Recent Fair Maiden Polish Purchases

Good morning everyone! Today I've got a round up of recent Fair Maiden Polish purchases I have made! Finally got a chance to play with my new pretties this weekend and boy am I glad I did.

Now this is a mix of polishes, two from their Swords & Lace: A Renaissance Fantasy fall collection, one is a Limited Edition from the Color 4 Nails website and the final one is a new addition to their original Be Your Own Heroine Collection. 

First up we have the super lovely Fair Maiden Polish Pirate Queen. Pirate Queen is a gorgeous purple leaning magenta with a strong linear holo with a violet flash. This is vampy while still being bright and applied perfectly in two coats. 

Next we have Fair Maiden Polish High Priestess. High Priestess is a strawberry red polish packed with pink, orange and gold shimmer which gives it a lovely warm glow. This also applied perfectly in two coats. This was the first polish I was drawn to in the Swords & Lace collection, it is totally unique to my collection and is just so beautiful. 

This third polish is a limited edition from the Color 4 Nails website which now carries Fair Maiden Polishes! This is Fair Maiden Tauplexed, which is no longer available on its own so I've linked to the special Color 4 Nails duo. Tauplexed is a lovey purple leaning taupe holo that has a beautiful golden glow. I think my photo captures the beauty of this polish but I do want to say in person this polish is so beautiful! Another perfect application in two coats. 

Finally we have the newest addition to the Fair Maiden Polish family is Colors of the Wind. Colors of the Wind was one of three polishes the ladies of Fair Maiden Polish added to their original collection in honor of their first anniversary. Colors of the Wind, in honor of Pocahontas, is a medium dusty blue holo polish with golden flakies that slightly shift green which gives it a golden glow in direct light and provide some extra depth to the polish in indirect light. Once again, same great formula I've come to know from Fair Maiden, opaque in two coats. 

These flakies are a new foray for Fair Maiden and I think they are utilizing them in a unique was I haven't seen before! Can't wait to see what they hold in store for the future. Have you picked up any new Fair Maidens lately? Which colors have you been rocking?

Indigo Bananas Gravity Falls Collection Pt. 2

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had fantastic weekends. I had a pretty good one, spent a loooong time yesterday swatching like crazy for the blog!

*Press Samples*

A few weeks ago I reviewed with you all the first three polishes from the Indigo Bananas Gravity Falls Collection and today I have the other three in the collection for you! To recap, Gravity Falls is an animated Disney show that chronicles the adventures of twin siblings Mabel and Dipper in the mysterious town of Gravity Falls, Oregon. I've never watched it but it sound super cute! Surprisingly, even though this is a crelly, only took two coats for opacity.

This collection is out and available now in full (15 ml for $12) and small (8 ml for $7.25) sizes, a super big plus in my book! So let's get to it shall we?!









First up we have Indigo Bananas Carpet Diem, a super gorgeous beige crelly polish that pack a punch in the character and dimension department! This is a nude polish that leans slightly yellow on my skin tone, but could be the ultimate mannequin hands for others! The nude creme-jelly base is packed with gold, copper, pale green and violet crystal (almost iridescent) flakies and small holographic microglitter. Love this polish, it is a beauty both in indirect lighting and in direct sun!









Next up we have the lovely Indigo Bananas Little Big Dipper, a lovely dark blue holo with matching blue microglitter creating the ultimate bling and shine. This is the ultimate shade of denim in my opinion, which is the ultimate shade of blue because it matches my wardrobe all the time (I reeeeealllly like to wear jeans). I applied three coats (applies like buttah) for this opacity, but most could get away with two.









Finally we have Indigo Bananas Holy Matrignomey. This is very similar to Little Big Dipper above, but a silver holographic polish with matching microglitter.  Same application as LBD, three coats for this opacity and glides on smooth like buttah. All swatches in this post are shown with top coat. I love how glam this polish is. I'm looking forward to pairing it with black and wearing out for a night out on the town this holiday season! Screams disco ball to me for some reason!

So which of these is your favorite? Hard for me to choose among all of these, I can see wearing them all for different occasions!

