New From Renaissance Cosmetics: The Wunderkammer Collection

Hi everyone! After three months I'm so pleased to be finally releasing another collection. I really wish it hadn't been so long, but sometimes things don't fall into place like originally planned. When I set out to make a spring collection, I had a few ideas, but none of them really excited me. So I decided to go back to the drawing board and try a new idea, and I think the collection is stronger because of it.

Renaissance Cosmetics Wunderkammer Collection

This collection is based on the idea of the Wunderkammer (also called Cabinet of Curiosities). They were collections in the 15th to 17th centuries, mainly in private residences and palaces. They started to fall out of favour after that period as museums came about in the 18th century. Wunderkammers/Cabinets of Curiosities were usually rooms that displayed all sorts of objects - plants, minerals, artifacts, preserved animals, art, relics, and other specimens (natural or man-made). Nowadays we have museums that specialize in certain types of objects (museums for art vs. museums  for natural history), but back then, everything was just displayed together.

So there's your history lesson for you! The basic idea behind the Wunderkammer was a display of objects that inspired wonder. I took that as the basis for this collection, plus I also liked the idea of nail polish as something to display.

In making polishes I tried to come up with colours and glitter combinations that would inspire delight and wonder, polishes that a person would want to collect. I really love the idea behind the collection, which is why I want to do a part two later this year.

So onto the polishes!

Curio/Curiosity is a black and white glitter topper made up of matte black and white squares and shards, some black small holo glitter, iridescent glitter, and lots of gold-violet shimmer. Swatches show one coat over Girly Bits Elephant Shoe.

Curio/Curiosity

Curio/Curiosity

I tend to just apply glitter polishes like any regular polish, but I've found that I get even better glitter payoff when I dip the brush in the bottle, stir it around once, and then drop a small blob on the nail and spread it out. Otherwise, I sometimes end up brushing the larger glitters off my nail. What kinds of tricks do you have for applying glitter polish?

Curio/Curiosity - one coat over various polishes

The glitters in this collection have good glitter payoff, but I definitely recommend, especially for Curio/Curiosity and Porcelain Dream, that you sit the bottle upside down for 10 minutes before applying. This will ensure that you get more larger sized glitters.

Emerald Envy is an emerald green holographic polish with gold shimmer and tiny gold and lime green holo glitter. I love how this one shimmers and sparkles. The linear holo effect is disrupted a bit by the shimmer and glitter, but you still see it in the sunlight. I used 2 coats for these swatches.

Emerald Envy

Emerald Envy

Emerald Envy

Enamoured is a deep purple creme/jelly with a fuchsia-gold shimmer and blue iridescent flakes. There's also a subtle scattered holo effect. If you love dark vampy colours with shimmer I think you'll like this one, the shimmer has a fiery look to it, and then there's these flashes of blue. Swoon!

Enamoured

Enamoured

This was two coats, and the flakes may stick out a bit, so I also used a layer of Gelous then a layer of top coat. This also enhances the shimmer and gives it more of a glassy look.

Enamoured

Gilded Pleasure is another glitter topper - I like to think of this as the golden version of Evenstar. It's a pretty dense glitter topper of tiny to small sized glitters, and it can be layered over a base polish or worn on its own - you can get full coverage in three coats.

Gilded Pleasure

Gilded Pleasure

It's made up of small gold, rose, and copper glitter, with accents of small red hexes and small matte blue squares. It also has gold micro flakes. This is one coat over L'Oreal A La Meringue (a white polish).

Gilded Pleasure - one coat over various polishes. Far right is three coats on its own.

Porcelain Dream is the last one of the collection. I made this because I realized I didn't have a white-gold glitter topper and I thought it would work perfectly for the collection. It's actually one of my favourite polishes I've made because I love how delicate and ethereal it looks, and it's pretty awesome with a matte top coat.

Porcelain Dream

Porcelain Dream

It's a glitter topper with satin white and gold holographic glitter, also iridescent glitter and gold micro flakes. This is one coat over Essie Truth or Flare. You can also see it in these lace nails I did a few weeks ago.

Porcelain Dream - one coat over various polishes

In terms of application, I think they are all pretty easy to apply, otherwise I wouldn't have released them. The full coverage polishes go on smooth and evenly, and the glitter toppers have good glitter payoff whatever method you use to apply. But I realize that I may be a bit biased :) which is why I've sent some off to bloggers for review. I'll be posting links to the reviews on my shop website (you can find them in the individual product listings).

This collection is very, very soon (in a half hour), and they are $9.50 each, and I'll be listing a very limited number (maybe only 1 or 2) of the entire collection for a discounted price of $42.50. I've only made a small number of polishes, but if anything sells out, I'll work on restocking it, but it might take 1-2 weeks.

You can find these at the Renaissance Cosmetics website, also you can follow me on Facebook and Instagram for shop updates.

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What do you think of this collection? Do you have a favourite polish?