Guest Post with *Lacquer Slacker Liz* featuring CrowsToes: An Edgy Ocean Dream

Happy day, Twinklings!!  And what a special day it is here on this tiny, twinkling blog, to receive a visit from my very own polish angel... Lacquer Slacker Liz!  Polish angel, nairy godmother, blogger BFF; if blogging is an adventure at sea, an edgy ocean dream even, then Liz has been my lighthouse.  Not only does this fabulous lady have a discerning sense of color and a meticulous eye for detail, she writes with a compelling degree of humor, sincerity, and passion little seen in beauty blogging, or the written word in general.  I tend to start my morning reading Lacquer Slacker Liz, for the polish of course but also simply for Liz's clever quips and brilliant descriptions- I always end up with a smile on my face, and I often feel like standing and applauding Liz's en pointe narrative :)  She also tends to capture the many personalities of a polish in many lights, in such a way that I have been frequently smacking my own forehead for having passed up whichever lacquer that Liz then goes and reveals to be such a gem.  Exquisite torture.

Besides producing an excellent resource for polish lovers, Liz is full to bursting with vibrant enthusiasm and golden-hearted generosity, and it has been my greatest pleasure in blogging to get to know this fellow color lover and lacquer loony.  (Sorry not sorry for all the sappy sap... sometimes you just gotta get down with your feels ;) )  Behold, and enjoy!!

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Thanks so much, Marisa, for welcoming me to Tiny Twinklings!

I'm totally psyched to be guesting here as I'm a huge fan! I'm afraid I won't be able to duplicate Marisa's engaging, whimsical style or her beautiful prose, but we share a serious enthusiasm for color as a replenishing source of joy that feeds the soul as well as the eyes. The featured polish for my post is one that I purchased specifically with Marisa in mind, long before she asked me to guest post, because it does exactly that.

An Edgy Ocean Dream was created by indie polish maker CrowsToes exclusively for international etailer Edgy Polish in Sweden. I came across this beauty on Be Happy and Buy Polish and was immediately smitten. Sending away for a polish from Sweden is a bit of an extravagance, but as Jessica said in her review, this one is worth it. Described very simply as a "mid-tone aqua holo with a highlight of golden flecks," this is a gorgeous complex holographic polish in a vibrant medium-light aqua enriched by superabundant golden flakes. The reflective flakes take on a gleaming pale sea green look from the base color, giving the polish a lush tropical south sea vibe, and add a beautiful burnished foily speckled look to the polish in indirect light and shade. In direct sun there is a magnificent linear prismatic display with a blazing central flame of cerulean blue edged by sparkling bands of aqua, green, yellow and red, all floating over a semi-metallic flash of pale sea green. So gorgeous! 

Application was a pleasure. The consistency of An Edgy Ocean Dream is fluid, full-bodied and dense with flakes. It has a certain thickness because of that, but nevertheless goes on with a creamy, self-leveling flow over the nail. Pigmentation is very good, with completely even opaque coverage in two medium coats, which is what I used for this manicure. Cleanup is fairly straightforward with a little bit of stickiness on the part of the golden flakes. An Edgy Ocean Dream dries naturally in very good time to a silky smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat does not diminish the holographic effects in any way. 

Photos show two coats of An Edgy Ocean Dream over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. 

What did I tell you? Just wonderful and totally worth the postage from Sweden. It got here really quickly, too. I love the complexity of greens and blues and the semi-tarnished foily finish that is created by the inclusion of the gold flakes with the holographic formula -- they play together so very well. And the name is perfect, no? 

Thanks for reading! 

love,

Liz

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Lacquer Slacker Liz

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check out some of the recent activity on Lacquer Slacker Liz:

Lacquer Slacker Liz

>> http://lacquerslackerliz.blogspot.com/2015/05/polish-my-life-blue-pansy-and-mentality.html <<

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Lacquer Slacker Liz

>> http://lacquerslackerliz.blogspot.com/2015/05/girly-bits-youre-my-hooper-hero.html <<

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Lacquer Slacker Liz

>> http://lacquerslackerliz.blogspot.com/2015/05/essie-petal-pushers-and-shimmer-polish.html <<

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Lacquer Slacker Liz

>> http://lacquerslackerliz.blogspot.com/2015/04/alchemy-lacquers-naiad-of-spring.html <<

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I just want to thank our lovely Liz again for guest posting during this insane time of my life.  An angel, indeed!!!  And how gorgeous is this polish?!  I sometimes think Liz might be clairvoyant; really, it was like she premeditated me when she proposed this lacquer as our guest star.  She'd already known I'd love it when I didn't even know it existed, haha!  I, too, am enthralled with this inspiring name, its physical manifestation, and of course the permeating Swedish-ness of it all...  I'm a fourth Swedish myself, and the fact that this polish comes exclusive from the charming city of Malmö is quite compelling to the imagination.  How luxurious!  

