Judging from the amount of blog posts featuring it generated around that time, I believe Summer Skies was released by 6 Harts Polish in February last year. It has a beautiful whitened azure creme/jelly hybrid sort of base with just the right amount of golden shimmers that shift to light green when the light hits them at oblique angles. Courtney, the owner and creative force behind 6 Harts, states that this polish was created "with Montana summers in mind." It's the sort of pale sky blue that I associate with the rim of the big bowl of the sky, the part closest to the horizon. It's a lovely, serene color, perfectly complemented by the sprinkling of shimmers sparkling delicately across the surface of the polish.
Application was great! Past experiences with pale colors had me eyeing this beauty with some apprehension but it turned out to be completely unfounded. The consistency of Summer Skies is quite fluid (but not too), creamy and smooth, with a light, silky, self-leveling flow over the nail. There was some streakiness during application as is pretty normal for white-based polishes. By the third coat it evened out nicely in person, although I can still detect some unevenness to the opacity in my photos. Even so, I could not be more pleased with the way this polish applied, it was revelatory: pastel polish, great application, what?! I have a feeling that someone with more application finesse than I could even get away with two coats if they didn't mind a hint of visible nail line. Cleanup was easy and straightforward. Summer Skies dries naturally in fairly good time to a smooth shiny finish.
Photos show three coats of Summer Skies over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat. Unfortunately, I did this beautiful polish no justice with my unacceptably careless topcoat of Seche Vite. I failed to encapsulate the entirety of Summer Skies with topcoat on my left hand, which produced a noticeable corona of untopcoated polish by the cuticle on several nails. My bad.
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| 6 Harts Polish Summer Skies |
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| 6 Harts Polish Summer Skies |
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| 6 Harts Polish Summer Skies |
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| 6 Harts Polish Summer Skies |
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| 6 Harts Polish Summer Skies |
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| 6 Harts Polish Summer Skies |
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| 6 Harts Polish Summer Skies |
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| 6 Harts Polish Summer Skies |
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| 6 Harts Polish Summer Skies, with bonus topcoat bubble! |
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| 6 Harts Polish Summer Skies |
I'm really digging this polish despite the topcoat debacle (much less noticeable in person but kinda horrifying in the pics. Thanks, macro. NOT.) With the shimmer providing just the right kind of atmospheric sparkle, this polish has a clean, fresh quality to it, and I think it's as pretty for winter as it would be for spring or summer.
This polish reminds me very much of another Montana polish enthusiast, Marisa Sprinklepuff of the blog Tiny Twinklings. If you read her blog, you know her affection for pale icy colors and delicate shimmer. Marisa, this one's for you!
love,
Liz
And of course, it is completely beautiful!!! :) You know me oh so well... I do love pretty much all shimmering frost colors, but pale blue with gold just slays me. It looks like Versailles. And it is stunning on you! (However, are my eyes deceiving me, or does it have dark blue pigment flecks in it? It's a problem I've been having with some recent Liquid Sky acquisitions and I'm like ohh nooo). I agree about the winter part; to me it has the crisp clarity of one of those cold and clear winter days, bright with sunshine but not warm enough to melt rivulets in sun-struck snow. I actually found out a month ago that 6 Harts is based in Missoula!!! Whaahh?!!? I need to get my hands on some of her creations. Sea Glass & Rio Helado in particular look fabulous.
ReplyDeleteWow, tying pale blue and gold with Versailles just jumped that combo way up the ladder! I've never seen Versailles in person but have seen enough of it in documentaries to understand what you're saying -- you're right! It DOES! Except for the dark flecks, eh? I didn't really notice them until I was editing the photos (except for the larger chunk on the middle finger nail), and then I saw them everywhere. It must be a production issue, no? Because there are no dark flecks mentioned in the description of the polish. DOWNER! I have Rio Helado here, my win was to pick two and Rio Helado was the other I chose -- great minds! -- but haven't tried it yet. You'll see it here when I do, with very few exceptions everything I try gets featured.
DeleteI found Rainbow Honey Gingered on StoreEnvy and got it along with another Rainbow Honey, Fall in Love. I blame this particular expansion of my stash entirely on you, Marisa. Enabler! Coincidentally, I placed my very first Liquid Sky order today, for her Mardi Gras glitter topper. It is chaotic enough to camo any rogue pigments, hopefully. I didn't have a dedicated Mardi Gras polish in my stash and decided I must have at least one. Because Mardi Gras!