Femme Fatale Apothecary

Apothecary was released by Aussie indie polish maker Femme Fatale earlier this year, in the spring I believe. Sophie describes it as a "sea-green subtle holo with strong gold sparks and scattered gold flakes," and from that I bet you can tell this is a mermaid polish. Vibrant and delicate simultaneously, this polish has a blue-green holographic base swimming with ultrafine golden shimmers and foily golden flake glitters. 

It's a sort of minty pale blue-green, a magic mint, nuanced in direct light by the holographic pigment to sparkling shades of aqua and cerulean with a golden green flash from the combination of the shimmers and flakies. The flakies present in indirect light as foily patches of gold speckling the shimmered base, and the foily holographic characteristics gives it a bit of duochromatic action in shade especially, with the pale blue-green sharing prominence with a deeper cerulean blue. This is a marvelously complex composition with precisely balanced components that work together almost seamlessly to bring a polish that is not unlike fine blue-green lame shot with gold, glamorous and otherworldly.

Application was great. The consistency of Apothecary is fluid and dense, with a slightly thicker formula that I experienced with Ethereum and Chrysoprase, but not unworkable by any means. It glides over the nail in a fairly smooth, self-leveling manner with occasional stacking of and protrusions from the flakes, which are relatively large. Pigmentation is very good, especially with all of the reflectivity of the golden shimmers. I achieved completely opaque even coverage in two coats, but ended up having to add another to repair some smudging and extract a cat hair (humph). I found Apothecary to be surprisingly forgiving for a polish with such finely-milled shimmers. Repairing the smudges amounted to a few gentle taps on the area with my finger to flatten the surface and adding a stroke or two of polish, which melted into the surface leaving only a barely detectable trace divot behind. Cleanup is easy and straightforward -- even the skin-loving shimmer residue is well-behaved, politely allowing itself to be swept up in a trice. Apothecary dries naturally in good time to a smooth finish that has a sort of burnished look to it, with a bit of visual texture only from the flake glitters. Topcoat affected the look very little, if at all.

Photos show three coats of Apothecary over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of HK Girl.

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

And a few in direct sun. What they can't show is how very sparkly the combination of holo pigment with the golden sparky shimmers are. You'll have to take my word for it, this polish sparkles like faceted gemstones in direct light.

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Femme Fatale Apothecary

Apothecary reminds me a tiny bit of Deborah Lippmann's Mermaid's Dream, which is more blue and has hex glitters in it that produce a similar visual texture under the shimmers as Apothecary's shardy flakes. But Mermaid's Dream is not holographic. In comparison, Apothecary is richer and more flamboyant, smoother to the eye, with a more pronounced foily semi-metallic quality and that spectacular yellow-green flash. They're kind of like cousins once removed. We'll have to ask a mermaid which one is closer to the polish of her dreams....

love,
Liz