Sparkles by Julie - Coco, Lost in Space & Milky Way

Just after Christmas I received a little package from Honolulu based indie brand - Sparkles by Julie.  Julie offered to send me some more of her shades to try out and asked me to select some from her collection.  The tree polishes I chose were Coco, Lost in Space and Milky Way.

Coco - I'm a big fan of glitter polishes that have a nicely tinted base so they are opaque on their own, yet still transparent enough to show off all the glitters.  So many commercial brand glitters are glitters in a clear base, and while I love a layering polish, I do prefer a polish that can be worn on it's own.

Coco is just what you would expect from a polish with this name.  There are gold and copper glitters of various sizes in a brown base with a little bit of brown shimmer (but not too much so as to make it frosty and cover the glitter - I hate that!)  There is also holo hexes and fine holo dust.  This was two coats of Coco with two coats of top coat to smooth out any bumps.

Lost in Space - this has a few sizes of silver holo glitters as well as aqua blue glitters suspended in a black jelly base.  I did two coats of Lost in Space here, and for the photos I should probably have done three, but in real life it looked great.  I did put on two layers of top coat to smooth this one out as well, but that's mainly because now I'm really OCD about having a very shiny high gloss finish (that's what trying out soak off gel nails does for you!) 

Milky Way - this one is my favourite from this bunch, which is ironic given my comment at the beginning about preferring a full coverage polish to a layering one.  This is a really gorgeous combo of glitters which I can't actually tell if they are individual colours, or if they are iridescent duochrome shifting ones (it's probably a combination of both). I layered one coat of Milky Way of Cult Nails Time Traveller.  This was the smoothest of the bunch requiring only one layer of Seche Vite for that glassy finish.

I think the labels on these bottles are clever.  Generally I prefer a clear label so you can see through to the polish in the bottle, but what Julie has done is print what the polish looks like on the label, which really is the next best thing for me.  Therefore every polish has its own custom label.

The formula on all these was very good and there were no signs of any curling glitter (either reflective or otherwise).

Sparkles by Julie are available from her Esty store for $8 for a 15ml (she also has minis).

Polishes provided for review.

Pretty Serious - Mummy Mush

I'm feeling a tired and lazy tonight after spending the my first day back in the office today after the Christmas/New Year break, therefore I've just got one swatch to share with you.  I wore this before Christmas, which is when I fell in love with it and it made my top polishes for the year.

Pretty Serious Mummy Mush is from the Monster Mash collection and it's a golden glass fleck polish that it totally unlike any other I have seen.  The base colour is actually quite pink. When I swatched it onto my swatch sticks I was amazed at how pink the base was, especially when holding the stick up to the light.  However as soon as you layer two or three coats, that pink disappears and ends up providing a soft fleshy coloured gold.  The gold flecks are just how I like them, cool toned (and it even has a blue flash), yet the pink base warms it up just slightly. I'm completely in love with this polish, if your a gold lover like me - this one is a no brainer!

This is three coats of Mummy Mush with a single coat of Seche Vite.

Pretty Serious - Hot Summer Nights & Twinkling Lights

Here are a couple of polishes from the Pretty Serious - Christmas without Snow collection. 

Hot Summer Nights - This one is a deep, dark blue jelly.  It's a bit darker than my photos show, which were taken in full sun so they really bring out the dense glittery sparkle.  Although it's dark, you can definitely tell its still blue, and not black.  The glitter particles are really dense and the finished look is really glamorous and sophisticated.   Because of the fine glitter in this, I found it was a little textured so I put two layers on top coat on.

Twinkling Lights - These two are perfectly paired with each other, in fact that is exactly how Kaz designed them.  This is one coat of Twinkling Lights and the photos are taken in the shade.  You can see the base colour is much darker in the shade, and almost looks black. But when the light hits it you see the dark blue sparkle shining though all the small aqua blue glitters and copper hexes.

Picture Polish - O'hara

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful time.  As for me, I was cozy and snug in my bed, the days of seeing in the new year are long gone for me.  That's what small children do to you!

To start the year, I'm excited to show you a brand new shade from Picture Polish.

O'hara - for the Scarlett in all of you! That's the little catch phrase on the top of this bottle.  Is there anyone out there who doesn't know who Scarlett O'hara is?  Well, Scarlett O'hara is the protagonist in the novel Gone with the Wind.  I've not read the book, but I certainly remember seeing the movie when I was in my teens.  I still recall the last words Rhett says to Scarlett - do you?

This is the brightest scattered red holo polish I've ever seen.  The formula on this is just like Kryptonite and Cosmos with the same shard like scattered holo pieces.  The red base is so amazingly bright, it's a blazing cherry red.  This one isn't as much of a jelly as kryptonite and cosmos, I'd say it's more of a crelly (a cross between a creme and a jelly).  The holo bits shine through easily but it's opaque in two coats.

