Ichi Hanami was released by Australian indie polish
maker Pretty Serious Cosmetics at the end of June this year -- part of
the second batch of polishes from creator Kaz's ongoing Naileontology
collection, a series of polishes based on discontinued and vintage
lacquers.
This polish has a brilliant medium rosy pink/near magenta base swimming with tiny silver microflake shimmers. The shimmers create a finely-grained flecky foil finish, which I adore. It's positively luminous on the nail, with a reflective semi-metallic glow that gives the polish an ornamental gift-wrap-ribbon look. The raspberry pink is very bright, intense and assertive with loads of vivacious feminine charm and a certain festive quality that's quite dressy and perfect for a special occasion.
Application was a pleasure -- Ichi Hanami has a superb formula. The consistency is fluid, smooth and dense with a silky glide over the nail and very good self-leveling properties. It likes to go on in thin to medium coats and is easy to manipulate with Pretty Serious' round flexible brush. Pigmentation is outstanding with opaque coverage in one coat. I added a second coat to finesse some of my edges, but it made no difference to the look of the polish. Cleanup is mostly a matter of minimizing pigment travel and chasing down the silver shimmers, which disperse across the skin at the touch of acetone. Ichi Hanami dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.
Photos show two coats of Ichi Hanami over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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The only drawback to foily polishes is that they have a tendency to show nailbed irregularities, and you can see my ridges slightly under Ichi Hanami. But really, this color is so spectacular that I'm probably the only one who notices and even so I'm not all that bothered by it.
This polish is definitely one for year-round wear. I can see pink lovers wearing this as a great alternative to red for the holidays, it has the mojo for it for sure. If you love pink polish, you need this! No really, you do!
love,
Liz
Ooooh, love this hot, glowy pink! Looks great on you. Kudos on doing such a good mani, with your clean edges and cuticles. I have several nails that have become horribly ridged since menopause and I hate it! Nothing I do helps so I have learned to accept them but I do miss my nice nails when I do a polish that shows ridges. Two good coats of base will solve the problem temporarily, but, most of the time, I am too impatient and just apply one coat.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this pretty polish and for the wonderful photos. I always enjoy reading your fantastic reviews!
Thank you, Lara, for your kind words! I'm usually a rather messy painter so I try to do good cleanup afterwards. This is a gorgeous polish and the formula is awesome, I highly recommend it! So glad you enjoyed the review!
DeleteMy nail ridges are especially bad on my ring fingers, but all my nails are ridged to some degree. My favorite ridge filling basecoat is All Your Base from Pretty Serious, but I've also used Butter London Nail Foundation and lately Deborah Lippmann All About That Base. They all really require two coats to produce a perfectly smooth surface, though, so I count on polishes to have good self-leveling properties but with metallics and semi-metallics especially even the best self-levelers can't prevent those ridges from showing. Ah well, we can't all have perfect nail beds, right?