Hi folks! I'm still alive, I've just been on a painfully strict no-buy for most of this year. However, I have something fantastic to share with you all today! Are any of you fans of the Bioshock series of video games?

Warning: Potential Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite spoilers below! Nothing too big, though.

When Amanda of Conjured Polish asked if I'd like to review some polishes inspired by Bioshock, I had to be honest with her--I love collections inspired by video games but I'd never gotten the chance to play Bioshock! So I immediately got a copy and started playing. Let me just say, I was not prepared for the creepfest that is Bioshock. It took me far too long to realize that the bad guys had a tendency to sneak in and pretend like I'd already killed them when my back was turned...then jump out at me when I walked by! Hello, adrenaline rush!! The scary bits were worth it though, I loved Bioshock and I'm about to start Infinite, which I've heard is even better than the original. And after having gotten my hands on this lovely collection I'm very excited to start playing Infinite!

Uh oh, have I gone off on a gamer tangent? Sorry! On to the polish!

Big Daddy is first up. It has a yellow-green base when warm that turns to a darker olive green when cool.

The Big Daddy is an enemy from the Bioshock series. They protect the Little Sisters (see the next polish to learn who they are) and will attack you if you try to harm their Little Sister. The Big Daddy class of enemy are not to be trifled with, they will surprise you--just like this polish did to me! Big Daddy was the first of this collection that I tried when I spontaneously decided to start swatching at 2AM and I somehow forgot that it was the thermal polish of the collection. I was sitting there, happily swatching, when I thought to myself "hm, the tips of my nails look different than the rest. OH MY GOSH! It's the thermal!" It was a very happy moment!

This polish was on the sheer side, 4 coats gave good coverage but there was still a little visible nail line. A fifth may be a good idea for me in the future and Amanda says she's going to work on making it a bit more opaque in future batches, though a certain level of transparency is necessary to maintain the current loveliness when layering.

Photos show 4 coats over bare nails with Lucky 13 Elemental Ward top coat.

Little Sister consists of large purple hex, extra large magenta holo dots, and a touch of shredded purple glitters (though I'm not sure if it's by design or if it's due to the cutting of the glitter, but I like it!) in a sheer white cream. The extra large dots definitely required some fishing but putting the bottle upside down for a few minutes helped.

Little Sisters in the game are genetically modified little girls who go around collecting from corpses. Ewww!

This polish is definitely a favorite, even if the inspiration falls deep in the "creepy" zone for me. I'm a big fan of purple (heck, my hair is even dyed purple!) and paired with the milky white base the purple really stands out. The base for Little Sister was on the sheer side so I'll likely use undies in the future, but the depth you get when layering is really amazing! If you have the time to do 4 coats with this polish, definitely go for it!

Photos show 4 coats over bare nails with Elemental Ward top coat.

Comstock house is a gold-leaning harvest orange creme with a silver-ish shimmer. It also glows green in the dark!

According to Amanda, Comstock House is inspired by a scene in Bioshock Infinite. Since I haven't played Infinite yet I can't comment on how accurately it captures the scene but this shade is such a lovely color for Autumn, does it entirely matter? I don't think it does. Also, fun little thing I noticed, this shade almost perfectly matches one of the colors on Conjured Polish's label!

Photos show 3 coats over bare nails with Elemental Ward top coat.

Booker, inspired by a character from Bioshock Infinite, is a maroon-leaning chocolate brown cream.

So I said above that Big Daddy was the first I tried on, right? That was only mostly true. I actually put on Booker first but decided that I needed to rearrange my entire room before my weekend travel plans and didn't have time to take pictures of Booker, leaving me with a ruined mani when I finally did have time to take pictures. Oops!

Photos show 2 coats over bare nails with Elemental Ward top coat. I could have gotten away with just one coat for this shade but I did a second just to even out bumps from my nails.

Tiny orange and green glitters with fine red glitters in a black base.

Songbird is another shade inspired by a character in Bioshock Infinite. I really love this combination of colors, it brings to mind both Halloween AND Christmas, and I love crossing over these two holidays! Songbird was a bit on the sheer side, I may do a coat of black undies in the future but I'm still definitely going to do multiple coats of Songbird. How can you not love how it layers and gives it so much depth??

Photos show 4 coats over bare nails with Elemental Ward top coat.

Finally, Our Lady Elizabeth. A stunning sky blue base with scattered rainbow holo that glows an insanely bright aqua in the dark. I was completely floored by just how vibrantly this shade glowed.