These pictures are two coats with a coat of Seche Vite top coat.  Formula was great and I didn't need to do any clean up for these photos.

O'hara will be launching later this month, so make sure you like the Picture Polish facebook page to find out when it's available.

Top 12 of 2012 - my favourtie commercial polishes

Last post for the year everyone!  I have to say I'm very proud of myself.  I've done a huge 314 blog post this year, and for the last three months I've posted every single day.  I cracked 1.5 million page views and I collaborated with Picture Polish to create my very own shade.  Whoo hoo what a year!

What better way to finish the year that to share my top 12 commercial polishes from this year. Like I explained yesterday, a commercial polish for me is one that is made in a lab, rather than hand mixed.  I also have to say that I think I've been very self controlled with regards to big commercial brands.  

I didn't purchase a single whole collection from any of the big brands like OPI or China Glaze, rather I just bought one or two polishes that really stood out to me.  The growth in my collection was mostly indie polishes and just about all of commercial brands I purchased were smaller brands like aEngland, Layla and Pretty Serious.

Magnetic polishes were huge earlier this year.  I remember when I got my very first magnetic polish a couple of years ago and I was amazed.  Now they are so common that we are all a bit blasé about them.  

2012 was also the year of the holo!  So many brands did amazing holo polishes, Layla, HITS, Ludurana, Jade, Color Club, FNUG to mention just a few - now we are just waiting to get the new China Glaze holos in 2013.  I don't think I'll ever got blasé about holos.

The crackle finish died but the 'spotted' finish became quite a stir.  And of course I have to mention the Fantasy Fire craze sparked by it's Clarins 230esque red to green colour shift.  This same red to green colour shifting pigment was also widely used in many indie brands to create 230 dupes.  

We've also seen the commercial brands starting to notice of the indies and coming out with polishes that look much more like indies. eg Nails Inc with the sprinkles, Models Own with the Mirrorball and even China Glaze with some of the Cirque du Soleil polishes.

Nail polish really came a long way this year.  I can't wait to see what 2013 brings us (although I hope it's not more of those liquid sand polishes, they make me want to vomit).

Anyway, lets get on with it.  This first polish in my top 12 should be no surprise to anyone!

Picture Polish - Kryptonite (or as I like to call it 'my polish').  I'm not even going to say why this one is here!

Picture Polish - Cosmos.  Late this year Picture Polish created this new shade in the same formula as Kryptonite, but a rich dark blue.  Completely stunning and instantly into my top polishes.

Pretty Serious - Santas Sunburn.  I never really thought I would have a red polish in my top list, but this polish really amazed me.  It's basically a one coater and is the most stunning metallic red polish I own.  The funny thing is I wasn't even going to get this one, but because you get 10% off when you purchase a full collection, it means the last polish is only about $3, so at that price I thought I may as well.

Pretty Serious - BSOD.  There were so many amazing polishes from Pretty Serious this year.  Congrats Kaz you really did a spectacular job.  I nearly added Poltergeist Puddle to this list too! But I had already included three Pretty Serious shades.

Gold Glass Fleck - Pretty Serious Mummy Mush, Zoya Ziv and OPI Golden Eye.  Yep I'm completely cheating here and included three shades in one.  I just couldn't pick between these three polishes.  I created this gradient using all three polishes.  OPI Golden Eye at the top, Zoya Ziv in the middle and Pretty Serious Mummy Mush at the bottom.  It was absolutely stunning and combined all three of my favourite gold glass fleck polishes from this year (but it was a bitch to clean up cause those glass fleck stick everywhere)

Layla - Metal Chrome. The Layla Mirror Effect Polishes are hands down the smoothest and most reflective chrome polishes available.  This whole collection was gorgeous, although I would have liked to see a larger variety of colours (I wanted a gold chrome and green chrome too).  Yes, they do show every single imperfection on your nail, so you either need to buff your nails or wear a very high gloss base coat (I highly recommend soak off gels beneath these mirrors, they look amazing and last so much better.

OPI - Don't Pretzel my Buttons.  Can you believe this was the only OPI shade I purchased this year (although I was gifted the James Bond minis for my birthday).  This polish from the Germany collection has become my go to nude shade.  The formula is perfect and the colour great on me.

Nude holographic - I'm about to cheat on this one too.  I'm completely in love with neutral holographic polishes.  I couldn't split these three:

Color Club - Cherubic.

JOSS - Tanstasic Glow

Layla - Coral Glam

Jade -Fasicinio Violeta.  There were some amazing colours in these Jade holos, The red, the gold, the black - oh who am I kidding they were all awesome.  I ended up choosing the purple one to add to my top polishes this year.  This collection is a must have for any holo lover.

