Celestial Cosmetics Callisto - Review and Ramblings

I am such a sucker for burgundy at the best of times, but when I saw Celestial Cosmetics had put out a deep rich berry burgundy with their trademark holo fire, I knew I had to have it. And I was not disappointed!

Just look at this beautiful thing! These swatches were just two easy coats as well, giving this polish real bang for your buck.

Even inside the lightbox, the ridiculously strong holo fire still burns bright.

In keeping with Celestial Cosmetics astronomical theme, this polish is named for the fourth moon of Jupiter, which was in turn named for the mythological nymph Callisto, - guess which one I wanna talk about today?

Callisto was a follower of Artemis, and as such had declared she would forever stay a virgin. The followers of Artemis, and indeed Artemis herself weren't too hot on men in general, so pledging to stay away from them was a way for Callisto to show her devotion to her goddess.

No Boys Club

However, Zeus is in this story, so if you've ever read a Greek myth you'll know where this is going - that's right, Zeus rocked up and raped Callisto because she said she'd never be with a man.

Afterwards Zeus's wife Hera found out (as she always did) and lost her shit (as she always did). Unfortunately, she never seemed to lose her shit at Zeus, who I feel really deserved at least a serious talking to. Instead, she directed her wrath at poor Callisto. What happened next is quite different in different versions of the story. Some early versions have Hera bullying Artemis into just straight up killing Callisto, but later versions have Callisto being turned into a bear either before or after giving birth the Zeus's love child.  Some version have Callisto being turned into a bear after giving birth,  then roaming around the woods doing bear stuff until her son comes back to the woods all grown up and nearly kills her. In all versions, Callisto gets the rough end of a very shitty stick.

Sadly, NONE of these storylines were used when the TV show Xena decided to introduce a character named Callisto. It's not like turning a character into a bear would have made the show any more bizarre and silly than it already was. Seriously, according to the Wiki, over the course of the show Callisto "died twice at the hands of Xena and was sent to Tartarus, Hell and Heaven. She has been a mortal, an immortal, due to the golden apples, as well as a Deity, due to Ambrosia. After final death, she was sent to Hell and became a Demon and later an Arch Demon. She was then sent to Heaven by Xena and became an Angel, before reincarnating into Eve, Xena's daughter, who would later become the bringer of Twilight and peace." But no bears. RIPPED OFF. 

Celestial Cosmetics is currently out of stock of Callisto, but you can still pick it up from Femme Fatale Cosmetics, and Edgy Polish.

P.S If you have a minute, I'd love to hear what you think of my little Etsy endeavor via a short survey I'm currently running. It doesn't matter if you've bought from me or not, I want to hear from everyone!

Glitter and Hubris

The latest trio from talented indie maker Shades of Phoenix is called Thread of Life, and was inspired by the Moirai, or as they're more commonly referred to these days, The Fates. The Moirai are a trio of women that according to Greek mythology created, shaped, and eventually ended the lives of all mortals. They're a really interesting facet of Greek mythology to look at from a modern perspective, because their role is largely based around an idea that's quite different from how we're taught to look at the world these days - the concept of hubris.

But before I get all academic, lets take a look at the lovely pretties.

Are You Scared of the Dark? Pretty Serious Poltergeist Puddle Review

Getting back to my overall Halloween type theme I've got going this month, I wanted to show you a polish from Pretty Serious's last Halloween collection. They do have a new one out this year, and I do have a review coming up, but I wanted to take a little trip back in time and cast some much deserved light on this older collection that is still available, and still well worth getting your mitts on.

Poltergeist Puddle is a really gorgeous purple, with hints of a slight pink duochrome shimmer. It reminds me of a purple version of Galaxy Invader - a colour that seems relatively plain on the surface, but that actually has a lot of depth and a bit of a foily shimmer to it as well.

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.

Echoes - Cadillacquer Review

Recently I decided to take advantage of all the lovely international indies that are being stocked at Femme Fatale Cosmetics - they've had this up and running for a little while, but I had something of a backlog just working through all the amazing Australian indies I wanted to try. But finally I got around to checking it out, and I'm SO glad I did. There is some freaking awesome stuff there, that is really difficult to get any other way - Happy Hands, HARE Polish, Smitten Polish...lots of lovelies I'd been meaning to track down, all there for my browsing pleasure!

