Kiko 345 and topped with Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs

I picked up this polish when Kiko debuted state-side earlier this year. I've worn it a few times since then, but only took pictures of it this week so I could update my nail polish spreadsheet!

I love the bottle shape of Kiko polishes. The brush is a bit stiffer than I'm used to, and is a little less wide than OPI. The formula itself is nice and creamy, if not a tad thick. I may thin it a bit next time I go to use it. Opaque in two coats is pretty great, especially for a mint like this.

Kiko 345 (2 coats)



I purchased this (among many other mint green polishes) in hopes of finding a dupe (or better) of American Apparel Office (which takes 3 coats for opacity, and I hate the super long brush stem)

Kiko 345 is not a dead on dupe for the AA, but it is the closest I've found, and I think I actually prefer it to AA Office. AA Office is long gone from my stash now, but I posted this swatchstick comparison picture back in March:



For my second day, I topped it off with Lynnderella for my NOTD:

Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs over Kiko 345 (there are no black flecks in LLL; the flash is just reflecting strangely off the microshimmer)

Indie: Lynnderella A Neutral Party

Lynn may not consider her brand an "indie", but in my books it is... so that's how I'm labeling this post.

I was interested in this polish when it came out, but not enough to purchase it at full price ($23 on the Lynnderella ebay store). However, I saw it on a blog sale last month for much less, so I decided to just nab it and give it a whirl.

FYI, I think you can message Paul (Lynn's brother, who runs the Ebay store) to set up a custom listing for polishes you are interested in. Also, if you are in Canada, make sure to contact Paul before you buy re: shipping, as I have read that one Canadian buyer was hit with ridiculous brokerage fees from UPS.

Here are some combos I tried with A Neutral Party:

Lynnderella A Neutral Party over Essie Don't Sweater It - Not loving this combination




Lynnderella A Neutral Party over SH CSM Fedora - Or this one, really




Lynnderella A Neutral Party over OPI Samoan Sand - I like this one the best out of the three I tried, but not blown away :(




I'm not in love with it in any of these combinations, unfortunately. I do think the shimmer is amazing, though! Any suggestions for layering, or should I cast it off to my swap drawer?

Lynnderella Connect the Dots

The infamous Lynnderella Connect the Dots! I was not really interested in this polish from the start (just not my style, I guess), but the opportunity came up to get it in a swap, so I thought I might as well give it a try and post the swatch here for you guys.

Lynnderella Connect the Dots - 2 coats over Nails Inc Warwick Way (the base polish photographs just terribly)




Black and white hex, square, and bar glitter suspended in a clear base with fine shimmer. It's definitely a cool look with quite a lot going on, but not my favourite Lynnderella. It's already been reswapped to a new home :)

To order Lynnderellas, please see Llarowe's special ordering system.

Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs over OPI Let Them Eat Ricecake

Here's my NOTD going into the work week:

Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs over OPI Let Them Eat Rice Cake - 2 coats of the Lynnderella over 3 coats of the OPI




(there are no black flecks in this polish, it's just the way the flash bounces off the tiny shimmer particles)

The formula on OPI LTERC is not great, but I really love the colour on my skintone, so I put up with the patchy / streakiness.

I love this mani! I originally had tried LLL over Essie Marshmallow (as in my mega swatch post), but found it to be a bit too stark for the office, so I decided to try it over my favourite nude/neutral/"worksafe" polish. I am really happy with the outcome! I can't wait to wear this Lynnderella again and again :) I think this is how you regular folks feel about Connect the Dots, haha ;)

Lynnderella Heart Strings and Liquid Valentine (♥) + blush + February shopping list!

I wasn't going to post swatches of these initially, since they were gifts from Lynn, but someone requested them so... here you go. They are not available for sale, but hopefully they will be in future collections! I know there's a bit of a bar-glitter-fan club out there!

Heart Strings over Illamasqua Collide (the name is sooo cute!)




Liquid Valentine (or ♥) over Zoya Alegra





Since it's a new year, I am trying to curb my spending on cosmetics and nail polish. January didn't start out so good, because I bought 4 blushes (and swapped for 2 more). I seem to have a growing blush obsession (do you?!).

Here is my modest (modest to some, already crazy to others) blush collection:


And some subpar swatches, because I needed to make sure I didn't have dupes (you guys know me!)



So for the month of February, I'm going to make a shopping list for cosmetics/np and STICK TO IT (at least try).

