Sation Redwood Creme: Three Looks

Redwood Creme by Sation is a medium dark adobe pink with berry overtones and just the right amount of silvery shimmer. It is a slightly milky, translucent color with a retro feminine vibe. The silver shimmer softens the pink a bit in a gaussian blur sort of way and gives it a certain visually pleasing dusty glow and delicious extra sparkle in direct sunlight.

It is not particularly pleasing to apply, unfortunately. The consistency is very liquid with flooding tendencies and dry time seemed longer than average. The photos show three coats of Redwood Creme over my basecoat duo plus a nice topcoat of Seche Vite.

Sation Redwood Creme, bottle shot

Sation Redwood Creme

Sation Redwood Creme

Sation Redwood Creme

Sation Redwood Creme -- see that silvery shimmer?

Sation Redwood Creme

Sation Redwood Creme

Sation Redwood Creme

Sation Redwood Creme

Sation Redwood Creme

Sation Redwood Creme

Sation Redwood Creme

Pretty, no? Makes my finger nails look like juicy little fruits! Redwood creme has a curious aloof feel on the nail that puts me in mind of the elegantly dressed and made up saleswomen you sometimes see behind high end cosmetic counters in department stores.

After my fun with pink and blue the other day, I decided to blow that aloof feeling right out of the water by adding Essie Stroke of Brilliance, a glitter topper with two sizes of sky blue hex glitters in a clear suspension base. I up-ended the bottle for a few minutes and then ploshed on a layer of Stroke of Brilliance. In retrospect, I probably would have attained a slightly classier look if I hadn't up-ended the bottle, since I got quite a lot of glitters on each nail. But what the heck!

Essie Stroke of Brilliance, bottle shot

Essie Stroke of Brilliance, macro shot in the bottle

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Essie Stroke of Brilliance over Sation Redwood Creme

Wow this combo just makes my eyes happy! It's super sparkly in the sun too. I really love Essie's Luxeffects Collection of toppers. This was my first time trying Stroke of Brilliance and now I can't wait to use it again. Applies beautifully with superb glitter payoff as you can see.

On a side note, I am waiting for the day when I can apply a glitter polish without getting individual glitters all over my fingers. I seem to be especially adept at lodging them beneath my cuticles. What's up with that?

So after fluttering my fingers around and gazing at that manicure for a while I thought I'd try something else, something quite different. So I started over with Sation Redwood Creme and this time I used CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise as a topper.

Tequila Sunrise is a very bright medium pink jelly polish full of microfine color shifting shimmer that glows gold, pink and green depending on the angle of light. I love this stuff, it is so cool! It totally ups the ante on the fruity finger nail look of Redwood Creme. With a coat of Tequila Sunrise, those fruits go sci fi tropical and edenesque. Take a look....

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise, bottle shot

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise over Sation Redwood Creme

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise over Sation Redwood Creme

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise over Sation Redwood Creme

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise over Sation Redwood Creme

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise over Sation Redwood Creme

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise over Sation Redwood Creme

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise over Sation Redwood Creme

Yum, just yum!

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise over Sation Redwood Creme

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise over Sation Redwood Creme

CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise over Sation Redwood Creme

I mean, doesn't that totally look like what you'd think the fruit of the tree of knowledge in Eden would have looked like? Dangerous fruit! Mess with that and it'll get you bounced right out of paradise.

You may notice that all my photos of this combo are close-ups in bright indirect light. From farther away, the strong shimmer in Tequila Sunrise messes with the original color of Redwood Creme and produces a muted red-orange look. Kind of like radioactive brick. It's still cool but doesn't photograph as well as it does in close.

Speaking of cool, I saw a photo of you at one of your swim meets on Facebook, Eleanor. You looked victorious! Are you still swimming breast stroke in your races? I'm so glad you're having fun being on the swim team!

love,
Aunt Liz