Emerald & Ash : Life in Color collection, part 2

Okie dokie, artichokie, it's Friday (woo!) and as promised, here is part two of my Life in Color collection review. Like part one, this post features three gorgeous shades (and a bonus link to a 7th!) from Emerald & Ash.

Let's get down to business. As per usual, the descriptions come directly from the maker.

Snozzberries
The snozzberries taste like...blurpurple jelly. Wait no, that can’t be right. Anywho, our version of Snozzberries is a purple jelly that is filled with color shifting square glitter and some purple and red holo micro glitters. Goes on in two to three coats depending on your application. Can also be put over a base color if that tickles your fancy. A top coat is recommended to give the polish a smooth look.

Charlie & The Chocolate Factory is one of my favourite movies EVER and I tend to use the phrase this polish is inspired by quite often, so how could I help but love it? Plus, it's blurple which I'm fairly certain is the best colour name ever (grellow, you don't hold a candle!). The formula on this was fantastic and the perfect amount of glitter applied to the nail with every stroke (how amazing is the tiny red glitter?). Shown here is two coats and one coat of Gelous.

 

Sunshower

Based in the idea of rainstorms when it’s still sunny out. Crazy little storms. A cloudy grey crelly that shows off a beautiful blue shimmer when in the sun. An added touch of rainbow flakies mimics the rain as the sun is hitting it. Perfect for a rainy mood that needs a little pick me up! Full coverage in two to three coats depending on application.

I love sunshowers. The sun glittering off the rain drops just makes it seem so much more magical. The flakies in this polish are so pretty - they glint and glimmer when they hit the sun and the grey base is so delicate and elegant. Shown here is two coats and one coat of top coat.

 

 

Confusion with a K

Once upon a time we found an ottoman that had beautiful bright colors and it needed to come home with us. It also needed to be made into a polish. After many trials and errors it decided to be a fun, festive glitter topper. Because it said so. And so, Confusion with a K was born. A glitter topper full of neon pink, neon green, metallic navy blue, grey and white glitters of all sizes. It wants to go on top of ALL of your polishes and maybe even be sandwiched between them as well. You’re good to go with one to two coats, depending on how glitter-hungry you are!

This glitter topper is where Emerald & Ash's thicker base really comes in handy. I did not have to fish for a single piece of glitter! See those large pink hexes? Yep, they just willingly came out on the brush. Glitter application like this makes my life so much easier and less frustrating. Plus, these colours are amazing and perfect and I love them. :) Shown here is one coat over China Glaze Def Defying and one coat of Gelous.

Bonus link: Ashley and I were chatting one day and she mentioned that she thought my custom, Stubble Jumper, would be the perfect addition to a new collection she was planning. Of course, I was flattered and said yes right away. The thought that people like something I had a hand in creating just tickles me. Spread the prairie love, people!

I was also sent a 3ml bottle of the July oil of the month, Fresh Cut Grass, which is a scent I already love. I had kind of... badgered? nicely? Ashley about a grass scent. :) And you already know how I feel about their cuticle oils.

All Emerald & Ash lacquers are 5-Free and are not tested on animals.

Emerald & Ash

| Shop | Facebook |

Emerald & Ash: Life in Color collection, part 1

* I swear that one day soon I will have another WingDust Wednesday post; I just need to get caught up on my swatching. *

Today I have part one of my review on the Life in Color collection from Emerald & Ash. They sent me six of these beauties to swatch so I decided to break it up into two posts so as not to bombard you with pics. Wouldn't want you to injure your scrolling finger. ;)

The people who make the polish are always better at describing it than I am so, as usual, polish descriptions are taken directly from Emerald & Ash.

Magic Bananas
Who doesn’t like magic bananas!? We sure love them around here, especially when used as an exclamation! It’s a phrase used so much around here that we had to make this yellow and green all flakie polish that has a hint of gun metal flakies - you know...for those bruises that pop up on your bananas, no matter how magical they are. This can easily be a full coverage flakie in 2-3 coats, but you can always uses it as a topper if that tickles your fancy.

Now is where I admit to being an incompetent nail blogger. I need practice applying flakie polish. Polish with flakies in it? Sure, I've worn those. Pure flakies? A polish literally packed to the brim with flakies? Nope. I think I rushed my coats which resulted in some dragging and bunching at the tips (you can particularly see this on my index finger). All you need is some patience and you will be handsomely rewarded. The flakies in this are so pretty and the final result is simple yet complex. Shown here is two coats and one coat of top coat.

