Application was great! At the outset, Blue Pansy gives indications of a creme/jelly hybrid formula, very fluid and light but not runny as long as you avoid overloading the brush, with a bit of translucence to it that can result in streakiness on the first coat, especially if you are in the habit of painting in very thin coats. With the addition of the second and subsequent coats, the texture of the polish on the nail becomes much creamier with more body to it. I had no trouble reaching even opaque coverage in two coats for all my nails but one, which was attacked by dent gremlins and required an additional coat. Self-leveling properties are excellent, and cleanup was fairly straightforward with only a little pigment travel with a tiny bit of residual staining. Blue Pansy dries naturally in good time to a beautiful glossy finish.
Photos show two coats of Blue Pansy over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite, complete with a few bubbles here and there. You'd think I'd be able to apply a bubble-free topcoat by now but no! It appears to be a life-long learning issue, at least in my case.
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
Panorama was released by indie polish maker Mentality as part of the Crystalchrome collection earlier this month. This series of topper polishes feature new translucent color-shifting ceramic/glass hybrid flakes in a clear suspension base. The flakes alter their appearance depending upon the base they're layered over. Panorama has flakes in a mixture of colors that remind me of the prismatic shades you see in an oil slick. They have an opalescent dimensional glow that is just stunning!
I layered one coat of Panorama over my Blue Pansy manicure. I wish that I'd had a more even touch with this topper, but it was very easy to work with. Component payoff is awesome! A profuse amount of flakes is available per brushful, and if you haven't overloaded your brush like I did they disperse evenly over the nail. I experienced no stickups or undue stacking that wasn't of my own making, and only a few protrusions over the free edge. Cleanup is a snap, no limpet-like behavior from the flakes at all! Panorama dries naturally in very good time to a shiny finish that has a slight pebbly texture from the flakes. A coat of Seche Vite added gloss but did little to smooth the texture. Next time I'll use a coat of Glitter Food before the Vite to get a glassier finish.
Photos show one coat of Panorama over the Blue Pansy manicure above with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama, macro shot in the bottle |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
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| Mentality Panorama over Polish My Life Blue Pansy |
Deeply cool! The colors are amazing and seem to respond idiosyncratically to different light sources. These photos were taken around 6pm and the sun was on its way down, sending out those long oblique color-loving rays that seemed to excite extra opalescence from these ceramic/glass flakes. Panorama was absolutely gorgeous under the lights at my gym. I couldn't stop staring at my nails! Fuzzy said the colors reminded her of a flower garden. I think they look like stained glass.
Mentality's Crystalchromes are the most expensive polishes by far that they offer, at $18.50USD per. But anyone familiar with Mentality knows how reasonable their pricing is generally, so the extra cost is fully attributable to the expense of these exclusive flakes. I don't know whether I'll be springing for the others, but I'm really glad that I had the chance to try Panorama.
love,
Liz
I just so appreciate fastidiousness, especially as it relates to color, and am always reminded of this when I read your blog :) A true navy, indeed!! And a brilliant choice to layer under Panorama... yours are easily the most illustrious photos of this Crystalchrome's color range and glowing stained glass effect. I didn't even bother looking at these at first, scared away by the price and not realizing that they were anything special (other pictures just kinda looked like another flakie topper at first glance). But seeing your swatches, I know I've never seen anything like this, nor heard of a ceramic/glass hybrid flakie until now. So awesome! Beautiful, beautiful work. I can't wait to see what else you might layer this over (you did say there will be a next time, yes??)!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marisa! Describing color is one of the most important parts of blogging for me, so I really appreciate that! The flakies in these new Crystalchromes are definitely different than others I've experienced -- they aren't a mylar or a film nor are they polish-based and I've read that they're actually crunchy if you grab them with a tweezer but I haven't tried doing that yet. They felt pliable enough during application and the texture they produced was so minimal.
DeleteI think I got lucky with my photos. I ran out of time before photographing Panorama in the morning and had to wait til after I got home late in the afternoon to do it. I'm not sure the pics would have turned out as welll in light from a more overhead sun.
I was actually attracted because of the price! Given Mentality's pricing generally, I knew these polishes had to be some kind of cutting edge special so I preordered the multi-color mix, Panorama. But then, like you, the early swatches I saw didn't look all that much different from other flakies, and I was similarly underwhelmed by how unprepossessing it appeared in the bottle when it arrived. And honestly, I didn't see how special it really was until I got to the gym and looked at it under their lights, where it just lit up with all these opal light-play kind of colors.
Panorama over navy turned out so well that I'm not sure what other colors I'd layer it over other than black. It would be better to use a darker color since the flakes themselves are naturally a pale translucent golden tan that I don't think would work as well over a lighter color. Dark grey or red, maybe? Or something really bright, like a neon. Maybe I'll try them over a neon purple....
I'll set Panorama aside for you, it's one of those things that's better when shared! :)