Grace-full Polish - Summer Nights Collection

Apologies for my absence, dear readers! I suffered some catastrophic nail breaks right after I started swatching this collection, and have been frankly far too self conscious about my nubby stubs to show them anywhere. But at last my nails are back in a condition where they're fit to be seen, if not quite at their former glory, so I have a TON of fresh swatches for you!

Grace-full are yet another newcomer to the Australian indie polish scene, but they have swept in on a wave of glitter, colour, and fun! Summer Nights is a collection inspired by the founders friends, and it's a doozy for anyone who loves glittery, gooey colour.

The formula on all of these was great, especially considering how new Grace-full is as a brand. Pretty much every polish only needed two coats for full coverage, and while a couple could probably benefit from an colour underneath, none of them really NEED it. The micro glitter polishes are especially dense - glitter fiends should definitely pick these up at the very least.

First up we have Erin, a luscious navy blue jelly filled with big holo dots, and a delightful assortment of various sized hexagonal glitters. Excitingly, this is a deep blue that doesn't stain(!!), so feel free to skip the undercoat with this one to take full advantage of the squishy jelly base.

Next up is Katie, a rich burgundy microglitter. While the base is quite dark, it's so choc full of holographic glitter it ends up looking a little bit lighter overall due to the ambient refraction.

This was two thin coats, and while you could put a burgundy under it if you're really fussy about crisp edges, it covers nicely alone.

This delightful flakie packed blue is Mandy, and I think it's possibly my favourite out of the whole collection. I know, I know, usually I'm all about the eye burning amounts of glitter, but there's a dense complexity to this one I really like.

One note on Mandy - I did need three coats of this, because the base is a teeny bit transparent. You could either do three thin coats to capture the full effect of the flakies, or one coat over a base colour if you're short of time.

This one is Nicki, and is a perfect example of the eyeball burning microglitter I'm normally all about. And don't get me wrong, I still really like this polish. The colour reminds me a lot of Powder Perfect's Delight, but with a slightly larger size of glitter so the holo effect really jumps right out.

 This next polish is Ali, and it's the only one out of the whole collection I was a little disappointed with. The colour scheme is a bit like confetti, which I'm sure would appeal to some people, but I thought it looked a little disjointed.

As you can see from the swatches, the base is also a little too transparent to wear alone. I used two coats here, and could have gone for three, but I don't think it would have really addressed the problem. Having said that, over a deep fuschia base colour this would look pretty rocking.

Speaking of fuschia, check Billie out! This is possibly the pinkest polish I've ever had on my nails, and I'm a little shocked by how much I didn't hate it.

Unfortunately they didn't really pop in my photos, but there is a rich vein of blue micro flakies through this polish, that give it a delightful complexity in person.

And finally, we have Eboni, a stunningly sparkly purple jelly filled with stars, hexes, squares, and holo microglitter as well.

 

If you're in a hurry, there's more than enough glitter in this to use is as one coat over an inky purple base coat. I used two coats for these swatches, so you can see the awesomely glittery effect of all the spangles floating in the jelly base.

One final note on this collection - it's actually on sale until Monday at the Grace-full Polish Etsy store! Just use the discount code SUMMER25 for 25% off - but only for the weekend, so get moving!

Melancholia: A Powder Perfect swatchathon

I know there's been an absolute ton of Powder Perfect around here lately, but they just keep making so many pretty things, and keep being kind enough to send them to me, which means you guys get bombarded with pretty pictures! I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not really.

Melacholia is a sequel of sorts to the Euphoria collection from Powder Perfect earlier this year, and it's a DOOZY. It's kind of odd having so many awful, personal memories attached to words like "Foreboding" and "Despair", and still being so excited by how freaking gorgeous the polishes attached to these words are. Lot of cognitive disconnect, and being me, I'm sure there will be a pseudo intellectual analysis of that soon enough. But for now, PICTURE TIME!

Furless Cosmetics: Chrome Polish Review

I first came across Furless Cosmetics while eyeballing their delightful range of brushes, but I `noticed recently they've added a range of cruelty-free, Big 3 Free polishes. The colours they had were nice, but mostly a bit plain for my taste - however, when they offered me the chance to road test their new chrome collection, I was delighted! You all know how I love the shiny!

The thing that jumped out at me about these polishes right out of the box is the stunning bottles they come in - and these aren't just for the chrome collection, all their polishes come in these beautiful bottles.

L-R, this is Polished and Actress

L-R this is Chic, Superstar, and Filthy Rich

It's true that presentation isn't everything, but these are just stunning. The heavy glass and chrome lids make them feel much more luxurious than their actual price would suggest, and the bottle is delightfully difficult to knock over - anyone who's accidentally nudged a bottle over on their coffee table will no doubt agree with me that this is an enormous plus.

