Lacquer or Leave Her!

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Review: Nayll Summer Waters Collection (plus two of my own creations!)

(Press sample)

Hello!

So you guys know that Nayll is a great place to do some wicked fun on-line frankening. But in the excitement of making your own beauties, you may not have noticed that Sara also has a line of her own glitter polishes for sale. She has just added a summer collection, called The Summer Waters Collection, and I was very pleased to be asked to review it. Here's the full collection together:

Nayll Summer Waters Collection

This collection isn't like any I've seen before. The combination of colors has a southwestern feel to it; it reminds me of the beauty of places like Santa Fe and Sedona. There is a serenity to the polishes, even though they contain rich, strong colors.

First, take a look at Crystal Lagoon, a subtle blend of dusty lavender matte circles, sky blue matte circles, light mustard circles, and gold holo hexes:

I show it first over Zoya Cole:

Nayll Crystal Lagoon over Zoya Cole

This is a deceptively versatile polish. Over Cole, it's a soft, pretty spring look. Now take a look at it over China Glaze Brownstone, and suddenly it's a great topper for fall or even winter:

Nayll Crystal Lagoon over China Glaze Brownstone

In terms of application, this brushed on easily, with only a little extra effort on my part to make sure I got the sort of coverage I wanted. I didn't have to fish for anything in particular, the mix of different glitters dispersed well. This is one coat. It dried fast and could conceivablt be worn without a topcoat, but I'd suggest you use one (for all these polishes) to smooth out the glitters (as with most glitter toppers). I show all of them with one coat of Seche Vite.

Next, we have Desert Lake; this is a crisp mix of large and small matte blue circles, light pink matte circles, white stars, gold matte and gold holographic hexes, and with teeny rust glitters:

I show it here over China Glaze Budding Romance:

Nayll Desert Lake over China Glaze Budding Romance

The soft pink sets off the blue, and both poke out brightly from the rusty-orange base. It makes me think of water running over river rocks, with fish or bubbles floating along with it.

This is one coat. Application was good, but as is often the case with larger glitters, I did have to fish and dab a bit to get the balance I wanted between the larger glitters and the smaller ones. The was very true of the stars, because there are fewer of these than anything else. But I think people generally prefer to place the stars where they want them anyway. And if you don't like star glitters, I know many people don't, they are easily avoided and the polish is still beautiful without them. :)

Next up is my favorite, Sea Glass, a combination of grass-green shards and teeny glitters, bright blue shards and teeny glitters, matte gold shards, and silver shards and teeny glitters:

I show it here over China Glaze Kalahari Kiss:

Nayll Sea Glass over China Glaze Kalahari Kiss

This looks like someone still-paused on the ocean as it rolled over the beach, leaving shiny treasures in its wake. With my beach-polish fixation, it's not a surprise I love this--it makes a perfect look for a day at the beach. It really does make me feel like I have little shards of glittery sea glass all over my fingers.

This is one thick coat, and was a breeze to put on. I brushed it right on, did a little bit of adjusting, and bing--done.

Summer Solstice is another of my favorites, a blend of blue squares, royal blue hexes, large silver holo hexes, and silver stars

Here it is over Zoya Demi:

Nayll Summer Solstice over Zoya Demi

Nayll Summer Solstice over Julep Demi

And I just had to show how sparkly these toppers are in the sun:

Nayll Summer Solstice over Julep Demi

This is a night sky in a bottle, and even though I'm not normally a star glitter type of girl, I adore the stars in this. It's fun, and whimsical, and makes me want to go camping so I can lay out and stare at the stars.

This is one very easy coat. I mostly brushed this on, and did a little bit of fishing and positioning of the star glitter and the large hexes. Nothing taxing at all, and I love the result.

The last polish from the collection (although I have two more to show you), is River Rock, which mixes large grass-green circles, large white circles, small pink matte circles, green and blue squares, and teeny deep magenta holographic glitters:

Here it is over over China Glaze Starboard:

Nayll River Rock over China Glaze Starboard

This polish makes me think of a desert river bed in a flash flood--the vibrant colors hidden by all the dust suddenly shine through, and take on a new life. It's bright and the teeny holo glitters sparkle like crazy all over your fingertips.

Believe it or not, this is one coat--this topper has thick coverage. I did fish a little with this one to get the large circles where I wanted them, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Okay, so that's the Summer Waters collection, and I love it. I think it's beautiful for summer, but not like any other summer collection I've seen--unique color combinations, talented pairings of matte and shiny glitters, great balance of size and shape in every bottle.

