R&R Lacquers Assemble II Collection

I have two fabulous shades from R&R Lacquers new collection to show you! These are shimmery neutrals; much as I love my creamy pastels and brights I appreciate a change sometimes!

First, let's check out Odinson, which is fine charcoal glitter in a clear base with some larger silver and red glitters... this one is named for the gorgeous god of Thunder - Rachel and Rebecca's tribute to Thor.

R&R Lacquers Odinson

Cazzy swatched this over a grey base, and it looks super (check out her post here) so I thought I'd try something different, and just use it on its own without undies. This is three coats, with two coats of topcoat (Seche Vite) to smooth it out. Formula on this is great - no fishing for the bigger glitters and the microglitter base spreads smoothly over the nail without any clumping. In real life, this was pretty much full coverage and I love how the bigger glitters peep out through the microglitter!

R&R Lacquers Odinson

Then we have Big Phil, which is a soft greenish grey with a strong gold shimmer... this one is a tribute to SHIELD agent Phil Coulson; the Avenger who never was an Avenger. 

R&R Lacquers Big Phil

At some angles, this has an almost duochrome touch, with a hit of soft slately blue grey around the edges. Not so visible in this front-on view, but it's still a lovely colour, very delicate and quite work appropriate.

R&R Lacquers Big Phil

The formula on this one was a little trickier than some polishes, it is quite thick, but so long as you get a good brushful it flows easily over the nail. I used three cots here - I could probably have got away with two though but three coats is a sort of habit! Big Phil dries without shine - not a problem for me since I always use Seche Vite topcoat.

R&R Lacquers Big Phil

Just look at that gold shimmer!

R&R Lacquers Big Phil

These polishes were provided for review, they are available now from R&R Lacquers Etsy shop. You can get more information on the brand and links to other reviews by following R&R Lacquers facebook page. 

Nelly Polish *Forest* - swatch and review

Nelly Polish Forest 

Nelly Polish Forest is a beautiful soft dark green shimmer with a subtle holo. I think there is also a hint a duochrome shift in there too - I can see a touch of purply-brown around the edges of my nails in some lights!

The pictures are three coats of Forest with a thickish coat of Seche Vite quick drying topcoat. I could probably have got away with two coats of Forest, but I'm in the habit of doing three! Nelly Polish Forest dries to a matt-ish finish, so it does need a good topcoat to add shine and bring out the beauty of the pigment. 

Nelly Polish Forest 

The last couple of pictures are taken with my DSLR and macro lens (the others are with my compact) in brighter sunlight and show the detail of the pigments a bit better. One of the things I like most about this polish is that there are no signs of brush strokes - I'm usually wary of shimmers because of their tendency to show brush strokes and often apply them with a sponge, but I had no issues at all with this formula :)

Nelly Polish Forest 

Hilary, the maker of Nelly Polish, kindly sent me this as a sample for review, along with a couple of other gorgeous shimmery colours I'll be posting about soon. You can buy Nelly Polish Forest on Etsy; it comes in either a powder form, that you mix up yourself with clear polish, or as a ready made polish. This is the ready made version - whilst I'm intrigued by the idea of mixing up my own polish, I don't really trust myself to get it quite right so I was a bit of a coward when Hilary asked me what format I wanted the polish in and asked for ready made.

Picture Polish Lagoon

Picture Polish Lagoon

Glitzy turquoise sea in the sun!  it says on the bottle............ and this reminds me of one of those perfect summer days on a beach on Mull or Harris when the sea really is this colour. Yes, the sea really is this colour sometimes in some places in the north west of Scotland :D

Lagoon is one the recent blogger collaboration colours from Picture Polish; this one is by Sam at Fashion Polish. I've been reading Sam's blog for a long time, long before I even started thinking about blogging myself, and I've always liked her style, so I 'm not surprised I love the polish she designed. It's a bright teal jelly full of holo microglitter and a few twinkles of aqua glitter too. Here is Sam's own post and pictures of Lagoon. 

Application was very easy, the polish just flows on in spite of it being full of glitter. I used three thin coats for this mani. I was expecting it to need a lot of topcoat, and I had my bottle of Gelous at the ready, but to be honest I could have got away without topcoat altogether. I used a coat of Seche Vite to dry it quickly without smudging, but skipped the Gelous.

Picture Polish Lagoon

The colour reminds me of one of my favourite gemstones, Amazonite!

Picture Polish Lagoon - with Amazonite

And here are a few macros to show the fabulous depth and detail of the finish in Lagoon!

Picture Polish Lagoon

And finally, just for a bit of fun, I added a white stamped design over Lagoon. This is from the Cheeky Wild At Heart 'jumbo' plate - my nails must be growing pretty fast because the jumbo plate is now only just big enough. Looks like I'll be back to double stamping, stamping into gradients or, most likely, not stamping at all soon!

Picture Polish Lagoon stamped with design from Cheeky Wild At Heart plate

I purchased my Picture Polish Lagoon from Sally Magpies in the UK; PIcture polish have a worldwide distributor network including Llarowe, who ships internationally. Llarowe's $ prices when converted to £ are less than Sally's, but when you factor in the shipping they both work out about the same. Both these ladies give brilliant service and I wouldn't hesitate to order from either - I normally buy from whoever has the product in stock.