Bee's Knees Lacquer September '19 Polish and Indie Pickup items

PRESS SAMPLES The Small Science, shown in various light sources with matte topcoat.

Are you ready for September's Polish Pickup? It opens this Friday! As a maker I sat this one out and I'm so glad I did, been incredibly busy with a new job. As a customer I'm a bit overwhelmed with how many things I want and no sales to help cover it 🙃. The theme is magic and alchemy and so many truly magical things have been created, the makers knocked this one out of the park. Bee's Knees will be offering 2 awesome purple items and has sent them to me for review. Yal know I love my purple.


The sale will begin Friday Sept 6 at 11 am Eastern and end at 11:59 pm Sept 9. Neither of the BKL items have limited quantities though, rejoice! Don't forget that polishes are all exclusive to PPU, they wont be offered elsewhere later unless chosen for the yearly throwback month.

Firstly this is The Small Science, a deep purple polish loaded with red to green shifting shimmer and gold to green ghost flakes. (Ghost flakes are BKL's name for iridescent flakes.) It is inspired by the Grishaverse books will be $14.

I used 3 coats and both glossy and matte topcoats. It isn't completely opaque on me as my nail line loves to be the center of attention, (brat). In this case though it was only visible in direct lighting and not enough to bother me. As always the formula was effortless to use and only enhanced by possibly the best brush on the planet. Seriously, people love this rounded brush so much that I've seen some people stop using others and brands switching bottle shape just so they can get this brush too. Its rounded at the end and fans out some so painting is almost effortless ans clean up is greatly reduced or eliminated. I had no problem getting the flakes to lie down smooth and remove was easy as well. Appropriate dry time, not too thick or thin.

Videos here.

natural low light

natural light

sunlight

artificial full spectrum lights, at an angle

artificial full spectrum bulbs

artificial full spectrum bulbs

Next is BKL's tinted lipbalm, this time without a scent and in a unique dusty purple. Inspired by alchemy ingredients in Skyrim, Void Salts is an unscented lip balm that's tinted a dark amethyst.
This will be $5.

I've said it many times but I'll do it again. Bee's Knees formula is the best indie balm I've tried. I love Notoriously Morbid's Slumber Salve which is a sleeping mask for locking in moisture and Fresh's Sugar balms (not indie and really pricy) for healing chapped and bitten lips but this serves it's own unique purpose in my arsenal. It's a great day balm. No bad ingredients that actually just make your lips worse so you have to keep using it like many big companies add. Jojoba as the first ingredient means it's delivering moisture. Candelilla wax makes my lips a smooth surface so I have less of an urge to bite at flakes and helps this balm last even through eating and drinking. Add a tint and it's the perfect day time balm, my daily go to. It's somewhat firm so I like to apply the tinted ones in a patting motion.

This color looks more grey toned on my arm than on my lips which I'm glad of and was partially the fault of my camera. This can be added in a sheer layer or built up for more opacity which makes it very wearable.

natural light

natural light, light application

natural light, built up for more opacity

natural light, built up

artificial light, built up