[Mixture of Paid PR/Press Samples – Post Disclosure Page]
Hey friends! Today’s blog post is for the June Polish Pickup. The theme this month is Fairs & Carnivals. This month I have a few new the blog brands as well as the usual suspects. I wasn’t too sure what to think of the theme but as always, the makers knocked it out of the park!
The June PPU will open this Friday and Thursday for the UK website. As always, links and full sale details can be found at the end of the post. I will also tack on a few comparisons at the end of the post as well!
Live Swatch Video
Polish Pickup aka PPU is a monthly collaboration of indie polish and other handmade product makers based on a chosen theme. There’s a new theme with new products each month from dozens of makers. Items are available the first Friday – Monday of each month for pre-order.
All Mixed Up Lacquers – You Spin Me Right Round
Inspiration: Himalayan Carnival Ride
Description: A deepened base with a blue/teal/purple shift line when magnetized and loaded with silver reflective glitters
Price: $12.50 for ml| Cap: 250
You Spin Me Right Round had a fantastic formula. The base was on the thicker side of normal but it applied very easily. It was also *very* opaque. This has the potential to be a 1 coater.
The magnetic pigment magnetized very easily for me using both a ring magnet and a bar magnet for the live swatch. I found it seemed to disperse quickly so I didn’t get strong lines with my ring magnet but I could easily see where the polish was magnetized. In person, I was seeing a teal/green, blue to purple color shift.
The reflective glitters do give it a bit of texture. So depending on personal preference, you will want 1-2 coats of top coat for a smooth finish. I found the glitters to be very sparkly in both indoor and natural lighting.
My photos show You Spin Me Right Round in 2 coats plus 1 coat of top coat. I lived dangerously and only used 1 coat of top coat for my swatches. Removal will be on the more messy side if you try to scrub this polish off.
All Mixed Up Lacquers
15ml, 5 Free, Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Bees Knees Lacquer – Calanmai
Inspiration: The Spring Court festival in ACOTAR
Description: a black to red multichrome with green light reflective glitter to look like bonfires at night among the roses
Price: $13.50 for 15ml | Cap: None
Calanmai had a great formula. It was on the thicker side of normal but I didn’t have any application issues. The multichrome was as described and paired really nicely with the glitter.
Due to the green reflective glitter, the base does have a slight greenish tint to it. I found that the glitters were very sparkly and reflective. Unfortunately, the sun disappeared so I wasn’t able to show it in direct sunlight. In my live swatch video, I show it in natural light. I found in my “normal” indoor lighting, the glitter didn’t overwell or distract from the multichrome.
My photos show Calanmai in 2 coats plus 2 coats of top coat. Since this does dry down textured, I opted to pair it with a glitter smoothing top coat. Removal will be on the more difficult side due to the glitters.
Bee’s Knees Lacquer
15ml, 5+ Free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Cameo Colours Lacquers – Flippin’ on the Zipper
Inspiration: The owner Cameo’s favorite carnival/fair ride, the Zipper.
Description: A white crelly base with a slight blue shimmer, full of blue metallic flakes, red metallic micro flakes, small red holo glitter, and silver holo micro flakes.
Price: $11.50 for ml| Cap: 105
Flippin’ on the Zipper had a beautiful formula. It started out a little sheer but it reached full opacity. The components all spread out evenly without giving off any noticeable texture.
This polish has a gorgeous holographic sparkle to it! I wasn’t seeing it as much indoors but in natural light is was really gorgeous! Before I read the description, I thought for sure this was a pale blue crelly base. I found in person it looks very blue to my eye.
My photos show in 3 coat with both glossy and matte top coat. Nothing in here dried down textured and I don’t see removal being overly difficult. This polish SCREAMS 4th of July manis to me.
Cameo Colours Lacquers
15ml, 5 free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Cat Tail Nails – Stop The Ride
Inspiration: cotton candy
Description: a pink to clear thermal with aqua, pink, and purple colorshifting flakes and a sunny colored multi shimmer
Price: $11 for 15ml | Cap: 250
Stop The Ride had a really great formula. It was on the thicker side of normal but what I generally expect from a flakie thermal polish. The thermal aspect started changing on me right away. I would say the cold state is a very bright, almost neon, pink and the warm state is a sheer milky white.
I did have some VNL in the warm state but the cold state was opaque in 3 coats. The flakies all spread out evenly and easily without giving off any texture.
My photos show Stop The Ride in 3 coats plus both glossy and matte top coat. If you don’t mind obvious VNL in the cold state, this is passable in 2 coats. Removal won’t be overly difficult and I didn’t have any issues with staining.
