Monday, December 29, 2014

Candy Lacquer "Polar Unicorns" + "Santa's Beach House" ... Christmas In July

 Hello, darlings!  The glitter pretties I have to show you today were actually released this past summer as part of the Christmas in July collection, along with déjà-vu "Rudolph's Rum Punch", and while I almost love Christmas enough to want to celebrate it year round, I'm most in the mood for it around, well, Christmas!  I just really like immersing myself in the season and moment at present, and so I have actually saved these since August to enjoy during the most festive and wonderful time of the year!


"Polar Unicorns"

"Santa's Beach House"

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"Polar Unicorns" is a crystalline glitter confection of pearlized white, ice blue, frosting pink, pale heather purple, and light aurora yellow; holographic aquamarine, lavender, silver, rose, and gold; and finally and most predominantly, pure matte snowy white glitters, cut into every size and shape imaginable: teensy tiny to large hex, square, circle, diamond, heart, star glitters, and even a precious snowflake!  There are so many components that I am still finding surprises; for example, a large silver holographic circle that appears to have a sandblasted stardust finish has floated to the surface just now, though I've never seen a glitter like it and I'm wondering if this particular one is dissolving in the base.  Little iridescent squares that shift through all colors like a film made of the Northern Lights sparkle elusively amongst the glitter blizzard.




These swatches represent approximately 1.5 coats of "Polar Unicorns" swept and dabbled into place over Fair Maiden Polish "Frozen Heart".  "Polar Unicorns" is very glitter-dense, but as with all heavy and varied glitter toppers, some amount of manipulation and supplementation is often necessary for best distribution and effect.  It's no surprise why I needed this polish; in addition to its obvious arctic beauty, the concept of "Polar Unicorns" is completely irresistible to me.  Just behind unicorns, the Far North is a subject of infinite allure to my imagination (and it will surprise you not a whit that some of my favorite books are indeed His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, etc) and East, an adaptation of the Norwegian fairytale East of the Sun and West of the Moon, which despite its name plays out its most fascinating scenes at the northernmost pinnacle of the world).

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"Santa's Beach House" is a sweetly serene spackling of glitters suited equally well to sand or snow, in shades of light aurora yellow, soft sky blue, frosting pink, muted cerulean, palest peach, light lavender and heather purples, iciest blue, and putty greige.  Small iridescent film squares flashing watery hues of blue and green sparkle amongst the gentle sheen of the otherwise pearlescent glitters, in a range of shapes and sizes: hex, circle, diamond, triangle, square, star, heart, and, rarely, a donut or blossom!  I don't actually care for donut glitter (they seem 60's and mod to me), but there aren't very many in there, and I covered up the eye of the one I did fish out with a hex glitter so it was all good.  If you do love donut glitter, Sandra includes a little glitter baggie with tons of them that you can place where you like!




I again used approximately 1.5 layers of glitter, this time over Laquerlicious "Warm Sugar Cookies".  These two were like a match made in heaven!  "Warm Sugar Cookies" is a shimmering wintery nude, and yet also speaks the language of sand and surf.  (FYI, what might appear to be bubbles are actually the pink and gold glitters sparkling from within the nude crelly of "Warm Sugar Cookies"!)  The sandy grayish-tan glitters in "Santa's Beach House" have the converse effect, while also tempering the pastels with just enough sophistication to elevate the color palette from nursery to Nantucket. 

After all of that worldwide present parceling, I think we can all agree that Santa deserves a nice break at this time of year, and I feel that this glitter composition precisely illustrates the mood and character of that well-earned holiday.

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"Santa's Beach House", "Polar Unicorns", and the other delightful Christmas in July polishes will hopefully be making a return when (if?) Sandra reopens her bigcartel site after the holidays.  Until then, her Etsy shop is open with a comparatively smaller selection of Candy Lacquers!

Do you celebrate Christmas in July?

XOXO
Marisa + Sprinklepuff

2 comments:

  1. Your love for these glitters is quite evident in how carefully you enumerate and describe their contents, it's a joy to read! Excellent review!

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    1. Oh Liz, you're just my favorite ♥ I do love glitters, so so much, though maybe not quite so much as I would if they could make it longer than a day before they flaked on me! It's the only turnoff, besides occasional bubbling. But in the bottle, there's nothing better than a good confetti mix of glitter.

      Candy Lacquer glitters are so complex that if I were to actually sit and list every single thing it would just be absurd, if not impossible, but I do try to get close! I like to at least cite every color and shape. It can get pretty long, so I'm very glad that you don't think I'm crazy!! I get kind of obsessive about it because there is nothing that is more frustrating to me than the description "multicolored glitter". I'm neurotic enough that I need to know EXACTLY what colors, finishes, etc are in there. It's honestly one of the main reasons I started this whole thing! I figure now that there are at least two of us out here who will ruthlessly break a polish down to its smallest, most infinitesimal particulate of a trait, we can pretty much tag-team it all, Liz ;) xoxo

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