Indie Spotlight: Gothic Gala Lacquers Butterfly & Smooth Me Over Topcoat

*All Gothic Gala Lacquers products provided for honest and unbiased review.  All other products purchased by me*

Hey there! How's everyone holding up during this retail season?  I'm hanging in there, got my bf's gifts taken care of and that's about it though lol  I'm terrible about holiday shopping, I'll probably do most of it on Christmas Eve!  It would be so much easier if I could just buy polish for everyone...but I think my brothers might not appreciate it ;)

Anyway, on to the post for the evening!  I've been in a bit of a funk about doing my nails lately, since my big break last week.  This nubbin middle nail is not growing quickly enough for me at all!  I'm particularly apologetic to the folks I'm swatching for, uneven nails were not in my plans, but I'm trying to work around it!  Samantha from Gothic Gala Lacquers was kind enough recently to send a few polishes and her new smoothing top coat my way to do some photos.  Today I'm showing one of the polishes and the top coat.

Butterfly is a lilac base with a pink shimmer filled with dark purple hexes and lavender diamonds and butterflies.  Samantha created Butterfly in support of Lupus Awareness and $2 from each bottle purchased goes to The Lupus Foundation of America.

The formula here is a bit sheer and will probably require 3-4 coats for opacity.  You can always layer a couple of coats over another polish as a base, if you like a more opaque look in fewer coats. 
 

I love the color of this polish!  The shimmer gives it an extra boost as well.  There wasn't a lot of fishing for any of the glitters and Butterfly had a good distribution of everything.  Like many polishes with larger glitters, Butterfly finished with a few bumps.  This brings me to the second product in my review today.  

Smooth Me Over top coat was created to help smooth out polishes with larger glitter.  It can also be added to polishes that are past their prime to bring them back to life.  A very special product indeed! As Butterfly did have some bumpiness, I decided to try SMO top coat with it and see how it fared.  I took photos of Butterfly with no top coat, with one coat of SMO and then with one coat of SMO and one coat of Seche Vite.  I'll let the pics talk for themselves a bit here!
 

Can you believe that transformation??  Samantha has created a fantastic top coat here!  I'm thinking over my stash with all my lovely, humongously glittered indie glitter bombs and how wonderful they're all going to look with SMO on top!  Seriously, I love this stuff...it's made my life so much easier!  I haven't had a chance to try it as a polish reviver yet, but I'm sure it'll be brilliant for that as well.

Butterfly currently retails for $8.50 for a 15ml bottle and Smooth Me Over is listed for $7.00 for a 15ml bottle.  Additionally, Gothic Gala Lacquers is having a 15% off sale on Etsy until Christmas with code PRESENT15.  You'll also want to follow her on Facebook to keep up with reviews, new releases and other important info! 

*All Gothic Gala Lacquers products provided for honest and unbiased review.  All other products purchased by me*

Thanks so much for reading!

Sunday Similarities: Purple Holographics

*All products purchased by me.*

Hey everyone!  I hope the holiday shopping weekend has treated you well.  I snagged some awesome boots for a screamin' good deal and stocked up at Ulta, so overall I'm pretty happy.  Yes, yes, I know I'm supposed to shop for other people for the holidays, but the deals are so good for stuff I need that I couldn't pass them up!  I did get a few gifts grabbed though, so all is not lost.

I've got a lovely Sunday Similarities post lined up for you guys today.  I do need to mention that I had a catastrophic break on the middle nail of my swatching hand (of course!) and so had to nubbin-ize everything else.  Unfortunately, my quicks have all grown out on my other nails so I couldn't trim them quite back to the length of the broken one, so things are a bit uneven at the moment.  But now that I'm all stocked up on Nail Envy again, I hope to have them back in ship-shape soon!  On to the photos!

I wanted to show you a couple of purple linear holographics today.  In the photo above, you can see Gothic Gala Lacquers' Odin on the left and Cirque's Fascination Street on the right.  Both of these polishes are deep purple with a strong linear holographic effect in the bottle, but let's check them side by side on the nail, shall we? 

Here I'm wearing 2 coats of Odin on my index and ring fingers and 2 coats of Fascination Street on my middle (nubbin-nubbin) and pinky nails.  Odin has a softer appearance and leans toward a heather-y purple shade where Fascination Street is more of a blurple.  The linear effect on both of these will knock your socks off in direct sunlight...rainbows! rainbows for everyone!
 

Beautiful formulas on both, each smooth and creamy and opaque in 2 coats.  I am showing a coat of Seche Vite on each of these, the Cirque dries with a semi-matte finish, so you'll want a top coat to shine it up. I think that these are different enough that you may want to own both, but for the conservative polish hoarder (Ha!) they are both in the same color range so maybe one or the other could fill the void.  Fascination Street is the first indie polish I ever purchased for myself, so it has a special place in my heart.  Odin was another one that I knew I had to have after Samantha posted photos of it on Facebook...so really, there's no way I could chose!

