Literary Lacquers - My Secret Garden, John Thomas Lady Jane and Bionic Mmmm-Detector

Hi Goddesses

And welcome to the last post featuring polishes from Literary Lacquers' The Good Parts Collection.  For this one, I'm combining 3 polishes, and there's a bit of a funny story to explain why ....

When Amy sends me polishes, she sends me a mixture of full  sized and mini bottles.  I used to think this was random or to reduce shipping costs, but no.   Amy sends me minis of the polishes she knows I will not love, and full sizes of the ones she knows will make me drool.  Funny thing?  She gets it SPOT ON.  So here are the 3 where she sent me minis :)  And yup, there's a lot of green in this here post :)

Let's start with My Secret Garden.  This is a delicate pastel matte glitterbomb.   Whilst these aren't my favourite colours for a glitter, I loved that it was in a base full of shimmer.   This is named after the book of the same name by Nancy Friday.

I pondered long and hard on what to layer this over.  Eventually I decided, if it's a garden, and these are the petals, there needs to be green!  So I chose Barry M Lime Green, and I think it plays off those colours awesomely.

Next is the one that even Amy knew I wouldn't like lol - the green!  This is John Thomas / Lady Jane, which takes its inspiration from Lady Chatterley's Lover (a disappointing read, in my opinion).

Something weird seems to happen when I review green polishes.  It's as if every cell in my body protests against it, and my application becomes sloppy, my coverage is uneven ... it's almost funny.  So no, I didn't like this one, but if you're a green lover you'll like that there are different shades of green in here.

And finally .... Bionic Mmmm-Detector.   Hilarious name!  This one comes from Vox by Nicholson Baker.  Read this - this entire book is one long anonymous phone sex conversation over a 1-900 number .. the book gained notoriety as the book famously given to President Clinton by his young intern, Monica Lewinsky.

Ok - now the part that will really blow your mind.   This is awesome !!!  Yes, it has teal in it, and green glitters, and it's a blackened base (all of them things I hate) but wow wow wow this works so well.  Will you LOOK at it :)

This polish is just witchy deviant perfection.   I can imagine witches wearing this, and letting it chip as their looks decay and their toads decompose.  It's fabulous!   It also looks great with a matte top coat - keep any eye out for that in the next few weeks!  3 coats of Stu-UH-ning!

I want to say a big thank you to Amy for sending me these polishes.  I honestly can't remember when I've loved an entire collection more.  The holos blew me away and the 2 blues are perfection.  Oh, and don't forget Zipless ....  They are all available to buy HERE, and you can follow Amy on Facebook HERE.

Enjoy xx :)

March - My Favourite Things

Hi Goddesses

Hola and welcome to the March round up!

March has been a GREAT month and a frustrating month here in Crumpetland.  It's the happiest I've been with my blog content in the longest time .... yet my views are down.    I've had the most ideas, and the most polishes to review ... and yet been ill most of the month.   Lol, gotta love irony :)


Structurally and thematically, I think I'm getting there :)   I've got 3 separate challenges running each month, 2 of which allow me to be very fast and loose with what I want to do - just experiment.  The other is the Digit-al Dozen, which is way harder lol, but really pushes me every month.



I've had a fab time this long Easter weekend clearing out the vault.  I feel for the first time in 6 months I am in control of what is in there lol.  I've even deleted stuff that was just so so.   Yup, deleted, dead, gone!  Dramatic haha. I've also got some great changes coming up soon - they're probably going to hit you in May as I need a bit of time to prep them, but I think it's going to make for a much better blog :)

Let's get to the details shall we?

 Favourite Polish of the Month - If It Pleases You by Literary Lacquers.






I am sure by now that you are all fed up of me talking about this polish, but WOW, will you LOOK at it!  Ugh, just gorgeous.  A dark browny purple holographic bruise.   I love this soooooo much.   In fact, the entire Literary Lacquers The Good Parts collection has been so much win - glorious, just glorious.

Highlights of the Month

Do you like my new blog header?  I LOVE my new blog header.  It was created by my polish bestie, Missy from Gnarly Gnails and I love it rock hard !!  Thanks so much Missy.


The main awesome sauce of course is that this month I became a half a millionaire!  Yup, this little blog hit 500,000 page views.  Amazing.  We're also REALLY close to 2,000 followers.   Both of them are milestones that help me feel I have a successful blog .... not that that stops me having days when I want to give up (see later!).

My favourite nail art of the month was my opening mani for the Tri Polish Challenge.  I just loved this - the clash of the colours, the simplicity, everything about it worked.

Bummer of the Month

Ah that cat makes me laugh.  EVERY month.  Yes, so bummer .. well, I've been happier than ever with my posts .. and yet they are getting fewer and fewer views, which makes me sad.   It's always sad when you love a mani sooooo much, and then it hardly gets any views!



