Nine Realms by Crowstoes : Nidavellir

Hello ladies! Tonight I have the final post from the Crowstoes 9 Realms collection.  Tonight's polish, "Nidavellir", takes its name from the homeworld of the dwarves in Norse Mythology.

Nidavellir by Crowstoes - natural light (shade)

  Like collection-mates Muspelheim and Vanaheim, Nidavellir is a duochrome micro-glitter polish.  Densely packed with colour shifting glitters this shade shifts from teal blue to purple.  Pictured here in natural light (in the shade) you can see all the colours on the nail at once, but in all other lighting conditions one of the three shades will dominate depending on the angle of the nail to the light source.

Nidavellir by Crowstoes - artificial light

 The microglitter duochrome formula is really intriguing in these polishes....they remind me of pointillist paintings, tiny spots of colour coming together to make something beautiful.  In artificial lighting (below) you can see the lovely jewel tones of the blue-indigo-purple shades in transition.  The bottom of the bottle lets you see the full spectrum in the polish, but the gold tone you see peeking through doesn't translate to the nail (nails aren't as curved as the inside of a bottle!)



Nidavellir by Crowstoes - artificial light

In these pics I'm wearing two coats over black undies, with NE base and HK Girl topcoat.  No issues with formula and application, all Crowstoes polishes are top notch in the quality stakes.  Below you can see the final swatches which are taken in direct sunlight.  Here you can see that the main shade is far more of a teal green/blue than the royal blue shade you get under artificial light.  Also, the end tone is much more of a magenta than the purple you get under artificial light. This polish, like its collection mates, is a real chameleon.  I really liked this one.

Nidavellir by Crowstoes - sunlight

I picked up my bottle for £10.25 from Rainbow Connection (link in the suppliers page).   This is my last post in the 9 Realms collection series, I hope you've enjoyed it :) This is a very special collection, and well worth a look if you can find it in stock.

Nine Realms by Crowstoes : Muspelheim

Hello Ladies! Today I have another of the fabulous polishes from the Crowstoes 9 Realms collection - tonight's offering is the lovely (but unpronounceable) "Muspelheim":

In Norse legend Muspelheim is the flaming inferno volcanic home of the fire giants.  I don't know that I would have picked a blue based shade to represent a fire planet, by hey I'm not the creative at work here.  Muspelheim the polish is a multichrome glitter in a blurple base.  It is packed with teeny tiny glitter particles in royal blue and golden yellow that produce a multichrome spectrum from royal blue to purple.  The golden particles don't really show on the nail as clearly as in the bottle (except in the closeup thumb nail shots below).

Pictured here I'm wearing my customary two coats with NE base and HK girl topcoat.  In the swatches at the top of this post you can see Muspelheim in the sunshine - in the shade is the only time you'll see both colours on the nail at once, otherwise the main colour is either the royal blue shade or the blurple. The magenta shade here is really hard to capture because it's not really seen except at really high angles to the light source.

 

In the thumbshots below you can see all the lovely details of this polish.  Unfortunately these details aren't quite so obvious on the nail unless you look quite closely.  I really did like this shade a lot, but it's one of those that's just not quite as fabulous as it promises in the bottle.

I bought my bottle of Muspelheim for £10.25 from Rainbow Connection (link in the Suppliers page). This is a lovely shade, I think I was just a little spoiled by this point because I'd tried collection-mates Huginn and Muninn, and Vanaheim, right before - and those are bonkers good!  I do recommend Muspelheim, especially if like me you're a big fan of purple/blurple shades.

Nail mail : Colors by Llarowe Fall 2014

I just couldn't wait to swatch these before sharing :-) The colors by llarowe Fall collection is out now in the UK (@ rainbow connection) and I was so excited to grab three of the shades (although if I had the money I'd buy them all!). I picked (left to right) Burning Embers, Midnight in Montana and Obsession.  I can't wait to try these out!

Shown here are all the shades in natural and artificial light. My initial thoughts are that Midnight is the clear standout of the bunch. Obsession reminded me of A England Briarwood but a quick side by side comparison shows that Briarwood is much redder. I'll compare these properly when I post swatches.