Cat Tail Nails
15ml, 10 Free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Crystal Knockout – Dance Electric
Inspiration: Electric Daisy Carnival
Description: A black to turquoise thermal with holographic glitter in teal, purple, silver, and blue, and matte dot glitter in neon green, pink, and orange. Glows blue-green in the dark!
Price: $11 for 15ml| Cap: None
Dance Electric had a good formula. It was fairly thick due to all of the glitters but I didn’t have any application issues. This polish has a lot of glitter in it but I didn’t need to hold the bottle upside down or do anything special to get great coverage. I really loved the glitter mix in here.
The thermal aspect started changing in me right away. The warm state is a aqua shade and the cold state is a cool toned dark grey/
black. This polish glows in the dark but I wasn’t aware of that when I took my swatch photos. I show it glowing in the dark in my live swatch video. It seemed to charge up easily using my blacklight flashlight.
My photos show Dance Electric in 3 coats plus 2 coats of top coat. The glitters give this quite a bit of texture so you will want to double up on top coat to completely smooth this out. I used a glitter smoothing top coat before going in with my quick dry top coat. Removal will be very difficult if you try to scrub this polish off.
*Note: this brand will be changing its caps, bottles, AND brushes! The new ones look like the All Mixed Up Lacquer caps/bottles/brushes.
Crystal Knockout
15ml, 5 Free & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Fair Maiden Polish – Don’t Just Fly, Soar!
Inspiration: the classic movie Dumbo
Description: a blue-hued smokey gray packed with red/orange shimmer and reflective glitter!
Price: $12 for 15ml| Cap: None
Don’t Just Fly, Soar! had a fantastic formula. The base did not feel overly thick at all despite having a lot of reflective pigment in
here. It does start out a little bit sheer so you will definitely want to build this one up for opacity.
I found the shimmer was as described and it didn’t show brush strokes. It was VERY glowy in person. The reflective glitters were very reflective but I found they weren’t as textured as I expected. I used 1 coat of top coat for my photos and that seemed to smooth the polish out nicely.
My photos show Don’t Just Fly, Soar! in 3 coats plus top coat. Removal will be very messy due to those glitters. You will want top coat for a glossy finish.
Fair Maiden Polish
15ml, 5 Free & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Hearts & Promises – Root Beer Float
Inspiration: Root Beer Floats
Description: a brown jelly base with red/gold/green shimmer
Price: $13 for 15ml| Cap: 300
Root Beet Float had a beautiful jelly formula. It started off very sheer so you will want to build it up for the most opacity. The shimmer effect was as described. I found the base color to be somewhere between a red and a brown.
My photos show Root Beer Float in 3 coats plus both glossy and matte top coats. You will have some VNL with this polish in 3 coats. I preferred this one with either a matte top coat or as a topper.
Since this polish is on the more sheer side, I also opted to also swatch it in 1 coat over a brown creme. I used Night Owl Lacquer’s Gone Squatchin.
Hearts & Promises
15ml, 5 Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Heather’s Hues – Shake Your Tail Feathers
Inspiration: the Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago.
Description: a white crelly with a hot pink to gold shimmer and filled with a mix of glitters and flakes in purples, pinks, and golds.
Price: $12.50 for 15ml | Cap: None
Shake Your Tail Feathers had a fantastic formula. The glitters and flakies all spread out very evenly. There was a very delicate pink shimmer effect in here as well that. I found the base didn’t feel thick at all despite having so much going on in it.
So the base color for this is white however due to all of the extra pink components, it does come across as a *very* pale pink in some lighting. I found that this polish dried down slightly sheerer than it applied so while at first, it seems opaque in two coats I ended up needing a third coat to reach full opacity.
My photos show Shake Your Tail Feathers in 3 coats plus both glossy and matte top coat. I paired this polish with a glitter smoothing top coat as the components did dry down wit hsome texture.
Heather’s Hues – Tone It Down Blue Ribbon Pie
Inspiration: Country fairs always have the best food, especially the pie contests
Scent Description: a rich mix of sweet blueberries, Concord grapes, lemon, ripe raspberry, juicy blackberries, lingonberry, wild strawberry, and turbinado sugar
Price: $6.75 for ml| Cap: 100 bottles
I was really excited to see Heather decided to bring her acetone additive to this month’s shop! I swear by this stuff while I’m swatching as well as for just removing my manicures. One bottle for me is good for 16 ounces of acetone.
I like to use around half the bottle in either a 6 or 8 ounce pump bottle filled with pure acetone. I go through *a lot* of acetone while I am swatching so 16 ounces usually lasts me about a month. You can also had a few drops to a dappen dish or a cap of acetone.
