Lacquer Slacker Liz: April 2015

Thursday, April 30, 2015

CANVAS Lacquer The Good Silver and OPI My Voice is a Little Norse

The Good Silver was released by Canadian indie polish maker CANVAS Lacquer as part of the Vintages trio in November 2014. This is a medium-dark smokey silvery grey creme/jelly hybrid bearing superabundant ultrafine particulate shimmers in silver, pale pink and pale blue with a luminous, pearly look that's unusual for a contemporary grey polish. It's not what I would call a metallic polish but the color and lustrous finish reminds me a lot of titanium alloy wheels or the soft shiny graphite of a pencil lead or a dark grey freshwater pearl. In the sun, there's a subtle scintillating sparkle and it has a little bit of an old school shimmer vibe, but it isn't frosty and doesn't show brushstrokes. I don't think of myself as someone who typically goes for finishes like this one, but the eye likes what the eye likes and I find myself strangely attracted to this moody, curious grey.

Application was pretty good. The consistency of The Good Silver is on the thick side and I added polish thinner to get a fluidity commensurate with my skills and comfort zone. Once thinned, it had smooth self-leveling flow over the nail and was much more user friendly than I was expecting. As a crelly it has a certain amount of translucence but builds easily to opaque coverage in two or three coats, depending on how you paint. I needed three coats on my left hand and two coats on my right, don't ask me why! All I know is that when I looked at both hands after two coats, the right was darker than the left so I added a coat to the latter and that evened up the look. Whatever! The Good Silver cleans up in a trice and dries naturally in fairly good time to a smooth shiny finish.

Most of the photos show three coats of The Good Silver over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. The photos of my right hand show two coats.

CANVAS Lacquer The Good Silver

The Good Silver turns out to be a perfect base for the bling of My Voice is a Little Norse from OPI's Nordic collection for fall 2014. My Voice is a Little Norse is a glitter topper with a grey tinted suspension base that is jam packed with tiny holographic silver microglitter hexes and squares. The microglitters are dense enough for this polish to be worn alone in two or three coats layered over itself, but it's great for adding a blast of sparkly goodness to an amenable base color.

I used one coat of My Voice is a little Norse over the above manicure. It's very easy to work with, just paints on beautifully with excellent glitter payoff and even distribution across the nail. It dries in very good time to a textured matte finish that I chose to wear glossy. This glitter has a huge appetite for topcoat. I had a coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food, a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite on there before the texture of the microglitters finally smoothed out. Once all those topcoats dried I got huge pull back around the edges, less on the tips. Thank goodness for small favors, eh?

Photos show one coat of My Voice is a Little Norse over my manicure of The Good Silver with a coat of Glitter Food followed by a coat of Gelous followed by a topcoat of Seche Vite.

OPI My Voice is a Little Norse over CANVAS Lacquer The Good Silver

The bling turned out to be very popular with the staff at my gym -- they didn't seem to notice the massive pull back. It's so interesting to see which polishes people will comment on, isn't it? As you know I love looking at polish under the lights there and this was dazzling, just afire with multicolored sparks.

Fuzzy likes to call toppers like My Voice is a Little Norse "novelty polishes," and I think she means it in the gewgaw sense of the word. She's suspicious of too much sparkle, unlike the folks at the gym....

love,
Liz

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Too Fancy Lacquer Peacock Parade

Earlier this month I shared my first experience with Hong Kong-based indie polish maker Too Fancy Lacquer, Smoke and Ambers. So profound was my admiration for that polish that I almost immediately went back to Llarowe and had myself a real-for-true Too Fancy spree, snapping up nine polishes. I've had them lined up here behind my keyboard since their arrival, just kind of mentally rolling around in the bounty of beautiful colors. I've already showed you the two Llarowe exclusives, Passionfruit Daiquiri and Dragon Fruit Infusion, as well as Lake Como. It's time for more!

Peacock Parade is described as a peacock green linear holographic polish, and it's exactly that. The color is a rich deep teal green or dark cyan, and reminds me of the color Ming from the Xona.com Color List. The holographic properties of this polish are simply tremendous, taking advantage of any light available however little it may be to reveal an amazing linear flair that totally transforms the dark somewhat murky base color to a brilliant display of a whole slew of sparkling cyanic blues and greens edging a central flush of intense cerulean blue with a gleaming semi-metallic flash of sea green beneath. This sort of effect, where the colors in the prismatic display are derived almost wholly from the base color of the polish, is absolutely my favorite kind of linear holo and it's one that Charlene, the owner and creative force behind Too Fancy Lacquer, excels at creating.

Application was wonderful. The formula is consistent with the other polishes I've tried from this brand, which is to say that it's superb. The consistency is fluid, creamy and dense with a perfectly balanced viscosity for painting, a velvety glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. Pigmentation is also excellent, with near one-coat coverage. I used two coats for this manicure. Cleanup was easy and straightforward. Peacock Parade dries naturally in very good time to a look that is brighter and much more colorful than the bottle color would suggest and a smooth glossy finish. Suffice to say that Charlene's formulas are the gold in the crown wherein the jewels of her creations are set, and are an utter delight to use.

Photos show two coats of Peacock Parade over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. It's cloudy and overcast here again, but that doesn't seem to phase the holographic properties of this polish in the least!

Too Fancy Lacquer Peacock Parade

I'm sure it's bolder and brighter in direct sun, but as you can see it's not too shabby in less propitious circumstances either! The holo effects remind me of moire silk and are just as endlessly fascinating to look at. The other Too Fancy polishes I got during my spree are also linear holos and I can hardly wait to swatch them.

