White Owl Lacquers - Water Lilies

     Well, hey there, lovies. Hope y'all had a good Easter. Quick post today. Or it might be long. I don't know. I do know that I'm behind on my blogging. Work was crazy busy last week and fairly full of drama, so I was both mentally and physically exhausted. I'm still feeling kinda bleh and drained. What I am stoked about, however, is today's polish. White Owl Lacquers Water Lilies, from their Spring 2013 collection, is the vernis du jour.

     According to the White Owl Lacquers site, Water Lilies is a "light mint green jelly base with purple, teal and aqua matte hex, metallic turquoise dots and bigger magenta dots." I don't think this fully describes how beautiful this polish is or all the different types of glitter in it. The purple hexes come in three different sizes and shades. There are also small pink hexes that they didn't mention, as well as very subtle shimmer flecks. I originally tried to wear this on it's own, without any undies, because I love the way the glitter suspended in the green leaning base really does remind me of water lilies. Fail. I just need to learn that certain jellies look awesome swatched on a nail wheel but not so much on my slightly stained nails. (Oh, and two coats of precious polish wasted... breaks my heart.) Maybe I'll try it alone again when I'm rocking supernubs.

     This is one coat of Water Lilies layered over China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint. I didn't want to alter the colour of Water Lilies too much by picking a mint base that was too blue or dark. Compared to bottle colour, I think I did pretty well. I'm not so great at applying jellies, but this one didn't give me much trouble. For the most part, it was self-leveling and non-streaky. (All of my White Owl Lacquers jelly based polishes seem to have wonderful formulas. Some of them actually apply effortlessly. Total score.) I did make sure that I had a good amount of glitter on the brush with each dip, but I didn't have to place it on the nail at all. I also didn't have to fish for the large magenta circles, which I love. Removal was what you'd expect from a polish with glitter, a little bit of work, but nothing crazy. As usual, I topped this off with a coat each of Gelous and Seche Vite.

     I kinda feel the need to apologize for the less than stellar clean up job on this mani. I was just so tired and my contact lenses were dry from being awake for so long. I couldn't really see straight and thought I did much better than I did. It should also be noted that the boyfriend picked this polish out. My brain was too fried to make a decision, so I shoved this and another polish from the same collection in front of him and asked him to choose. BF to the rescue. ;) I ended up wearing this polish for five days. (Yes, five! I told you, I was shot from work. Good thing I really like this polish.) These photos are from the second day of wear. I only had one chip after day three and two more after day four. Really, though, the chips weren't that noticeable. Tipwear was almost non-existant.

     A couple of final thoughts... Mara, the creative mind behind White Owl Lacquers, seems super sweet. A few months ago, I expressed interest in two of her polishes that had been recently retired. She offered to make them for me even though she was no longer restocking them! I had never bought anything from her before, and this totally impressed me. I was thankful for her kindness, and she earned herself a loyal fan. Her polishes have a certain delicate beauty to them, and I honestly think they deserve all the attention they can get. Ohhh, and how ridiculously cute are those bottles? Water Lilies can be purchased from White Owl Lacquers for $9.

     Aaand for no reason other than it being stuck in my head for the last 24 hours, I'll leave you with a song. Nail world, meet my first love, Music...

XOXO,
Riotbettyx