Swatch and Review: Philly Loves Lacquer

Yay! The weekend has arrived!

To kick off the weekend, I'm bringing you three awesome polishes sent to me by the indie brand, Philly Loves Lacquer!

Philly Loves Lacquer is a one-woman business venture, owned by a nail polish addict named Esther. All polishes are 3-free and cruelty free nail polish, handmade and hand-blended in the City of Brotherly Love.

Because Esther is a big supporter of cruelty-free cosmetics, one dollar of each full size (and $.50 of each mini) bottle of PhLL polish sold will be donated to a local non-profit organization called Forgotten Cats. Forgotten Cats helps to provide homes for adoptable cats and kittens in the PA/NJ/DE areas, as well as finding foster parents for feral cat colonies.

Now through 5/18 at 11:59PM EST, Esther is celebrating her birthday with a 27% off all purchases of $15 or more with code HOLYCRAPIM27! Yes, you read that right. Esther is also running a giveaway through the end of the month on Facebook!

First up is Mummer's Parade, a magenta jelly base with dark pink diamond, purple and blue hex, orange bar, and fine pink, orange, and purple glitters.

The above is with two coats over OPI I Theodora You.

Here is two coats of Mummer's Parade over Orly Miss Conduct.

The application on this shade was stellar. I didn't have any problem getting the different shapes out, like I've had with other brands. And it REALLY popped well over the pink holo that is Miss Conduct!

The next shade is South Street, made of fine turquoise and lavender glitters. Above is one coat over Bootie Babe Nudie Tudie.

Here is two coats over Bootie Babe Nudie Tudie.

And here is one coat over Dermelect Buzz-worthy.

The glitter in this one applied very evenly, which is a major upside. It also dried very quickly and built up nicely, as you can see between the first and second coat over Nudie Tudie.

The big surprise for me was how awesome this looked over Buzz-worthy... perfect for summer!

Last, but far from lease, is The Devon, a black jelly base with ultrafine lavender glitter, green hex, pink diamonds and squares, blue hex and lavender holo circle glitters. It has some super bright glitters in a dark, vampy base, which is a great combo.

I applied two coats of The Devon over Bootie Babe Crack a Toe Uh, a red glitter. I love this blackened blood look.

Here is two coats of The Devon over Borghese Stellar Notte. I was hoping that the duochrome nature of Stellar Notte would shine through, but it didn't. Still, the effect of The Devon over black is amazing. The glitter pops SO well!

The application of this shade was pretty good. I found that I had a little difficulty getting some of the larger shapes of glitter out, but letting the bottle sit upside down for a minute or two made all the difference. I didn't have a problem after that.

Overall, I LOVED these three shades. I think The Devon is my absolute favorite of the trio, but the others were really nice too. I didn't have any gloopiness issues, which is a big upside.

Philly Loves Lacquer is available through Etsy for $10 per 15mL bottle. Remember, Esther is holding a 27% off sale on purchase of $15+ (minimum of 1 full size and a mini to get to that $15 price point)! Be sure to check out the PLL Facebook page, as well!

Are you in love with these glitters as I am?

Disclaimer: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company for consideration. For more information please visit my Disclaimer page.

Easter Mani Day 2: Polka Dots + A Contest

Here is Part 2 of my Easter nails for the week. I'm trying to do a different color as a base each day. Yesterday was blue and today is green!

I apologize in advance for the photo not being of the same quality you're used to in recent months. My parents took my sister on Spring Break to DC (lucky her, mine was last month) and that means my dad's fancy DSLR camera went with him. Unfortunately, my purple and pink manis are still on the camera. Oops!

So here is the last one I did, using Revlon Minted:

 

It was actually much easier to do than the Gradient Dots. I did a first layer of different-sized dots in white. Then I used Revlon Sunshine Sparkle, Borghese Incantato Purple, Borghese Romanzo Pink, and a mixture of half Sally Hansen White On and half NYC Water Street Blue in slightly smaller dots over each white one for the outlined effect. It really didn't even take that long at all!

Hope you liked this one! And remember to email me your pictures of your Easter manicure before Friday at 8pm EST! Top 5 will be posted on Saturday and win prizes!

Princess Polish

EPIC HAUL: Borghese Fantasioso (Rapido) Collection

I was picking up Halloween decorations at a local, independent dollar store near my house and out of the corner of my eye, spotted a supermarket basket next to a nail polish display. Through the slats, I noticed these familiar swirly tops that could only mean one thing...

BORGHESE!!!!

Borghese polishes retail for upwards of $8 at various drug stores, but for $1? I bought one of every color! As it turned out, these were their quick-dry polishes from the Spring 2011 collection.



First up is Capriccio Blue which looks a lot like Revlon Blue Lagoon without the sparkle. I only wish it had a little better application.



Next is Romanzo Pink, a bubblegum pink. This is the shade that pops into my mind when I think of Barbie pink. Again, same streak issue.



Cantanto Purple was a lovely dark lilac color that I adore. I apologize for the blurry nature of the picture, I did not realize my Macro wasn't on during this shot. But it's a beautiful color and was probably the least streaky of the collection.



Felice Tangerine was a great shade in the bottle and would have been awesome if it wasn't so streaky. Yet again. Unfortunately, while this shade would have been one of a few oranges to actually work with my skin tone, it looked terribly clumpy on my nails.



Fantastico Lime was, by far, the worst application of the collection. And it really was a shame for such a promising color.



Last is Castello Blue, a deep sky blue. I LOVED this color, but the application is pretty streaky. I think that this is mainly because of the quick-dry formula, as it was a common theme throughout this collection.

Overall, I was disappointed in the application of the color. If you pick up any colors, I would go with Cantanto Purple hands down. It is the easiest to work with and I think the color I would wear more than once.