Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Like 11th Dimension Interloper and Operation Solar Doom, Martian Mutiny was released by indie polish maker Hare Polish as part of the Interstellar Invasion collection in October this year. Martian Mutiny has a medium-dark slightly murky cerulean blue jelly base bearing a variety of  glitter and shimmer components in Nikole's signature eclectic style: bright fuchsia circle and hex glitters, iridescent gold hex glitters, bright red hex glitters and shimmery flakies in gold and iridescent blue. I think I see some particulate shimmers in fuchsia as well. It's a lively mix that reminds me quite a bit of last year's Wonderland Wanderlust in its base and included colors, but with more of a extroverted, dashing, impetuous feel.

Application was trepidatious as only applying a jelly loaded with glitters can be. The consistency was fluid but slightly thicker than I feel comfortable with, and dense with components. I kept my bottle of polish thinner at hand and added a few drops every now and then when I felt like my application skills were becoming a handicap. My goal with Hare polishes is always to get them to turn out as beautifully as Nikole's own swatches do on her blog, but that never happens. This time, as usual, I had difficulty creating crisp lines and experienced a bit of glitter tumbling, stacking and protrusions over the free edge. I think I've finally learned to stop trying to pull the brush over the nail and instead let it almost drift over it with a very light touch and enough polish on the brush to lay down a coat with just the tip. Even so my manicure doesn't look anywhere near as neat and clean and smooth as Nikole's. 

Pigmentation of Martian Mutiny is good for a jelly, with wearably opaque coverage in three thin coats, but I think that the next time I wear this polish I'll layer it over a blue base color (Sinful Colors Rainstorm comes to mind) as there was visible translucence to the manicure at the free edge when backlit. That didn't bother me as much as translucence at the wrapped tips, which I really don't like to see. I worked so carefully with this polish that I had very little cleanup to do so I can't really speak to how easy or difficult it would be otherwise, but I expect the glitters would be sticky. Martian Mutiny dries naturally in very good time to a shiny finish that is slightly textured by the components, and I smoothed it with a coat of Gelous before topcoating.

Photos show three coats of Martian Mutiny over treatment and basecoat with a smoothing coat of Gelous followed by a topcoat of Seche Vite. Please pardon the skankity, flaky nail surrounds. I've been exfoliating my hands with salt scrub and am still kind of in the middle of that process.

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

Hare Polish Martian Mutiny

While I love the base color and visual texture under bright light of Martian Mutiny, the polish overall was not the favorite I was expecting it to be. It has a dark heaviness on the nail, especially in low light, that prevents you from enjoying the components as much as you'd want to and the application was discouraging to me even though I'm well aware of my own limitations. The last polish in this collection, Attack of the Army from Albiorix, is much darker still than Martian Mutiny, and I'll need to get rid of some of this lingering apprehension before I set about swatching that one. Layering it over a creme would help to take care of that, but I'd need to find a suitable base polish. We'll see!

love,
Liz