6 Harts Polish Red Hot Momma

Red Hot Momma was released last month by Montana-based indie polish maker 6 Harts Polish as part of the inaugural installment of creator Courtney's Strong Woman series, an ongoing collection in tribute to "competent, feisty, resilient and beautiful" women everywhere, with two new polishes added every month. 

Courtney describes Red Hot Momma as "a rich, heavily pigmented red creme." The color is a medium-toned Indian red, so named after the reddish, iron oxide laden soil found in India, with a creamy, clay-like demeanor and aspects of red-orange and terra cotta. It reminds me a little bit of that famous orange-ish lipstick that changed colors once applied, Tangee. I don't know why because it's definitely much more of a red than an orange, but it's got a certain feisty, retro quality that I can't quite put my finger on. 

Application was lovely. Red Hot Momma has a fluid, full-bodied, very creamy consistency with a medium viscosity and a lush, velvety glide over the nail. Pigmentation is excellent. With a careful hand, completely even opaque coverage can be had in one coat. I used two for this manicure for the same reason I always do, to correct and finesse all the lines left wanting after my first coat, but it didn't change the look one bit. Cleanup was surprisingly issue-free. Red Hot Momma dries naturally in good time to a beautiful glossy finish. 

Photos show two coats of Red Hot Momma over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

6 Harts Polish Red Hot Momma

6 Harts Polish Red Hot Momma

6 Harts Polish Red Hot Momma

6 Harts Polish Red Hot Momma

6 Harts Polish Red Hot Momma

6 Harts Polish Red Hot Momma

6 Harts Polish Red Hot Momma

6 Harts Polish Red Hot Momma

6 Harts Polish Red Hot Momma

The color of this polish photographs a bit brighter and cleaner than it appears in person. In addition to the retro vibe I mentioned above, it reminds me of certain kinds of polished red coral. I can also see it as a canyon-colored sort of red that would probably make an excellent pairing with turquoise for nail art with a southwestern flair.  
love,
Liz

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies

Today's polish, Summer Skies, is from a new-to-me indie polish maker, Montana-based 6 Harts Polish. I won two of Courtney's polishes in a December give-away, hooray! As you'd expect, today's weather is decidedly not summery. It's typical for winter here in central NC: hovering just below 40℉, overcast with intermittant spitting rain and a forecast for ice. Perfect for staying indoors and playing with nail polish.

Judging from the amount of blog posts featuring it generated around that time, I believe Summer Skies was released by 6 Harts Polish in February last year. It has a beautiful whitened azure creme/jelly hybrid sort of base with just the right amount of golden shimmers that shift to light green when the light hits them at oblique angles. Courtney, the owner and creative force behind 6 Harts, states that this polish was created "with Montana summers in mind." It's the sort of pale sky blue that I associate with the rim of the big bowl of the sky, the part closest to the horizon. It's a lovely, serene color, perfectly complemented by the sprinkling of shimmers sparkling delicately across the surface of the polish.

Application was great! Past experiences with pale colors had me eyeing this beauty with some apprehension but it turned out to be completely unfounded. The consistency of Summer Skies is quite fluid (but not too), creamy and smooth, with a light, silky, self-leveling flow over the nail. There was some streakiness during application as is pretty normal for white-based polishes. By the third coat it evened out nicely in person, although I can still detect some unevenness to the opacity in my photos. Even so, I could not be more pleased with the way this polish applied, it was revelatory: pastel polish, great application, what?! I have a feeling that someone with more application finesse than I could even get away with two coats if they didn't mind a hint of visible nail line. Cleanup was easy and straightforward. Summer Skies dries naturally in fairly good time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show three coats of Summer Skies over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat. Unfortunately, I did this beautiful polish no justice with my unacceptably careless topcoat of Seche Vite. I failed to encapsulate the entirety of Summer Skies with topcoat on my left hand, which produced a noticeable corona of untopcoated polish by the cuticle on several nails. My bad.

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies, with bonus topcoat bubble!

6 Harts Polish Summer Skies

I'm really digging this polish despite the topcoat debacle (much less noticeable in person but kinda horrifying in the pics. Thanks, macro. NOT.) With the shimmer providing just the right kind of atmospheric sparkle, this polish has a clean, fresh quality to it, and I think it's as pretty for winter as it would be for spring or summer.

This polish reminds me very much of another Montana polish enthusiast, Marisa Sprinklepuff of the blog Tiny Twinklings.  If you read her blog, you know her affection for pale icy colors and delicate shimmer. Marisa, this one's for you!

love,
Liz