I see I have disappointingly few personal photos of Malmö, but voilà, here I am with Santiago Calatrava's infamous Turning Torso.  I had just graduated high school and was excited to be starting architecture school; now, five years later, I am about to graduate college, and am excited to be soon starting out in the profession for realsies.  Funny how things come full circle, isn't it?

XOXO

Marisa + Sprinklepuff 

Rainbow Honey "Gingered!"

 Hello there, Twinklings!!  Rainbow Honey's December limited edition polish hasn't made it onto the interwebs much yet, though I can't for the life of me think why.  I mean look at it; it's almost like sitting cozy by the fireside, wherever you are.

 

"Gingered!" is a tiger lily metallic, a molten copper suffused with fierce orange tones and accented with flakie sparks of gold and peony pink.  Effervescent, hot, and sharply sweet, this polish really captures the keen, delicious burn of candied ginger.  Not to mention, it is scented like gingerbread!!!!  The fragrance perseveres through topcoat, so no worries on that count, and for the most part smells delectably like warm, sweetly spiced gingerbread cookies. 

Sephora Formula X "Alchemy" & China Glaze "Golden Seal"

Happy Fifth Day of Christmas, loves!  I didn't even realize that we are already halfway through the Twelve Days of Christmas until an hour and a half ago, and even though I have a terrifying mountain of holiday swatches sitting on my desktop dying to be posted, I just had to make last minute room for these ones in honor of them *five ... golden ... rings*!!!!!

China Glaze "Golden Seal" + Sephora Formula X "Alchemy"

Sephora Formula X "Alchemy"

China Glaze "Golden Seal" + Sephora Formula X "Alchemy"

Candy Lacquer "Rudolph's Rum Punch"

Happy Monday, Twinklings!  Three days to Christmas... is everyone ready??  I am patently not; the season has really blazed by for me, and seeing as how I'm currently in Illinois for my grandma's funeral, we can anticipate that Christmas is going to be something of an improvised affair, but while I love traditions I'm surprisingly okay with that.  After all, these blank slate occasions are when new traditions are made.

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Now that Rudolph is the most popular reindeer, I'm sure he throws simply smashing Christmas parties (responsibly, and after all the toys are delivered to all the girls and boys, of course).  Thankfully, Candy Lacquer has bottled up the holiday spirits (tee hee) so that even those of us who can't conveniently attend North Pole soirées might appreciate the warmth and cheer of a good rum punch ;)

M.A.C. Cosmetics: A Novel Romance Collection swatches "Before Dawn" & "Midnight Storm" (feat. "Girl Trouble")

Hello loves!!  M.A.C. released their early fall collection A Novel Romance back in August, but I'm much more in the mood for them now than I was in the sultry days of late summer.  Once I was acclimated to deep, cozy colors again, I knew that I needed these because I just love the concept of this collection.  It's page-turning perfection, right on down sickeningly sappy promotional images.  Yup, nailed it.

M.A.C. A Novel Romance "Before Dawn" & "Midnight Storm" (feat. "Girl Trouble")

Rainbow Honey : The Yokai Collection : "Kitsune" & "Hebi" swatches

Hello, goddesses!  Many of you have been waaaiiiiting and waaiiiting for the Yokai, and as of this month they have returned, and doubled!  Last fall Rainbow Honey released the first three Yokai, and I'm so happy that you're here to help me welcome Part 2.  In case you were wondering, yokai are "a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore".  The word yokai comes from the kanji for "bewitching, attractive, calamity" and "appartion, mystery, suspicious". (Thanks, Wikipedia.)  The pair I have for you today deliver on all counts (especially attractive)!  I thought they made particularly bewitching couples when paired with some of the polishes from the September Mystery Bag <3

Rainbow Honey : The Yokai + guests from the September Mystery Bag

Butter London : Top of the Pops box swatches [[ La Moss, Toff, & Earl Grey winks and lacquers and lippies, oh my ]]

Hey there, gorgeous!  Today I have for you an awesome limited edition box from Butter London that is currently on sale for $19 at Ulta.  I don't imagine that it will be around for much longer so if you like any of the colors I wouldn't wait to snap this one up.  Any University of Montana Griz fans in the house?!?  You're going to looovvve this box, with its chic shades of silver and maroon that really are great (GRRrreat, that is) for any occasion but are especially perfect for game day.  Go Griz!!!  <3

The Top of the Pops *Greatest Hits* box includes a Lippy liquid lipstick in "Toff" ($18), nail lacquer in "La Moss" ($15), a Scrubber 2-in-2 Prep & Remover Wipe ($1), Wink cream eye shadow in "Earl Grey" ($18), and a Wink eye pencil, also in "Earl Grey" ($18).  So you can see, this is truly a fabulous deal!

