Alchemy Lacquers - Winter Cherry and Flax

* Provided for Review *

Is that a collective weekend sigh I hear? I have absolutely no plans for the weekend and given the hectic awesomeness that was my Thanksgiving weekend, no plans sound AMAZING. Does anyone else have anything fun planned?

So, today I have the final two lacquers in my review of the new brand Alchemy Lacquers.

First up we have Winter Cherry which is described as a peach cream with turquoise interference that contains gold and red flecks in a yellow base. Whew! That's a mouthful! This polish description is pretty spot on but to me, the turquoise interference came across as more gold. Formula was buttery smooth and spread easily on the nail. Swatches dry down to an almost satiny smooth finish and the polish is opaque in 2 thick coats. I LOVED this polish. It is office appropriate and almost reads neutral while having that extra pop from the gold and red flecks. I took this home with me for Thanksgiving and my mother loved it so much, she swiped my bottle (who has two thumbs and has to buy more? *this guy*) Seriously though, that says a lot. My mom is a fan of what I lovingly like to call, "the granny mauves." Check it out!

Finally, we have Flax. which is a bright slightly purple toned blue shimmer which flashes pink at extreme angles. So extreme in fact, it was pretty much impossible to catch it on camera. I was able to sorta kinda get a picture of the shift in the bottle but EVERY time I tried to get a photo of the shift on the nail, my camera was all NOPE.

http://frabz.com/2n7y

Formula wise, the first coat was pretty sheer, but I had no problem building the polish up in about 3 coats. I did have a slight problem with dragging which was helped by a few drops of thinner. However, I do recommend waiting a minute or two in between coats to help avoid it. Otherwise, I had no other formula issue. I dig this shade of blue and how glowy it is. I can honestly say I don't have any color like this in my stash!

Pink flash come baaaaack! I'm trying to take a photo! 

Well that's all for the Alchemy Lacquers review. Don't forget to check them out on Facebook, Etsy, and online. I hope you have a great weekend and I will see you back next week for more brand new creations! But until then, don't forget to keep it classy and creative! 

xo

** These products were provided to me for an unbiased review. My loyalty is to my readers who deserve the utmost respect and honesty **

Monster Mayhem

Hello my dears! Everybody having a productive week so far? We are gearing up to head to a friend's wedding this weekend! I even made a special franken for it, but that's another polish for another day!

Anywho, I decided to get more into the Halloween spirit and I think you can see it in this weeks franken!

As always, I started off with 2/3 of a mini bottle of TKB Luster Base. I then added about 3 ish drops of matte white base color to get a nice creamy base. I then added one small scoop each of Purple and Green Sparks! to help take some of the starkness from the white. I then added 2 scoops of matte black rectangles .032x.063 from Glitter Unique, one scoop of pastel green .040 hexes from You Mix Glitters, and two scoops of .062 matte purple hexes from Nail Glitter Princess. I think the end result is definitely Halloween but not so much that you can't wear it year round. Check it out!

Why do my hands keep looking dirty?!?! Auugh!

Swatches show three coats and quick dry top coat; no undies. I definitely like the idea of this polish but I definitely think it could benefit from a bit more glitter in the base. However, I do love how the glitter mixes with the shimmer without looking like white out. Glitters needed minimal placement. What do you guys think? What would you change if you could?

Well that's all for today my loves! See you back on Friday for more awesome in the form of lacquer! But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Are From:

* Luster Base, Green Sparks, Purple Sparks, and White Base: TKB Trading

* Matte Black Rectangles: Glitter Unique

* Pastel Green Hexes: You Mix Gitters

* Matte Purple Hexes: Nail Glitter Princess

Drugstore Digits- Sands of Time

Hello my loves and sorry about the late post. I've been feeling not so awesome and tonight is the first time I've felt well enough to post. So, I will still keep it short and sweet for tonight. But fear not my dear readers, there will still be a post tomorrow to wrap up the series!

