Monday, February 16, 2015

Elevation Polish Haleakala

Haleakala was released by indie polish maker Elevation Polish as part of the Heights of Hawaii collection in January 2014. This is a stunning dark red-violet linear holographic polish dusted with golden shimmers. The color is deep but vibrant and rich, further enhanced and nuanced by the effects of the finely-milled holographic pigment it contains. In indirect light, the holo flair is predominated by a brilliant arc of electric blue-violet edged in yellow and red with a shaded skirting of royal purple. There's is a powerful prismatic display in direct light, each rainbow color strongly delineated in a flame-shaped flair along the axis of light, with a semi-metallic fuchsia flash at the center and deep wine coloring at the edges. Lulu calls this a medium density holo -- I call it breathtaking!

Application was great. My bottle was a bit thickened and sticky so I added a squirt of polish thinner at the outset to make it more amenable to my application skills. The consistency after that was fluid and lighter than I expected (polish thinner at work), with a whisper smooth, self-leveling flow over the nail. Pigmentation was very good with completely even opaque coverage in two coats. Cleanup was surprisingly easy for such a dark color, with very little traveling of the pigment and no residual staining. Haleakala dries naturally in average time to a glossy finish.

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


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala, my only direct sun shot, a bit blurry sorry!


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala


Elevation Polish Haleakala

Haleakala is named for the massive shield volcano that forms more than 75% of the Hawaiian Island of Maui.

Haleakala, elevation 10,023ft/3,055m -- note the deep purple coloring in the base of Haleakala's crater! (source)


The small cinder cones and relatively young lava flows in the summit crater of Haleakala volcano on Maui can be seen in this view. Also visible along the northern rim (left hand side in this view) is the road that tourists can take to drive to the summit. This is a great way to see sunrise on the volcano, and one often gets spectacular views as the morning clouds move in and out of the crater (see above). (source)

A shield volcano is a type of volcano usually built almost entirely of fluid lava flows of low viscosity magma. They are named for their large size and low profile, resembling a warrior's shield lying on the ground. This is caused by the highly fluid lava they erupt, which travels farther than lava erupted from stratovolcanoes. This results in the steady accumulation of broad sheets of lava, building up the shield volcano's distinctive form.

With its deep red-violet coloring mirroring the color of the lava flows in the Haleakala Crater, I think that this polish is a wonderful interpretation of its namesake. All the more so as sunrise on the Haleakala Crater, said to be a magnificent sight, is celebrated metaphorically in this polish by the powerful holo effects as light hits it. I read in the Elevation Polish post of The Crumpet's December series on indie polish makers: a year in two polishes that Haleakala was Lulu's best selling polish for 2014. There's a good reason for that! Do you have your bottle yet?

love,
Liz

4 comments:

  1. Wow, shield volcanoes are so interesting!! I had no idea that a "mountain" of that profile could actually be volcanic... I just looked up Icelandic ones (you know, figuring there would be loads), and not only is there one literally just named Skjaldbreiður ("broad shield", ostensibly another possible origin of the general typological name), but they are all around near Þingvellir and other places I visited!! What the heck!! I'm going to have to be more on the lookout next time.

    GORGEOUS swatches, btw, and an excellent choice for sultry Valentines <3 Interestingly, I find when I am taking pictures that slightly blurry ones invariably convey the intensity of a holo flame much more accurately than a focused shot.

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    1. There's a beautiful photo of Skjaldbreiður in the shield volcano entry of Wikipedia. I bet you're right about the etymology of the name, you brilliant woman! On Mars, there's a shield volcano formation that is 14 miles in elevation, over twice as high as the tallest Hawaiian shield volcano and supposedly one of the tallest known peaks in our solar system.

      I love looking up Lulu's polish names because I find out cool stuff like this. I also learned when I posted this polish that my mom has actually been to Haleakala! Her mother, my grandmother, took her and her sisters there during a trip around the world they went on when my mother was a teenager. Mom was like, oh yeah, I've been to that volcano....

      You're right about blurred photos and holos and it's also true for dynamic nature of glitters, there's no better way to show the sparkle. My "claw" hand position photos were originally an intent to get part of the picture to be blurry, but I inevitably discard the more blurry ones because they look (and actually ARE) too accidental to me. One of these days I hope to figure out how to get my brain to absorb more of the technology of taking photos....

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    2. 14 MILES HIGH?! Well, dang. That's pretty amazing to think about. Ugh I know, I always end up discarding the blurry ones during editing too even though at the time of shooting I felt that they are in some ways more representative of the polish's effect...

      What did Fuzzy think of this polish, then?? Did it capture the essence of her experience? :)

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    3. I think that for a polish to capture my mother's experience of Haleakala it would have to be representative of the long, slow car ride to the summit on that little twisty road you can see in the second Haleakala photo, above. *lol* Really, that's pretty much all she remembers about it. She did like the polish, though. At least, I think she did. She spent several long moments puzzling over the holographic display. It's not like she's never seen a holo before! Still, they always seem to leave her a little confused....

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