Sweet & Treats collection available now!

For real swatches, I steal (lovingly and with permission) photos my talented friends have taken of my polishes.

First up we have Pygmy Puff - complete with a little flocking powder Arnold! - courtesy of Jacki from Adventures in Acetone.

Here is Ashley from Ashley Is Polish Addicted showcasing the violet flakies in Sugar Spun Quills.

Cas from The Mani-Logues used Sugar Spun Quills in a stamped mani.

She also posted this awesome shot of Acid Pops in her review on her blog.

Lastly, Sheila from Pointless Cafe captured the flakies in Fizzing Whizbees (and our others) beautifully in her review!

If you're a Harry Potter fan, you'll recognize that the series has inspired a Paint Box Polish collection again! I thought Honeydukes' candy shop and Weasley's Wizard Wheezes joke shop were perfect to draw on for a brightly colored summer collection.

I hope you're a fan! You can find these and all of my other products available here. Paint Box Polish now has cuticle oil and glass nail files as well as polish. Gift sets in a pretty gift bag are also available.

Don't forget you can also stop by the Paint Box Polish booth at the INDIEana Handicraft Exchange show in Indianpolis on June 14th. I think I've bribed my sister-in-law to be my minion in exchange for polish and beer. :) We're nice people and would love to say hello!

Coming Soon - Paint Box Polish Sweets & Treats Collection!

Summer is almost here and so are some bright, new colors! I drew inspiration from all things summer. Flowers, sun, fun, and candy! Here are some quick shots of the new colors. I'll highlight more swatch photos from bloggers after I send out blogger packs and posts start appearing!

The colors in this set are L-R: Acid Pops, Pygmy Puff, Fizzing Whizbees, and Sugar Spun Quills. Yes, fellow Potter nuts. The Harry Potter theme continues! 

Acid Pops is a bright, apple green with green flakies and green/blue shimmer. Pygmy Puff is a matte coral shimmer with gold flakies. Fizzing Whizbees is an orange crelly with tiny rainbow flakies, and Sugar Spun Quills is a deep, berry pink with violet flakies. I. Love. Them. All!

I also have gift sets available now in my Big Cartel store. Your choice of any currently in stock polish, any cuticle oil, and either a cobalt blue or royal purple mini glass nail file for $15. The set comes in a pretty bag, and it is ready for giving.

The Sweets & Treats collection will be available mid-June and gift sets are available now at www.paintboxpolish.bigcartel.com.

Scofflaw Nail Varnish David Bowie's Bulge

Today I have my latest purchase from the awesome Scofflaw Nail Varnish... David Bowie's Bulge. Ha ha ha!! The color is inspired by David Bowie's Aladdin Sane album. The name? Have you seen Labyrinth? If so, you know what I'm talking about.

The base is a squishy-yet-opaque coral (not quite as bright as it appears here) filled with different sized teal glitter and smaller red and bronze glitters. There is also a smattering of holographic shimmer.

This is a lovely polish that applies like butter and needed no fishing to get that awesome glitter coverage. Wear time was great, and it is a classic color kicked up a bit by the glitter. I see myself reaching for this one often! 

Zoya Destiny

Destiny is the other Zoya Summer PixieDust polish I picked up. The bottle shots looked great, but man oh man! I saw swatches and I knew it had to be mine! 

This mani is the blingiest one I've worn in ages. I swear if the sun hit it right, you could see the sparkle across a parking lot. I've got two coats of matte coral and gold glitter summer on my nails here. Love it!

China Glaze Mani's Before Mimosa's

This is the second polish I picked up from China Glaze's Avant Garden collection. The swatch photos I saw online looked absolutely beautiful. However, this is an excellent example of why I need to read more closely. 

Why? Because the formula on this one was all kinds of awful. Thick, but runny, streaky, and not self-leveling at all. There are three coats to this mani, and it was still a bit of a struggle to get even. Luckily the color is an awesome light coral/peach with gold shimmer. Makes the application hurt less. :)

I cannot conclude without addressing those silly apostrophes. Or shall I say apostrophe's? Ugh. Did your naming people quit school before learning about apostrophes? Does anyone know if this is a reference to something that I'm unaware of? It drives me absolutely crazy. If I were an English teacher, kids would hate me.

China Glaze Summer Neons Swatches

I love having friends in high polish places (Hi, Christy!). I saw swatches of these polishes and made her promise to tell me when these came in. I had seen neons popping up all over blogs and stores, but none really caught my eye. I actually debated buying a bottle I wasn't crazy about because I knew neons were the in thing this summer. I'm glad I didn't because I genuinely love the five I got from this collection (six, actually, but I gifted one to my niece). I like that they aren't just cremes, but have a beautiful shimmer to keep them interesting.

