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Hey friends! Today’s (second) post is for the April Hella Handmade Creations. I have 5 beautiful polishes plus 1 my favorite lotion in the world.
The April HHC shop opens on April 14th. As always full sale details and links can be found at the end of the post.
Live Swatch Video
Hella Handmade Creations is a monthly indie polish collaboration. Makers each pick their own theme and make a series of polishes based on that theme. Each month brands have a new polish, that is exclusive to the Hella Handmade Creations website.
Bee’s Knees Lacquer – It’s Capitalism Baby
Inspiration/Theme: American Horror Story
Description: a bright spring green with strong orange to green shimmer
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: None
It’s Capitalism Baby had a beautiful formula. The green base didn’t feel overly thick or thin and I didn’t have any application issues. It is on the sheer side so you will want to build it up for opacity.
The shimmer in here is STRONG and very glowy. To my eye, it was mainly an orangery gold with some green at extreme angles. I didn’t see any brush strokes through it.
My photos show It’s Capitalism Baby in 3 coats plus top coat. Nothing in here will dry textured or be difficult to remove. I didn’t experience any staining.
Bee’s Knees Lacquer
15ml, 5+ Free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Colores De Carol – Perito Moreno
Theme: South America Landmarks
Inspiration: Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina
Description: a medium blue to turquoise thermal with multichrome shimmer, turquoise, and blue metallic flakes, and silver reflective glitters
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: 100
Perito Moreno had a great formula. It was on the thicker side but I found it easy to apply. The thermal aspect started changing on me right away. I found the warm state to be a light blue and the cold state to be a medium blue. I think this will be one of those thermals that’s good for people who don’t like thermals since once this stops changing, it should (in theory at least) stay in the blue family.
All of the components spread out very evenly and easily. They do give off some texture so I did pair this polish with a glitter smoothing top coat (KBShimmer’s Smooth Moves) before going in with my normal top coat.
So I found the reflective glitters in here to be a little tricky to photograph. I could feel the texture on my nail from them and see them in the bottle but they weren’t like BAM in your face reflective. They were very sparkly but sparsely so. I regret not being able to get natural light shots because I was really curious about how it would look in natural light.
My photos show Perito Moreno in 2 coats plus 2 coats of top coat. Due to the thicker formula, I chose to swatch this one in 2 coats. I found it was 100% opaque in 2 coats so I don’t really see anyone needing 3 nor would I recommend it. Removal will be on the difficult side if you try to scrub this one off.
Colores De Carol
15ml, 5 Free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Cupcake Polish – Agatha
Theme: Wandavision
Inspiration: Agatha
Description: a purple shimmer nail polish filled with red to pink shimmer
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: None
Agatha had a beautiful formula. The base didn’t feel overly thick and I didn’t have any application issues. The shimmer was very strong and I was seeing a red/pink color shift with a gold at extreme angles. You won’t see any brush strokes through it.
I will note this does look a bit more color shifty in the bottle than it does on the nail.
My photos show Agatha in 3 coats plus top coat. This polish will be a 2-3 coater depending on personal preference. The third coat adds a bit of depth as well as opacity but its passable in 2 coats. You will want top coat for a glossy finish.
I thought for sure this one was going to stain me. Thankfully I didn’t have any issues with staining. Removal won’t be difficult.
Cupcake Polish
15ml, 5 Free & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Heather’s Hues – Shivering And Shaking
Theme: Billie Ellish
Description: a peachy pink crelly with pink-orange-gold shimmer and a touch of holo sparkle and holo flake
Price: $12.50 for 15ml | Cap: None
Shivering And Shaking had a great formula. The base didn’t feel overly thick and I didn’t have any problems with application. You will want to build it up for full opacity. I found the base was a little uneven and needed that third coat.
I LOVE a golden shimmer in a pink base so I did a little happy dance when I saw this one. I could see the pink, orange to gold color shift on the nail.
So this polish did make me think of the Heather’s Hues HHC polish, All About What Makes You Feel Good from January 2022. They aren’t dupes and are not nearly as similar as I was thinking they were. I’ll have a comparison further down in the post.
My photos show Shivering And Shaking in 3 coats plus top coat. The holographic flakies in here give the polish a beautiful sparkle without giving off any texture so removal will be fairly easy. You will want top coat for a glossy finish.