*All products purchased by me.*

You can still find both of these polishes, although I think Gothic Gala is out of stock on Odin at the moment (I just bought it last week, so I'm pretty sure it hasn't been discontinued).  Anyway, when it's available, you'll find Odin on Etsy for $9.50 for a full size 15ml bottle.  Fascination Street is available on Cirque's website for $15 for a full size 13.2ml bottle.  Gothic Gala Lacquers is currently running a Black Friday sale so be sure to check out her Facebook page for details on that and follow Cirque on Facebook as well...cuz they're both awesome brands!

Thanks so much for reading!

Gothic Gala Lacquers 813 Likes Giveaway!

Hi there everybody!  Tons of excitement over here today!  Gothic Gala Lacquers is celebrating 813 Facebook likes with a fantastic 18-winner giveaway!  Five of those 18 prizes are international as well...woot!  Samantha (owner and creator of Gothic Gala Lacuers) has kindly asked me to write up a post for the giveaway since she does not have a blog herself so she can show off pictures of all the awesome prizes.  So let's get going on those, shall we?

4Boys 1Mom Lacquer-Ardell Double Up Lashes, Julep Lotion, and assorted goodies-U.S. only

Accio Lacquer-Assorted polishes and a body glitter-U.S. only

 Anne Kathleen Explore Beauty-one full sized bottle of Linnea-U.S. only 

 Get Nailed Here-Set of Special K Nicole by O.P.I. polishes-U.S. only

 Makeup Assassin-Model City Polish Dark Chocolate Cake cuticle oil & Ghost Stories polish-U.S. only

 Misfits on 8th-DIY Starter Kit-U.S only

 On a Budget Nails-Handmade earrings and ring-U.S. only

 Northern Star-2 cuticle oils-U.S. only

 Philly Loves Lacquer-Winner's Choice of 2 bottles from the All Holo's Eve collection-U.S. only

 Polish Yer Hooves-Winner's Choice of 3 mini bottles-U.S. only

 Star Candy Nails-One bottle of polish-U.S. only

 Over the Top Coat-2 mini bottles of Hit Polish in Spellbound and Turq-ish Delight and assorted nail art goodies-U.S. only

Inner Glow Creations-Set of 2 cup cozies-U.S. only

  Chronically Fantabulous-$15 Llarowe gift certificate-U.S. and International

 A Charming Time-Flower ring-U.S. and International

 Patroozie's Polish-KleanColor Mini Green Addicts set-U.S. and International

 Patroozie's Polish-KleanColor Mini Blue set-U.S. and International

 Gothic Gala Lacquers-Winner's choice of either the Holo Deck Collection or the Valhalla Collection-U.S. and International 

What'd'ya think?  Are those some awesome prizes or what?!  I'm so excited to see who's going to win!  The Rafflecopter widget will accept entries through Nov. 3rd at midnight  and you can enter below.  Thanks so much and good luck everyone!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Nail Polish Is Poppin's One Year Blogiversary Giveaway!

October is shaping up to be a super exciting month for giveaways!  If you follow my Facebook page, you'll know that my Fall Hallow's Eve giveaway is set to start up tomorrow, but I wanted to let you guys know that I'm involved in another giveaway currently.  The ladies over at My Nail Polish Is Poppin' are celebrating their one-year blogiversary by having a fantastic giveaway!  There are a ton of awesome prizes up for grabs including prizes from LynBDesigns, Llarowe, Chirality, Gothic Gala Lacquers, just to name a few! 

I saw Leah and Panacea's call for collab prizes go out a few weeks ago and decided to join up for this giveaway.  They're both such sweet gals and they deserve an awesome party to celebrate all their hard work this past year.  After thinking long and hard (and losing the first package in the mail. Curse you, USPS!), I decided to donate 3 mini bottles of Hit Polish Nail Lacquer from her Halloween collection.  Rachel always comes up with such lovely creations and her Halloween polishes are stunning!  Check 'em out!

