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Hey friends! How is everyone doing today? After getting the Orly Summer 2023 collection blog post up, I decided to get cracking on adding more cabochons to some polishes. I was finishing up my Night Owl Lacquer polishes and starting on my Fair Maidens. I am hoping to get started on reorganizing my indies soon. I just have a few drawers left of mainstreams left before I can start with my indies.
Today I am sharing some new polishes that will be coming to the May 2023 Hella Handmade Creations. This month is really speeding along! The HHC shop opens up on the 14th on the Hella Handmade Creations website. As always, full sale details and links can be found at the end of the post! My live swatch video will go up on Tuesday!
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.
Crystal Knockout – Fast Twilight
Theme: Habitat of the Cat (final)
Inspiration: the cheetah
Description: A super shimmery gold to copper to green base with holo shimmer, gold reflective glitter and iridescent purple/blue flakies
Price: $12.50 for 15ml | Cap: None
Fast Twilight this polish is so damn color shifting and sparkly! The formula is on the thicker side but I found the application pretty easy.
It does start off pretty sheer, you could use this as a topper for sure. I opted to build it up in 3 coats to try to get the most opacity. You get a ton of color shiftiness from the shimmer, I was seeing the colors as described. The holographic paired with the gold reflective gives it even more sparkle.
My photos show Fast Twilight in 3 coats plus glosys top coat. This does dry down with some texture, I did one thick coat of the Essie Gel Setter top coat that seemed to smooth it out ok. I had one nail with a thinner coat of top coat that still felt textured though.
Crystal Knockout
15ml, 5 Free & Cruelty Free
Website | Etsy | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Heather’s Hues – Need For Speed
Theme: custom cars
Inspiration: the Nissan GT-R
Description: a bright green jelly base packed with an orange-gold-lime color shifting shimmer and green-gold-copper color shifting iridescent flakes.
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: None
Need For Speed has some big ol flakies in it! As a big ol flakie lover, I was 10000% here for it! The flakies do not dry textured or behave like a glitter so I didn’t need to do any fishing to get them out. However, I did notice that they did seem to sink a little bit in the bottle. Not as much as a glitter but I did seem to get more out on the first coat than the third.
I love this shade of green. It’s brighter than a spring green but not as bright as a neon green. Paired with all of the orangey gold, this was such a pretty color on the nail.
My photos show Need For Speed n 3 coats plus glossy top coat. Coverage is ok in 2 coats but to get the same depth of color that you see in the bottle, you’ll need a third coat.
Removal won’t be overly difficult, you could scrub it off if you really wanted with minimal effort.
Heather’s Hues
15ml, 5 free, Vegan & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Music City Beauty – Lapis Lazuli
Theme: Crystals and Gemstones
Inspiration: Lapis Lazuli
Description: full coverage microglitter full of navy, silver and sapphire galaxy holo microglitters
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: 100
Lapis Lazuli speaking of sparkle! This polish had a good but very thick formula. I didn’t struggle with the application, the polish applied really nicely. I could see some people struggling with the level of thickness as it makes the brush a bit fluffy. But again, I didn’t personally have any issues.
This polish dries down surprisingly quickly but that didn’t cause any problems with the application. I love a good glitter polish and this one was that. You get so much sparkle on the nail from all of the glitters.
The glitters do dry down very texture so you will want to use multiple coats of top coat to smooth everything out. I used one coat of Salon Perfect’s Glitter Gloss and one coat of KBShimmer’s Clearly on Top. That smoothed everything nicely for my photos. However, you might need a third coat of top coat to keep everything smooth. I usually find this brand’s full coverage micro glitters to be very top coat hungry.
My photos show Lapis Lazuli in 2 coats plus 2 coats of top coat. Do NOT attempt to scrub this polish off. Use the soak off method or a peel off base coat.
It dawned on me when I was pulling this polish away last night that it is a little similar to Moraine from the brand’s Spring Spring 2022 Collection. They aren’t dupes, Moraine had reflective glitters and to my eye seems to have a bit more silver in it than this one.
Music City Beauty
15ml, 5 Free, Vegan and Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Night Owl Lacquer – Mad & Needy
Theme: Gilmore Girls
Description: a bright red filled with vibrant magenta/orange/gold shimmer.
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: None
Mad & Needy is for all of the red polish lovers out there! You have a surprisingly opaque red base with a strong shifty shimmer.
While I usually do gripe a bit about warm toned reds that cause my hands to look very red, I am not mad at this one! The shimmer definitely got me once again. The shimmer is both smooth yet sparkly, there are some brush strokes but they are very minimal. My camera was able to pick the brush strokes up more than my eyes did.
My photos show Mad & Needy in 2 coats plus glossy top coat. I didn’t experience any stianing with this polish and removal will be very easy but messy.
This is very similar to the Heather’s Hues polish called Dead Heat from the March 2023 Hella Handmade Creations. The biggest difference is the shimmer in this polish also has a pink color shift.
This is not a dupe for the NOL polish called Venom Of A Vampire (Night Owl Lacquer Potion Ingredients Volume 2). Similar to the Dead Heat, this polish has more color shiftiness.
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.
