Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Sexy Mother was released in January 2015 by Colorado-based indie polish maker Colors by Llarowe (CbL) as part of the New Year, New CbL collection. It's described as a deep royal blue holo in its listing on the CbL website and it's a great representation of what's known as traditional royal blue, a very dark, clean shade of azure with aspirations to indigo. Alternatively, you might just call it a standard dark blue, and it could easily stand in for navy although I think that it's fundamentally a more colorful shade. Inky, intense and profoundly pigmented, the strength and richness of the color remind me of brand new dark denim. Abundant ultrafine holographic pigment heightens that effect, creating dimensionalizing hues of ultramarine and bright royal blue within the base in ambient light. In the sun, there's a brilliant, sparkling prismatic display predominated by the same bright royal blue edged by a slender corona of vibrant grassy green sparks. 

Application was dreamy, mostly. The polish seemed a little too thick for my skills in the bottle so I added a couple of squirts of thinner at the outset. Once thinned to a medium viscosity, it was glorious, with a fluid, very creamy consistency and a luxurious, maglev-smooth, self-leveling slip over the nail. Pigmentation is outstanding, a true one-coater. I used two, as usual, to fix the  imperfections of my first coat, but it was completely unnecessary in terms of color and opacity. Cleanup is a little bit of a bear -- a baby bear! -- due to pigment travel and potential for residual staining. Is is worth the trouble? Absolutely, but all the more reason to go for as clean a manicure as possible from the get-go. Sexy Mother dries naturally in very good time to smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat does not appear to affect the holographic properties in any way. 

Photos show two coats of Sexy Mother over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Colors by Llarowe Sexy Mother

Fabulous! The holographic pigment seems to amplify the unmuddied quality of this shade by illuminating it, giving it a certain radiant quality -- if such a dark shade can be called radiant. To me, the illuminated inkiness of the color is far more interesting and irresistible to the eye than brighter blue holos, although I love them too.

Given my predilection for dark blue holos, I have no idea why it took me so long to pick this up. I'm sure glad I did, though. It's in good company with the two other dark blue holos, In the Navy and Independence Day (the latter is actually a holographic microglitter, but it delivers a scattered prismatic effect) in my CbL collection. They are all different and I love all three, although I must admit that Independence Day's delightful sparkle has a special place in my heart. 

love,
Liz