Connie You Saucy Minx! - Colors by Llarowe

Hello ladies! Tonight I have another beauty from Colors by Llarowe to share with you - the intriguingly titled "Connie You Saucy Minx!"...I have no idea what meaning there might be behind that name, if it's a pop culture reference then it's lost on me...What I do know is that this is utterly fabulous!

Connie You Saucy Minx - Colors by Llarowe - artificial light

Connie..is an indigo jelly base with a rich mixture of magenta and gold shimmer particles.  The pink shimmer really comes through strongly on this, and against the indigo background its absolutely stunning.  I have a hunch that this shade might come out pretty close to Cirque's "Coronation" which I had a major lemming for (but sadly not the budget to match).  It does also remind me of Max Factor Fantasy Fire, although with FF it took about 8 coats to approach this level of opacity and it wasn't this pretty.

Connie You Saucy Minx - Colors by Llarowe - artificial light

I'm wearing a generous two coats here, and you can see from this swatch that the jelly base does leave it a little translucent around the tips, but no VNL.  I used my usual NE base, and topped it off with Essie Good to Go.  Formula and application were both excellent on this, and like all the CbL polishes I tried the wear time was a heroic 7 days before it chipped.  The finish is also naturally nice and glossy, but I used the Essie topcoat to extend the wear time.

Connie You Saucy Minx - Colors by Llarowe - artificial light

I'm so in love with this polish, it's one of the prettiest purples I own (and that's saying something because I have a LOT of purple in my stash).  This is all kinds of gorgeous, I highly recommend it :)

Under the halogen bulbs in my kitchen this shade is crazy gorgeous!

This polish is gorgeous in every light, but especially under artificial lighting conditions.  For some reason the bulbs in my kitchen really bring this polish to life...just look at that glow! Phwoar!

Connie You Saucy Minx - Colors by Llarowe - artificial light

I picked up my bottle of Connie...from Rainbow Connection for £8.80.

Sparkly Zoya's: Final Comparison

Hello Ladies! One final post of this sparkly Zoya blogathon...I just wanted to give some quick comparison bottleshots.  I was originally concerned that Peyton, Blaze and Aurora might be fairly similar before I bought them, but as you can see from the photo below they couldn't be more different.

From L-R : Zoya Peyton, Blaze and Aurora

You can also clearly see from this shot see that the holo glitter in Aurora is much more concentrated that in the other shades, and its utterly mesmerizing on the nail.  It ranks amongst my sparkliest polishes of all (second only to the Smitten Polish 'Magic Words' collection polishes...post to come on these).  So imagine my surprise to see this fantastic comparison post by More Nail Polish comparing OPI DS polishes, Zoya's, Ozotic's and Dance Legend, showing that the Dance Legend WOW Prism polish packs in more glitter than all of them....I strongly predict there will be some DL polishes entering the stash in the near future.

Jen at The PolishAholic (one of my absolute fave bloggers) did a wonderful comparison post of Holiday polishes from several major brands, including the Zoya Ornate collection.  Check it out at this link.

One of the comparisons made on the More Nail Polish post is between Zoya Blaze and Picture Polish Monroe.  On her post these look very similar.  I have both of these so took a quick couple of comparison shots and I think they are quite different.  I think Monroe was re-released with a new formula, and I wonder whether this is why mine is so dissimilar to Blaze....

Left - PP Monroe, Right - Zoya Blaze

As you can see here, in my bottles the PP is a darker shade of red, more of a burgundy, and the Zoya is more pink leaning towards raspberry.  Both are fabulous, and not dupes.  So yes, if you like sparkly red polishes I think it's justifiable to have both.  Then again I think it's justifiable to spend more on nail polish than food, so what do I know?

Finally, I was interested in finding comparisons to Dream with Picture Polish Cosmos (which I don't own, but was considering) and found this great post from the Polished Cricket. In her post she suggests that these are quite similar, but that Dream is better and from her pics I agree.  Definitely no need for both methinks.

Until next time :)

Sparkly Zoya's: "Dream"

Hello Ladies!  Today's post is the final instalment in the sparkly Zoya blogfest :) I give you, the lovely Dream...
 

Morpheus says....buy all the polish!

Ooops, wrong Dream...Zoya Dream is from the Holiday 2013 "Zenith" collection (see collection mate Peyton).  This is a bright blue jelly base, packed with the "micro-fine diamond holographic particles" that the Zenith and Ornate collections are famous for (Ornate posts: Aurora, Blaze and Storm) and it's stunning....

