KBShimmer Carpe Denim

Carpe Denim was just released by Indiana-based indie polish maker KBShimmer as part of the Fall 2015 collection about two weeks ago. It's a gorgeous deep ultramarine blue jelly swimming with silver holographic hex glitters sized micro to small. The color is unmuddied and amazingly well-saturated for a jelly, and easily passes for the color of new dark denim or a variation of navy. Not that I'd seriously ever want to mess with one of Christy's puns, but she could well have called this one Carpe Noctem for its likeness to a moonless night sky with its holo glitters twinkling like stars against the dark fathomless blue. The jelly base suspends the glitters perfectly within it, with no sinking or dimpling to the surface. Fantastic!

Application was great! The consistency of Carpe Denim is thicker than some but still quite fluid, and very smooth, with an easy, self-leveling glide over the nail. No need to even think about the glitters, they disperse effortlessly across the nail in a perfectly random way as you paint. Pigmentation is excellent for a jelly, with opaque coverage achievable in two medium coats or three thinner ones. I used three medium coats for this manicure, but would happily wear it at two were I not photographing it. Make sure to wrap your tips carefully with this one, as it can show some sheerness there. Cleanup is fairly straightforward with a bit of pigment travel and residual staining that's not too hard to remove. Carpe Denim dries naturally in very good time to a wonderful glossy finish.

Photos show three coats of Carpe Denim over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Apologies for the scruffiness of my nail environs!

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

KBShimmer Carpe Denim

You can see how very inky this blue is -- it reads as near black in the photos (as have many of the very dark blues I've featured here, an ongoing issue...), with only a blue tint to the silver glitters to let you know that it is indeed blue. Other folks are better at capturing this kind of deep color than I am. For an excellent example of how this polish appears most of the time in person, check out Emily's photos in her review of KBShimmer's Fall 2015 collection on The Lacquerologist. She manages to convey both the depth of tone and the exact hue in her pics, no small feat!

As a glitter jelly, Carpe Denim is pretty darn flawless. Just the right amount of glitter to give it that perfect random sprinkling, superb pigmentation, a wonderful formula and that glossy jelly finish. It has the glamorous feel of a delicately sequined gown, a little bit of swish, if you will, and throws out sparks in prismatic colors in any kind of lighting -- which Fuzzy says makes it look like a CGI-generated version of outer space instead of the real thing, but if you ask me that sort of rhetoric doesn't even remotely qualify as a quibble. 

Oh, I almost forgot to add: removal of Carpe Denim is only the slightest bit more labor-intensive than that of a creme. No tin foil necessary! Use a clean surface on each nail to avoid transfer of the color to your skin and if your nails are dry, there may be some light staining that can removed by wiping them down well with a cotton pad soaked in cuticle remover. 

Nope, it really doesn't get much better than this!

love,
Liz