Hare Polish Return to Nature

From all the What Not To Wear that we've watched, Eleanor, I know that you know what neutral colors are and why they are important in fashion. The same goes for cosmetics including nail polish. I don't wear many neutral polish colors mostly because I love bright colors. If something's gonna "pop" I want it to be on my nails!

But I do have neutrals, and in this post I'm going to show you my newest neutral: Return to Nature by Hare Polish.

You know it!

The color of Return to Nature is what's known among polish enthusiasts as a "greige," a cross between grey and beige. It contains small golden and silver glitters in square and hex shapes with a smattering of small white squares and golden shimmer. If you've ever been to a beach where the sand is mixed with lots tiny crushed pieces of shell, that's what Return to Nature reminds me of. On the nail it has a soft subtle elegant beauty. Depending on the light it can look more beige or more grey.

what I used, left to right: Seche Rebuild treatment basecoat, OPI Skull & Glossbones, Hare Polish Return to Nature, Seche Vite topcoat

Return to Nature being a crelly and therefore having a certain amount of translucence, I was worried about achieving opacity. So I decided to layer it over a neutral creme. I chose OPI Skull & Glossbones, a creamy pale grey/off-white color. I applied basecoat, then two coats of Skull & Glossbones for opacity, two easy coats of Return to Nature and finished up the manicure with a coat of Seche Vite.

The photos for this post were taken at night without flash using the incandescent light setting on my camera. You'll notice that in a lot of the pics my skin looks really pink, even red. I'm not sure why it turned out that way. The polish color looks true to my eye in the photos.

Hare Polish Return to Nature, bottle shot

Hare Polish Return to Nature, macro shot in the bottle

Hare Polish Return to Nature

Hare Polish Return to Nature, on my thumb and in the bottle

beauty!

Hare Polish Return to Nature

Hare Polish Return to Nature

Hare Polish Return to Nature

Hare Polish Return to Nature

modified claw

Hare Polish Return to Nature

This polish has a wonderful soft feel that is elegant but not aloof. It reminds me of a pussy willow, that kind of softness. Fuzzy LOVED it. She loves all things grey. Next to my skin, I thought the color looked very taupe, which I loved. The tiny glitters work perfectly in this polish. Indoors they give it a beautiful mottled look. I'm sure they would sparkle in the sun, though. Sunlight always brings out the best in glitter, no?

After I'd had it on for a while I thought I'd really like to see what it looked like with a matte topcoat over it, so I applied a coat of Essie Matte About You. The matte finish softened Return to Nature even more and added a certain silkiness to the look. Like the soft finish of a bird's egg. The glitters took on the appearance of tiny randomly gleaming mosaic tiles, as glitters will under a matte topcoat. I love and adore this tile-like mosaic look!

Hare Polish Return to Nature, mattified

Hare Polish Return to Nature, mattified

Hare Polish Return to Nature, mattified

Hare Polish Return to Nature, mattified

Hare Polish Return to Nature, mattified

For comparison, here are two photos with similarly posed. The first is Return to Nature shiny, the second is Return to Nature matte:

Hare Polish Return to Nature, shiny

Hare Polish Return to Nature, matte

I think I really do like the matte finish best. It seems very in keeping with the sweet soft soul of the polish. And I LOVE the way the mattified surface feels, so silky soft, like the smooth water-polished stones that you could find in the stream on your place in Vermont. Do you remember? That stream was AWESOMESAUCE!

I wish we had a stream here at Grass Island. *sigh*

love,
Aunt Liz