Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

I've got another lovely glass fleck shimmer from indie polish maker Candeo Colors for you today, Shelu Blou. This is another one from the Aruba collection. The name Shelu Blou is Papiamento for "sky blue." This polish is described on Candeo's website as "a light blue base with pink and purple shimmer," but this little jewel is much more special and distinctive than that makes it sound! It has a medium-light milky translucent cornflower-leaning azure jelly base with beautiful iridescent glass fleck shimmer that reads predominantly as pink but shifts to blue, purple and gold depending upon how the light hits it.

Application was trouble-free. Like other Candeo glass fleck jellies I have experienced, this polish does well with a bit of polish thinner mixed in before applying. Even so, it retains a fluffy, gel-like texture that is never the less quite easy to apply. You just kind of brush it into place and there it stays. Shelu Blou is quite translucent so for opacity's sake I began the manicure with one thin coat of China Glaze Electric Beat and layered three coats of Shelu Blou over that. You could really stop at one and still get a decent dose of the shimmer effect from Shelu Blou, but I wanted to retain some of the ethereal qualities of the translucence. Shelu Blou (love that name!) dries in good time to a slightly flat satin finish that enjoys a topcoat coat to pop the shimmer colors and add some shine.

Photos show one coat of Electric Beat and three coats of Shelu Blou over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

China Glaze Electric Beat and Candeo Color Shelu Blou, bottle shot

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

Candeo Colors Shelu Blou over China Glaze Electric Beat

The pink glass fleck shimmer in this is strong and visible in any light. In direct sun this polish gives off a scintillating shimmer with sparks of pink and blue. Under incandescent lighting there's an amazing pink flash. 

I love the intricate visual texture of strong shimmers like this, it reminds me of mackerel skies and looking at the cosmos overhead at night, although we have too much light pollution around here to get anything close to the true magnificence of it. But a gal can imagine, right?

love,
Liz