Lacquer Slacker Liz: Il Était Un Vernis Radioactive Love

Monday, April 10, 2017

Il Était Un Vernis Radioactive Love

Radioactive Love was released last month by French boutique polish maker Il Était Un Vernis as part of the Juice Bar collection for spring 2017. Described by co-creators Bé and Stéphanie as a "grape juice" purple holo, the color is a dark, saturated variation of violet that, in ambient light, reads as a velvety Spanish violet with aspects of indigo and navy. It's filled with ultrafine holographic pigment that totally illuminates it in the sun, brightening the color to a glorious, rich grape shade along the axis of light, surrounded by brilliant scattered prismatic sparkle. There seems to be some very fine silver shimmer going on also but I can't tell whether it's an additional component or just the twinkle of the holographic particles.

Application was great! The consistency of Radioactive Love is fluid, dense and creamy with a medium viscosity and a lush, even, self-leveling glide over the nail. Pigmentation is excellent. With the proper mojo, one medium coat will net evenly opaque coverage, but I used two to fix some lines left wanting after my first coat. Cleanup is straightforward -- a little pigment travel as you might expect from a color this deep and saturated but no residual staining to speak of. Radioactive Love dries naturally in very good time to a finish so glossy that it almost makes topcoating seem redundant. Nice!

Photos show two coats of Radioactive Love over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Il Était Un Vernis Radioactive Love

Just when I begin to wonder why I don't seem to be feeling purples like I used to, along come three of them in a week to bring back the love. First it was Blush Lacquers' indigo Midnight Sleigh Ride, then yesterday's Living on Borrowed Time by Llarowe and now this plush, elegant beauty by Il Était Un Vernis!

Bé noted in a post about the Juice Bar collection on her blog Vernis En Folie (translanted from the French by Google) that Radioactive Love is cousin to Il Était Un Vernis' Cabernet Sauvignon from 2015's Grand Crus collection, so if you loved that deep plum, this one will certainly please you as well. It has more blue to it and thus is more of a true violet, but they share that sense of luxuriousness, femininity and stylish sophistication touched with a graceful hint of romance.

I adore the way it blooms in the sun! So gorgeous!

love,
Liz

2 comments:

lasotiApril 11, 2017 at 2:31 PM
Oh heck I really really *really* need to get myself some IÉUV. So beautiful!
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