Tomato, Tomato
You say tomato and I say...this tomato based polish looks amazing with flakies that throw off a red and gold shimmer while trapped in a sheer red jelly base. Can be worn to full coverage in 2-3 coats, depending on your application or it can be placed over your favorite reds to add a quick punch of fun!

Another polish that highlights how poorly I applied it. :/ As with Magic Bananas, this flakie packed polish just requires an extra bit of patience with the application.

You know, if asked, I will always say that red is never my go to colour and yet, it plays so nicely with my skin tone. This one in particular is gorgeous! The gold with the red not only plays perfectly off the tomato theme, but it's a great fall transition colour. Again, I used two coats and one coat of top coat.

You Sun of a Beach
An eye-searing bright neon leaning coral crelly that hits you with a dose of scattered holo, just in case you already haven’t been blinded. Due to the nature of neon pigments this will dry to a semi-matte look. Leave it as is or gloss it up with a top coat, your choice! You can always layer it over a base coat of white polish to make the color pop even more! Without a base color you can get full coverage in 2-3 coats.

Good lord, I love this polish. Neon coral with scattered holo?! Be still my heart. The formula on this one was amazing! With careful application I only needed two coats and one coat of top coat for this stunner. This is one of my favourites from the entire collection! 

So, there are the first three. What do you think so far? Definitely full of colour, right? Stay tuned - I will have the final three up later this week.

Emerald & Ash

| Shop | Facebook |

Emerald & Ash Nail Oil, Hourglass Nebula, Dark Matter, and a FLASH GIVEAWAY!!!

Longest post title ever? Mayhaps but it's for a good reason. You see, Emerald & Ash is launching a new collection tomorrow and, in addition to the new pretties, there are a few being discontinued. Alllllso, I will be reviewing the E&A nail oils in this post and Ashley and Nate offered up some gift cards so that people could try out their stuff. So, do you see where I am going with this now? What better time to have a flash giveaway then right before the launch of a new collection?! My blogger pack hasn't arrived yet (pesky border) so I will include some links to other reviews of the new stuff and I'm going to show you two of the beauties being discontinued. Hopefully this will give you a pretty good idea of what you want to snag tomorrow.

First, the nail oil review. I'm going to put out a disclaimer right now and say that if you are looking for a balanced review of this stuff, you'll have to look elsewhere. I literally do not have a bad word to say about the Emerald & Ash nail oil. Not only is the blend unique and fast absorbing, the scents are plentiful and there are very, very few that I don't like. I've tried so many of them, in blends and alone, that I've created a spreadsheet to keep track of them all. Hopefully my notes will be helpful in deciding which scents to try.

* I was sent three 4ml bottles to try - Kulu Bay, Cinnamon/Blueberry, and Caramel/Apple Orchard. All three are great but Cinnamon/Blueberry is FREAKING AMAZING!!! *

Here's a note about the nail oils directly from Emerald & Ash:

Our nail oils are hand blended and mixed to order. None of our oils sit with scents premixed into them. We use a unique blend of oils that include Fractionated coconut oil, grapeseed oil, jojoba oil, meadowfoam seed oil, tea tree oil, vitamin A oil and vitamin E oil.

 

We created a nail oil that we love and want to use. We wanted something that was fast absorbing, moisturizing and that didn't leave a greasy feeling behind. It's a cuticle oil that can be used as often as needed, while also using it frequently to help get your nails and cuticles into better shape.

 

We offer 85 scents in both essential oils and fragrance oils. Those 85 scents can also be blended into an even larger selection of scents. Along with that we offer unscented, sellers choice where we choose the scent and a scent of the month that is offered at a discounted price.

Safe to say, I love these oils. I have bottles spread everywhere - in the car, my purse, bedside table, at work, etc. - and use them several times a day because I am a serial cuticle picker. My cuticles aren't just dry, they are damaged. Pretty horrible for a nail blogger, right? You would think that swatching multiple polishes in one sitting would make my cuticles worse but, because I apply some E&A oil after removing each polish, my cuticles generally look BETTER after a swatch-a-thon. Do your hands a favour and grab some now!! My favourite way to purchase is the 4ml three-pack because then I can try three different scents for minimal cost. You can't beat $6.50 for 12ml of oil!!

Now, on to the two polishes being discontinued. Both are from the Hubble collection and both are unique and lovely. I used two coats of polish for both Hourglass Nebula and Dark Matter. I love all of the polishes in the Hubble collection and these two are no exception.

