Elixir Lacquers Lov-a-Bully Swatches

This is a second post for today, mostly because I couldn't wait until early next week to post it, I wanted to share it with you RIGHT NOW!!! :D :D

As many of you know, Elixir Lacquers is on of my ultimate favourite indie polishes.  And last weekend I posted about the nail haul I got for her new Lov-a-Bully collection.  This is my first and so far only full collection of polish I have purchased in both indie and store brands.  That's how excited I was for it :D

I was planning to do swatching this weekend, but with the cooler weather here now, and some snow last night, my nails are becoming brittle, and it's only mid-October.  I still have another 6 months of colder weather on the way, so I may be sporting shorter nails during the winter months in order to prevent this from happening again... I had a major break on my picture hand last night and it broke my heart, I almost cried :(  

I would have tried the tea bag repair method because the nail was still attached (only by a little bit) but a) I'm at Tyler's for the weekend and don't have any nail glue with me and b) Tyler and I were headed out to get burgers for dinner and I didn't want to cause a delay ;)  So the break got clipped off and when we got home, the rest of my nails got filed down too, so all 10 are about the same length now :(

My nails have not been this short since I stopped biting over 2.5 years ago :(  It makes me so sad to see them like this.  I almost decided to put off the swatching until they were grown out again, but thought "no, just because they are short doesn't mean they can't be used for swatching".  So just a forewarning, my nails look super tiny in these swatch pictures.

Alrighty, enough reminiscing, they are only fingernails, they will grow back.  As I mentioned in my haul post, this collection was created to help raise money for helping rescued Pit Bulls find their Forever Home with "moms and dads" who love them.  Nicole is donating 10% of all polishes purchased to Atlanta Bully Rescue.  If you purchase the entire collection (all 7 polishes), she will donate 20%!  And though I am not comfortable around Pit Bulls myself, this is such a great cause and I commend Nicole for doing it :D

**WARNING**  Picture heavy!!

First up is Blue Coat.  This is a stunning dark blue (not really navy) with silver micro glitter.  It's not jam-packed with glitter, but there is enough there to make it beautiful :)

This is so pretty!  This is 2 coats, no top coat.  You can see how shiny it is even without the top coat, though I'm sure it would have brought out even more of the sparkle.  I think this would be a perfect polish to do Galaxy Nails on :D

Up next is Smokey Coat (I'm doing non-glitters first).  This is the same type of polish as Blue coat, but it is a stunning charcoal/gunmetal grey.  It has the same silver micro glitter flecks in it, but again it's not loaded with glitter.

Again, this polish went on in 2 easy coats, no top coat, though you probably could get away with just one coat if you are careful with it.  There was some very minor streaking with the first coat so that is why I added the second, just to make sure everything was good and opaque :D

Now onto the glitters in this collection.  As most of you know, I am not a huge fan of glitters, but if they "speak" to me, I usually am willing to make an exception :)

The first of the glitters is Brindle.  Brindle is a clear base with copper brown small glitters and medium black hex glitters.  I applied this over a variety of colours to see what the best base colour would be.

Base Colours
Left to Right:  Julep Lisa, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Jordana Black, Julep Alyson

Brindle over colours as noted above, no base colour on thumb, no top coat

2 coats of Brindle, no base colour

1 coat of Brindle over 1 coat Julep Lisa

1 coat Brindle over 1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

1 coat Brindle over 1 coat Jordana Black

1 coat Brindle over 1 coats Julep Alyson

I didn't really have to fish for the black hex glitters, but you can see that they didn't apply in abundance either.  I also had to place a few of them while I was polishing, so this glitter does take a bit of work to get it looking right, but it wasn't so much work that it was frustrating :)  My favourite colour combination of what I used for swatches is Brindle over Julep Alyson.  I think the nude/tan colour perfectly compliments the 2 glitter colours :)

Next up is Spotted & Splotched.  I used the same base colours for this glitter.  This is pretty much the same as Brindle, but instead of medium black hex glitters, it has medium white hex glitters.

