Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

Mad Man with a Box was released by indie polish maker Pahlish as part of the All of Time and Space Part One collection in January this year. This is a Dr Who inspired polish, with the name taken from one of Matt Smith's lines in the show. The box, of course, is the Tardis and this polish is appropriately a dark blue shimmer. 

But what a blue shimmer it is! It is unlike any other Tardis-related fandom polishes I have seen, and I love it to bits! Shannon describes it as a "smoky navy jelly loaded with metallic gold flakes and blue glass flecks." To my eye, though, the base is luxurious translucent deep pacific blue that tints the golden flakes varying shades of tealy green and the bright sapphire blue glass flecks a brilliant teal blue. The base also has a subtle blue to violet duochromatic shift that is rather shy on the nail but really adds to the depth and complexity of the polish. It's blazing pacific blue goodness in the sun and speckled with color and visual texture in shade and indirect light. Gorgeous!

Application was only a little tricky. The consistency of Mad Man with a Box is fluid but a bit gel-like and dense with components, which can make dexterous manipulation of the polish with Pahlish's fluffy flexible brush difficult. This is a heavy polish that wants to go on in medium to medium-thick coats, and my advice is to let it do just that. Thin coats begin to set and dry quite rapidly and can become vulnerable to lumpiness and patch-pulling. 

Pigmentation is excellent for a shimmer jelly. I believe it's possible to achieve complete opacity with one adroitly applied medium coat. I used two, not for ridge camo this time as Mad Man with a Box provides superb self-leveling ridge camo in one coat (!), but because I pulled a couple of patches the first time around. Cleanup needs to be thorough as this has the potential to be a skin and cuticle stainer. Mad Man with a Box dries naturally in very good time to a slightly textured leathery finish. It's a great look, too, that probably could be further accentuated with matte topcoat, though I opted for shine with this particular manicure and finished up with a glossy topcoat. 

Photos show two coats of Mad Man with a Box over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. 

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box, macro shot in the bottle

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

Pahlish Mad Man with a Box

What'd I tell you? Glorious! This is one of those polishes that looks absolutely divine in the bottle and then goes on to exceed all expectations you may have made based on that fact. It just totally comes alive on the nail in a very charismatic, glamorous way. Indirect natural light elicits a sensational bright teal blue gleam along the axis of light accented with glowing green flashes from the flakies, and the brilliant pacific blue color deepens dramatically to a violet-tinged navy along the edges of the nail. Just an outstanding, incredibly beautiful polish, one of a kind!

love,
Liz

ps. I thought I'd add some tips to avoid problematic staining upon removal of this puppy. First, forget thriftiness with the cotton, pads, wipes or felt that you're using. Use a clean surface. This may mean using one piece per nail, so be it. Saturate it with remover and patiently hold it to your nail for at least a minute or two without agitating or rubbing. Then with a minimal amount of agitation as you go, press the cotton against the nail and work it off of the nail toward the tip. There will be polish and shimmers left on the nail but the majority of the deepest color will come off. Turn to a clean part of your cotton or pad or whatever, make sure it's saturated with remover and then use your usual agitation or rubbing technique, gently work the rest of the polish and shimmers off from cuticle to free edge. Avoid pressing any used portion of the cotton to your skin or nail, this is what causes the majority of staining. Once you've finished removal, give your nails a good long gentle scrub with PLENTY of soap (I use Dr Bronners peppermint liquid castile soap) and water and a nail brush. Really work up a good lather and take your time. This should take care of the residual staining left on your nails and nail enivirons. After washing, moisturize/condition your tips with your favorite product and give it a few minutes to absorb. I use a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water to wipe down my nail beds before reapplying polish. That's it! :-)