Press Sample of May 2018 Polish Pickup
1990’s Pop Culture

It’s MAY! That means tax season is over and I can breathe easier and actually take days off here and there! Today I have the May 2018 Polish Pickup, which has a theme of 1990’s Pop Culture. That’s right – it’s throwback time!

Here is the wall o’ goodies! I have 40 items to share today in this very post, so get ready – it’s going to be a long one.

I’m gonna do my usual thing, then we’ll move onto why everyone is really here. Let’s see my spiel first (in case someone who isn’t aware of PPU stumbles upon this post) 

Before I get into this, we’re going to talk about this new Facebook group and I’m going to describe it’s concept. The group is Polish Pickup. Polish Pickup offers a fun, interactive experience that allows you to submit theme ideas, vote for your favorite theme, and selectively purchase your favorite polishes every month. It’s NOT a box though. I think when it formed that was the major misconception of it.

Now, I love polish boxes, however, some purchasers shared their frustration in only wanting 1 or 2 polishes from a box and needing to unload the polishes in the box they didn’t want. So essentially they were paying $40 and up for 1 or 2 polishes and hoping they could sell the polishes they weren’t interested in.

Polish Pickup is different. While the concept of picking themes and voting isn’t new, instead of buying the whole box, you can shop online for JUST the single polishes you want. There can be many indie makers involved with the theme, but you only have to pay for the exact polishes you wanted rather than 4-8 polishes you may not have been interested in.

Then every month the theme and makers change and you get a whole new set of polishes to pick and choose from. So while it has a box like feel (with the voting and themes) it doesn’t carry the box commitment.

This set of polishes will be available from May 4th at 11am EST through May 7th at 11:59pm EST.

Let’s jump in, this is gonna be a long one – so settle in! If there are specific ones you want to see and you are at a computer, just hit Ctrl F at the same time and type the brand you are looking for in the little box that appears.

Alter Ego – Macarena Aaay!

Inspiration: The Macarena!

Description: Pastel satin pink with blue shimmer. This does have a metallic finish and reminds me a lot of polishes in the 90’s. I used 2 coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

In some lighting the blue shimmer with pink give a lilac like effect, or a pale lavender.

Price: $8.00

No Cap

B Polished – Punk Rock, Let’s Go!

Inspiration: Nancy in The Craft

Description:  A vampy 90’s brown-red jelly with color shifting flakes, shimmer, and a sprinkling of holo. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $12.00

Cap: 200

B Polished – Cupcake Squishy

Inspiration: Lisa Frank

Description: A cupcake shaped “squishy” (for stress relief, like a firm stress ball) this cupcake has hints of neon glitter in the strawberry vanilla buttercream scented “frosting”  and multichrome “liners” surrounding the decadent chocolate scented cupcake.

Francine recommends we not eat it though (when you smell it, you will be tempted… trust me)

Price: $8.00

Cap: 100

Bluebird Lacquer – Kind Of A Biggie Deal

Inspiration: King of New York: The Notorious B.I.G aka Biggie Smalls aka Big Poppa.

Description: Kind Of A Biggie Deal is a golden mega holo with jewel tones flakies with a gold to copper to bronze shift. I used 2 coats and a glossy top coat for these photos. This is super pigmented and almost a 1 coat polish!

Price: $12.00

No Cap

Bluebird Lacquer – Bows, Knees & Toes Butter Balm

Inspiration: None

Description:  “Bows Knees and Toes” is a butter rich balm in a generous 2 ounce twist-up container to your rough spots extra care. The balm comes in the scent “Juicy” a welches grape blend with an earthy twist.

