[Press Samples – Post Disclosure Page]
Hey friends! Today’s blog post is for the October Polished Gamers Box. This month, the theme is The Sims. I feel like I haven’t really played a Sims game since Sim City so the references for these polishes go over my head but luckily for me, they’re stunning so I’m happy!
The October PGB opens on the 15th. As always, sale details and links can be found at the end of the post.
The Polished Gamers Box aka PGB is a monthly collaboration between handmade indie brands. Each month has a different theme and themes are always related to gaming.
Live Swatch Video
BCB Lacquers – Simlish
Inspiration: Inspired by the original Sims cover
Description: a light grey base with a strong teal/green/pink/purple shift and holo
Price: $13.00 for 16.5ml Cap: 150
Simlish had an amazing formula. It didn’t feel overly thick or thin and I didn’t have any application issues. The base isn’t on the sheer side but you will want to build it up for opacity. I was seeing all of the described colors in the shimmer.
The shimmer is slightly brush strokey, most of them do disappear as the polish dries. If you don’t mind obvious VNL, this is passable in 2 coats. I used 3 coats for my photos.
BCB Lacquers
15ml, 5 Free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Color Spectrum Polish – I Turned My Hair Pink!
Inspiration: Shannon’s personal Sim character
Description: A hot pink jelly base with red to gold shifting shimmers, iridescent flakies and red, pink and purple holo glitters
Price: $12 for 13ml Cap: 75
I Turned My Hair Pink! had a wonderful formula. It didn’t feel overly thick or thin but I did notice that the polish would run down the stem of the brush a little bit. However, no real application issues. The pink base is on the more sheer side so you will want to build this up for the most opacity or pair it with a more opaque base.
The shimmer in this gives is a very strong hot pink to gold color shift. The flakes look best in lower lighting situations and the holo glitter looks amazing in the sun. Nothing in here will dry textured and I don’t see removal being overly difficult.
I swatched this polish in 3 coats on its own as well as in 1 coat over black (Heather’s Hues Shadow). Personally, I like this on 3 coats but it looked pretty awesome as a topper.
Color Spectrum Polish
13ml, 7 Free, Vegan & Cruelty free
Website | Etsy | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Garden Path Lacquers – Death By Chicken Noodle Soup
Inspiration: The Sims
Description: A royal, grapey purple crelly base with red/gold aurora shimmer, red/gold crystal flakes, and holographic micro flakes
Price: $13.00 for 12ml Cap: None
Death By Chicken Noodle Soup had a fantastic formula. It didn’t feel overly thick or thin and I had zero application problems. The purple base pairs wonderfully with the shimmer and flakies. This is also very holographic.
I think this will be a 2-3 coater depending on preference. I used 3 coats for my photos but I feel like I wasn’t seeing a very obvious color difference between 2 coats and 3 coats.
Garden Path Lacquers
12ml, 5 Free, Vegan & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Geekish Glitter Lacquer – UFO Abductee
Inspiration: Bella Goth
Description: A deep red jelly with black to red microflakies
Price: $11.00 for 16ml Cap: 100
UFO Abductee had a fantastic formula. It didn’t feel overly thick or thin and I didn’t have any application issues. This is a jelly so you will want to build it up to get that deep red that is seen in the bottle. The flakies all spread out very evenly and have a beautiful color shift to them.
I swatched this polish in 3 coats. I found it applied very evenly so if you don’t mind it not being a dark red, it is passable in 2 coats. Nothing in here will dry textured or be difficult to remove. You will want top coat for a glossy finish.
Geekish Glitter Lacquer
16ml, 5 free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Leesha’s Lacquer – TestingCheatsEnabled True
Inspiration: Inspired by the fact that Alicia can’t play or enjoy the Sims without cheating needs (🙈) this is the code to enable cheats in the Sims 3, my favorite series!
Description: a neon green to red thermal with gold/green micro flakies
Price: $12 for 15ml Cap: None
TestingCheatsEnabled True had a really great formula. It didn’t feel thick at all and I didn’t have any application issues. I was very surprised when this started changing colors! The cold state is a brownish red shade and the cold state is a bright green. The warm state isn’t quite a slime green but more of a Granny Smith apple green. My hands were more on the cold side the day I was swatching this so it took a few minutes for this to start changing on me.
This polish starts off on the more sheer side so you will want to build it up for full opacity. If you go in for *very* thin coats, you will likely have some VNL. I went in for medium thickness in coats and didn’t have any issues with visible nail line. I think this polish will likely be a 3 coater on pretty much everyone.
Leesha’s Lacquer
15ml, 5 free, Vegan & Cruelty Free
Website | Etsy | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Psst.. You can use my code NicoleLovesNails25 on the Leesha’s Lacquer site to save 25%!
MTK Design – If You Build It
Inspiration: Original SimCity Game Box
Description: pale gold (warm) to sky blue (cold) thermal with lots and lots of gold shimmer and sparkle.
