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.

Digital Nails Obliviate!

I can't believe I haven't posted this one! Obliviate is from Digital Nails' Harry Potter Spells collection and is all sorts of fabulous. In the first two photos I layered one coat over a black creme (gotta conserve this beautiful polish!) and you can see the green/gold duochrome effect. Oh.  And the holo. Holy smokes that linear holo goodness.

The formula was great. I used CND Stickey as a base coat and Digital Nails Ain't Nobody Got Time For That quick dry top coat and the holo wasn't dulled at all. In fact, I think it looked even better after the top coat.

Blurred to show the holo.

Here I've shown two thin coats on its own. I prefer the look layered, but I think a third coat would brighten this one up a lot.

Did you pick up any of the Spells polishes? They can be found at the Digital Nails Etsy store here.

Urban Outfitters Sea Dust

I was digging through my "To Be Blogged" folder and saw that I still hadn't posted this mani from over the summer! My co-worker and keeper-of-my-8-5-sanity went to a conference in Las Vegas this summer and spent a lot of time shopping. You know, to avoid the heat. Anyway, I wanted to check out Urban Outfitter's polish selection, and was glad to find this Deborah Lippmann Mermaid's Dream dupe on sale!

I don't have a comparison because I've never been compelled enough by her polishes to drop that much money on a bottle. If you search the interwebs, you'll find comparison shots a plenty! 

Sea Dust has a great formula, and I really love the bottles and brushes of Urban Outfitters polish. They're squat and square and feel substantial. The brush was nice and full. This mani was just two coats, and I remember that this polish wore for days without a chip. Definitely a winner!

Sinful Shine Rendevous

Sinful Colors recently released a line exclusive to Walgreens called Sinful Shine that is supposed to mimic gel nail polish in shine and wear time. I completely forgot about Zoya Neely (though the colors are different) and picked up the mint green-est color they had. :)

Application was nice. The polish itself is rather thick, but it covers well and isn't bad to work with. Dry time was a bit slow. I didn't need top coat for the shine, but used NYC Grand Central Station to speed dry time. 

Zoya Neely and my dog, Joules.

I can't recall if I've had Joules on the blog before, but hey. There she is. Freaking adorable Dutch Shepherd who was bought for my husband (because I'm certainly not a dog person) but has grown on me. We got her in December when she was six weeks old and my goodness was she a hellion. She's settled a bit in her 8 months, which is good as she's sixty pounds now. But, this isn't a dog blog, is it? :)

Neely... Neely is one I waffled about since it came out with the special Fashion Week Peter Som group. But I held off. Then there was a buy two, get Sharon free promo and mint greens were popping up everywhere, and look what I got!

Two coats of non-chalky mint green creme shown above. The first coat is super streaky, and you need a thick-ish second coat. Three thins ones would probably be perfect, but I have this odd thing about three coats. I don't leave polish on long enough for wear time to be an issue, so a thicker coat that lessens wear time is okay with me!

NerdLacquer All of Time and Space

I saved my favorite NerdLacquer for last. This wasn't on my must-have list for the store opening at all, but it was available, and pretty, and another Doctor Who inspired one, so in the cart it went.

All of Time and Space has a mint-ish green base with a prominent silver shimmer. In the mix are small and medium fuschia hexes and small silver ones. Application was cake. Two coats and a layer of top coat. Easy peasy.

NerdLacquer All of Time and Space

What is the biggest rush you've had in your life? I spent a 30 minute time frame obsessively refreshing Amanda's shop page until her restock went live. Then, it happened. Polish was available to buy. I immediately put five bottles in my cart and furiously checked out before I got cart jacked. And my heart was racing and I had a huge adrenaline rush. Is that sad? :) 

Behold, my favorite of the five... All of Time and Space. I love NerdLacquer's Doctor Who polishes. And the Firefly ones. And the Lord of the Rings ones... All of time and space is made up of tiny silver glitter, large-ish silver hexes, and small/medium fuchsia hexes that suspend nicely in a shimmery turquoise/green base.

Application was a dream. Two coats to opacity, and the glitter laid flat with no fancy topcoats. This is two coats topped with NYC Grand Central Station (which is a fabulous quick dry top coat for little $$).

If you love unique polishes and are feeling like letting your nerd flag fly, Check out NerdLacquer. You'll find restock info by following them on Google+. Warm up your fingers. This latest restock (1,200 polishes) sold out in 4 minutes.

Please Don't Hate Me - Ninja Polish Divinity

Seriously, I contemplated not posting this one yet because it is so completely awesome and so completely sold out. :( Divinity is part of Ninja Polish's Enigma Collection and can be found here. Ninja Polish has an awesome feature which allows you to sign up for email notifications when the polish is back in stock. This is how I snagged it up at the initial launch.

