First real swatch post! *confetti*

I've been holding out, to be honest, because I wanted this to be my first swatch post. Yesterday, defying all logic and reason, my Lacquistry order showed up, despite having been shipped like...two days before, from ARIZONA! Holy light speed lacquer Batman! Anyways, Today I have for you 3 manis from the amazing Jenna and her amazing brain. The three customs I have today are: Cherry Blossom, Kite Festival and Strawberry Fields Forever. Pictures and background behind the names after the jump! Just a warning, I have severely dehydrated cuticles, I had some kind of reaction to a cuticle oil a few days ago and I'm detoxing right now. Ignore them focus on the polish!



First up, is Cherry Blossom. This was one of my two original customs I orders from Jenna. Inspired by my yearly pilgrimage to the Washington DC Cherry Blossom Festival and Parade. Something about the serenity of those soft pink blossoms just speaks to me, and now I can wear it on my nails all year round.

Bottle Shot! (Not the greatest)

This is one fantastic coat of Cherry Blossom over two medium coats of Essie Pink-a-boo. 

Cherry blossom is a clear based glitter with light green, light pink, light fuchsia and raspberry colored mini hexes and light pink, what I'm going to call, glitter 'splinters' not because they're sharp or pokey but because of the fine texture and slim shape of the pieces. Jenna blew this one out of the freaking park. She captured all of the colors of the inspiration photo I sent her, and even that feeling of the petals blowing from the trees. Those glitter splinters are amazing!

Close up shot that really shows off those glitter splinters! Those 'purple' hexes are actually the light fuchsia, the color is kind of wonky.

Next up is 'Kite Festival'. This one is part of my 'DC Cherry Blossom' duo. I don't go every year, but the Kite Festival by the Washington Monument is one of my favorite springtime events. Hundreds and hundreds of people, pros and amateurs alike gather on the National Mall to fly kites. There's competitions, contests and demonstrations of some of the coolest kite flying ever. I don't have the picture anymore, but the inspiration to this polish was a shot I had looking up at the tip of the Washington Monument and hundreds of colorful kites in the sky around it. 

Bottle shot! It really doesn't do the polish justice at all!

 The polish is a clear base with light blue micro glitter and green, blue, pink and light orange holo KITE glitters! YES! Again, she totally nailed this one. It's subtle, not a million things going on. I told her the inspiration and she got so excited because she actually had kite shaped glitters.

I don't think I got any green...strange. I know they're in there!

One coat of Kite Festival over two medium coats of OPI Go on Green! *Swoon* Honestly...I can't get these pictures to capture the 'OMG HOLO'ness of those kites! They're so reflective and shiny and crazy awesome. This is more sparse than Cherry Blossom, but honestly it works. I think this would also work over a light blue creme or maybe even some Essie marshmallow.

Close up! Isn't it -sheer- perfection?

I also have one more custom, and want to get it out of the way before I get to the meat of this post. To put it loosely, I paid the price of telling her to throw random things in a bottle. We had bad bad bleeders and it turned into this thick, stale grape juice colored mess. I'm waiting to hear back from Jenna on what she wants to do, but for now, I'll show you what it was SUPPOSED to look like: 

This is Jenna's swatch of Kitchen Sink. Clear base with EVERYTHING in it. Sadly, this is not what I received. 

Instead, I got this:

This is one nasty looking coat, and obviously no cleanup on my thumb nail. This was so thick it was almost unmanageable. Without direct sunlight, half of the shapes aren't even visible. I don't knock her for this at all, she used some test glitters, unfortunately I don't know if she'll be able to pin down the culprit(s). I'll keep you all updated on what comes of this one.

Now...

*Queue emotional music*

Now, last but certainly not least is the creme de la creme of my Lacquistry Haul. I was in the process of trying to help the lovely Jenna with some glitter suppliers here in New Jersey when I spilled the beans to her about my aunt passing away. The research I was doing for her was providing some distraction from the fact that I couldn't be in Florida with my family. She immediately said I couldn't research anything, to focus on family and that she wanted -out of the kindness of her giant heart- to make me a polish to honor my aunt. I knew immediately what I wanted it to be based on. 

One of the strongest memories I have of my dear Aunt Kim are those of picking strawberries in a little field outside her house in Pensacola, FL. She'd planted them herself, and I just happened to be visiting during their peak harvest time. I will never ever forget that summer. When I heard she was taking a turn for the worse, I went and hunted down this pair of gold enameled strawberry earrings at target, and have worn them almost every day since, it's kind of soothing the fact that I couldn't say goodbye. This was the information I gave Jenna, and she worked her amazing magic and put it in a bottle. I hadn't seen swatches of it before actually receiving it in the mail (We both had that idea, as she normally sends swatches of customs before they're finalized)

Now, without further ado, here she is:

Strawberry Fields Forever

Bottle shot, captures some of the fabulous holo of those gold hexes.

Strawberry Fields Forever is a very light honey base that almost glows from within. I took a bottle shot last night and got a gold colored glare, I thought it was a fluke, when it actually was the color of the base showing through the glass. Suspended in perfect proportion within the base are large strawberry red hexes and medium and small gold holo hexes.

It just sends shivers up my spine, even if my cuticles are a hot mess!

This shot is two coats of Zoya 'Rina' (because it looks just like glittery grass) and one well placed coat of Strawberry Fields Forever, topped with a coat of Seche Vite. This was a thirsty one.

 It looks like little gems nestled in a bed of grass. This is more than I could have ever come up with on my own. It's subtle, yet it drives the inspiration home. I haven't taken this off my hand yet, and I tear up a little every time I look down. Funny how much this DOESN'T look like Christmas when you know the story behind it.

Bottle shot, and my index finger.

Just wanted to share a picture of my beautiful Aunt, seeing as this polish was made in her memory.

RIP Kimberly Ann Savas-Lernihan 

April 15th 1956- March 23rd 2012

I love you so much!

Lacquistry is currently closed to fill current orders, but she always has plenty 

of stock when she does re-open. 

She also has a Facebook Page

Thanks for sharing, stay sparkley ladies!