The first polish I tried was Surfin' for Boys. It is a super bright orange-y red with a very fine silver-pink micro shimmer that brightens it up another notch. 

Picture is fairly color accurate to the polish

My second polish was Sun-Kissed. This color is straight up highlighter yellow. There is a smattering of silver microglitter to make it extra interesting.

Color accurate photo. And a chip. :(

After that, seeing them all lined up on my bookshelf was just too much. I had to do a skittles mani. They go together so well! I was going to remove it before work this morning because I thought it may have pushed the nurse practitioner envelope a bit, even if my day is full of kids and women. Luckily, my boss loved it!

Skittles Mani, thumb-pinky: Splish Splash, Surfin' for Boys, Flirty Tankini, Orange You Hot?, and Sun-Kissed

Splish Splash is a very vibrant blue with Silver micro shimmer, Flirty Tankini is a pink-y coral with silver/pink micro glitter, and Orange You Hot? is a shimmery highlighter orange.

Skittles mani with my fav bright pj pants in the background. :)

Formula wise, some of these are bears. I used 3 coats of Splish Splash, Orange You Hot? and Sun-kissed. just two coats were needed for Surfin' for Boys and Flirty Tankini. All polishes were rather thick and tended to run down the stem of the brush after you had already wiped it and begun polishing. I do think they are worth it, though. I may add a few drops of lacquer thinner and see how that goes.

What do you think? Are you picking up any of these?

Essie Too Too Hot

This polish is from last summer's Brazilliant collection, but seems to be a dupe of Olé Caliente - which is from this spring's Essie collection. I've seen some argue that they are just close, not dupes. See what you think. I find it very buggy when a company releases polishes that are so similar this close together. These two came out less then a year apart. But, moving on... I felt like something bright and cheerful. Too Too Hot's red/coral/orange/pink-ness really fit the bill.

Essie's brush is very skinny and long, but it spreads very nicely. I never have to do very much clean up with them, which is always a plus.

I used two coats and got decent coverage, but there was definitely VNL. I've come to learn that I'd rather have some VNL than use a third coat in most cases.

OPI Muppets Animal-istic

This is my second (and last) Muppets polish. The photo below is a little bit dark, but I think it shows the glow of this polish very well. It is a pinkish, coral-y red this is full of shiny, glass-fleck particles. It is so bright! This polish reminds me of $OPI Express Yourself to Yourself (from the Glee collection), but with more red.

Application was wonderful. Excellent coverage with 2 thin coats. I had a hard time keeping the polish off of my skin at the sides of my nail. I usually do okay with OPI's ProWide brush, so maybe I landed a wonky one.

I just couldn't pass up this polish as it reminds me of my father in law. One of his many nicknames is Animal. As in Muppets Animal. He has an Animal patch sewn on his badass Harley-Davidson leather vest. He is a pretty badass guy himself. :)

$OPI Glee collection - Gleek Out & Express Yourself to Yourself

Hello guys! I haven't disappeared, but have been blessed with excellent wearing polish and the restraint to avoid buying new polishes. Miss Bossy Pants wears like a champ, as does Gleek Out. 

Gleek Out is a light green and gold microglitter/foil polish. I wasn't able to capture it, but this looks like a cool tones gold at some angles. It dries quickly and is very smooth, but I still threw a coat of Poshe on, because that's how I roll. I used 3 coats, and while there is still quite a bit of VNL, the shininess detracts from it. Application was a challenge, but I think that's just because of the crappy brush that comes with the mini sets. 

 Please do not embiggen this pic. My cuticles are in horrid shape!

I have Express Yourself to Yourself (cue big eyeroll at the name) on my toes. I know some people (looking at you, bestie!) are really squicked out by toes, so I'll put in a jump. Click if you want to see it. :) This one was very hard to photograph. it's much, much brighter in real life. In my opinion, a true coral. Very bright and summery.

And, pics of my piggies after the jump!

Essie Too Too Hot - Braziliant Collection

I went to Walgreen's on my lunch break yesterday and was greeted by a display full of the Essie Summer 2011 collection. There are some beauties, for sure, but I only got one as I'm trying to be a little less spendy when it comes to polishes. I've never been one for really bright polishes, but Too Too Hot practically did a swan dive off of the shelf into my hand.

Gleaming and shiny in the sun!

In a sunny window indoors

I love this polish so much! It's a bright, cheery coral that demands attention. It was pretty opaque after just one coat, but I did two here. Very slight VNL.

I immediately googled for swatch pictures when I got home, but could only find promo pics of the bottles. Then I noticed that it has a release date of June 2011. Is it common for polishes to come out 2 months early, or did my Walgreen's stocker mess up and place it early? Either way, lucky me! :)