Polished Lifting

Firecracker Lacquer I Open at the Close- Press sample

Happy Friday! I wanted to share the latest and greatest from Firecracker Lacquer with you today. This Sunday (July 31st) she will be releasing a collaboration box with Bliss Polish, Northern Star Polish, and Paintbox Polish. The box will consist of four polishes, cuticle oil, and a bit of magic.

Let's check out Firecracker Lacquer's I Open at the Close.



Formula: Nice consistency. It's thinner than I would have expected, but the formula works well for this type of polish
Finish: Off white crelly with holographic gold glitter
Coverage: 3 coats
Notes: I love well-made crellies. One of the token signs of a good crelly, is the ability to see some glitter from previous layers. You can definitely see that in this shade.

Is it just me, or is everyone obsessed with all things purple? You know, purple is nice, but I don't feel the need to have every single purple polish ever made. To be honest, I'm not terribly obsessive over any color. What I have noticed is that I occasionally gravitate toward certain color groups or finishes. Over the last six months or so I've really been into teal, and similar blues and greens. I'm not sure what drives it, but I don't hate it.

A couple of months back there was a mystery group custom in the Blissed Out Babes Facebook group. I don't do mysteries, but when swatches started to pop up I was super bummed that I didn't pick it up. Lucky for me, I have a super awesome friend who decided that I needed it.

Bobs Teal the End

Let's be honest for a moment. Not everything I create turns out well. Sure it's par for the course, but I want everything I create to be loved on some kind of level. Even if a whole mani sucks, I want to be able to say "man, I did x well." I can't think of a single thing I love about this one. It's like I threw Barny into a blender and added sparkle because it wasn't... interesting(?) enough. Yeah. It's not great, but I vowed to show you just about everything.

Products used

For me, a full coverage jelly plus holo is really a no brainer. When I first got the ILNP press release for the Spring 2016 collection, I knew I needed to get all of the jellies. I swatched Jello Shot a while back, so I figured I was long overdue for a post on Valerie.

Valerie

Have you ever gone to buy a polish and panicked because it's gone? Painted Polish Aurora was that shade for me. The original was discontinued for reasons I can't recall. I was overjoyed when she announced that there would be an Aurora 2.0. I'm not sure what changed between the two versions, but I adore this one!

Aurora 2.0

Conclusion

I've never been a huge fan of metallics, and I know I've told you guys this once or twice. There are times where you just have to break your own rules and just go for it. The 2016 spring metallics from ILNP were one of those instances. At first glance, I thought "hell no!" After seeing several swatches of them I couldn't ignore them any longer. Intrigue got the best of me, and several found their way into my cart. It probably didn't hurt that I had reward points and a coupon hanging around too.

When they arrived I looked at them like "meh" before sticking them in my untried drawer. It was one of those moments when I thought "Dammit Courtney, why did you waste your money on that?!" Then one day I pulled one out randomly because I couldn't make a decision on what to wear. My disinterest turned into enthusiasm when I realized that metallic flakies eliminated all issues that come with standard metallics. You no longer had to deal with streaky brushstrokes or visual nail imperfections because flakies have neither of those issues.

Bulletproof Symphony

Products used

Blogging about nail polish has a lot of upsides, but it occasionally has a downside or two. The biggest downside is that you can't always blog about things before they are discontinued. Unfortunately, that's the case with today's set of swatches. Painted Polish released Sweet & Serene and Pantone Crelly 2016 as part of this year's Mother's Day trio. I picked up two of the three shades when they were released but wasn't able to wear them right away. I decided to share these swatches despite being discontinued because there's always a chance you could find them in a destash one day.

Pantone Crelly 2016

Sweet & Serene

Products used

It's been a couple of weeks since I cut down these crazy long nails, and yet I still can't get used to seeing my old nails. It's almost as though the fingers in my photos don't belong to me. I'm sure that sounds entirely silly, but it's almost like some weird identity crisis. I still have a handful of long nail posts to get through before things are entirely transitioned over.

Today I wanted to do a quick review of ILNP Night Light, and share the stamping I chose to pair it with.

Products used

Oh hey there. I see you decided to stop by and see if I've gotten my act together or not. Surprisingly enough, I do have a Fourth of July mani to share with you guys this year. If you've been with me for a year you might remember this mani from last year. I'm normally quite good about scheduling out blog posts for holiday manis, but last year our air conditioning decided to croak over the holiday weekend. When your house goes from a cool 76 to a balmy 100+, it's difficult to convince yourself to do anything productive.

Today's look features some shades from past Firecracker Lacquer collections. Please keep in mind that these were all provided for an honest review back when the collections released.

I'll Have You Home By 10

Parrot Procession