a-England Briarwood & Lumina Lacquer Mick Or Treat

Happy Friday!  I am pretty excited about this post!  It's so "Fall" I almost can't take it.  I look forward to the Fall every year, it's my favorite season!  Yeah I know, I'm from California and I don't get seasons - let me live in my fantasy world.  Besides, it's been chilly enough in the mornings and evenings to call it Fall here.  Today I even asked my fashion forward bestie if I could officially wear my corduroys yet…I was given the approval, YAY!  So I'm already rubbing my hands together thinking about which Fall/Autumn/Halloween polishes are going to come out of my helmer drawers to play over the next couple months.  I should make a list.  Anywho….I fell into this spiraling train of thought after wearing this on my nails for the past few days.  

This is a-England Briarwood.  Wow, what a stunning color!  Adina says Briarwood is a burgundy based color with holographic particles.  It's definitely a very deep reddish brown, so sure I can go with burgundy.  It's so gorgeous I can barely stand it!  Briarwood is a tight scattered holo and effect is more soft and subtle than the in-your-face linear holos you normally see me post.  But the best part is it's a 1 coater.  Yup you heard me right, 1 coat.  Formula and application were flawless!  I used 1 layer of topcoat.

I also used Lumina Lacquer Mick or Treat.  How adorable is this polish!?  It's a glitter bomb packed full of colors that are perfectly Fall!  Tatiana, the lovely gal behind Lumina Lacquer, describes Mick or Treat as "a mixture or orange, red, black glitter with pumpkin glitters thrown in."  Now I know my bottle had pumpkins in there but I wasn't lucky and didn't get any out.  I was also given a baggie of extra glitters but I have no excuse other than I'm lazy and I didn't put any of the loose pumpkins on my nails.  That's ok because I truly love the way my Lumina accent nails turned out without the pumpkins.  I used 3 coats of Mick or Treat to ensure my accent nails were absolutely covered to the brim with glitter.  and they were!  Each brush dip provided plenty of glitter and the Mickey's came out with no fishing required!  I used 2 layers of topcoat on my glitter accent nails.  

a-England: Shop, Facebook, Instagram (aengland_official)

Lumina Lacquer: Shop, Facehook, Instagram (luminalacquer)

Down the Bayou Lacquer: Sweat Gold, Crawfish Boil & Oh Uh-Uh

Good morning lovelies!  I'm having a nice day so far and I hope you are too.  Part of the reason I am so chipper is because I have a new indie brand in my sights and on my nails and I'm totally head over heels for the colors I get to share with you today!  Founded in May 2013, Down the Bayou Lacquer comes from from Louisiana and Jodi, the creator uses her love of LA as inspiration for many of the polishes in the current collection.  Take a look at the Etsy shop and see if you can figure out where name and color inspirations came from.  By the way - I am a total nut for all things Louisiana so I was smitten from the get go.  Down the Bayou Lacquer is also on Facebook and Instagram (downthebayoulacquer) so be sure to follow those pages for more pictures and updates!  Let's get on to the good stuff, shall we?

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This first polish that I reviewed is Sweat Gold.  I picked this one first because the gold color was just so lovely I needed it on my nails right away!  Jodi describes Sweat Gold as a "shimmering gold with purple flake glitter."  I used 3 coats of Sweat Gold for full coverage.  The formula and application on SG were both great.  SG also built up very well and the gold base color was truly stunning.  It literally glowed in certain lighting.  Plenty of purple flakes came out and spread evenly and flat on my nails.  I did notice they were a tad thick causing them to create a textured feeling.  But 2 layers of topcoat (or try a good coat of Gelous) had my nails nice and smooth to the touch.  

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The second polish, and my favorite of the bunch is Crawfish Boil.  Let me just saw how sad I was that I couldn't find my mardi gras beads with crawfish on them to use as a prop here.  Darn, that would have been so epic!  This gorgeous russet red has lovely pink shimmer and green micro sparkles in it.  It's a gorgeous polish that perfectly captures the color of a boiled crawfish.  CB also had a wonderful formula, nice and easy to apply with no issues to report.  You can use 2 coats of this polish, but I went with 3 to get the full richness of the color.  I finished this with a layer of topcoat.  I don't know about you but all this talk about Crawfish Boil has made me hungry!

