ILNP Missed Calls

Boutique polish maker ILNP recently released the eleven-polish Summer 2015 collection simultaneously with a separate ten-polish addition to their "Ultra Holo" line. I purchased eight polishes from both camps during the preorder and they've been sitting here beneath the lamp in my office looking gorgeous. Time to get to it! Yesterday I showed you Mega (X), a brilliant large-particled silver holo from the Summer 2015 collection, and today I'm going to the other end of the color spectrum with one of the new Ultra Holos, Missed Calls.

Black holos are a dichotomous bunch. Either they are saturated and inky with a tendency to swallow the holographic effects unless they are in direct light, or they are softened and silvered to varying degrees, allowing the prismatic colors to bloom more readily in other circumstances besides direct sun. Missed Calls belongs to the latter group. It has a black base containing, from what I can see, two kinds of holographic pigment. There is the small-sized particle pigment that is commonly used to created linear holos plus a liberal dosing of larger irregularly-shaped flake pigment, often used to create scattered holos. These pigments are silver in their unstimulated state, giving Missed Calls a stippled charcoal appearance. In the sun, though, the misty charcoal immediately deepens to jet black and the holographic pigments combine to produce a gorgeous prismatic flair that has the delineation of a linear holo with the uber sparkliness of a scattered holo. The rainbow colors are especially distinct and brilliant against the black of the base.

In low and indirect light, the prismatic reaction is much more subtle but still visible. Muted washes of violet and gold travel through the silvery pigments, with ephemeral touches of bright aqua and sparkling red at obtuse angles. This is a black-based polish of the gentler, kinder sort, sophisticated and accessible, with the organic silver-speckled visual texture that I love so much providing a fantastic canvas for its varying holographic effects.

Application was awesome. The consistency of Missed Calls is fluid, light and smooth with a silky, self-leveling flow over the nail and a perfectly balanced viscosity for painting. It's a user-friendly polish, amenable to thin or thicker coats and easily manipulated with ILNP's flattened flexible brush. Pigmentation is very good, with evenly opaque, wearable coverage available in two coats. I added a third just to gild the lily, but it did seem to ever-so-slightly deepen and enrich the color. Cleanup was easy and straightforward with very little pigment travel and no residual staining. Missed Calls dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. I think that topcoat actually enhances both the black of the base and the prismatic colors of the holographic effects, plus there's the added dimensional impact of a plump, glossy finish. Not that you'd ever want to skip topcoat, but it usually has aesthetic benefits beyond simply protecting and lengthening the life of your manicure.

Photos show three coats of Missed Calls over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. As with yesterday's Mega (X), the holographic effects are much, much more colorful in person that I could capture with my camera.

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

ILNP Missed Calls

Viewing the prismatic display against black is, to me, a very pure and fundamental experience of the holographic effect. Black doesn't interact with the prismatic hues in the same way that other base colors do, so you get to see these rainbow colors with unusual clarity. 

I have only one other black holographic polish in my collection, KBShimmer's Stark Raven Mad. Interestingly, these two are at opposite ends of the presentation spectrum for black holos. Stark Raven Mad contains only very fine holographic particle pigment that is almost undetectable out of direct light, appears deep black most of the time and produces a smooth, distinctly flame-shaped linear flare in the sun. Missed Calls, with its inclusion of larger-sized flakes, has a silvery-speckled appearance that generates a much more riotous display in the sun. I think that they are great complements to each other.

Any black holo connoisseurs out there? What kind of black holo is your favorite? Inquiring minds!

love,
Liz

p.s. For an outstanding explanation of why and how holographic polishes do what they do, see this fantastic 2013 post from Robyn of Brightest Bulb In the Box: Beauty for Critical Minds. The images are no longer available, but the text is awesome!