From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe. She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soared out of the window. Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape, and his eyes were full of tears.
"After all this time?"
"Always" said Snape.
-J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
With the creation of White Owl Lacquers, fellow New Yorker and nail polish blogger Mara (Mara in Polishland) can add nail polish designer to her resume! Mara has taken the leap into nail polish creation and recently released her debut collection, After All This Time. The collection is composed of six polishes - three glitter top coats and three jelly glitters - all of which draw inspiration from the world of Harry Potter.
*Mara is currently running a free shipping promotion - details at the end of this post!
Basilisk Venom
Basilisk Venom is a mix of hexagonal glitter in black, orange, yellow, and red with larger black hexagonal shapes, black squares, and an underlying shimmering gold. I probably would have guessed that this polish was inspired by Harry Potter even without knowing! Perhaps it is the magical combination of glitter in the Gryffindor colors? Basilisk Venom applies well but the glitter is not very dense. I would recommend at least two coats to evenly coat your nails with all the glitter goodies. Below I wore two coats of Basilisk Venom over Zoya Blair.
Phoenix Tears
Phoenix Tears is a polish with quite an interesting combination of glitter. Square silvery white pieces are most abundant with just a dash of purple, green, and blue hexagonal and square pieces in the mix. There is also a sprinkling of large silvery white hexagonal shapes - these elusive pieces must be the "phoenix tears"! The base is clear with a wonderful addition of blue shimmer. In this photo, I layered one coat of Phoenix Tears over a pale blue cream polish (Savina Light Mist). I had to do a little fishing to get the pieces out and would wear two coats next time.
Pumpkin Pasties
This polish looks good enough to eat! Pumpkin Pasties is a festive mix of orange, red, yellow, and brown hexagonal glitter with a dash of red and yellow square glitter suspended in a sheer peach base. The formula is easy to apply and while sheer, it is not runny. Pumpkin Pasties is not packed full of glitter so I used three coats. I love how the glitter pieces get buried with each coat of polish.
Kittens and Teacups
Kittens and Teacups was inspired by Dolores Umbridge :) I love the simple composition of this polish: pale pink hexagonal glitter and smaller black square glitter suspended in a semi-sheer milky white base. The formula of the base color is wonderful and similar to Zoya's gloss polishes. The glitter pieces unfortunately did sink to the bottom of the bottle. Even after rolling the bottle in my hands to urge them to the top, they were tricky (but not impossible) to get out. In the photo below I am wearing four coats. You could layer Kittens and Teacups over a white base, but I like how soft it looks alone and how the glitter gets slightly covered with each layer.
Dwelling On Dreams
Dwelling On Dreams is a perfectly named polish. Hexagonal glitter in light blue, gold, and turquoise dreamily floats in a sheer pale cool-toned white base. The glitter is nicely distributed and transfers to the nail with little effort. The colors Mara chose for the glitter are so lovely but I do admit favoring the light blue pieces :) I used three coats below.
Moony
Moony is a glitter top coat with a mix of reflective silver hexagonal pieces, black hexagonal and square shapes, and tiny silver glitter suspended in a clear base. The pieces apply easily and just one coat gives me all the coverage I need. This metallic mix of glitter has an industrial feel to it - I think it would be really interesting over a charcoal grey polish and matted. Here is one coat of Moony over Zoya Robyn.
I love the brush shape that Mara chose for her polishes. It is thick and wide which is very conducive to applying this kind of glitter.
Congratulations Mara for creating White Owl Lacquers and this inspired first collection! It is always so exciting when nail polish lovers design polish because not only do they know what makes a "good" polish, but with each bottle, you get to peak inside their creative minds :)
White Owl Lacquers retail for $9.00 each and can be purchased online: http://www.whiteowllacquers.com/ You can also purchase all six After All This Time polishes in mini bottles for $27.
***Mara is offering free shipping when you purchase three polishes or more with the code IHATESHIPPING now until February 2, 2013.
Product(s) in this post were provided for review. Read my disclosure policy here.