LLPT's Best of 2013!! Indie Polishes

*contains press samples

Hi everyone!!  Before I get into it today I just want to chat about something happening in the blogging community right now.  I'm not a nail artist but I do know this-- crediting is important.  Whenever you take a design or technique that you found on the web and recreate it on your own blog/channel/IG/whatever, you credit and link back to the source of inspiration.  It's the decent thing to do and moreover, it's illegal not to.  When a big, well known blogging entity takes that and throws it out the window it is a big deal.  And for those of you who think it's okay,  check your references and consider that spending more time deleting and blocking anyone who suggests your designs aren't original than actually addressing the issue is as big an admission of guilt as anything.  No one is too big to credit, to follow the law, to be a decent person.  Here's a link to a video made by blogger/vlogger Zenorah fully addressing this issue that I shared on my fb yesterday, if you're interested.

Okay, moving on to my next installment of my favorite polishes of 2013... This was the year I had the opportunity to be immersed in the world of indie polishes.  I got to play around with some international as well as domestic brands and the things that impressed me the most are the sheer quality of these polishes (it seems a lesson in testing your product before marketing has been taken to heart by many) and how well defined the individual brands have become.  The gals who succeed and will succeed have a strong and distinct vision of who they are and it's been a joy to discover their world a little bit for myself.  Here are my top picks, in no particular order.

Alanna Renee It's A Boy! + Snips & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

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Good morning friends :) Do you feel like life just kind of amps up as soon as September hits?  For as busy as summer is, nothing really slows down and right now I think we've got something going on every weekend until mid October, lol.  It's all good and C and I are blessed to have a full life but I'm seriously looking forward to the next weekend we can spend largely in our pjs.

This weekend I attended the baby shower of a very good girlfriend and this little duo of polishes would've been so adorably appropriate.  She and her husband are opting not to learn the gender but the vast majority of us there think she's having a boy.  C actually dreamed it and he's got a track record of being correct about such things ;)

These two beauties are from Alanna Renee's new Bundle Of Joy collection.  It's A Boy! is great.  I'm always happy to see a stand alone polish from an indie and Alanna Renee does stand alone glitters perfectly, so I was really excited to get to try one of her new cremes.  It's A Boy! is a cool toned baby blue creme with a very subtle pearlescent shimmer.  The shimmer is barely visible on the nail; it makes the creme a little less glossy, and it aids in the formula, which glides on like butter.  It's A Boy! is opaque in two coats.  

 Snips & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails is a corresponding glitter topper with tiny, kind of dusty medium blue and red glitters and medium sized hexes of the same color.  They're super reflective and flash all sorts of different colors as the light hits them.  I used one coat of Snips & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails as my accents.

Alanna Renee glitters take the most excellent bottle shots ♥♥♥

The set is rounded out with a matching It's A girl! creme and glitter, and a pale yellow creme.  Perfect shower favors, right?  They're just so pretty and versatile, though, that they'll be a joy, lolol, to wear all year 'round.

The entire Alanna Renee Bundle Of Joy collection is available for purchase internationally at color4nails.com for $10 a bottle.

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Thank you for reading and have a marvelous day! ♥♥

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Alanna Renee Stupefy

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So I've had this older Disturbed song in my head for the past week or so and I haven't been able to remember the name, until last night....

Today's polish is Alanna Renee Stupefy, from the new Magical World collection.

Stupefy is a bright, rosy pink creme/jelly hybrid with white textured bits and satiny pink hex glitters.  It's kind of like Butterbeer's pink sister, but for some reason, this pink base is a litttle more adept at suspending the white bits and evenly distributing the glitters.  Stupefy is such a pretty, perfect summer pink.  I used two coats of polish and have a bit of visible nail line.  I felt like three coats would have made this a little thick, as the glitters and bits are a tad bit chunky.  I also used three layers of topcoat, which, though this is perfectly smooth, was probably overkill and you could definitely get away with two.

I have to really commend Alanna Renee on her formulas, here.  I've worn five of her polishes, now, and they've all been remarkable in application-- easy to control, the right amount of thickness, and the glitters all come out perfectly every time. 

I love how squishy Stupefy looks in this one :)

I feel like this is probably one too many photos, lol, but I just love how pretty this color is!  And you'll forgive me if Stupefy reminds me more of a heavy metal band than it does a Harry Potter spell. ;) Look in my face, stare in my soul....

Alanna Renee Stupefy and the entire Magical World collection are available for sale internationally through Color4Nails for $11.  Orders are taken through email at color4nails21@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have the entire weekend off ;)

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Alanna Renee Fawkes

 *product(s) sent for review

Good morning, friends!!  Meet Fawkes, a deep, gleaming glitter from Alanna Renee's Potter-inspired Magical World collection.  Fawkes is gorgeous and, in my opinion, the standout of this fun collection.

