Indie: Pahlish Spam (Portal Collection and others)

Hey guys!

The last two days were pretty scary with Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy coming through New Jersey. Luckily, we are in northern NJ, so we missed the brunt of the storm, but we are dealing with a lot of downed trees and power lines. We are even luckier to live on the same street as the fire department in our town, so our power was turned back on within 24 hours of it going out. A lot of food from the fridge was thrown out, and I missed work during a pretty busy time, but otherwise I am very thankful for how little we were affected. My heart goes out to everyone who is still dealing with the aftermath of the storm :( Best wishes to all of you.

Extreme weather aside, I thought I would post some more indies. Surprised? Didn't think so. I actually got these and swatched these a while ago, but forgot to post them.

I purchased these myself. I actually purchased the entire Portal collection, but my bottle of Little Caroline was from a lighter batch, so I am waiting for a replacement. I thought I would show the remaining swatches and edit the post later!

Etsy store: here

From the Portal collection:

Ace of Fours


Ace of Fours - 3 coats on its own




Ace of Fours over OPI DTMT - This looks so dainty!




Combustible Lemon


Combustible Lemon - 3 coats on its own - So shiny IRL




Combustible Lemon over ChG Riveting




Marbles on Glass


Marbles on Glass over Essie NMF




Marbles on Glass over Essie Cocktail Bling




Still Alive


Still Alive - 3 coats on its own. This pulled really green on me, but looks more teal on others. I wish it was a little more blue on me. Also super shiny, kind of like Zoya Ivanka.




Still Alive over Essie Going Incognito





And two others:

Toxic and Timeless over Illamasqua Rampage - I saw solveig's swatch of Pahlish Toxic and Timeless and it looked a bit different than the bottle I bought (aside from the fact that I purchased a barless batch!), so I bought another bottle >.> The new bottle I got has more medium glitters in it, which I love, but the base seems a little cloudier than my original. It doesn't seem to affect the overall look, though. I do love this polish.




My Oblivion over NARS Midnight Express - holo glitters are not my favourite, as you may know, but I wanted to try this one anyway! I'm still unsure, to be honest!




Happy Halloween, guys!

Indie: Elevation Polish Morocco Collection

Disclosure: The following polishes were sent to me for swatching/review purposes.

Hi guys! I have Elevation Polish's new Morocco collection to show you today, and they are not all glitter bombs :p

I know Lulu from an online forum, and she mentioned she was having a hard time getting accurate photos of her new polishes, so I offered to swatch them for her.

She's restocking on Nov 7, and this is where you can purchase Elevation Polish:

Elevation Polish @ Etsy
Elevation Polish @ BigCartel

Lu's blog also has more information about her other polishes that will be restocked on Nov 7:
I Dig Brown Nail Polish

The formula on these were fantastic. CdC and M'Goun were so beautiful to apply. The two glitters were a little on the thicker side, but not gloopy.

Here are the swatches! I forgot to take a group picture of the bottles, sorry! FYI there are new labels, so you can ignore any labels you see in these pics!

Elevation Polish Colline du Charf - Beautiful formula! I only needed two coats. It reminded me something like OPI TMF or SH XW Concrete (used to be a fav of mine, but then I purged all my SH XWs because they seemed to always thicken for no good reason)



Elevation Polish M'Goun over Elevation Polish Colline du Charf - just 1 coat overtop CdD. This is way sparklier in person! beautiful.




Elevation Polish M'Goun over Orly Luxe - These photos don't show how sparkly this is IRL. SUPER SPARKLY.




Elevation Polish Jbel Ayachi over Essie Sag Harbor - This looked silvery in the bottle, but there's actually a lot going on when you look at the macro. very pretty! 1 coat over the Essie.




Elevation Polish Toubkal - 3 coats. I think this one is my favourite of the collection. It's a very rich, dark red with golden glass flecks. It reminds me of SH XW Fireberry Red, but a little more purply and earthy feeling. Really gorgeous :)

Indie: Starlight Polish spam continued!

Disclosure: The polishes in the following post were provided to me for review purposes.

Hey guys!

As promised, here are the rest of the polishes that Issa from Starlight Polish sent me for review. She sent me a lot of polishes, as you can see :)

Overall, the formula on all of these polishes was easy to use, not too thick or too thin. No complaints from me!

If you see something you like, you can head over to the Starlight Polish Etsy store. There are mini bottles and full size bottles available, as well as sets :)

I think I will let the pictures do the talking, here:

Mythological Polishes - These polishes contain those colour shifting pigments (same as the one in Clarins 230, Pam's Girly Bits and Lilacquer polishes also have similar polishes). In the fourth pic of each of the swatches here, I've shown the polish without flash to give you an idea of the colour shift.

Starlight Unicorn over Orly Sapphire Silk





Starlight Dragon over Essie Going Incognito





Starlight Phoenix over Essie No More Film





The following three are in tinted bases, which can be built to opacity in 3-4 coats. I chose to show them over underwear, though, since jellies tend to photograph poorly when you use flash (which I usually do!)

Starlight Dragon Scales over Illamasqua Rampage





Starlight Phoenix Feathers over Orly Plum Noir (I definitely forgot to topcoat this swatch!)





Starlight Unicorn Tears over NARS Midnight Express






The glitter in the following topcoats reminds me of the microglitter that is found in many BB Couture polishes. They tend to be a little thirsty for a glitter this size!

Starlight Din over Misa Got it Made in the Shade




Starlight Farore over Essie Going Incognito




Starlight Nayru over CND Midnight Sapphire




Some more topcoats!

Starlight Sunlight over CND Midnight Sapphire - golden sparkle topcoat




Starlight Starshine over Essie Cocktail Bling - smaller spectraflair for a more subtle rainbow




Starlight Starlight over Essie Cocktail Bling - more holo-y, with the larger SpectraFlair





More holo topcoats with tinted bases (no topcoat in any of these)

Starlight Dragon Breath over Essie Go Overboard




Starlight Unicorn Spell over Essie No More Film




Starlight Phoenix Fire over Orly Plum Noir




Duochrome Glass Fleck topcoats - these remind me of pigment in polishes like Orly Space Cadet, and those Sally Hansen ones with silly names like DVD.

Starlight Ever Blue over Essie No More Film





Starlight Splash Dream over OPI Smitten with Mittens





Starlight Star Jewel over Essie Going Incognito






Phew! That is a ton of swatches! Can you believe I have at least 5 more indie spam posts coming up? Including the new Crowstoes Christmas collection :O

I also ordered most of Nikole's (Hare) new polishes last week, and when those come in, I have a lot of swatching to do!

And on the non-indie front, I got the 8 newer Layla holos to swatch - I just got them from Hautelook the other day.

Work has been seriously insane the last 8 weeks! I am soooo looking forward to American Thanksgiving so I can have 4 days to bum around at home (and get our Christmas tree!) I know it's pretty early to get a tree on Thanksgiving, but we leave here a week before Christmas to go back to Canada, so we miss a whole week of tree-enjoyment :)

Ok I should end this huuuuuge post. Will be back soon with more indies :D