Of Life and Lacquer

I don’t know about you, but I am really liking the idea of purchasing more indie polishes. I like feeling that I am supporting a small business that is creating something unique–especially if it’s something that I love like nail polish. When I first saw Jen’s creations, I thought they were definitely pretty and unique, but I was going through my glitter hater phase so I didn’t jump right on them. For the last couple of months, I have seriously done a 180 and started coveting and drooling over every glitter I see. I revisited Jen’s shop and OMG I went crazy trying to decided what polishes to get.  After making my choices, my polishes arrived in less than a week, and I was so surprised to find them wrapped up like this:

While some people may not think much of this, I think that Jen’s careful attention to things like how her polishes are wrapped and presented, shows how much she cares about her products and her customers. I, for one, really liked seeing my polishes wrapped in pretty tissue paper and ribbon. It’s the little things that make me happy.

These are some macro shots of the 4 polishes I received–yeah, just to tease you!

The first polish I have decided to share with you is Seeing Stars. This is a vibrant polish with tons of different shaped glitters ranging from stars, bars and hexagons. The glitter is holographic for the most part so I love how it looks in different types of lighting. The thing that I was most drawn to about this polish when I visited Jen’s shop is the amazing blue jelly base. Because I still consider myself a glitter novice, I was very excited to try such a vibrant blue jelly with all that glittery magic explosion. I considered using this polish on it’s own, but decided to use a base color for my first attempt. I immediately thought of using China Glaze Frostbite since it is such a bright blue, but I went with a purple instead: OPI Purple With A Purpose.

I hadn’t used Purple With A Purpose in a really long time so I had forgotten how much I love it. I don’t think I’ve been giving OPI much love lately, but I have to say that they definitely have my favorite brush of all the brands I have tried. Their brush works PERFECTLY with my nail shape so it is a breeze to do a manicure since clean up is minimal. I actually didn’t do any clean up.

This is one coat of Seeing Stars over Purple With A Purpose. As you can tell, the blue base is VERY pigmented since it pretty much covers up the purple. The polish was a little thicker than I am used to dealing with so I added a few drops of thinner like Jen recommended and it became very manageable. It was not hard to pick up glitter on my brush, but I did have to fish for the stars. I dotted and pushed the bar glitter around a little bit to get it where I wanted it which is pretty typical of similar glitter polishes. This polish dries very glossy and there was some roughness, especially from the stars. I have not picked up any thick top coats such as Gelous, but I am planning to because any glitter lover knows that it’s a necessity.

Overall, I would say that Seeing Stars lived up to my expectations. I think that I would only wear the stars if I’m doing something festive. Otherwise, I would wear this polish any time!  If you are a glitter fan, I highly recommend that you check out Jen’s etsy shop here. She is very active on Facebook as well so you can always reach her there. So let me know what you think of Seeing Stars. Is it something you would wear? Are you a glitter lover or a glitter hater? I’m glad I could start out this Monday with a little glitter love. Thanks for stopping by my dears!