*Polish provided as a press sample for review*
I remember when I first discovered and fell in love with Nvr Enuff Polish a little over 2 years ago, I instantly wanted to have a Game of Thrones collection from them. It's taken a while, but they made it! When fandoms and nail polishes combine, it makes for very excited customers! When the first hint was given about this collection, I couldn't contain my anticipation, and the amazing makers were like "oh yeah, you've been waiting for this for a while! why don't you swatch it?" and I nearly died. Here I have them in hand now, and the challenge is to do them justice! Nail art is at the end of the post, if you came just for that ;)
**Part 2 is here**
**Part 2 is here**
I didn't realize I was going to use these pics in the blog so I wasn't paying attention to the order of the bottles, but the top one doesn't match up with the list of names. I separated these because I felt like they all have a common theme -Dragonglass, Whitewalker, and The King of the North. I'll try to stay on topic with the polishes as I know not everyone has read the books or watches the show, so these references may not ring a bell, but I just wanted to point out that the colors match the inspiration behind them so well!
Dragonglass - a blackned jelly base with dark and silver flakes, UCC and crystal flakes, a slight shimmer and linear holo
Since Dragonglass is a jelly type polish, it is on the sheer side, and I ended up using 3 coats + topcoat for my swatches. I think it would have been fine in 2 coats, but I was painting under desk lamp and it's always showing VNL and I keep trying to cover it up. Polish applied nicely, not too thin for being a jelly type
I think the amount of flakes in this lightens up the color so it's not black, but is lighter and to my eyes, is like a grey/brown.
If you get this under lights or in sunshine, it just blazes with holo! It's like a whole other side to this polish and it's stunning
I'm still struggling with all the lights and trying to show it, hopefully I'll get there soon, or I'll have to resort to adding in cell phone pics from when I'm in the car - they're always showing off holo the best and it makes me cranky
There we go...a little more holo showing here, but it literally blazes with it!
Whitewalker - an icy blue linear holo with silver and crystal flakes, some blue sparks and a golden shift
This is probably what whitewalker skin looks like! And I love that the crystal flakes reflected this bright cyan color in the bottle shot, just like white walker eyes!
For the swatches I used 3 coats + topcoat, no issued with application
The golden shimmer is like sunshine reflecting on frozen snow, this has such a delicate and wintry look
When I swatched this I was like "yes! this is perfect for a sweater print! If it can be Christmas in July, and Winter is Here, then sweater nails are completely appropriate!"...then I pictured white walkers wearing sweaters ahaha
And on to the last one from this set..
The King of the North - a "build able" topper made up of silver and black galaxy glitters, dark and white flakes, a generous blue shift shimmer and linear holo; opaque in 2-3 coats or 2 sponged on coats
For some reason, when I saw a bottle shot sneak peek of this color, I got the impression that it was a darker base, more along the lines on charcoal. However, it's got a sheer base with blue shimmer - so you can layer it over other colors!! I regret not trying it over black, I think the blue shimmer would have really made it something special, rather than just another topper. I may still do it..I mean...Winter is Here, I might as well do GoT manis all season :D <3
I decided I really wanted to make this one bling, so I went for the sponge approach - protect your nails with something (latex in my case) and apply polish to a makeup sponge -it absorbs the clear base and you end up depositing all the glitters and not making it goopy
Check out the bottle picture here! The front really shows that lovely blue shimmer. It's actually on the nails as well, so you're not just seeing straight up silver and holo, the blue hue is there and gives it a nice frozen magical ice look
The holo is pretty blinding..I'm happy it showed up for me as it's definitely not a subtle part of the polish that needs pointing out
Surprisingly, this one ended up being my #1 pick, at least from this part of the collection. I guess it's a pretty personal reason why, but isn't that why we like what we like and buy it and wear it? I've got a white gold wedding ring with a pale blue sapphire, I haven't been wearing it for a while due to re-sizing problems, and I'm always looking for a pale blue to match the stone so I can have a perfect mani for when I need a single color. Hubby has mentioned a few times that "one day" he will get me a custom polish like that, and name it "Icebreaker" - so when people notice my nails and start asking about the polish, it will be a literal icebreaker. Birthdays and appropriate holidays have come and gone, I've casually left business cards for polish brands around the house, made sure he knows when I get mail from Lynnae that it's actually Nvr Enuff, and that they do take custom orders. It didn't occur to me that silver would be perfect for it, but especially this one, as it's got that blue shimmer. So now I've got something to match, at least until the hankering comes back, lol
And of course, the nail art...I can't leave a polish alone, and especially when it's GoT related!
This is a combo of Dragonglass and The King of the North. This was the first mani I did and I thought I would get away with it because it uses both polishes. Then I actually did the mani with The King of the North and realized I can't leave it art-less.
I used scale stencils and Creative Shop plate 35 for the dragon. I did shrink him for better fit and used Nvr Enuff Dove for the blue creme. When I was sharing the mani pics with a friend I was like "look at my blue eyes white dragon!!" and then promptly remembered that's a Yu-Gi-Oh reference..oops...but, there's been some neat fan renditions of white walkers with ice dragons so..you know.. it could happen.
My "white walker sweater"
I used Creative Shop plate 04 for the snowflakes and sweater print, and plate 35 for the text and the scary white walker.
And last but not least, The King of the North!
I just used a waterslide decal and carefully painted the text. Ta-da, a pretty simple one! I rarely try to freehand, but I have no stamping plate with the word, and didn't feel up to making new decals, so had to make an effort with a tiny brush. I like the combo of silver and black though, and feel that it still ties to the polish as the current King of the North also was called "crow" by a certain wildling he fancied.
And there we have it, 3 of the 6 polishes from Winter is Here collection. While the pre-order ends on the 16th (midnight PST) - this is a regular collection and it will be restocked in the future.
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