Sunday, December 13, 2015

Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon

Blue Lagoon was released by Ohio-based indie polish maker Top Shelf Lacquer as part of the Tropical Cocktail Paradise collection in July this year. Creator Amy describes it as a "bold blue crème with pink iridescent micro flakes." Oh this blue! It's a brilliant medium-dark shade of ultramarine, limitless and enveloping, bearing superabundant iridescent pink microflake shimmers that float within the base color in a sort of mackerel sky look, displaying subtle twinklings in hues of pale magenta and azure when light hits those microflakes just right. As I'm finding with other Top Shelf colors, Blue Lagoon possesses a distinct protean quality -- its appearance fluctuates according the circumstances in which its viewed, at least to the human eye. In bright direct light, it's a radiant royal blue. In indirect light, it's a shimmering ultramarine with subtle pink flashes. Under incandescent light it displays the most dramatic aspect of all: an intense cobalt suffused with a magical pink glow. Quite the chameleon! 

 Application was wonderful. The consistency of Blue Lagoon is slightly more fluid than the other two Top Shelf lacquers I've tried so far, with a creamy texture and a smooth, self-leveling flow over the nail. It has a nicely-balanced viscosity for painting and is easy to manipulate with Top Shelf's flattened flexible brush. I recommend thin coats for most even coverage, as this polish sets up and surface dries very quickly. Pigmentation is very good. The first coat was surprisingly sheer but built easily to wearable opacity after the second coat. I added a third to ensure maximum richness of color and fullest effects of the microflakes. Cleanup was fairly straightforward with a little pigment travel as you might expect from a blue of this saturation and light trace staining along the cuticle. Blue Lagoon dries naturally in good time to a satiny matte finish as seems to be characteristic of Amy's creations, and wants a glossy topcoat to looks its best. 

 Photos show three coats of Blue Lagoon over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon
Top Shelf Lacquer Blue Lagoon

 I'm a little perplexed that this wonderful blue didn't turn out as intense in my photos as it is in person. It actually reminds me of the iconic International Klein Blue, maybe just a tick lighter, but with a similar vibrancy. Definitely a great night time kind of blue, especially if you're going to be around incandescent lighting.

 love,
Liz
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Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA

5 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 13, 2015 at 5:51 PM

    That's a gorgeous polish. After I read your comment referring to how it did not turn out as intense in your photos as it was, I Googled it. Blue nail polish always attracts my attention - I love it. Well, actually, I love all nail polish colors! While Googling, I came across a YSL gray that melted me into a little puddle. And even though I don't buy them, I see a lot of purples that I like. Back to this one, though - hello, beautiful! I know I have a weakness for red polishes and make a hard effort to not buy every one I see that I like but, apparently, I haven't learned my lesson with the blues. Yep, just as many, if not more, than reds. I console myself with the fact that that range also includes all the blue-leaning turquoise polishes (another favorite). Gahd, I'm so weak! LOL

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    Replies
    1. UnknownDecember 14, 2015 at 2:01 PM

      All of the colors, all of the time!

      If I'd been able to capture an image of this polish under incandescent light you would see what I mean by intense. I mean really penetrating saturation of color. To me, the photos here make it look like any bright medium blue. And in some lights, it does look like that. But it's got that chameleon thing where you're going along and boom, suddenly that blue has, like, totally captured your eyes, the color is so strong. That's why I likened it to International Klein Blue, which has that quality in spades.

      I wonder which YSL grey it was that turned you into a puddle... Stormy Grey perhaps? or something lighter, like Gris Underground?

      Delete
    2. Lara LeafDecember 14, 2015 at 10:43 PM

      LOL - yes, it was the lighter Gris Underground! I am sure one of my lighter grays I already have is very similar but, still, if I felt I had the extra cash to spend, I would be hunting that polish down. So weak . . . :)

      (note) I accidentally hit 'sigh out' - need to figure out how to get back in automatically!

      Delete
  2. JudithDecember 14, 2015 at 8:48 PM

    Lovely indeed! I super love the color for its a striking one. I also love the finish.

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