Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC is a luxury eco-friendly boutique nail polish maker that has been on my radar for some time now. I first came across this brand and its line of 5-free (made without toluene, dibutyl phthalate, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, and camphor), vegan-friendly lacquers on The Lacquerologist. Emily is a big fan of Priti NYC as a company and a polish maker, and regularly features collections and favorite picks from the extensive core line on her blog, and it was there that I fell for the brand's unique botanically-named colors. The price, at $15 per, has been the only thing holding me back from exploring the offerings of this higher-end brand, but I was lucky enough to find an ebay seller with a selection of Priti NYC listings at about 25% off retail and promptly treated myself to a small handful of shades that I'll be happily sharing with you! 

The first of these is Hadspen Blue, released by the maker as part of the Autumn in Chile collection for fall 2014. Hadspen Blue is a gorgeous medium-toned greyed turquoise in the cyanic Bondi blue/cerulean family. This is not a teal. It's a rich, dusky shade of blue with grey overtones and just a whisper of pine green to it, a beautiful, soft, unusual color with a washed quality that is chic and comfortable on the nail. 

Application was fabulous. The consistency of Hadspen Blue is quite fluid and light but not runny, and incredibly smooth and creamy. It has the silkiest, most buttery slip over the nail you'll find anywhere, I swear. This is a thinner polish that likes to go on in thin coats. I quickly learned to take care when loading Priti NYC's flattened flexible brush, which is not as wide as the flattened brush commonly used by many indie makers (and an absolutely perfect size for smaller, more slender nail beds) but delivers a surprisingly generous amount of polish to the nail. Pigmentation is very good, with wearable opacity in two coats. I added a third in a somewhat successful attempt to vanquish my furrows, but it made very little difference to the appearance of the polish. Cleanup was easy and straightforward. Hadspen Blue dries naturally in fairly good time to a beautiful glossy finish. 

Photos show three coats of Hadspen Blue over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Priti NYC Hadspen Blue

Sorry about the pinkage -- I'm not sure what it is about Hadspen Blue that creates such ruddiness in my skin in the photos but I suspect it's the same sort of quality possessed by soft sea greens, which have a similar effect. It's not apparent in person, and I actually love the look and feel of this gentle, somewhat murky blue. The dusky, organic quality is one that many other Priti NYC shades share, especially many of the blues and greens, and is a big part of the attraction this brand has for me. 

I mentioned earlier that all Priti NYC polishes have botanical names. Hadspen Blue is variety of hosta, also known as plantain lily, a perennial Asian genus that is widely cultivated and beloved by gardeners as shade-loving foliage plants. 

Hosta Hadspen Blue (source)

I think they did a marvelous job of translating the soft, luminous blue-green of the plant. If I were made of money, I'd be snatching up any number of Priti NYC blues and greens! I've spent many intense hours examining the available colors on their website, which I find a difficult platform for shopping because the photos are of the bottles only, no on-the-nail images, and the descriptions are quite minimal if they exist at all. The polishes are arranged by their numerical identifiers with no indication of collections or any kind of sorting or comparison available. Despite this, the many beautiful colors are a delight to investigate, and I think it's certainly a brand worth knowing more about. 

love,
Liz