Lurid Lacquer An Unshakable Sense of Forboding Part 1 Swatches and Review

 Last fall, Lurid Lacquer, a relatively new brand, released a Halloween mystery advent called An Unshakable Sense of Foreboding Part 1 that featured all reflective glitter polishes. Since I am a fan of that finish, I definitely wanted to purchase it. The set included 10 polishes plus a guaranteed gift with purchase, with four possible options. The collection later released individually and I picked up the other three former gifts with purchase. They also had a follow on Part II collection of the same name, which was not a mystery set. I meant to get this posted last fall, but got really busy and then wanted to have it complete with all four gifts, so now I am finally done! Overall I think this was a great advent and would definitely purchased all of these colors independent of the advent. Some of my favorites / least favorites surprised me a little - I guess you never know what will really be magical until you get it on your fingers. Lurid Lacquer runs a voting system on restocks of past shades, so it is always possible that you can vote to get one of these restocked at some point. Some of the polishes featured here are available on the site now.

*Purchased*

Supermoon Lacquer March 2025 Duo and MLP Collection Swatches and Review

Supermoon Lacquer is releasing seven polishes on Wednesday, March 26 at 6PM CDT. This includes the March 2025 Duo, celebrating Mardi, the maker's, 40th birthday, and the MLP Collection, dedicated to My Little Pony. Each polish is priced at $12, or $55 for the full MLP Collection and $22 for the March 2025 Duo. Let's check them out!

*Purchased in advance*

LynB Designs 13 Days of Holo-Ween Beetlejuice Edition Advent 2024 Swatches and Review

I purchased a number of mystery advents last year and thought I would share some of them since there aren't a lot of photos out there. LynB Designs has one that counts down to Halloween and that was one I bought for the first time. The price was $85 for 13 polishes, which comes to $6.54 per polish. Since it contains one shatter finish, which the brand normally sells for $12 with no discounts due to the expense of the base, if you subtract that off the price, the other polishes average for a little over $6, which is the brand's regular price during 50% off sales. For fun, I will not only review and describe the polishes, but also ask the question, would I buy this one if it were not in a mystery collection. 

Royla Lee January 2025 Releases Swatches and Review

I'm finally back in business on the blog and Youtube! I was struggling with a gradually failing 10-year-old computer that would crash with anything graphics intensive. I could fumble through photo edits, but eventually video came to be impossible. After three weeks, my new Macbook Pro arrived from Chengdu, China, (I ordered a massive 2tb hard drive in it so it had to be custom assembled for me!) It is like the BMW 5-series of computers, lol. I was also finally able and motivated to fully move into Final Cut Pro for my video edits. I had been using it for Instagram reels, but this is my first full review video using it, and it will upscale to 4K. I hope you enjoy the better quality. At some point I need to get a better camera / lighting setup for video but that will have to wait. The computer was a big expense, but I needed it also because I'm finally finishing my masters degree and needed a computer that could handle a lot of photo files. Hopefully it will last me 10 years or more like the last one did.

Now for the review! I have the debut release of Royla Lee for you. This is a rebranding of Wildflower Lacquer to reflect the growth and spirit of Taylor's (the maker's) polish journey. The name is a tribute to her beloved Grandmother.  Anyone who has been following the brand for a while knows that Taylor absolutely loves and connects to things vintage and nostalgic and this collection taps into that. I know with any rebranding it involves and adjustment from the customer - that the name and logo won't match previous releases - and that not everyone will like it. I'm happy that the whimsy and humor of Wildflower hasn't gone away and that the branding better reflects what Taylor wants to explore creatively. Also, she was finally able to get screen-printed bottles! This is a big up-front cost for a brand, but saves labor and ensures the bottles will hold up against wear, acetone spills, etc. Now on to the goodies! The pre-order is open through January 19 at 6PM CST.

*press sample*