KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

Can you handle another pinkish purpley polish? Sure, I knew you could. 

We Be Jammin' was released by Terre Haute, IN-based indie polish maker KBShimmer as part of the brand spankin' new Summer 2015 collection last month. After some initial quandaries about the bleached neons in this collection, I got myself together for a goodly KBShimmer spree consisting largely of Summer 2015 polishes and a couple of older ones. From the time the first swatches of this collection began appearing online, the one polish that I knew I had to have was We Be Jammin'. Because shimmah!

Creator Christy describes We Be Jammin' as a "bright magenta polish with blue shimmer and micro holographic sparkle." This vibrant medium-dark purpled pink is swimming with superabundant electric blue shimmers that for all the world look like glass flecks to me, plus a sweet sprinkling of infinitesimal holographic microglitters. The prominent blue flaky shimmers add gorgeous visual texture to the polish on the nail in addition to a great-looking scifi-esque blue violet glow that morphs into a full on sparkle in direct light, while the holo microglitters blanket the whole with a constellation of tiny rainbow sparks. The mix of deep pink and blue creates a bright purple that comes and goes depending upon the circumstances in which it's viewed. It's a bold composition full of wild abandon and unabashed glamor, ready to confuse and bewitch innocent passers by with its dramatic mix of flash and color. 

Application was great! The consistency of We Be Jammin' is fluid, light and slightly loamy from all the shimmers, with an easy, well-behaved flow over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. This polish seems to thicken slightly with exposure to air, and I added a squirt of polish thinner to my bottle but you could just as easily cap it and give it a shake without the thinner and it would likely return to its former fluidity. Pigmentation is very good. A bit of sheerness on the first coat builds easily to wearable opacity with two. I added a third coat, ostensibly to ensure completely opaque coverage for the photos but mostly just because I could. Ha! And I'm glad I did because this polish is more translucent than you might expect at the outset. Cleanup was fairly easy -- no pigment travel to speak of but some scattering and limpet-like behavior on the part of the shimmers. We Be Jammin' dries naturally in good time to a smooth shiny finish. Topcoat ups the intensity of the shimmer effects. 

Photos show three coats of We Be Jammin' over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. 

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

KBShimmer We Be Jammin'

See what I mean about the purple? In some situations, such as in dim and incandescent lighting, the combination of magenta base and reflective blue shimmer is so seamless that We Be Jammin' appears as nothing so much as a bold royal purple with a silky semi-metallic finish. 

I've seen this polish compared to KBShimmer's fall 2013 release Teal Another Tail in a number of reviews. They are similarly constructed, but Teal Another Tail has a complementary color palette, while We Be Jammin' has more of what I would call an analogous color palette, and the pink shimmers of Teal Another Tail are less reflective than the blue shimmers of We Be Jammin'. They have a completely different feel on the nail as well. Teal Another Tail is more painterly, mysterious and introverted, to my mind, and We Be Jammin' is all about the party, baby! They're both awesome, though, and should be in every polish enthusiast's collection. Are they in yours?

love,
Liz