CrowsToes Heartless over Butter London Snog

Heartless was released by indie polish maker CrowsToes as part of the ValenCrows collection in February 2013. This is a true glitter bomb, it's got a pink-tinted transparent suspension base carrying a superabundance of various analogous berry-colored microglitters, some of them holographic: pink, fuchsia, magenta, purple, red. In direct light, this puppy lights up better than a firework display!

I chose to layer Heartless over a quick one coat manicure of Butter London Snog, a deep saturated intense hot pink. Heartless applies fairly easily for such a glitter-packed polish. The consistency is thick but fluid, and dense with glitters. The first coat actually flows pretty smoothly over the nail. The glitter payoff is excellent and the spread is evenly random. Things got a little dicey with the second coat with some tumbling of the glitters and protrusions over the free edge. I took care to wrap the tips and that helped push back protruding pieces, but it ended up being a very thick coat. Heartless dries naturally in very good time to a textured finish. I applied a smooth coat of Gelous to even out the surface and then added a topcoat of Seche Vite for a glitter under glass look.

Photos show two coats of Heartless over one coat of Butter London Snog over treatment and basecoat, followed by a coat of Gelous and a topcoat of Seche Vite.

CrowsToes Heartless over Butter London Snog

CrowsToes Heartless over Butter London Snog

CrowsToes Heartless over Butter London Snog

CrowsToes Heartless over Butter London Snog

CrowsToes Heartless over Butter London Snog

CrowsToes Heartless over Butter London Snog

CrowsToes Heartless over Butter London Snog

This is an amazing polish! It's impossible to capture its true nature in a still photo, it's got the kind of bling that has to be experienced in person to comprehend the dynamic interplay of color and light. The richly colored mix of microglitter has it's own reflective sparkles -- add holographic glitter on top of that and you've got yourself some seriously blingtastic eye candy. In dim light and shade, though, Heartless is pretty stealthy. It's not until you get it in some direct light that the show begins. 

I love the name of this polish almost as much as the polish itself. Back in the '90s when I used to hang out at the Mr. Cranky movie review website, my username was hb, for heartless b*tch, so Heartless is kind of a touchstone to a past internet life. Fortunately, it's an absolutely gorgeous lacquer!

I lucked into my bottle via an ebay auction but it's available at Llarowe for $13 USD.

love,
Liz