Lacquer Slacker Liz: November 2014

Sunday, November 30, 2014

Mentality Detonate

Detonate was recently released by indie polish maker Mentality Nail Polish as one of four polishes establishing their new line of what they're calling jellychromes. The jellychrome category is further divided into matte and holo, and Detonate is a holo jellychrome. I used to spend a great deal of time poring over Mentality's abundant offerings and even tried a handful of them, but the sheer number of polishes available became overwhelming. When I saw bottle photos of the new jellychromes, however, I decided it was time to revisit this prolific brand.

Detonate is a chameleon shade of pale aqua blue teeming with scattered holographic pigment and very cool ultrafine color-shifting glass fleck shimmers. It reads as anything from a very pale cyan to a sky blue to a medium aquamarine, with the glass fleck shimmers readily flashing a strong lavender pink. In direct sun, the holo pigment enriches the base color with subtle prismactic bloom of cyan shades as the glass fleck shimmers flash lavender pink along the axis of light. In shade, the color retreats to an icy pale cyan and the glass flecks have a pink glow at the point of reflection. It's a difficult polish to describe and, as I found out, just as difficult to photograph. The glass fleck shimmers, which are not the least bit shy in person, hide from the camera and make getting accurate photos of this interesting, colorful polish very difficult.

Application was sehr gut! The consistency of Detonate is fluid and sort of fluffy, with a an easy-to-control flow over the nail. Pigmentation is very good with even opaque coverage delivered in two medium coats. I used three to camo my nail ridges, as the formula wasn't quite self-leveling enough to keep them from showing underneath the polish at two. I had no problems with application but cleanup left a myriad of glass flecks everywhere. I took one look at the photos in the first set I took and went back to the cleanup brush and acetone to relieve my nail environs of their decorative pink sparkle before taking a second set. Detonate surface dries fairly quickly to a satin finish but the polish beneath is still tender and susceptible to smudging for a good while. I never did let it dry completely on its own, preferring instead to put a quick dry topcoat to use for that purpose.

Photos show three coats of Detonate over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a generous topcoat of Seche Vite. As I mentioned, the colors of Detonate are much more vivid and intense in person than I could capture in my images, especially the lavender pink flash. Counting the first set I did before properly completing my cleanup, I took well over 100 photos of this puppy and none of them fully represent what it's like in person. It's richer and more vibrant than what you see here.

Metality Detonate

I feel like this polish is playing tricks on my camera, kind of the way that Remy did yesterday when it's green flash so consistently eluded my lens. I hope that these pics will at least give you an idea of the multiple interplays at work in this polish.

In the sun, with the full richness of the aquamarine reading like the sparkling shallow waters over the white sandy bottom off of Long Key, FL and the brilliant flash of cool pink blazing in the midst of that blue, this strikes me as a very tropical polish of the kind that you'll be wanting to stare in the middle of winter with snow heaping on the ground. On the other hand, it has a graceful chilliness to it as well, with the icy blue highlighted by pink as if a glacier were catching the final rays of a sunset.

Delicate but striking, Detonate is a little more demure than I was expecting from those bottle shots. But I am not disappointed. The colorful glass flecks saw to that!

love,
Liz

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Zoya Remy

Remy was released by Zoya as part of the Ignite collection for fall 2014. Buying a complete collection all at once is something I've never done until now, but every single polish in the Ignite collection appealed to me so much that I actually got them all. It was criminal! I'll probably never do it again.

Remy wasn't the polish I was looking forward to the most in this collection, which is surprising because it's blue and I'm such a fan of blue polishes and Remy got a lot of hype, along with Sansa and Yuna, when Ignite came out. Zoya describes this one as a "brilliant indigo with a strong green flash and gold liquid metallic glitter." I wouldn't call this blue an indigo, it's more of a deep well-saturated royal blue that reads as cerulean or teal from the abundant fairly fine golden shimmers it carries. It possesses a near-duochromatic appearance on the nail, semi-metallic and slipping from royal to cerulean to teal, with flashes of sprucey green as Zoya describes. When you look closely, the tiny golden shimmers show as blue and green, depending how far they are from the surface. It's similar to the foily shimmer finish that Zoya does so well, only with more finely milled shimmers than the typical larger-sized flaky ones you usually see in polishes from Zoya with this kind of construction.

Application would have been better if I weren't having a shaky hands day and didn't need the amount of cleanup I did afterwards, since Remy is a cuticle and skin stainer. Looking at Remy in the bottle, I swear I could almost see the blue-ish tinge it would leave behind. Self-fulfilling prophesy much? The formula is actually very nice: fluid, smooth and dense with a bit more body to it than I expected. It has an easy, self-leveling flow over the nail. Pigmentation is excellent, almost a one-coater but I used to for completely even opacity. Cleanup was a bear. Not only does the pigment run at the touch of acetone, but the shimmers do also. Careful application is the best way to go with this one, leaving as little cleanup to do as possible. Remy dries naturally in average time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Remy over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Zoya Remy

The green flash proved too elusive to be captured by my camera so you'll just have to trust that it's there. Even without it, Remy is about as perfect a fall/winter nail polish as you could find, I think. It's got the lush, evocative, sparkling jewel-toned color that always seems to go so well with this time of year. It caps off the dark end of the foily oceanic blue category of polishes that includes Zoya Charla, OPI Catch Me in Your Net and Orly Halley's Comet.