Here is what I'm allowing myself to purchase for this month:

• A-Englands: I know I am totally late on the bandwagon here, but I recently decided to take the plunge and try this brand at the insistence of my NB friends. I plan on ordering the following through llarowe's shop (once they come back in stock): St George, Dragon, Order of the Garter, Tristam, Lady of the Lake, Galahad, Elaine, Perceval, and Guinevere. Do you have any of these? What do you think of my picks?
• Layla Holographics: These are not yet available in the US, but should be ~sometime~ at aveyou.com and zappos.com. You can get them from Layla's italian site, but I lost patience trying to navigate their site in Italian (lol). I'm going to allow myself to purchase 5: Mercury Twilight (silver holo), Jade Groove, Mermaid Spell, Ocean Rush, and Flash Black (black holo). I'm skipping the nude/pink/purple ones, because let's be honest, if I'm going to wear a holo, it's gotta be blue or green :D
• Zoya True collection: I only want three: Bevin, Skylar, and Lotus. The rest seem nice, but "nice" doesn't cut it anymore in my stash!! hehe.
• Jessica Cosmetics: Disco Diva duo and Smoky Feather (the Chanel Graphite dupe)

It's going to be a pricey month (well, contingent on when the Laylas will become available), but I am so excited! It's been a while since I have been excited about polish, and I think my year-end purging and Lynns really sparked my interest again!

Are any of you sticking to budget or fixed shopping list this month? Hmmm?

(p.s. Sorry for the off-topic makeup stuff, I was too excited and wanted to share. I know when I was first into np I hated seeing makeup posts mixed in with my nail blogs, so apologies!! XD)

Lynnderella Mademoiselle Violette de Bleu

I decided to give Mademoiselle Violette de Bleu another try, but with a different base. I grabbed my trusty NARS Midnight Express (dark blue jelly) and went to town (2 coats polish, 2 coats Lynnderella, 2-3 coats of topcoat). The outcome? I LOVE.

First, pictures the way I normally take them (with a diffused flash). These pics wash out the complexity of the polish, though :(




Here are some more accurate pictures under my desk lamp, but with less of the nails in focus (sorry!)



Finally, I took a picture with my P&S camera in early morning daylight coming through the window:


I also tried this over Nails Inc Belgrave Place, which is like a dark blurple jelly, and it also looks phenomenal.

I'm on my third day of wearing this mani! Pretty rare for me :) This one definitely goes in the "love" Lynnderella pile (which is, at the moment: RRR, VPV, and BGP). I'm working my way through the rest, to make sure I give every one a fair shot at being HG status :)

Lynnderella Lovely is as Lovely Does Swatch Spam

I briefly debated whether to show these 1 polish per post or breaking it up until 2 parts, but I asked myself what I would want if I didn't have these yet, and the answer was an all-inclusive post. So here we go!

I know most of you are already scrolled down to see the pics from anticipation, but WAIT - just read this basic info first, lol!

• Basecoat: Barielle Hydrating Ridge Filler. I find this helps a lot when I use Essie Marshmallow as a base colour, since it goes on less streaky.
• Topcoat: Barielle Manicure Extender topped with Seche Vite. I'm wearing BGP as my weekend mani and it has fully dried. It's not completely smooth, so I will add another coat of Barielle ME later on! I tried Glitter Tamer but was too sensitive to the smell.
• These will be available to the public at Llarowe!

OK you can scroll now! :D

Love, Lace and Lilacs over Essie Marshmallow - 3 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour





Lynn's Description: "Love, Lace and Lilacs contains a translucent and opaque white multi-sized hexagons, threads (bars) and squares in a shimmering clear base."

Formula: beautiful, way better than Snow Angel, IMO! Medium density for the glitter and sheer base.

Comments: The macro pictures here makes it seem like there's black glitter, but it is just how the light is bouncing off the shimmer. The other pics are better representations of the polish! I don't own Connect the Dots (just not a fan of it, but I will say it is super interesting and unique), but this reminds me of an all-white CtD! An all-black one would be amazing, now that I think about it :D

Comparison to Snow Angel: My bottle of Snow Angel has already been rehomed - that's how much I disliked the formula, so I cannot do a side-by-side compare for you guys. I'm sorry :( There is a good comparison at Body & Soul. I think LLL is what I wanted SA to be and I vastly prefer this, but maybe I just had bad luck with SA the two times I wore it.


Sweets to the Sweet over Essie Marshmallow - 2 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour





Lynn's Description: "Sweets to the Sweet contains translucent white multi-sized hexagons and squares, with scattered yellow, red, purple, turquoise, lime and emerald squares and hexagons in a shimmering translucent white sparkling base. There are also small iridescent green hexagons to sweeten the mix."

