Pop Culture Cosmetics Christmas Polishes

This year Pop Culture Cosmetics is the Indie brand I chose my Christmas polishes from.  I preordered these and they arrived a few weeks ago.

Pop Culture Cosmetics Magical Christmas  (over Black) - Sunshine

Pop Culture Cosmetics Magical Christmas (over Black) - Shade

Magical Christmas is red Mickey Mouse ear glitter, with green and red circle glitter and smaller red and green hex glitter in a clear base.  This is two dabbed coats over a black cream.

Pop Culture Cosmetics Sugarplum Fairy - Sunshine

Pop Culture Cosmetics Sugarplum Fairy - Shade

Sugarplum Fairy is a pink and purple glitter with white snowflakes. pink stars and various pink and purple glitters in a pink micro-shimmer base.  This is three coats.  I had to go fishing for the snowflakes in this one as they had sunk to the bottom of the bottle.

Pop Culture Cosmetics Winter Wonderland (over Black) - Sunshine

Pop Culture Cosmetics Winter Wonderland (over Black) - Shade

This is two coats of Winter Wonderland over a black creme. This one has snowmen glitter and snowflake glitter, with large white circle glitter iridescent glitter in a clear base.  Again I had to go fishing for the snowmen, but they weren't too hard to pull out of the bottle because of their size.

Lots of Love

Lisa

Ciate Mini Mani Month Days 11-15

Still continuing on with the Ciate Mini Mani Month swatches. All swatches are 3 coats, no top coat.

Day 11: Pepperminty

Ciate Pepperminty - Sunshine

Ciate Pepperminty - Shade 

Day 12: Metallic Gold (Caviar pearls)

 Metallic Gold (Caviar pearls) over Pepperminty - Sunshine

Day 13: Encore!

Ciate Encore! - Sunshine

Ciate Encore! - Shade

Day 14: Ivory Queen

Ciate Ivory Queen - Sunshine

Ciate Ivory Queen - Shade

Day 15: Twinkle Toes (loose glitter)

Ciate Twinkle Toes (loose Glitter) over Ivory Queen - Sunshine

Lots of Love

Lisa

Deborah Lippmann Lilac Wine and Lacquerhead Polish As Girly As It Gets

Deborah Lippmann started selling polishes in Sephora a few months ago, and released 4 Exclusive polishes when they launched.  Lilac Wine is one of the four Sephora exclusive polishes.

Deborah Lippmann Lilac Wine - Sunshine

Deborah Lippmann Lilac Wine - Shade

This is three coats.  These photos make it look brighter than it is in real life. It is a pale purple lilac. It is not overly blue or pink toned, just a perfect lilac colour.  It has a great formula and was a great creme polish. 

As a comparison, this is more pink and less blue toned than OPI You're Such a Budapest.

Lacquerhead Polish As Girly As It Gets

 over Deborah Lippmann Lilac Wine - Sunshine

Lacquerhead Polish As Girly As It Gets

 over Deborah Lippmann Lilac Wine - Shade

As Girly As It Gets is a slightly tinted blue base full of pastel shaped glitter. It contains light blue butterflies, lilac, pink and light blue stars, light blue hearts and light blue and green shards with small lilac squares and light blue hex glitter.  I used one dabbed coat, where i went fishing for the shaped glitter here. The base is quite thick, so it was not the easiest to apply with an even spread of shaped glitter.

Lacquerhead Polishes are available here and come with cute little bows ties around the bottle necks.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Formula X for Sephora the Sparklers

The Formula X for Sephora Sparklers collection has five polishes. All are different coloured glitter mixed with champagne coloured glitter. Today I have the pink and blue ones, but there are also red, silver and green versions of these polishes.

Formula X for Sephora Sparklers polishes

Love chemistry and Law of Attraction

Formula X for Sephora Law of Attraction - Sunshine

Formula X for Sephora Law of Attraction - Shade

Formula X for Sephora Law of Attraction - White Light

Law of Attraction is sparkly holographic blue hex glitter in a couple of sizes, mixed in with golden champagne coloured glitter. This is three coats. The glitter is quite dense, so perfect to use one coat as a top coat, or wear multiple coats by itself.  This is a possible dupe for Essie On a Silver Platter from this years Encrusted Treasures collection (which also has a gold and silver combo like Made for You by Formula X)

The Sephora website calls these polishes "3D". They are not texture polishes, and are almost completely smooth once on the nail.