So anywho, today's polish is pretty simple. I filled about 1/3 of a mini bottle's worth of China Glaze Angel Wings, which is a super dense holographic gold microglitter topper.  I then followed it up with a little bit more than 1/3 of a bottle's worth of Essie Adore-a-ball which is a sheer white based pink crelly (great for jelly sandwiches!) I shook it up and checked it out and was entirely disappointed. I was hoping for a sheer white(ish) polish with holographic gold microglitter. Yeahhhhhhh, that didn't happen. The polish was almost dirty brown looking. Since I figured I had nothing else to lose, I went for broke and topped the bottle off with Essie Lady Like, a dusty rose cream. I'm not entirely sure what I was hoping for by that point but what I did create was a nude cream polish with gold holographic microglitter. I called it, Sands of Time.

Swatches show two coats which dried down to an almost gritty finish. Therefore, I added 2 coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry. Formula was pretty easy, not streaky, and self leveled well. The holo was gorgeous when the light hit it just right!

Well that's all for Sands of Time ladies, see you tomorrow for the final polish in out Drugstore Digits Series! But until then, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

* I bought the China Glaze from Sally's Beauty Supply, Adore-a-ball came from Target, and Lady Like  was included in a previous Birchbox

Meme Week Nail Art Challenge Day 7- Ain't Nobody Got Time Fo Dat!

Happy Saturday my loves. We've reached the last day of the Meme Week Nail Art Challenge and letmetellyou, I am TIRED. But that doesn't keep me from being excited about today, it's Ain't Nobody Got Time For Dat Day! Yaaaaaaaay!

Credit

So true sweet brown... so true...

So today, the theme was a time consuming mani. I decided to do a dotticure based on the neon colors you can see Sweet Brown wearing in her epic video. You may recognize one of the polishes used from an earlier post.

Remember me?

Anywho, I used this franken along with China Glaze Peachy Keen (a peach cream),  Milani Totally 80's ( a chartreuse neon cream), Essie Peach Daquiri ( a bright mid-toned pink cream), and Essie DJ Play That Song(a neon slightly red based purple cream)

I used the larger side of a double ended dotting tool alternating colors and created this

Blast you bubbling top coaaaattttt!! So frustrating.

This thing took FOREVER and clearly flooded my cuticles, but I was still thrilled with how this turned out! It almost looks like a design you'd see on a nail applique doesn't it? 

Well that's all for this mani and the Meme Week Nail Art Challenge. Thank you Erin for talking me into it, it definitely forced me to push my boundaries and I was pleasantly surprised with what came of it. That being said, I am exhausted and may need a couple days off. So, if I'm not around on Monday you know why!

I look forward to getting back into the swing of things and creating more frankens. Who knows, maybe I will integrate more nail art into my posts? I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend (don't forget to check out the other Ain't Nobody Got Time For Dat manis!)  Until I see you next time, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

Supplies For The Blue Franken can be found here

Problematic Peach Take Two *Pic Heavy*

Hello my lovelies! Hopefully everyone has the day off and is enjoying some relaxation time. Don't forget to thank a service man or veteran today! I've been enjoying spending some time with my family in Tampa and will be headed back to Tallahassee a little later. Fingers crossed for no traffic!

So anybody that's been following my blog for awhile may remember this fail of a polish that I was pretty bummed about because I loved the concept of it. Well I decided that I just could not leave well enough alone and took another stab at it. I started out with about 75% of a bottle's worth of TKB Glamour Base. I then added literally one drop of Wonder Beauty Product's Primary Red Color Base. I then followed it up by adding about 3 drops of Wonder Beauty Products Primary Yellow Color Base to create a nice yellow based orange polish. Finally I added a couple drops if white cream polish to create a nice creamy peach color. I had to be very careful not to add too much white as I didn't want the polish to be too opaque. Finally I added a couple scoops each of TKB Blue Diamond (a blue glass fleck-ish shimmer) and Aqua Sparks! ( an aqua colored shimmer). What was created was a pastel peach shimmer which may not agree as much with my skin tone, but is still gorgeous (and ridiculously hard to photograph).

