Lulu describes Shinjuku Golden Gai as blood orange with a slight duochrome shimmer, "the blood orange that a cartoon would be." It has a vibrant, creamy salmon-colored base bearing boatloads of ultrafine duochromatic particle shimmers with a blue to violet/pink shift. On the nail in natural light, it transitions seamlessly between a salmony coral and a radiant hot pink, and you can see the blue/violet shimmers gleaming along the axis of light. This is an incredibly well-composed polish with intense, luminous coloring and a dreamy soft-focus dimensionality. It's like Lulu took a sunset and made a polish out of it!
Application was delicious. The consistency of Shinjuku Golden Gai is fluid, smooth and dense with a silky flow over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. It goes on super smoothly and is amenable to very thin coats. Pigmentation is very good with wearable opacity in two coats, although I used three to ensure most even coverage for the photos. Cleanup is a snap. Shinjuku Golden Gai dries naturally in good time to a slightly flat finish that wants a good topcoat to look its best.
Photos show three coats of Shinjuku Golden Gai over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Apologies for the incipient hangnails and other nail surround scruffiness!
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
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| Elevation Polish Shinjuku Golden Gai |
Shinjuku Golden Gai reminds me a lot of CrowsToes Tequila Sunrise in composition, with differences in color and translucence but similar effects from the presence of duochromatic shimmers. The two share a certain exotic fruity Edenesque/tree of knowledge vibe -- luscious, radiant, potentially dangerous -- that is far more suited than an apple to a fruit of such a pivotal importance.
Golden Gai in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo is famous for its nightlife and its architectural and cultural interest. Composed of a network of six tiny alleys connected by even narrower passages, this small area contains over two hundred bars, clubs and eateries. The tiny matchbox establishments are typically only few feet wide and some can hold only four or five customers at a time. Most are two-storey, having a small bar at street level and either another bar or a tiny flat upstairs, reached by a steep set of stairs. The buildings are generally ramshackle, and the alleys are dimly lit, giving the area a very scruffy and run-down appearance. However, Golden Gai is not a cheap place to drink, and the clientele that it attracts is generally well off.
It is architecturally important as a window to Tokyo's still fairly recent past, before the economic boom that occurred following World War II, when large parts of the city resembled Golden Gai's extremely narrow lanes and tiny two-storey buildings.
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| Shinjuku Golden Gai by day (source) |
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| and at night (source) |
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| The bars of Golden Gai advertise themselves with an eclectic mix of artwork and enigmatic logos in neon, ranging from cats and acoustic guitars to painted lips and nudes. Lulu's memory of one such sign, a cartoon of a blood orange with tears on it, provided the inspiration for today's polish. (source) |
Elevation's Shinjuku Golden Gai and the tiny fragment of old Tokyo that inspired it are equally fascinating, no? How awesome would it be to explore this tucked away neighborhood while wearing the namesake polish?
love,
Liz
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