Nail Polish For Days

If you’re standing there gobsmacked, jaw hanging open in amazement and bewildered confusion, no, wonders have not ceased and your eyes are NOT deceiving you – this is an actual nail art-related post on this nail art blog!  I’d even go a step further and say it’s A post, period – I’ve been so remiss in providing any blogging updates that don’t involve D Who Shall Not Be Named, and for that I’m deeply sorry.  I aim to do better (#bloggoals.)

And so what pretties do we have here?  Well, three polishes – Polished For Days’ purple Fireflies, turquoise Willow and pink Unicorn – that broke my no buy fast, albeit via parentally-provided birthday funds.  So from a financial perspective, we’re still ahead of the game, although can I tell you how odd it was to actually spend money on something as seemingly frivolous as nail polish?  It felt weirdly illicit!  Also totally unfamiliar, perhaps because these three polishes represent the first lacquer I’ve purchased in over a year.  But heck of a way to break the fast, because this trio of polishes is stunning.  I nabbed these lacquers at Harlow & Co., where you’ll find a number of other gorgeous Polished For Days products, including some collection mates of Fireflies, Willow and Unicorn that are just itching to join their sisters in this good and loving home. 😉

First, a quick word about my selections – they are all wildly different polishes!  And that’s what I love about them, variety being the spice of life and all that.  Typically nail polish collections feature just one or two types of polish (creme, holographic, glitter, etc.) in a range of different colours.  In this case, the three polishes I chose are all completely different types that produce completely different effects.  The end result is I feel like I’ve gotten a lot more bang for my beauty buck far beyond a trio of beautifully unique polishes.

Starting things off with my favourite of the lot, we have Fireflies, a soft, almost dusky periwinkle-to-rose-to-green multi-chrome holo laden with iridescent, colour-changing flakies.  Phew, that was a mouthful, non?  But what a wonderful polish, completely worthy of the overly long description.  I’m particularly smitten with the iridescent flakies that flash in the heathered purple depths of this lovely lacquer.

Also – and this is a complete rarity with purple, blue and purple-blue anything – Fireflies as photographed presents exactly as it does in real life, so the colour you’re seeing right now – that lush, gorgeous grape – is exactly as it looks on your hand.  The random colour-changing flakies also lend this polish a nebula-ish, intergalactic kind of look, perfect for those days when you’d like to rock a Guardians of the Galaxy manicure without two hours of prior toil with a dinky little detail brush.

Next up we have my least favourite of the bunch – one had to be in third place, right? – Unicorn, a shimmery pink holo glitter sprinkled with iridescent, colour-changing flakies.  My issue with this polish is primarily one of consistency, in that I didn’t care for it – it applied thickly (though not unmanageably) and dried down to an almost textured-looking finish that, in combination with the not-so-flattering pink hue, reminds me of cheap polyester baby dresses, all crinkly sateen and crunchy lace trim.  On the nail, it regrettably doesn’t look as it does in the bottle – there it displays as a fuchsia-leaning pink shot through with warm, golden orange shimmer.  It was that unexpected (and unexpectedly gorgeous) colour combination that drew me to this polish in the first place, so it’s a shame that it all but disappeared once applied.

Unicorn is a nice enough polish and it will see some nail art use, but this one kind of annoys me – I’m loathe to spend money on stupid things these days, and this impulsive, not particularly inexpensive last minute choice (initially I was just going to go with Fireflies and Willow) has proven to be a poor one.  Lessons learned while I’m sitting here with nails that look like an electrified pink poodle?

Finally, we have the showiest polish of the bunch, and a serious challenger to the Fireflies throne, turquoise-to-purple holographic micro-glitter, Willow.  Wowza, this polish is absolutely gorgeous, and photos are definitely not doing it the least bit of justice.  There is so much depth to this polish – streaks of purest ultraviolet and aquamarine flash with every twist of your hand.  It’s dazzling.  Definitely one of those “Don’t stare at it too long or you’ll go blind” kind of polishes. 😉

And so there we have it, a trio of beautiful birthday treats that should keep me in well-polished spirits until next year!  Although hopefully I can manage another nail post before then, yes?  Absolutely!