Black Cat Lacquer Welcome To Portlandia Collection

It's been a while since I've done a full collection swatch, and I'm really excited about this one. Portlandia is such a funny show and I don't know many people who watch it, so when Black Cat Lacquer released a Portlandia inspired collection, I got all over that! Remember my "put a bow on it" reference a few weeks ago? Soon after that, she announced this collection. It's like she read my mind (or my blog)! This collection consists of 5 polishes, most of which are of the shimmery jelly consistency mixed with unique glitter combinations. And for the sake of sounding repetitive, I'd like to point out that they all have really excellent formulas, the pictures are all shown without any topcoat (so in their natural finish), and took 3 coats for full opacity (except for 1 which I layered).

Black Cat Lacquer We Can Pickle That! in shade

Black Cat Lacquer We Can Pickle That! in sunlight

Black Cat Lacquer We Can Pickle That! up close 

"We can pickle ANYTHING!"
First up is We Can Pickle That! which is a mint green glassfleck/gold shimmer jelly with red-orange, turquoise, black, and sheer white glitter in various shapes and sizes. I ended up liking this one a lot more than I anticipated because even though online it looked like a regular green jelly, it turned out to be a mint blue-green! I matched it with Essie Mint Candy Apple, and that makes a really good opaque base for this polish. However I like it on its own as well because you get the jelly sandwich appearance!

Black Cat Lacquer Put A Bird On It in shade

Black Cat Lacquer Put A Bird On It in sunlight

Black Cat Lacquer Put A Bird On It pretty glitter

"It's flying, it's free!"
Put A Bird On It is a light blue jelly with subtle blue/purple shimmer and sheer pastel pink, green, and blue (or white, hard to tell) glitter in varying shapes and sizes. The shimmer is very subtle, but manages to transfer on to the nail (this is best illustrated in the 3rd picture). This one I was most looking forward to trying, and I am not disappointed! It's pretty girly and kind of hipstery. I also like how there is actually a bird on the label!

Black Cat Lacquer Women & Women First in shade 

Black Cat Lacquer Women & Women First in sunlight

Black Cat Lacquer Women & Women First glitter

"What do I look like? Somebody that works for tips?"
Next up is Women & Women First, which contains all shapes and sizes of black and white glitter suspended in a purple glassflecked pink jelly base. There is, more notably, bar glitter shapes as well! This bar glitter is not extremely chunky and I found it to lie perfectly flat on my nail. So no complaints about texture here!

Black Cat Lacquer The Dream Of The '90s is Alive in shade

Black Cat Lacquer The Dream Of The '90s is Alive in sunlight

Black Cat Lacquer The Dream Of The '90s is Alive glitter

"Portland is a city where young people go to retire."
I can't help but read this in a sing song voice, how they sing it in the show. The Dream Of The '90s Is Alive is in a glassfleck grey jelly base and has too many to name types of glitter. Just a whole mixture of different shapes, sizes, and finishes. There is black, matte, sheer, metallic, and iridescent glitter. This would also look great layered over a grey creme that is similar to its base color. I kept it on its own because I wanted to keep the jelly sandwich look. I can't help but notice how it's got a very grunge-y look to it, which makes perfect sense.

China Glaze Concrete Catwalk + Black Cat Lacquer Sanitation Twins in shade

China Glaze Concrete Catwalk + Black Cat Lacquer Sanitation Twins in sunlight

China Glaze Concrete Catwalk + Black Cat Lacquer Sanitation Twins glitter

"Now there's a bin for EVERYTHING!"
Last but not least is Sanitation Twins which is again, a crazy glitter mixture of countless number of types of glitter but this time suspended in a full on clear, shimmery/glassflecked base. There is notably black and white bar glitter in this as well as every type of glitter in the world. I chose to layer it over Concrete Catwalk which is just a simple dark grey creme. However you can see how Sanitation Twins completely transformed the simple base color to what now appears to be so shimmery/metallic blue-grey. So cool!

Where to buy

• This collection is available on Black Cat Lacquer's etsy shop or her recently opened website.

I love this collection as a whole hands down, but if I had to pick any favorites they would be We Can Pickle That! and Put A Bird On It. I also really like Sanitation Twins because I think it'll be really fun to layer...I didn't expect to like that one or We Can Pickle That! as much as I do. Thanks for reading, toodles!