[Press Samples – Post Disclosure]
Hey everyone! Today’s blog post is for the March Hella Handmade Creations! I have some really beautiful polishes to share this month. These are all available now on the Hella Handmade Creations store. I will have links below to where you can purchase these. Don’t forget to check out my live swatch video and my comparisons video for this month’s HHC!
Live Swatch Video
Comparisons
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.
Alter Ago – Ice Cream Dinner Plate Japanese Iris
Inspiration/Theme: The Ice Cream Dinner Plate Japanese Iris (Bearded irises)
Description: blue base with gold shimmer sparkle
Price: $10.50 for 17ml Cap: None
Ice Cream Dinner Plate Japanese Iris had a great formula with a normal consistency. I did notice that it did seem to want to run down the stem of the brush a bit but it didn’t make application difficult for me. This polish has a beautiful metallic look on the nail and the gold shimmer added a lot of depth.
This will be a 2-3 coater depending on your nail length. I used 3 coats for my photos. Nothing in here dries textured or will be difficult to remove.
Alter Ego
17ml, 5 free, Vegan & cruelty free
website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Bee’s Knees Lacquer – Forehead Kisses
Inspiration/Theme: Inspired by the time Zak made Aaron wear a wig because a ghost cowboy at a location gave a forehead kiss to a woman staying there. (Ghost Adventures)
Description: a pale lilac with a rose gold shimmer
Price: $12.50 for 15ml Cap: None
Forehead Kisses had a great jelly like formula. This is slightly on the sheer side so it does need to be built up. By building it up you do get a ton of shimmer on the nail. I found that the shimmer gives this a very pink look on the nail but once you start moving it around, the lilac base is more apparent. The shimmer also has a very slight color shift to it. In person, I was seeing a yellow gold to a pinky rose gold.
This builds up nicely in 2 coats but the 3rd coat does deepen the color and strengthen the shimmer. The shimmer is a little brush strokey when dry so be sure that your final coat is put on with straight lines. I used 3 coats for my photos.
Bees knees lacquer
15ml, vegan, cruelty free & 5 free
website | instagram | facebook | facebook group
Color Spectrum Polish – Bend & Snap Works Every Time
Theme: Legally Blonde
Description: a sheer yellow-gold with a beautiful rose shimmer shift, along with blue and purple holo glitters.
Price: $12 for 13ml Cap: 100 bottles
Bend & Snap Works Every Time had a great formula that felt just slightly on the thinner side of normal but not watery. The polish did seem to want to run down the stem of the brush a little so be sure to keep an eye on it. The shimmer is very strong in this polish and is almost metallic in appearance. Everything in here spreads out evenly and easily. Shannon (owner/maker) has released some of my favorite yellows/golds as of late and this is one of them.
This is on the sheer side so I did see some VNL. I found that the shimmer and glitters largely distract from it but it is there at some angles. The glitters do feel a little textured so I did double up on top coat to make sure this was perfectly smooth. I used 3 coats for my photos. The glitters will make removal slightly more difficult but it wasn’t too bad with the soak off method.
Color Spectrum Polish
7 free, vegan & cruelty free
Website | etsy | instagram | facebook | facebook group
Fancy Gloss – Be Brave
Theme: Disney Princess Series
Description: a dark teal (cold) to pale teal (warm) polish packed full of gold flakes and some red/orange/copper/gold flakes
Price: $12.50 for 15ml Cap: 150 bottles
Be Brave had a great formula with equally great application. The flakies all spread out evenly on their own and don’t give off much texture. In the cold state, this is a dark green leaning teal and the warm state is a light almost-minty greenish teal. This color is perfect for the inspiration and I don’t recall ever seeing a thermal in these colors before.
The cold state was mostly opaque in 2 coats but I found I had some transparency at my tips in both color states. I used 3 coats for my photos. The flakies look really amazing matte! Nothing in here dries textured and this has a typical flakie polish removal.
Fancy Gloss
15ml, 10 free, vegan & cruelty-free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Heather’s Hues – Treason and Coconut
Theme: The Handmaid’s Tale
Description: a black when cold, and when warm, it is a deep teal…a “Wives Teal” if you will. It has an iridescent shimmer that shifts gold-green-turquoise, holo flakes, and green-teal-cyan-sapphire multichrome flakes.
Price: $12.50 for 15ml Cap: 100 bottles
Treason and Coconuts had a great formula that had a crelly like formula. The flakes and shimmer all spread out evenly without needing to do anything special. The cold state is a *very* dark teal that appears black in most normal lighting. I would call the warm state a medium deep teal. I really love the color of this polish in the warm state.
This will be a 2-3 coater depending on nail length. I think shorter nails might be able to get away with 2 coats. The 3rd coat does some to deepen the color just a touch though. This dries just slightly textured and dull so you will want top coat. I especially liked this one matte.
Heather’s Hues
15ml, 5 free, vegan & cruelty free
WEBSITE | INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | FACEBOOK GROUP
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.
Overpours
This month, the Heather’s Hues polish, Bears.Beats.Battlestar Galactic (reviewed here) from August 2020 HHC. This was the first polish that I ever reviewed from HHC!
A note on thermals…
I want to note that thermal polishes do have a shelf life (generally at least 6-12 months) on how long they will change colors for. 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.