From left to right, this is Witches Brew, Halloween 2.0, and Jack Loves Sally.  They're all glitter toppers in a clear base and they are so pretty in person!  So that's my contribution to Leah and Panacea's awesome giveaway.  You can enter via the Rafflecopter widget below.  The giveaway runs through Oct. 20th, since many of the prizes are Halloween-themed, they wanted the winners to be able to have their prizes by the 31st.  This giveaway IS open internationally, so those of you not in the U.S. can definitely join in!  Ok, enough jawing from me...enter away!  Thanks for reading and good luck :)

P.S. If you're answering any questions in the widget that require a blog comment, you need to skip on over to the original post to answer them.  Leah & Panacea need to be able to verify the comment on their blog for your entry to count!  If you've already commented here on my post, never fear!  I'll make sure your entries still count!  But, for future reference, head on over to My Nail Polish Is Poppin' for those comment entries :)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Quick Announcement, A Seasonal Look, & A Happy Dance (or Two)

Good evening everyone!  I've had a really great couple of days so I wanted to share some good news with you.  First of all, you might notice a different look on the blog today.  I just love Fall and Halloween so much, I decided to decorate :)  I hope you guys like it!

If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen my update last night on my awesome news.  If you aren't following me, well then, click that little linky up there and join up! So, what is it, you ask that has me happy dancing like Carlton here? (And I realize I'm showing my age here, but if you don't know who Carlton is, I'm afraid I just can't help you)

Samantha of Gothic Gala Lacquers has asked yours truly to be a regular blogger for her polish!  I need another happy dance!

In case you can't tell, I'm pretty darn jazzed about this!  As those of you who blog know, it's hard work.  Aside from the nail polishing which includes painstaking cleanup, there's photo-taking and editing, social networking, and then you have to write the post and thinking up interesting things to say about basically the same topic several times a week is challenging to say the least.  Don't get me wrong, I love it, but it is hard work.  So, to be asked by an indie polish maker that I respect and whose products I love, to work with her on a regular basis to showcase her polishes...well, that feels pretty darn good! 

I've had a lot to celebrate lately with this blogging venture and, of course, it wouldn't mean near as much without all of you who take the time to read and comment on my posts and on Facebook.  I also mentioned that I'll be having a giveaway to thank you guys in the near future.  I'm calling it my Fall Hallow's Eve giveaway in honor of my favorite season and holiday.  The giveaway will start on Oct. 4th and run through Oct. 21st.  Since it will be a seasonal/holiday theme, I want to make sure the winners will be able to get their prizes before Halloween.  I'm working hard to get some fun goodies for you guys so make sure to keep your eyes out for the Rafflecopter widget!  The ladies from My Nail Polish is Poppin' have generously offered to join in and sponsor a couple of prizes as well...I can't wait to see 'em!

Thanks so much for reading!

Indie Spotlight: Gothic Gala Lacquers Enterprise & It's Green, Sir

Space: The Final Frontier!  That's our theme tonight, folks, as we explore two lovely polishes from Gothic Gala Lacquers' Holo Deck Collection (I love the name!).  Samantha, owner and creator of GGL, has really knocked it out of the park with this collection.  It consists of five polishes inspired by Star Trek and, as you may have guessed from the name, they all have holographic finishes!  I'm super impressed with these pretties, so let's get to some photos, shall we?

I'm starting with Enterprise; a steely grey polish with a scattered holographic effect that leans to a blue shimmer. Oh. Em. Gee., people!  This polish is gorgeous!  The grey perfectly captures the color of its futuristic namesake and the holo adds just that little something extra.
 

Look at that macro!  I'm all for a hit-you-upside-the-head linear holographic, but there's something to be said for subtlety that sneaks up and knocks your socks off, which is just what Enterprise does when the sunlight hits it.
 

Enterprise is a bit on the sheer side, taking 3 coats to full opacity for me, but that's a small price to pay for its loveliness.  The formula was great, no balding or dragging at all and dry time was quick.  If you're looking for an understated wow factor (if there is such a thing), Enterprise is your lady all the way!
 

Now we're gonna take a peek at It's Green, Sir.  This one is a favorite, not only because of it being fantastically magical (I mean, LOOK at it!), but because it's named after a quote from one of my favorite Next Generation characters, Data.  Is it possible to watch Next Generation and not want to hang out with Data for a day?  

Ok, ok, back to the polish!  IGS is a one-coat (though I used 2 for these photos), kelly green polish with a light scattered holographic effect.  I'm so in love with this polish, I can't even tell you!  It flowed off the brush on to my nail like buttah and the color! Oh! the color!  This is the most perfect green-green ever!  I can definitely see it as a holiday polish as well.  It's opacity makes it perfect for nail art and the sparkly bits just send it over the edge for me!
 

These two polishes are so great that I'm really regretting not buying the other three on pre-order.  Keep an eye out for other reviews on the other colors, I know I will!  The Holo Deck collection comes up for sale on Oct. 20th over on Gothic Gala's etsy site.  Do yourself a favor and go "like" GGL on Facebook, because you'll definitely want to keep up with Samantha's newest creations, release dates, and other important info!

As always, thanks so much for reading!