Formula: The glitter in this is more dense than in LLL. I think this polish would require an extra layer of topcoat to smooth out, since there is quite a bit of glitter in here.

Comments: Based on the preview, this wasn't a "first-draft" pick for me, but after trying it, I think it looks really nice and cute. I'm sure a lot of you like this look! I can't put my finger on what this reminds me of.


Nosegay over Essie Bangle Jangle - 3 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour





Lynn's Description: "Nosegay (defined as a small bunch of flowers, bouquet or posy) is made with lavender and purple multi-sized hexagons and squares, with blue-violet shimmer in a translucent pale violet base. "

Formula: If my pictures don't scream it, there is hidden shimmer in this which was a huge surprise to me. I flipping love this. The formula is thin and easy to control.

Comments: I wasn't really intrigued by the bottle pics of this polish when Lynn first posted the collection on her blog, but I think it is one of my favourites from the collection. The secret shimmer is just so beautiful!


Matter of the Heart over Essie Raise Awareness - 3 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour




Matter of the Heart over Essie Marshmallow - 3 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour




Lynn's Description: "Matter of the Heart has red, fuschia, pink, silver holographic multi-sized hexagons and squares with scattered holographic holo hearts in a sheer milky pink base with subtle pink shimmer."

Formula: The glitter was on the sparse side, but it was not too difficult to maneouver glitter where I wanted. There is some hidden shimmer in here as well :)

Comments: I didn't love my swatch over Essie Raise Awareness, so I tried it over Essie Marshmallow. I really like how the tinted base over white makes such a soft shade of pink - especially one that I think looks good on my skin tone! I'm currently wondering if I can wear this to work on Valentine's Day.

Forget You Not over Essie Smooth Sailing - 3 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour





Lynn's Description: "Forget You Not is made with multi-sized periwinkle hexagons, pink sparks, blue sparks and cornflower-pink shimmer in a sheer blue base."

Comments: From the preview, this was one of my favourites, but I'm not head over heels in love with it like I thought I would be. I think it's just the colour, though, because I briefly thought about purging Essie Smooth Sailing (but didn't because it is so pretty in the bottle!). I need to try it over a different base, before deciding for sure how I feel about it.


Lovey Dovey over Zoya Neeka - 3 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour




Lovey Dovey over Zoya Caitlin - 3 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour





Lynn's Description: "Lovey Dovey contains translucent smokey lavender and pale lavender hexagons and squares, with gunmetal squares and scattered pink hexagons in a dove grey base spiked with subtle pink shimmer."

Formula: the glitter is not as dense as some of the others.

Comments: I was apprehensive about ordering this as well (ok, for a split second, then I threw caution to the wind when I decided to buy the whole collection regardless of my initial thoughts -- so glad I did this! haha), but I really like this!

Comparison to Mercurial: I thought the glitter combination was too close to Mercurial, which I didn't love, but the mix must be different since I like it a lot better. Again, I already rehomed Mercurial. Darn this consequence of my new stash policy!!


LavenDear over RBL Catherine H - 1 coat Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour





Lynn's Description: "LavenDear is a blend of lavender multi-sized hexagons and squares with a touch of holographic pink in a sheer pink-violet base with a hint of iridescent blue shimmer."

Formula: The glitter in this is super dense, but easy to control.

Comments: This was another polish I wasn't completely sold on; I just couldn't think of a good base. This shade of purple doesn't look great on my skintone (imo!) so I purged everything in my stash that was similar to it. I think this would look rocking over RBL Scrangie. SOMEONE DO THIS AND SHOW ME. On a whim, I threw this over RBL Catherine H and really liked the look. The glitter in this is so shiny! It's so eye-catching!! I was going to just layer this over black, but I'm glad I picked abase colour. I briefly thought about layering it over a grey too... but I also got rid of all my mid-tone greys (oh lordy, this new policy is not great for my blog, is it, LOL)


Boy-Girl Party over black - 2 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour





Lynn's Description: "Boy-Girl Party is a mixture of red, fuschia, pink, blue, turquoise and royal multi-sized hexagons, squares and diamonds in a transparent pink base. This really surprised me since the combination created an unexpected."

Formula: the glitter is quite dense in this baby! I think I might prefer it just 1 coat over black!