Layla - Flash Black. Are you sensing a theme here yet? The Layla holographic polihses hit the market with a huge flare with eight colours, but then, just a few months later they came out with eight more shades to make a full collection of 16 stunning linear holos.  I just love this charcoal holo.

Ulta3 - Over the rainbow.  Each year Ulta3 manages to bring out at least one polish that makes it into my top polishes.  Over the rainbow is such an awesome glitter with all the different colours and sizes, and it's still only $2.  Thats the best glitter bomb buy of the year.

Finally, for my last polish in the top 12 - I'm cheating for the third time.

China Glaze - Running in Circles. So I don't actually have this polish in my hands just yet, it's still in the post.  But I know it's going to be in my top 12 for this year.  And if I don't add it now then I can't include it next year because it was released in 2012.  I will add a swatch here as soon as it arrives.

I also have one last special mention - aEngland Dragon and the other polishes from the Legends collection.  Stunning polishes, but they were pipped at the post by the Layla Holos for me.

Well that's all for this year.  

Happy New Year to you all!

Top 12 of 2012 - my favourite indie polishes

Here are my the top twelve indie polishes.  In determining what is 'indie' and what is 'commercial' I based it on whether it is hand made or whether it is made in a lab. Therefore brands like aEngland, Cult Nails, Pretty Serious and Picture Polish are commercial for me.

As you could know, there are now literally hundreds of indie brands available, and sadly I only have a small selection of those brands in my collection. I have no Hare, no Dollish, no Pahlish, no Girly Bits, no Nerd Lacquers, no Happy Hands, no KBShimmers the list goes on and on. I've only chosen my top twelve from polishes that I own and from polishes that were released this year.  I'm certain that if I had some polishes from those brands listed above I would have a very different top twelve.

There are no surprises to me that four Lynnderella polishes make my top 12.

Lynnderella  - Ghost of a Chance - This was such a huge surprise for me,  I had no idea that I would love this as much as I did when I put it on.  Those pastel matte and satin finish glitters are just so delicate in this.

Lynnderella - Salad Days - Truly an inspired polish! Its green and sparkly and it contains tomatoes, carrots and purple cabbage :)

Lynnderella - Golden Rules - clearly no surprises here for anyone that knows I love gold like Goldmember!  I swear she made this just for me!

Lynnderella - The stars in her eyes. The 'galaxy nails in a bottle' polish.  I seriously stared at my nails all day when I wore this one.  What the photos don't capture are the holographic colour reflections.   The iridescent blue together with those teeny tiny stars is just perfection.

Smitten Polish -Adeste Fedelis. I only just got this one on Christmas Eve, so I don't know whether its just because I wore it so recently that it stuck in my mind.  Then again, I could easily have chosen many Smitten polishes to be in this spot.  I want it now, Pure Imagination, You're turning violet, Violet and Confection were all stand outs for me!

Emily de Molly - When Planets Collide. Yay for Aussie indies, I have three of them in my top 12.  The inky blue jelly base with the perfect balance of glitter won me over with this one.

Enchanted Polish - Hey Jude.  Enchanted polish knocked it out of the park with their holo/multichrome polishes.  The whole Beatles collection was awesome and I just might stab someone to get a bottle of Austin Powers.

Contrary Polish - Purple Smoke.  The whole Contrary polish collection is just stunning.  I fell in love with the dusty and smokey polishes with their gorgeous and complex shimmers.  Purple Smoke is one of those classic Contrary shades, it's so beautiful!

Glimmer by Erica - Ethereal.  Other than Lynnderella polishes, my Glimmer by Erica shades were the very first indies polishes I tried, some of the earlier shades had some reflective curling and a bit of partial bleeding. Ethereal was from a new range and it totally blew me away.  A gorgeous colour combo of glitters, perfectly matched here with Picture Polish Marine.

Gloss 'n Sparkle - Edge of the World. Do I even need to say anything else about this one? Teal green jelly with green and aqua glitters.  Stunning.

Femme Fatale - Ghoulish Glee. From her halloween trio, this one was just awesome.  My photos of it really didn't do it justice, my nails were short and stumpy and light reflections washed out the colour.  This was jam packed with glitter but it wasn't dry and it was easy to apply - even with those bar glitters.

Crows Toes - Absolum your potions master. Yep it's ultra thick formula almost makes you think your polish has dried out, but hell yeah, Laurie knows how to make a beautiful polish. There are a number of her polishes that could be listed here, but sadly I only own two of her shades.  My pictures of this are shitty, but I can easily see why this one made the MUA top indie polishes.

So there you have it.  I'd love you to tell me some of your top indie polishes in the comments below (especially from brands I don't own - so I know what to keep a lookout for)