'Twas the Night Before Christmas is what I think of as a complex old school shimmer with ultra fine shimmer particles in the formula that give it a rich satiny glow and duochromatic properties. The base color is a translucent smoky royal blue that is absolutely packed with microshimmer particles in blue and purple, rendering a rich and complex blue violet hue on the nail. This polish really played tricks with my eyes. Is it blue? Is it violet? Well, it's either and both! One of the most perfect examples of a "blurple" shade that I've ever seen, the predominant color you see depends completely on the ever-shifting circumstances of light, angle of vision and personal inclination.
Application was lovely. The consistency of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas is fluid, creamy and smooth with a velvety glide over the nail and no patching or pooling. This is a very user-friendly polish, easy to manipulate with Fair Maiden's round flexible brush and amenable to repairs. It is possibly the most outstanding self-leveler I've ever seen. In the midst of my second coat, I somehow managed a full impressed fingerprint on the surface-dry finish of one of my thumb nails. Thirty seconds later, it was gone, completely leveled out by the still-curing polish. Truly impressive! Pigmentation, largely accomplished by accumulated layers of shimmer since the base is translucent, is sheer on the first coat but builds easily to completely even opaque coverage in three coats. Cleanup is easy and straightforward. 'Twas the Night Before Christmas surface dries very quickly but the polish beneath remains tender for a while -- a fast dry topcoat will ensure that every layer is cured and enhance the duochromatic nature of the shimmer into the bargain. The natural finish is smooth and shiny.
Photos show three coats of 'Twas the Night Before Christmas over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. In order to get closer to the true nature of this polish in person, I adjusted the color a bit -- couldn't get my camera to properly capture the purple element, surprise! (NOT) -- thus the slightly green tint to my skin.
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
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| Fair Maiden Polish 'Twas the Night Before Christmas |
Even with the color edit, my photos are still leaning a little too much to blue. If you want to see the kind of violet that this polish truly gets up to, I highly recommend taking a look at The Polished Hippy's excellent review, here.
Fair Maiden has a fresh new collection for spring available as of 21 March called Garden Party. You can check it out now at the Fair Maiden website and see swatches at Cosmetic Sanctuary and Amanda Loves Polish.
love,
Liz
This is beautiful and looks wonderful on you! I see zero green in that skin. I don't think I've heard of this brand, so this was a lovely surprise. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, my dear! I rarely mess with the color of my photos except to desaturate some of the reds and pinks. Color correcting is a slippery slope. I'm glad to know you don't see a greenish tint so perhaps it wasn't that obvious except to me. I think this is a brand to watch!
DeleteOohlala I just KNEW that this would be so very enchanting on you!! Haha, I am almost tempted to thumbprint my Fair Maiden manis now :) Such a timely post this is, as I have been thinking about Fair Maiden obsessively these past few days (THE LAUNCH). I am excessively excited for the spring collection.
ReplyDeleteWas really impressed with this polish, Marisa! It's so much more complex than I thought it would be, and so carefully composed -- thank you again for sending it to me! The Garden Party is up on the Fair Maiden site now, as well as restocks of some older polishes, in particular Magic Carpet Ride... I think I might really need that one!
DeleteOoh, might want to hold up on the Magic Carpet Ride... unless you simply need a full bottle, and I wouldn't blame you because it is beautiful... but if not, you'll have a mini one on the way soon!! :) (Got an extra as a promotion and idk, I sorta thought you might enjoy it, lol!)
DeleteAh! Well there you go again, reading my mind! I swear... :)
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