Finally, the giveaway. This is truly a FLASH giveaway. The new collection launches at 9am Mountain time, tomorrow, Thursday, July 10th, 2014 and I am leaving the Rafflecopter open until 8am Mountain time, which gives me one hour to verify entries and get the winners' information to Ashley & Nate. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Links to the Life in Color collection reviews:

Land of Ten Thousand Polishes | Part 1 | Part 2 |
Polished Pathology | Part 1 | Part 2 |
Boom Shaka Lacquer

 

Emerald & Ash

| Shop | Facebook |

WingDust Wednesday : Night Fury

Happy WingDust Wednesday, y'all! My city is right in the middle of the famous Calgary Stampede so I'm feeling the cowgirl spirit. ;)

Today I'm showing you the very first WingDust I ever bought, Night Fury. Not only is it a totally gorgeous polish, but my daughter was obsessed with How To Train Your Dragon when I first came across WingDust. Now, with the second installation recently being released, I thought it was perfect timing. Plus, who doesn't love Toothless? He's just the most adorable dragon ever.

Night Fury is a "deep purple/blue jelly polish loaded with blue and purple iridescent glitters and shimmers" and has such depth and sparkle. My pictures seriously do not do this polish justice. Shown here is three coats of Night Fury (I like the extra sparkle) and one coat of HK Girl top coat.

 

WingDust Collections

| Shop | Facebook |

 

Philly Loves Lacquer : Sunset Down the Shore

I'm really excited to show you today's polish but first have to start with an apology and disclaimer. This polish was available in June's Holo Grail box from Dazzled and is not available for purchase. :( That said, Esther has lots of other beauties in her shop and I've seen Sunset Down the Shore up for sale on Storenvy and other places so keep an eye out.

On to the polish!

I received this sneak peek several weeks ago and have been dying to show you. Now that the June Holo Grail boxes are arriving in people's mailboxes I can pull back the veil.

When I asked Esther what her inspiration was, this is what she said;

Sunset Down the Shore was my tribute to all of the sunsets I experienced as a child growing up going to the Jersey Shore every summer. I tried to capture as much of the pinkish orange glory as I could, and came up with Sunset Down the Shore. I look at the bottle and am filled with a sense of nostalgia.

I think she got it exactly right. Sunset Down the Shore is a pink-leaning coral and looks exactly like the sun setting on the water. It has these undertones that make it seem to glow from within and it almost seems magical. The holo isn't super strong but it's definitely there - like the sun shimmering on the ocean's surface. Poetic, right? ;)

The formula is on the thin side so I used three coats for these swatches but I ain't mad, because it really gives it this amazing depth. I don't even know if I would try it over undies - I'd be afraid of losing some of the complexity - but if you do, let me know.

Make sure you "like" Dazzled's Facebook page in order to find out information on future Holo Grail boxes.

Philly Loves Lacquer

| Shop | Facebook |

WingDust Wednesday : Bean Me Up

Happy WingDust Wednesday! What are you wearing? (That sounds dirty. heh)

 

Today I'm showing you Bean Me Up which has a holo brown jelly base and blue, copper, and gold glitter. I'm not a coffee drinker so I can't commiserate on that aspect, but I totally dig brown polish and this one is no exception. Once upon a time, brown and blue was my favourite colour combo and this polish pairs them wonderfully.

 

Application was great as always but I did have some difficulty fishing the large glitter out. Shown here is two thicker coats and one coat of HK Girl top coat.

 

WingDust Collections

| Shop | Facebook |

 

 

WingDust Wednesday : Deep, Deep Trouble

* Guys, I'm the worst. I had this ready for last night and forgot to publish. Oops. Blame it on the cold meds.*

Can we all take a minute and say "hooray" for the Spring cold? Ugh... I've been sick since Saturday and it's really taking it out of me. Nothing like six hour naps in the middle of the day. ;)

Today I'm sharing Deep, Deep Trouble for WingDust Wednesday. This is a polish that kind of snuck up on me. I ordered it because I like blue and I dug the glitter combo. And then I put it on.... I don't know why I am continually amazing with WingDust, because they are all amazing, but I am. This time it was the subtle shimmer that did me in. Did I even know that was in there? Not sure, but it's super pretty. Deep, Deep Trouble may well be one of my new favourites!

Shown here is two coats and a coat of HK Girl top coat.

WingDust Collections

| Shop | Facebook |