Storms and Saints was released by Arkansas-based indie polish maker Pahlish as part of The Hidden Door collection last month. This is the final polish from the series of four that I've been sharing with you here. The other three are: Ghost in My Lungs, Lion Hearted Girl and Dissolving Like the Setting Sun. If you've enjoyed these, great news! Creator Shannon will be restocking them at least once more in her big cartel shop. You can follow Pahlish on Facebook for info about the restock.
Shannon describes Storms and Saints as a "blackened juniper teal/green holographic with bright blue flakes." It's a deep cyanic green in the pine/teal/skobeloff family, rich and foresty, bearing metallic flakes shimmers in a vibrant azure blue. The finely-milled holographic pigment produces a brilliant prismatic flare in direct sun that is dominated by sparkling bands of bright blue and spring green surrounding a central lick of gleaming semi-metallic pale sea green and edged by sparks of yellow, orange and red before shading to a deep near-viridian at the edges of the nail. In bright indirect light, shifting shades of blue-green, dark cyan and keppel green nuance the base color, giving it a pleasing dimensionality.
Application was wonderful. All of the polishes in The Hidden Door collection have had excellent, eminently paintable formulas and Storms and Saints is no different. It has a fluid, smooth, dense consistency with a lush glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. Pigmentation is also excellent with near opacity in one coat and completely even opaque coverage in two. Cleanup was surprisingly easy, with a bit of stickiness on the part of the flake shimmers but only a little pigment travel and no residual staining. Storms and Saints dries naturally in good time to a smooth, slightly flat finish. Topcoat adds a becoming gloss and pops the presence of the shimmers.
Photos show two coats of Storms and Saints over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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Dark coniferous sort of blue-greens like this feel so comfortably suited to this time of year. They have this soothing, non-gimmicky richness that makes them a pleasure to wear.
We live in a semi-rural area and one of our down-the-road neighbors strings white lights top to bottom around the 30ft fir tree in front of their house every year. The tree is near the road, so we can see it from our property. It's a beautiful, serene thing to view while taking the dog out for a late night constitutional, and much to my dog's delight (the farther we range, the better) always entices me to go further down the back driveway than I usually do to look at it.
I feel sort of the same way about polishes like Storms and Saints as I do about that lighted tree. It's magical to see a single tree full of lights in the darkness of a late winter's night. Likewise, there's a bit of magic to the dark, lush blue-green of this polish, with its shimmering holo effects and tiny glints of bright metallic blue, giving the opportunity to pause those running thoughts and be in the moment.
love,
Liz
Your mani of this beautiful polish is such a relief from all the nail art manis I have been seeing! While I do give kudos for all the time and effort it takes to do all of those nail art designs, being of a minimalist mindset, I do become weary of 'holiday nails'. I do like the Fall leaf manis but then along comes Halloween. Ugh, my mind winces at the gore and ugly of those type of manis. Thanksgiving is okay, but then along comes December nails. Snowflake manis sprout up everywhere! I know I am being a Grump, LOL, but, so many times, I see a pretty polish used as a base color and wish I could see it without all the stamping and/or nail art. Or leave some nails unembellished!
ReplyDeleteSure, like every polish addict, I do like to see new collections swatched, but my favorite blog is one that focuses on one polish per blog (or a polish with comparisons!). I feel I can get to know the polish better that way. And I think it fosters a more distinctive rapport with your 'crew'. (LOL)
I've lived in the country before. I know exactly what you mean when talking of the dark night and that lighted fir tree of your neighbors. Especially at this time of year. Like the song says, I also love 'the dark sacred night' - but in northern climes, with wintery cold nights, that one spot of light brings gladness to the soul, a welcome sign, a connection.
Oh, and looking at my color-range wall racks, I don't see any polish that comes close to this wonderful polish! It is necessary to remedy that!
*lol* If you're not into nail art, polish blogs that feature a lot of it can easily overwhelm, especially around significant holidays, Christmas being one. Valentine's Day is another holiday that seems to me to be celebrated with copious related nail art. I've found that there are some nail artists whose blogs I enjoy very much, usually because they take the time to write about their vision for the look and the creative process by which they realize that vision. I do not possess the kind of flexible creativity and artistic skill that these folks display so fluently, so having an inside peek at the process is very appealing. It does seem to me that a lot of nail art bloggers gear their posts for other nail artists, and when I visit them it's usually because an aspect of their design particularly interests me or when I know that the photos will be exceptionally well done. I do love freehand nail art, though. The skill and aptitudes that make up that kind of creativity are amazing and the results are so delightful!
DeleteBut all in all, I'm like you. What I enjoy more than anything else are the opinions of other polish enthusiasts about polish itself, how it's formulated, how it applies, what they find appealling or special, what a polish reminds them of, the kind of feeling it evokes, what other polishes share similarities -- those kinds of things. Bloggers who regularly swatch for makers and feature whole collections in a post have a lot on their plates, I'm quite sure I couldn't do what they do and have tremendous admiration for them. Of course I adore looking at beautiful, skillfully taken photos, but it's really the inclusion of their personal responses to a polish or a collection that are most gratifying to me. For example, I try never to miss a "Swatch and Learn" or "Stuff I Swatched" post. Mary and Rach, respectively, are always able to kindle new enthusiasm for nail polish in me with their style and content.
So you can see why my blog is like it is, it's generated from a sort of do unto others point of view. I know there are several things I could do better. The name of my blog is just awful, there are too many photos, it's quite primitive technologically and design-wise, and the photos are pretty primitive as well. Suffice to say, as I do on my policy page, that I am more or less something of a dilettante. I'm sure if I invested more in this blog it would send a more welcoming message to potential readers. I think about that a lot, actually.
I love what you said about the connection made by the sight of a lighted tree in the dark. It's significant! I hadn't thought of it quite that way before.
I hope you're able to get your hands on this polish and vice versa -- it's a beauty!