ILNP West Wing

West Wing was released at the beginning of this month by Nevada-based indie polish maker ILNP as part of the new Fall 2017 collection. Officially described as a dark plum holographic polish with scattered gold flakes and purple shimmer, the color is a very dark, almost blackened variation of violet along the lines of Russian violet. If there was such a thing as midnight violet, it would look like this. It's dusted with silvery holographic microflakes that light up in twinkling prismatic sparks in ambient light, as well as tiny golden microflakes that gleam as light travels over them. In the sun, the inky color couches a brilliant scattered prismatic display, and the rainbow colors are especially bright and sparkly in contrast.

Application was great! The consistency of West Wing is fluid and smooth with a thin-to-medium viscosity and a fluent, self-leveling slip over the nail, a lovely, mobile formula that is opaque in two coats. Cleanup is straightforward with a skosh of pigment travel as you might expect from such a dark shade, and some stickiness on the part of the microflake components. West Wing dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of West Wing over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

ILNP West Wing

One of my readers wondered how West Wing might compare to Picture Polish's Mythical, so I have side-by-side swatch palette comparison shots of the two:

Picture Polish Mythical (left) and ILNP West Wing (right)

Picture Polish Mythical (left) and ILNP West Wing (right)

Excellent comparison call! Mythical's violet is not as dark as West Wing's and consequently has a brighter, more accessible look and feel, and the color maintains it's violet-ness even in lower light. West Wing is a profoundly inky shade that looks black in low light and is much more inscrutable and arcane on the nail with a little bit of a gothic quality to it. Mythical's scattered holographic flakies are slightly larger overall than West Wing's, but both put on a sparkly prismatic show in the sun. If I had to pick only one of these two for myself, it would be Mythical -- but I tend to favor brighter, more accessible colors. If vamps are your thing, West Wing definitely wins out. ;)

love,
Liz