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!

"Imperio" by Smitten Polish

Hello ladies! It's been a while since I last posted a Smitten polish, so here is the final polish I own from the Words of Magic collection (see also Elekha Nahmen and Klaatu Barada Nikto) - this beauty is Imperio, and it's a doozy :)

Smitten Polish "Imperio" - artificial light



Like its collection-mates, Imperio is an astonishingly packed glitter polish.  I have no idea how  Noelie, the genius behind indie brand Smitten, has managed to make these polishes this sparkly...I have a ton of sparkly polishes and not a one can hold a candle to any of these.  Like its collection mates however, it does have the same application issues.  It's a bit like trying to apply gloopy gravel paste to your nails, and it dries to quite a matte grainy texture.  Slap on a bit of topcoat though and it bursts into life!  I don't own any 'liquid sand' type texture polishes, but I do wonder if these are bordering on that kind of formula.



Smitten Polish "Imperio" - artificial light

Imperio is a cobalt/indigo jelly base packed with blue, red and magenta sparkles. Interestingly I've seen the swatches of Imperio on the Smitten website which look like a royal purple...I wonder if Noelie has changed the formula recently, because certainly my bottle is a purple leaning blue rather a straight purple as her swatches appear.  It is significantly different though from Klaatu...(see bottle comparison at the bottom of this post).

Smitten Polish "Imperio" - sun light

In indirect natural lighting this polish tones down to a dark purple blue jelly with a speckled finish...but as soon as some direct sunlight, or a lovely bit of artificial light, and POW glitter bomb explosion!

Smitten Polish "Imperio" - natural light

In these pictures I'm wearing 2-3 coats of colour, I needed a varying amount to make up for the patchy/uneven job I made of the first coat.  I've got NE base and a single coat of SV topcoat.  Despite the glitter content, this isn't a 'thirsty' polish.

Smitten Polish "Imperio" - artificial light

Sigh....just LOOK at that sparkle...it's like a gorgeous purple galaxy on your nails...

Smitten Polish "Imperio" - artificial light

Here is the comparison with the other polishes in the Words of Magic collection...the main comparison to make here is between Imperio and Klaatu - you can see here that these are very different indeed.  Klaatu is a much darker shade, and a true Navy blue base.  Imperio is definitely purple, but leans more towards blue on the nail.



Smitten Polishes from the "Words of Magic" collection

These are three very special polishes, but if I had to rate them I'd say Klaatu Barada Nikto, then Elekha Nahmen, and then Imperio, although I'd strongly recommend them all.  "Words of Magic" is an apt title for this collection, because there has certainly been some wizardry involved in their creation...

I bought my bottle of Imperio from Rainbow Connection for £8.20.

Eurso Euro by OPI, with Ozotic 528 accent

Hello ladies!   After my recent disappointment with "Do You Have This Colour in Stock-Holm" from OPI's latest Fall collection I was reminded of a much better colour - "Eurso Euro" from the Spring 2013 Euro Centrale collection.  I was initially convinced that '...Stockholm' would be a dupe for 'Euro' but as my previous post shows this isn't the case.  It did mean that I then had both shades side by side and could be reminded what a great shade Euro is (and also that I've had the swatch pics since last Christmas...sigh).

OPI Eurso Euro and Ozotic 528 - artificial light

Ahhh now isn't that better? '..Euro' is a rich, deeply pigmented,  navy crème and unlike '..Stockholm' it doesn't apply like a pig.  It's a brilliant shade for Fall, so it's quite a mystery for a Spring collection but hey, I'm not complaining! Pictured here I'm wearing two easy coats under SV topcoat.  On my ring finger I used a single coat of my precious (and now sadly discontinued) Ozotic 528.  These photos are almost a year old now, and I still thought accent nails were really cool at the time.  It's like nail art for the lazy, you only have to do one finger and you don't have to worry about symmetry! Does anyone even do this anymore? Now it seems stamping is a far more popular choice for nail art that doesn't take a fine arts degree in painting to achieve.