Nine Realms by Crowstoes : Huginn and Muninn

Hello Ladies! Tonight I have a real treat of a polish to share with you, from a collection that is one of my absolute favourites of 2014 and in fact, ever.  There are two standout collections for me this year - the Picture Polish LE duochromes, and the 9 Realms collection by Crowstoes.  As a brand, Crowstoes stand head and shoulders above the rest for me.  The creativity behind each collection is just on a whole other level, so any new collection is something to get excited about, and boy did I get excited about this one!   Over the next few posts I'll be sharing with you all the polishes I picked up, and I'm starting with my favourite: Huginn and Muninn.

Art Credit: Jarnsaxe@DeviantArt

The 9 Realms collection is inspired by Norse mythology. In Norse legend, Huginn ('thought') and Muninn ('memory') are the raven avatars of the god Odin, they flew throughout the world and brought knowledge back to Odin.  The polish of the same name is a stunning multichrome in shades of royal purple, forest green and earthy brown:

Huginn and Muninn by Crowstoes - 9 Realms - natural light (shade)

Pictured here I'm wearing two thin coats over black, but from swatches I've seen you can achieve the same effect with three coats and no undies. The colour combination on this is strikingly beautiful, and quite unlike any other multichrome in my collection.  The green and purple complement each other beautifully, and the combination really drew to my mind the image of a mystical forest with dark green shade and purple autumn leaves, and the beady eye of a raven peering out from the canopy:

Art Credit: Ninjatic@DeviantArt

The multichrome effect is most apparent in natural light and shade.  Under artificial lighting one colour tends to dominate, depending on the direction of the light relative to the nail surface:

Upper Row and Lower Left: Artificial light, Lower right: natural light (shade)

In the swatch above you can see the gorgeous royal purple, the golden brown and green transitional shade, and the rich emerald.  In the lower right corner is a swatch taken in natural light and you can see the purple and green clearly together on the nail. In artificial lighting, at direct angles (ie most of the time) it's the purple shade that dominates, with the green appearing at higher angles/along the curved nail edge.

Huginn and Muninn by Crowstoes - 9 Realms - artificial light

This swatch captures the closeup detail of the two main colours at the opposing ends of the multichrome spectrum.  In the purple you can clearly see royal blue and magenta shimmer, and the green is a combination of forest green, teal and gold.  Quite how they managed to pack so much depth into one polish is a mystery to me.  I couldn't love this polish more, it's utter perfection.

Huginn and Muninn by Crowstoes - 9 Realms - natural light

I can confidently say that Huginn and Muninn will make it into my top 3 polishes for the year 2014. It has as sold out faster than any of the other 9 Realms shades but is not LE so keep your eyes peeled for restocks.  I picked mine up from Rainbow Connection for £10.25.

Human Nature - Colors by Llarowe

Hello ladies! Today I have the third and final polish from my recent Colors By Llarowe purchase - this is a lovely nude holo called 'Human Nature' from the Tribute to MJ collection...

Human Nature - Colors by Llarowe - artificial light

Now you will be seeing this mani again, in an upcoming post on top coat comparisons.  In the meantime I apologise for the denting in this picture...what topcoat was responsible for this terrible crime?  You'll have to wait and see...but I assure you it was no fault of the CbL.

I used two easy coats, I felt it did need two although it was almost opaque in one.  Here I'm wearing it with NE base and a mystery topcoat :) The formula and application on this, like the other CbL's I've reviewed (Billy Jean, Connie You Saucy Minx) was superb.  Flawless quality through and through.  It also had the, quite frankly legendary, week long wear time with minimal tip wear.  Even rarer for a mani that lasts that long, I didn't get bored of it!

Human Nature - Colors by Llarowe - natural light

I'm terrible at describing these nude colours, but here is my best shot...This is a warm toned taupe with a strong pink and bronzed gold shimmer blush and an (almost linear) holo finish.  It's a very flattering shade, and like most nudes I've tried it was very flattering on my pale pasty Scottish complexion.

I bought my bottle for £8.80 from Rainbow Connection (link in the suppliers page).  I'd definitely recommend this one, and the CbL brand in general which at least with my purchases has been 3 for 3 on quality and wow factor.  I'll definitely be adding more CbL to my stash in the future.

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.

