Cirque Midsummer Night

Midsummer Night was released just last month by NYC-based indie polish maker Cirque Colors as part of the limited edition Kontiki collection, a trio of jelly polishes containing color-shifting multidimensional shimmers. Midsummer Night is a gorgeous saturated deep cobalt blue bearing abundant multichromatic shimmers that shift from bright reddish pink/orange to gold/green depending upon the angle and type of light, as well as a modicum of holographic microglitters that throw rainbow colored sparks amidst the clouds of glowing shimmers like stars against the wider cosmos. The most likely face you'll see on this polish is also my favorite, glowing pinkish red shimmers contrasting beautifully with the cobalt base. Since it is translucent, it catches and holds light very well. Outdoors in natural light the cobalt just glows with brilliant color under the plump and squishy jelly finish that characterizes the best polishes of this type, and if you're in the sun the holo microglitters sparkle like crazy.

My bottle of Midsummer Night was a bit thick and sticky for my skills, so after the first coat I added polish thinner until it achieved a more fluid consistency. In this state, it had a very smooth, even flow over the nail. Being a jelly, it required multiple coats to build to an opacity that I was comfortable with. I applied three coats. This is a fast drying polish that will become a bit sticky if overworked, but with the addition of thinner I had plenty of painting time before it began to set. Cleanup was surprisingly easy for such a saturated blue. There was a bit of cleanup that I overlooked around my runty pinky finger nail, but be assured this was user error on my part and not staining. Midsummer Night dries naturally in very good time to a slightly flat finish that wants a good topcoat to fulfill its full potential as a jelly and to pop the shimmer colors.

Photos show three coats of Midsummer Night over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite, sans bubbles. Apologies for eyelash, and for the bit of flotsam attached to the middle finger of my right hand in some of these shots, I didn't notice them until I was editing the photos.

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night, somewhat blurry macro shot in the bottle

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

The shimmer color shift to gold/green was a bit shy, and I was only able to catch a couple of pics....
 

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

Cirque Midsummer Night

Annie makes such wonderful premier quality lacquers! Everything about them tells you that you are using a artisinal quality polish created with the greatest of care and attention to detail. I love the whisper soft floral scent of them, infused as they are with essential oils, and the way the cap sounds as it clinks against the neck of the bottle. Annie's formulations are always spot on. Midsummer Night is a magnificent example, it's exactly how a perfect jelly polish should look. I would love this polish even without the holo microglitters and the unexpected glow of the shimmers floating in frozen free-fall like some kind of magical cosmic precipitation. 

It's a very special polish.

love,
Liz