OPI Eurso Euro and Ozotic 528 - natural (indirect) light

Ozotic 528 is a multichrome glitter that is really gorgeous, and sadly didn't go with 'Euro' quite so well as I imagined from the bottle.  I'll have a separate post for this later, although knowing me it'll probably take me a year to get round to it...

Ozotic 528 accent nail atop OPI Eurso Euro

So, if you're looking for an ideal Fall colour and a really classic shade of blue, then I'd say look no further.  You'll probably even get this for a good price compared to the new Nordic collection since it's a bit older, but a shade like this isn't going to go out of style (unlike my nail art...sigh).

Do You Have This Colour in Stock-holm? OPI Nordic Collection

Hello ladies!  Tonight I have the second polish that I picked out from OPI's Fall 2014 "Nordic" collection...the wittily titled "Do You Have This Colour in Stock-Holm" (DYHTCIS).  Like it's collection mate "How Great is Your Dane", DYHTCIS is a saturated crème polish and a wonderful shade for Fall:

Do You Have this Colour in Stockholm - by OPI - artificial light

However, that's the end of the praise that I'm willing to give this shade.  At least in my bottle, I found the formula of this to be really crappy.  The first coat went on horribly streaky, the second managed to be lumpy, and the third (on the nails that needed it) was a haphazard splodge job to try to even the damn thing out.  As you can see from the translucent tips on my ring/pinkie even this wasn't enough to get the coverage right everywhere.  I don't actually think I've ever had an OPI with a formula this difficult.  It also smelled quite strongly.  Whatever they have put in this to make it hold this much pigment I'd guess is the cause of the smell and application issues.



Do You Have this Colour in Stockholm - by OPI - artificial light

Onto the colour...the tricky tricky colour.  In the bottle (see below) and in all the online swatches I've seen, this shade clearly looks like a violet crème.  On my nails (see above) this reads much more like a blue.  I'd describe it as a royal blue, with a shot of violet.  The picture above is taken in my halogen kitchen lighting and shoes this blue/violet quite well although under the bright light this looks brighter than it does most of the time.  The picture at the very top of this post is perhaps the most accurate reflection of this shade IRL, even then I'd say it looks darker to me when it's not posed under a lamp!  So to summarise, this colour was not what I was expecting, and is fairly blah compared to the swatches I'd seen.

I am a huge OPI fan, as my stash list shows it's by far the most represented brand in my collection.  I love the witty names, and (usually) the quality.  But my big gripe with OPI is how much they 'recycle' their colours.  If you collect OPI over the course of a few years as I have, then you start to see the same shades coming around again with different names and subtlely different finishes.  So, since it's the first thing I want to know when I look for new OPI, I pulled out the shades I owned that I thought most closely matched this one: "Tomorrow Never Dies" from the Bond themed Holiday 2012 collection, and "Eurso Euro" from the Spring 2013 Euro Central collection:

Comparison (L-R) - Tomorrow Never Dies, Do You Have this Colour in Stock-holm and Eurso Euro

As these bottle shots show, there's no dupes here: 'Tomorrow' is metallic finish and on the blue side of blurple, 'Euro' is a definite navy crème without a hint of purple, and by comparison 'DYHTCIS' looks really purple.  Since I put this polish on it has reminded me so strongly of 'Euro' to wear that I was convinced these would be dupes, to convince myself I took a photo of my 'DYHTCIS' mani holding the 'Euro' bottle:

Comparison: "DYHTCIS' on the nails, Eurso Euro in the bottle

Yup, I'm finally convinced, 'DYHTCIS' is a purple.  But it's like when you go out to buy a pair of black trousers, and you can't tell if you picked up black or navy until you hold them against something black for comparison.  And for my money, that just ain't purple enough.

In fact this whole episode has really just reminded me of what a great shade Eurso Euro is, so I'm going to blog that one next.

In conclusion, I don't feel I can recommend 'DYHTCIS'.  Even if you are looking for a fall shade that's more navy than it is purple, the formula was just so nasty.  It even made me wonder whether I had gotten a fake (even though I used a reputable internet supplier, who I'm not going to name for this reason), but having checked all the markers on the bottle it does seem to be the genuine article.

So for me, by far the best of the Nordic pair was "How Great is Your Dane?"

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).