For no real reason, in particular, I took a brush shot for this polish. I really liked how it came out even though you can clearly see the tip of my nail in it. Should I have cropped that out? Yup. Did I only realize it was there as I was typing this post up? Also yup.
Heather’s Hues – WiTS in Princess Bubblegum
Theme/Inspiration: Adventure Time/Princess Bubblegum
Description: a sweet, juicy bubblegum fragrance with top notes of orange, pineapple, and banana with hints of peach and cherry over a vanilla base
Ingredients: avocado oil, sweet almond oil, rice bran oil, babassu oil, jojoba oil, oat extract oil, buckthorn extract, kukui nut oil, chia seed oil, vitamin E, vegetable glycerin, BTMS-50 (emulsifying wax), stearic acid, shea butter, aloe vera, distilled water, skin safe fragrance, and Optiphen (preservative).
Price: $7.50 for 2 ounces | Cap: 40
This month’s scent is VERY fruity and sweet smelling. At first sniff, you get that classic sugary sweet bubblegum scent and then the fruity notes come in to make this smell delicious. I wasn’t picking up the vanilla base at all, it was just pure sweet and fruity goodness to my nose.
I cannot sing the praises of the Heather’s Hues WiTS lotion enough. If you didn’t know, this is the lotion that I personally use in my day to day life as well as when I am swatching.
Heather’s Hues
15ml, 5 free, Vegan & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
LynB Designs – Pentagon of Anguish
Inspiration/Series: Properties of Polygons series
Description: a teal based multichrome with green to teal to blue to indigo shift and scattered holo sparkle.
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: 150
Pentagon of Anguish had a fantastic jelly-like formula. It starts off fairly sheer so you will really want to build this one up for opacity or pair it with a more opaque base. Thanks to the sheerness, the shimmer is very glowy and strong on the nail. To my eye, I was seeing a green, teal to blue color shift.
The holographic was very strong as well. It was raining when I was swatching this one so I tweaked my lighting a bit in the final photo to show the holographic a little better. But this was very holographic even with my normal lighting.
My photos show Pentagon of Anguish in 3 coats plus top coat. I also swatched it in 1 coat over Holo Taco’s Work Besties. Nothing in here will dry textured or be difficult to remove.
LynB Designs
15ml, 5 Free & Vegan
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Comparisons
So this month’s Heather’s Hues polish reminded me a lot of It’s All About What Makes You Feel Good (HHC January 2021). The base colors on these is different (this month is paler) and the shimmer is in a different color as well. And most obviously, AAWMYFG has reflective glitter whereas SAS has holo flakies.
Someone asked me how similar the Cupcake Polish was to the Holo Taco polish called Flash Drive (Lite Mode collection). The Cupcake polish is more in the “is it purple or blurple?” category and the shimmer effect has a different color shift.
Side note, seeing side by side shots of my photos pre-camera switch make me realize just how warm toned my old camera make my skin look. *sigh*.
Sale Info
The Hella Handmade Creations store opens on the 14th of every month at 12:01am Eastern Time and closes on the 21st at 11:59pm HST (4:59AM Eastern time on the 22nd). All items sold are on a pre-order basis and won’t ship until around 4 weeks after the sale period.
Hella Handmade Creations
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group | Facebook Chat Group
Multiple orders to the same name and address are combined and shipping overages are refunded. Shipping price is based on weight. Shipping is available internationally and there is a Facebook group for international group buys.
Overstocks
The overstock this month features polishes originally released during the September 20221 sale period. My original review for those are up over here. These will be available in VERY small quantities. If any of these interested you, be sure to be on the website when the shop opens at 12:01AM Eastern time. They will sell out very quickly.
A note on thermal/solar polishes…
I want to note that thermal and solar polishes do have a shelf life on how long they will change colors. Generally, they are guaranteed to change colors for at least 6. My oldest thermal that still transitions is from 2018.
To get the most out of a thermal (all nail polish really) you’ll want to store them in a cool, dark place. I store my thermals with my other nail polish in the Ikea helmers. Once a thermal no longer changes color (aka dies), you can still wear them! The thermals that I own that have died, all stayed in the warm state but it’s not guaranteed to stay in the warm.