Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Gryla was released this past November by Illinois-based indie polish maker Lemming Lacquer as part of the Better Watch Out collection for holiday 2015. I absolutely love the name and inspiration for this collection, four polishes based on some of the more sinister Yuletide and Winter Solstice figures from Iceland, Germany and Austria. Here's what Cassie tells us about Gryla:

Gryla is a haggard giantess with hooves for feet and thirteen tails who lives in the mountains of Iceland. She has the ability to detect misbehaving children year-round and during the solstice she searches towns for naughty children to boil alive and make into a stew.

Let me tell you, there are some scary images of Gryla out there!

The polish, however, is completely lovely -- a medium silvery azure blue holo with a gleaming semi-metallic finish that has that distinctive dustiness common to some semi-metallic holos. It's as though it's been lightly powdered with micronic holo particles that now rest in a fine even layer on the surface, where they light up in pinpoint sparks of prismatic colors as light travels over them and produce a gauzy linear display in the sun. The color is something like a cross between cornflower and blue-grey, sleek and sophisticated with a certain aloofness and formality to it that I often associate with metallic shades. It's beautifully dimensional on the nail, shading outward from the axis of light to a deep steel blue around the edges of the nail.

The consistency of my bottle of Gryla was fluid and smooth but very thick -- too thick for my skills. I added quite a bit of polish thinner to get a viscosity that I was comfortable with. I prefer thin formulas over thicker ones, so maybe it's just me. Gryla also surface dried quite rapidly, so it was important to load the brush with enough polish to smoothly cover the nail without overworking it but not so much that brushstrokes will show in superfluous polish. I never did get it quite right. Fortunately the polish self-levels beautifully as it dries and, with topcoat, that helped to minimize brushstrokes. Pigmentation was very good, even after thinning, with completely even opaque coverage in two coats, and cleanup was easy and straightforward. Gryla surface dried very quickly but remained tender underneath until it was fully dry. The natural finish is smooth and shiny. 

Photos show two coats of Gryla over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. 

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Lemming Lacquer Gryla

Nice! I know there are polish enthusiasts out there who love this sort of dusty holo. If you're one of them, this is one in an especially attractive color that is eminently wearable in any season.

I've really enjoyed my first haul of polishes from Lemming Lacquer: February 2016, All My Failings Exposed, Wicked Always Wins and today's Gryla. Beautiful colors, all of them! My favorite was All My Failings Exposed. That one is going on the 2016 list of favorites I've started to help me remember which polishes really stood out for me when it comes time to do an end-of-the-year post. I always love it when bloggers share their yearly lists of top polishes, and I hope to be organized enough to do it myself about nine or so months from now. We'll see!

love,
Liz