Serendipity means a "happy accident" or "pleasant surprise"; specifically, the accident of finding something good or useful while not specifically searching for it.
That is the story of how I happened upon Kawaii Nail Lacquer.
Etsy is a wonderful place. Sometimes when I'm bored I'll search random things to see what I can find. It was on June 22nd of last year that I decided to search Etsy for Avengers items.
Side bar. If there is one thing you should know about me, it is that I love the Avengers and I love nail polish and I love glitter.
I remember staring at the screen not quite believing my eyes.
My inner fan girl was hyperventilating.
Someone had created a line of Avengers glitter nail polish.
Avengers.
Glitter.
Nail Polish.
I quickly messaged the seller, who turned out to be the sweetest person in the entire world, Jamie, and she set me up right away with my own private listing to include another polish I liked and faster than I could say "Avengers! Assemble!" I had in my possession a seven piece glitter nail polish collection inspired by six of my favorite heroes and one of my favorite villains.
Now let's have a look at these pretties.
All swatches are one coat over Orly Decades of Dysfunction
First we have the beautiful Black Widow.
Jamie describes Black Widow as being filled with
'Red Hex's small and large, some red stain matte red hex, along with black small and large Hex's. Also has various red bar glitter, Small silver hex's and a small amount of Silver shards thrown in.'
Black Widow applies beautifully and there is no need to fish for glitter because it comes out on the brush so wonderfully!
Next we have Captain America.
While all of the other Avenger polishes are available for individual sale, Captain America is only available in the set. I believe this is because of a glitter shortage, but I'm not sure. This polish is a lovely concoction of small, medium and large matte white hexes, matte white bars, small, medium and large red hexes, red bars, small, medium and large bright blue hexes, bright blue bars,large silver hexes and holo stars.
Captain America is so darn beautiful and this picture really doesn't do it justice. I did have to do some fishing for the stars, but it wasn't too bad. I store the bottle upside down so that might help. I haven't had any problems with the bar glitter sticking up either which is usually a huge battle.
Hawkeye.
Sigh. Hawkeye is my favorite.
Polish. Hero. Whatever. He's just the best. Jeremy Renner isn't too bad either.
That's not the point. The point is this polish is my favorite in the collection. I use it more than any of the others and it is just the prettiest thing in the world. Granted, I am partial to purple, but whatever. Jamie describes Hawkeye as having 'small and large purple hexagon pieces, with fine black glitter and black bars of glitter with a hint of lavender matte hexagons.'
I MEAN REALLY.
It is just perfection in a bottle. I adore the black bars because I imagine them as little arrows and here I go fan-girling away. I'm not ashamed. This polish is the best. It applies like a dream and there is absolutely no fishing for glitter.
And now for the Hulk.
The Hulk is my second favorite in the collection, and it is a very close second. I use it almost as much as Hawkeye and I am always getting compliments when I wear it. Jamie lists Hulk as being 'packed with tons of lime green holo hexagons, small hint of mint glitter. With Purple hexagons and fine purple glitter to pack a punch!'
So great. I really love how simple this polish is. The rest of the polishes in the Avengers collection are mixes of hexes, bars and shards, but this is a very simple, very pretty mix of just hexes. I did notice that the base isn't clear, it has a slight green tint to it. I'm not sure if it was meant to be that way or if maybe the glitter bled but it doesn't bother me and I haven't noticed that in any of the other polishes I have from Kawaii.
Iron Man.
This one is also great. I don't use this as often as I would like, not because I don't love it, but simply because I tend to paint my nails blue, green and purple and while I love the color orange, it doesn't show up often on my fingers and I rarely, if ever, paint my nails red. This polish is described as having 'fine red glitter, more red bar glitter with big red hexagon pieces, with fine holo gold glitter with orange hexagons and orange bar glitter.'
I did forget just how beautiful this polish was until I swatched it for this post. It catches the light so nicely and really sparkles on the nail. Application isn't quite as smooth as the others, and while I don't have to fish for glitter, I did have to dip my brush in twice to get enough glitter to cover the whole nail. I wish there were a tad bit more bars but it's still quite lovely.
Next I have Loki.
Loki is not an avenger, but he does bring them together in an effort to bring him down. Jamie describes Loki as being filled with 'green squares, with fine green glitter, green hexagon pieces and then it has large holo lemon hexagons with gold bar glitter and more gold hexagons with a hint of mint glitter this one will take your breath away.'
The glitter in Loki is probably the most sparkly of the polishes in this collection. I love the holo lemon hexagons and they catch the light beautifully.
I wish I liked this one more, but it is definitely my least favorite in the collection. I never wear it. This has nothing to do with how it applies, which is wonderful, and everything to do with the colors. I just happen to be from Chicago and am a pretty big fan of the Chicago Bears. This means I really don't like The Green Bay Packers and this polish just happens to be their team colors. Ew. I actually might wear this one for St, Patrick's Day, because I think it would be perfect, but other than that, this one is rarely used.
And lastly, we have Thor.
Thor is described by Jamie as having 'small red hexagons with some big red hexagons, with red slices and Silver hexagons as well as Gun metal hexagons to give it the perfect Gray Shine it needs :)'
In the bottle, Thor and Black Widow seem very similar, but their differences are very apparent on the nail. I think I like Black Widow a bit more than Thor, only because I love how striking the red is against the black, and Thor is mostly silver and grey which can be a little boring. I've used this several times when I've done a french manicure with glitter tips and I love it for that.
So there you have it! I hope this review was helpful and you can find Kawaii Nail Lacquer on
Etsy and on
Facebook.