Home Alone - A Powder Perfect Christmas Collection

I'm pretty conflicted about Christmas. I love the giving and getting presents parts, and the eating until you burst parts. But the Santa junk, and bloody tinsel, and all that nonsense? I HATE IT. I'm that grinch you see scowling at the brass band playing Christmas carols in November. I'm the one in the corner rolling my eyes while everyone talks about the "spirit of the season". And most of all, I hate red and green together. I just do. I think it's gross. I like red, I like green, but put them together and I want to smash things.

So you can understand that Christmas collections from indie polish brands are a mixed bag for me. They're almost always where the best sparkly reds of the whole year make an appearance, and I'm a terrible sucker for any and all sparkly red polishes. But it can also get deeply monotonous - Christmas in and of itself isn't really a terribly wide pool of inspiration to draw from. Which is why I was so delighted when Powder Perfect announced their Christmas collection would be inspired by Home Alone, one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time.

(The best Christmas movie of all time is, of course, Die Hard)

Powder Perfect very kindly sent me Decorate A Palm Tree*, Kevin! and Don't Flash Those Babies Around for review, and considering how much I loved the last polish I bought from them I had pretty high hopes. Happily, I was absolutely delighted with every single one - a pretty rare occurrence when being sent things randomly for review.

Fly Me To The Moon - Introducing Moonstone Polish!

The Australian indie polish scene is absolutely EXPLODING right now, which on the one hand is awesome, but on the other hand is turning out to be really rather unfortunate for my wallet. Happily, the lovely lady behind newcomer Moonstone Polish was kind enough to send me some of her lovely goodies to try!

Moonstone Polish is the brainchild of a very enterprising young lady from the Central Coast, Caitlin Vine. The name of the company is apparently a reference to a commonly used ingredient in potions in the Harry Potter universe, since mixing polish is pretty similar to mixing potions. Caitlin sent me three potions polishes to try, and I'm really very impressed by the quality she's producing right from her very first collection.

Radioactive was the one I pulled out of the package to try first, because I'm always going to be a sucker for a good purple. And this is a VERY good purple. It's described by the creator as a "soft" violet, but to be honest there's nothing soft about this polish to my eyes - and I LOVE it. This is going straight in my "makes me feel like Molly from Neuromancer" pile along with my Color Club holographics.

Three coats alone, in my trusty lightbox

Femme Fatale Cosmetics Presents: Aussie Indie Emporium

I've blogged here before about how awesome the Femme Fatale brand polishes themselves are, and also about the fantastic overseas indies they're now stocking. But did you know they're also stocking a wide range of our lovely Aussie indie polishes as well?

This might seem kind of redundant, until you take a look at just how much postage costs even with Australia. Australia Post, kind and generous souls that they are, charge a minimum of $7 per parcel, which doesn't seem like much until you start ordering from a couple of places at once. I, for example, being the Aussie indie junkie that I am, will often order from three different brands. I only pay 7-8 dollars postage to each one, but it adds up to nearly $25 all up just to get the damn polish to me. Femme Fatale, however, have come up with a solution to this annoying conundrum, by stocking a huge variety of popular Aussie indies all in the one place. This means you can throw them in with all the other lovelies from Femme Fatale, without incurring a chunk of postage for every bottle. I think it's a brilliant idea, and Femme Fatale were kind enough to provide me with some sample of the Aussie indies they're currently stocking.

Rocky Horror Nail Show Part 3 - Loki's Lacquer Science Fiction Double Feature Collection

At last, we come to the last part of my little showcase for Loki's Lacquer's Rocky Horror themed indie polish collection, Science Fiction Double Feature. I've only got two polishes left to show you, so I'll just have to make up the extra space with extra anecdotes - which I'm sure you'll all just HATE.

Time Warp and Science Fiction Double Feature

Rocky Horror Nail Show Part 2 - Loki's Lacquer Science Fiction Double Feature Collection

Welcome to the second installment of my little fanfest dedicated to Rocky Horror and Loki's Lacquer!
Here are the three polishes we'll be looking at in between my rambling reminiscing.

From left to right, we have 274306 (cookies for anyone who knows this reference off the top of their head), Even Smiling Makes My Face Ache, and Say Hello to Oblivion.

Rocky Horror Nail Show Part 1 - Loki's Lacquer Science Fiction Double Feature Collection

I am so SUPER, totally excited to show you guys this collection. I actually "used my connections" for the first time ever and bullied  begged Tara from Loki's Lacquer to sell me a set before they were officially released just so I could get my hands on them sooner. You see, I am what they call a Rocky Tragic.