The scent is a really nice balance of sweet grapes and a fresh earthy scent. Neither overpowers and it’s definitely a unisex scent (my boyfriend is using it.. a lot)

Price: $10.00

No Cap

Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer – The Ancient Power

Inspiration: Charmed – More specifically, the light from when the Charmed ones were formed and then subsequently reconstituted and is called The Ancient Power

Description:  The Ancient Power is a bright light blue with red/green aurora shift, green/purple shifting shimmer, blue medium shimmer, and blue and purple microflakies. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos

Price: $12.00

No Cap

Cameo Colours – He’s Worm Food

Inspiration: Beavis & Butthead episode “The Final Judgement of Beavis”

Description: Pastel-ish blurple crelly, full of gold, pink, and violet shimmer, with copper/gold/fuschia and blue/violet/copper UCC flakes, hot pink, deep violet and gold micro flakes, silver and gold holo micro glitter, a touch of pink and red/blue/purple micro glitters, a smattering of multi-size navy holo glitters, and silver holo micro flakes. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $12.00

No Cap

Contrary Polish – Crimson Glow

Inspiration:  inspired by and named after the color Angela Chase dyed her hair in the first episode of My So-Called Life

Description: It has a maroon base and is filled with red-bronze-copper multichrome shimmer, with a mix of linear and scattered holo. It’s a shifty sparkly beauty, and hopefully it’s a worthy tribute to Angela’s iconic red hair! I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $12.00

No Cap

Contrary Polish – Central Perk Tinted Lip Balm

Inspiration: Coffee Shop In Friends

Description: This is a sheer red leaning brown lip balm that smells like hot chocolate and tastes like a chocolate heavy mocha. Mmm – the coffee lover in me is impressed!

Price: $6.00

No Cap

Crystal Knockout – BSB Girl

Inspiration: Backstreet Boys!

Description: BSB Girl is a lavender metallic polish with a periwinkle glow, blue-purple shimmer & blue iridescent flakes. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $12.00

No Cap

Delush Polish – Master Of Your Domain

Inspiration: Seinfeld

Description:  A bold cobalt blue jelly, gleaming with red to pink color shifting shimmer, accented with iridescent flakies, that’s sure to always make you the master of your domain! I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos

Price: $11.95

No Cap

Dollish Polish – Black Hole Sun

Inspiration: Soundgarden/Chris Cornell

Description: a black jelly scattered holo, with red/orange shimmer, and busting with an explosion of silver holo flakes iridescent color-shifting micro glitters and flakes in shades of ruby red, copper and gold. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Makers Note: As we approach the 1st anniversary, of his passing (May 18th), I could not think of anything or anyone I’d rather honor this month. I hope I did him justice with “Black Hole Sun” and I will be donating 10% of all sales from May’s Polish Pickup to the American Foundation For Suicide Prevention in his name.

Price: $12.50

No Cap

Ellagee – Regina Phalange

UPDATE: This will not be featured this month! Laura of Ellagee is resting and recuperating from an injury and will not be able to participate 

Inspiration: Friends – Phoebe’s Alter Ego

Description: A slightly muted, red toned orange scattered holographic with pink to gold shifting shimmer. I used 2 coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Fair Maiden Polish – You Got It, Dude!

Inspiration: Michelle from Full House on TGIF!

Description: Neon pinkish red with soft indigo shimmer and blue to green to purple shifting ultra chrome chameleon flakes. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

This is pinker in person than my photos show.

Pirce: $11.00

No Cap

Girly Bits – All The Wayans Back In The 90’s

Inspiration: In Living Color

Description: A purple base, with a strong pink to blue to turquoise shifting shimmer, a scattering of holo flakes and iridescent colour shifting flakes in orange, pink, and gold.  I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $13.00

No Cap

Great Lakes Lacquer – The Mouths of Decadence 

Inspiration: Temple Of The Dog’s Hunger Strike

Description: A dusty, grayed out blue filled with aurora pigment that mimics UP and finished with scattered holo. I used 2 coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $12.50

No Cap

Heather’s Hues – Diggin’ The Scene

Inspiration: TLC

Description: A darkened blue with a subtle green to purple shifting shimmer, a mix of multichrome and iridescent flakes and colorshifting microglitters in greens, blues, and purples. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $12.50

No Cap

Heather’s Hues – WiTS Lotion in 90’s Hair

Inspiration: Herbal Essence Shampoo

Description: A fun and feminine scent bursting with notes of apple, lily and rose! This is a nice consistency that’s not too thick and not too thin, and it soaks into the skin nicely!

