Despite my very sad procrastination, the colors of this box were gorgeous. You know what is even more gorgeous? My new blog look! Thanks to Brea over at Utterly Chaotic Designs helped make my site super pretty and sleek. I felt that since we’ve moved to Seattle, it was time to get some work done on this gal. I hope you like it as much as I do. In the upcoming weeks I’ll be working on adding a gallery of photos so if you don’t want to read, you can just browse.
Anyway, on to my swatches of Llarowe A Box Indied for May 2014.
First up is Black Cat Lacquer’s Poison Ivy. It’s a gorgeous and lush grass green crelly base with gold glitter and multi-sized green gliter. I used three coats and while it took a bit longer to dry, I found I was most happy with this color out of the others in the box. This crelly is buildable and I wanted to see how dark I could get it, hence the three coats. Top coat (Glisten & Glow’s Fast Drying Top Coat, to boot!) showcased the true beauty of this color.
Contrary Polish’s contribution to Llarowe A Box Indied for May 2014 is called Darling Wildflower
I used two coats, but it seemed to be taking a while to dry. This formula was semi-opaque in two regular applications. For full opacity, I’d recommend 3, possibly four. It was a bit of a problem child – it was a bit runny and tended towards cuticle pull. I also had a hard time getting the colors to appear uniform, meaning that some nails look darker than others. With that said, I truly loved the glassy aspect of this polish. I’m actually wearing it as I type! I was stunned when I took this color off — it didn’t stain my nails! Sometimes some purples stain and this didn’t.
Crows Toes Dead Man’s Bells was quite the surprise. At a glance, I thought, “Oh great. Another black creme with glitter. Been there, done that.” I was so, so wrong. It’s a greyish-black crelly base with predominantly purple glitter with blue and green micro glitter that plays a small but stellar role in breaking up the monotony of a pure purple glitter. It was also very sheer when I first applied it, but the second coat made it more opaque. However, for a full dark, gorgeous coverage, this is a three coat minimum. Due to all the glitter, this was a bit lumpy (it’s ok, though!), but nothing that a good top coat can’t take care of. If you like the textured polish look, this does the job well. The only bad thing about this is that this color slightly stained my nails. This color was a bit of a bitch to capture. It looks so flat and lifeless because of my lighting, but in person it really is gorgeous.
Last, but not least in the polishes was Hare Polish’s The Blooming Desert. According to a post by Hare Polish, “The Blooming Desert is a bright pink jelly with orange dots, pearly white hexes and squares, glowing gold iridescent glitter and gold flakies. It also features gorgeous golden shimmer!“
Where do I even begin with this? I was surprised to realize that this was my favorite color out of the entire box. I couldn’t put my finger on it. However, when I realized that the base, along with the glitter, reminded me of one of my favorite gemstones – padparadscha sapphire, btw – I just fell so hard. Even Mr Carinae liked this. Now bases like this tend to give me ‘old lady hands’ syndrome. I know you’ve all experienced it at least once. This was an average drying time, not supa fast like DMM above. Below is three coats. It did get lumpy and distort my nails, but I don’t care. I’ll be putting this on for a pedicure very soon.
Jill over at Glisten & Glow provided a lovely Honeysuckle cuticle oil that rounded out Llarowe A Box Indied for May 2014 and is absolutely heavenly. I can only use it once in a while because I am massively allergic to perfumed products. It breaks my heart given that I love the smell of honeysuckle.
Thanks for making it this far! I hope you were able to procure a box for May and if you did, what was your favorite polish?
À bientôt!
Carinae
