One of my favorite off-white polishes is OPI's Skull & Glossbones. It's not really an off-white, though, except for in my mind. (Oh, reality. Fiddle-dee-dee.) It's a nicely-pigmented light creamy bone grey with a hint of beige and an even more secretive hint of green, a very neutral and flattering color. I love this polish. It's sleek and elegant and elongates my stubby digits, hooray!
It applies beautifully too. The consistency is dense but not patchy, smooth and liquid, and seems perfectly adapted to use with OPI's wide flat brush. The brush guides the polish so effortlessly around the cuticle edge it's like grace or something and makes me weak with gratitude. And either my nail ridges are becoming less mountainous, my application skills have improved or I've simply become so accustomed to dealing with the ridges that I've developed a tolerance-related blind eye to the way they distort lighter polishes especially because I was happy enough with the self-leveling capacity and coverage of this polish at two coats that I would totally wear it that way, with topcoat, as a full manicure. In the past this was not so. I wonder what's up with that. Hmm.
Photos were taken in the kitchen under the halogens and show two coats of Skull & Glossbones over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Poshe, along with rather horrifyingly flaky fingers and nail surrounds (even for me), a lovely BLACK FIBER presented portrait style on my left middle finger, a prominent air bubble on my left pinky and an only slightly camoflauged doink on my left thumb. Sigh. Such are the results of the oh-dark-thirty manicure.
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
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| OPI Skull & Glossbones |
I did the Skull & Glossbones manicure with the idea that it would serve as a base for one of indie polish maker KBShimmer's new fall polishes, You Autumn Know. Christy Rose, the owner and creative force behind KBShimmer, generated a lot of buzz about this collection by providing swatching polishes for lots of bloggers, and the minute I saw this one I was totally smitten.
You Autumn Know is an irrestible combination of hex and microbar glitters in gold, orange and fucshia suspended in a soft white crelly base. The colors are just wonderful together, it's a exuberant joyful mix that I simply cannot get enough of. Christy has a magic touch with microbar glitter in her mixes, no other artisan polish maker that I have tried creates such clean cohesive looks with these little slices, which add immeasurably to the festive nature of her glitter crellies.
For all my adoration of You Autumn Know's components, it's the white crelly base that's the real star of the show. It's a smooth, creamy, fluid and dense with the perfect balance of opacity and transluscence, and it dries naturally to a glossy finish. Complete coverage is easily obtained in two coats on my nails, obliterating the need for polish underwear. But, you know me -- I really do like to layer. It's the manifestation of my somewhat selfish compulsion to be part of the creative process, I think. Too much knowledge? Yep, that's what years of therapy will get you.
Back to the polish, the glitters in You Autumn Know have no difficulty dispersing beautiifully across the nail without stacking or other typical glitter naughtiness. Likewise although they do become partially covered as you layer the polish, they still are easily visible, muted in a delicious milky fashion by the white crelly base. I love the brush that comes with KBShimmer polishes. It is a bit shorter and than average and flat, and is perfect for glitter distribution and placement. I actually found the application of this polish so delightful that I was a little bummed out when it was done.
Photos show two coats of You Autumn Know plus two coats of Seche Vite over the Skull & Glossbones manicure above. I did have some instances of free edge glitter overhang, most of which I managed to remove before the pics.
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know, bottle shot |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
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| KBShimmer You Autumn Know |
Tell me, how can you not have a smile on your face after looking at that sweet glittery goodness? So charming, and lively, and bouncy puppy happy! Oh, I just adore this polish, everything about it from the fetching color palette to the skillful formulation to the bottle and brush it comes with! The lighthearted pop sweetness it radiates on the nail in no way diminishes You Autumn Know as a masterful feat of polish making. This polish goes straight to the treasured category in my collection.
What do you think of this one, Eleanor? Do you love it as much as I do?
love,
Aunt Liz
Fabulous layering combination! Love the way the colors pay off each other in the glitter and are so autumnal. Your nails are getting so long, that's awesome!
ReplyDeleteThanks Thithi! You Autumn Know is such fun, I adore it! And opaque enough not to need a base, really, but you know me and layering. I recommend Skull & Glossbones to you, it's a lovely and useful off-white.
DeleteThis is the longest my nails have been since college. They seem to be quite strong too (Seche Rebuild at work). I'm having to modify my typing style. I love them this long for polish! I wonder if they can stand up to washing the car. We'll see!