Billy Jean - Colors by Llarowe

Hello lovelies :)  For UK based nailista's I have some good news - Colors by Llarowe are finally available this side of the pond.  Rainbow Connection are now stocking CbL and I jumped at the chance to order three gorgeous polishes, the first of which is the lovely Billy Jean from the "Tribute to MJ" collection...

Billy Jean is a scrumptious claret red shimmer, with gold flecks that give this polish that 'fire from within' effect.  This shade is perfect for Autumn/Fall.  I'm a sucker for a good red, and this is a very good red indeed.

Billy Jean is apparently not his lover...and his tailor is not his friend...no wonder his voice was so high

Application was a bit tricksy with this polish, I found it to be quite streaky on the first coat and it took a generous second coat to even it out and achieve full opacity.  This is two good coats, atop NE base and beneath Essie Good to Go.  I love the magenta flare from this polish that you can see here, its a complex little red and a very flattering shade.

I was impressed by the quality and finish from the CbL polishes I bought and one factor deserves special mention - the wear time is redonkulous! I got a full 7 days out of all three polishes, with only the teensiest amount of tipwear on my pointer and middle finger of my writing hand.  These were some of the hardest wearing polishes I've ever tried. 

This is a lovely polish, and even though I have a ton of red shimmers I'm really glad I got this one too.  A girl can never have too many reds...I picked up my bottle for £8.80 from Rainbow Connection (link in the Suppliers page).  If you think this is good, just wait until you see the other two!

Cap N' Cook - by Cadillacquer

Hello ladies! Today I have my third and final Cadillacquer post for you, and it's another tv show tie-in: "Cap N Cook" from the 2013 Breaking Bad collection.  Yet again I've bought a polish from a collection where I have no clue about the show that it's inspired by, so the name means nothing to me but woo mama would you look at that purple!...

Cap N Cook by Cadillacquer - artificial light

Cap N Cook is a gorgeous soft purple holo, with a beautiful pink shimmer that glows through the purple to add warmth and depth to this shade.  I'm a massive fan of purple polishes, and holo polishes, so this one pushes all my buttons...fabulous!

Here I'm wearing the usual two coats with NE base and HK girl topcoat.  No application issues, glides on smooth as melted butter.  What this shade really reminds me of is an A-England polish.  The finish is that perfect sophisticated dusty soft holo that A-England have perfected, in a shade that A-England have never quite done ("Lady of the Lake" is probably the most similar, but they're not dupes by a long shot).

Cap N Cook by Cadillacquer - artificial light

There really isn't much more to say about this polish, so I'll let the swatch porn do the talking...it's absolutely lovely and I highly recommend it :)

 

I picked up my bottle for £9.50 from Rainbow Connection (link in the Suppliers page).

Cap N Cook by Cadillacquer - artificial light

Seek the Fire - by Cadillacquer

Hello ladies! Today I have another polish from Swiss indie brand Cadillacquer to share with you - it's called "Seek The Fire" and it is from their Spring 2014 "The Last of Us" collection...The Last of Us is a survival adventure video-game set in a post-apocalyptic world where the characters are hunted by zombie-like creatures.  I have never played the game, so I have no idea where the inspiration for this shade came from but I find it funny that this one is actually about zombies, whereas the Cadillacquer polish Masterpiece which reminds me of zombies has nothing to do with them.  Anyhoo...



Seek the Fire - NOTE: SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT IRL *SEE BELOW*

This has a similar finish to Masterpiece - it's a milky crelly base packed with ruby red shiny hex glitters of varying size.  "Seek the Fire" is a dusty cornflower blue shade that IRL is a lot less intense than it appears in this photo.  For some reason my camera just refused to photograph this one properly.  In the picture above the blue looks more intense, and the red particles stand out more boldly from the background colour than they do IRL under a range of lighting conditions.  Don't get me wrong - this is a pretty colour, it's just not quite as intense as these swatches (or any others I've seen online) suggest.  I think that under the artificial light of my desklamp it just gets an added pop.  Based on other people's swatches I was a tad disappointed with this one, and I'm annoyed that my swatches have come out the same as theirs...tricksy polish *grumble*.



