Monday, April 30, 2018

Polish Pickup April 2018 Swatches and Reviews: Polished for Days Solar Flare and Alter Ego Altarf aka Beta Cancri


Hi guys! I hope the start of the week is off to a bang. I did exactly what I said I'd do this past weekend except I forgot to mention I was heading to Penzey's Spices to buy approximately 1 ton of spices I don't necessarily need. Oops, no regrets. Tonight I have 2 of the 3 April Polish Pickup colors I received last week. Don't worry, I'll have the Scofflaw Nail Polish up as soon as I can. If you haven't heard about Polish Pickup, let me give you a quick recap. First, definitely join the Polish Pickup Facebook Group. You don't necessarily need to actively participate in the group, but it will give you a look into the polishes coming that month. Do you hate it when a new indie box comes out with multiple brands and you only really love one of the colors? What do you do then? Destash the ones you don't want? Just suck it up and buy it and keep them all because you're too lazy to destash? Well, there's now a group and website called Polish Pickup that will open for suggestions for box themes for the upcoming month. Everyone votes, and the winner becomes the theme for a future box. Indie  brands that have been around for at least a year are welcome to apply and each brand has their own specific inspiration picture and polish for that month. All you need to do is go to the Polish Pickup site during the pre-order window (the first Friday-Monday of the month) to make all of your purchases of these exclusive polishes. There's no need to pay for multiple shipping charges; since this is a pre-order, all polishes get sent to Polish Pickup and they send you the polishes you ordered. Yup, it's that simple. Oh, and shipping is a flat-rate of $3 to the US (more for Canada and international). With that out of the way, shall we look at these beauties? 






Alter Ego Altarf aka Beta Cancri (3 coats)

Oh. My. Goodness. I knew I had to buy Alter Ego's Altarf aka Beta Cancri as soon as I saw the first swatch. It's an eye-searing yellow toned orange with lots of red flakes and gold shimmer. It's named after the brightest star in the Cancer constellation (which there are apparently no pictures, just a description that it's a bright orange). I love that Alter Ego used their imagination and their own interpretation for this color. I own nothing that looks remotely like this one, and that's really saying something. Even better, it only cost $7.50! I noticed that this one had a stronger smell when applying it, but it didn't both me. I just wanted to go ahead and mention it in case you are sensitive to stronger scents. I could have used 2 coats for the swatches, but I went ahead and used a third for good measure. I had no issues with the formula or application. It dried with some texture, so I recommend 1 coat of a thicker topcoat or 2 coats of a thinner one. I'm not bothered if a polish isn't completely glassy smooth, so 99% of the time I just use 1 coat and call it a day. 




Polished for Days Solar Flare (3 coats)

I've been praising Jenna's work from Polished for Days for years, and she still manages to surprise me. Solar Flare is a blackened base with an orange to green shift, orange/copper flakes, and holographic flakes. The shift is more apparent in real life, especially in dim light (which doesn't make for very good photography, unfortunately). Jenna really is the queen of flakes, and that's why I keep coming back for more. Again, I used 3 coats for the photos, but I could have gotten away with 2 if I used thicker coats. I've never had an issue with the application of a PfD color, and this one is no different. It dried with a bit of texture, so make sure to use a thicker topcoat. 

I am extremely happy with my choices from this month's Polish Pickup. Unfortunately these are no longer available, but May is opening up soon, so make sure to join the group for photos and more information. To learn more about these 2 great indie brands, check out the links below. 

Alter Ego
Website
Facebook
Facebook Group
Instagram 

Polished for Days
Website
Facebook
Facebook Group
Instagram

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