Price: $12.00 for 15ml Cap: None
If You Build It had a fantastic formula. It didn’t feel overly thick or thin and I didn’t have any application issues. I found the thermal aspect started changing on me right away. The warm state is a goldish shade that has a *slight* hint of green. The cold state is somewhere between a steel blue and a sky blue.
The shimmer in this is very strong! It did have some very slight brush strokes but most of them (not all) disappear as the polish dries. My photos show it in 3 coats. This will likely be a 2-3 coater depending on personal preference. I found the third coat brought this up to full opacity.
MTK Design
15ml, 5 Free & Cruelty Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
My Indie Polish – Sims Castles
Inspiration: The Castles in Sims
Description: a neutral with awesome glitters in shades of pinks and blue
Price: $13 for 15ml Cap: 50
Sims Castles had a fantastic crelly formula. The base color in my opinion is a pink toned neutral (not quite a “nude”) that is just slightly muted. The glitters are in various shapes, sizes and shades of pink, a reddish coral, blue and purple.
This will be a 2-3 coater depending on your application. On all of my fingers except for my live swatch nail, this was a 3 coater. I accidentally used a thicker coat for my middle nail so that nail is in 2 coats.
Nothing in here will dry textured. I was able to remove this very easily with the soak off method.
My Indie Polish
15ml, 7 free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
NeVerMind Apothecary – WARNING Adult Content
Inspiration: Wicked Whims mod
Description: A sultry purple with that shifts from deep shades of pink purple and blue
Price: $12.50 for 15ml Cap: 200
WARNING Adult Content had an amazing formula. It didn’t feel overly thick or thin and I didn’t have any application issues. The base for this is a deep jewel toned purple. Paired with the shimmer, this looks absolutely amazing!
I was seeing all of the described colors in the shimmer with no visible brush strokes. This has very good and even coverage in 2 coats however to get the color you see in the bottle, you will want to go in for 3 coats.
Nothing in here will be difficult to remove. I would recommend wearing 2 coats of base coat if your nails are prone to staining. I had some very mild staining on the tips of my nails.
NeVerMind Apothecary
15ml, 5 Free, Vegan & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Night Owl Lacquer – Architect Wannabe
Inspiration: Lindsay’s love for building houses in The Sims
Description: a dark grey crelly filled with green/blue/gold crystal chameleon flakes and holographic micro flakies.
Price: $12.50 for 15ml Cap: None
Architect Wannabe had a really great formula. This is a very flakie dense polish but it dries without texture. The grey base is slightly overshadowed by the flakies. In person, the base color as a *slight* blueish tone to it.
This will likely be a 2-3 coater depending on personal preference. I used 3 coats for my photos. This didn’t dry textured and I didn’t notice the flakies being top coat hungry so I used1 coat of top coat for my photos. Removal on this will be on the most messy side but not difficult.
Night Owl Lacquer
15ml, 5 Free & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group | TikTok
Red Eyed Lacquer – Dance, Dance, Fight
Inspo: Fight/Dance Scene?
Description: A magenta/fuchsia crelly with orange/gold shifting shimmer and holo micro flakies
Price: $12.50 for 13ml Cap: 100
Dance, Dance, Fight had a fantastic formula. The magneta base is bright but very slightly muted to be seasonally appropriate. The shimmer is an orangey gold shade and very strong. I wasn’t see any brush strokes in it.
This will likely be a 2-3 coater depending on application. My photos show it in 3 coats.
Red Eyed Lacquer
12ml, 5 free & Cruelty-Free
Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group
Products Used
- Base Coats: Heather’s Hues 1st Base, Sweet & Sour Lacquer Smickey Sauce *gifted (Use code SweetNicole10 to save 10%) & Vapid Lacquer Commitment Issues
- Top Coats: Holo Taco Super Glossy Taco & Sweet & Sour Lacquer Gloss Sauce *gifted (Use code SweetNicole10 to save 10%)
- Cremes: Heather’s Hues Shadow
- Matte top coat: Glisten & Glow Matte
Comparisons
When I saw this Geekish Glitter polish, I thought people might want to see it compared to the Heather’s Hues polish I Can’t Move On (Hella Handmade Creations September 2021). The base colors on these are different but the flakies are the same.
I didn’t really think the Garden Path Lacquers polish was all that comparable to their October PPU polish BUT because they both have pink and purple tones to them, I decided to include them.
Sale Information
The Polished Gamers Box opens for orders on the 15th of every other month at 12PM Mountain time on the website, PolishedGamersBox.com. The sale period closes on the 20th at 10PM Mountain time.
There will be a TON more items than what I have shown available. All items are capped so be sure to get there when the shop opens! All PGB items are sold on preorder and will ship in around 4 weeks after the sale period.
Polished Gamers Box
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Shipping within the US starts at $4. International shipping is available and priced at checkout. Multiple orders in the same name will have shipping overages will get refunded.