Aphrodite Lacquers Grapetini

Today, I have for you the entire reason I even bought from Aphrodite Lacquers in the first place!  This is Grapetini!  It is a squishy purple jelly with silver and purple glitters in it.

It went on very smoothly and easily. What you see here are three coats.  I have said it before and I will say it again-I can never have enough purples and this one is no exception!  I just want to eat it.

Now to pick up Blue Lagoon...

You can check out Aphrodite Lacquers on Facebook HERE and visit her shop on Etsy HERE.

Alter Ego Armed Forces=Happy Memorial Day!

What better way to celebrate Memorial Day than with a beautiful indie patriotic glitter?!  

 My father was a Marine in Vietnam, two uncle's served in the Air Force and Marine Corps, my grandma was a nurse in the Navy and helped Jewish prisoners who were not killed by Hitler during WWII, I served in Desert Storm in the Marine Corps.  Needless to say, I am patriotic to the core!!!!!  **********

Today I want to show you Alter Ego's Armed Forces Vet!  It is a micro glitter with red, white and blue.   On the right hand, I put a coat of OPI Meep, Meep, Meep on pinkie and middle finger and Cult Nails Time Traveler on the index and ring finger.  I then put two coats of Armed Forces Vet on each nail.  If you look closely, you will see that I put a matte top coat on the pinkie and ring finger and a glossy Seche Vite top coat on the middle and index finger!

IN SUN

You can see the beautiful sparkle that the glossy top coat brings out, but there is always something special about a matte coat too!  Armed Forces Vet was a little thick (in the head just like some of the men I was in the Marine Corps with!) but nothing I couldn't handle.

IN SHADE

On my left hand, I put a white base coat on my pinkie and middle finger and no base coat on my ring and index finger.  Each finger still has two coats of Armed Forces Vet-even the fingers without a colored base coat.

IN SUN

Armed Forces Vet goes on the nail uniformly and covers quite well!  I love the versatility of it and wanted to do it over black as well just for fun. It does settle quite a bit in the bottle, but it is nothing that a few seconds of shaking won't fix!  I put a glossy top coat on the pinkie and ring fingers and a matte top coat on the middle and index fingers.

IN SHADE

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and take time to thank a vet!
To buy from the lovely Cynthia at Alter Ego, HERE.
To "Like" ALter Ego on Facebook, click HERE.

My Favorite Indies-Haul Post

I have an astounding amount of nail polish to swatch, but that didn't stop me from ordering and buying form my top three favorite indie brands!  I will start with Dandy Nails...

I just had to order from her last sale and I bought Through Glass, Look Around, and Wonderwall.

Look Around is a holographic green that just might make it into the tiny pile of greens that I choose to keep.

I am not a huge top coat glitter fan, but Though Glass is an exception.  I have a thing for the holographic glitters!

Wonderwall is a matte periwinkle and white glitter!  Love me some periwinkle!

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Secondly, my custom order from Laquistry came in the mail!  Woohoo! I had ordered two more new customs from her and she redid my last three customs because of issues.

First up, my two new customs:  Periwinkle Pearls and Smokehouse Lavender.

I love purples.

If you remember, I had ordered some customs from Jenna last time: I had asked for a red, white and blue polish and a camouflage polish.  Unfortunately, both had severe issues and were unusable, so Jenna remade them for me!

I can't what to try them!

Jenna had thought that all my customs didn't turn out, so she remade Rouhier and Now and called it Rouhier for Michelle.  I let her know that Rouhier and Now had not gone bad, but I HAD to purchase this one anyways because it was so beautiful!

Purple, teal, fuchsia, blue, green!  LOVE IT!

My most favorite indie of all, Nailventurous Lacquers!  I was able to get four of her polishes!

Robin Laid and Egg and Girly Girl...

Flying Blue Jay and Swampy Princess...  I just can't get enough of her polishes!!!

Can you say, "YUMMY?"

Whimsical Ideas by Pam-Kismet's Pajamas

I can't believe I am saying this, but I really miss my long nails.  Now THAT is about as girly as I can get!  I have been wearing combat boots or steel toed boots for two decades now, but the girly in me is coming out to play!

today I am going to show you my last Whimsical Ideas by Pam polish-Kismet's Pajamas!

Kismet's Pajamas is a beautiful black jelly base with fuchsia and silver glitters in it of varying sizes.

I used three coats of Kismet's Pajamas and it went on as easily as her other polishes! I think she and dandy Nails have cornered the market on how to make a glitter jelly the perfect thickness.  Seriously.

This polish is named after Pam's adorable kitty, Kismet. Have you been on her Facebook page and seen his picture yet?  He is the cutest cat ever! The crazy hair around his face cracks me up!  Anyway, this polish is beautiful just like Kismet.

 To order from Whimsical Ideas by Pam, just email her your order at pea422000@yahoo.com.    You can see the photos of the polishes she is selling, by clicking HERE.  Once you email her, she will email you back with the cost, including shipping. You just pay her via Paypal and she sends you the polish.  Simple and easy.

Alter Ego Meets Nailventurous Lacquers

Today, I have something special for you.  My favorite indie brand, Nailventurous Lacquers, paired up with a new-to-me indie brand with HUGE promise, Alter Ego!  On my nails I have two coats of Alter Ego's Beachcomber.  Beachcomber is a MATTE polish!  I did not even know that when I bought it!  It is a beautiful aqua that resembles Zoya Robyn-but matte.  In this top picture there is no top coat so that you can see the very slight shimmer to the matte base.

