The base color itself is of the sort that my friend Melissa of Lacquer Reverie might call ambiguous. It's kind of like if you took an antiqued silver, threw a pinch each of copper and gold, veiled it with a delicate wash of sepia, added green and orange microflake shimmers and then dosed it generously with finely-milled holographic pigment.
This is sort of a puzzle of a polish with a true chameleon soul (aided and abetted by copious shadings from the holo pigment and those metallic microflakes) that leads it to morph its appearance with even slight changes in viewing circumstances. At times, it reads as a browned silver with golden highlights. At others, it has a distinct earthy loden green overtone. At still others, it's a sandy bronze with a blush of pale coppery peach. Above all, Sage & Saffron is unusual, fascinating and beautifully autumnal, with a certain burnished warmth to its coloring that, while gentle and understated on the nail, is far from demure.
Application was lovely. The consistency of Sage & Saffron is quite fluid but not runny, light and creamy with a buttery slip over the nail and very good self-leveling properties. This is a fast drying polish that appreciates a nimble application technique, although its initial fluidity does allow a certain grace period for overstroking if you happen to be of that inclination, like me. But once this polish starts to set up any further brushstrokes will lift the microflakes and cause tumbling. Pigmentation is very good with even opaque coverage and full bottle color in two coats. Cleanup is easy and straightforward. Sage & Saffron dries naturally in very good time to a matte finish, and wants a nice topcoat to look its best.
Photos show two coats of Sage & Saffron over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. It is overcast yet again today as well as hot and humid as any dog day of summer could be, so not only do I have no real sun shots to share but my fingers are positively florid. You have my sympathies.
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron, a little blurry -- my bad! |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron, in weak sun |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
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| Frenzy Polish Sage & Saffron |
I wish I knew how Rachel herself characterizes this polish, but she has omitted any text descriptors in the listings for her creations in her big cartel shop. So naughty, making us think for ourselves like this!
This reminds me of a more rustic version of A-England's The Virgin Queen. The components have a chunkier effect here that is easier for my eye to see than the refined characteristics of The Virgin Queen, but I understand the latter much better now than I did when I featured it here last December.
Sage & Saffron is one of those polishes that becomes more interesting and beautiful the closer you get, so please do click on the photos and take a look at
love,
Liz
Wow and wow and wow! A gorgeous polish! You have my sympathy trying to describe that one! Not that you didn't do it full justice, as always. It really is a stunner. Your manicure is so perfect - thank you for the numerous beautiful photos. They give more of an inkling of the complexity this polish offers.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your always kind words, Lara! I think I kinda winged it with the description on this one. At least I kept it down to three variations, or four I guess if you count "it's kinda like...." I am nothing if not wordy.
DeleteLOL, I keep clicking on the photos, staring at the polish! Mesmerizing!
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love all of the colors and sparkle? You should have seen me editing my photos and then picking the ones to go in this post! I took over 50, edited and culled that down to around 25, and then picked from those for the post. It takes forever!
DeleteWow, this ambiguous color is truly gorgeous. It's so much more complex than you think it's going to be. I love how you used the word rustic to describe it. It has an antique look about it, but not a high-end antique...rather a homespun antique. Fancy farmhouse.
ReplyDeleteSorry. Carb overload for lunch.
*lol* Oh those carbs!
DeleteI agree! Fuzzy has this old silver plate pitcher that she refuses to polish because the patina it's developed is so perfect. It's got the usual blackening in the close spots from tarnish and then the larger smooth areas have turned a pale brownish grey shade. When I was talking to her about what kind of color this polish was, she reminded me of that pitcher and the unusual sepia antiquing it has that's occurred naturally over time. This polish has that kind of honest, came by it naturally look, I think.
It's kind of amazing that when I wore A-England Virgin Queen, which is essentially the same mix of colors and effects as this polish, I really didn't cotton to it at all. I didn't understand it, didn't get it. But it was completely different with Sage & Saffron. So interesting. I shall have to revisit Virgin Queen.
I just saw this polish on the Frenzy Foxes FB group and became intrigued, and lo, how convenient for me that my must trusted polish connoisseur had already posted about it! As ever, I'm apparently reading your mind: your pictures immediately recalled to me Virgin Queen, and also the perplexing fact that neither of us we partial to it. The earthiness of this polish revitalizes my interest, though!
ReplyDeleteI love that Fuzzy doesn't polish her unique silver pitcher! My mom had a silver bowl that she never polished- disinterest, I think, rather than inspiration by the "poignancy of time", or wabi sabi in Japanese. According to the tradition of wabi sabi, an object which has collected a patina or scars over the years is much more valuable than one whose mark of aging and use has been buffed away, for weathering can only come with the most precious element of all: time. Anyway, that silver bowl has developed a rainbow-gradient patina over the years, and I loved it so much that my mom let me take it for display my new curio cabinet. It is so much more beautiful for its evidence of time lived!
I still haven't revisited Virgin Queen, Marisa. Must do that!
DeleteFuzzy loves the concept of wabi sabi, particularly of replacing broken parts with other materials to create a new whole. That silver bowl sounds wonderful, I love thinking about the rainbow-gradent patina that you describe and imagining it displayed in your cabinet. What other treasures have you collected there, I wonder?