You've probably seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show, or at least heard of it. It's had the longest continuous release in history, largely due to good old fashioned midnight screenings where fans show up in costume and shout agreed upon funny lines at the screen in between (and over) dialogue. At some screenings, they have a cast of people acting out the movie as well, and I was part of one of these casts for three years. Every single Friday night I would put on my neon satin button up shirt and bow tie, I would sing and scream and do The Time Warp, and I fucking LOVED IT. I met wonderful, weird, amazing people and gained so much confidence that I don't think I ever would have gotten any other way.

Funny thing is, being a part of something like that never really leaves you. I was showing these polishes to a friend who was also in the cast, and between us we just started reciting great chunks of the movie and callbacks. We just can't help ourselves. Whenever I see people doing the Time Warp the "wrong" way (there is a dance that was popular in clubs, and the dance they actually do on the screen, and they are actually quite different) I get all twitchy. I can't watch the movie without muttering the callbacks under my breath, and despite having seen the movie so many times I've seriously lost count, there are sections of dialogue and lyrics I don't actually know the original words for because I always shouted callbacks over them.

Needless to say, I have a lot of feelings about Rocky Horror. So I'm going to regale you with tales of my multicoloured, cross dressing past, in between the pretty pictures. Science Fiction Double Feature is a collection of 8, so to stop the length of this post spiralling wildly out of control, I'm going to split it into three posts - which I guess is a way of saying if you don't give a damn about Rocky Horror at all, maybe go somewhere else this week.

Rainbow Honey Pink Cloud Review and Swatches

Just a very quick, very straightforward post today!

I'm currently off work for a week, so I am planning on getting some serious work done so I can bring you some really in-depth posts in the coming weeks. But I'm also wanting to squeeze in a bit of R'n"R as well, so I've been alternating research on sumptory laws in 16th Century Italy with watching movies like the delightfully ridiculous Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters while stuffing my face with chips.

(I like bad movies and I cannot lie.)

Today, in the spirit of taking it easy, having fun and not thinking too hard, let's have a look at a lovely little polish by Rainbow Honey. It's called Pink Cloud, and was sent to me for review by the wonderful folk at Femme Fatale Cosmetics.

Dia de Muertos Collection - Shades of Phoenix Review

You might have noticed I'm kind of a not so reformed Goth; this means Halloween is a BIG deal for me. They don't call it Goth Christmas for nothing! So I'm gearing up for a big month of all things creepy, ooky, kooky and spooky here at the Reluctant Femme.
Shades of Phoenix very kindly asked me to review their Halloween season offering, a quirky little trio of Dia de Muertos themed polishes. Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a Mexican holiday thought to have emerged from a collision of an Aztec festival around the same time of year that centred around remembering and celebrating the dead, and the Catholic holidays All Saints Day and All Soul's Day. There are similar celebrations in lots of different cultures, but in Mexico the declared Dia de Muertos is a public holiday, and there are often festivals on either side of the actual day. Dia de Muertos has also developed a very distinctive set of visual trademarks - skull motifs, bright clashing colours, and big bunches of marigolds everywhere they can possibly fit. Despite being a festival all about death, and remembering everyone we know who is already dead, Dia de Muertos is actually quite a joyous event. Traditionally, Mexicans don't like for the dead to be thought of as sad in their afterlife, or to be thought of sadly at all. They prefer to consider all those who've gone before us to be having one big party while they wait for us, and Dia de Muertos is an expression of how happy we are that they get to party on down in the afterlife, how happy we are to have known them, and how excited we are that we will see them again.

Shades of Phoenix In A World of My Own Collection - Part 1

The lovely Teneil of Autsralian indie polish label Shades of Phoenix was kind enough to give me some advance bottles of her new Alice In Wonderland themed collection, In A World Of My Own, to show you all. Teneil is a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland, and it really shows in this beautiful new collection.

Isn't this a gorgeous lineup? They look so pretty all together I had to make the time to get a group shot of this delightful little rainbow. Each polish is inspired by particular characters or scenes, and I think Teneil has done an amazing job of translating these inspirations into polish form. Since there are seven polishes all up, and I have a great deal to say about the whole pop cultural influence of the original book in general, I'll be dividing this up into two parts.

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013 - Celebrating the Year Of The Blogger

I'm pretty darn excited to be a part of the piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013! If you haven't heard of it before, the Blog Fest is where Australian polish makers piCture pOlish collaborate with a whole load of bloggers to create a big day of celebration of all things piCture pOlish. Sometimes they launch new shades during this Fest, but this year they've decided to get bloggers to use their mad manicure skills to celebrate their already impressive lineup.

As a participant in the Blog Fest, piCture pOlish sent me three shades of polish, with the request that I let my imagination run wild in creating a manicure that would show off all three colours.

Ulta3 Ultrapost!

