Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Cosmic Moment was released earlier this summer by Texas-based indie polish maker Illyrian Polish as part of the Free Spirit collection. It's officially described as a "dark murky denim blue holo base with a subtle teal green to dark purple shift." To me, the base color is a dark, cloudy midnight blue, almost a Prussian blue but for a bit of jelly-ish translucence that makes it not quite so heavy and dense. It's an ideal platform for the superabundant green/violet color-shifting particulate shimmers to work their beetle-wing magic, shading the nail with pronounced shimmering swaths of foresty teal green and dark violet with an accompanying transparent purple sheen at various angles to the light. The holographic effects are responsive and athletic, combining with the shimmer colors to dimensionalize the look with hues of pine and bottle green, blackened violet and navy in ambient light. 

Application was quite agreeable. The consistency of Cosmic Moment is fluid and dense with a medium viscosity and a smooth, oily glide over the nail. I doctored it with polish thinner to alleviate a bit of stickiness to the jelly formula and accomodate my slow, shaky painting practices. Pigmentation is sheerish and streaky on the first coat, but builds quickly to wearable opacity with the second. I added a third to maximize the shiftiness and holographic properties. Cleanup is easy. Cosmic Moment dries naturally in very good time to a smooth shiny finish. Topcoat enhances the presence and effects of the color-shifting shimmers.

Photos show three coats of Cosmic Moment over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

Illyrian Polish Cosmic Moment

A mysterious, murky masterpiece of holo and raven's-wing color shift! The shifts, especially the green, are much more overtly visible in person. There's an aspect of foreboding to this look that reminds me of dark roily thunderclouds and the smell of ozone. Moody and enigmatic on the nail, it's the kind of shade a sorceress would wear. You look at it and think, whoa, there's some powerful hoo doo happening here!

love,
Liz