Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Dark Side of the Maroon was released last month by California-based indie polish maker Indigo Bananas as part of the inaugural Crème à la Mode box, a quarterly box collection of creme polishes from four indie polish makers. Described as a berry-maroon on the Crème à la Mode website, this is a dark rich boysenberry color, like a Tyrian purple with hints of red. It is vampy-deep, but retains its red-violet nature in dim light and doesn't look black. To me, this polish has an arcane, seductive feel on the nail that speaks of spell-casting and other magical powers, the sort of shade a dark enchantress would wear.

Application was lovely. The consistency of Dark Side of the Maroon is fluid, light and very smooth, with an effortless silky glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. Pigmentation is buildable. There's a degree of crelly-like translucence to this polish, so very even coats are necessary for most uniform coverage. Wearable opacity is achievable in two coats, but I used three for this manicure to get the most consistent coverage I could for the photos. Cleanup was surprisingly easy considering the deep coloring, with just a little pigment travel and a skosh of residual staining. I am always supremely relieved when dark colors don't run rampant at the touch of acetone. Dark Side of the Maroon dries naturally in very good time to shade that's slightly darker than it looks in the bottle and a beautiful glossy finish.

Photos show three coats of Dark Side of the Maroon over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

While I was editing these photos (which, incidentally, show the color as brighter than it appears in person), I got in a big argument with myself about exactly what shade of berry best represented the color, boysenberry, mulberry or dark raspberry. Basically, they're all deep purpled shades of red-violet, and it's difficult to articulate the differences between them because they do overlap. I settled on boysenberry, but I'm not entirely comfortable with that. What about burgundy?

Perhaps I should let creator Andrea have the last word. Berry-maroon it is! 

love,
Liz