Great Lakes Lacquer The Cold Hour of Dawn

Like In Brightness, The Cold Hour of Dawn was released this past November by Michigan-based indie polish maker Great Lakes Lacquer as part of the Holiday 2017 collection, a quartet of lacquers themed around Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Match Girl."

This polish is officially described as "a royal blue soft holographic filled with shimmer that shifts from magenta and red to bronze to green." The base color is a translucent, medium-dark variation of web royal blue. The degree of translucence gives it a softened, misty quality that I find unusual for this kind of shade, a quality that is enhanced by superabundant color-shifting shimmers glistening within, reading most readily as magenta and creating a wide, bold swath of it along the axis of light with a shift through bronze to green at oblique angles. The power of the shimmers is such that the polish takes on the appearance of a Munsell purple or vivid violet when in motion, and a darker eminence purple in low and incandescent light. The holographic effects have more of a supporting role in this polish, creating a finely-grained visual texture and a dimensional, mobile prismatic flush of azure in ambient light.

Application was lovely. The consistency of The Cold Hour of Dawn is fluid, light and loamy with a medium consistency and a fluent, smooth, self-leveling glide over the nail that sets up fairly quickly and does not appreciate being messed with after that. Pigmentation is very good. Two to three medium coats will net evenly opaque coverage -- two only for shorter nails and two to three for longer. Cleanup is straightforward. The Cold Hour of Dawn dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

Photos show three coats of The Cold Hour of Dawn over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Great Lakes Lacquer The Cold Hour of Dawn

Great Lakes Lacquer The Cold Hour of Dawn

Great Lakes Lacquer The Cold Hour of Dawn

Great Lakes Lacquer The Cold Hour of Dawn

Great Lakes Lacquer The Cold Hour of Dawn

Great Lakes Lacquer The Cold Hour of Dawn

Great Lakes Lacquer The Cold Hour of Dawn

Great Lakes Lacquer The Cold Hour of Dawn

Needless to say, the shimmer is the star of this show! The translucence of the blue base has light-gathering properties that make the polish particularly luminous on the nail -- it's an elegant showcase for those wonderful, glistening magenta shimmers. Beautifully done!

love,
Liz