Zoya Dream - artificial light

This rich blue has a real pop on the nail, and like all the other sparkly Zoyas the formula, application and wear time were all top notch.  In these swatches I have the usual two coats betwixt NE and HK girl.  In most lights this polish looks like a lovely shade of deep royal blue (above), but in bright artificial light it has slight denim tones too (below)

Zoya Dream - artificial light

I don't really own many sparkly blue polishes, but I'd say this one is definitely more impressive than Picture Polish Hope but not as cool as Smitten Polish Klaatu Barada Nikto (but then, what IS as cool as the Smitten? Answer....nothing!)



Zoya Dream - sun light

Dream is certainly a dreamy shade.....just look at that pretty colour and all those lovely sparkly bits...

Zoya Dream - artificial light

I have really loved all of the sparkly Zoya's, each is special in its own right, and there is definitely no such thing as too many sparkly polishes in my opinion.  Yes I now have several polishes with the exact same finish, but its such a winner that I really don't mind.  This has also been my first real experience of Zoya polish, which until recently wasn't easily available in the UK.  Now you can find it on Sally Magpies and TNBL (links on the suppliers pages), and for very reasonable prices too.  I've picked all of these up for similar money to OPI polishes and these have definitely been of a comparable quality.  I like the cute shaped bottles too.  Now if only they would adopt the OPI pro-wide brush....

Zoya Dream - artificial light

I bought my bottle of Dream from the Nail and Beauty Link (TNBL, link in the supplier's page) for a bargain £6 :)

Last up we'll have one more Zoya related post, which will be a wee comparison and some links and then I'll move onto something new (quite possibly the astonishingly awesome Crowstoes "9 Realms" collection which I just got  a few shades from)...

Until next time ladies, happy painting!

Sparkly Zoya's: "Peyton"

Hello ladies!  We're nearing the end of the sparkly Zoya bonanza...this is the penultimate offering, and it's a doozy!  Today we have the lovely "Peyton" from the Holiday 2013 "Zenith" collection. 

Zoya "Peyton" - artificial light

Of all the holiday collection Zoya holos, Peyton is the one that I'd actually class as a 'holiday' shade.  It's a scrummy dark cranberry jelly, packed with the same 'micro-fine holographic diamond' particles that Zoya used in its hugely popular "Ornate" collection from the previous year (Ornate posts: Aurora, Blaze and Storm).  This shade is utterly fabulous on the nail, deep and complex it's not as flashy as some of the other holos, instead it has a rich depth of fire that's mesmerising and no less pretty.

Zoya "Peyton" - artificial light

As per usual, this is two coats of colour sandwiched between NE base and SV topcoat. Application, formula and wear-time all excellent and removal is easy peasy which is always a nice surprise from a glittery polish.  The finish on all these polishes is naturally nice and glossy, but I always add topcoat to extend weartime (especially since I sit typing on a computer all day long, my tips take a battering so I need all the help I can get!)

Zoya "Peyton" - artificial light

What I love about this shade is that its a real in-betweener....it's too pink to be a red, and too red to be a pink, it's just a perfect balance of the two.  After my final individual post (on Zoya Dream, also from the Zenith collection) I have one last post planned to show you a side-by -side of Peyton, Blaze and Aurora so you can see the comparison of the tonal range.

I bought from the Nail and Beauty Link (link in the supplier's page) for a Christmas miracle price of £6....Like the 'Ornate' collection shades, I think the 'Zeniths' will also stay on Zoya's catalogue for a long time to come.  They hit the jackpot with this jelly/holo particle formula combo...here's hoping the holiday 2014 collection will have more! (Zoya, if you are reading this...think PURPLE!) :)

Next up is the final sparkly Zoya in my stash....the mesmerizing 'Dream'....until then ladies :)

Sparkly Zoya's: "Storm"

Hello Ladies!  The sparkly-themed Zoya posts continue....this time with the final polish I own from the "Ornate" collection - the lovely "Storm"...Storm is a true black jelly with the same micro-fine diamond holographic particle finish found in collection mates Aurora and Blaze.  The depth of this polish is fabulous, it's a galaxy in a bottle. 


