Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs - Embalming Fluid

Here I am!  Sorry about the delay; I've been sick on an off and couldn't stand the smell of polish and remover.  Today I present to you one of the coolest Glow-in-the-Dark polishes ever.

BPAL - Embalming Fluid!

It glows!!

Single coat in Sunlight.

Embalming Fluid over NYC Frightful Fingers - Franken Slime

Embalming Fluid over white.

This combination is my favourite.  I put a couple coats of Embalming Fluid over a white polish and it had the lovely "glowy" look that it has in the bottle.

Embalming Fluid over the other BPAL colours.

Embalming Fluid on it's own, Destroying Angel, Morgause, MME Moriarty, Bordello, Opium Poppy, Croquet.  The picture should be clickable to expand.

When you click on a picture you can see that Embalming Fluid is loaded with blue, green, purple, and orange iridescent glitter.  Not only does this glowing polish glow like the dickens when 'charged' but it has a unique sparkle to it as well.  Charging is just exposing your glow-in-the-dark polish to light before it can glow.

So far my favourite combination for Embalming Fluid is a few coats over white.  I really like the colour of the polish in the bottle and hope to find a base colour to match it one day.  

Have you tried Embalming Fluid?  If so, what is your favourite combination?

You can get Embalming Fluid at http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/ or directly here.

For more swatches of BPAL polishes check out my review here.

Thank you, Puddin', for letting me try out these gems!

[This product was sent to me by the company for review]

Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs [Pic Heavy]

Hello everyone!  I've been wanting to post these for a while now but so many things got in the way.  Most dismal weather that prevented me from getting any good lighting.  I'm going to break down and buy a light box set soon.

This is the last collection I tried with my "claws".  They unfortunately couldn't last for the entire collection.  I thought it was suiting since this is called Claw Polish! ;)

All photos *should* be clickable.

Bordello - dark pink/silver foil.  ONE COAT!!

I'll say it again.  ONE COAT!!1one

MME Moriarty - blood red jelly!  2 coats.

This looks more translucent in the photos than it did in real life.  Three coats might be required.

Morgause - burgandy with a slight pearl shimmer. 

I have trouble describing this one because it's so different in real life.  The colour is so rich and the pearl shimmer is very faint on the nail but you can tell it's there in the luster.  You can see it in the darker photo in the upper right. You can stick with 2 coats just fine but I did three coats to get the same richness that I see in the bottle.

Destroying Angel - dark chocolate brown creme. 2 coats

So glossy!

Maiden - sheer light pink 2 coats.

I honestly never get sheers right.  I would have loved this if it were a creme. 

Croquet - medium pink creme, 2 coats.

I can't believe I'm going to rave about a pastel pink polish.  This was the perfect consistency.  I have NEVER tried a pink cream in this colour range that wasn't streaky and difficult to manage.  Croquet was a little watery, but completely manageable.  I didn't once flood my cuticles or even fear it happening.  Not at all streaky.  If you like pink, this one is GOLD.

Opium Poppy - hot pink creme.  2 coats

Unfortunately I lost the photos for this one in a sea of pink polish pics that I was clearing out of my polish folder.  If this isn't enough I'll re-swatch this one!  It was as perfect in the application as Croquet.  Unfortunately is was clashing with my skin tone a lot in the photos which is why I might have accidentally deleted them.

Overall these polishes were pretty amazing to me for such an "unknown" brand.  I know BPAL has been surfacing pretty successfully in the nail polish blogging world but otherwise people I've spoken to don't really know about it.  The polish always applied well, dried well, and held up well with wear and tear.  I seriously hope they expand their colour selection because this can easily be one of my favourite brands of polish ever.  That is saying a lot.

The site can be a little tricky to navigate. http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/ You want to go to Trading Post, then nail polish.  As you can see they offer quite a bit from their site.

The direct link to their polishes is here.

I will be showing you more of another colour from Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs in a post of it's own.

Embalming Fluid. So check back next week!

If you have any questions about this brand or any of these polishes leave a comment!

[These polishes were provided to me by the company for an honest review]

China Glaze Awakening Collection

Happy Freaky-Friday, Darlings!

I'm just going to jump right to it since I cannot contain myself.

Ick-A-Bod-Y - Natural Light

 Ick-A-Bod-Y is an orange glitter polish with an olive green jelly base.  I used 4 coats in these pictures to get as much coverage as possible.  You might need to play with gently pushing the glitter around for even coverage.

Some suggestions for different looks might be to try a creme olive green base under Ick-A-Bod-Y for a more sparse green/orange glitter look.  I will try this closer to Halloween and show you.  I think you have correctly guessed that this is my favourite of the collection.  ;)

 

 Zombie Zest - Natural Light

Flash

As a lot of you may know, Zombie Zest is very similar to a couple other polishes recently released.  It is a delightful dark green jelly base with micro glitter that looks gold or green depending on the light or angle that you hold your hand at.  The only down part of this polish for me is that it is a very sheer formula.  This required 4 coats.  (I find that it is completely worth the trouble)

...the name is awesome too.

