Hello, all! Welcome to my new haven! While I love posting reviews straight to IMAM, I was thinking it might be nice to finally have a place to assemble my various ramblings; here we are! Sorry it’s a bit plain right now! I’ll be working on the dressings over the next couple of weeks and figuring out where I want this to go overall. As for right now, enjoy my first post!

A little while back while perusing /r/indiemakeupandmore, I came across an exciting post. In said post, /u/Ajevie was requesting a few volunteers to test out nail polish for her company, Dolly’s Polish. And because who doesn’t freakin’ LOVE free nail polish, I immediately offered myself up! A few days later, my package arrived and I looked like a little kid on Christmas morning… I’m 100% positive there was actual dancing involved

It took me all of twenty seconds to get everything out of the bubble mailer and then ten minutes to stop staring. It was all so pretty. But don’t take my word for it! See for yourselves:

Look at the vintage-style greeting card! Isn’t it cute?! And the Ghost and the Skull! There was a Frankenstein somewhere, but he disappeared. I really enjoy the effort Angi put into the packaging! The bottles were individually wrapped in bubble wrap and placed in a Halloween-themed zip-lock, as shown on the top right picture. Everything was tied together with the greeting and business cards and arrived to me securely.

I received four polishes, three of them pretty hastily chosen from the document Angi provided. The fourth, Sugar Skull, is the Autumn freebie!

[I should probably note before we begin, that these were provided to me for swatching/review purposes but all opinions are entirely my own!]

Sugar Skull:

Sugar Skull is a white polish with various color and size glitters. I had been eyeing a similar polish on Etsy for some time, so I was really excited to see this in the package!

The Good:

Glitter polishes are notoriously hard to work with. This one is an exception to that. it applies easily, is opaque and streak-free in three coats, and I didn’t have to do too much digging for the glitter. Upon drying, it’s finish is somewhere between matte and satin.

The Bad:

There is only one thing I had against this polish. I applied this a few different times, between playing with it and wearing it on a couple of occasions, I used quite a bit of polish. When I got to the last application, it had gotten the slightest bit gloopy. I might not have mixed the polish well enough (impatient) or it might be because of the mini bottle (my nemesis), so it could be entirely user error. I remember having mini bottles of polish when I was a kid that glooped up half way through – these are the first tiny bottles I’ve had since.

The Random:

I feel like Barnum and Bailey and Pennywise the Clown had an illegitimate child who threw up on my nails. It’s amazing!

Lake Monster Scales:

I have a terrible problem with this polish. I cannot for the life of me, type it’s name without first trying to type “Dragon Scales” (I blame it on HBO for constantly airing the Hobbit movies lately)!

Lake Monster Scales is a clear top coat with various size purple and green glitter, as well as tiny holographic/iridescent glitter. I’m not usually one for glitter toppers, but this one won me over pretty quickly!

The Good:

This polish goes on super smoothly, there was zero gloopiness, and I didn’t have to dig for the glitter! The holo-descent glitters look fantastic over undies – they absolutely pop! And when I was removing it [insert shock here], it came off way easier than any other glitter polish I’ve used (I’m looking at you, Blue Whale [I still love you, though!])! I think this polish would look fantastic over white or gold for Mardi Gras!

The Bad:

There’s not really anything bad to say here. If you’re more into opaque glitter polishes (a la Sugar Skull) this might not be the polish for you. I recommend you still try it over undies, though!

Gilded Plums:

Gilded Plums. I knew it sounded perfect, just from the name! This purple polish is packed with bronzey-purpley-wine-y shimmers and is my favorite of the bunch, color wise!

The Good:

As with Lake Monster Scales, Gilded Plums goes on very easily. It dries very quickly and is opaque and smooth in three coats! And this color, dear ones, it is gorgeous! In some lights it’s purple, in some it’s more of a burgundy wine color, sometimes the gold/bronze sheen comes out, and other times it looks almost silver.

The Bad:

Chips. Chips everywhere. That won’t stop me from wearing this polish, but I think this is one of the quicker chipping polishes I’ve had. I’m pretty tough on my nails – I can’t keep them painted as long as everyone else seems to, so your mileage may vary. I tried this polish various ways: just polish, polish and base coat, polish and top coat, all three, and every which way seemed to chip fairly quickly. I plan to keep playing with it and see what happens, though.

The Random:

Every time I look at this polish or play with it, I picture Bacchus from Disney’s Fantasia. I know, I know. Bacchus has grapes, not plums, but he’s extravagant and drunken and that’s how this polish makes me feel!

This might be a good time to mention that Gilded Plums also looks GREAT with a matte top coat:

The Ghost Ship:

Ah, the last polish. You know that saying about saving the best for last…?

The Ghost Ship is a matte robin’s egg blue with black and white speckles and circular glitters and black and white skull glitters. It’s also textured (which there is a reason for. We’ll get to that later).

The Bad:

Yes. I started with the bad this time, because this polish just gets better and better as it goes. So… this polish separates a bit in the bottle. You can see that in the picture above. Angi told me I would need to mix the glitter polishes a bit and so this isn’t a big deal. The first coat has a very rough texture – almost sandpapery- so if you have an aversion to that, be ready to use a top coat! I found that by the third coat it was significantly less rough, though still textured. Last bad: the circular glitters. They don’t come out. Period. I got speckles, I got skulls, I got no circular glitters. I can’t say I minded at all, though, as I still love how it all turned out. Here’s a couple of pictures of the polish with no top coat so you can see what’s going on (it looks a tad brighter in these than it does in real life. It was nighttime so I was limited to my fluorescent kitchen lighting):

You can see the texture going on, and one of the skulls hanging out on my thumb. It’s such a fun polish!

The Good:

Despite this being a textured and glitter-packed polish, it’s still really easy to work with! Unless you want the circular glitters. It’s not thick or gloopy and is opque and even at three coats. I also suggest 3 coats because this seems to give the best texture and maximum glitter opportunities. Here is a picture of Ghost Ship with a top coat on (Seche Vite, in this case):

The Effin’ Best:

I kept remembering there was something listed in the google doc about this polish, but I couldn’t remember what it was. Thermal? Maybe. As shown above, that was clearly wrong, so I shrugged and moved on with my evening.. Imagine my excitement when I stuck my hand out of my covers later that night and my fingers were glowing. It’s sad it took me that long to realize/remember, but it was late and I was tired, so I’ll just lay the blame there. Angi later told me that the glow pigment is what causes this polish to be textured. I love it. So much. I feel like a little kid, and what the hell is more Ghost Ship-esque than glow in the dark pigment?!

Yes ma’am and/or sir! Is it not awesome?! This glow pigment has some power, too. I charged it up under my living room lamp for a minute and I could see the glow in the slightest shadows!

So here we are, at the end. I’ve rambled enough and now it’s time to go pass out for the night. However, Dolly’s Polish… Before I go, I just want to say you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And you know what?

Until next time, everyone!