Zoya Storm - artificial light

I've been looking for a true black (not a crumby charcoal-y black) holo for a looooong time. There are many out there, but I want the one.  My mind was finally made up by this fantastic post from Jen at the PolishAholic...in it she compares Zoya 'Storm', A England 'Bridal Veil', Butter London 'The Black Knight' and Girly Bits 'Into the Night' (scroll to the bottom of her post to find the swatch).  For my money, "Storm" is the clear winner from this bunch....Also checkout this great comparison on Globe & Nail of Storm with "Starry Night" by Picture Polish.  It shows that while the particles are similar, Storm is a much truer black base.  That's right ladies, I've done the legwork so you don't have to...ain't I kind? Seriously though, I give big props to all those lovely blogger gals out there that have made my shopping easier (and my bank balance significantly less....).

Zoya Storm - artificial light

As with its collection-mates I have nothing but praise for the quality, wear-time and formula on this.  It's fantastic and I'm so pleased to finally be able to add it to my stash.  This is what I had hoped to find in OPI's "My Private Jet" (which was controversially reformulated, see this archive post from the PolishAddict) but sadly I got the crappy reformulated version, which just looks like speckly charcoal with virtually no holo at all.  The disappointment with 'MPJ' is what started my long-term lemming for the true black sparkle-fest polish that is finally satisfied by Storm :)

Zoya Storm - artificial light

In all these swatches I'm wearing my habitual two coats of colour with a single coat each of NE and HK girl topcoat.  I bought my bottle from the Nail and Beauty Link (link in the supplier's page) for a bargain £6.

Zoya Storm - artificial light

So what about you ladies? Have you got a polish lemming that you've been chasing down all these years?  For me there's nothing quite like that feeling of swiping on the first stripe and thinking 'Yes!! this is exactly what I was looking for!"

That rounds out my "Ornate" collection polishes...next up will be a couple from the more recent "Zenith" collection: Peyton and Dream...

Until then :)

Sparkly Zoya's: "Blaze"

Hello Ladies! Continuing the Zoya Sparkly polish post series with "Blaze".  This lovely polish was also from the Holiday 2012 "Ornate" collection (see collection mate Aurora).  Blaze is a raspberry red jelly base with the same "micro fine diamond holographic glitter" finish as Aurora, but at a slightly less dense concentration. 


Zoya Blaze - artificial light

In a lot of online swatches, this shade comes across as a deep true red, but that wasn't my experience.  In my opinion this is a pink leaning red, more of a raspberry than a vampy Hollywood red.  I absolutely love it though, it's a gorgeous shade.  I think the picture below has captured this pink/red tone quite well.

 Zoya Blaze - artificial light

As with Aurora the application/formula is fantastic, glides on smooth for a glossy finish and did need two coats for full opacity.  I'm wearing two coats in the pictures, with NE base and HK girl topcoat.  Wear time was excellent - you might notice some tipwear in the pics (sorry for that) but when you consider I took these photos after redecorating my kitchen, then this is pretty impressive.  This mani took an astonishing amount of abuse and stayed really well.  That's a nice surprise with a glitter polish, which in my experience tend to be a bit more fragile.  Removal was also easy, no different to removing a crème.

Zoya Blaze -sunlight

Just look at that sunlit glow! This is a fabulous shade in any light, and it just explodes when the sun hits it.  I'm a big fan.  Previous to this I only owned one Zoya polish (Valerie, which is frankly a bit disappointing, it's a very dry purple foil) so I was a bit unsure what I'd make of the brand.  Based on Aurora and Blaze I'm very impressed with the quality. My only complaint is that their brushes are a bit on  the narrow side.

Zoya Blaze - artificial light

I bought my bottle from the Nail and Beauty Link (link in the supplier's page) for a ridiculous bargain £6.  I'd say this polish is easily worth twice that. 

Next up will be my final "Ornate" collection polish: Storm...until then!

Sparkly Zoya's: "Aurora"

Hello ladies! Today I'm kicking off a run of Zoya posts, showcasing the sparkly polishes that I have in my stash.  I recently went on a Zoya lemming hunt, and these were the spoils :)

First up is hands-down favourite of the bunch: Aurora.  This polish was released in the Holiday 2012 "Ornate" collection.  These jewel toned holo glitters are described as containing "high concentration micro-fine diamond holographic glitter".  Whether this contains actual diamond I don't know, but it certainly sparkles like it does....

Zoya Aurora - artificial light

Aurora is a cool toned magenta, that appears purple in some lights.  It has a jelly base and flawless application.  The glitter particles are fine enough to allow smooth application with no clump-and-drag and leaving a glossy smooth finish.  Removal was also a breeze.  I'm wearing my usual two coats betwixt NE base and HK girl topcoat.  It did need a couple coats to reach opacity.