Container shown will NOT be what you receive! Heather was running low on sample jars for bloggers, so I opted for this size so I could still show it on here.

Price: $6.00 for a 2 oz Jar

Cap: 120 Jars

KBShimmer – unStaple

Inspiration: Milton from Office Space

Description: A deepened blue leaning slate jelly base. Micro holo flakes had a touch of shine, while red copper shimmer inspires all of us that want a red stapler too. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $10.00

No Cap

Lilly Anne’s Garden – Rayanne Lotion

Inspiration: Rayanne Graff from My So Called Life

Description: This is a nice, thicker body lotion that has a lovely fragrance of tart green apples mixed with gardenia.

Price: $5.50

No Cap

Lucky 13 Lacquer – So Fuckin’ Special

Inspiration: Radiohead – Creep

Description: Grungy aqua to crimson shimmering multichrome with flashes of aqua, blue, purple and red. I used 2 coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $11.00

Cap: 160 Bottles

LynB Designs – Spoon!

Inspiration: The Tick

Description: A bright blue base loaded with pink shimmer, orange to gold to pink flakes and a bit of holo sprinkled in. I used 2 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Moonflower Polish – I Just Can’t Wait!

Inspiration: Lion King – I Just Can’t Wait To Be King Scene

Description: Pastel neon coral stamping polish with purple to blue to green shimmer, purple to cyan to green to gold aurora pigment and blue to green to gold microflakes. This can be used as a regular polish, but it is meant for stamping.

Price: $10.00

Cap: 50 bottles

Moon Shine Mani – I’m Just A Girl

Inspiration: Gwen Stefani’s signature red lip and attitude.

Description: I’m Just a Girl is a fiery coral red jelly packed with copper micro holo, red to gold shifty micro flakies and pink/orange/gold/green chameleon flakies. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $11.00

No Cap

My Indie Polish – Like Oh My Caboodle

Inspiration: Caboodles!

Description: A purple crelly packed with 2 kinds of galaxy silver holo glitter, 2 sizes of holographic pigment, 2 sizes of bright silver flakes and scattered holographic. Dries down to a matte finish.

Price: $12.50

Cap: 100 bottles

My Indie Polish – Top or Bottom

Inspiration: None

Description: This is a new product that My Indie Polish has been working on for 8 months. It’s a top and bottom coat, so you get a 2 in 1 type product. It’s a non drying, yellow preventing, non chipping base coat as well as a top coat. Don’t let the “cloudy” look fool you – it goes on totally clear!

I used this as a top and base for 6 days at the end of tax season with no chips. It works incredibly well and everything you need is in one bottle

This is not a fast dry, but it dries faster than normal non quick dry formulas.

Price: $7.75

No Cap

Night Owl Lacquer – Beep Me!

Inspiration: Pagers/Beepers

Description: A super bright neon red with red to gold shifting aurora shimmer and loaded with various shades of color shifting crystal chameleon flakes.  This also glows in blacklight! I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $11.00

No Cap

Pahlish – Mother Of Invention

Inspiration: Street Wear Nail Polish

Description: A cool toned plum with bright copper to violet multichrome shimmer and holo flakes. I used 2 coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $11.00

No Cap

Pahlish – Linger Velvet Balm

Inspiration: The Cranberries

Description:  A lightweight balm formulated to fortify nails and soothe tired cuticles. This balm has a soft, velvety finish that leaves nails and cuticles moisturized while leaving your skin feeling fresh and clean of heavy residue. We start with a rich nail fortifying base and add our own blend of hand-picked oils for maximum hydration with a quick-absorbing, lightweight finish.  

I’m loving using this during swatch sessions because it doesn’t look too oily in photos!