What makes me sadder is that it's the nail art posts getting the least views, and yet nail art is so integral to this blog.  Maybe there's just too much out there blogwise and too many ways to read?   Maybe if you've liked the photo on Instagram, you're not going to come and read the post.  At least, I hope that's the reason.

Music of the Month

Ok, this is really really sad, but there has been no music in my life this month.  Nothing.  I am not happy with that.

TV of The Month

Quite a lot going on here !  Netflix is still top of the list, and Beth has been loving sitting in the nail room watching Doctor Who.  She jumped SO hard when she watched Blink - hilarious!



In the UK, Dexter started Season 7 - I have to say, I'm really not feeling it yet, but this is also the first Season I've watched week to week, rather in one greedy DVD chunk.



It's also been all about The Following ... WOW.  Pure TV awesomeness.  If you're not already watching it, I suggest you do.  Top writing, acting and ... ooooh plot twists!

Stats of the Month

Total page views - 43k, down from 48k the month before and 55k the month before that.  As I said, I feel I am getting less views but ALSO I think the spamming has stopped.  I used to get spammers viewing posts and trying to comment (you could always tell because it would be an old obscure post that suddenly started getting hits), but a recent Windows update seems to have "fixed" them .. so who knows, maybe 10% or 20% of my page views used to be spammers!

Number of Posts - that will probably end on about 60.   I blame Literary Lacquers lol - they were supposed to all fit in 2 posts, but they were so gorgeous they ended up having a post each :)

Highest Viewed Post - The Giveaway - 1133

Highest Viewed Post - Swatch - OPI My Vampire Is Buff - 387

Highest Viewed Post - Art - Stripe Week - vertical orange stripes featuring OPI My Paprika Is Hotter Than Yours - 251

So, there you go.  I hope you've enjoyed reading The Crumpet this month.  Thank you to everyone who left ideas, suggestions, feedback and comments on the Giveaway, I'm reading through them now and I think we want the same thing :)


Right, now to try and topple over that 2k mark :)  That's MY magic number :)

Love xx

Guest post from Lindsey of Wondrously Polished

Hi Goddesses


Before we announce the winner of the March Amateur Nail Art Contest, it's time to celebrate the winner of February's Contest with Lindsey of Wondrously Polished.  Lindsey's blog is great, and I really do urge you to go and follow her - you won't be disappointed!

*************************

First off...Wow! Thank you! Oh my gosh!! Somehow the stars aligned and I won The Crumpet's February Amateur Nail Art Contest...so that means that you lot are stuck with me for a post! ;) There were some fabulous entries along side mine, so I am especially honored, excited and nervous to get to share some nail art with you all! 

Not going to lie, I definitely stressed a bit about coming up with something worthy of being posted on The Crumpet. You guys all know how fabulous and creative Debbie is! I decided that since it is Spring here in California, I wanted to do something within that theme. I also wanted to incorporate some of my favorite aspects of nail art -- different techniques and free hand painting are my favorites. After some hard thinking, I ended up creating a stained glass insprired, simple floral look. I did these free hand over the course of several hours and I'm really loving how they came out. Hope you all like them as well!

While this is a bit time consuming, it's pretty simple to create the stained glass aspect. Below you can see how I randomly added color to my flower area. Once done, I went back in with my striping brush and some black polish to create the line work between the colors. You can also use white in lieu of the black to create a mosaic look instead.

I ended up using 8 different polishes to create this, with OPI's Skull and Glossbones and the base color. Let me know if you're curious about any of the colors in particular :) Here is the chaos that is my workspace.

 Once again, thank you so very much to Debbie for giving me the opportunity to share some of my work with you all and thank you to all of you who voted for my mani! I had a fabulous time creating this and participating in the contest. I hope you enjoyed reading!

Happy Polishing,

Lindsey of Wondrously Polished

********************

HOURS?  She spent HOURS?  Did you hear that?  HOURS!!  Lol.   No wonder it looks so awesome.   Ah, if only I were a patient Crumpet .....

xx

Literary Lacquers - Woman of Pleasure

Hi Goddesses

If, like me, you've been craving Emily de Molly and Femme Fatale polishes, where pastel bases collide with super bright glitters, yet are never in stock, this one is for YOU.

This polish makes me happier than I can explain.   It has satisfied all those itches for Aussie wondrousness AND it has round glitter!

Woman of Pleasure is named after a book which was banned for 200 years - Fanny Hill : A Woman of Pleasure.    Amy describes it as a periwinkle crelly with navy, lavender, and matte pink glitters, and magenta circle glitter.   I describe it as "drool".

This is just such a perfect spring polish.  It's light, yet bright.  Happy AND zappy.   Colourful and loveable.    AND it makes me smile :)  You can't ask for more than that.

So, if you're sick of stalking Llarowe and the other sites, I strongly suggested you head to Amy's Etsy shop HERE.  You can also follow her on Facebook HERE.

This polish was sent to me for an honest review and I LOVE IT !!!!  xx