Mentality Nail Polish Rascal review and gel pen swirls

                                 *product sent to me for review

Hello lovelies! I am excited to show you guys today, my first polish review!! I am not going to fool myself. I'm not so prolific in my posts or so dedicated to swatching the newest and greatest polish out there that polish companies would be knocking on my door to swatch their polishes for me. My main objective for this blog was to just have a place to put all my nail designs and fun polishes and share it with other like-minded people. That being said, what nail blogger out there doesn't secretly (or not so secretly) want to be sent all the latest polishes for review, not having to spend a dime, not having to hit refresh on the page trying to get the most desired polish in the first few minutes of a restock before it's completely sold out? So, when Mentality Nail Polish asked on IG if there were any nail polish fanatics that wanted to review polishes for them and then actually sent me a bottle, I was beyond happy. And I actually really like this polish!

This is Mentality Rascal. On the website the polish is described as "a black matte with a very subtle shimmer". Believe it or not, this is the first matte polish I have tried, and I like it! It is a one coat matte black that dries fast in a typical matte fashion (from what I gather). Application was easy but since it was my first matte, I did have some issues and had to do a nail twice. I think it could be better still but...you know, new baby.

Because of this polish's finish, you can see that I actually have some ridges in my nails *blushes*. I think a second coat would have hid that. This looked so much like a chalkboard that I wanted to write on it. And write I did! I had a bunch of old Sakura Gelly Roll pens from my obsession with pens in college and I used a bunch of the sparkly ones to doodle. I found out the hard way that the design won't stay on without a top coat so I had to redraw the designs after I took the pictures and seal it with a topcoat, which is seen in the first picture. Alas, I smudged it with topcoat too!! I have since heard that applying a peel off basecoat then applying topcoat after it dries will help not to smear. Haven't tested it for myself but will have to soon!

Rascal and other Mentality nail polishes can be purchased at their bigcartel website.

And now, here is my secret weapon in being able to type up these posts. My little guy is in a stage of his life where he wants to be held all the time. The only times he will tolerate being put down is if he is in a deep sleep and the act of putting him down doesn't actually wake him up or in those precious few minutes during the day when he is dry, fed, not sleepy and in the mood to play. Then I can put him down and wave toys in front of his face and make sickening googly noises...that is until one of the above changes and he starts crying again. By babywearing, however, I can actually have more than a few minutes in the day in which he's happy and I'm not stuck in one place holding him. I posted this picture on Instagram a few days ago. So peaceful, isn't he?

* I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*

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