When it comes to indie polishes, I'd like to think I exercise a good amount of restraint - by which I mean I talk myself out of ordering a lot of really, really beautiful polishes that give me serious grabby hands. However, sometimes there are polishes that just get stuck in my head and I absolutely HAVE TO HAVE THEM. When I first saw Polished For Days' Ruska, I was immediately intrigued and then a little bit confused and then downright obsessed. I tell you no lies, that really is exactly how it went. And then, once I had it in my hands, I knew that I need to get it ON my hands but I wasn't entirely sure what to do with it nail art wise. Can you tell that this polish has been a whole thing for me?

For this month, our non-theme-theme for #CBBxManiMonday is untried polishes and since this brand spankin' to me it seemed like the perfect time to feature it on the blog! Keep reading for more!

Ruska is described as a "brown toned mauve crelly base packed with pink-yellow-green shifting iridescent flakies" and ugnnnn. Can we just. I'd say that description is really bang on, but also doesn't really capture it. There's an interesting sort of murkiness to this polish that makes it feel so unique and interesting - almost like there's smoke fighting against the fire of the flakies? This is how my brain works. Anyway, it's absolutely amazing, looks stunning in two coats, and applies surprisingly easily though you do have to be a little bit specific about floating your flakies to get even coverage. Still. Stunning, completely unique to anything else I've personally ever seen, and just... amazing. Especially for people who don't feel the compulsive need to add nail art to everything and are happy just to wear nail polish - this is art all on its own.

I am one of those aforementioned people who compulsively needs to add nail art to their base polishes, though, so I wanted to go in with some stamping. I wanted to choose a design that would amp up the base polish rather than take away from it, so I went with this really simple, crisp design and used a black stamping polish because I always feel like black is the best way to pop a base. I applied the image to all of my nails without any fuss or additions of the kitchen sink.

Once I was finished my stamping, I sealed in the design with a water based top coat and then finished with a quick dry glossy top coat for shine and, again, to really pop those flakies. And voila!

I think that sometimes I forget just how much I love Polished For Days polishes. I haven't tried that many of them, but the ones I've tried are always so completely unique and interesting and just... stunning. The maker, whoever she is, is kind of a genius in my opinion and I definitely am feeling the need to pick up some more of her more unique polishes for my collection because... I mean, look at this polish! Insert the heart eyes emoji here. And all over this post.

I purchase my Polished For Days polishes from Harlow & Co, their Canadian stockist, but you can also shop their website and they do ship internationally!

Don't forget to head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK to check out what untried polishes the ladies are rocking this week!

Thanks for reading!