Halloween 2015 Collection: The Vagantem Damnatorum Release

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages welcome to The Vagantem Damnatorum! 

Inside you will be enlightened by Madame Alina the Fortune Teller, hypnotized by Magnus the Magician, terrified by Levi the Reptile Boy, enticed by Serafina the Firebreather, and delighted by Stitches the Clown. A chosen few will even meet the Ringmaster himself! Can you face the temptations and horrors within?

Beware and take care while inside the carnival because not all is what it seems. If you find yourself wandering too long and forgetting the world you left behind, you have been chosen by the Ringmaster to become a pawn in his game. Will you face your fears and receive your prize at the end or will you succumb to wickedness and fall? Brace yourself and come inside.

Lemming Lacquer Launch!

Helloooooo and Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in your various forms and circumstances!

I know I haven't posted in a long time but that is because I had to get everything set up for the launch of my brand, Lemming Lacquer.

Our first collection, Curiosities From Wonderland, is based on Alice in Wonderland and the various books, movies, video games, and other media inspired by Lewis Carroll's characters and fantastical world. The collection of polishes, 7 in total, includes one glitter top coat, three crelly/jelly glitters, one thermal crelly/jelly glitter and two holographic polishes. Our polishes are all 5-free and are a true 15ml/.5 oz full size.

Curiouser and Curiouser! is a delicate pale sky blue holographic with gold shimmer that captures Alice’s iconic dress, naivety, and her well known blonde locks.  Modest, sincere, and girly this polish personifies the innocent female protagonist we all know and love.

Her Imperial Viciousness is a jewel-toned red with different sized copper, red, and black glitters, color shifting iridescent glitters and a generous helping of black heart glitters. It is inspired by the character Redd Heart in The Looking Glass Warsseries by Frank Beddor.

Ravens and Writing Desks has a teal-leaning green colored base with different sized holographic gold, lime green, and turquoise glitters and black hex glitters. Inspired by a combination of Hatter Madigan of The Looking Glass Wars series and the 1951 Disney Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter.

Eat Me is packed with small and medium sized matte glitters in all the colors of rainbow sprinkles. “Eat Me” is written on the cakes Alice eats to grow large after tumbling down the rabbit hole to Wonderland.  This polish is inspired by the colorful baked treats in Alice in Wonderland and multi-colored sprinkles.

Drink Me is a lush purple jelly nail polish with small holographic hexes and medium and large holographic circle glitters.  Inspired by the suspended “Drink Me” bottle and the subsequent purple bubbles Alice hiccups in shrink mode in the video game Alice: Madness Returns.  Alice uses shrink vision to view hidden pathways and clues on upcoming enemies, puzzles, and invisible platforms.

I'm Not All There Myself is a velvet purple to vibrant pink color changing jelly polish with various sized round and hex fuchsia glitters and purple hex glitter.  The jelly finish allows the lower layers of glitter to show through to offer a multidimensional look as complex as the mischievous feline it's named for.

Whooo R U? is a smoky, duochrome gray holographic polish with pinkish purple hazy overtones and bright blue sparks of shimmer. This polish embodies the Caterpillar’s languid smugness and captures the image of him taking long, cloudy drags off his hookah.

Check out a few reviews to see what bloggers had to say about our polish!

Cosmetic Sanctuary - Curiosities From Wonderland collection

Iced Lacquer - Ravens & Writing Desks

Ana's Manis - Drink Me and Ravens & Writing Desks

Manicured and Marvelous - Curiosities From Wonderland collection

Polished and Caffeinated - Curiosities From Wonderland collection

St. Patrick's Day Manicure with Lemming Lacquer

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm really excited about the mani I'm going to share with you today but first I wanted to give a little update. I missed the past couple weeks of posting because I broke my ankle!  The whole thing was a huge mess, not because of the actual injury but due to the hospital's increasingly insane recommendations--one of which was sending me to a rehabilitation center in Iowa City or Peoria, each more than 1 hour away. Yeah, total insanity. I've been having a really rough go of it gimping around and doing even the most simple of tasks plus the pain meds like to make me dizzy and knock me out so going outside (my preferred swatching method) just hasn't been in the cards. I was ordered to take it easy and keep it elevated so I've been stuck in bed for the past few weeks. I've gradually been able to be more active and that includes getting these swatches in time for St. Patrick's Day.

Read and see more after the jump!

Elevation Polish Pic de Sotllo and Doctor Who Cybermen Manicure

Hello, hello!

I've had this mani in mind for a long while and while I couldn't use all the components in my head I like the way it turned out.

For my base I used Elevation Polish's Pic de Sotllo, a gorgeously vivid deep blue similar to Revlon Royal. I actually own several polishes in this category of blue: Revlon Royal, Sally Hansen X-treme Wear Pacific Blue, Pure Ice First Kiss, Sinful Colors Endless Blue and who knows how many more are lurking in my melmer drawers!  Elevation's the only indie brand of this blue I have and the only one I use consistently. Pic de Sotllo has an opaque jelly finish. I wouldn't call it a crelly because I feel like a crelly has a weightier base that happens to be sheer.  My bottle is full on delicious, juicy jelly but can be built up to opacity in about 3 thin coats.  In my manicure I'm using 3-4 really thin coats to deepen the color. The formula was really easy to work with, self- leveling and non-patchy which can be a problem with some jelly polishes.  Pic de Sotllo is probably my favorite Elevation Polish!

CrowsToes Tiki Torch Swatches and Review

Hi everyone!

Today I have CrowsToes Tiki Torch from the Mad, Crazy Summer Collection for you!  I’ve loved CrowsToes from when I first saw Cheshire.   and I was so excited to see the exciting new finishes (for CrowsToes) included in this collection—duochromes and holos!  Tiki Torch has glitter but it’s still different than the usual CrowsToes fare due to the squishy, berry jam jelly base!

Unfortunately I can’t decide what color the glitters are in Tiki Torch.  I see red and copper glitter with holographic glitter of some shade mixed in.  Some bloggers describe gold glitter instead of copper though it could even be orange.  The glitters are all small, that we can be sure of and the overall look is definitely the “fiery sparkle” described in the listing on Llarowe’s shop.  Someone on Facebook said Tiki Torch was like jelly for fairies and I have to agree!

While I love the look of this polish shown here is 5-6 thin coats :(  And in the sun pictures my ring finger still looks like it could do with a coat or two more!  I’m officially on a hunt for an opaque similar color to use as a base to conserve Tiki Torch because my bottle was a little under-filled when I received it.  So overall Tiki Torch is a bit disappointing for me but that sparkle is hard to resist.  Just look at this bottle shot!

I probably just got an off bottle and I’ve bought tons of CrowsToes polishes before without lots of problems so I know it’s still a good brand :)

Tiki Torch and the rest of the Mad, Crazy Summer Collection is available at Llarowe.