There's a mysterious elegance to this polish, as if each nail was wrapped in a cloak of silk velvet. Pretty stunning! I like it much better than I thought I would, and it's continuing to grow on me. We'll see how I feel about it when time comes for removal -- if I find it's a nail stainer I'll add a postscript to that effect, but I suspect any staining will be to my fingers and nail environs rather than the nail itself.

love,
Liz

Friday, November 28, 2014

A-England Gloriana

Gloriana was released by indie polish maker A-England as part of the new Elizabeth and Mary collection a little over a month ago. This collection was inspired by the British monarchs, Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. New collections from Adina, the owner and creative force behind A-England, are always met with intense anticipation and curiosity by her fans and collectors, and this one is especially exciting for the range of hues and finishes it includes. The day I found out about it I went to Llarowe and recklessly ordered all of the polishes but one, which was already out of stock.

Although I've seen it described elsewhere as red, to me Gloriana is pure flame, a medium red-orange foil bearing abundant small shardy metallic flake shimmers in gold and even smaller particulate shimmers in red. It is a perfect tribute to the Tudor red-gold of Elizabeth's hair. On the nail, it takes on a particularly beautiful rosy quality in certain lights as fleeting sunset shades of pink mingle with the auburn color of the base. In the sun, the foily flakes emit a shower of scintillating sparks while in the shade they speckle the red-orange with a golden mosaic of flaky goodness. This is one stunning orange polish.

Application was delightful, as it almost always is with an A-England polish. The consistency of Gloriana is a bit more full-bodied than usual for this brand, but still fluid and silky smooth with an excellent balance of fluidity and viscosity for painting. Easily manipulated with A-England's round flexible brush, it has a velvety, self-leveling glide over the nail. Pigmentation is outstanding; with a generous hand and the proper mojo, this could be a one coater. I used two coats for this manicure. This is the sort of polish that releases its foily flakes hither and yon at the touch of acetone, so cleanup is mostly a matter of chasing them down. Gloriana dries naturally in very good time to a finish with some visual texture to it from the flake shimmers but is smooth to the touch. Topcoat adds gloss and pops the color of the polish and its components.

Photos show two coats of Gloriana over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

A-England Gloriana

Are you loving the rich colors and beautiful foily finish of this polish as much as I am? It's marvelous!

Gloriana was the name given by the 16th century poet Edmund Spenser to the character representing Elizabeth I in his epic poem, The Faerie Queen. It became a designation of Elizabeth during her reign and afterward, symbolizing a golden era in British culture. After the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, she was hailed by her troops at Tilbury with cries of "Gloriana, Gloriana, Gloriana!"


Elizabeth as Gloriana: portrait of Elizabeth I to commemorate the defeat of the Spanish Armada. Elizabeth's hand rests on a globe, symbolizing her international power. Note the rich red and gold tapestries!

One thing I love about Adina's polishes is the creative inspiration drawn from the culture and history of Great Britain. In a polish like Gloriana, you can see how carefully each detail is informed by a deep knowledge of and love for her subject matter. From the colors to the components to the finish to the name, each contributes literally to a well-envisioned metaphorical construct. It's awesome to contemplate and fills me with admiration for this amazing artisanal polish maker.

love,
Liz

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Zoya Autumn

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans!

Autumn was released by Zoya as part of the Ignite collection for fall 2014. Along with Indigo, this polish probably has one of the most apropos Zoya names ever. Officially described as "a varnished copper liquid metal," Autumn's coloring lies between a medium coppery orange and a light-medium brownish rusty red with superabundant small irregularly-shaped metallic platelet shimmers in gold and red. It has a slightly darkened aspect to it to that reads as burnt or rusty, depending, but with a foily semi-metallic finish that is bright and reflective while at the same time rich with visual texture from the shimmers. I love this color for how complementary it is to blue and violet, both of which I wear a lot, and it's a beautiful accompaniment to the fall season and especially to American Thanksgiving.

Application wasn't problematic but it wasn't exactly what I was expecting either. The consistency of my bottle of Autumn was thicker than the usual Zoya formula, with a bit of pull to it. I added polish thinner to get an easier, more fluid flow over the nail. It self-levels beautifully, with a slight propensity to show brush marks. Pigmentation is very good, with even opaque coverage delivered in two coats. Cleanup is fairly straightforward, although the shimmers do like to bust out at the touch of acetone and I ended up leaving some sparkle on my nail environs. Autumn dries naturally in longer than average time for me and is very susceptible to marring during the process. The final finish is smooth and shiny.

Photos show two coats of Autumn over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Zoya Autumn

Autumn has a nice shading effect where it's lighter and more orange along the axis of light and deeper and more red as you move outward towards the edges of the nail, not quite lit from within but something along that line. The golden shimmers in this are especially rich and sparkly. Lacey, of Lace and Lacquers, includes fantastic macro shots of all the Ignite polishes including Autumn in her review of the collection, here. Her shot of the shimmers in this polish is awesome!

If you're celebrating the holiday today, I wish you and your loved ones a joyful feast and safe travels!

love,
Liz