I will briefly say that Divinity is like Clarins 230 on steroids. I came into the polish game after Clarins 230 was out. It has a royal purple base and turns almost every color of the rainbow. I used three very thin, very easy coats plus top coat for these photos (it dries matte-ish). There are a ton. You're welcome.

Indirect Lighting

Fluorescent lighting in my garage. (Really!)

In-the-light-box Macro

Lightbox

Lightbox

In the light box, with flash

Under the lamp in my living room

Under the lamp in my living room

With flash to better show the base

Lamplight in the living room

I urge you all to sign up for email notification. Divinity has a coat of $11.00 and is totally worth it.

Quickie swatch - My picks from the Color Club 2013 Halo Hues collection

I first saw swatches of the new Halo Hues colors on Sheila's blog. Honestly, I had no clue that Color Club was coming out with a new holo collection. While I was looking for more swatches, I saw that they had inadvertently sent polishes out to some distributors. So, I did what any good polish fiend would do and I hunted those suckers down!

Unlike a polish fiend, I thought, "Pam, you already have a blue and a pink holo from the last collection, so don't get those." I was probably feverish, but I only bought the four you see below.

The formula is smooth and easy like the last set. Beyond was rather thick, but workable. As you can see, a quick dry top coat (Essie Good To Go) didn't dull the holo whatsoever. 

I couldn't pick just one, so I did a skittles mani. L-R: Eternal Beauty, Kismet, Beyond, and Cosmic Fate. 2 coats with top coat.

What do you think? Did you get any of the 2012 Halo Hues? Are you getting any of the new ones?

A Study In Polish - Polishes Inspired by BBC's Sherlock

Frequenters of this blog and/or my Etsy shop know that I love nail polishes that tie in with my favorite fandoms. I am a huge fan of Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and BBC's Sherlock. The indie polish world now has Harry Potter and Doctor Who collections, but what about Sherlock? 

Enter A Study In Polish, a line hand mixed by a fellow fan and polish fiend. Morgan had posted previews of a line she planned to start selling soon, and I marked the day on my calendar. 

A Study In Polish Consulting Detective, Mind Palace, Let's Have Dinner, and Baker Street Blues.

The first of the four polishes I picked up is Let's Have Dinner. It is a red jelly with Medium and small black hexes, and small blue hexes. This polish is inspired by the intriguing Irene Adler. The above photo is two easy coats.

Baker Street Blues is a shimmery cobalt blue with blue and iridescent square and hex glitter. Perfectly opaque at two coats.

Macro shot of Baker Street Blues

Mind Palace is a beautiful seafoam green with a subtle linear holo finish. Honestly, I bought this one because, 1) It was a holo and I can't resist holos, and 2) It was available in limited quantities due to hard-to-find holo pigment. The polish hoarder in me couldn't resist! I'm glad I didn't resist because this is my favorite of the collection. Mind Palace is a little on the thick side, but nothing unmanageable.

Blurred to show the sparkle

The last of the Sherlock Polishes I picked up is Consulting Detective, a purple shimmery polish with gold and blue hex glitters. Consulting Detective was also a little thick, but it allows the glitter to suspend nicely in the base.

All of Morgan's polishes had excellent wear time. I wore all for 2-3 days with no significant chipping.

There are two polishes I passed on, and Morgan just listed two more polishes yesterday. All polishes are $9.00 each except for 221B, which is a glitter topcoat. A Study In Polish has a shop open here.

My picks from the OPI James Bond collection - Live and Let Die and GoldenEye

OPI's Holiday collection this year is in celebration of fifty years of Bond... James Bond. (Sorry! I couldn't help myself!) It was full of great colors, but my Helmer is getting full, so I tried to show restraint. I grabbed GoldenEye because I have nothing like it in my stash, and after seeing swatch photos pop up on the internet, I knew Live and Let Die had to be mine.

Application with both was just lovely. I love OPI's brush and the formula wasn't to runny or too thick. Neither of these swatches involved any clean up.

Live and Let Die is a dark, muted green with prominent green and gold flecks. We have had very little sun here, so I wasn't able to get an outdoor shot to show off that shimmer. I may have to add one later. The above photo is two coats, no top coat. Beautiful.

