Trove of Celestial Treasures

One of the problems with being obsessed with indie nail polish (apart from the ever present threat of bankruptcy) is just how fast the indie scene is exploding right now. On the one hand, it's super exciting that the number of labels putting out polish in Australia alone has literally tripled in the last year; on the other hand, this exponential expansion also makes it really difficult to keep up with all of them!

I've been aware of Celestial Cosmetics pretty much since I started this blog, and I picked up some of their very first collection way back in the way back times. But since then they've been kind of dropping on and off my radar - not because I don't like what they do, but because there are just SO MANY labels to keep track of! After answering a call I put out for labels to help me with a Super Sekrit Project, the lovely Nikki from Celestial Cosmetics offered to catch me up on the beautiful things she's been creating while I was occupied elsewhere, and I'm DELIGHTED she did. While I've been distracted, Celestial Cosmetics has grown into a booming little hive of creativity, and today I've got a TON of swatches to show you the latest and greatest from this label.

From left to right, my little bundle of joy contained; Celestial Sphere, Comet Lulin, Aurora, Meteoroid, and In The Navy. The science nerd in me is pretty delighted Celestial has come back around to their astronomical naming conventions! While I loved the Game of Thrones collection as much as the next person, there's a surprising lack of space inspiration in indie polish, and I dig it. 

Put On Your War Paint - Girl Gang Makeup Tutorial

I sadly lost a friend very recently, and I'm still working through a lot of how I feel about that. You can read more about all the sad and painful parts of it over here, but in this post I want to do something a bit different and celebrate one of the really positive aspects of my friendship with Chloe, rather than just mourning her loss.

You see, Chloe and I both had a tendency to get a bit...angry. Okay, that's a total understatement. Even when talking across the world, we could wind each other up to an absolute frenzy of delighted ferocity, so I can only imagine what would have happened if we'd ever been in the same place at the same time. Chloe had far more reason to react violently to people that pissed her off than I did; she'd been through an absolute fuckton of shit, and comparatively nothing particularly bad has ever really happened to me. But we both got the same fierce joy from the idea of punching out the teeth of people who deserve it, and I took a lot of comfort from her acceptance of my burning desire to break some faces when I got angry. I always felt like that urge, that desire for violence was something to be denied at all costs, and hidden at all times. But Chloe not only accepted that part of me, she actively encouraged me to get it out and explore it - intellectually at least, since the fact is I would be a dreadful physical fighter. We agreed that should we ever get into a physical fight together, I could do the kicking because of my powerful horse thighs, but she would have to do all the punching because I'd be sure to break my hand. One day, while complaining about people we wanted to punch that we weren't allowed to punch, and imagining what we might do about it if we could, we came up with the idea of starting a girl gang.

This image created by BabsBabsBabs

Not just any girl gang - the punkest, femmest, most misandrist girl gang ever. We were going to ride into town on bright pink, bedazzled, loud as fuck motorbikes, and start fights with sexist assholes. We were going to kick in teeth, break arms, and punch the wind out of people until they understood that women are not to be trifled with. We were going to have jackets, like The Pink Ladies, but way more punk, in pink denim with studs and dripping letters and artfully tattered edges. We were going to have tattoos across our knuckles that spelled out MISANDRY.* There would be No Boys Allowed, and it was going to be BAD ASS.

Powder Perfect Euphoria Collection Review and Swatches

I know my blog has been pretty heavy on the Powder Perfect coverage recently, but honestly, they are just bringing out SO MANY gorgeous polishes I'd feel bad not covering as many of them as I could. For such a new label, their polishes are improving in leaps and bounds, becoming ever more complex and rich with each release, and the Euphoria collection is no exception.

This is a small collection of four jelly micro glitter polishes, but they all bring something amazing (and stupidly sparkly) to the table.

A Pretty Perfect Package - Collection Two

Hello and welcome to another post packed full of perfectly pretty polishes! (Hush, I couldn't resist.)