Our Lady Elizabeth is, again, inspired by a Bioshock Infinite character. If this shade is anything to go by I'm really going to like Elizabeth. And if I don't like her...well, at least I like her polish! This shade was definitely my favorite from the collection; the blue by itself is beautiful, but paired with the amazing glow it was a clear winner for the top spot in my heart.

Photos show 4 coats over bare nails with Elemental Ward top coat.

Coverage: 3/5

• Some of these were pretty sheer, I personally expect to do up to 4 coats for an indie polish though and I must admit that the layering gives a great look!

Application: 4/5

• I needed to do some minor creative application for Little Sister, especially to get the extra large magenta dots out, but overall application was a breeze!

Price: 5/5

• $7.50 for a 15ml bottle on Etsy.

Durability: 5/5

• Lasted 3 days with minimal tip wear before I finally removed it for a new mani.
  

Originality: 5/5

• Video game polish? Yes! Video game polish that inspired me to play a game that I ended up really enjoying? SUPER YES!

Total: 9/10
This is my first experience with Conjured Polish and I am very pleased! She currently has some other great cremes in her shop that are worth looking at!

Growing up I was in love with ancient Egyptian mythology. All the gods and goddesses, part human, part animal, and with a deity for just about anything you can imagine, it was all so fascinating, I distinctly remember in 6th grade reading everything our textbook had to say on Egyptian mythology, not just the few pages that were assigned, and wishing there was a place in our society for a polytheist religion. It makes sense to me to delegate certain tasks to different people, let one god be in charge of one group of prayers and everyone is heard! Loved one passed away? Pray to Anubis for their safe passage to the underworld. Your sister is having a baby? Pray to Bes or Hathor for her safe delivery and joyful motherhood.

When I heard that Daphine Polish had a collection inspired by Egyptian goddesses you wouldn't even understand how excited I was. It was like one of the best parts of my childhood could finally join me in my adulthood!

I have two of the 6 polishes from the Goddess of the Two Lands collection so let's get right to it!

Hathor, the cow-headed goddess, personifies the principles of joy, feminine love, and motherhood. Hathor, the polish, personifies joy and beauty! It has a slightly frosty emerald green base with gold holographic glitter and a hint of holographic sparkle. The sun decided to take a vacation from Vancouver when I wore Hathor so I wasn't able to get any photos of it shimmering, sadly :-(

I first tried Hathor with two coats on its own, as you see above, but I found that some of the larger gold glitters from the first coat got lost in the opacity of the second coat. What better time to try some lovely undies with this beauty! I found that one coat over CoverGirl Midnight Magic made for an even more gorgeous manicure. The mild amount of sheerness for Hathor allowed the duochrome of Midnight Magic to show through and I was simply stunned with what was left on my nails.

I'm going to love finding other coordinating colors to wear under this one! I'm thinking a dark creme would really allow the emerald base and gold glitters to pop.

Anuket (the goddess) is the personification of the Nile river. Anuket (the polish) is a rich brown with orange glitter and a hint of holographic sparkle. It's also a one-coater. Yes, you heard me right, one coat for full opacity! And it's such a perfect Fall color, as well; now is the time to add it to your collection!

So of course my favorite part of Anuket is seriously, one coat! As someone who paints her nails so often it's really a relief to not need to dip in for that second coat and instead to be able to reach straight for the topcoat. My second favorite part of this polish, however: tiny rainbow shimmer! The sun was actually out when I was wearing this one!! See below for blurry rainbow goodness.

Coverage: 5/5

• Anuket was a one-coater and Hathor was opaque with two coats (though I preferred one coat over undies!)

Application: 5/5

• Wonderful application!

Price: 4/5

•  $10 for a full size (16.5ml!) on Etsy and Storenvy. She also offers discounts for ordering the whole collection!

Durability: 5/5

• I had such great wear time on this I actually lost track of how many days it lasted! 4 days, 5 days, who knows!
  

Originality: 5/5

•  I've never seen a collection inspired by Egyptian goddesses, I love it!

Total: 10/10
I just learned of Daphine Polish but I am definitely impressed! The entire collection will be wonderful for Fall: dark but still muted shades that shimmer when the sun comes out to play.

Daphine Polish also has very nice, long caps for her bottles which made it very easy to adjust my grip and paint those hard-to-reach corners of my nails which was very nice.

Finally, Daphine Polish has a Daria collection. Yes, Daria, that show on MTV from the 90's with the smart, acerbic, misanthropic teen that I totally identified with. What can I say, I definitely wasn't one of the "cool kids" in high school!

Have you tried Daphine Polish yet? Which of the Goddess of the Two Lands collection is your favorite??