Reinvention sneak peek, and new polish!

This month I'm trying The Lacquer Legion, a Facebook page designed to give nail inspiration to the masses. Some of the best nail bloggers out there have teamed up to come up with a theme each month, and anyone from seasoned professional nail techs to armchair artists like us can post an interpretation of the theme. January's theme is Reinvention. I was initially thinking I'd do a Phoenix inspired black tipped fire gradient. I still may sometime, but that idea was derailed by something much more exciting...

NEW POLISH!!!

So this year I entered the Adventures in Polishland New Year's Eve manicure contest, and was absolutely delighted to be awarded the judge's choice award. This meant two polishes of my choice from Beautometry and a special mystery prize from Christina, all of which arrived this week.

The judge's choice design

Christina's gift was the first to arrive, a trio of adorable little polishes from Physician's Formula. I hadn't tried any of their polishes before, so I was happy to try them out. The colors were brights that I wouldn't have bought myself, and they were just the pick me up I needed for this blah Midwest winter weather. The formula seemed unspectacular at first, but they dried crazy fast-I've never had polish that dried so well that fast. I barely had time to topcoat them, and they had good lasting power.The candy colors were lots of fun, too. Here's what I came up with:

Physician's Formula California Goddess trio

Now back around to the Lacquer Legion: The two polishes I selected from Beautometry were A England Dragon from the Legends collection and Turbulence by Glitter Gal, two holo polishes. I had ooh and ah'd over the Legends polishes, and Dragon seemed different from the other greens in my collection. I chose Turbulence because I didn't have a silver linear holo, and I'm obsessed with the look. That's also why I chose them for my Reinvention mani. The holo trend brought glitter back from being a staple for little girl princess polish to something you can wear to work. It's serious polish that feels luxe, but has a fun and unique finish that you can't help but notice. Holo glitter is glitter for grown-ups, and nothing makes me happier than being able to wear glitter whenever I want!

As for the polishes themselves, both are ah-mazing. I can't stop staring at them! Everything you've heard online about A England is true! Both brands are a little pricy and have to be ordered online if you live in the States, which you can do here through Beautometry. Dragon is a pretty, pretty, pretty moss green infused with fine, sparkly holo glitter- nice in one coat, perfect in two. It's mesmerizing. Turbulence is a pure holo that looks whitish on. I was a little nervous that it wouldn't be opaque based on the online reviews I found, and it is thin enough to layer over just about anything, but in three coats I got full coverage. I had trouble getting a nice photo (finally resorted to nail selfies with my phone-I'll try again when there's sunshine), but you can definitely see the shimmer in the pics below. For the stripe on the accent nails, I  laid down a layer of Sephora for OPI Frankly I Don't Give A-Dam, a pale grey, with my striper before going over it with Turbulence to use as few swipes as possible. Fewer swipes=cleaner stripes. ('Frankly' with a matte topcoat is also the base color I used in the contest entry at the beginning of this post.)

Here's a sneak peek of my ode to holo. If you want to get in on the Lacquer Legion fun, reinvent your favorite nail look and post it on Facebook or Twitter on January 27th with the hashtag #LLreinvention.

Dragon and Turbulence