Anchor & Heart The Vivacious

Nothing To Disclose

I'm back! Last week I was at Cosmoprof North America 2016 and if you checked my Instagram or Facebook, I saw a LOT of things. I'm still working through to decompress through all the paperwork and photos I took but today I wanted to show off an indie brand that I stumbled upon through Facebook.

Anchor & Heart Lacquer is based out of Portland, Maine, which you know is a bit dear to my heart. My husband was born and still has family just south of Portland so I feel like I'm being a bit of fan girl when I buy from a Maine company. Owner Taryn Jade has a wide range of colors and during a recent sale on her Etsy site, I picked up The Vivacious, a berry shade with a subtle holo and gold shimmer. This shade is from the My Friends, My Anchors collection.

I used a base coat of OPI Nail Envy in Hawaiian Orchid. If you recall, last summer OPI decided to tint their strengthening treatment. You can wear the base alone with 2 coats, but I just used one because I was originally going to wear a different color altogether today. While Hawaiian Orchid is a bit of a dusty rose shade, it did not affect my wear for The Vivacious. I used 2 coats of The Vivacious over and then topped using Anonymous Lacquer's Fast Dry Top Coat called With A Quickness that I received at the Cocktails and Colors 2016 event in Las Vegas. I was super happy that the formula on The Vivacious was smooth, didn't run or pool, and spread evenly with the flat brush.

This shade can lean pink or berry depending on your skin tone and lighting. As you can see in the bottle, there's a scattered holo and gold shimmer running throughout the formula. In the shade, I could see the strong shimmer. In the sun, it was just enough holo to make me stare at my nails while flexing my fingers. Come on, we've all done it. One thing I have noticed is that the top coat I'm using, while making the polish shiny, did not completely cover all the properties of this polish. My thumb isn't glass smooth like I prefer - it's not bumpy like a texture polish and I'm not catching lint on it or anything, but there's just a very small grit to the polish that I've noticed. I'm not sure if it's the formula itself or the combination of me trying a new top coat. It's not enough to bother me by any means though.

Also I'm trying a new nail shape! I changed to squoval in summer 2011 after having a more rounded look prior to that. While I was in Las Vegas, I received an essie gel coutour manicure by Jolene Canzoneri Brodeur [website | instagram] and she asked if she could file my nails to a different shape. Since Jolene is a celebrity/entertainment/editorial/commerical nail artist, I was going to take her advice and she gave me this soft almond look. I cannot tell you how many compliments I've received from my fellow bloggers on the new nail shape. It's growing on me as it does elongate my nail beds and give me a very feminine look. On the practical side, I didn't break one nail in Vegas, coming home, or my first week back at work and that's saying something!

So back to Anchor & Heart - so far, I'm happy!I have one other shade that I purchased which seems super office appropriate and I may wear to my next big meeting. The Vivacious may be purchased in her Etsy shop for $9.50. I purchased during her 4th of July sale for a 15% discount.

Anchor & Heart may be purchased on Etsy. Join the social conversation on Facebook and Instagram. Use #anchorheartlacquer or #AHLnailmail to share with other AHL lovers!