Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Like Out Like a Lion, The Ice is on Fire is one of five Limited Edition polishes for April 2016 scheduled to be released by Michigan-based indie polish maker Great Lakes Lacquer (GLL) on April Fool's Day, two weeks from today. This is a blue-green shimmer polish. The color is a bit of a trickster. A creamy medium blue-green in bright direct sun, it appears as more of a slightly muted milky celadon green in other circumstances, like color of patinated copper. The shimmers in this polish are magical! I couldn't capture them very well in my photos, but out of direct light, the ultrafine particles are shy and secretive, appearing as a very delicate grey speckling with only a faint sparkle or two to show for themselves. In the sun, though, it's like your nails are decorated with the kind of sparks that fly up from a fire, not in the blanket-like way that you see with most shimmers but with very fine, individually viable micronic sparks in red, gold and green, giving the creamy blue-green a delicately twinkling aspect. I can't say that I've come across a shimmer quite like this before, it really surprised me!

Application was luscious. The consistency of The Ice is on Fire is fluid and super creamy, with a thin-to-medium viscosity and a buttery self-leveling glide over the nail. Yum. This is another eminently user-friendly formula that is very satisfying to work with. Pigmentation is very good, delivering even opaque coverage in two coats, although I used three for the photos. Cleanup is a breeze. The Ice is on Fire dries naturally in good time to a smooth glossy finish.

Photos show three coats of The Ice is on Fire over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

Great Lakes Lacquer The Ice is on Fire

The name and inspiration for this polish comes from the ice caves that are carved out by wave action in the thick ice shelves that form in winter on the coast of Lake Michigan. A great deal of sparkly sand gets whipped up into this ice as it forms and remains trapped there until the thaw. Mariah says, "Add some light from sunrise or sunset and you get magic."

Photo ©Ken Scott, used without permission. My bad.

Amazing! Kind of like the shimmers in this polish, which are a lot more dynamic in person than my photos show. It takes direct sun to bring out their true nature, but in the meantime you can enjoy the serenity of the blue-green base color, which is gorgeous. 

This and the rest of April's Limited Edition polishes will be released Friday, 1 April at 3pm (not sure if that's EDT or CDT) in the Great Lakes Lacquer etsy shop, where they will be available for purchase until 7pm, 2 May.  

Links!

Shop | Facebook | Instagram | Great Lakes Lacquer Lovers Facebook Group

This polish was provided for my honest review.
love,
Liz