Application was lovely. The consistency of Lake of Shining Waters is similar to the other Literary Lacquer holos I've worked with recently: "thick in a good way," fluid and smooth. It has some pull to it but a nicely-loaded brush will provide a buttery glide over the nail. Pigmentation is buildable, with wearable opacity in two coats. I used three for this manicure to get the most out of both the color and the variations created in it by the holo pigment. I also wanted to subdue the nail ridges completely and that third coat did the trick. This is a fast drying polish so load your brush accordingly. Cleanup was easy and straightforward, but I should mention that when I wore this previously I experienced a trace amount of nail staining -- easily removed with a bit of cuticle remover on a cotton pad. Lake of Shining Waters dries naturally in very good time to a glossy finish. Topcoat does not diminish the holo effects in any way that I can tell.
Photos show three coats of Lake of Shining Waters over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. These were taken at night under the halogens in the kitchen. Please excuse the demon CAT HAIR on my index finger, which I swear I did not see until I was taking the last few pics. (Even then I thought it might be an eyelash, and "surely it got there when I rubbed my eye just now....") Lesson: Do not pet cat en route to nail photography session, no matter what kinds of cute little chirruping cat sounds he is making. I've been taught this lesson before but apparently forgot what I'd learned.
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
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| Literary Lacquers Lake of Shining Waters |
The halogen lights really play up the holographic flair but I assure those of you who love their holo base color dreamily merged with the prismatic effects in indirect light that this polish has beaucoup dreamy nuanced color in such circumstances. It never looks flat and silvered -- even in the lamp light of my dimly lit office it still shows the depth and glow that the holo pigment brings to such a polish. In fact, this is characteristic of all the Literary Lacquer holos I've experienced. Amy has a special touch that keeps the holographic displays of her polishes well within the boundaries of their base colors -- I love that about them!
Inspired by the novel Anne of Green Gables (1908), the name of this particular polish is one Anne, the central character, herself bestows upon Barry's Pond at her first sight of it while returning to Green Gables with Matthew Cuthbert. One of the things I adored about Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne novels was her descriptions of rural Prince Edward Island and Atlantic Canada generally. They are as breathtaking on the page as you could imagine them in person, and the scene where Anne christens Lake of Shining Waters is a glorious example.
They had driven over the crest of a hill. Below them was a pond, looking almost like a river so long and winding was it. A bridge spanned it midway and from there to its lower end, where an amber-hued belt of sand-hills shut it in from the dark blue gulf beyond, the water was a glory of many shifting hues—the most spiritual shadings of crocus and rose and ethereal green, with other elusive tintings for which no name has ever been found. Above the bridge the pond ran up into fringing groves of fir and maple and lay all darkly translucent in their wavering shadows. Here and there a wild plum leaned out from the bank like a white-clad girl tip-toeing to her own reflection. From the marsh at the head of the pond came the clear, mournfully-sweet chorus of the frogs. There was a little gray house peering around a white apple orchard on a slope beyond and, although it was not yet quite dark, a light was shining from one of its windows.I loved every one of the Anne books and read all of them many times. My favorites were the "away from Green Gables" books, the ones where she's away at school on mainland Canada and comes home to Green Gables for visits. Probably my most favorite of all was the poignant Anne's House of Dreams, where Anne and Gilbert live as newlyweds and where Anne gives birth to her first child, a girl, who dies shortly after (as one of Montgomery's own children did). The depth of love that developed over the years between Marilla Cuthbert and Anne almost brought me to tears in these later books. I still love them so!
"That's Barry's pond," said Matthew.
"Oh, I don't like that name, either. I shall call it—let me see—the Lake of Shining Waters. Yes, that is the right name for it. I know because of the thrill. When I hit on a name that suits exactly it gives me a thrill. Do things ever give you a thrill?"
I know many Anne fans are also fond of the 1985 CBC television movie and its sequel, but I hard at work pretending to be an adult by that time (a lengthy, incredibly messy struggle that I eventually lost) and never saw it. Maybe now, eh?
love,
Liz
When I was growing up my mom positively ADORED the Anne of Green Gables movies, and I used to watch them with her all the time. I'm tempted to revisit them now (I hardly remember them anymore, and since the demise of VHS I don't think my mom has really ever watched them), and read the books for the first time, too, after that lovely passage.
ReplyDeleteD'aww, a chirruping Picchio!!! That sounds adorable, and simply irresistible. I would have petted him, too. But then, that's probably the reason that I find all kinds of hairs in my swatches all the time; blarghh.
Isn't it amazing how much better holos have gotten in such a short time? I'm still amazed when I apply an indie and the holo is still blazing away under electric lights, in the shade, wherever. I think of my very first holographic, a Layla called "Mermaid's Spell", and how difficult it was to apply, and how it scratched off right away but you couldn't use topcoat, and the dull silvery pallor it had in indirect light, as you describe. The improvement is astounding. And I just love this color on you, Liz! You do peacock hues so very well :)
Thank you, m'dear!
DeleteI remember Layla's holos! I had two, tried one on one nail and promptly added both to the donate box. We can thank indie polish makers and their mad skills for all of the awesome holos available now! From the blazing super linear ones to the rich saturated scattered ones to the subtle complexity of "shimmolos," they've come so far. Some say they're over the holo "trend," but you won't hear that from me. It'd be like looking a gift horse in the mouth, no?
Cat and dog hairs are major threats to my manicures here. Far more insidious than dent gremlins. You know that feeling you get when you're on the second coat of a manicure that's going really well and you load up your brush and touch it to your nail and as you draw it across you see that squiggle of something foreign there in the wet polish that follows your brush off of the free edge... that sinking feeling akin to despair but sweatier and with more panic as the entire application process flashes before your eyes? *lol* That happens all the time here. I need to stop using my favorite angled tweezermans to extract hairs from wet polish or just dedicate them to the nail box and get another one for non-polish use.
At least this time, the polish was dry and the hair just wanted to be in on the photos. Nothing hurt but my pride!