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.

A Study in Polish I Do Post-Mortems and Not Your Housekeeper

It's just about an hour until the new season of Sherlock airs on PBS (9:58 EST), and in it's honor, I'm back with the newest Sherlock polishes from A Study in Polish.

First up is I Do Post-Mortems, which is inspired by the ever lovely Molly Hooper. A soft, neutral pink with a low-key holographic shimmer. This is like Mind Palace's quiet little sister. (see my review of Mind Palace and my other A Study in Polish polishes here). I'm generally not a muted pink lover, but man! This is easily one of my favorites.

Direct artificial lighting

Direct natural light

 Not Your Housekeeper is Mrs. Hudson's polish. It's a super pretty, squishy plum with blue and pink/purple micro glitters. There may be some gold ones hidden in there as well. I used three coats here and it was just lovely.

Direct natural light

A Study in Polish offers Sherlock, The Hobbit, Teen Wolf, and Hannibal inspired polishes in her store.

Digital Nails Expelliarmus!

Even though Expelliarmus is a spell from Harry Potter, this polish is from Digital Nails' Doctor Who Companion Collection. It's basically fangirl Pam in a bottle. Inspired by Martha Jones in one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes (Shakespeare quoting Harry Potter? Yes, please), it's one of my favorite spells, in my favorite color, and one of my very favorite bloggers ever named it. (If you haven't checked out Accio Lacquer, please do do! Fabulous indie polishes and super entertaining style!)

So, Expelliarmus is a squishy purple jelly with a prominent blue shimmer and circle glitter - small, medium, large, purple, silver, purple holographic. Ahh... LOVE it!

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.

Digital Nails Spells! Pt 1 - Stupify, Colovaria, Nox

Pic heavy post... Not sorry! 

I saw teases of Digital Nails' HP Spells collection on her Facebook page a few days before the release and set an alarm on my phone so that I'd remember to be ON ETSY when they released. :) It was one of those furious, get-it-in-the-cart-and-get-out-and-oh-please-don't-let-me-get-cart-jacked moments. I managed to get everything I wanted. Yes!!

First up is Stupify! Wow. Stupify. Super beautiful blurple stunner with linear holo particles and blue/pink duochrome flakies. Yes, I know. It really is as awesome as it sounds. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

2 coats plus top coat in direct sun

direct sun, blurred to appreciate the rainbows!

2 coats in indirect sun. Better to see the flakies, my dear.

And the thermals... Oh, the thermals. I haven't been quick to jump on the thermal bandwagon because I wasn't sure if it would be one of those blink-and-you-miss-it trends. It also seemed a bit gimmick-y. But man, Raph's swatches drew me in! I love the thermals from this collection because they are bright, bold, and obvious. No pale pink to pale lavender shifting here! Both also have the color shifting flakies that are found in Stupify.

First, we have Colovaria. It changes from pale pink when warm to bright magenta when cold. The flakies in it have a yellow-green-blue shift.

hot on top, transitioning, and cold on bottom

(Imagine an awesome video of the color shift here. Grrr....)

Nox is a navy blue/purple to pale blue thermal with blue-pink shifting flakies. This polish is still very noticeable even when it is cold. The shift is so dramatic with this one!

warm to cold transition

Nox in it's cold state

I picked up three more from Digital Nails' last restock, so look for that post in a few days. If you're interested in any of Raph's awesome creations, visit her Etsy store here. She is on vacation until next week, but favorite the shop and visit later!

Fandom Cosmetics Still Betting on You

Today I have a polish from Fandom Cosmetics, a super awesome indie brand that pulls inspiration from all sorts of nerdy fandoms. Be still my heart! :)

Still Betting on You is from the Hunger Games collection and is inspired by one of my very favorite characters, Cinna. It is described as, "... our ode to everyone's favorite Capitol resident, and the mastermind behind the girl on fire. It is comprised of a gold holographic dust base, and scattered with soft pinkish orange and red hex."

I decided to use this one solo. Shown is three coats with CND Stickey base coat and Digital Nails Ain't Nobody Got Time For That quick-dry top coat.

Blurred to show off the holo! Fandom Cosmetics polishes are available for $8.50. They also sell eye shadow, scrubs, t-shirts, and candles. Check out the wares here!

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.

A Study In Polish 221B

Today I've got another great one from indie polish maker A Study In Polish. I reviewed four polishes from her initial launch in this post. There were two additional polishes released recently, and since I'm trying to keep some money in my bank account, I only chose one. Take your pick from the full collection here.

221B is a glitter topper with varying sizes of gold and black hex glitter in a clear base. It is inspired by the black door with gold numbers that leads to Sherlock's flat. Here you see one coat of 221B over 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls from their Spiderman collection.

221B was simple to apply. The base is thick enough to keep the glitter suspended, but not too thick to be easily workable. There was no need for dabbing or fishing at all, and the glitter dried smooth. I used two coats of Essie Good to Go, but I think that was overkill.

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.

Anxiously awaiting The Hunger Games

I got my District 9 3/4 shirt in the mail today. I am such a dork, and I am so stoked!! I think I'll avoid the Internet until after I see the movie. I've only seen the trailer once and want to avoid other potential spoilers. 

May the odds be ever in your favor!

Paint Box Polish - My new Etsy store!

My name is Pam, and I'm a nerd. I geek out most to Harry Potter. I'm also a knitter, and there is/was never a lack of Harry Potter inspired yarn. Imagine my surprise when I discovered very little in the way of HP polishes. I have been playing with frankening my own polishes, so I decided to start from scratch and make my own. Behold!

Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin

Hufflepuff is a shimmery yellow base with black glitter

Slytherin is an emerald green with small silver glitter

Gryffindor has a shimmery red base and an irregularly shaped gold glitter

Ravenclaw has a deep blue base with irregularly shaped bronze glitter (Canon book colors!)

All of the above swatches are two coats with one coat of Poshe. Hufflepuff has a slightly bumpy texture after the topcoat. The others were perfectly smooth. I am quite the fan, but may be a bit biased. :) I've got more ideas floating around in my brain, and if these actually sell, I plan to mix up more colors. If they don't sell, I can say I had fun playing mad polish scientist.

All polishes are in mini bottles, which hold approximately 6ml. They are selling for $5 each, or in a set of 4 for $18. Visit my store here, and tell me what you think!