[Swatch + Review] Fancy Gloss teal mystery polish & Great Lakes Lacquer 'Not Today'

 

• Shop name: Fancy Gloss (base)
  
• Location: Cape Coral, Florida
  
• Known for: great thermals & hand-blended 5-free nail polish; woman-of-color (WOC) owned

• Shop name: Great Lakes Lacquer (topper)
• Location: Lansing, Michigan
  
• Known for: 5-free handmade nail polish

This base color is what I'd describe as a green-leaning teal, though it technically has no name or description because it was a small-batch mystery polish! The topper is described as an effects topper filled with dark blue to purple iridescent shifting flakes, aurora shimmer to match, and a scattered holographic to tie everything together. I bought them both in December of 2019; the Fancy Gloss polish was part of a normal restock on her site, and the topper came from the December Polish Pickup pre-order. Neither is currently available.

Both have what I'd describe as 'average' brushes, meaning that they are medium in thickness and don't have a particular shape. I'm not sure about GLL, but I know that Fancy Gloss has since changed their brushes to the wider, paddle-shaped kind. I didn't find either difficult to use.

For this particular manicure, I used:

• Base coat: Ulta clear nail polish
• Top coat: Essence Gel-Like topcoat
• Coats used: One of each (if I recall correctly!)
• Wrapped tips: No

 

Thoughts

I bought this topper because I loved the iridescence of the flakies and how they seemed to only appear at certain angles. I also loved the name, which is inspired by Arya, who is my favorite character from Game of Thrones! That said, I have no idea how this is inspired by her, and I get a little annoyed when brands don't explain how a certain inspiration influenced them. It's not like there is something obviously 'blue' about her, y'know? I do see a little bit of color shifting in the flakies, but I had no idea there was extra shimmer or holo in the blend; those seemed to get lost among everything else.

I wore this combo for about three days before I noticed some chipping. I ended up adding some nail art (see below) and noticed that the nails with stamping wore better for the rest of the week. My guess is that the added top coat either reinforced as an additional layer or just happened to be better than the other top coat. Hard to say! I would love to try both polishes again with other things, though I do also think this combination is pretty. I am not very familiar with Great Lakes Lacquer but will be interested to try more from them. Fancy Gloss is not at all new to me, and I generally recommend their polishes. I like both of these and will definitely keep them.

Lastly, this photo is special because it's the first time I filed my nails square, which made me start loving them! If you happened to see my last nail post, I talked about how I had never really felt comfortable looking at my hands/nails, and I didn't know how to take care of them. Whatever clicked in my brain and made me start taking things seriously back when I did this manicure (February 2020), I have only grown and prospered since then. I look at my very dry cuticules in these photos and remember how my fingertips used to peel pretty much every day last winter. It hasn't been a full year yet, but I don't see it happening at that scale again! I have gotten better at nails and photography since I took this picture, but it makes me happy because it reminds me of beginning to care for myself in this way 💙

 

Additional products:

• Hit the Bottle - I Pink, Therefore I Am (pink)
• Hit the Bottle - Snowed In (white)
• Clear Jelly Stamper - #20 Copper Hint (gold)
• Maniology - BMXL-219 x amyytran (stamping plate)
• Maniology - Smudge-Free Top Coat

Everything performed perfectly, and I didn't have any issues!