Reprise: Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur

I've been itching to wear this polish lately for some reason and so you get to see it once more. If you'd like to visit the earlier post, you can do so here.

Rococo Grandeur was released by indie polish maker Hare as part of Nikole's The Last Queen of France collection for spring 2013. It has a whitened baby blue jelly base full of pink and gold hex and square glitters of various sizes and textures and teeny pale blue shimmers. It's a lovely soft composition, dainty almost but also ornate. The color palette is beautiful for spring but as is characteristic of Hare polishes this one stands on it's own merits any time of the year. 

The formula for this polish polarized a lot of Hare fans. Even thinned down, the texture of it is thick and fluffy. The amount of glitter it contains seems to bulk it up even further. There's no way I would try applying this one without undies, both for reasons of achieving opacity and creating balanced, even shapes with polish across the nails. 

I chose Zoya Kristen to use as my base for this manicure. I know, I know. I had a little trouble with Kristen when I swatched it recently. Well, I try to make up for my failings in finesse and physique with passion and determination so I was all over giving Kristen another go. I only did one coat of it and didn't take pictures so the pressure was off and Kristen went on not actually nicely, I would say, but satisfactorily, and without the angsty internal dramas or whimpering of before. So, hey, it was GREAT! And Kristen's a nice match for the base of Rococo Grandeur.

Over my satisfactory coat of Kristen I layered two coats of Rococo Grandeur. I got opaque coverage with just one coat, really, but I wanted those pink and gold glitters to peek out from layers so I added the second. Once you have the track laid down by a base polish, Rococo Grandeur is not difficult to apply. It's still a bit bulky and feels uneven going on, and you can get the occasional glitter stack up or protrusion over the free edge, but it's also nice and fluid (given I'd added polish thinner to my bottle) so you can do a little manipulation of the glitters on the fly to handle these issues. The glitter distribution and spread is as wonderful and effortless as any Hare I've experienced. Rococo Grandeur dries in excellent time to a smooth and shiny finish that is also textured, but not gritty, from the glitters it contains. I added a coat of Gelous to even everything out and settle it and then a topcoat of Seche Vite for further settling and extra gloss.

Photos show two coats of Rococo Grandeur layered over Seche Rebuild treatment, Butter London Nail Foundation basecoat and one coat of Zoya Kristen, with a coat of Gelous followed by a coat of Seche Vite to top it off. 

Zoya Kristen and Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur, bottle shot

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur, macro shot in the bottle

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

Hare Polish Rococo Grandeur over Zoya Kristen

I just love this polish! It's so sweetly romantic and is full of the grace of innocence, I think. In person, the reflective glitters twinkle on the nail in low light in the most exquisitely feminine way, it's just lovely. And in direct light, the tiny blue shimmers, which you can see best in the last photo and also the macro shot on the nail, come out to play.

The first time I swatched Rococo Grandeur for the blog it was full blown spring and I was struck by what a beautiful accompaniment it was to the season. Now, with March having come in like a lion and polar vortexes wandering through, it still feels right. It reminds me of how I've imagined the drawing rooms of Victorian Literature to be, and young girls practicing the piano and how a well-kept home is such a soothing, unruffled comfortable port in a storm.

love,
Liz