But, as you know...if you don't like one of these (or her other pre-mades), you can head on over and make your very own polish that is just what you want it to be. And in that spirit, I have to show off two new polishes I designed on her website all by myself!

First is Vineyard, which has magenta, purple, and green large shiny circle glitters, with lavender squares, in a bed of teeny gunmetal glitters:

Here it is over Julep Joanna:

Nayll Vineyard (my creation) over Julep Joanna

I was trying to create a deconstructed bundle of grapes, lol, and I think I nailed it (no pun intended). This is one coat, and as with any glitter topper that has large circles, I had to fish a little to get the circles where I wanted them--a small price to pay, I believe, for the awesome look of large circles. :)

The second polish I designed myself is Precious, a soup of silver, gold, and copper glitters:

I designed it for a 'precious metal' look. I show it here over China Glaze When Stars Collide:

Nayll Precious (my creation) over China Glaze When Stars Collide

I wanted to wear this polish over When Stars Collide because the holographic rainbow has an orange and a silver component, so it went well with this topper; here's a sun shot to show what I mean:

Nayll Precious (my creation) over China Glaze When Stars Collide

This is also one coat, which I brushed on and didn't fish or manipulate at all.

Overall, I'm as happy as can be about how the polishes I designed myself turned out, and I think the Summer Waters collection is artfully beautiful, and of excellent quality. I highly recommend checking her polishes out.

You can find them, and an infinite number of possibilities for designing your own, on the Nayll website. Her polishes are big-4 free, cruelty-free, and vegan. Her turn-around time is very fast, and she also ships internationally!

I hope you're having a great week--big bear hugs. :)
M.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Before & After: Moroccan Mosaic

Hello!

I recently told you about my nostalgic foray into Sally Hansen Nail Prisms from the late 80s/early 90s, made possible by Inky Whisker's Musings, who told me about this eBay site that specializes in discontinued drugstore polishes. I mentioned that one of the polishes I got was everything I expected, and more...and I'm back to show you that polish and some nail art.

I give to you the magical Scarlet Ruby, a red-orange-purple multichrome that minstrel songs should be written about:

Sally Hansen Scarlet Ruby

Wow. Just...wow wow wow. Where have you been all my life, beautiful polish? That's right, I owned you, I used you up, and then you languished in somebody's storage locker somewhere after being discontinued until someone found you and started selling you on eBay.

I thought long and hard about what to do with her that would celebrate her majesty, rather than cover it. I decided to stamp on her using MoYou London's Artist collection plate 04, and two polishes; I used Barry M Gold Foil and Kleancolor Metallic Orange. Then, I tried out these plastic 'rhinestones' that KKcenterHk sent me for review:

KKCenterHK coffee rhinestones

I love the coffee color of these and was interested to see how much of the rhinestone-like cut on them would hold up in a manicure. The worked wonderfully, very cute! Now I want to try all of their matte colors, lol. Also, they gave me a code for 10% off of your full purchase for all of my readers, just use the code 'lacquerorleaveher', it's good through the end of the year. :)

So how did it come out?? Here's the final look:

My Moroccan Mosaic

Add caption

What do you think? I think this polish definitely qualifies for the 'prettiest' untried in my pile, which is the theme of today Glittah Pirates Neverending Pile challenge. :)

An InLinkz Link-up

Sunday, June 1, 2014

Review and Before & After: MoYou London Scholar Collection 02 and 06

(Nothing to disclose)

Hello!!

Today is one of those cool days when a bunch of stars in my polish world come together. First, in my Freakin' Fingers Holo challenge, this week's holo color is brown--so I'm going to show you the brownest holo I have. Second, I recently uploaded my video review of MoYou London's Scholar Collection plates 02 and 06, and have been looking foward to making this mani with it.

So, first, here is the video review:

Second, here are still images of the plates (but note, they have made some changes to plate 02, mostly minor, so be sure to double-check the image there before buying):

Scholar Collection 02:

MoYou London Scholar Collection 02

Scholar 06:

MoYou London Scholar Collection 06

And here is a comparison to the standard Konad plate, so you can judge the size of the images:

MoYou London Scholar Collection 02 vs. Konad

MoYou London Scholar Collection 06 vs. Konad

I love books, and as a professor, I love learning and scholarship. I've been a teacher and a researcher, and I've been an avid reader my whole life. These plates were practically made for me. :)

For the holo-tastic base of my manicure, I chose Mentality Proper, a copper-brown lightly linear holo: