Lights Lacquer Zenon

I started to call Lights Lacquer a new-to-me brand - which it is - but it doesn't really feel new to me, because I was a big KL Polish fan. I think I have maybe around 40 polishes from KL Polish, which was also the creation of YouTuber Kathleen Lights - and Lights Lacquer is basically exactly the same, except with new colors. Lights Lacquer got underway last fall, I think? So coming up on a year ago. I had been watching as colors were released, and there were things I liked, but they're not cheap, and I was able to resist - until now! I still kept myself in control and only bought two polishes. I did a lot of looking at swatches and reviews before I decided, too.

When I say "exactly the same" I mean the bottles are about the same, the brush is the same, the formula is by all accounts basically the same, and it's still Kathleen who's developing the colors. It's just got a new name on it. Behind the scenes I'm sure things are different, but it's a very similar product. Since I really liked KL Polish, "exactly the same" is a good thing.

(As I understand it from what she said on her YouTube channel at the time, the reason for the change was that Kathleen had some partners that helped her fund KL Polish, and gradually they started overruling her on issues about the running of the business. She disagreed with them so strongly that she pulled out of that agreement and started over again, with Lights Lacquer, which she has sole control over.)


So here is one of the polishes I bought: Zenon. (Since this is already getting pretty long, I'll put the other polish up separately tomorrow.)

Zenon is from a new collection, Supernova:

(I didn't get this box because I didn't buy all three of them, but I thought it was super-adorable so I wanted to show you the picture.)

I did get a little flat promo piece, I assume because I did buy one of the polishes from the collection:

 Anyway, I really like this polish, as far as what I can tell from the swatches. The description on the website is a "fuchsia pearl with an ultra fine blue-violet holographic."

Both these swatches are Zenon, but the top swatch has matte top-coat. I just wanted to try it that way, too. The bottom one has top-coat on the tip only, but you really can't tell - or I really can't tell, anyway - where the top-coat ends.

And I just put it on my nails, so here's that too:

You can't see here how sparkly it is. Super pretty. (It seems to look considerably darker or lighter depending on the lighting. Compare the two pictures above!)

Happy Planners all the time!

When last we talked about planners, a few weeks ago, I was saying I was still intending to buy a Lifeplanner for 2021. Well, that plan has now changed, because I bought an 18-month Happy Planner for $12.99 from the warehouse sale that they just had, and I now have no excuse to buy a Lifeplanner next year - nor do I really want to. I put the first six months of the new planner away, and I'll re-date those and use them later, because Lifeplanners are expensive and I'm bound and determined to finish my (frankenplanned) 2020 book.

In fact the frankenplanning is part of the problem, in a way - why stick yourself with a coil-bound book if you want to be able to add pages? There are many, many disc-bound and loose-leaf planners you can use instead. I've been using various permutations of Happy Planners all year - many, many permutations, in fact, I keep buying them on clearance and changing things around almost constantly, but I haven't tried a classic vertical and I'm going to give it a try for 2021. I really don't see why I wouldn't like it just fine. (I did try the mini vertical HP and didn't like it, but that was because it was Just. Too. Small. I have no reason to think I'll have that problem with a classic.)

I know I had at least a few pictures to show, let's see what that was.

Oh right, I decided I wanted to do an election countdown. I found these date covers - presumably meant for July - and used them to count backwards. (This is just the top row of my Lifeplanner.)

I am not usually big on patriotic stuff, but I think this is pretty cute. (These are from PB Taco.)

Here is the August monthly page - I sprang for the Planner Kate sets - or at least, various pieces of the sets - for August and September. (The fruit stickers are Happy Planner, I think - I had stuck them in at some point. But the header is Planner Kate.

And here's a little bit of September:

There was the plaid, or there was a version with apples - I decided I liked the plaid better. I do have some washi with the apple pattern.

All that is in the EC book. I'm doing pretty minimalist planning in the other books right now - by which I mean I'm not using a lot of stickers. I have two horizontal books I'm using to journal in (one about books, one about everything else). I have the mini vertical which is just a spending tracker at the moment, and I have my skinny classic, which I have started filling with checklists. I especially like to use that one at work. So my years as an Erin Condren girl are over, apparently. Right now I'm a combination but in January I will be a full-time  Happy Planner girl! (Happy Planner woman? somehow that just doesn't sound right.)

More Polish 'M

I've showed some polishes from Polish 'M previously (here and here). Here are a couple more polishes that didn't make it into the previous entries.

I keep wanting to call this polish just Lettuce Play, but in fact that's not its full name. (In case you can't read the picture, it's actually Lettuce Play (In The Dirt).)

So here is Lettuce Play (In The Dirt):

It apparently is discontinued. It's really pretty, though, and I don't think you can tell from this picture. It seems to have a variety of glitters and shimmers in it.

Purple-A-Palooza 2:

There is a whole series of Purple-A-Palooza polishes from Polish 'M. In fact, as I write this there are still a bunch of them on Polish 'M's website for $4. Honestly, I have to say I'm not completely blown away by this one, although there's nothing wrong with it - I just don't love it. But I haven't worn it yet, either. (Looking at the pictures, I might try #3 if I was going to try another one.)

I Scream, You Scream

I bought a couple of polishes from I Scream Nails, neither of which I have worn yet, and I really have to rectify that before summer is over, especially for this one, which is called Mermaids Made Me:

Of course the bottles and the packaging are utterly adorable. Hopefully the polish is too! This one seems to be a conventional glitter. (I don't see it on the website so I think it may be discontinued. I believe it was marked down when I got it.)

(I was thinking "why didn't I take these out of the boxes to take these pictures, but I think it was to keep the bottles from rolling all over. That kind of round bottle is not very cooperative when you want it to lay flat!)

Then the other one I got is Wonderworld, an iridescent pinkish-blue:

It doesn't look like too much in the swatch, does it? I'm going to have to experiment with layering here. (Wonderworld is still on the website but is currently out of stock.)

Olive Ave summer polishes

I've been spending all my money on planners, lately, and I have more polish than I know what to do with, anyway, so it's been a month - maybe more - since I've bought any polish. But I haven't posted the last stuff I did buy, so I'm trying to get up the swatches I have that never got posted. The first installment is from Olive Ave Polish.

 This is Olive Ave Herbology (2 coats), from the Summer Reading collection:

This is turquoise with gold shimmer - super-pretty, but sheer. I liked it best when I layered it over other things - here's a swatch over Aster:

Aster is a paler green creme, but I was surprised at how much I liked this. There's a picture of it on my hands in this post, and it's also on my Instagram page!

For the record, here's my earlier post about Aster and the other colors from the spring (Flora) collection.

Then here's the other one I bought from Summer Reading, which is Fey - not quite as showy as Herbology but really pretty, still:

Fey on my nails:

Happy Planner "Little Bloom Box"

Happy Planner does a "Be Happy" box periodically, with various HP items. They're usually about $50 so I have not really been tempted to order one before now. But they released one for their 5th anniversary that I decided was a good deal, and I actually set my alarm and got up to order it, because I figured it would sell out fast - and it did. I checked a couple of hours later and it was gone.

I haven't been posting here much so I probably haven't even mentioned that I've developed a Happy Planner habit. (I have talked about my Erin Condren habit but that was a while back.) I still have an Erin Condren planner for 2020 and I'm pretty sure I'll still buy one for 2021, but I also bought my first Happy Planner when everything was on sale after Christmas and I have now bought several different formats to try out. (I'm keeping the EC book at home, and I'm using a skinny classic HP to carry around and make lists with, two different classic horizontals for journaling - one for books and one for everything else - plus a mini vertical that I'm now using to record what I spend - having determined that it didn't work well for me as a planner, see - and a couple of different Happy Notes, a ton of stickers, and other assorted accessories.) I haven't quite hit every format yet but I have a bunch. I'll try to get some planner pictures up in future, but today I'm talking about the box.

Here's the actual outside of the box. (I'm linking one YouTube Video about this - see below - but there are many others, and if you've seen any of those this is all going to look very familiar.)

Even the tissue paper coordinates:

 

So does the card on top, of course.

You can see most of the contents below: it's a set of black metal discs (which is apparently like a Happy Planner unicorn thing, they've only ever used them on one or two planner styles and never sold them separately), a whole lot of color-and-theme-coordinated stickers in black, white, and gold - one small sticker pad and two big 30-page sticker books. (I should add that I hadn't tried the metal discs at all yet, so I was really excited to get my hands on some - and black is great because it coordinates with so much else.)

One big book is "functional" - black-bordered boxes and various shapes - and one is "florals" - a whole variety of line-drawn flowers, flower-decorated boxes, and on and on. See the video below for a flip-through.

And then in the bottom there's a box to hold all your sticker books - in coordinated black-and-white florals, of course.

They've had these in other prints for a while now, but I'm just getting to the point where I was starting to think I had enough sticker books to need one. It's super-easy to put together, and holds a lot of sticker books - I put twelve in it, if I'm counting right, and it's not nearly full. (And it fits very nicely into one of those 3-tiered Michael's carts that everybody uses.)

I am a fan of Heather Kell generally, anyway, and the way that she loses it over these sticker books is the best thing I've seen lately. "YALL. YALL. YALL"

The Ordinary

 Here is some stuff from The Ordinary that I bought from Ulta not too long ago:

I realized when I looked at this picture that I actually hadn't tried the Azelaic Acid yet. I think I'm afraid of anything that's like a peel. (I started to say that it was the word "acid" I was afraid of, but that's not true - I use hyaluronic acid products with no fear whatsoever.) I've now tried it and so far it seems fine. I bought it because I read an article somewhere that was written by a dermatologist, demystifying the various Ordinary products, and I actually took notes. Azelaic Acid was supposed to be the very mildest one.

I really like the Buffet, too. I have a whole bunch of Ordinary serums - including HA and rose-hip seed oil and squalane. I like all of those, I just have issues with the whole craze the last few years where people think peeling off layers of skin is necessarily a good thing. A little bit, yes, but people take it much too far! (Why am I surprised?)