This is a bit closer to IRL, but still a slightly darker shade of blue

In these photos I'm wearing my habitual two coats with NE base and HK girl topcoat.  Like Masterpiece I had no trouble with glitter density, but it does love to hug the bottle and won't come unstuck.  I just hope that all the glitters don't sink with time because I'm not sure how well they'd resuspend.  For such a glitter rich polish it glides on really well, and if memory serves it wasn't too painful to remove either.

I really love the combination of the milky crelly with the pop of the red glitters coming through.  On balance though I much preferred Masterpiece for this effect, it's more pronounced against the green.

In general I'm not sure how I feel about the trend for indie polish makers to take a popular film/series/book and bring out a series of polishes 'inspired' by it.  In some cases it's done remarkably well, and with a lot of love, but in other cases I'm not sure that I really see the connection between the polish collection and the source material.  In those cases I wonder if they are in some sense cashing in on the popularity of the show by hoping that fans will buy a polish because it has a funny name or a connection to a show they love (I'm guilty of this one...I did buy the Deborah Lippmann "True Blood" polish and the Revlon Spiderman ones...oh and the OPI Spiderman ones...oh and the recent Urban Decay Pulp Fiction one...oh hell, yeah I'm really guilty of that one...).  Homage or cash cow? I don't know.  Having never watched/played any of the shows/games that Cadillacquer reference I have no idea which camp they fall into.  What I do know is that these are decent quality polishes with an unusual finish and well worth a look.

Seek the Fire - Cadillacquer - natural light

I got my bottle for £9.50 from Rainbow Connection (link on the Suppliers page).

Masterpiece - by Cadillacquer

Hello ladies! Today I have a perfect Halloween polish to share with you - "Masterpiece" by Swiss indie brand Cadillacquer.  This polish was part of the Cadillacquer 'Dexter' collection back in 2013.  Here I'm wearing two coats on top of NE base and beneath HK Girl topcoat.

Cadillacquer "Masterpiece" - artificial light

Masterpiece reminds me of zombies...I love the combination of green crelly base and ruby red shiny glitters.  It looks like blood spattered decaying flesh - and what girl wouldn't love that?  I'm a massive fan of all things zombie, so I had to have this.  I know that this is not what the maker intended, but having never seen an episode of Dexter I have no idea what the connection was supposed to be...

I got caught in a zombie apocalypse and it RUINED my mani! AAARRRHHHHGG!

Cadillacquer "Masterpiece" - artificial light

Formula and application were both excellent, and glitter placement was no problem. The glitter particles are red hexes of varying size, and they do seem to love to stick to the sides of the bottle, as you can see here. No amount of shaking would shift them but this polish is so packed with glitters that it's no problem to get plenty of them on the nail.  Not sure what will happen over time though if these settle...it might take some mighty shaking to resuspend them....



Cadillacquer "Masterpiece" - sunlight

I was impressed with the quality of the Cadillacquer polish, and this finish is really something quite unique (except for the other Cadillacquer polish that I'll show you in a later post...).   I bought my bottle from Rainbow Connection for £9.50.

Eleka Nahmen by Smitten Polish

Hello ladies!  With the arrival of Spring, and St Patrick's Day around the corner I have the perfect nail polish for you - "Eleka Nahmen" by Smitten Polish.  This is from the "words of magic" collection which take their inspiration from spells and incantations used in popular films and culture.  After a bit of googling I found that "Eleka Nahmen" is a quote from witchy musical "Wicked".

Eleka Nahmen by Smitten Polish - artificial light

Eleka Nahmen is one of the most phenomenal polishes I have ever seen, let alone worn.  Like its collection mate (and a personal favourite of mine) Klaatu Barada Nikto this polish has an astonishing amount of sparkle.  On the nail it's simply mesmerising.  Here I'm wearing my customary two coats, atop NE base and beneath SV topcoat.

Eleka Nahmen by Smitten Polish - artificial light

This is a lime neon jelly packed solid with ultra-sparkly holo glitter in shades of green and a surprisingly lovely sky blue that really gives this polish an extra pop.  On the nail it looks like crushed emeralds.  I'm actually not a fan of green at all, it's my least favourite colour, and I absolutely love this polish which goes to show just how special it is.  In the shade, with no direct light hitting it, this polish looks like a really fun neon lime polish with the glitters giving it a speckled look.  But 99% of the time, in all types of light, this is a total glitter bomb.

