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.

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)

Smitten Polish - The Holly and the Ivy & Adeste Fedelis

I received these two gorgeous Smitten Polishes as part of my package from my Secret Santa.

The Holly and the Ivy - white jelly base with bright red and green matte hexes in two sizes.  This is three coats with top coat.  

Adeste Fedelis - I loved the look of this polish in the bottle pictures I saw but I wasn't quite prepared for how much I would love it when I put it on my nails.  It has a slightly pink toned white jelly base with rose pink and  pale green large hexes and small copper coloured hexes.  After wearing the rich golden hues of golden eye, this was such a beautiful palette cleansing glitter.  Who would have thought there could be such a thing as a palette cleansing glitter.

The Smitten Polish Etsy site is closed for the holidays, and I have no idea if she will still be selling these two beautiful holiday shades.  I certainly hope so, especially with Adeste Fedelis, because it doesn't look like a holiday polish.

Emily de Molly - Spam Mk II

Like most parents with little kiddos, tonight I'm running around like a made women to get everything wrapped and prepped for tomorrow.  We only have one thing to 'build' this year, but it happens to be a play kitchen - hopefully that wont take too long.

For any of you that are so organised you have time to read blogs, then I have some lovely Emily de Molly spam for you. Sorry, no descriptions of the polishes, but you can read about them the Emily de Molly Etsy Store.

Emily de Molly polishes are available from:

• her Etsy Store if you live in Australia, 
• through Llarowe in the USA or  
• Shoppe Electicco in Singapore. 

Bright Young Things - two thin coats over black with Seche Vite top coat.

Fifth Element - three coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Harmony - three coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Insomnia - three coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Simplicity - three coats with Seche Vite top coat.

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

Contrary Polish - Holiday Collection 2012

I'm blowing off the Aussie Christmas Challenge tonight cause I want to show you the Contrary Polish Holiday Collection that I just got in the mail on Monday!   I had a few spare hours this afternoon so I did a bit of a swatch-a-thon and then kept the last mani on.

Candle Light - a soft black crelly with a scattered gold shimmer.  This is two coats with Seche Vite top coat.  It looks mostly black indoors, but does have visible gold sparkles.

Bauble -  a bright cherry red jelly with red micro glitter and silver shimmer. This is three coats of Bauble with Seche Vite on top.  This colour totally reminds me of those red glace cherries!

Mystery - a smoky brown with golden bronze shimmer.  I really loved this one. This one is the classic Contrary Polish style that I love, with it's smoky finish and rich shimmer.  Two coats with Seche Vite.

Spruce - blackened green with green shimmer that shifts lightly to gold and teal.  The larger shimmer particles in this on really sparkle in the sun and it almost has a blacked green foil finish.  This was two coats with Seche Vite.

Adorned - is a top coat that has gold flakes and a golden shimmer in a clear base.  I'm a huge fan of this polish.  I have heaps of gold glitter top coats that have the regular hex glitters in it.  I love that this is gold flakes. There were two polishes in this collection that screamed out to have Adorned layered over the top.  First up is one coat of Adorned over Candle Light.  I didn't add an additional layer of top coat, cause it was smooth and glossy without it.

This is two coats of Adorned layered over Mystery.  No additional top coat added.

Frozen -  white with blue micro glitter and silver shimmer.  The silver shimmer in the white base give this polish a sparkly wet look.  I ended up doing four thin coats of Frozen with Seche Vite on top.

I added a light glitter gradient using Color Club Jingle Jangle from their holiday collection last year (which was one of the best for 2011!).  This is the mani that I decided to keep wearing and still have on now.

The formula on all these was excellent, something which I have become accustomed to with all the Contrary Polishes I have.  Only Frozen required a number of coats, but it was still very smooth and easy to apply and dried quickly, so the additional coats wasn't an issue.  If I had to pick a favorite from this collection, it would be Mystery, but they are all lovely. 

Contrary Polishes are available from Llarowe in the USA or Shoppe-Eclecticco in Singapore.  Minis are also available through the Contrary Polish blog. 

Polishes were sent for review.