Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Amethystos was released by Hare as part of its Finders Keepers collection for fall 2012, no doubt my most favorite polish collection by any maker ever. I swatched Amethystos once in a batch post back last summer but it deserves its own post because it's just that awesome.

Amethystos is a glitter jelly polish. It has a medium grape purple jelly base filled with a beautiful blend of components: silver square and hex glitters, pink and gold hex glitters in several sizes, small iridescent blue hex glitters and tiny golden shardy shimmer flecks. My favorite, besides those iridescent blue hexes, are the pink glitters, which put a little kitten purr into the abundance of silver and purple.

I decided to use undies with Amethystos and as I've done in the past I chose Barielle Grape Escape for this purpose. It's a good tonal match for the purple base of Amethystos. Grape Escape is part of Barielle's Sugar Rush collection for summer 2009 and is a wonderful well-pigmented creamy medium grape purple one coater. So nice for a base polish! Sorry I don't have pictures of it on the nail but from what I understand it is very similar to OPI Funky Dunky and China Glaze Grape Pop.

Over one coat of Grape Escape I applied Amethystos. This is a beautifully formulated glitter polish with an entirely satisfying application experience. The consistency is fluid and light and though teeming with glitter applies smoothly and evenly over the nail, dispersing a well-balanced medley of components. I had no problems with application save for one instance of glitter stacking and a couple of random glitters protruding over the free edge. Amethystos dries in very good time to a smooth shiny even finish with next to no noticeable texture from glitters.

Photos show two coats of Amethystos over one coat of Grape Escape over treatment and basecoat, topcoated with one layer of Gelous and one of Seche Vite.

Hare Polish Amethystos and Barielle Grape Escape, bottle shot

Hare Polish Amethystos, macro shot in the bottle

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

Hare Polish Amethystos over Barielle Grape Escape

I always feel like the cool girl at school whenever I wear Amethystos, which is awesome because I wasn't even close to being cool at any school I attended. Something about the combination of purple and silver gives it a youthful appeal. The last time I wore it was to my niece Eleanor's violin recital during a visit to Charlottesville and I caught her 15 year old brother contemplating my nails on the ride to the recital venue. I knew better than to ask him what he thought, but I did take his perusal as a complement to the visually engaging composition of Amethystos.

While my household peeps appreciate my enthusiasm and happily respond to a particular polish when prompted, I miss being able to share in person with Eleanor. Do you have nail compadres in your offline life with whom you share the pleasures of polish? 

love,
Liz