Crowsmas 2012 Holiday Crowstoes Swatches!

I was going to wait until after Halloween to post these swatches but it looks like the cat is already out of the bag about this collection! This is going to be a long post so go ahead and grab yourself a snack and get comfy!
Full disclosure: Lauri did send me these polishes but all of my opinions of them are honest.

Like I said, there are a lot of photos to get through so I'll try to keep my chatter to a minimum. There will be more information about the collection, including how to order them, at the bottom of the post.

Bah F@#$%*G Humbug
Insanely beautiful. I already feel like I need a backup of this polish. The name is hilarious too.

One coat over Essie Mesmerized

One coat over Gosh Miss Minty

Blue Christmas
I've been loving smaller glitters lately and I'm so glad that this collection has several polishes with small glitters. Blue Christmas is primarily filled with black and blue glitters but there are also some orange, green, and purple glitters in the mix.

One coat over Zoya Dove

One coat over Zoya Robyn

Three coats by itself

A Christmas Crow
This one was so hard to get a decent picture of. Pictures do not do this one justice. It's got red/green duochrome shimmers in it but my camera mainly captured the red flash. This polish is the only one in the collection with a tinted base. If you're a fan of blacks or vampy polishes then you're going to love this one!

One coat over Finger Paints Black Expressionism

Three coats by itself

Her Goose Got Cooked
The color combo in this one is very soft and delicate. I think it would look great in any season (not that most of us follow the rules when it comes to seasonal colors). A guy even complimented me while I was wearing this polish.

One coat over OPI Steady As She Rose

One coat over Zoya Blair

Holly and Hellfire
This one is even sparklier in real life. The smaller red glitters just light up whenever the light hits them.

One coat over Sally Hansen Racey Rouge

Three coats by itself

Jingle Balls
This one looks like Lauri chopped down a Christmas Tree, blended it up, and put it in a bottle of polish. This looks exactly like Christmas to me, even down to the star on top of the tree. The stars weren't hard to get out. I managed to get one out for both swatches without having to fish around for it.

One coat over China Glaze First Mate

One coat over Orly Enchanted Forest

Making Christmas
Again, this one just screams Christmas!

One coat over Essie Geranium

One coat over Color Club Perfect Mol-ten

Three coats by itself

Maxxed Out
How I feel after I've bought Christmas gifts for everyone!

One coat over Color Club Antiquated

One coat over Illamasqua Load

One coat over Verity Deep Violet

Whew! I hope that wasn't too much of a picture overload for you all! 

Okay, onto my thoughts. I think overall, this is the best collection that Lauri has released so far. I didn't know how she was going to be able to top her Halloween collection but these polishes are fantastic!

As far as application goes, I didn't have any problems. I didn't have to dab any of them on, I just painted them on like a normal polish. As you can see, they're all pretty dense. I only needed one coat for good coverage. If you're only doing one coat then two coats of topcoat should smooth everything out for you. 

One last thing, the labels on my bottle are different from the normal ones. Any bottles you purchase will have the standard label on them.

Here's some info regarding how to buy these polishes. 

**This collection is limited edition**

If you are interested in any of these polishes, make sure you get them while you can as they are limited to the holiday season. Make sure to put them at the top of your Christmas lists!

Right now, there's no official release date that I know of. Make sure to keep an eye out at Llarowe's and Overall Beauty's Facebook pages. You can also sign up for their newsletters (sign up info is located on their websites) if you don't use facebook. 

Overall Beauty and Llarowe will each have exclusives just for their websites. Here's the breakdown:

Overall Beauty:

Bah F@#$%*G Humbug

Blue Christmas

Llarowe:

A Christmas Crow

Her Goose Got Cooked

Jingle Balls

Both stores:

Holly and Hellfire

Making Christmas

Maxxed Out

Crowstoes Halloween 2012 Collection

Lauri sent me these polishes to swatch for her and so I thought I would do a review of them for you guys as well.
Sorry if some of these color combos don't strike you as particularly "Halloween-y". I'm at school right now and only bring a few polishes with me at a time.

I've got seven polishes to show you today so it's going to be a pretty long post. Enjoy!

Hell Hath No Fury over Barry M Coral

Red, orange, and iridescent glitters in a clear base. This also has some really nice golden shimmer to it. 

Purple People Eater over Essie Boxer Shorts

Gorgeous! One of my favorites from the collection! Small purple, blue, and green glitters in a clear base.

Bone Daddy over Zoya Dove

A mix of white and iridescent glitters in a milky, grey base. This is the only polish in the collection that has a tinted base. Application was a bit difficult with this one because there are a lot of the large, white hexes. You need a bit of skill in applying polish to get an even look with this one but I think it's worth it in the end. 

Tangled Web over China Glaze Electric Beat

A mix of black and duochrome (blue to green) glitters in a clear base. This one is really fun! I love black glitters! 

I had a hard time capturing the color shift of the glitters in my picture but in real life they're much more obvious. When I was first looking at the bottle I thought it included blue and green glitters but then I realized that they were actually duochrome!

Last Call at the Crowbar over China Glaze Elephant Walk

Multicolored glitters in a clear base. The primary color is a gunmetal, silver glitter. It reminds me of a dark version of all the Happy Birthday dupes. The darker colors make it even more appropriate for fall. 

Voodoo over Sally Hansen Crushed
I know what you're thinking. Why am I showing you Voodoo again? It's because Lauri informed me that the version I showed you a few days ago was an earlier version and the one that was going to be for sale was slightly different. There are purple, shredded glitters in the updated version.
Purple, orange, and green glitters in a clear base. Since I already showed you what it looked like over a purple, I wanted to show a different combo today.

Frog's Breath over Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime

A mix of green and gold glitters in a clear base. This one was a surprise favorite. I'm not normally a green person (unless it's mint green, then I'm all over it) but Frog's Breath is really phenomenal! 

My overall impressions of this collection is that they're all really great! Application was very easy on all of them besides Bone Daddy, which was a bit trickier. I've done one coat of glitter over their base color in all of these pictures. 

What's nice about these polishes is that they all have a Halloween vibe to them but they don't scream Halloween so they'll still look nice all year long. I find that glitters generally dry very fast and these were no exception. 

It's really hard to pick a favorite but I think the most stand-out polishes from this collection are: Voodoo, Purple People Eater, and Frog's Breath. 

Polishes can be purchased from Llarowe and Overall Beauty.
For more information on Crowstoes polishes (including swatches of the rest of her Halloween polishes), check out Lauri's blog The Polished Crow.
For updates on stock regarding Crowstoes polishes, make sure to follow Llarowe's Facebook page.