Colors by Llarowe "The Journey" Collection swatches and review (partial)

Hi guys!

Today I have swatches and review of five polishes from the brand new "The Journey" Collection by Leah Ann behind Colors by Llarowe.

Little history of our relationship before I jump into the swatches:

I spent years dreaming about Indie polishes, as for me they were absolutely unreachable...

About four years ago for unfortunate reasons I spent a lot of time home watching YouTube videos. I discovered JessFace90 (when she was sitting on the carpet in the front of her bed), making not really high quality videos - not like today - all about Indie polishes. These videos literally kept me alive, my knowledge and curiosity was slowly growing day by day.

At one day I came across Rainbow Connection. Well, that day changed my options, suddenly I was able to put my paws on a large variety of gorgeous Indie polishes. Have to admit, my bank account haven't recovered since... :)

I tried nearly everything I could reach, and it did not take long for me to realise, which brand I really like.

Hands down, CBL is my favourite Indie brand! I love the quality, the bottles, the wide brush, the simplicity of the logo, the incredible variety of colours and finishes.

The newest collection called "The Journey" is not an exception either. This collection contains 12 stunning polishes, today I will show you five of them.

Here is a little overview of my precious five:

These polishes are all very pretty, and each of them got a very special meaning to Leah Ann, which makes me feel, that she is sharing herself, her story with me, so I feel special!

The firs polish I will show you is called "Out of the Darkness". This one is also special to me, as I have been in the darkness, and I'm lucky to be out of it!

It is a stunning white/silver extremely sparkly micro glitter polish with a gold sheen and subtle purple shimmer.

It is very a complex, rich polish with a depth screaming Winter to me! I see a peaceful moment in the park covered in snow, the faint Sunshine is joining us, playing joyful on the glitters...

Absolutely stunning, breathtaking sparklyness! The formula is just as perfect, smooth, easy to apply, completely opaque in just two coats! Can't wait to wear this polish again! :)

Second in the row is "Dance with the Devil". If you are following me on Instagram, you know, I have a weakness for red polishes. It was not a question I will order this beauty:

I was just: WOW! :) Actually was staring on the bottle for several minutes... before I had to remind myself, that I have to open it! And the magic began!

OMG! This blood red sparkling pretty is just incredible! If there is the One Ring, than this is the One Polish! Ladies and gentleman, the picture above shows one coat. Blown away, One Coat! I couldn't believe! Very easy to apply, such an amazing depth again! I'm head over hills in love with this baby!

I didn't really wanted to take it off, but this is the best/worst dilemma of swatching: being surrounded with the most beautiful polishes... :)

Here comes "The Journey Begins":

This is a dark raspberry red polish jam packed with holographic micro glitter! It is fully opaque in two very easy coats, and it's just sparkle on crack...

The picture above is not entirely perfect, I have a bit of a struggle to hold the camera at the moment.

This picture gives the colour back perfectly! It is such a rich juicy shade! Absolutely stunning!

"Healing Waters" is next!

This is in a shade of blue which is my favourite, and just as the last one, this is also full of holographic glitter, but also a duochrome glitter/flakie which shifts from dark blue to teal green.

It's not easy to describe the glow what is coming from this gorgeousness, somewhere from the deep water! I absolutely love this polish! Reminds me of the time in my life when water played a huge roll to keep me going! True to the name, heals my soul!

The last polish I bought form the collection is "Empty Heart":

This tiny bottle of mesmerising complexity is everything but "Empty"!

I would say it's the most difficult to describe! It's a dove grey holographic polish leaning a bit mink, sprinkled with silver to blue holographic glitter. It's like the most beautiful secret, what doesn't reveals itself easily.

In certain ways it's very simple, but eye catching, neutral but intangible. The more I look at the bottle, it gives me a slight feel of sadness, like I'm locked into a room, where the Sunshine is only coming through the keyhole. I know how the Sun feels on my skin, but I only have a ray of it... Sounds silly, but I want to go trough the keyhole, I want to go into the bottle to be part of this indescribable amazingness! Mesmerising polish, nearly opaque in one coat, but gives full coverage in two coats.

All these polishes have the perfect consistency, very easy to apply, glides on nearly from itself! They all dried slightly dull, so they all would benefit from a topcoat, but they all dried smooth, and were very easy to remove.

All in all I'm very happy with my purchase, all the polishes are amazing, some of them reminded me of long forgotten things, making me appreciate where I am now, and who I became!

Thank you so much Leah Ann for creating this collection! As it does to you, it means a lot to me as well!

If you are interested on this collection, you can find the individual shades here.

I hope you enjoyed my very long post, thank you so much for stopping by! Xxx

Esmaltes da Kelly "Kelly Negri" stamping plates swatches and review

Hi guys!

Here I have a few of the new "Kelly Negri" plates from Esmaltes da Kelly to show you. If you know Kelly and her polishes, you probably know that she is making amazing cream stamping polishes, and the most incredible holographic stamping polishes.

