Monday, June 1, 2020

Polish Pickup June 2020 Cocktails and Mocktails Swatches and Reviews

*press samples*


Long time, no blog! Tonight I've got 4 products from this month's Polish Pickup which is coming in hot. The inspiration is Cocktails and Mocktails and I don't actually drink. I mean, I did back in the day, but alcohol interferes with the medication I take these days so my husband tends to do the drinking (he's into craft beer). It's fine with him because he always has a designated driver. That said, I think this is a really fun theme as there are drinks in all the colors of the rainbow. New to PPU? If so, here's how it works:

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 at the polishes that will be available in the coming month. PPU themes are chosen by the people, often a few months in advance (brands need time to find their inspiration and test their polish). Any indie brand that has been around for at least a year can participate and each 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 international and they just had to increase the pricing to Canada). Recently they also opened a UK site which you can find here. Since all orders are pre-orders, shipping will take place about 3 weeks after the end of the pre-order.

PPU starts Friday, June 5th at 11:00 AM ET and ends on Monday, June 8th at 11:59 PM (but if a polish has a cap and sells out before the end of the pre-order, it's gone, unless you get lucky and the cap gets raised...which is rare) on the PPU website. Guess what next month is?? PPU Rewind! Each brand gets to bring back a shade (or product) from a previous month for the PPU website, and a different color they can sell on their website if they're interested. 

The website is currently open for wishlisting, so go check out this month's offerings STAT. Time for swatches!








Noodles Nail Polish Lavender Lemonade (3 coats)

Inspiration: a lavender lemonade cocktail
Price: $11.50
Cap: None


Up first we have the sweetest purple crelly from Noodle Nail Polish. Lavender Lemonade is a lavender crelly base with white, pale yellow, and violet glitters with a sprinkling of purple shimmer. I am absolutely loving the yellow and purple combo in this one. I used 3 thin coats for my photos, and it had a great formula. It does dry with texture, so you'll either need a thicker topcoat, or 2 coats of a thinner one. I regret not adding a matte topcoat to this one. 








Pepper Pot Polish Call Me Old Fashioned (3 coats)

Inspiration: my recipe for an Earl Grey Old Fashioned cocktail and a photo I took of it for work! Each order will receive a recipe for my signature cocktail. Yay!
Price: $11
Cap: 80/US 10/UK


True story, my husband likes to look at all the polishes I get. He's not judging me or anything, he is truly interested in seeing what makers are, well, making! When he looked at this one, he immediately agreed this looked like an old-fashioned. Mackenzie from Pepper Pot is also a bartender, and she often posts photos of cool drinks she makes. Call Me Old Fashioned is a brown tinged copper base with gold flakes and gold shimmer. I think I need to buy my own bottle to get that recipe! I ended up using 3 thin coats, but you could likely get away with 2. It dried with no texture, but add a topcoat to make those flakes/shimmer pop. 








Starlight Polish Butterfly Lemon Drop Slush (3 coats)

Inspiration: a Butterfly Lemon Drop Slush – a Lemon Drop made with crushed ice made from butterfly pea flower tea.  The butterfly pea flower tea is initially blue, but when it’s exposed to something acidic, it brightens to purple, and then to pink!  As the blue crushed ice melts, the butterfly pea flower blue encounters the lemon juice and it creates a gorgeous color gradient in the drink, with blue ice, purple near the ice, and pink further out.  Of course, you can also skip the vodka (and triple sec, if you take your Lemon Drops with triple sec) and just do a Butterfly Lemonade Slush, too! 
Price: $13
Cap:150/US 15/UK

Issa is so descriptive with her inspirations and I really appreciate it. She also included all I need to make this drink (minus the alcohol, but, as she stated, it can also be a mocktail). Butterfly Lemon Drop Slush is a magenta purple base with blue and purple color shifting aurora flakes, translucent blue flakes, blue/purple iridescent glitter, and a touch of color shifting blue-purple shimmer. This one is super squishy-looking and the flakes really give it a beautiful blue/purple glow to it. I used 3 thin coats for my photos, and it dried with minimal texture. 










Starlight Polish Happy Hour Charm and Page Marker Set
Price: $14
Cap: 45/US 3/UK


Starlight and Sparkles’ IPU item is the Happy Hour Charm and Page Marker set, inspired by various cocktails and alcoholic beverages. This is an eight piece set, with six paperclip page markers and two clip-on charms. The six page markers are a champagne glass with pale pink beads, a martini glass with light purple beads, a margarita glass with green beads, a hurricane glass with blue beads, a tall glass with an umbrella and yellow beads, and a goblet glass with orange beads. The clip-on charms are a six pack of glass beer bottles with amber beads, and a wine bottle and two wine glasses with red beads, both with lobster claw clasps. 

The page markers use rectangular paper clips (also called owl clips), different colors of glass beads, various charms, and stainless steel findings (the lobster clasps and the rings). Due to the shape of the paperclip, the charms can’t freely slide all around, and these types of paperclips are quite secure, reliably able to hold quite a few sheets. I think my favorite is the 6 pack of beer. I've been cooking a lot more lately and have been using these clips in my recipe books.  

There you have it, folks! The website is open for wish listing and I've started mine already. A few of these items have a cap, so it's best to add your items to your cart the night before the sale goes live. You need to have an account and sign in first before adding your wish listed items to the cart. Easy peasy. What do you think? Which ones are you picking up? 


*These polishes were provided by the company or PR representative. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site*

1 comment:

Ananka said...

Not too keen on the brown but the other 2 are gorgeous :-D