Butter London : Top of the Pops box

Wet n' Wild : Enchanted Halloween : Happy Hour Hop, Roadwork, Pot of Gold, & Under Your Spell

Hello, Twinklings!!  It's my last week in Montana before I have to go back to school, and it's been bumming me out but I can't be too sad because it's my birthday week!!!  Whee!!  Yes, I am unabashedly a birthday week person.  I can't help it, I just love birthdays.  Secretly, I've been kind of having a birthday month, mostly because it has been my last-ditch validation for all of my makeup shopping :)  As a result of Birthday Month activities, I have lots of fun new stuff to show you before I become bogged down with thesis research next week.  My fall collections packages have begun arriving *today* so while I'm swatching those like crazy, I wanted to share with you part of a collection that has come as a pleasant surprise to me: Enchanted Halloween!!

Wet n' Wild : Enchanted Halloween

Nail of the Day: Rainbow Honey "Siren Song" + "Pinkie Promise"

This is a bit cruel, but I'm sorry, these are too fabulous to keep to myself!!  The awesome Carolyn of Rainbow Honey surprised me with a few treats tucked into my giant RH haul package, and they just made me so happy :)  "Siren Song" of the Spring 2012 Chrono Cross collection and "Pinkie Promise" of the Summer 2012 Equestria collection are colors that I missed out on long ago and it was like a balm on my aching heart to see them in person!!  Sadly they are discontinued, so I will not torture you with descriptive odes to their gloriousness.  But can we just appreciate for a second the years and years of endlessly imaginative creations that the RH Lab has dreamed up??  Color me impressed.  And in love <3 

Rainbow Honey "Siren Song" + "Pinkie Promise"

For the curious, this is two coats of "Pinkie Promise" over OPI "Sorry I'm Fizzy Today" on my ring finger, and two coats of "Siren Song" on the rest.

Rainbow Honey is may be found online { http://www.rainbowhoney.com/ }.  I am SO UNBELIEVABLY EXCITED to see what's in the September Mystery Bag, and to try out my Limited Edition of choice, Calabaza!!!  I've been looking forward to this for WEEKS!!!! xxxooo

Butter London: Brick Lane Collection "Dubs" & "Twigged" ( & "Marrow", for good measure )

I obviously would like to be a princess, but I have to admit: living with royalty is exhausting.  I know this because I live with my dog May, and May is quite confident that she is queen.  Like the other day, I had just returned from a run and was serenely doing pigeon stretch when all of a sudden I feel this furry flop on my leg, and there's May stubbornly nesting down in the most ungainly fashion possible.  I kind of huffed at her incredulously, and she just looked at me like, "quiet, fool, I am napping now".  The pups get sassy when they do not feel that they have gotten enough pettings, though to judge by the state of my leggings that clearly can not be the case.  May is queen and she'll flop where she wants, and that's that, humans.

May: "You're on my spot."

Among polish, however, it's Butter London that's queen.  Butters have been a special favorite of mine since the dawn of my polish obsession.  Butter London's "Brick Lane" Collection for Fall 2014 brings together a healthy mix of existing favorites and brand-new beauties.  Returning Butters are "British Racing Green" from the Fashionista's Favorites Fall/Winter 2009 collection, and "Ladybird" from this February's New York Fashion Week and also Summer 2014's Lolly Brights collection, along with "Ladybird" Liquid Lipstick and "Twigged" Wink Cream Eyeshadow from the Boho Rock Spring 2014 collection.  New Butters in a range of harvest hues are "Cor Blimey", "Bric-A-Brac", "Brick Lane", and of course, "Dubs", plus a multitude of mascaras, lipsticks, glosses, eyeshadow creams, eyeliners, cheek tints, etc.

Butter London "Dubs" & "Twigged"

Lilypad Lacquer: "Mixed Metals", "Great Things Ahead", & "Lemony" !!!

Thunderstorms rolling through Montana have made the sun a fickle and precious presence these past couple days, so whenever some sunshine breaks through the clouds I've gone tearing outside like a maniacal sparklefiend to capture the sparkle on my nails.  My yellow labs, May and Freyja, have found this to be highly entertaining, thinking it to be a great chase game, and so there is much excitement every time I take a swatch.  They are not alone in their enthusiasm; I have been dying to share these wonderful polishes with you all week!  Lilypad Lacquer, a five-free nail polish line that is handmixed in Australia, is one of my favorite new brands this summer (new to me, anyway).  Maybe these sun-worshipping colors will tease the sun out again :)