Category: Nails
Polish Pickup Overstock – February 2024
Ooohh….I cannot pass up a second chance to snag polishes I may have missed!
Every so often, Polish Pickup has an overstock sale – leftovers from previous months, stuff like that. All the polishes were $12 and wax melts were $4, so I decided to grab a few.
I’m going to skip to my most traumatizing choice – Vapid Wax “Szechuan Fire”. Holy fucking shitballs, this wax set my brain on fire – and not in a good way. As soon as I put it into the wax warmer in my bathroom, I started to feel physically ill. I don’t know if it was the ginger or the szechuan, but my whole body, mind, and soul were repelled by this scent. I scraped it out of my wax warmer and threw the rest of the pack away. My husband said it wasn’t bad, but we all know that husbands cannot be trusted. This scent was from January 2022 – Spices & Condiments.
I also got Vapid Wax “Hatteras”. This was a rainy, wet scent with lots of petrichor. I like this one a lot – it’s in my bathroom as we speak. “Hatteras” is from May 2022 – National Parks & Landmarks.
Tonshi Mountain Studios “Orange Harvest” is a basic orange with hints of spice. It’s a nice orange scent, without that fake orange smell. I couldn’t find online which month this wax came from.
MTK Designs “Seaing Unicorns” was one I remember passing up in November’s Fairy Tales and Folklore. It’s inspired by the scene in The Last Unicorn, when the unicorns are freed from the scene. I cannot wait to try it.
By Dany Vianna “Nana Nenem” is inspired by the Netflix show, Invisible City. I’ve never heard of it, but I’m intrigued. This one is also from November and it’s a thermal!
Four out of five winners isn’t bad…which polish should I try first?
Toxic Pink
Gracefull Nail Polish “Toxic Pink” is from January’s Polish Pickup – Deadly Plants. It’s inspired by a particularly beautiful type of oleander called ‘Monrovia Red’. Since I live in Texas, there’s lots of oleander along the freeways. A single leaf is enough to kill a man…Texas says, let’s put it along all the highways!
This is two coats of “Toxic Pink” over Cuticula Mic Drop Base Coat in “Melt Down” and under Cuticula Limitless Top Coat in “Raspberry Pop”.
It strikes me that “Toxic Pink” is quite similar to Lilypad Lacquer “Licorice Allsorts”. Am I doomed to purchase the same polishes, over and over again?
Mandragora
Although I am no longer in my Harry Potter era, I can appreciate a pretty polish when I see one. It seems gold, but has beautiful green and fuchsia shimmer.
Moonshine Mani “Mandragora” is from January’s Polish Pickup and is inspired by the Herbology Class scene in the first Harry Potter film. I did not know until I googled it, that Mandrake is hallucinogenic? I mean…I’m too old to start experimenting with strange plants, but interesting nonetheless. <Furiously googling how to import Mandrake from Asia…>
This is two coats of “Mandragora” over Cuticula Mic Drop Base Coat in “Melt Down” and under Cuticula Limitless Top Coat in “Raspberry Pop”.
Polish Pickup January 2024 – Deadly Plants
They keep getting my with these killer themes! The first Pickup of 2024 had an amazing theme – Deadly Plants.
From left to right:
Ard as Nails “Poison Ivy” ($13.50) is inspired by…duh…poison ivy. I personally don’t have any experience with poison ivy, but my husband is VERY allergic. He gets into every few years or so…that’s country living, I guess.
Moonshine Mani “Mandragora” ($13.00) is inspired by the Mandrake scene in the first Harry Potter movie.
Red Eyed Lacquer “Dead Inside” ($12.50) is inspired by the corpse flower. I hope the polish isn’t that stinky.
Gracefull Nail Polish “Toxic Pink” ($12.75) is inspired by the plant Nerium oleander ‘Monrovia Red.’
Envy Lacquer “Poison Garden” ($13.00) is inspired by, well, The Poison Garden in London.
I’ve already tried a few of these and they are OUSTANDING.
Regents Place
In any case, Nails Inc. Gel Effect “Regents Place” was a freebie from a a few summers ago, and I just got around to sampling this shiny periwinkle polish. It wasn’t streaky and it was quite striking.