NO TOP COAT

You probably already recognize it, but I used Nailventurous Lacquers' Rainbow Fish on my accent nails and as a loose french tip.  I thought this would be the perfect manicure to wear to my sister's surprise baby shower!

Julep Top Coat

Now, as far as application goes, Alter Ego was a little thick.  I had to shake it once in the middle of applying it.  I only used two coats for complete coverage and I had no other issues with it.  Rainbow Fish applied as well as any glitter!  What you see on my ring fingers is two coats and no manipulating of the glitters at all.

Julep Quick Dry Top Coat

I thought these two polishes complemented each other really well!

I also used a matte top coat on one hand. I notice that the matte top coat dulled the natural shimmer that Beachcomber had on its own.  I still love the matte look though!

Hard Candy Matte Top Coat

I bought four other Alter Ego polishes and I can't WAIT to try them!
To buy from Alter Ego, HERE..
To "Like" ALter Ego on Facebook, click HERE.
Nailventurous LAcquers is taking a break from making polishes, but you can be notified of her next opening by clicking HERE.
To "Like" I'm Feeling Nailventurous on Facebook, click HERE.

Pretty & Polished Phoenix

My first Pretty & Polished polish!!!  I feel so dumb waiting to buy from her from so long. I was finally able to snag SOMETHING from her shop at her last opening and this is what I bought!  I got the beautiful matte glitter Phoenix.  

Phoenix is a crazy looking matte glitter made up of small matte yellow glitters. Interspersed throughout are red hex glitters and large red hex glitters!  On my nails it looks yellow and red, but when you put it next to a yellow post it note or something else that is yellow, it LOOKS ORANGE!   So crazy.

I used two coats of Phoenix and it went on fairly well other than a little thinness in the polish.  I also had a hard time layering it. I found I needed to wait between coats in order for it not to take the first coats off.  No biggie. It was well worth it.

I know in these pictures I see VNL, but in real life it wasn't showing.  I loved this polish so much I wore it for a RECORD THREE days!  It was such a hit that my sister took off her manicure and put this one on her toes. AND I had two men at work grab my hand and say they loved it. One man wanted to paint his car like this. :o)

Ironically, I don't even like yellow OR orange polishes and I rarely ever wear reds. THIS polish, however, has made it into my "must haves" and "must wear again" polishes!  This is the ONLY yellow that I own!

I can not wait to own more P & P polishes!  I want Sand Art, Rainbow Sparkle, and Pool Party next!

Bottle SHOT!

To order from Pretty & Polished, click HERE.
To "Like" Pretty & Polished on Facebook, click HERE.

Aphrodite Rum Runner

*Disclaimer*  The nails you are about to see are short.  I had a run-in with a 75 gallon water heater and the water heater won. Three of my nails lost. :o(  As a result, I had to chop them all off.

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A while ago, I had bought from two unknown to me indie polish brands on Etsy. One was Fan Service Nails and the other one was Aphrodite Lacquers.  Today I want to show my the first Aphrodite Lacquer called Rum Runner.

Rum Runner is a cool berry red jelly nail polish. It is blessed with beautiful silver and red glitters in small and micro sized.   I had to put three coats to get it somewhat opaque.  It went on well and was neither too thick nor too thin.

This was a pretty polish that applies well. I don't wear reds very often, but when I do, I love to have them in shades like this one-berry cooool!

What do you think?

To buy from Aphrodite Lacquers, click HERE.

I just discovered she is on Facebook!  Click HERE to like her page.

My Sister and My Niece Choose Indie Brands

My sister and my niece visited for about 3 weeks, but they left last Wednesday. :o(  I mis them terribly, so I thought I would reminisce with the last of the nail shots I took of them before they left!  We did our nails about four times while they were here and the last time they did their nails they both chose indie brands!  My niece put Julep Amy on her fingers with Lacquistry's A Friggin Circus over it, and she put Julep Helena with Lynnderella The Glittering Crowd on her toes!

Here she is posing for me!

My sister loved The Glittering Corwd so much, she put it on her nails over Julep Helena!

I shipped THEM about ten polishes to use at home. :o)

91 POLISHES ON MY BLOG SALE!

BLOG SALE!  

I have 91 polishes up for sale!  Go check it out.

Click HERE.

HAPPY HOLO DAY!

Several blogger friends and I decided to do a HOLO Day and today is that day!  Woohoo!
So the objective was very simple-Use holographic polishes in your manicure.  I decided to go with my favorite-A England.  I also decided to do a water marble!  I did both hands differently, so you let me know which one you liked best!  Here are the lovely A Englands I used...

I had been wanting to test my holos for awhile to see if they were water marble friendly.  On my right hand I chose to use St. George, Bridal Veil, and Princess Sabra.

I was too lazy to use a base coat, but I SHOULD HAVE!  I should have put a coat of Princess Sabra and the colors would have really popped.

I still liked how it turned out, but thought I might be able to do better on my left hand!

On my left hand, I used Lady of the Lake, Tristam, Bridal Veil, and St. George.  I still did not use a base coat and I really should have. LESSON LEARNED.

It turns out that Lady of the Lake and Tristam did not marble well. They just did not show up as well as Bridal Veil and St George!

It just goes to show that it is really up to the individual polish whether or not it will cooperate with water marbling. I still liked this hand, but I really think the other hand looked better! In retrospect, I would have laid a base coat down and then used St. George and Bridal Veil alone. THAT would have been crazy!