Cirque Mink

Mink was released last year by Cirque as part of the Alchemy collection. It is a medium slightly dusty chocolate brown holographic polish, a lovely and flattering neutral color with a strong linear prismatic flair. In artificial lighting, it appears as a brownish taupe with the true creamy milk chocolate coloring coming out in natural light. There's a delightfully unexpected coppery golden flash to this polish accompanying the rainbow holographic display in direct light that is a lovely complement to the brown base color.

The consistency of Mink is thicker and more dense than the other Cirque polishes I have tried but still fluid, creamy and easy to control. Application was so lovely that I completely forgot to do any clean up! D'oh. As holo polishes are wont to do, Mink does show irregularities in the nail plat so it did settle into my nail ridges (I can hardly blame it as they are SO accommodating). Mink dries naturally in good time to a smooth shiny finish and the addition of topcoat did not affect the holo properties at all.

Photos show two coats of Mink over Seche Rebuild treatment and Butter London Nail Foundation basecoat with a topcoat of Poshe. Pardon the absence of clean up. Now you'll get a chance to see the swipage and general messiness of my manicures before I spruce them up for photo taking, aren't you thrilled?

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink

Cirque Mink, taken under the kitchen halogens to show the amazing linear holographic flair

Cirque Mink showing prismatic display and coppery golden flash

ditto

Cirque Mink showing prismatic flair

Mink is a sleeper. I applied it at night (which may or may not have had something to do with my forgetting clean up) and was pleased but not totally taken with this apparently modest polish. Then the sun came up. Oh my. Perfectly flame shaped holo rainbows and shimmering coppery golden undertones abound and I can hardly take my eyes off of my nails long enough to type five words in a row before extending my hands to arms length in the indirect morning light and admiring this polish. This isn't just a brown polish, it's a magical one!

love,
Liz