ILNP Ava

Like West Wing, Ava was released in September this year by Nevada-based indie polish maker ILNP as part of the Fall 2017 collection. This is described on the ILNP website as a violet holographic polish with red and gold shimmers and holographic microflakes, and seems to be a collection favorite amongst nail bloggers and ILNP enthusiasts. Let's take a look at it!

The jelly base is a semi-translucent but vibrant French violet, a purple-leaning shade that deepens dramatically to more of Spanish violet with layering. It's brimming with infinitesimal, highly reflective, color-shifting microflake shimmers that have a unicorn pee-like red/gold/green spectrum. Within the base, their coloring runs from red-violet/magenta to red to flame to greenish gold depending upon viewing circumstances and angle of light, with a wonderful scintillating sparkle. If you've ever tossed up a handful of powdery snow in the sun, that's the kind of sparkle you get from these shimmers. In ambient light, they are visible as a twinkling mist that gives the polish a certain dimensional, lit-from-within quality, a magenta-ish glow along the axis of light dotted with fine prismatic sparks from the shardy little holographic microflakes. Direct sun elicits full-on scattered holographic sparkle over a brilliant, scintillating flame-colored cloud of shimmer.

Application was fantastic. The consistency of Ava is fluid and smooth with a medium viscosity and a fluent, self-leveling slip over the nail that is easy to control, amenable to thin or thicker coats as preference dictates and overall just a pleasure to work with. Pigmentation is sheerish and slightly patchy on the first coat but builds evenly with subsequent coats. I used three and that's what I'd recommend for most uniform opacity, especially in the sun, and richest shimmer effects. Be sure to wrap your tips with each coat to avoid any sheerness there. Cleanup is easy. Ava dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat really accentuates the presence of those color-shifting shimmers.

Photos show three coats of Ava over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

ILNP Ava

I wouldn't call Ava a holo in the usual, intrinsic sense. Generally, the look here is of a dark violet with shimmery dimensional aspects of red-violet and wine and a generous sprinkling of holographic sparkle. The shimmers are really the stars of this show and will brighten the mood of the polish or give it a more tempestuous, vampy sensibility depending on the kind of light in which it's viewed. Either way, the look is dramatic and showy, to which the scattered prismatic sparks only add. A gorgeous, beautifully-composed lacquer -- I can see why everyone loves it!

xo,
Liz