This month’s scent to my nose smells strongly of fruit to me. I couldn’t pinpoint any one fruit but it was really great!
Heather’s Hues
15ml, 5 free, Vegan & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Jior Couture – The Forgotten Fair
Inspiration: The Chesterfield County Colored Farmers’ Fair
Description: a sky blue (cold reactive) subtle thermal shift with holo copper microglitter, bronze microglitter, and reflective glitter.
Price: $13.50 for 12ml| Cap: None?
The Forgotten Fair had a beautiful formula. The base didn’t feel overly thick or thin and I didn’t have any applicaiton issues. Sadly, my bottle got delivered during a 90 degree heatwave and sat on my porch all day. So I can’t speak on the thermal aspect as my thermal pigment seems to have died.
The color of the polish that I was seeing in person is what I believe to be the warm state. It was on the more sheer side but from the other swatch photos that I have seen, the cold state is a dark blue that looks more opaque.
The glitters all spread out evenly with giving off minimal texture. I used 1 coat of top coat and that seemed to have smooth it out nicely. The reflective glitters sparkled really beautiofully in natural sunlight.
My photos show The Forgotten Fair in 3 coats plus 1 coat of top coat. I would reccomend soaking this polish off or using a peel off base coat to remove it. The glitters will likely tear up cotton rounds/balls.
Jior Couture
12ml, 8 Free & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook Group
KBShimmer – Fairest One Of All
Inspiration: Minnesota State Fair
Description: a deepened navy jelly loaded with a rainbow of color-shifting iridescent flakes. Hues of green, blue, gold, red, purple, and pink flicker like the lights on a state fair ride. Reflective glitter catches the light for a subtle twinkle in lower lighting. In direct and bright lights, a vibrant green hue pops from the reflective pigment for a
Price: $11.50 for 15ml Cap: None
Fairest One Of All had a really nice formula. This polish is very much on the thick side. I found it applied easily and was very opaque. The glitters in here do give off a lot of texture. You will really want to double up on your top coat to smooth this out. I used the KBShimmer Smooth Moves glitter smoothing top coat before going in with my quick dry top coat and that combination smoothed it out perfectly.
I found the reflective glitters to be very sparkly. Unfortunately, it was raining when I swatched this polish so I wasn’t able to get it outside to see how they looked in sunlight. From the flashlight that I use for reflective polishes, I could see silver and green sparkles in person.
My photos show Fairest One Of All in 2 coats plus 2 coats of top coat. Removal will be very difficult if you try to scrub this polish off. I used a peel off base coat.
KBShimmer Watermelon Sugar Hand & Body Sugar Scrub
Inspiration: Sweet summer goodies
Description: scent starts with the sweet scent of cotton candy and vanilla. Notes of ripe, juicy watermelon and fresh-picked strawberries bring a unique tartness and yet smooth sweetness to the scrub, for an alluring scent that lingers on the skin. If you love our Spun Sugar or Pink Sugar scents, you will love this summertime twist.
Price: $10 for 9.5 ounces | Cap: None
I sing the praises of this sugar scrub each month so I will spare you all the usual. I use this on a regular basis when I am doing manicures, pedicures as well as for all over bodu exfoliation.
This month’s scent to my nose was mainly very sweet with a hint of fruitiness. I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t more watermelon-y but as someone who loves sweet scented fragrances, I still really like this scrub.
KBShimmer
15ml, 5 free, Vegan & Cruelty Free
Website | Etsy | Amazon | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
My Indie Polish – Haunted Mansion
Inspiration: a friend of Tanya’s who reads minds at haunted houses
Description: a neon green jelly with lots of colour changing metallic flakies, and lots of shimmers
Price: $13 for 15ml Cap: 100
Haunted Mansion had a beautiful formula. The base didn’t feel overly thick or thin and I didn’t have any application issues. It started of a little sheer so you will definitely want to build this one up.
The green base is BRIGHT! Since it Is a neon base, it will glow under black light. The flakies all spread out very evenly without giving off any texture.
My photos show Haunted Mansion in 3 coats plus both glossy and matte top coat. I did use a thicker third coat to give this a bit more opacity. I think if you go in for very thin coats, you will have VNL. I had some VNL on the clear part of my nail but not on my natural nail.
Removal won’t be overly difficult and I didn’t experience any staining.
My Indie Polish
15ml, 7 free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group | TikTok
Night Owl Lacquer – Kind of a Big Wheel
Inspiration: Being in the sky on a ferris wheel.