The lovely ladies behind Prettypots Polish and Powder Perfect released a limited edition collaboration box similar to What's Indie Box a little while ago called A Pretty Perfect Package, and after seeing swatches all over the place I was really kicking myself for not getting in on the action. Luckily, I was offered an advance viewing of the upcoming second Pretty Perfect Package!

What's Indie Box - Bakery Delights, February 2014

I've been buying What's Indie Box on and off since the inception of this rather nifty idea - a rotating roster of five indie labels each contribute an exclusive polish to a special themed box once a month, and once a month a surprise package of delightful mystery arrives on your doorstep! Unlike a lot of other surprise boxes, What's Indie Box doesn't require any minimum subscription - all you have to do is trundle over to Peita's Polish, lay your cashes down when you decide you want in, and if you can't afford it next month, there's no drama. I've found it's a really great way to sample a bunch of different indie labels at once, and would particularly recommend it to anyone who's still hovering around the edges of the indie pool, dipping in a tentative toe.

(Just to be a TOTAL enabler, I'd also point out that you can chuck in a couple of things from Peita's Polish while you're ordering the Indie Box for no extra postage charge - her Quick, Gloss Me Up fast dry topcoat is a particular favourite of mine)

Enough spruiking, on to the swatches! The February box as themed around cake, and as someone who's allergic to just about every kind of cake, I was already pretty tempted. However, this box also featured a bunch of my favourite up and coming indie labels all in the one place, and just like that I was sold. My only mistake was opening this beautiful box at work when I could neither play with any of the polishes, OR have any cake, which became pretty equal compulsions as I sorted through these delicious treats.

It's Time To Shake Some Dust!

If you're one of the three people who watch my blog as closely as I do, you might have noticed I've been gradually making some changes around here, and as of now I'm ready to go ahead and announce them.

Firstly, Reluctant Femme isn't going anywhere - I've just got the layout how I like it, apart from anything else. However, in the future I will only be posting polish, beauty, and fashion posts here. It's gonna be all pretty things, all the time, which I know will make some of you very happy.

For those of you who preferred my rants about feminism and other such meaty matters, or who just want to continue to keep up with them, I will still be posting those over at my new (sub)blog, Brainy Femme. If you missed my last column for Already Pretty, I've stuck it up on Brainy Femme by way of an introductory post.

Finally, my little accessory enterprise Femmecraft has kind of taken on a life of it's own; so much so that I decided to start another (sub)blog to home my rantings about resin and glitter, and how important wearing a dust mask really is. If you're interested in that sort of thing, or just want to oggle all the pretty things I'm making, you will be able to see them over at Femmecraft.

I'll be spamming links to all three of these blogs on my Twitter, and probably off the Reluctant Femme facebook page too, so if you just want to keep getting links to everything without making any changes yourself, those are the two easiest avenues.

Reluctant Femme will still remain my main focus, but I wanted to make it as easy as possible for everyone to find the things they love best, and avoid the things that don't interest them, without restricting my freewheeling attention span.

I hope I don't lose too many of you in the confusion, and we can stick together like adorable otters in a stream.

You and me, we like dis! Gorgeous print available here

Shiro Cosmetics Seven Kingdoms Collection Swatches

Ever since someone tipped me off to the delightful randomness of Shiro Cosmetic's Nic Cage Raking Leaves on a Brisk October Afternoon eyeshadow, I've been something of a Shiro fangirl. Not only does the owner have a delightful sense of humour, their shadows are deliciously rich and pigmented. I've even started using them to colour resin for my jewellery, because a tiny tiny amount makes it just GLOW. Because I haven't shut up about this brand since I stumbled across them, and we all know how much I love Game of Thrones, my lovely Mr. Reluctant Femme got me a sample pack of the ENTIRE Shiro Cosmetics Seven Kingdom collection!

My face when I opened up the package

Now, I know a lot of you look at the bolder colours of eyeshadow that I tend to prefer and get all shy, so you lot in particular will be delighted with how overall worksafe this collection is. There's a lot of earthy, mellow browns, tans, and peaches, as well as some brighter shades, and I'd be pretty shocked if there wasn't at least something here for everyone.