 Mummy May I - Natural (overcast) Light  Ahhhh nubbins!!

 With Flash

Mummy May I is a dark purple base with purple chunky glitter.  It is probably my least favourite of the collection, but still an excellent Halloween polish.

Did my nubbins frighten you?  Good.  This is a Halloween collection, you know.

o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o!!

Thank you China Glaze for another lovely collection!  

[This collection was provided to me by the PR company for an honest review... my opinions are always honest.  kkthxbai]

Fight like a Woman Collection

Today I'm showing you the Fight Like a Woman collection from China Glaze.  (And yes, I'm late.)

Encouragment - Natural Light, Two Coats

A baby pink how *I* image a baby pink would be.  Nice and pale.  Encouragment has a very pretty shimmer to it but I cannot nail down if it is a glass fleck or just a pale pink micro glitter.  Regardless it is very pretty.

Did anyone else get a bottle that was spelled wrong? Isn't it spelled Encouragement?  Oh well.

 

 Empowerment - Natural Light, Three Coats

Pastel pink creme.

 Endurance - Natural Light. One Coat

Medium-dark pink with glass fleck shimmer.

So here it is.  My first review for a while!  These polishes were of good consistency that I have come to expect from China Glaze.  I'm a little stunned that I got a one-coater out of these!  I have never had a once coater from China Glaze before.  Bravo!  The pastel was pretty typical of pastels, slightly streaky but I managed.   You might have noticed a slight bubbling in Encouragment and Empowerment, well, that was my fault.  I didn't realise it until I was editing these photos and I know why it bubbled too.  I was helping my friends move that day so my blood was pumping a little harder and it heated my otherwise corpse-like cold hands.  So FYI, the bubbles are not from China Glaze, they are from *gasp* exercise!

I've gotta talk about the names now.  You've noticed the theme.  Was I the only person who thought that calling the Pepto-pink "Empowerment" was totally weird?  Personally I would have swapped the names for Empowerment and Endurance.  It just seems like a better fit to me.

And now I come to the part where I talk about how breast cancer has touched my life.  Fortunately breast cancer doesn't run in my family.  Cysts and lumps in the breasts yes, breast cancer, no.  My Grandpa's second wife, "Grandma Jean" was hit by breast cancer pretty hard.  She had a double mastectomy when I was younger.  It had either spread to both breasts or she was high risk for getting it in the second breast so they removed them both in one go.  My Grandma was so brave.  I remember her joking about getting a Dolly Parton mastectomy bra for when she went out for parties.  She wanted "variety".  :P
I had my own little scare with breast cancer, thankfully it was just a big benign cyst and I had it removed because it felt like the size of a walnut on the upper side of my right breast.  I don't care about the visible scar at all, but now I'm feeling scar tissue develop on the inside of my breast and it makes me paranoid because I can't tell if there is a real lump there.  (I'm a bit paranoid)

ANYWAYS...  heres to the woman and men who who continue to fight for their lives against breast cancer.

Wassail!

[The collection was sent to me for an honest review by the PR company]

Orly Bloom Collection Review

Hello Ladies!
Writing this blog Sunday night so you can see it tomorrow morning.  (good morning!)
I wanted to try this collection out last weekend, but it was raining and overcast with clouds.
Anyways, this collection was released in the Spring 2010 so chances are you may have already seen it. :P

 

I started out with pink because I am rarely a fan of the colour.  Reminds me of Pepto and Barbie dolls. Unfortunately this pink wasn't doing me any favours.  Sorry pink lovers!

This is Blushing Bud.  It's a hot-pink creme with decent application.  This was 3 coats.

Pure Petunia is a pinky-purple creme.  The application was good, I still needed three coats though.  But It's not unusual for me to use three coats on a manicure.

 

Now this is an interesting colour.  In the bottle it looks like rust with a pink shimmer, and the only shimmer in this collection.  Strange, no?   On the nail Ginger Lily's pink shimmer isn't as obvious and the rich colour of the rusty red comes to life.  This is very unique.  Three coats.

 

I wore Thorned Rose for 5 days straight during the workweek.  In the bottle it looked like a dark berry colour, but on my skin it looked more like a dark red.  Only in some lights did it take on it's berry self.  I love this one.  Orly describes it as a Red Wine Creme, I agree... somewhat.  I thought this one was more like a jelly.  It didn't apply or even look like creme on the brush, and it took 3 coats.  The fact that I wore this colour for 5 days straight with minimal tip-wear is pretty amazing.

 

Oh, well hello there, green polish. Don't you look charming! Wandering Vine looked more subdued in the bottle, but on my nails it became a rich forest green. Two coats!!

 

Wild Wisteria is so wild it made my camera go bonkers.  It's not a navy, rather it is a royal purple creme. This applied like butter and required only two coats.  Below is a block of what I consider the "true" colour for reference since my photos didn't work out too well.

So what are your favourite colours in this collection?  Mine are Thorned Rose, Wandering Vine, and Wild Wisteria.