Formula X for Sephora Love Chemistry - Sunshine

Formula X for Sephora Love Chemistry - Shade

Law of Attraction is sparkly holographic light pink hex glitter in a couple of sizes, mixed in with golden champagne coloured glitter. This is three coats. This one is not my favourite, and it think its because the pink is so close in colour to the golden base, so they don't stand out much.

Lots of Love

Lisa

Pop Culture Cosmetics The Haunted Mouse collection

I love Pop Culture Cosmetics Polishes. They are one of my favourite Indies. Problem is they release so many collections that are topical to me, that I am quickly running out of money. Recently they have had great Disney collections, A Once Upon A Time collection and now an awesome Christmas collection. Check out their store here http://popculturecosmetics.com.

For my birthday Lisa (the other one) bought me two of the polishes from the The Haunted Mouse Halloween collection.

Pop Culture Cosmetics Awaken the Spearits - Sunshine

Pop Culture Cosmetics Awaken the Spearits - Shade

Pop Culture Cosmetics Awaken the Spearits - White Light

This is one dabbed coat of Awaken the Spearits over a black crème. This one is full of lots of different shaped silver glitter in a black base.  It has Mickey Mouse ears, three sizes of circles, diamonds, stars, two sizes of moons, and two sizes of square glitter, as well as little hexes and silver shimmer.  I did have to go fishing for the shaped glitter, but it wasn't too hard to find enough to cover my nails (I think I actually ended up with too many shapes on my nails).

 

Pop Culture Cosmetics Simply Villainous - Sunshine

Pop Culture Cosmetics Simply Villainous - Shade

Pop Culture Cosmetics Simply Villainous - White Light

Simply Villainous is an awesome purple glitter polish. This is three coats.  It has silver Mickey Mouse heads with 3 sizes of purple circles, silver stars, mini moons and iridescent purple squares, in a purple glittery shimmery base.  I love this, and the fact that you can wear it alone.  This one didn't require any fishing for shaped glitter, and after three coats there were enough shapes on each nail anyway.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Formula X For Sephora - The Brilliants

Formula X for Sephora was just being released while I was on holiday in Hawaii in October. This is a huge collection, with some awesome looking polishes. It was hard to limit myself to the 14 I did buy.

The Brilliants is a mini set, within the brand.  The brilliants are "A dazzling and vibrant glitter lacquer with intense sparkle".  The set contains 5 polishes, a silver, a black, a pink, a periwinkle and a yellow.  I only purchased 2 of these, but wish I had got all of them now.

First up is the light pink polish in this collection,  Fine Like Einstein.

Formula X for Sephora - Fine Like Einstein

Formula X for Sephora - Fine Like Einstein - White Light

Formula X for Sephora - Fine Like Einstein - Sunshine

Formula X for Sephora - Fine Like Einstein - Shade

This is three coats of Fine Like Einstein. It is a super fine holographic pink glitter in a clear base.  I love how much these polishes sparkle, even when not in the sun. It is very dense glitter so actually gives full coverage in two thick coats and dries super fast.  The above swatches are all with a coat of Gelous and Seche Vite over the top.  The top coats help to smooth the glitter out to the touch.  Removal was not easy and required cotton soaked in acetone left on the nails for a couple of minutes to make removal easier.

The second polish I got from this set of 5 is Light Me Up Edison.

Formula X for Sephora - Light Me Up Edison - Shade

Formula X for Sephora - Light Me Up Edison - Sunshine

Formula X for Sephora - Light Me Up Edison - White Light

I love this. It is yellow and not gold and I think that makes it unique in my collection (it is much harder to find yellow glitter than gold glitter polishes).  This is three coats and then a coat of Gelous and Seche Vite. Its sparkles soooo much.  Dry time was super quick and wear time was great.  

Lots of Love

Lisa

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Emma Louise

Emma Louise is the second Limited Edition polish I have from Pretty Serious Cosmetics.  I got this from the second run of 100 bottles, so mine is unnumbered.  The original run of 300 bottles of Emma Louise was released in October 2012.

This polish is named after Emma, who is friends with Kaz, the creator of Pretty Serious Cosmetics, with all proceeds from the sales of this polish going to Cancer Council Australia.

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Emma Louise - Shade

Pretty Serious Cosmetics Emma Louise - Natural Light

According to the Pretty Serious website Emma Louise is "a vibrant violet jelly base with golden green glass fleck, purple micro-glitter, and purple and green hex glitter."

This is three coats.  The description above is pretty accurate. It is a purple base with gold and purple micro glitter, with bigger green and purple hex glitter. The purple hex glitter is slightly lighter than the base purple, so that it is visible amongst the purple and gold shimmer.

