. I was iffy on these at first, but I'm glad I gave in.

What do you think of this polish?

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Polishing!
-Kimber