Comments: This was one of my top pics from the preview, and let me say, it is even better than I hoped! I wish I was invited to this party! There is so much going on, yet it still looks so good together! It makes me think of BL The Dark Knight on crack (or whatever drug is "hip" with kids nowadays). The glitter in this is so shiny!! I'm sitting here in the middle of the night typing up my thoughts, and it is glistening in residual street-lamp-light. GORGEOUS.


ChocoLotta Love over Zoya Valerie - 3 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour





Lynn's Description: "ChocoLotta Love is a blend of brown multi-sized hexagons and squares, black microglitter, as well as scattered yellow, red, purple, turquoise, lime and emerald "candies" in a sheer chocolate base. Like brownies with M+Ms baked in."

Formula: the glitter is quite dense and the base is quite pigmented. I wish I didn't bother layering this!

Comments: Sorry these are not great swatches; it was getting towards the end of my 6 hour swatch-a-thon and I skipped dinner (worth it. Don't worry, I made buttermilk waffles at midnight), but hopefully I managed to capture some of the complexity. I didn't have anything close to this in base colour. This is so original, I have never seen any polish like it. I'm not completely in love with it (yet!).


Mademoiselle Violette de Bleu over Orly Stone Cold - 3 coats Lynnderella over 2 coats base colour





Lynn's Description: "Mademoiselle Violette de Bleu is a mixture of royal blue, blue violet, navy, holographic royal blue multi-sized hexagons and squares with a touch of purple and iridescent blue hexagons in a sheer blue-violet base. Some people may know this shade as "Throwing Violets into the Ocean"."

Comments: This was impossible for me to photograph. It kept coming out too light and boring looking! The second pic is slightly more accurate, but overall it's much darker and very very glowy IRL. This is the polish I was most looking forward to, and it does not disappoint, though it is not my favourite of the collection.

The bottle pic I took here (without flash) is much more representative of how it looks in real life:


Comparison to Bippity Boppity Boo Blue: Uhhh same story here; already gone from my stash! But let me say, this is what I wanted BBBB to be; BBBB had too much light lavender and blue glitter in it that I didn't love. The glitter also seems to be slightly denser in this one.


Overall

The formula on these were terrific. I'm really impressed with all of them.

The square bottles are also super awesome. I like them way more than the round ones (from a couple sales ago). The brushes are also a lot better (I had a couple wonky ones from my 8-bottle order of round bottled ones). These look so awesome lined up!!

I am so glad I bought the whole set because the bottle shots really do not do these polishes justice. There is secret shimmer or glitter in almost all of them that you can't see from the bottle. I was blown away by each one as I swatched it, because it felt like I was learning an intimate secret :D

My Top 3 picks: Love, Lace and Lilacs, Nosegay, and Boy-Girl Party


My Thoughts on Lynnderella Polishes

Let me say, I used to think glitter polishes were juvenile and tacky. Then I tried OPI Absolutely Alice. GORGEOUS. I modified my opinion to think that chunky glitters were juvenile and tacky. Then I tried DL AtU. When Lynn first started offering her polishes for sale, I thought they were "just" glitter frankens. Yet I got swept up with the NB frenzy and ordered some to try out.

I was so wrong about them. These are more than your average glitter polish from the big brands (from low-end like WnW glitters to high-end glitters like Deborah Lippmann). There is so much going on in each one of Lynn's creation, it really boggles my mind. I'm not a creative person by nature, so I'm just continually amazed at these combinations of glitter, shimmer, and pigment. How does she come up with these? (Also the names are just to adorable. I cannot resist.)

These may seem pricey (esp. if you haul a whole bunch like I did!!) but at ~$15 a pop, I think they are worth it (of course, for the colours that you love). They are easy to swap, so if you are able to get them (and afford them), I think it's definitely worth trying for yourself. It's so hard to convey how intricate these polishes are in just pictures and words.

The most I have spent on nail polish is probably $15 (DL using a coupon or promo code). Illamasqua is one of my favourite brands and is $14 at Sephora, but I think Lynns are way more interesting. Also, I don't think Revlon is going to be duping Lynn's polish, so use that money you save on DL and spend it on Lynnderella XD!!

It's really hard to believe that basically one year ago, I was not a fan of glitter polishes. I am so glad I came around!! :D I don't know if I came to my senses or have been brainwashed by Nail Board (TOTALLY POSSIBLE), but I am so happy with my glittery digits :)

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Phew! This is the longest post EVER. I couldn't sleep in the middle of the night and woke up to write this. After a 6 hour swatch-a-thon and this moonlight-writing, I don't know if my weekend will be very productive XD So... what do you think?