Picture Polish Haven

Haven was released toward the end of June this year by Australian boutique polish maker Picture Polish as one of six new Collaboration shades. It was designed by Margaret of the blog Loves Lacquer and loveslacquer on Instagram, inspired by the sands of Whitehaven Beach on Whitsunday Island in North Queensland, Australia, her favorite beach. Read Margaret's IG post about Haven here.

Described as a sandy scattered holographic polish, the color is a translucent off-white with subtle aspects of grey and beige that's similar to bone but even more desaturated, a graceful, diaphanous shade. PP's signature scattered holographic flakies give it a delicate, sun-on-snow twinkle as light travels over it and create a field of pasteled prismatic sparks in the sun.

Application was lovely. The consistency of Haven is fluid, light and silky smooth with a thinnish-to-medium viscosity and an effortless, buttery, self-leveling slip over the nail that likes to go on in thin coats. Pigmentation is sheer. It applies somewhat unevenly, especially over my ubiquitous nail ridges, with streakiness on the first and second coats that mostly evens out to a wearable opacity with a skosh of visible nail line on the third. I used four for the photos to minimize the appearance of my ridges, but if I weren't taking pictures I'd happily wear it at three -- it's the kind of polish where a touch of visible nail line feels natural and doesn't detract from the beauty of the polish. Cleanup is easy. Haven dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

Photos show four coats of Haven over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

http://lakkomlakkom.hu

Picture Polish Haven

Picture Polish Haven

Picture Polish Haven

Picture Polish Haven

Picture Polish Haven

Picture Polish Haven

Picture Polish Haven

Picture Polish Haven

Picture Polish Haven

Picture Polish Haven

Picture Polish Haven

I'm not typically attracted to white nail polish and I'm a little mystified myself as to what it is about Haven that pleases me so much. Perhaps it's the fact that this isn't a white. The coloring is subtle, to be sure, but its beauty lies in its exquisite delicacy, the sheer discretion of the careful addition of pigments that make it what it is. And there's also the beach reference -- it really does resemble fine white sand.

Whitehaven Beach (source). Accessible only by helicopter or boat and stretching across more than four miles of Whitsunday Island's east coast, it's one of Australia's most photographed beaches. The dreamy alabaster sands are made up of 98% pure white silica and do not retain heat the way most beach sand does.

If you're wondering how this polish compares to Picture Polish's other "white" Collaboration shade, LakoDom, Edina of lakkomlakkom thoughtfully includes a side-by-side comparison photo in her review of this group of Collaboration shades, here.

love,
Liz