Like Klaatu Barada Nikto the formula is really rather hard to work with due to the glitter content.  It has huge 'clump and drag' issues which can be overcome by using generous coats, and not going over the same strip twice until its mostly dry. Also be warned - this must have topcoat.  On its own this dries to a matt, gritty looking finish, almost like a textured polish, but with a single coat of Seche its transformed.  It's not a 'thirsty' glitter, one coat of topcoat will do the trick for a smooth glossy finish.

Eleka Nahmen by Smitten Polish - glitter bomb!

In case the rest of this review wasn't clue enough, I highly recommend this polish.  It's utter amazeballs.  I picked up my bottle from Rainbow Connection UK (link on suppliers page) for £8.20.  Sadly it doesn't look like its in stock at the moment - but Klaatu Barada Nikto is in stock and I would also highly recommend getting your mitts on that one!

I'll also have one final polish from the magic words collection for you another day - they purple offering "Imperio".  Until then, happy St Patricks day!

Dupe test: Girly Bits 'Shift Happens' vs Max Factor 'Fantasy Fire'

Hello ladies! Today I have a comparison to show you of two fabulous topper polishes: Shift Happens (love the name!) by Girly Bits and the famous Fantasy Fire by Max Factor.  I know that the Max Factor is about as easy to come by as leprechauns outside the UK, whereas Girly Bits is a US brand (and cheaper by the ml to boot!).  So perhaps this comparison will help you get the topper effect you want without breaking the bank or paying to import...

Looking at these in the bottle, its not obvious that there should be any similarity between them
 - Shift Happens has a soft opalescent rainbow effect in the bottle, whereas Fantasy Fire has a strong indigo background with pink and purple shifts.  From the bottle you'd guess that the Girly Bits polish would give you a soft pearly shimmer in a whole rainbow of colour and the max factor would give you purple or pink sparkle only.  If you guess that, surprisingly, you'd be wrong.



left: Shift Happens right: (l-r) Fantasy Fire and Shift Happens

Without further ado, let's see these on the nail (please excuse the splodgy mess I made of my index finger when I was getting out the camera...) All swatches are in artificial light:


index: black base + SH, middle: black base + FF, ring: EMIO + SH, pinkie: EMIO + FF

I chose two different base colours to compare these on: plain black (No7 "Just Black") and a purple based shade (OPI "Every Month is Oktoberfest").  I used one coat of each undies shade, and one coat of each topper.  I was keen to see whether having a purple base shade would make the indigo based FF appear different to SH.  In fact, from this you can see that they are practically identical.  The main shade that I got from both these toppers was this gorgeous cinnamon shimmer.  By changing the angle of the light source this deep russet shade shifted through gold, amber and right through to green:



index: black base + SH, middle: black base + FF, ring: EMIO + SH, pinkie: EMIO + FF

The green was a big surprise for me, coming from the Fantasy Fire.  I see absolutely NO evidence of green in the bottle, no matter which way I turn it, yet it's clearly right there on the nail!



(l-r) SH over black, FF over black, SH over EMIO

Seen here in closeup of my middle finger, you can see those green and gold shades popping from the FF and it's just stunning.  Both of these polishes were like pure bottled Autumn leaves....gorgeous.

I would say that IMO these two polishes, at least over the two shades I tried here, are close enough to be dupes.  Certainly I wouldn't advise that you shell out for both of them if you have neither (personally I'm always keen to save my polish funds for something new, I'm always sad when I find I've accidentally bought a dupe, as in this case).  

In terms of value for money, Shift Happens is a full size polish and I picked mine up for £10 from Rainbow Connection. The Max Factor (in the UK) can be bought in any Boots/Superdrug etc for £3.99 for the mini size bottle (with its fiddly brush).  So the Girly Bits is cheaper by the ml, but depending where you live you might find one easier to find than the other (and really who of us will manage to use up even a mini size topper polish? Not me!).

Later on I'll post a fabulous mani I did with Shift Happens on top of OPI Germanicure, which was all kinds of warm toasty brown cinnamon loveliness...until next time :)