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 Last but not least we have Oh Uh-Uh.  The description on Etsy says this is a navy blue holo but I see more of a dusty denim blue holo.  Whatever color you choose to call it it's absolutely gorgeous.  I love the tight scattered holo effect.  It's actually a perfect blue color to wear in the Fall because it's not to bright and not too dark.  I used 2 coats of Oh Uh-Uh for full coverage.  The formula and application were both perfect.  No issues to report on this amazing polish!  I finished this with 1 layer of topcoat and the holo was not effected. 

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*these polishes were provided for my honest opinion and review

Femme Fatale Gravity Lapse & Fatal Attraction

Good morning dears!  I have some beautiful polish to share with you today and I am so excited about it!  Femme Fatale Cosmetics is an outstanding Australian indie brand and I have 4 polishes to show you - 2 today, 2 tomorrow.  I actually own a few glitter bombs from Femme Fatale so I was really happy to see that my blogger pack had some different finishes for me to try out (by the way - I adore all my glitter Femmes, they are amazing).  Femme Fatale is an Australian brand but you can purchase directly from them for an extra fee, here is the link to the SHOP.  Thankfully there are also several stockists you can purchase Femme Fatale from, check the list for one in your area/country.  They are: Ninja Polish, Harlow & Co, Color4Nails, Beauty So Fly and Norway Nails.  You can also follow Femme Fatale on Facebook and Instagram (femme_fatale_cosmetics).  

*PRESS SAMPLE*

Up first we have Gravity Lapse.  This was an interesting polish because initially I thought it was a slate grey color.  But once I got it on and checked it out in the sunlight it read purple!  What?!  Mind blown! The holo on GL is linear and very strong.  I also saw a little color shift in there - some inky purple.  So very pretty.  Formula and application were both fantastic.  I used 2 coats and 1 layer of topcoat.  Topcoat did not effect the holo.   

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This is Fatal Attraction.  Described as a "deep magenta polish with scattered holographic particles."  This polish is so beautiful.  FA sparkles and shines so much, it's a real stunner.  The holo sparkles glow pretty bright  and the color is so rich.  The formula on this polish was also wonderful.  I had full coverage in 3 coats.  The polish dried with a flat finish and a slightly rough texture but topcoat smooths and shines it all up.  

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*these polishes were provided for my honest opinion and review

OPI It's Frosty Outside & I Snow You Love Me from the Mariah Carey Holiday/Winter 2013 Collection

Good afternoon!  I am back with even more lovely polish from the new OPI Mariah Carey Holiday/Winter 2013 collection!  Have you seen these in your beauty supply store yet?  I have been very impressed with the ones I picked from the collection and I have a feeling I should just buy the remaining  liquid sands to complete that part of my set.  Yesterday I posted Wonderous Star and Emotions, and prior to that I posted Make Him Mine, all so gorgeous!  So lets take a look at today's polish!

I started this mani with liquid sand It's Frosty Outside.  It's a stunning silver texture polish with silvers glitters.  OPI describes it as a "frosted silver."  Sounds pretty right?  Well it is pretty.  And it's nothing like Solitaire - which is definitely white.  Maybe I can do a side by side picture for you another day.  IFO was a little sheer, so I ended up using 3 coats.  Just like all the other sands from OPI the formula and application were great.  No problems to report.  I did not use topcoat.

Then I used Color Club It's Worth The Risque, a holo silver polish as a base (2 coats) and layered OPI I Snow You Love Me on top.  ISYLM is a read groundbreaking polish for mainstream brands (in my opinion).  While indies have been using circle glitters for ages now, OPI is the first mainstream to use them.  And did they just use plain old circles?  No.  They used holo silver circles with an interesting pattern that causes an even more holo rainbow effect (you can see this on my shade macro)!  Nicely done OPI!  I hope other mainstreams follow suit and take notes from the amazing indies on the market right now.  I used 2-3 coats of ISYLM and used some dabbing.  The glitters did try to move around a bit so I deliberately placed some on the empty spots.  The circles came out easily with a quick swirl of the brush inside the polish bottle.  I used 1 layer of topcoat on these nails.  

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