Among all the brands I was familiar with, I came across one I'd never seen before that really jumped out at me. Echo from Swiss indie label Cadillacquer is a stunning dark blue glitter in a jelly base. It was very easy to apply, and if you're one of those patient people who can do thin, even layers of jelly polishes this would do well without any undies.

Scaredy Cat Cosmetics Review - Subtlety is Overrated

On one of my trawls through Etsy for new and exciting indie cosmetics brands to show you, I came across American outfit Scaredy Cat Cosmetics. Compared to local creators like Femme Fatale Cosmetics and Eccentric Cosmetics, the range of colours available wasn't hugely inspiring - but I am a sucker for cute packaging, and thought it might be time to invest in some colours that aren't quite as...well, bold as the ones I already have.

I picked up a dark grey called Lir, a lighter grey called Nereid, and a lovely golden brown called Y So Sirius. The shipping for these three was around $10, which is kind of high, but relatively good for shipping from the US, especially considering how quickly it arrived.

I really love the little triangular bottles these came in - unfortunately after checking the shop it seems they've
discontinued these since I got my order. The new jars still have the same gorgeous illustrations though.

Snow Day! Glittering Elements Glacier and Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen

Glittering Elements are yet another new Australian indie polish maker I've stumbled across, and despite not knowing they existed three weeks ago, I now currently have four of their polishes with three more on the way. Needless to say, I'm a fan.
Today I wanted to go with a sort of ice theme, and show you Glacier from Glittering Elements, as well as a retelling of The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson. For the short of attention span, I'll start with the pretty pictures!

Glacier is a remarkably sparkly clear based polish, that works best as a topcoat over another colour. Theoretically you could probably make it opaque with four coats or so, but I think you'd lose a lot of the twinkliness, and that's what I dig about it. These swatches are two thin coats over a navy base, out in the sunshine to catch all the sparkle.

If You Go Down To The Woods Today - Pretty Serious Grimm Demise review

It's time for another Polish+ Post! Today I have the stunning teal glitter Grimm Demise from Pretty Serious to show you, and some neat Scandinavian fairytales to tell you, so grab a cup of tea and get comfy.

Pretty Serious are one of my favourite indie polish brands to recommend when newcomers to indie polish ask me where to start. While the company itself is totally indie (Kaz, the owner, is also the sole full time employee) their polishes are professionally manufactured. This means they can't do quite as big a range of crazy glitters as some of the hand mixed indies, it does mean all their polishes are absolutely consistent, every single time. It also means Pretty Serious are able to keep 99 per cent of their range available at all times, which is a big plus for me. I hate hate HATE getting something amazing and wanting to put it up here to show you all, only to find it's sold out. But because of how Pretty Serious stock their inventory, I know I can pull out any of my (ever growing) stash and write it up, and if you like it you can go and get it too without drama.

Grimm Demise is one of a little mini collection that came out a little while ago called Seriously Random, which unlike their usual themed collections was a sampling of several really pretty polishes. I wore Purple Monkey Dishwasher from the same collection on my nails for my Catwoman cosplay, and absolutely loved it, so I went back and got Grimm Demise because it's basically a teal version of PMD. The formula of Grimm Demise, like all Pretty Serious polishes, is just perfect. Not too thick, not too thin, and it self levels beautifully - not to mention it's sparkly as FUCK.

Three coats alone, full sunlight

Agents of Chaos - Eris from Shades of Phoenix Review

Today I have another beautiful polish from local indie polish label Shades of Phoenix to show you, and by now I’m sure most of you know what that means – impromptu mythology lesson time!

Zeus sez IT'S MYTHOLOGY TIME

First – the polish! Eris is lovely dark blue/black jelly based glitter polish from Shades of Phoenix's second collection, Let’s Hear It For The Girls. The base is full of a veritable cornucopia of colours – large iridescent greeny gold glitters give it a peacock tail sheen, and under that a scattering of tiny glitters in all shapes and sizes round the palette out. 

Ariadne and The Minotaur Nail Art

A little while ago Shades of Phoenix announced they were having a nail art challenge on Instagram. I don't usually take part in nail art challenges because the competition is CRAZY, but since this one had the theme of Greek mythology, I couldn't possibly resist.

Mythology is my jam

I decided to attempt to portray the story of Theseus and the Minotaur - particularly the part where Ariadne saves Theseus from certain death, and gets little to no credit for it. If you haven't heard the story before, here's a quick and dirty version.