But not just any polish with shreds, this one's a WingDust, and Stephanie, the owner and creative force behind WingDust, with her amazing formulary skills has made a believer out of me. So many reviewers have praised her magic touch with glitter polish formulations over and over, but jumping on bandwagons without a good first-hand reason is just not right. After working with this particular polish, I can tell you that I got my reason and I'm on board.
The polish is Steel Town Girl, a blackened tealy steel blue linear jelly holo full of potentially problematic components: iridescent aqua glass-like mylar shards and 23 carat gold leaf shredlets. Sounds hazardous, doesn't it? When this polish was first released I was just stunned and in awe of the photos I saw in reviews. Steel Town Girl was utterly unlike any polish I'd been attracted to before, so rarified and boldly complex. I secretly lusted after it while simultaneously fearing it (or rather, the application of it). However, it was constantly sold out at Llarowe so I never had the chance to step up. And then, lo! After Llarowe's last WingDust restock, there it was (briefly) in stock, and since I was getting other WingDust glitters I swallowed my apprehension and popped it into my cart.
Application was SO impressive! The consistency of Steel Town Girl is fluid and smooth but has these shardy shreds of mylar and gold leaf floating in it like icebergs. As advised, I took my time and was careful and deliberate with the brush, letting each coat dry before applying the next, and those components lay down like sweet lambs on the nail. No tumbling or dragging or stacking or spiky stick-ups, no protrusions over the free edge that weren't easily remedied with a tip-wrapping swipe of the brush. Huzzah! Pigmentation is buildable, with wearable opaque coverage in two coats. I used three for this manicure because I was greedy for the gold leaf shredlets and giddy with success. Cleanup was surprisingly easy; the gold leaf came right off without any of the limpet-like behavior I was expecting. Steel Town Girl dries naturally in good time to a remarkably smooth, shiny finish with only a slight amount of surface texture from the components. One layer of topcoat, and every nail but one was glassy smooth and glossy. The one nail had a large-ish mylar shard at the apex of the c-curve that I could still feel after topcoat, but it was the only one.
Photos show three coats of Steel Town Girl over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Wow, between the dark color of the polish and the reduction of bright indirect light through my skylight due to the sun being so much lower in the sky, I had a really hard time trying to capture this one. I suppose I could try to figure out how to edit for less contrast while maintaining the vibrancy, but I really don't like the idea of having to tinker in photoshop to get pics that work. Hmm.
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
I took a set outside in direct sun also, which encourages the holo pigment in this polish to throw all kinds of rainbow sparks. The red ones are especially striking with the color of the base and the colors and visual textures of the components. You don't see a precisely delineated flair with this polish, but the holo effects are still strong (if that makes any sense... I'm not sure it does, actually... oh well!). The great amount of contrast between light and dark and the holo response to the sun in these pics prevented me from coaxing the blue base color to show as nicely as it does in person, but I'll let you be the judge of whether they are helpful to you.
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
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| WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl |
Well suffice to say that jpegs don't do Steel Town Girl justice. It's so much more dramatic and jewel-like in person, and has a more cohesive presence than these photos show. The teal tones in the base color give it a midnight blue appearance and the more light there is, the more the gold leaf stands out, speckling the inky base with greenish gold glowing irregular shapes. The mylar shards spring forth when the light hits them just right, flashing colors of vivid cerulean, royal blue and blue-green, and all along the way there are tiny sparks of blue, green, yellow and red from the holo pigment. There's a lot going on in this polish, but it holds together on the nail in a stunning, dimensional way, creating a miniature stealthy collage of elements on each nail.
love,
Liz
"I secretly lusted after it while simultaneously fearing it..." LOLOLOL!! I'm sure I've felt that way about one, but nothing comes to mind at the moment. :P This polish is crazy! It's crazy gorgeous! It reminds me of space, post Death Star explosion in Star Wars. And candy. What sounds like a recipe for disaster turned out wonderful. <3
ReplyDeleteThe destruction of Alderaan, yes! That's very much what it's like! My mind was too wrapped up in the construction of this polish to get an interpretative grip on it. I hate it when that happens, but it does, a lot, and keeps me from doing the kinds of reviews I want to do. I know that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but sometimes it's not! Thank you, Melissa, for filling in for me here -- you're welcome any time!! :)
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