Lacquer Slacker Liz: Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

Friday, September 27, 2013

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns has a medium toned bright azure blue jelly base carrying small iridescent turquoise and azure hex glitters and an abundance of blue shimmer. The somewhat sheer azure base has a lovely delicate milkiness to it that builds in intensity concurrently with the color saturation as the polish is layered, creating an intense azure blue with a translucence that gives the impression of limitlessness. The twinkling turquoise and blue glitters shimmer from within this cloudy translucence, and the effect is very pretty indeed.

As with the other Elevation Polishes I have experienced, Azure Caverns is beautifully formulated. The base is both fluid and slightly viscous and bears the glitters and shimmer easily, smoothly and evenly onto the nail. Being a jelly, at least two coats is necessary for even coverage but opacity and the depth and brilliance of the color are even better with three. Dry time is fast, and the polish dries naturally to a satiny finish that wants a layer of topcoat to best show off the iridescent glitters within.

Photos show three coats of Azure Caverns with a topcoat of Poshe.

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns, showing perfect match to bottle color

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns, macro shot in the bottle

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

at the window...

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns


Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

Lulu, the owner and creative force behind Elevation Polish, is a mountain climbing aficionado and names all of her polishes after places she's visited around the world. Azure Caverns is named for the Marble Caves of Lake General Carrera, South America's second largest lake located high in the Andes on the border between Chile and Argentina in the heart of Patagonia. The geological formations that make up the Marble Caves are on the Chilean shores of the lake, which is fed by rivers coming off of Andean glaciers. The waters of Lake General Carrera are turbid with glacial particulates that refracts blue in the light from the sun, giving it a distinct milky brilliant blue color -- exactly the color of Azure Caverns.

Lake General Carrera is bounded by cliffs and formation of pure marble, and over time the water has worn fantastic sinuous caverns and columns out of the marble where it meets the lake. The veining in these marble formations can appear blue, gray or purple, depending upon the time of year. I found a wonderful set of photos on Flickr by photographer Jorge Leon Cabello, which you can see here. Two other sites with photos and information about the Marble Caves are WonderMondo and EnvironmentalGraffiti, the latter of which features some of Jorge Leon Cabello's photos in it's small slideshow about the caves.

I loved learning about this natural wonder and seeing photos of Lulu's inspiration for this polish, and I've got to say she really pegged it with Azure Caverns. I highly recommend viewing the Flickr photo set, it adds so much to understanding the creative vision that produced this beautiful polish. Wearing it, I can almost hear the water lapping at those twisting pillars of blue-veined marble and dappling the marble roofs overhead with reflected sunlight....

love,
Aunt Liz