Happy Friday the 13th!! Today is my lucky day!

Of course I couldn't let today pass without something super extra awesome and special happening, could I? Of course not! And so, today I'm not releasing one collection. No, that's not good enough. Today I'm releasing TWO collections!!

Both are inspired by JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit universe, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

For those who just want to get to the good stuff, here are the collection pages for There and Back Again and The Fellowship. The rest of you, let us read on!

The next batch of Softening the Bad Things is being released starting tomorrow!!

There will be a few very minor differences between this first batch and this one.

First, the label on top will now be in Vincent Van Gogh's own handwriting (as seen on the left). Previous bottles had the label on the right. If you ordered a bottle from the first batch and would like the new top label you can either make an order and add a note saying you'd like an extra new label or I will be happy to mail you one for $.50. That covers postage and the cost of the envelope. When removing your old label be VERY careful not to scratch the plastic lid!!

Second, and most importantly, I've not been able to resolve the minor curling issue for the larger glitters in the first batch. I promise, they were fine for MONTHS and then suddenly some of them decided to start curling slightly. The second run will have a more vibrant true gold shade (once again, new is on the left, old is on the right) which will not curl.

Swatch comparison above; left is new, right is old.

And finally, for the second run there will be 100 bottles as opposed to 26 from the first run. There will be 80 full size bottles (numbered 1 to 80) and 20 shortie bottles (numbered 81 to 100).

These will be released across 3 different days and at different times in equal amounts to allow for the greatest number of people to get a fair chance at ordering a bottle. The stocking schedule will be as follows.

• 20 full size, 5 shorties released around noon PST on 9/13
• 20 full size, 5 shorties released around 6PM PST 9/13
• 17 full size, 5 shorties released around noon PST 9/14
• 17 full size, 5 shorties released around 8PM PST 9/15
• Each re-stock will have a 30-ish minute warning posted to Facebook before going live

The reason why the last two stockings are less full size than the others is because with my first batch my site screwed me up and allowed for overselling :-( There were also 3 bottles that were reserved as a "prize".

Happy Friday the 13th, everyone!

I couldn't allow today to pass without incident; I've been planning today's release(s!) for the last 4 months!! I hope it's been worth the wait for you all; it certainly has been for me.

Today I'm releasing not one collection today, oh no. Today I'm going to release two related collections!!

The first collection, The Fellowship, is inspired by...well...the Fellowship! It's a 9 piece set which has a lacquer dedicated to each Hobbit, Dwarf, Man, Elf, and Maiar in the Fellowship.

When swatching I paired some of The Fellowship/There and Back Again polishes. I'll begin by describing the Fellowship polishes and move into There and Back Again afterward. If you get confused as to which polish in a picture I'm discussing the bottle will match the color on my nails I'm writing about. It's hard to find time to swatch 18 polishes as a full mani!

Carpe Noctem cosmetics recently passed 1,200 Facebook Likes and I recently passed 2,000!! To celebrate CN is hosting a collaborative giveaway with 17 different bloggers, indie makers, and more!

I am one of the contributors and my prize is very special. I recently got a tiny sample size of a glow in the dark pigment and immediately knew I had to make a special edition lacquer that was inspired by (but not part of) the Lord of the Rings collections. There was only enough pigment for 6 bottles--3 full size, 3 shorties. I'll tell you more about those bottles but first, would you like to see the polish?

I give you the Light of Eärendil, Our Most Beloved Star. May it be a light for you in dark places when all other lights go out.