Review: Grim Grinning Ghosts duo from The Lady Varnishes and Sweet Heart Polish (plus a bonus!)

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Hello!

Today I have a very fun pair of polishes to show you, a collaboration from Kirsten of The Lady Varnishes, and Cassandra of Sweet Heart Polishes.

The set is a Limited Edition pair based on the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland...Now, you all know I love Halloween and anything to do with it, but you don't know that the Haunted Mansion ride is one of my very favorites, ever. The thought of a pair of polishes based on the ride just tickles me, and I very much needed to touch them and pet them and love them. :)

Kirsten's contribution is from the beginning of the ride, and is called Welcome, Foolish Mortals. It's a sage-green crelly with gold hexes of various sizes, along with cerulean blue iridescent glitters, and some sort of magic that makes the whole thing soft and luminous:

The Lady Varnishes Welcome, Foolish Mortals

The Lady Varnishes Welcome, Foolish Mortals

The Lady Varnishes Welcome, Foolish Mortals

The Lady Varnishes Welcome, Foolish Mortals

The Lady Varnishes Welcome, Foolish Mortals

This shows two coats. The formula was fine--I tend to get a little streaking with the first coat, but it goes away completely with a second. This is packed with gorgeous glitters, so you'll want to use a topcoat if you want a smooth surface (as with all glitters like this). The color goes just a teeny bit darker when in regular indoor light. Each bottle contains one hidden Mickey Mouse glitter, to appear at random and brighten your day when you least expect it. :)

I love this polish to the depths and breadths of this earth. There is something about the way the light dances off of the iridescent glitters, along with the combination of glitters here, that makes this look like a beautiful opal to me. I just bought a skirt that is green with blue accents, and this will go with it perfectly--so it's very on-trend in terms of current fashion color combinations right now. But I keep coming back to the play of the light over the surface; it's a magical water-lily pond for the finger tips.

And as is fully appropriate, since the beginning of the Haunted Mansion ride plunges you into darkness...It glows in the dark!!

The Lady Varnishes Welcome, Foolish Mortals--in the scary, scary darkness

To represent the end of the ride, Cassandra designed Hurry Ba-ack, a black-tinted jelly with a slew of bright matte glitters, in lime green, cobalt blue, and masterful magenta (all present in teeny and not-so-teeny varieties) along with a stunning gold shimmer. It's designed to either be built up on its own or to be layered over an undie as your heart desires; I put it to the test by layering it up with no undies:

Sweet Heart Polish Hurry Ba-ack

Sweet Heart Polish Hurry Ba-ack

Sweet Heart Polish Hurry Ba-ack

Sweet Heart Polish Hurry Ba-ack

Sweet Heart Polish Hurry Ba-ack

This is three coats, and as you can see, I got full coverage with no problems. The polish is a bit thick, but here's why I don't care about that one bit: it didn't apply like it was thick, it applied beautifully. In fact, on my first coat I had absolutely no unevenness with this polish, something that I've had happen so rarely with pure jellies (that aren't crellies), that I honestly couldn't tell you the last time it did. Very impressive. This polish also includes a hidden Mickey Mouse glitter, ready to pop out and charm you when you least expect it. :)

My obsession with night-sky polishes is no secret, and I'll admit I squeed a little bit when I saw this. This isn't just any night-sky polish--it's what Rene Magritte or Salvador Dali would have put together if they were making a night-sky polish. How can something be bright and fun and dark and mysterious at the same time? No idea, but this is. I included an angled shot to help you see that you do get depth when you layer this polish, something that I think is very important if you're going for a night-sky sort of look, you want that depth like you're looking through many light-years of stars, and this gives it. But there is enough going on that one coat over an undie will still give you a great look, too. I think what really pushes this over the top for me is the beautiful shimmer you get to the polish because of the teeeeeny gold glitter.

Kirsten also sent me a third polish to try out, but to be clear, this polish is is not a part of the Limited Edition set, only the two above polishes are. This one is Matte Adore, and I'm going to refer to it as a specialty matte topcoat, because my suggestion is you let it work its magic over undies. It's a slightly frosted-white matte with a green-gold shimmer. Here it is over Welcome, Foolish Mortals; I've put it on every nail except the accent nail for contrast purposes:

The Lady Varnishes Matte Adore over Welcome, Foolish Mortals

Over a light color, you can see the effect is subtle, with a little shimmer and a little mattification. Over darker colors, you get a more dramatic effect; here it is over Hurry Ba-ack (I've put it only over the ring finger in this case):

The Lady Varnishes Matte Adore over Sweet Heart Polish Hurry Ba-ack

 And here it is over I <3 Nail Polish Cygnus Loop, a blurple duochrome with red-rust edges:

The Lady Varnishes Matte Adore over I <3 Nail Polish Cygnus Loop

The Lady Varnishes Matte Adore over I <3 Nail Polish Cygnus Loop

I don't know what else to say about it other than there's your magic in a bottle right there, folks. :)

As mentioned, the Grim Grinning Ghosts duo, which sells Welcome, Foolish Mortals and Hurry Ba-ack as a set, is Limited Edition, and consists of 30 pairs only--15 pairs will be sold in each maker's shop. The duos will release at noon PDT today (30 April), so if you're looking to buy, don't hesitate. And if I have my way, there will be only 29 pairs available, because I'mma be stalking my refresh button trying to get me my own full-sized set!

You can find these lovelies starting at noon in either shop:

The Lady Varnishes Etsy Shop
Sweet Heart Polish Etsy Shop

And don't forget to check them out on facebook:

The Lady Varnishes Facebook Page
Sweet Heart Polish Facebook Page

While you're there, don't forget to check out their other polishes, which are all 5-free, cruelty-free, and vegan; The Lady Varnishes currently has some amazing mattes (matte duochromes, anybody?? Dwimorberg and Orodruin both make me very happy) and Sweet Heart Polish has some lovely holos as well as an entire Disneyland collection (my favorite is Disneyland Or Bust, the namesake of the collection).

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great hump day!
M.