Price: $6.50

Cap: 100

Poetry Cowgirl Nail Polish – Not So Stupid Girl

Inspiration: Garbage Album Cover

Description: A  bright pink shimmer with a variety of pink micro flakies, pink glass flakes, a touch of pink-gold aurora pigment, and a dash of holo pigment. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $12.50

No Cap

Sassy Pants Polish – Toys Tell Stories

Inspiration: Toy Story

Description: A classic glitter crelly in a fun lime crelly base and assorted red, navy, yellow and lavender glitters. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $11.00

No Cap

Scofflaw – 12 CD’s For 1 Cent

Inspiration: one of the ways we 90’s teens (of which I was one) discovered new musical obsessions

Description: A teal glitter crelly, with glitters of silver, sand, periwinkle, and turquoise, and with a shimmery violet flaky shimmer. I used 2 coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Stella Chroma – The Whole Brevity Thing

Inspiration: The Dude and his super chill living room Tai Chi session

Description: The Whole Brevity Thing is a faded purple with yellow-green Aurora shimmer and red-orange UCC flakies to really tie it together. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $12.00

No Cap

Stella Chroma – White Russian Sugar Scrub

Inspiration: Often times, The Dude’s right hand is holding a beverage. A White Russian, to be exact

Description: If you’ve ever smelled a White Russian beverage – this is pretty much what it smells like. For those that haven’t – it’s got notes of sweet cream and coffee. The scrub is a finer texture, so gentle but still very effective.

Price: $5.50

No Cap

Sweet Heart Polish – Chronic

Inspiration: Chronic is inspired by my first ever CD, The Chronic by Dr. Dre!

Description: Chronic is a deep green linear holo jelly with gold to green shifting crystal flakes, green sparks, gold shimmer and gold holo micro glitter.  I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $11.00

Cap: 110 Bottles

The Lady Varnishes – Here’s Where The Fun Begins

Inspiration: The Disney Afternoon

Description: A pastel aqua with turquoise shimmer, intense holographic sparkle and three different colors of color-shifting aurora flakes (orange to green, purple to green and gold to green). I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $13.00

Cap: 250 Bottles

Top Shelf Lacquer – You’re Late… You’re Stunning! You’re Forgiven!

Inspiration: Pretty Woman

Description: This polish is a super shifty multichrome polish that shifts from pink base color to orange to yellow to a brilliant green.  It is loaded with chameleon flakes that shift into almost a glowing electric blue and purple.  The base is also scattered with tiny holographic glitter. I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $13.00

Cap: 410 Bottles

Vapid Lacquer – Anything For Selenas

Inspiration: Selena, and her sparkling purple jumpsuit.

Description: Shifting, like a washing machine, orchid-pink to berry-purple in a thermal transition, while also glimmering with holographic flakes. There is an extra something to this one, just as there was always an extra something to Selena, an Ultrachrome shift. Flashes of magenta, purple and gold with extreme angles, will make your heart Bidi Bidi Bom Bom!

I used 3 thin coats and a glossy top coat for these photos.

Price: $13.00

No Cap

Vibrant Vinyls – Smells Like Teen Spirit Cuticle Care Duo

Inspiration: Nirvana ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’

Description: This month, Vibrant Vinyls is throwing back to the 90’s with an exclusive Nirvana inspired Cuticle Remover & Cuticle Oil Set in the scent ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.

‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ is the delicious aroma of Fruit Loops cereal with hints of Surge citrus soda & Strawberry pop tarts!

Price: $12.00

Cap: 250 Duos

May 2018 Polish Pickup | 1990’s Pop Culture

Another incredible month and the fun starts tomorrow morning!

It was another fun but busy month for me, but it’s still just as fun as it’s always been! Really loving the throwback inspiration and all the memories hearing these names!

Where To Buy: Polish Pickup Shop

Shop Dates: May 4th at 11am EST through May 7th at 11:59pm EST

Shipping Price: $3.00 Within US  (regardless of how many you buy!) 

The Polish Pickup Shop now has WISHLISTS! If you see things you like, you can go to the shop and start adding to your wishlist! Not everything is up quite yet, but it will be soon.

Make sure you check out the group to see more swatches, and Delanie’s Swatch The Box for live viewing of about 88 of this months items!