Fawkes is comprised of medium sized red hexes, gold hexes that flash teal, tiny red and gold glitters, and a smattering of holographic glitter in a very sheer red jelly base.  The effect is fiery and brilliant.  The base itself is very hard to bring to opacity but the glitters are so plentiful that three coats will give you a full coverage look.  This is what I used here.  It's a chunky glitter, but not terribly so.  Multiple layering of this one doesn't give the appearance of thickness on the nail.  Two coats of topcoat smooths this polish out.

Because base of Fawkes is so sheer, I thought I'd play with it as a topper over one of my red jellies.  Here it is in one coat over L'Oreal Rendezvous.

I love the versatility of this glitter-- the fact that it's a beautiful and complex stand alone that also has multiple layering possibilities.  I'm really excited to play with this one some more.

Alanna Renee Fawkes and the entire Magical World collection are available for sale internationally through Color4Nails for $11.  Orders are taken through email at color4nails21@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading ♥♥

*product(s) sent for review

Alanna Renee Butterbeer

*product(s) sent for review

Hello!!  A couple weeks ago I showed you a couple gorgeous new polishes from Australian indie maker Alanna Renee.  She's now got her second collection out, a super fun and summery mix of stand alone glitters inspired by Harry Potter.  The collection is Magical World.  This polish is Butterbeer.

 Butterbeer is a very chunky glitter in a lovely, creamy peach base.  This one can be worn a couple different ways.  Besides the beautiful, satiny peach hex glitters, it's loaded with tiny white particles similar to the mica bits in OPI's Liquid Sand polish, Vesper.  Two coats will give Butterbeer a fun textured finish with a higher gloss on account of the white bits being less plentiful.  Two coats of a nice, thick topcoat will smooth this out nicely.  This is how I'm wearing it.

That beautiful base is a jelly/creme hybrid, so the hexes will be more readily apparent with a really good shaking of the bottle every couple nails or so.  They come out nicely once they've been assimilated into the middle of the bottle.  The polish applies easily and streak free, a welcome change from most lighter colors.

Alanna Renee Butterbeer and the entire Magical World collection are available for sale internationally through Color4Nails for $11.  Orders are taken through email at color4nails21@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading and may the day be gentle with you. ♥

*product(s) sent for review

Alanna Renee Mardi

*product(s) sent for review

Good morning!!  I get to show you another gorgeous Alanna Renee creation today.  These polishes are wonderful-- individualistic, packed with character, and completely stand alone; no base color needed.  This one's another spot-on perfectly named glitter, Mardi.

Mardi is a beautiful bright rose pink jelly packed with gold shimmers and fuschia hex glitters.  It's stunning, glitzy, decadent, and totally fun, everything you'd expect out of a carnival celebration.  It's like a Mardi Gras mask for your fingers, minus the maribou.   

Mardi's formula is fantastic, easy to apply, and perfect in three coats.  The glitters are small and uniform, so they are evenly distributed on each nail.  Drytime is minimal and two layers of topcoat make this polish as smooth as a creme.  This polish is amazing.

 
Alanna Renee Mardi is available for sale internationally for $11 at Color4Nails.  Orders are taken through email at color4nails21@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading and have an amazing weekend! ☼

*product(s) sent for review

Alanna Renee Black Cherry

*product(s) sent for review

I'm a big fan of stand-alone indie polishes, those that require no base color and are totally wearable on their own.  Alanna Renee, a new polish maker out of Australia, has a full lineup of beautiful, unique, and packed with personality polishes as such.  This one is Black Cherry.

Unless you've got the thing under a macro lens, Black Cherry looks fairly unassuming in the bottle-- variantly shaped red glitters in a black base with tiny, matte black glitters that seem superfluous as the base would all but hide them.  You can imagine my surprise when I opened the bottle and saw that the base is actually a juicy, pinot noir colored jelly.  The red glitters, of which there are many, come out plentiful and different on each nail; I predominantly got small hexes and medium squares.  The large red hexes eluded me but this polish is so full of character that I hardly minded not being able to catch one.

Application is a breeze and the brush small, flat, and pliable.  I used two coats of polish and two layers of topcoat here.

 

I just love this-- the juicy, vampy base, the subtlety of the glitters, the fact that Alanna successfully managed to turn a Bing cherry into a gorgeous nail polish.  

Alanna Renee Black Cherry is available for purchase internationally at Color4Nails for $11.  Orders are taken through email at color4nails21@gmail.com.

Thanks for reading and have a marvelous day! ☼

*product(s) sent for review