ILNP Fall Semester

Fall Semester was just recently released by indie polish maker I Love Nail Polish (ILNP) as part of the Fall 2014 collection. Officially described as a "wonderfully deep and sultry teal holographic" on ILNP's website, this is a beautifully-saturated medium-dark teal blue with ultrafine holographic pigments that produce a linear prismatic display in direct sun. It's the sort of linear holo where in sunlight the base color develops a shiny, reflective, semi-metallic sheen and the holographic display is very sparkly and has the appearance of almost floating above the base. The jewel-like color is exceptionally deep, rich and dimensional in indirect light, kind of a cross between pine green and cerulean blue, and the holographic pigments are so finely milled that they are virtually unseen until they ignite under direct light in a flame-shaped rainbow of sparks.

Application was great. The consistency of Fall Semester is fluid, creamy and dense, with a smooth glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. Pigmentation is very good with evenly opaque coverage in two coats. There's a tiny bit of pull to this polish, not enough to actually patch or get you thinking oh my god this is going to turn into a blobby mess if I touch it one more time, but it goes on best with a well-loaded brush. Cleanup is easy but I was a little too cavalier about it and found upon examining the photos that I'd left a few trace tendrils of color on my skin. Any well-pigmented polish will do this, it's just a matter of paying better attention than I did to removing all traces of color. Fall Semester dries naturally in very good time to a super shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Fall Semester over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. I managed to whip only a few bubbles into my topcoat this time, but they were doozies. One of these days I'll figure out this bubbly topcoat thing and compose a treatise on it for this blog.... Not. Well, maybe. You never know what minute, esoteric detail of my experience will need exploration next (film at eleven).

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

I have some direct sun photos, too, but I'm sorry to say that they don't do justice to the strength and dynamic sparkle of the holographic display that Fall Semester is capable of. I think it would take a whole hand movie outdoors to do that. But it wouldn't be right not to include some sun shots of this polish, so here you go....

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

ILNP Fall Semester

The sun pics give the impression that the saturated nature of the teal base almost swallows the holo display. I assure you that in person this is not the case. The rainbow bend is extremely sparkly in this particular polish, so it's hard to capture in a still image. Outdoors in the sun, the strength and sparkle of the holo colors are remarkable, especially hovering as they do over the intensely shiny semi-metallic look of the base in that setting. 

I think I would maybe prefer a less linear holo rendition in this color, with larger holo particles that light up the teal and provide some nuanced coloring in indirect light. That's just more my style, though, and doesn't really reflect on the beauty of Fall Semester, which is gorgeous as it is. To me, it has a fierce audacious beauty that deserves to be worn with moxie!

I feel like I've been seeing lots of dark, rich blues and blue-greens around for fall this year. You? Once I thought about it, I had to go check the Pantone Fashion Color Report for Fall 2014. There are two blues and a green included in Pantone's picks, but no teal. No purple either, unless you count Radiant Orchid, which also surprised me. The palette on whole is rather cool leaning, unusual for fall. Interesting!

love,
Liz