If you're in the US, Too Fancy Lacquer is stocked by Color4Nails as well as Llarowe, a delightful fact that I only discovered today. Other stockists include DAZZLED (Hong Kong, international shipping), Rainbow Connection (UK) and Edgy Polish (Sweden, international shipping).

love,
Liz

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

China Glaze Thunderbird

A couple of weeks ago or so I came across a post by Johanna of Paillette featuring three older shimmery reds by China Glaze. Each one was so beautiful that I immediately searched them out on ebay and bought them.

The first of these reds is Thunderbird. Thunderbird was released by China Glaze as part of the Retro Diva collection for fall 2009. This is a deep magenta-based garnet red encapsulating ultrafine pearly tone-on-tone shimmers. It's one of those fine semi-metallic shimmer polishes that looks like it's lit from within on the nail, with a central gleam of bright color along the axis of light shading to a mysterious near-black at the edges, especially in low light. Vampy and glamorous, it's a beautiful polish with an old school candy apple red feel, and reminds me of Zoya Isla but with a little more drama perhaps. Oh and I love the name!

Application was great! The consistency of Thunderbird is fluid, light and smooth with an oily look from the superabundant shimmer load and a silky, self-leveling slip over the nail. Pigmentation is very good, with evenly opaque coverage in two coats but it took an additional coat to completely vanquish my nail ridges. For most folks, though, two trouble-free coats will be enough for a perfect manicure. I've become so used to the flattened, wider type of brush that so often accompanies indie polishes that it takes me a nail or two to reacquaint myself with the dynamics of the China Glaze brush, which is long, round and relatively slender. It's quite flexible and easy to manipulate, though, and once I've re-oriented my painting I very much enjoy using it. Thunderbird cleans up beautifully for a deep red, with neither pigment travel nor staining, and dries in good time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show three coats of Thunderbird over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. We're overcast and rainy here today and the low light made it difficult to capture well-focused pics. My camera was already a little confused by Thunderbird's glowing shimmers. And my apologies for the flaky fingers. Time for a rendezvous with the salt scrub!

China Glaze Thunderbird

This is the kind of glowy red that polish enthusiasts enjoy associating with the holidays, no? Not unique, but still delicious to the eye for those who appreciate the sleek drama of that lit-from-within look that a pearly shimmer like this provides.

love,
Liz

Monday, April 27, 2015

Cult Nails Love at First Sight and Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls

Love at First Sight was released by boutique polish maker Cult Nails as part of the Dance All Night collection for early summer in May 2013. Described as a "bright pastel influenced purple," this is a creamy medium-light purple or floral lavender shade with strong pink overtones. It's right there where purple, lavender and lilac meet, just a hair more purple than the Crayola color wisteria. To me it has a certain subdued quality that keeps it in the soft bright category. The pastel influence is readily apparent and it places Love at First in a unique spot relative to other creamy purples. I have an abundance of creamy mid-toned grape purples, and this would hold up at the very light end of that spectrum, but it is fairly bold and bright compared to a true pastel lavender or lilac. Suffice to say I have nothing else quite like it in my stash.

Application was dreamy. The pastel influence does not extend to the formula, which is on point with Cult Nails' best. Love at First Sight has a fluid, creamy consistency with a perfectly balanced viscosity for painting, a buttery glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. Pigmentation is excellent with the potential for one-coat coverage, but I used two to be sure of completely even opacity. It's unusual to find a color that is whitened, as this clearly is, with such even, streak-free coverage. Lovely! Cleanup is easy with a little bit of pigment travel but no residual staining. Love at First Sight dries naturally in good time to a glossy finish.

Photos show two coats of Love at First Sight over treatment and basecoat with a bubbly topcoat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl.

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

I thought that this would make a perfect base for an Ursula glitter manicure. Ursula is the main antagonist in Disney's 1989 animated fantasy film The Little Mermaid, and my generous polish bestie Marisa of Tiny Twinklings recently gifted me the two Ursula polishes from indie polish maker Ellagee's 2014 Villainous Holo-ween collection. The first of the two, The Importance of Body Language, I liked too well by itself to add the matching glitter topper and I'm glad I saved the latter for later because in the interim Love at First Sight arrived in the mail. My path was clear.

Ursula (source)

Poor Unfortunate Souls is the glitter topper from the Villainous Holo-ween Ursula duo, named for the song Ursula sings to Ariel to seduce her into trading her voice for the chance to become temporarily human. It's a gorgeous concoction of holographic turquoise hex glitters sized from micro to medium along with medium hex glitters in black and red. The turquoise holo glitters sparkle in dramatic flashes of sea green and bright blue, perfectly accompanied by the red and black.

I dabbed one generous coat of Poor Unfortunate Souls over the Love at First Sight manicure. Glitter payoff is excellent, with a goodly amount of glitter per brushful. The suspension base is thicker in consistency but not sticky, and the glitters disperse easily over the nail and settle down without any trouble, no tumbling or stickups and only a couple of free edge protrusions. Cleanup wasn't a problem but in my excitement I did leave a few sparklers on my nail environs. Well, either it's all right or it's too bad, as Fuzzy says. Poor Unfortunate Souls dries naturally in good time to a shiny finish with a little texture from the glitter. I added a coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food before my topcoat to smooth it out.

Photos show one coat of Poor Unfortunate Souls over the Love at First Sight manicure above, with a layer of Glitter Food followed by a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

I'm not usually one for glitter toppers but I love this one, the color are fantastic and I think it makes for a pretty awesome Ursula manicure over the light purple of Love at First Sight! Thanks, Marisa!

love,
Liz