Today I have swatches and review of her newest creations, the "Kelly Negri" stamping plates. 

The collection contains 8 plates, they are all beautiful, and I think she had everybody in her mind creating this collection containing all sorts of images.

The plates are 8x8 cm, and the images 1,5x2 cm. Some images are smaller, some much bigger! :)

I bought three of them, here they are:

I will show you 3 images from all the plates, and one bonus :)

If you follow me on Instagram, you will see my latest manicure, wearing "Tristam" from A England. This polish is amazing! It is a deep navy slightly holographic polish with a hint of dark purple flash, and a mesmerising depth.

I used this base for all the stamping today, and I will use one of the best silver holographic stamping polishes on the market, "Andromeda" from Esmaltes da Kelly:

First of all I protected my skin with liquid latex. Normally I'm to lazy, but with a holographic polish it's a little bit different. If you are looking for a bottle of this time saver, you can find one here.

Let's start with the first one, KN01.

This plate is a mixture of geometric, floral, and abstract patterns. I do like all of them! Here are the swatches:

The second plate is just as amazing! I really had a hard time choosing the image! :) Here is KN02:

This plate is another crowd pleaser with all the different designs! :) Here are the swatches:

The last plate is amazing too! I sound like a broken record here, but they are really a joy to work with! So this is KN08:

This plate has smaller and larger pictures as well as the medium ones throughout the collection. At this point you can tell I love geometric patterns... Here are the swatches:

After a quick clean up and a layer of topcoat, here is the result:

And a rare picture of my Cindy hand:

All in all I'm in love with these plates! The images are large enough for my wide nails, but even for smaller nails the designs are full of opportunities!

The quality of these plates is excellent, I haven't had a problem picking up at all!

Again, I'm full of ideas of colour combinations, as these plates are offering so much more!

If you are interested on these plates you can find them on Rainbow Connection's website.

I hope I could inspire you to try stamping, or if you are into stamping already, I hope I could introduce you to a new brand!

Thank you so much for stopping by, and see you soon! Xxx

Pueen Theme Park Collection stamping plate review

Hi guys!

I'm back today with another stamping plate review. :)

I ordered these plates straight after they launched as I just fell in love with them. I do have another Pueen plate, so I was not questioning the quality. This brand is growing fast, and I have to say, they have a big selection of stamping supply.

The plates just arrived earlier this week, and I couldn't wait to try them!

Here I have an overview of them (sounds very posh on my two plates...) :)

They are both from the newly released "Theme Park Collection". This collection contains 4 stamping plates. I bought two of them, and was as excited to receive them as it would be Christmas.

Well, here they are, and I couldn't be happier! :)

Both plates were coming in a paper sleeve with a little plastic window (sorry, I had to take the blue film off this one before I made the picture) The whole packaging screams good quality already.

The first one I would like to talk about is the "Visual Wonderland 01".

On the back it's got instructions how to use the plate, with a background out of the images on the plate.

It does have geometric and also visually confusing images. Love it so much!!! The plate has got a thick plastic back, which helps in the use, will prevent any bending and the sharp edges of the plate aren't a danger to anyone! 

The back of the plate got the same patterns on as the sleeve, and also the name of the collection and the plate itself.

My hand was itching to make some swatches of these images, so here they are:

I probably don't have to tell you, I was squeaking! I really feel inspired to jump deep into decal making with all the different images on this plate! Absolutely amazed by the quality of these carvings, I haven't had an issue picking up any of the pictures, even the more detailed and fine lined ones like shown on the last picture.

With the other plate I was just as excited! :)

This plate is called "Marble Paradise 01" simply because it contains all images which look like water marble. So whoever is struggling with dripping polish in a cup of water, this might be the ultimate solution!

As you can see the plate contains all sort of designs what can be made by water marble. Amazing images!!!

The back of the plate is just as stunning! I really enjoy that they gave so much attention to details with these plates!

The icing on the cake is, that these images are quiet large. I do have wide nails, so unfortunately some of the images on plates by different brands won't fit my nails... However these are so big, I had to change the stamper to be able to pick up the whole image properly! :)

Won't tease you longer, here are the swatches of some images from the Marble Paradise plate:

I'm absolutely blown away! Stunning images, incredible quality, very easy to use! The images would fit from small to wider nails, which is the added bonus!

Really want to start to experiment with decals now, so many colour combinations are swirling in my mind now! :)

All in all I'm very happy I bought these plates! If you are interested on them, here is the link to the Visual Wonderland plate and if you got inspired and would love to try some effortless water marble, here you can find the Marble Paradise plate. (For shipping I paid $4,99 which is absolutely fine!)

As a stamping polish I used Moyra black, which you can find on Rainbow Connection's website. Both the stampers are from AliExpress, you can find the links to them in my previous posts.

I hope you enjoyed this review, and thank you so much for stopping by! See you soon! Xxx