Zoya Aurora - artificial light - close up

This polish is mesmerizing in every light.  I find some holos can be dull in indirect light, but there is literally not a dull face to this beauty, indoors or out the holo effect is clearly evident and in sunlight this polish is a riot of rainbows.  I found I was still staring at my nails just as much on day 5 as day 1. Wear time was also impressive, I only had minor tip wear after a full week.

Zoya Aurora - in different lights

I've had a major lemming for this polish since I first saw it swatched by the legendary Scrangie...its such a shame she doesn't seem to blog much anymore.  I can't believe I waited to so long to add this to my collection, but it was definitely worth the wait. 

I bought mine from Nail Polish Direct (link on the suppliers page) for £8.95, which is utterly bargainous for a polish of this quality and beauty.  I got it just a few weeks ago, so even though this was a 2012 polish it still appears to be in circulation.

More "Ornate" polish posts to follow...(and a couple from the follow-up "Zenith" collection).

Pretty Serious "Bloody Bride" and review of OPI Glitter OFF! base coat

Hello ladies!  Today I have a dual purpose review for you - "Bloody Bride" a gorgeous glitter polish from Pretty Serious, and a first test of the new OPI "Glitter OFF!" base coat.

I have only worn Bloody Bride once before this, and removal was so unbelievably god-awful that I vowed never to wear it again.  I used the foil method, I used pure acetone, I buffed, scrubbed and basically destroyed my nails to remove this stuff the first time round.  I have never had another glitter polish this bad for removal.  So when I got my mitts on a bottle of Glitter OFF this seemed like the ideal test case.  If it could make this polish wearable it would be worth it.  I'll start with a review of Bloody Bride and then the cover the base coat separately...OK on with the show!

Pretty Serious "Bloody Bride" - artificial lighting

Bloody Bride was a special project for Kaz - the woman in charge of the Australian brand 'Pretty Serious'.  This was the polish she created to wear on her own wedding day, at her horror themed wedding.  It was one of two polishes in the "Till Death Do Us Party" collection (Gruesome Groom was the zombie green partner to this).  It's a densely packed glitter polish, with holo particles aplenty, suspended in a suitably bloody jelly base.  Pictured here I'm wearing two coats atop the GlitterOFF base and beneath a thick coat of HK Girl topcoat.

Bloody Bride

In some ways I find this quite a disappointing polish.  Application is terrible, it really lives up to its bloody name as it applies like clotted blood.  The dense glitter makes it very clumpy, streaky as hell, and suffers from the classic 'clump and drag' effect.  Applying two thick coats and waiting for the first to dry completely allowed for a smooth finish, but took patience.  I really like the colour of this when it's on, but it's one of those polishes that looks nothing like it does in the bottle.  Look at the shot below - see all those lovely rainbow holo sparkly bits in the bottle? See them on the nail? Nope!  The thick jelly base covers the sparkly nature of the particles that are contained within, which is a real shame.

Disappointingly the holo particles in the bottle don't translate onto the nail

On the nail this polish has some similarity to Toggle to the Top by Essie, which you would not expect from a bottle comparison (pic of this comparison is on the Toggle...review, link above).  The difference is that the particles in the Bloody Bride are a lot larger, so the effect is less subtle than in the Essie, but the base colours and overall effect are quite similar.  I'd recommend getting the Essie instead - it's cheaper (£7.99 vs £9.50), more easily found (in Boots, Bloody Bride is often out of stock in the UK), and most importantly its easy to remove!

So, on the topic of removal, let's move on to the OPI base coat review...

OPI GlitterOFF is almost certainly just watered down PVA glue.  There really is no mistaking that smell as soon as you open the bottle.  The blogosphere has long talked of mixing your own, which requires an empty bottle that I've never had (really who finishes their polish? Who could be bothered to clean out a bottle?) so I'm happy to go with the commercial product but I'd put money on them being the same thing.

The first thing I noticed on applying this is that it immediately shrank significantly from the edges of the nail.  In other reviews I've heard people complain that when peeling off their polish they found it firmly stuck down at the end of the nail and I wonder if this could be the cause.  The bottle says to use a single thin coat, I used two coats in a effort to get more edge coverage (and on the theory that the coat would adhere better to itself than to my nail plate).  This did help, but as you can see in this photo there is still some tip shrink.

