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Hi friends! Today I have 2 blog posts to share with you all for the June 2023 Hella Handmade Creations. This is the first of two blog posts for HHC this month. Blog post number is for 3 polishes coming from Bee’s Knees Lacquer in celebration of the 8th anniversary for the shop.
The June 2023 Hella Handmade Creations opens for shopping on June 14th on HellaHandmadeCreations.com. As always, full sale information plus more links can be found at the end of the post.
Live Swatch Video
My swatch and review for this month’s shop will be live Saturday June 3rd at 2PM Eastern time. I will be in the live chat before the video starts if you’d like to come and hang out!
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 – Game Over
Theme: Ice Nine Kills
Inspiration: the I.N.K. song Rainy Day
Description: a rich teal base with a very strong blue to purple shimmer so the base looks cobalt blue in most lights
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: None
Game Over is one of the shimmers where the shimmer is SO strong that you miss the base color. It has a very strong blue look on the nail, you can see the base is teal on the first coat but as you build it up, it looks more and more blue toned. I was able to see the purple color shift at extreme angles.
I found on the first two coats, coverage looked pretty patchy. Maybe if you aren’t super picky, it could be passable but I found for me I needed all 3 coats to even out the base color. For those of you with longer nails or whiter nail lines, you might have some VNL in 3 coats with this one.
My photos show Game Over in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. Removal of this polish will be incredibly easy but also very messy. I didn’t experience any staining with this polish but I would still recommend base coat.
The trio of polishes Bee’s Knees Lacquer made to celebrate HHC’s 8th anniversary earlier this year will also be available this month. For my information, check out that blog post over here.
Bee’s Knees Lacquer
15ml, 5+ Free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Color Spectrum Polish – 5 Star Island
Theme: Animal Crossing
Inspiration: Lily of the Valley Achievement
Description: A sheer white with green shimmers, green sparks and holo flakes.
Price: $12.50 for 13ml | Cap: 100
5 Star Island had a good but thicker formula. It wasn’t so thick that I needed to use thinner but it was close. Application was still pretty easy though. Shannon the owner let me know that she will be tweaking the formula to decrease the thickness for customer bottles.
As the description says, this polish is pretty sheer. If you like a sheer wash of color, 5 Star Island looks great in just one coat. I use 2 coats for my photos and loved how delicate it looked!
My photos show 5 Star Island in 2 coats plus glossy top coat. I did have a little bit of VNL with it. I think it is sheer enough in one coat that you might be able to play around with it as a topper.
Side note, is anyone else annoyed that Nintendo changed the name of the Jaccob’s Ladder flower into the Lily Of The Valley? This was one of my big annoyances about Animal Crossing New Horizons.
Color Spectrum Polish – Love YOUrself
Theme: Pride
Description: A light pink loaded with holo, pink to gold aurora, rainbow iridescent flakes and gold holo glitters
Price: $13.00 for 13ml | Cap: 100
Charity: The Trevor Project – $2.00 from each polish sold
Love YOUrself is the special bonus polish for Color Spectrum Polish this month. The base starts off pretty sheer, you can definitely use it as a topper if you want. I opted to build it up for opacity.
Much like 5 Star Island, you get a beautiful sheer wash of color on that first coat that I absolutely loved! The shimmer has a beautiful pink to gold color shift, paired with the flakies and holo, this was such a pretty color.
Nothing in here will dry down textured but you will want top coat for a glossy finish.
My photos show Love YOURself in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. I did have very obvious VNL with this polish in 3 coats.
Color Spectrum Polish
13ml, 7 Free, Vegan & Cruelty free
Website | Etsy | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Crystal Knockout – Careful Of The Power
Theme: Imaginary Witches (New theme)
Inspiration: The Craft
Description: A light blue base with green to purple color-shifting shimmer, holo microflakes, silver reflective glitter, and iridescent flakies in teal, green, and purple
Price: $12.50 for 15ml | Cap: None
Careful Of The Power talk about sparkle! Unsurprisingly for a reflective glitter, this polish was on the thicker side. I did end up adding a little bit of thinner to my bottle and was told by the brand that they will be tweaking the thickness for customer bottles.
Even with the thickness, I freaking LOVED how sparkly this polish was! Between the holographic and the reflective glitter, you have a lot of why factors happening. The glitters do dry down fairly textured, so at least 2 coats of top coat will be needed to smooth everything out.
Coverage was pretty good but you do need to build this up to get opacity. Because this was on the thicker side, I went in for the thinnest of coats and found I needed 3 to get the same depth of color that I was seeing in the bottle.
My photos show Careful Of The Power in 3 coats plus 2 coats of top coat. I did opt to pair this with a glitter smoothing top coat (KBShimmer Smooth Moves) before using the KBShimmer Clearly On Top quick dry top coat.
Removal will of course be on the difficult side if you scrub this one off. Use the soak off method or a peel of base coat for easy removal.
Crystal Knockout
15ml, 5 Free & Cruelty Free
Website | Etsy | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Hearts & Promises – Rapunzel
Theme: Princess series
Description: A linear Holo light purple base with golden shimmer
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: 300
Rapunzel had a beautiful formula! The base is a soft amethyst purple shade that pairs beautifully with that golden shimmer! It does start off pretty sheer so you will need to build it up for opacity.
The shimmer gives it a very metallic look on the nail which I am not mad at one bit! My camera was able to pick up some very slight brush strokes but my eyes couldn’t see them in person. I am sure that I don’t need to say it but this is a very holographic polish! I didn’t have any issues with the holo getting dulled out from my top coat.
My photos show Rapunzel in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. You will want top coat to give this a glossy finish. Removal will be very easy but fairly messy.
Hearts & Promises
15ml, 5 Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Night Owl Lacquer – Snarcastic
Theme: Gilmore Girls
Description: a yellow-green filled with fuschia/orange/yellow/green shimmer and silver reflective glitter pigment
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: None
Snarcastic as someone who is currently midway through a heavy green polish loving kick, I loved Snarcastic so much! The formula was fantastic, I expected it to be a lot thicker from the reflective glitter pigment but it wasn’t at all.
However, like typical reflective glitters, they do dry down pretty textured so 2 coats of top coat will be the minimum to smooth everything out. This polish will be a 2-3 coater depending on how you feel about visible nail line. Coverage is pretty okay with two coats, but the third coat does deepen that green base as well as mostly covering up your nail line.
My photos show Snarcastic in 3 coats plus 2 coats of top coat. Removal will be on the difficult side, for easy removal use the soak off method!
Night Owl Lacquer
15ml, 5 Free & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group | TikTok
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.