The formula on this is great, and it doesn't apply lumpy, so only one coat of regular top coat is required.

Unfortunately Emma Louise is no longer available. But there are lots of other great polishes (and cosmetics) available in their store. Pretty Serious Cosmetics are available from their website here.

Lots of Love
Lisa

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid Collection

Earlier this year my Mum and Dad took a trip to America. I only asked for 5 things. The Sephora Disney Jasmine nail polish set and the 4 new Deborah Lippmann Mermaid polishes.  Luckily these weren't too hard for my parents to find in New York.

On to the swatches!

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream - Sunshine

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream - Shade

Mermaid's Dream is the original Mermaid Polish, released before the other four, back in 2012.  I picked this up while on holiday last October in America.  It matched the dress I wore to my brother-in-law's wedding, which was in Toronto last October.  This swatch is three coats, which apply easily. It is a teal green glitter packed polish, with golden micro-shimmer.  It looks like it is gritty and bumpy, but with one thick coat of top coat, is as smooth as a regular polish.

The next four polishes were released as the summer 2013 Mermaid's collection.

Deborah Lippmann Do the Mermaid - Shade

Deborah Lippmann Do the Mermaid - Sunshine

This is a lilac version of Mermaid's Dream.  A light lilac base, with darker purple glitter and golden micro shimmer.  Again this is 3 coats.

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Kiss - Sunshine

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes - Shade

Mermaid's  Kiss is the pink version in this collection. The gold shimmer in this one is a lot more obvious, and actually looks like bigger bits of glitter instead of the shimmer in the other polishes.  It still has a rose pink base, with darker pink glitter.  This is three coats.

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes - Sunshine

Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Eyes - Shade

Mermaid's Eyes is the odd one out from this collection.  The base and the glitter colour are a lot closer in colour, with the base colour being darker than the other polishes in this collection.  It still contains the darker glitter pieces and the golden micro shimmer, but they don't show up as much on the nail. 

Deborah Lippmann Million Dollar Mermaid - Shade

Fortunately the sun decided to disappear when I was swatching the last polish in this set.  Million Dollar Mermaid is the orange/peach version in this collection.  The base on this one is quite light and the golden shimmer is quite present (although not as much as in Mermaid's Kiss).  This is three coats.

I love this collection. Even 6 months later it is still unique in my collection.  The biggest problem is that Deborah Lippmann polishes are not sold in New Zealand.  However this website does ship them to New Zealand, and has regular sales.

Lots of Love

Lisa

Ruby Wing Spring Garden Collection

 

The Ruby Wing Spring Garden was released mid 2013 and is a collection of six colour changing polishes that are also scented. Today I have four of this collection to show you.

Ruby Wing Cut Grass - Inside

Ruby Wing Cut Grass - Sunshine

Cut grass is a pastel green that changes to a darker dustier green in the sunshine.  While it doesn't actually smell like fresh cut glass (which the Ruby Wing website says it does), it does smell nice.  To be honest it smells like my shampoo, it is floral scented, but I cant figure out like what flower, either way it smells nicer than grass. This is two coats and the polish applies like a dream. It is not streaky at all.

Ruby Wing Fresh Linen - Inside

Ruby Wing Fresh Linen - Sunshine

This is three coats. It has the thinnest formula of this collection and unfortunately does leave streaks on the nail. This one smells fruity - a lot like lemon, but a clean flowery lemon scent.  This one changes from a shimmery slightly frosty white into a light yellow colour.

Ruby Wing Poppy - Inside

Ruby Wing Poppy - Sunshine

Poppy is a vibrant pink jelly (although not quite as neon as the above picture suggests) which changes into a deeper burgundy colour in the sun.  This is two coats which apply perfectly for full coverage. This one smells rose scented, although I suspect it is actually poppy scented.

Ruby Wing Sunflower - Inside

Ruby Wing Sunflower - Sunshine

Sunflower is the glittery polish in this collection. It is a clear base packed full of gold micro glitter. This one is interesting because the glitter doesn't change colour in the sun, but the base it is in changes from clear into a bright yellow base, which makes the glitter look yellower and more golden.  This is three coats and I was surprised to see that it did actually provide good coverage in those three coats.  This one also smells flowery and shampoo like, although I am pretty sure its not the same scent that sunflowers have.

All in all I am happy with the four polishes I have from this collection and absolutely love that they combined colour changing polishes with scented polishes.  I was wearing Cut Grass all day today, however didn't really get time to get outside (and it was horrible) weather, so I didn't actually get to see it do its magical colour change.

Lots of Love
Lisa

These polishes were provided to me for review.