There is a little known secret hiding in great, sparkling piles in chemists all over Australia - these little bottles are usually sold for between two and three dollars, and since they're so cheap they're hardly ever presented well or organised, or paid any attention at all by staff. But they wait, in their cluttered bins, waiting for someone who knows their worth to haul them out into the light...

Ulta3 in their natural habitat

That's right, I'm talking about Ulta3 polishes!

I Want Candy - Sweet Sugar Polish review

Today will be a total change in tone from last post - I have only pretty things to show you, and happy things to say.

I'm a little bit exhausted from various things in the last week or so, which means the tone around here will probably be a lot lighter for at least the next couple of posts. Apologies if you started following this blog expecting activism all the time - I'd love to write about Big Important Stuff all the time, but I just can't keep it up. And on the same note, thank you to the people who followed me expecting All Pretty Stuff and get slammed in the face with activism every now and then - I really love that you guys deal with me careening back and forth so well. You, my readers, rock my fucking socks, you really do.

ANYWAY, let's get to the pretty things!

I have yet another new Australian indie polish brand to introduce to you today - Sweet Sugar Polish, based in Sydney. As you might have guessed from the name, all their polishes are candy themed and suitably sweetly coloured. I don't even really wear pastel colors very much, but they were just so cute I couldn't resist!

Delicious Delights - Indee Polish Co Review

Today's review subject is two polishes I picked up from brand new indie polish maker, Indee Polish Co. I'd seen some pictures floating around Instagram of late that piqued my interest, and being the dedicated indie supporter I am I made some room in the budget to try them out.

Indee Polish Co have been recruiting a fair few bloggers lately to try and get their name out there a bit more, so I wanted to choose some polishes that didn't already have awesome swatches (I'm not even going to try and compete with Nail Guns XS for attention). This meant I ended up with two that are kind of palette swapped versions of each other - Cerise Clafoutis and True Blue Aussie, both from her Distorted Reflections collection. They're relatively sheer jelly bases in cherry red and primary blue respectively, with lots and lots of holographic sparkle in each.

I'm sure you can go ahead and guess which is which.

Femme Fatale Megapost!

The lovely people at Femme Fatale Cosmetics were kind enough to send me some polishes to review, and surprising absolutely no-one, my "Must Buy" list from Femme Fatale is now twice as long. I've almost exclusively bought their amazing glitterbomb polishes in the past, because absolutely no-one does mega sparkly gorgeousness like Femme Fatale. However, the samples I was sent included a refreshing change of pace as three out of the four were creamy, girly glitters.

Out of the three creamier polishes, Sparkleshell is my favourite. It looks like the quieter, politer little sister of Veil of the Siren, which I reviewed here. It's surprisingly complex on the nail, with lots of different sizes and shapes of glitter as well as a smattering of tiny golden iridescent particles, and reminds me perfectly of seashells. These pictures are two coats over Illamasqua Scorch - you could possibly build this up on it's own, but the base is quite sheer, so if you're impatient like me I would recommend putting it over your favourite neutral.

And You Thought Your Ex Was Bad - Perspehone by Shades of Phoenix

Shades of Phoenix has sadly been off the market for a little while, as the owner had to move and APPARENTLY this means they can't also be pumping out awesome nail polish as well. But the good news is that Shades of Phoenix is back as of 6PM tonight! They are restocking the original collection - including the ones I reviewed way back in the way back times - but they are also launching a brand new collection called Let's Hear It For The Girls. Every polish is inspired by a female figure from Greek mythology, and I'm delighted to show you the one inspired by Persephone.

Persephone is one of my favourite figures in Greek mythology behind Cassandra (obviously) and so I had pretty high hopes for this one - happily, not only were my expectations met, but WELL exceeded. I've seriously never seen anything quite like this.

See The Shining Light - Rainbowland Collection Glam Polish Review

Yes, these are my toys. No, they are not from when I was little.

I remember reading somewhere when I was quite small that Capricorns tend the age backwards - they start off alarmingly serious children, and slowly grow up into ridiculously childish pensioners. Being a Capricorn and thus an alarmingly serious child, I thought this was total bunkum, but nowadays I wonder if there was any truth to it. I've found myself getting more and more comfortable with the things I tried to pretend I didn't love as a child - whereas once I could read books I pretended I didn't like cartoons anymore, now I will happily collect VHS copies of HR Puff'n'Stuff.

I Wanna Do Bad Things With You....Loki's Lacquer and Lilypad Lacquer Review

It seems that there are just too many awesome Australian indie polishes these days to show them to you one at a time - I'd never have time to do anything else, let alone do the job that allows me to buy them. So today I'm doubling up with two True Blood themed polishes; V from Loki's Lacquer, and True Blood from Lilypad Lacquer.