Base Colours
Left to Right:  Julep Lisa, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Jordana Black, Julep Alyson

Spotted & Splotched over colours as noted above, no base colour on thumb, no top coat

2 coats Spotted & Splotched, no base colour

1 coat of Spotted & Splotched over 1 coat Julep Lisa

1 coat Spotted & Splotched over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

1 coat Spotted & Splotched over Jordana Black

1 coat Spotted & Splotched over 1 coat Julep Alyson

This glitter seemed to apply better than Brindle.  The white hexes were much easier to get out of the bottle, there was a never ending supply of them :)  My favourite colour combination of what I used for swatching is Spotted & Splotched over Jordana Black.  The black definitely makes the white hexes stand out, though I do like how the white hexes are still visible over Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On.

Up next is Forever Home.  This is a clear based glitter with small blue square glitter, white and black medium hex glitter and red heart glitter.  I applied this over a variety of colours to see what the best base colour would be.

Base Colours
Left to Right: Julep Jesica, Julep Mystery Yellow (September 2012), Julep Alyson, Julep Lisa

Forever Home over colours as noted above, no base colour on thumb, no top coat

2 coats Forever Home, no base colour

2 coats Forever Home over 1 coat Julep Jessica

2 coats Forever Home over 2 coats Julep Mystery Yellow (September 2012)

2 coats Forever Home over 2 coats Julep Alyson

2 coats Forever Home over 2 coats Julep Lisa

As you can see, I was only able to get one of the heart glitters out, and I had to fish for it.  I was really looking forward to this glitter, but I'm sad to say that it let me down a little :(  I was hoping that the heart glitters would be easier to get out of the bottle and onto the nail.  My favourite combination of what I used would have to be Forever Home over Julep Mystery Yellow (September 2012) because I think Forever Home should be paired with something bright, resembling the hope of finding a Forever Home for all the rescues.

The next is Happy Tears.  This is a shimmery blue-jelly base with small blue square glitters and medium white hex glitters.  Again, I layered it over a variety of colours to see which looked best.

Base Colours
Left to Right: Julep Jessica, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Jordana Black, Essie Mesmerize

Happy Tears over colours as noted above, no base colour on thumb, no top coat

2 coats Happy Tears, no base colour

1 coat Happy Tears over 1 coat Julep Jessica

1 coat Happy Tears over 1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

1 coat Happy Tears over 1 coat Jordana Black

1 coat Happy Tears over 1 coat Essie Mesmerize

I really like this one.  I like that the base has a tint to it, so you could wear it alone if you wanted to.  I also like how it changed the black polish to look like navy.  My favourite combination is Happy Tears over Jordana Black.  I just love the effect the blue jelly base has on the black base colour :)  It also lets both the small square blue glitter and medium white hex glitter stand out :)

Finally, we have Red Nose.  This is a clear based glitter with small red-ish-orange, almost rust coloured glitter.  This one is beautiful in the bottle, I love it :)  As with the other glitters, I layered this over a variety of base colours to help decide what I think is the best combination :)

Base Colours
Left to Right: Julep Delaunay, Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On, Jordana Black, Julep Mystery Yellow (September 2012)

Red Nose over colours as noted above, no base colour on thumb, no top coat

2 coats red Nose, no base colour

1 coat Red Nose over 1 coat Julep Delaunay

1 coat Red Nose over 1 coat Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On

1 coat Red Nose over 1 coat Jordana Black

1 coat Red Nose over 2 coats Julep Mystery Yellow (September 2012)

This glitter applied like a dream.  There was no spottiness when it was applied, and I think if you applied 3 coats of it on its own it would have full coverage :)  I think that my favourite combination is Red Nose over Julep Delaunay, though I think this could be paired with a lot of different base colours to achieve a wide range of beautiful combinations :D  Also, the combination of Red Nose over Jordana Black is very Hallowe'eny, so it could be worn as a Hallowe'en  mani :)

All in all, great collection Nicole!  I love every one of the polishes, though I did have some trouble with Forever Home.  I like that they are all so versatile and could really be paired with anything :D  My favourites are Blue Coat and Red Nose, which were the ones I was drawn to when I first saw her swatches :)

If you want to get your own polish(es) from this collection, head on over to Elixir Lacquers and pick yourself up some!  Don't forget that Nicole will donate 10% (so $1) of every bottle purchased, and 20% of every entire collection purchased ($14) to Atlanta Bully Rescue!  It's such a great cause to support, even if you are like me and aren't comfortable around Pit Bulls but are still an animal-lover.

Oh, and Owen wanted to say hi to everyone!  He was hanging out with me while I was swatching and we had a couple snuggles and ear scratches in between colours :)  I think he was trying to ask if there was a polish that I was using that was made to represent him :D