You can look for Indigo Bananas news on their Facebook page and Instagram account, and if you are an Indigo Bananas lover, you should totally join us in the We're Bananas for Indigo Bananas Facebook fan group, the more the merrier!

40 Great Nail Art Ideas – Black and White

Happy Friday everyone, time for another great edition of Crumpet's Nail Tarts presents 40 Great Nail Art Ideas! Today's prompt was Black and White and my specific prompt to do for this one was gradient.



Well my inspiration for this mani came a few days ago when I saw Paulina's Passions Geometric Nails, I knew I needed to replicate it, and since gradient was my prompt for this week I figured it would be a good time to do try and do so!



To start this look I knew I wanted a base of a super vibrant holo to offset the neutral black and white so I broke out Cupcake Polish Berry Good Looking. Berry Good Looking is a vibrant royal purple holo polish with a gorgeous blue flash. This polish is almost a one coater, which is why I thought it would make a great base for this look.



For the accent nails I used chevron nail vinyls to create cute simple chevrons that tie in the black and white perfectly.





Now for the gradient nails, I used straight nail vinyls to create a similar design that Paulina inspired! My guess is she used nail tape, which I've never used before. After doing this checkered look, I put a stripe of KBShimmer Eyes White Open and B Polished Midnight in Death Valley and moved in an up and down motion to create the gradient look. Both Eyes White Open and Midnight in Death Valley are my go to one coaters that are perfect for nail stamping and a ton of different nail art looks.





I'll be wearing this look at least through Sunday and I have to say today it brought me much joy as I slugged through a rather busy work week! It was cloudy for a decent portion of the day, but I did manage to snap a sun shot during a sunny moment while running an errand on my lunch break.

So what do you think of my look?! I am in absolute love with it. I stayed up waaaaaay too late on Wednesday night working on them, but I do love the final result so much!

Don't forget to check out the rest of Crumpet's Nail Tart's Black and White nails in the inlinkz below. Word on the street is a lot of ladies really loved their manis in this prompt.


   

    An InLinkz Link-up
   

Emily de Molly Review

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you had great weekends, I had one that was filled with a whole lot of nothing and boy did I really need that. Unfortunately I spent the better part of yesterday suffering from a migraine (which kept me from playing with polish), but it didn't stop me from being able to prepare this fun post for you guys.



I recently found out that Emily de Molly, an Australian-based indie brand, now has a US retail website – which makes purchasing from her so much easier! So yay for being able to get my hands on some of these amazing beauties!









First up we have one of my most favorite wine-colored vamps of the season. This is Garnet Fire and it isn't just a vampy holo it also has amazing orange flakies which create an orange glow, which I've never seen before in a wine colored polish. This is like a clash of my two favorite color families coming together in this perfect polish for fall! Application was a breeze, opaque in two thin coats. I wore this for an entire weekend and I couldn't stop staring at my nails, they were so pretty!









Second up is Ariel's Realm. This is a gorgeous teal jelly polish packed with cooler toned multichrome flakies and tiny red microglitters. The jelly/falkis combo gives this polish such depth. I found application was best in three thin coats, as the jelly base does make this a sheerer polish.









Next up we have we have The Rapture, which is similar to Ariel's Realm being that it is another jelly/flakie combo. The Rapture is a purple jelly with cooler toned multichrome flakies and similar microglitter pieces (blue and green I think) floating throughout. Application took three coats for opacity.









The final polish I have to share with you is Terra Firma. This is described as a brown to green duochrome holo, but I found the shift to be very subtle. Either way, I find this to be mostly green, olive leaning a bit, but perfect for the fall season. This was an amazing formula, opaque in two coats. I wore this one for about half a week too, toped with ILNP Glory another favorite of mine this season – I took a couple of shots of that look for you below. I also did themed stamping over it, because I wore it for the weekend I went to Apple Hill to do apple and pumpkin picking!



So what do you think?! Have you tried Emily de Molly before? Which are your favorites? I have to say Garnet Fire and Terra Firma are true standouts for me here, and Garnet Fire might make my list of top polishes for the year!