The other thing that I noticed about this base is that my usual clean up method (of a small brush dipped in pure acetone and run round the edges of the nail) didn't dissolve the base coat.  This left me with the unsightly edge effect you see in the picture above.  I was reluctant to try peeling this bit off in case it took the polish with it.

As for wear time and durability, I was happy to discover it was the same as I'd expect from a regular base coat.  Since this is a peel-off product I thought it would push away from the tips quite easily but I was pleased to find this wasn't true.  When it came to removal I used a wooden orange cuticle stick, and pushed from the middle at the cuticle end upwards.  I had to apply a reasonable amount of force to push the polish off, which might have been due to using two coats. On most nails the polish split into fragments that were pushed off separately.  I didn't have any issues getting it off the end of the nail, so I think my double coat method really helped for this.

Below (top) is a picture of my nails straight after the orange stick removal.  You can see that there is a lot of residue on my nails, and quite a yellowy effect.  I was really worried that this flaky stuff was my nails and not the base coat.  I spent some time with nail polish remover, rubbing at the residue, and then gently buffed my nails.  The picture in the middle shows how my nails looked after this - most of the residue was gone, and most of the yellowing went too.  HOWEVER I'm not convinced that my nail plate wasn't damaged.  I think a small amount of this peeling was actually from the surface of my nail (from the way that it took off a thin strip when I peeled it off.  Had it been PVA it should have just been the PVA that came off).

If you've reached the end of this mahoosive entry - well done!  To sum up, here's what I learned: Bloody Bride is a good looking polish, but I don't feel its worth the hassle (or the pricetag), if you like the effect then get Essie "Toggle to the Top" instead.  The OPI base coat certainly makes removal a lot easier, but I'm not convinced you're not doing a small amount of damage to your nails when you use it.  I will use the OPI base again, but I don't think I'll use glitter polishes much more often for owning it.

I bought my bottle of Bloody Bride from the lovely Sally Magpies (link in supplier page), currently the only UK based dealer for Pretty Serious.  I got my bottle of OPI basecoat gratis, thanks to my lovely mum who gave me it.  Thanks mum!

Toggle to the Top by Essie

Hello ladies! I have a stunning polish to share with you today - "Toggle to the Top" by Essie from their Winter 2013 collection.  This is one of those polishes that is so much more fun on the nail than you'd guess in the bottle.

Toggle' is a dark blood red jelly with a ton of tiny red glitter particles suspended in it.  The effect on the nail is a gorgeous vampy shade with constant red flashes from the glitter that somehow look like they're fire from within the polish rather than glitters if that makes sense.  It's like an intense shimmer polish rather than a glitter, until you look really close.  It's such an unusual effect that I found this really eye catching. 

Toggle to the Top by Essie - Artificial Light

Formula was a little tricky on this one, due to the glitter content.  It suffered a bit from the clump-and-drag effect so it was better to do thin coats without going over the same area until it had a chance to dry a little.  Here I'm wearing three thin coats on NE base with SV topper.

Toggle to the Top by Essie - Artificial Light

In the bottle the glitters seem to have a tendency to stick to the sides.  I gave it a good shake and didn't have a problem with getting a good amount of glitter on the brush.  This was my first experience of an Essie mini-bottle, and I was impressed to find that the tall and thin bottle design they use lets them have a full size brush in a mini bottle, which I think is unique to Essie.  The only downside is that the thin tall bottle is a little less stable and would be easier to knock over.

Bottle shot

Finally, a quick in-bottle comparison for you....When I saw Toggle it reminded me a bit of 'Bloody Bride' by Pretty Serious.  I did a side-by-side to compare them and....they couldn't be more different.  So that was just me then.  I didn't swatch Bloody Bride when I wore it last, and although its a lot of fun on the nail its one of the hardest to remove glitters I've ever come across.  I thought amputation would be my only option. So you might have to wait a while to see a swatch of that one....Toggle on the other hand was refreshingly easy to remove for a glitter polish which was another nice surprise from this little bottle.

Toggle to the Top by Essie - vs Bloody Bride by Pretty Serious

I borrowed Toggle from my friend the lovely Hannah, and I liked it so much I went straight out and bought my own bottle.  I think that's a pretty good indication of how much I liked this one....highly recommended :)  You can pick this up for £7.99 in the full size from Boots, although in the two branches I visited they each only had a single bottle so you might have to try online....