Bottle Macro

This is one of the best shots of the shimmer I could get

The formula on this was MUCH better than the initial fail polish. While it might still benefit from a couple drops of thinner but this still wasn't too difficult to manage. It self leveled on its own and was opaque in two coats. The shimmer was MUCH more apparent in real life. I loved the delicate peach color mixed with the blue aqua shimmer; such an unexpected and lovely combination!

Well that's it for the Problematic Peach Remix! I will be back on Wednesday with more polish awesomeness. Those of you traveling for the holiday, do it safely and until next time, remember to keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Came From:

* TKB Glamour Base, Blue Diamond Shimmer, and Aqua Sparks!: TKB Trading

* Wonder Beauty Products Primary Color Red and Yellow Bases: Wonder Beauty Products

* White Cream Polish: I just picked this up from any drug store

I'm a Banana!

Hi ladies and happy Friday! Let's just move straight into today's franken shall we? I wanted to make sure I didn't move back into my comfort zone so I opted to create another yellow polish, this time a cream/shimmer because I know how tricky yellows can often be. This polish started out with 1/3 of a bottle of TKB Glamour Base, followed by 1/3 TKB Basic Yellow Jellie, and then a little under 1/3 of Wonder beauty products Primary Yellow Color Base. I attempted (probably a little too late) to try and lighten up the base a little bit by adding a few drops of Wet 'n' Wild French White cream. I finished the polish up with a few good sized scoops of TKB's gold Sparks! And that's it! What I created I called I'm a banana! and I will explain the name after the photos

Macro shows a good swatch of the shimmer

I love how creamy and bright this yellow is! However, swatching went as follows: One coat, "Holy cow this is thick!"(adds thinner), two coats "good grief it's like trying to paint on silly putty" (adds more thinner), three coats "finally!" So long story short the formula was THICK and still somewhat streaky. However, thinner fixed these problems immensely! Self leveling was not an issue and all swatches are shown with one coat of Sally Hansen Insta-Dry

Now onto the name. First thing I thought of was this ridiculousness:

Don't tell me you didn't lose brain cells with that. You're welcome!

So that's all for today's fruit flavored franken adeventures. See you back Monday, have a great weekend, and remember to always keep it classy and creative!

xo

Today's Supplies Are From:

* TKB Glamour Base, Basic Yellow Jellie, and Gold Sparks!: TKB Trading
* Primary Yellow Color Base: Wonder Beauty Products

Problematic Peach

Hello ladies! Well it's finally happened, I have frankened a complete fail *hangs head in shame*. This especially stinks because I feel that this polish had such potential but I just could not get the formula right. I had this idea for a bright warm weather peach with contrasting shimmer. Simple enough right? W.R.O.N.G.

 I started with a base of TKB Glamour base and added about 1/5 of a bottle I then added drop by drop Color Club Tangerine Scream that I picked up in a set from Ross. I followed up by adding 2 small scoops each of TKB's purple, aqua, and blue sparks. I didn't even bother naming this one, I just called it problematic peach.

This picture is the most color accurate

Now I know, this looks innocent enough in the swatches but I SWEAR, that thing could not figure out whether or not it was trying to be an OPI Liquid Sand or a cream polish so it just decided to be both at the same time. Terrible, lol. The first coat was streaky. The finish did smooth out a little bit more once it dried but it was a little matte and required a topcoat. And, no matter how hard I tried I could not catch a picture of the shimmer while it was on the nail. It was a little hidden but you could definitely see it in real life. Now, I'm sure if you don't mind finicky polishes, this one probably won't bother you too much but I still think that personally, I want to start back at square one with this delinquent shade. 

Ugh,

Well that's all for today. I do have have more promising polished to show you in the future!

And don't forget, the giveaway ends 2/14 so if you haven't entered, go do it now! Who doesn't want a custom polish made just for them??

See you ladies next week, ready to be classy AND creative!!

Today's Supplies Came From

Glamour Base, Aqua Sparks, Blue Sparks, and Purple Sparks: TKB Trading

Color Club Tangerine Scream: Random set found at Ross but can be found here or here (please note that I am not familiar with or affiliated with these sellers and therefore cannot vouch for their service or credibility)