In the Navy was released by indie polish maker Colors by Llarowe (CbL) in late May/early June 2013. It's described as a navy holographic polish. Fastidious as I am about what constitutes navy, I'd say this is more of a federal blue or a Duke blue, with a slight indigo lean. Beaucoup ultrafine holographic pigment means this is a linear holo, and it is a powerhouse. In indirect light, the holo pigment shades the base color with all kinds of medium and dark blues: azure, sapphire, ultramarine... even a little aqua. Delicious! But the real show is the incredible prismatic flare in direct sun. Holy cow, it's bold! There's a sharply delineated flame-shaped display that's predominated by an inner ring of brilliant aqua, a mix of indigo, blue and green, trimmed by a knife's-edge band of yellow and red sparks with a semi-metallic flash of platinum centered beneath. Honestly, it looks like you've got crazy psychedelic lizard eyes on your nails! Truly impressive!
Application was fraught with user error, but it turned out ok in the end. (I'll spare you the minutiae of my nail polish follies, which actually began earlier this morning when I had to extract an intact bottle of Zoya Mae from the tightly wrapped and taped packaging it was sharing with a crushed bottle of Zoya Jace. Green polish was everywhere. Film at eleven.) The consistency of In the Navy was quite thick. It pulled strings when I lifted the brush from the bottle so I added copious amounts of polish thinner, gave it a good shake and it was fine: fluid, creamy and dense. This polish does thicken easily in contact with air so I would recommend keeping a bottle of thinner handy while using and adding drops as necessary to keep a consistency that you are comfortable with. It's nicely self-leveling and the pigmentation is excellent -- pretty much a one-coater, although I needed a second coat to rectify certain wrongs that occurred during the first. Abundant cleanup was needed today (see above note regarding user error), but it was all fairly straightforward with some pigment travel but no residual staining. In the Navy dries naturally in very good time to a smooth shiny finish. Topcoat does not diminish the holographic effects in any way.
Photos show two coats of In the Navy over treatment and basecoat with a mostly bubble-free topcoat of Seche Vite.
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
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| Colors by Llarowe In the Navy |
This is an exceedingly handsome dark blue holo. At the gym this afternoon, it immediately caught the eyes of Tory, my personal trainer and avid Duke fan. Of course it was all blingy under those lights. "You like?" I asked. "Oh yes!" Then during our session she had me doing sets of this balance/core exercise called a quadruped reach where you're on your hands and knees reaching forward with one arm at a time while simultaneously extending the leg on the other side back. With an excellent view of my nails for the duration, I had lots of time to study the glossy rainbows that were twinkling away. In fact I was so entranced that I almost fell over several times because I would suddenly forget how to do the exercise properly and attempt to reach and extend same-side appendages. D'oh.
But my nails looked fabulous!
love,
Liz
This post literally had me LOLing. :) I'm a sucker for navy holos too. Well, I should say I'm a sucker for navy polish period. Lizard eyes, huh?? And I totally want to see that film at 11. But make it 7:30 or something because I can't stay up till 11.
ReplyDeleteHa! Yes, well, inexplicable as it is, lizard eyes was the first thing that came into my head when I looked at this polish in direct sun. Actually I think the original thought was ALIEN lizard eyes, but I stuck "psychedelic" in there instead because I like to use big words that are hard to spell.
DeleteAre you picky about navy too? I mean, you can't just slap any old dark blue up there and call it navy, right? It has to have certain inscrutable qualities to be a true navy. I love it. It's my favorite neutral (in the Clinton and Stacey meaning of neutral). I think it's more flattering and far more interesting than black.
Films run at all times here. I'll even make you popcorn.
Mmmmmm...popcorn.
ReplyDeleteI like navy as a neutral, and while I will call most dark blues navy or navy-ish, I don't get the navy feels for shades like Zoya Sailor, which is really dusty (but nice). My favorite "neutral" is purple. No contest. It looks good with every single color one might wear. And since I'm so bad at planning my duds in advance, I wear a lot of purple. :)
Purple! Now there's another color with diverse renderings plus distinct warm and cool camps -- although what goes as a cool purple I'd rather call a violet. I've never thought of it as a neutral, but you're right it's pretty fabulous partnered up with other colors.
DeleteI love Sailor. It's got that drop or two of grey in it that gives it this gentle, compassionate sort of feeling. My favorite non-navy dark blue creme is probaby Deborah Lippmann My Prerogative, which is very like Sailor. I need to wear that again soon, it's been on my mind for ages. My favorite navy, actually the only one I think of as a true navy polish is Blue Pansy from Polish My Life. You probably need that one, Melissa!
Hahahahah - crazy psychedelic lizard eyes!!! My husband is sitting around five feet away and is wondering what is so funny. LOL! But that really is a stunning polish. I would have been tied up in a pretzel if I had done your movements while seeing those flashes. And, sorry about the busted polish bottle. Considering the drama that is involved when that happens, I am astounded there is not a full length movie out yet about that.
ReplyDeleteYou always know when there's a broken bottle in a package -- the smell gives it away. That smell of nail polish emanating from the pakage, it immediately provokes that awful sinking feeling in your stomach and the sudden sense of being really tired.
DeleteLuckily with the crushed bottle of Jace, it was separately packaged with only one other bottle. But lord have mercy that bottle was inundated. The green had actually seeped up the neck of the bottle and into the cap, so I had to clean that all out. Ever tried to clean out a cap? Fun times.
The seller was really nice about it, though. They sent me a new bottle of Jace the next day.