Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Lake of the Pines was released by Colorado-based indie polish maker Colors by Llarowe as part of the Fall 2015 collection last month. Creator Leah Ann describes this one as a soft linear holo in deep pine green with blue undertones. It is stunning! From the online swatches I'd seen, I was expecting the color to be more of a teal blue with a heavy cerulean bias. But in person, Lake of the Pines is indeed a deep green-leaning teal, a dark tone of cyan along the lines of pine or skobeloff green with dusky Atlantic blue undertones, bearing abundant finely-milled holographic pigment. It's a profoundly saturated, luxuriously rich color in a creme holo formula, which is reflected by the subtle yet pervasive quality of the holographic effects. In bright indirect light, a gorgeous shaft of dark cerulean occupies the center of the nail, shading to a smoky pine at the sidewalls. Direct light produces a gently-defined flare in shades of cerulean and Atlantic blue, edged by a misty corona of prismatic sparks in spring green, aqua blue and gold. Under low light and from a distance, the polish reads mostly as a deep inscrutable skobeloff green. 

Application was amazing. The formula of Lake of the Pines is nail polish perfection, with a fluid, creamy, dense consistency, a plush self-leveling glide over the nail, and one-coat coverage. I had a near perfect first coat and almost left it at that as it was completely opaque and self-leveled so well that every nail ridge had vanished. But no! I just had to apply a second coat to try and even out a few lines, ended up overstepping them in a few places, and so had cleanup to do. Cleaning up after a polish this well-pigmented is fairly straightforward, but the pigment does travel and does leave residual staining especially on dryer areas. If you have a steady hand, however, there's no reason why you should have much if any cleanup to do. Lake of the Pines dries naturally in very good time to a silky smooth finish with a certain soft glossiness that is extremely flattering. You'll be tempted not to topcoat it, but I always advocate topcoat, which does not interfere with the holo effects in any way.

Photos show two coats of Lake of the Pines over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. We're having a grey sky day here today with occasional moments of weak sunlight, which I tried to take advantage of while photographing this polish. But the light wasn't quite sufficient enough to render the holo effects at their fullest, so keep that in mind as you view the pics.

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Colors by Llarowe Lake of the Pines

Delicious! The lush color of Lake of the Pines has tremendous depth despite its darkness -- it gives you the sense that if you fell into it, Alice-like, you would find yourself in the midst of a dense, hushed coniferous forest at twilight. 

I expect this will want to stain upon removal. Taking the precaution of moisturizing prodigiously beforehand and using a fresh surface for each nail to limit contact of pigment to skin will help to keep it to a minimum. A quick wipe down with cuticle remover afterwards will clean up most of any trace color that remains.

love,
Liz