This is three coats of GoldenEye, a warm-toned gold foil. So stunning! I think this would be great for a holiday party. I do believe I read that this polish is featured in the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, which is in theaters now. I don't know if I can tear my eyes away from Daniel Craig long enough to notice. :)

On a non-polish note, I hope all of you people who Black Friday-ed it up made it out with what you wanted and were unscathed. I went out for the past two years, and I just didn't have it in me to do it again. I also hope that your Thanksgiving (if you celebrate it) was full of family, good food, and enjoyment.

Maisie Shine Orion's Belt - Swatches and Review

I saw this polish one day while surfing around Etsy and I just had to have it. The name is what drew me in, as Orion is my favorite constellation. Silly? I don't think so. 

Lindsey describes Orion's Belt as follows: "A dark navy and green shimmery base that shifts in the sun. This galactic nail polish is littered with gold glitters that emulate a perfect night sky." It is definitely easy to pick out the navy base and the green shimmer is pretty prominent. It is also packed with small gold shimmers, small gold squares, small gold hexes, and larger gold hexes. Super beautiful in the bottle and on the nail.

Application... Wow. Application wasn't great at all. This polish is very, very thick. It could definitely do with some thinner. It seemed a little off though. I poured some out onto a sheet of waxed paper and found several chunks of navy blue mica that wasn't completely mixed in. The good news is that I didn't have to fish out glitters or place them at all.

I think I'm going to dump out the whole bottle, thin it down and mix it a little more, and see where that gets me. I do think it is a beautiful color. Two coats of polish, one coat of Gelous, and a coat of Seche Vite gave a beautiful, smooth finish.

Orion's Belt and several other beautiful polishes are available at Lindsey's Etsy store, Maisie Shine. She sells full sized, 15 mL polishes for $9.00 each.

Paint Box Polish Winter Collection is live! *Pic Heavy!*

I scrapped so many colors coming up with this collection. Bleeding glitters, sinking glitters, too thick, too thin, etc. In the end, I'm super happy with the five that made the cut. I hope you love them, and if you'd like to buy any, there's a link to my Etsy shop in the left column over there!

Solstice is an opaque purple duochrome polish that shifts to bright blue and features violet flakies. This polish is unique in my Winter Collection as it is the only polish that is completely opaque on its own and the only duochrome.

Northern Lights is a stunning blue jelly polish packed with blue flakies and golden shimmer. Can be worn alone as a jelly, but also able to be layered over a darker shade to make the shimmer really pop!

This shot shows the golden shimmer. Northern Lights is layered over Zoya Natty here.

Ice Cap is a squishy, white, jelly polish packed with multi-colored flakies, gold shimmer, and silver shimmer. A fabulous polish both on its own and layered over other polishes! 

Index and middle fingers show Ice Cap layered over China Glaze White on White.

Son of a Nutcracker is a fun, green jelly polish packed with green flakies and a hint of red ones. The Fraternal twin to Santa's Britches, it looks great both alone and layered over other polishes.

Index and middle fingers show Son of a Nutcracker over OPI Jade is the New Black.

Santa's Britches is a fun, red jelly polish packed with silver, gold, and green shimmer. The Fraternal twin to Son of a Nutcracker, it looks great both alone and layered over other polishes.

Index and middle fingers show Santa's Britches over Zoya Sooki.

L-R: Son of a Nutcracker over OPI Jade is the New Black, Santa's Britches over Zoya Sooki, Northern Lights over Zoya Natty, Ice Cap over China Glaze White on White, and Solstice on its own.

China Glaze Holiday Joy 2012 - Select swatches and review

I visited my local Sally Beauty Supply this week and had the China Glaze Holiday Joy collection shoved in my face. :) (Hi Christy!) Seriously, she knows how much I love polish and gets just as excited about new collections as I do. I'll bet she's pretty amused watching me paw through boxes deciding what I "need." 

I only grabbed three from this collection of twelve polishes. As is typical of a holiday collection, there are reds, greens, silvers, golds, cremes, and glitters. Winter Holly, Glitter All The Way, and Pure Joy jumped out at me as polishes that are unique in my collection. I did something different on each nail, so I think I'll discuss that in captions under each photo. 

L-R: 2 coats Winter Holly, 3 coats WH, 3 coats WH over butter LONDON British Racing Green,  2 coats WH over bL BRG

L-R: 2 coats Glitter all the Way over Zoya Monica, 3 coats GatW over Monica, 3 coats GatW, 2 coats GatW

Same as above photo

Index - Pinky: 2 coats Pure Joy over red creme, 3 coats PJ over red, 3 coats PJ, 2 coats PJ

Same as above photo

 All polishes had excellent application for your typical glitter bomb in a clear base. I will definitely be using Elmer's Glue as a base coat when I use these for a regular mani. I also prefer the look of these with a solid color as "underwear."