When I googled Regents Place, I was expecting something traditionally British and quaint…y’all…it’s a fucking high rise, mixed use development – a fucking skyscraper mall.
This is two coats of “Regents Place” over Glisten & Glow Ridge Filling Base Coat and under Glisten & Glow Top Coat.
We’re All Born Naked, the Rest is Drag
I went through a Drag Race phase several years ago, so I couldn’t pass up Paradox Polish “We’re All Born Naked, the Rest is Drag” from December’s Maker’s Choice. This is the last polish from December – I did it!
Even though I’m not crazy into Drag Race like I used to be, I’m still glad I picked this one up – it’s one of the BEST thermal polishes I’ve ever tried! It doesn’t stop working after a day or so and the color change is so dramatic. My daughter is also OBSESSED with thermal polishes now, so I guess that’s what I’ll be grabbing from the Pickups now.
This is two coats of “We’re All Born Naked, the Rest is Drag” over Cuticula Mic Drop Base Coat in “Melt Down” and under Cuticula Limitless Top Coat in “Raspberry Pop”. I cannot remember if I used Glitter Grabber, but I don’t think I did.
No Ordinary Rose
Beaux Rêves Lacquer “No Ordinary Rose” is inspired by The Little Prince. I feel like I’ve read it, but I cannot remember a damn thing about it except for what I’ve read on Wikipedia. This beauty is from December’s Polish Pickup.
This is two coats of “No Ordinary Rose” over Cuticula Mic Drop Base Coat in “Melt Down” and under Cuticula Limitless Top Coat in “Raspberry Pop”. I am really liking Cuticula’s base and top coats – my manicures are lasting 6, 7, even 8 days now!
Glass Jellyfish
Lumen Lacquer “Glass Jellyfish” is the perfect neutral. In low light, it looks like a simple, sheer pink or lavender…HOWEVER…when the light hits it, there is a brilliant shine, with a hint of the blue that is so prominent in the bottle. The best part? It’s so sheer that you cannot see chips. I wore it over a week!
I LOVE this polish. This is the second polish I’ve sampled from December’s Polish Pickup.
This is two coats of “Glass Jellyfish” over Cuticula Mic Drop Base Coat in “Melt Down” and under Cuticula Limitless Top Coat in “Raspberry Pop”.
Shape-shifting in the Moor
Here’s to assuming that Psyche Minerals is referring to shape-shifting in a bog and NOT shape-shifting inside of a Andalusian Muslim. (Am I logophile? Or a Witzelsucht…I’ll let you google and decide.)
Psyche Minerals “Shape-shifting in the Moor” is from November’s Polish Pickup. I was so excited to try “Redrum” that I had to circle back to finish up November. Oops.
“Shapeshifting in the Moor” is inspired by the púca, a shape-shifting troublemaker from Irish folklore. The most famous representation is Puck in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream.
This is two coats of “Shape-shifting in the Moor” over Cuticula Mic Drop Base Coat in “Melt Down” and under Cuticula Limitless Top Coat in “Raspberry Pop”. I was surprised to find a bit of texture in the shifting polish – I guess that’s the silver glitter? Next time I might add some Glitter Grabber.
Atomic Redrum
I’m baaaaaack…did you miss me?
I was in Arlington last week for a work thingie and then a Girly Getaway in Waco this weekend…and BAM – today hit me like a ton of bricks. Back into the office today, cold as fuck…and then Grad School started again. Thank FUCK this is my last semester. But you’re not here to read about my foul mood or all the bad decisions I’ve made that led me to this point…you just want to hear about the REDDEST and MOST BADDASS red nail polish I’ve ever seen.
That MOST BADASS red nail polish is Atomic Polish “Redrum”. I have so many red nail polishes that it’s gonna take a lot to make me purchase another one. “Redrum” has a lot of…whatever it is that makes me want to buy nail polish. On paper, it sounds boring…a red shimmer polish, that shifts to orange in the light. It’s just so intense!
This is two coats of “Redrum” over Cuticula Mic Drop Base Coat in “Melt Down” and under Cuticula Limitless Top Coat in “Raspberry Pop”. Oh, and it’s inspired by that creepy little kid in The Shining.
Oh, and it matches LaLa’s SUV – it’s the EXACT color…I wish I had remembered to take a picture when I was there.