Aussie Indies Presented by Femme Fatale Cosmetics

I'm starting to think I should really just hand over a chunk of my paycheque directly to Femme Fatale Cosmetics every time I get paid, to save myself the silly game of pretending that I'm not going to give it to them anyway. Every time I wander past their site "just for a look", I find more and more gorgeous things that I really absolutely must have. As well as their ever growing range of stunning eyeshadows (which are incidently on sale right now), Femme Fatale polish remains one of the most consistently amazing indie labels in the country. In case you have any cash left over once you've finished perusing the Femme Fatale goods, they also stock a wide range of other Aussie indie labels, like Love Thy Polish, Alanna Renee, Emily de Molly and Lilypad Lacquer. If you've STILL got money left after browsing all those (how!?) Femme Fatale Cosmetics also stock a huge array of hard to find international indies, like Takko Lacquer, HARE Polish, and Rainbow Honey.

The variety is kind of overwhelming, but lucky for you Femme Fatale Cosmetics were kind enough to send me a little sample pack to review this month, to help you narrow your choices at least a tiny bit. 

From left to right, we have; Love Thy Polish - Space Ghost Reloaded, Femme Fatale Cosmetics - Apothecary, Lilypad Lacquer - Seasong, and Rainbow Honey - Hellfire

Rainbow Honey is a brand I hear a lot of positive buzz about, but I've personally found their polishes to be a bit hit and miss. The great ones are, well, great, but I've come across a few that are merely meh, and sadly Hellfire falls into that category for me.

There's nothing particularly wrong with it - it's fun, and the mix of stars, bar, hex, and micro glitter makes for a riotous, interesting finish. I just feel like it doesn't quite come together enough for me - but I'm getting rather particular these days, and it takes a really super freaking exciting glitter topper to get me worked up. If you, on the other hand, are into glitter toppers, this is a good one. The consistency is not too thick, not too thin, and the glitter concentration is CRAZY dense. These swatches are just one coat of Hellfire over the base colours, so if you're looking for something over the top to really spark up a plain colour, Hellfire might be for you.

I'm not ambivalent about this next polish in any way - Lilypad Lacquer's Seasong is STUNNING. In the bottle it looks a little flat, but on the nail a gorgeous sea foam green flare turns the baby blue holo into something really special.

Lilypad Lacquer have made a name for themselves as creators of some of the best holos in town, but the duochrome in this polish takes it from, "pretty" to "must have" in my books. These swatches are three coats alone, but you could get away with two coats. The consistency is smooth as a babies bottom, making this not only gorgeous but very easy to use.

Love Thy Polish's Space Ghost Reloaded is, unfortunately, not nearly so easy to use. Crelly polish (creme finish with glitter in it) is a very tricky thing to get just right - the base needs to be opaque enough to cover the nail line, but transparent enough to let the glitter show through; too far either way and the polish is a bust. I swatched this over a plain white base, because crelly polish is usually easier to manage if you don't have to worry about getting the opacity just right, but I still needed three coats of Space Ghost Reloaded to get a decent amount of glitter on to the nail.

I quite like the overall look of this - the colourful, almost neon hexes contrast nicely with the white base. But the polish itself is really very thin - you couldn't wear this without white undies, unless you were willing to do approximately a million coats. It might be because I was using a mini bottle, which are notorious for being "sticky", but I had real issues getting the glitters out of the bottle and on to the nail. There appeared to be plenty in the bottle, but the brush kept coming out with only one or two glitters. After three coats however, I do think it looked pretty good, and you might have better luck with the consistency than I did.

And finally, saving the best till last, we have Apothecary from Femme Fatale Cosmetics. I freaking LOVE this polish so very much. It's really fascinating to see Femme Fatale transferring their complex, layered style of polish from jelly based disco ball glitterbombs to subtler, but just as dense polishes.

Apothecary looks to be based on a similar baby blue holo formula as Seasong, but with a very generous splash of green foil flash, as well as some tiny glassy green hexes. Like Seasong, Apothecary is totally opaque in two coats, but you can do three for depth if you like. This is definitely one of those polishes I would warn against wearing while trying to drive - I'd hate to see anyone swerve because they're too distracted by a random flash of grassy green shine in the deep blue sea of holo. I could have taken a MILLION pictures trying to capture this baby, but I'll content myself with just two for today.

All these polishes and many, MANY more are available from the Femme Fatale Cosmetics site - be sure to like their Facebook page as well, to keep up to date on new additions and releases!

P.S Don't forget my competition, where you can win some discontinued Femme Fatale polishes and much, much more!