Part of Two Pleasant Peninsulas by ALiquid Lacquer

I've really been getting in to indie nail polish makers lately, and my most recent indie polish was a gift from my mom.  As I was browsing through ALiquid Lacquer's shop,, I discovered their collection inspired by all things Michigan, called Two Pleasant Peninsulas.

As some of you may know, I'm from Michigan, and I moved to Maryland a little over a year ago.  Even though it's been over a year, I still get totally homesick when I think about my home state, so I loved this collection immediately.  All the polishes in it are really cool and they have great names, but there were three that stuck out to me the most.  Wolverine Loves Spartan is awesome because I went to Michigan State University, and about half of my family are University of Michigan fans.  I'm Heading Strait to Mackinac is special to me because I love visiting Mackinac Island - it's one of the most beautiful, romantic places in Michigan (and for those of you who don't know, the Straits of Mackinac are the waters that separate Michigan's peninsulas, so that's why it's spelled that way).  And finally, I hold Motor City dear because I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit and I absolutely adore the city.  I'm the kind of person who will give you a 20-minute lecture if you make a joke about Detroit being a bad place.

And, conveniently enough, the three polishes with names most dear to me also happened to be my favorite colors in this collection!

Who else was a dear?  My mom!  She ordered these three polishes and had them delivered to my house in Maryland.  So I totally got these awesome polishes without having to break my polish-buying embargo!  Heck yeah!  I've been staring at these colors for days while working on other blog posts, and it's finally time to wear them and review them.  So let's get to it!

Motor City 

 

Sweet baby Jesus, I ADORE this nail polish!  It's a glitterbomb in a black jelly base, and the glitters are sooooo awesome.  The website says that it's inspired by Detroit based on Motown music and the auto industry - the glitters certainly remind me of those things!  The biggest circular glitters remind me of records.

JUST LOOK AT ALL THAT GLITTER.  HRRRNNNNGGGHH.

I just couldn't get enough of this polish!  Glitterbombs always provide a unique application on each nail, so I wasn't surprised about that, but oh my gosh, each nail was so amazing and awesome on its own!

This is the first polish in a while where I've actually REALLY liked having a matte topcoat on it.  I think matte flattens out all polishes, and in this case it makes it look amazing.  It just made me think of space, somehow!

I LOVED the way those two glitters in the center stacked, and then reflected blue in the light.

It was a bit tricky to get the bigger pieces of glitter to apply to my nail, but that's fairly standard for glitters so big.  Three coats looked nice, but you all know as well as I do that I did four coats. 

Wolverine Loves Spartan

Wolverine Loves Spartan reminds me of those giant, fist-sized jawbreakers.  It's a glitterbomb in a white crelly base - that's a creme-y jelly.  Not as thin as a jelly, not as thick as a creme.  The glitters vary in size and shape, and the colors represent Michigan's two biggest universities: blue and yellow for University of Michigan (boooo), and green to go with the white base for Michigan State University (GO GREEEN!).

I put a matte topcoat on my ring finger, and I really like it!  It makes it look even more like a jawbreaker candy.

Three coats yields great opacity and glitter depth.

This is the perfect Game Day polish - I'll definitely be wearing it on the day of MSU vs U of M!

I'm Heading Strait to Mackinac

This is a really, really pretty polish!  It's a creme with a subtle holographic sparkle, which is a simply gorgeous effect. 

It photographs a little bit brighter and bluer than it actually is - it's more of a periwinkle in person.  My camera had some trouble capturing the holo in it, of course.

I put a matte top coat on my ring finger, but it actually muted the holo sparkles a bit too much for my taste.

Two coats is perfect on this one.  One coat was actually really close to perfect, but there were a few small spots that I needed to go over again.

I'm super, super happy with all of these polishes.  I'd love to own the whole collection some day!  What are your favorites from Two Pleasant Peninsulas?