New York State of Mind

Today's NOTD is a new brand to me, and a fairly new brand to the UK - Morgan Taylor.  Morgan Taylor polishes are owned by the same company that make Gelish polishes, and as far as I know the brand was released in the US earlier this year.  It was only available in the UK to trade customers until really recently, but I'm now happy to report that Sally Salon supplies is now stocking a wide range (63!) of these polishes on the high street!



New York State of Mind by Morgan Taylor - Artificial Light

New York State of Mind is a black jelly polish packed with micro glitters in a range of colours - predominantly pink and blue hexes and squares.  I'm wearing two coats here, with NE base and SV top coat.  I couldn't photograph this until a day later, so there's some tip wear on show too (sorry).  Coverage was good, no VNL, and the finish was fairly smooth for a glitter of this density.



New York State of Mind by Morgan Taylor - Artificial Light

Formula was not brilliant to be honest, I had some issues with drag, but in this case I think its the result of being such a dense glitter.  What bothered me about this one was that overall I found the effect of this polish on the nail rather underwhelming.  I really wanted to be whelmed by it, but it just doesn't quite live up to the promise in the bottle.  Is there anything more disappointing than a polish that looks better in the bottle than on the nail?



Ooooh sparkly!

I mean look at it! Isn't that soooo pretty! It's a sparkle bomb but on the nail it doesn't have the same POP! factor.  In the spirit of fairness, perhaps this polish suffered a bit by being the mani I replaced the stonking Klaatu Barada Nikto with, frankly any polish isn't going to compete with that one for sparkle-factor.  All in all though, this polish left me feeling 'meh', which isn't a good thing.  My collection is large enough that even my favourites only get used a handful of times so I suspect it'll be a long while before this one gets another go around.

That being said, there is a really wide range of colours out there, so perhaps I'd be more excited by one of those.  I'll certainly give MT another go.  I particularly want to try Under the Stars but sadly it doesn't look like this is currently one of the shades Sallys stocks.





 

New York State of Mind - Macro

The price point for these is £10.99, so around OPI/Nails Inc prices, and that seems fair.  The quality was good, wear time was similar (if a little less than OPI, but with a glitter polish that's not a fair comparison), and I really like the bottle design.  The brush was good too, not as great as the OPI pro-wide (but then what is?).  I really want to like this brand, it's got a good look and a good range of shades.  Have you tried any Morgan Taylor polishes? Do you have a shade you'd recommend? I'm always on the hunt for good tips :)

Klaatu Barada Nikto - by Smitten Polish

Today's NOTD is the utterly jaw-dropping 'Klaatu Barada Nikto' by Smitten Polish.  This satisfies two of my passions - nail polish and geekery as it refers to a line in a classic sci-fi movie that's been used in a ton of pop-culture references included one of my favourite films of all time Army of Darkness.  The fact that this is one of the most astonishing polishes I've ever clapped eyes on is just the icing on the dead-ite cake.

So without further ado....let me introduce you

Smitten Polish - Klaatu Barada Nikto - Artificial Light

KBN is a royal blue/blurple jelly so densly packed with holographic glitter particles that this is possibly the sparkliest polish I own.  It's truly astonishing.  My pictures only capture a fraction of its lustre, it has to be seen to be believed.  Shown here I'm wearing two coats for full opacity, with NE base and two coats of Seche.

Smitten Polish - Klaatu Barada Nikto - Artificial Light - Macro

 

Formula on this was very tricky.  It is so packed with particles, that it applied with a really gritty texture that I struggled a bit with clumping/dragging.  It also dries looking downright nasty - matt, and gritty looking - so you need a nice shiny topcoat to finish it off.  As soon as I laid down the Seche this polish came alive and is just such a pretty finish.  One coat of Seche would have been enough for a perfectly smooth finish, but I used two for extra lustre.  I don't own a liquid sand type polish, but the kind of 'texture' to the un-topcoated polish isn't anything like as textured as one of those polishes so this didn't 'drink' top coat like I've heard those can.

Smitten Polish - Klaatu Barada Nikto - Artificial Light

This polish is just astonishingly beautiful, I'm completely in love.  This is a new brand for me and I'm definitely impressed.  Smitten Polish is a hand-mixed indie polish brand from Missouri, and available through her Etsy store or here in the UK from Rainbow Connection. I got this on sale, and it's now down to £7.50 a bottle so expect it to run out soon.  This polish is definitely going to make my top 10 favourites, I'd highly recommend it....

Smitten Polish - Klaatu Barada Nikto - Natural Light