Description: a bright blue filled with a rainbow of iridescent color shifting flakes and a variety of white matte glitters. (Also glows in blacklight)
Price: $12.80 for ml| Cap: None
Kind of a Big Wheel had a really great formula. It was on the thicker side of normal but not at all hard to work with it. This is jam PACKED with flakies and glitters! I didn’t need to do any fishing or hold the bottle upside down to get great coverage.
The base color is a bright neon-ish blue so it does glow under blacklight. It is a little bit sheer so you will want to build it up for opacity. The base stays a little sheer but between the glitters and flakies, you reach full opacity. The glitters/flakies do give the polish some texture.
My photos show Kind of a Big Wheel in 3 coats plus 1 thick coat of top coat. Depending on personal preference, you might want to pair this with a glitter smoothing top coat. Removal will be on the more difficult side if you try to scrub this polish off.
Night Owl Lacquer
15ml, 5 Free & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group | TikTok
Restored By Polish – Horsing Around
Inspiration: the child-like joy represented by the colorful carousel horses at fairs and carnivals.
Description: holo flakie polish filled with multi-color shifting flakes set in a holo base with added depth from the black shreds, black & holo micro flakes and pink hex glitters
Price: $12.50 for 13ml | Cap: 100
Horsing Around had a beautiful formula. The base starts off fairly sheer so you will want to build this one up for opacity. The glitters and flakies all spread out evenly and easily.
I did find that the black shreds did seem to sink in the bottle so holding the bottle upside down between coats will get more of them out on the nail. They also have a tendency to want to hang out towards the tips of my nails but this particular component always does that in my experience.
The holographic in here was VERY strong. It was like BOOM holographic when I brought this outside.
My photos show Horsin Around in 3 coats plus top coat. I had some slight VNL depending on lighting. The brand also states that this can be used as a topper, so I swatched it in 1 coat over First Light by Night Owl Lacquer which is a yellow creme. I’m undecided on if I like it better on its own or as a topper both looked amazing.
Removal shouldn’t be too bad but I still wouldn’t suggest scrubbing this one off.
Restored By Polish
12ml, 10 Free, Vegan & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Sassy Sauce Polish – Spin Me Right Round Baby
Inspiration: a mardi gras shot of a mask
Description: a golden red shimmer in a violet base with turquoise holo micro glitter and reflective glitter
Price: $13 for 15ml | Cap: 500
Spin Me Right Round Baby had a freaking amazing formula. This polish was so incrredibly beautiful in person I couldn’t stop taking pictures of it. The base didn’t feel overly thick or thin and I didn’t have any application issues.
I found the hsimmer has a red/orange/gold color shift in person. the glitters only give the polish a slight amount of texture. I used 1 coat of top coat and that smoothed it out nicely.
My photos show Spin Me Right Round Baby in 3 coats plus top coat. Depending on lighting, you might have some VNL with this polish. I also swatched it in 1 coat over black (Heather’s Hues Shadow) and just WOW.
Sassy Sauce Polish
15ml, 5 Free & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Twisting Nether Lacquer – Shaved Ice
Inspiration: Shaved Ice
Description: a White crelly with neon glitters and neon yellow stars
Price: $13.50 for 15ml | Cap: 200
Shaved Ice had a fantastic formula. The base was just slightly on the thicker side but what I expect from a glitter crelly. The glitters all spread out evenly and easily but with some texture. You will want to double up on top coat to get this perfectly smooth. The glitters in here are also blacklight reactive.
I didn’t need to hold the bottle upside down or do any fishing to get great coverage. I found the yellow stars came out easily but since the brand included a little baggy of stars, I did add a few extra onto my nails. This won’t be necessary to do if you aren’t into glitter placement.
My photos show Shaved Ice in 3 coats plus both glossy and matte top coat. I also paired it with a glitter smoothing top coat before going in with my quick dry top coat.
Removal will be extremely difficult if you try to scrub this polish off.
Twisting Nether Lacquer
15ml, 5 Free, Vegan & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook Page | Facebook Group
Sale Information
The June Polish Pickup opens Friday, June 3rd at 11 AM Eastern time and closes Monday the 6th at 11:59PM. The UK site opens up Thursday the 2nd at 1600 GMT. Multiple orders to the same name/address on the US site are automatically combined. Details on shipping charges can be found here.
Items purchased during the sale period are a pre-order and generally ship 3-4 weeks after the sale period is over.
Polish Pickup
Website | International Site | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group | Chat/BST Group
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.
Comparisons
Twisting Nether Lacquer Shaved Ice vs Starlite (June 2021 PPU)
My Indie Polish Haunted Mansion vs Special Blooms (May 2021 PPU)
I didn’t really think these were similar but I just figured since I had a neon green by the brand to compare them.