In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. -- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Silence has a dark creamy slate blue base with subtle violet overtones bearing bronze flake shimmers as well as red violet/blue color-shifting shimmers. The bronze flake shimmers are nicely complementary to the blue-grey base, and speckle the finish with tiny gleaming flakes. The color-shifting shimmers appear mostly as flashes of bright blue from within the polish, with an occasional spark of red-violet. The slatey base gives this polish a sophisticated if somewhat melancholy presence with a distinct indie flavor provided by the shimmers.
Application was a little touch and go, only because I have no thin-coat finesse, which is what this polish requires. The consistency of Silence is fluid but on the thicker side (I added some polish thinner to my bottle), smooth and creamy with a gentle glide over the nail. This polish has a creme/jelly hybrid sort of formula that sets up almost immediately upon application, so thin coats are necessary for most even coverage. Creator Mariah recommends giving it a moment between coats to prevent dragging. Pigmentation is very good, with evenly opaque coverage in two coats. Cleanup is easy and straightforward, no pigment travel to speak of and only a few sticky shimmers. Silence dries naturally in average time to a semi-matte finish. A generous topcoat will give the polish a becoming gloss.
Photos show two coats of Silence over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
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| Great Lakes Lacquer Silence |
I'm really enjoying this handsome polish, it has a certain urbane quality that I find quite soothing and easy to wear. Of course, I'm a big fan of dark blues generally for that very reason. The creative mix of shimmers adds visual interest as well as depth and dimensionality. It's a lovely composition in a eminently wearable color. Nice!
I have a new camera! A Sony RX100 M2 -- a huge step up from my little Canon A3000 and I only vaguely know what I'm doing at the moment. Hopefully that will change rapidly -- the sooner the better, for both our sakes!
love,
Liz
Lovely post Liz! Thanks so much! <3 Silence looks beautiful on you.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words, Mariah!
DeleteA very nice polish - as you see, very wearable. Not all our polishes have to have all the bells and whistles! More often than not, I reach for a quieter polish nowadays. All my glitters and blingers have been gathering dust! I sometimes intend to at least do a light glitter fade on a couple of nails over a crème finish, but usually end up not doing so.
ReplyDeleteThank you for always including the location of the polish brands' location. (Inquiring minds want to know, LOL!) And also for the explanation of the naming of them. When I first saw the name 'Silence', my mind automatically went to two shows: Buffy The Vampire Slayer had a terrific (if creepy) show that had no spoken dialogue, and I also thought of Doctor Who and the Silence and that whole Trenzalore mess!
I do have the patience to deal with polish that requires some care in applying it, but, oh, how nice it is to have a polish that just slides on like a boss!
I go through spells where I crave bling or crave a simple creme, but for the most part chunky shimmers are my favorite kind of polish, especially creative indie shimmers like this one, with foils a close second. I haven't done a gradient or any nail art sort of technique for YEARS. Not in my DNA, that kind of finesse. The closest I ever get is layering a glitter jelly over a creme or applying a matte topcoat. *lol*
DeleteYou know, I got into the habit of including the location of the maker in my posts because Fuzzy always asks me, when I show her an indie polish, where they are. So I make a point of knowing. It's a small detail that I've found adds a welcome focus to a maker's identity. I'm glad you appreciate it, Lara, and thanks for taking the time to tell me so!
A name like Silence will forever remind me of Dr. Who! This polish isn't difficult to apply, the results are just much more even if thin coats are used. I'm a medium coat kind of person, and use the bead of polish on the brush rather than the brush itself to get clean, defined lines. I find thin coats, where you kind of have to use the brush to get your lines, require a control of the brush that my hand tremors just don't permit.
There's something about working with a beautifully-applying polish that fills me with a blissful expansive Jungian sort of gratitude for the polish, the maker, the moment, life in general... *lol* ...a specialized polish enthusiast version of adrenaline, perhaps? Not that I'd want to read too much into it, or anything. Ha!