Lacquer Slacker Liz: Darling Diva

Showing posts with label Darling Diva. Show all posts

Friday, November 24, 2017

Darling Diva Chi Town Divas

Chi Town Divas was created by Carrie of Minnesota-based indie polish maker Darling Diva Polish especially for Polish Con September 2017 in Chicago and released as part of the Road to Polish Con series in July this year.

I had originally thought that this was a microglitter, but it's not. The jelly-like base is a dark red that is similar in appearance to rich maroon. It is absolutely packed with silver holographic particles and tiny silver holographic microflakes, which glow in shades of silver, pink, rose and red from within the base as light travels over them and give the finish a delicious, finely-flecked appearance that reminds me of apple skin. In the sun, that glow becomes a sparkle and blankets the polish with a scattered carpet of bright rainbow sparks, and there's a gorgeous prismatic flush along the axis of light predominated by brilliant rosy pink, fuchsia and bright red.

The consistency of Chi Town Divas is fluid, dense and slightly sticky, with a thicker viscosity to which I added a couple of polish thinner at the outset. Even thinned, it retained a dense quality, with a lush, self-leveling glide over the nail. The holographic microflakes present absolutely no issues to application. Pigmentation is excellent, possibly a one-coater for some, but I used two for most even opacity and best depth of color. Cleanup is surprisingly easy. Chi Town Divas dries naturally in good time to a smooth, ever-so-slightly flat finish that wants a glossy topcoat to look its best.

Photos show two coats of Chi Town Divas over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Darling Diva Chi Town Divas

Beautiful! There's more red to the color than a typical burgundy, which usually has strong purple tones to it, and the teeming holographic microflakes are dense enough to create a stealthy, semi-metallic underlay in a brilliant rosy hue. While not as overtly showy as a microglitter bomb or a conventional holo, there's boatloads of dimension and light play.

I like it. I like it very much!

love,
Liz

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Darling Diva I Want to Bang You Like a Screen Door in a Hurricane over Cirque Memento Mori

I Want to Bang You Like a Screen Door in a Hurricane was released in February this year by Minnesota-based indie polish maker Darling Diva Polish as part of the Bad Pick Up Lines Part Deux collection for Valentine's 2017, a series of six toppers and one black creme that picks up from Carrie's Bad Pick Up Lines collection for Valentine's 2015. The names for Part Deux were solicited from the members of We're All Darling Divas, the brand's Facebook fan group, and I have to say that they really delivered the goods. So to speak!

This particular polish is one of four multichrome flakie toppers in the collection, with metallic colorshifting flakies that display a spectrum of reds, pinks, oranges, golds and yellows as well as holographic flakies, all suspended in a clear base. The shardy little multichrome flakes in bright, glowing, sunset colors punctuated by silvery holo flakes are too delicious for words, especially over black. Carrie says it reminds her of a monarch butterfly, and it really does! It's like a multichrome flakie version of CrowsToes' awesome glitter polish Shoot the Butterfly from 2013. I love it!

I used Cirque's rich black one-coat creme, Memento Mori, as my base color for this manicure. The consistency of I Want to Bang You Like a Screen Door in a Hurricane is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and a remarkably fluent, even, self-leveling glide over the nail. I had no difficulties whatsoever working with this beautifully-formulated lacquer and the component payoff is Goldilocks fabulous, neither too sparse nor too dense, and requires no special technique to disperse evenly over the nail without stacking, stickups or protrusions over the free edge. I applied one medium coat, and did my cleanup as I went along. I Want to Bang You Like a Screen Door in a Hurricane dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

Photos show one coat of Memento More over treatment and basecoat topped with one coat of I Want to Bang You Like a Screen Door in a Hurricane and finished with a layer of Seche Vite.

Darling Diva I Want to Bang You Like a Screen Door in a Hurricane over Cirque Memento Mori

Eye candy! This is an awesome fantasy polish look, not for everyday perhaps but variety is the spice! I absolutely adore the colorway and the drama of the colors against the black. Those multichrome flakies gleam and shift in the most mesmerizing manner -- I can hardly take my eyes off of them long enough to type! In the sun, of course, you have the added brilliance of prismatic sparkle, but I like the look in ambient light best. Fantastic work, Carrie!

love,
Liz

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Darling Diva Electric Barbie-rella

Electric Barbie-rella was released last month by Minnesota-based indie polish maker Darling Diva Polish as one of three custom, limited edition polishes for January 2017 created exclusively for members of the Hella Holo Customs (HHC) Facebook group. Described as a magenta linear jelly holo with blue/violet microglitters, the color here is a translucent medium to medium-dark variation of magenta along the lines of magenta dye or fuchsia rose with gentle rosy overtones and aspects of mulberry. The blue/violet microglitters are holographic and emit bright sparks in rainbow colors as light travels over them, creating a sensuous, prismatic twinkling effect. Finely milled holographic pigment gives the base a visual texture that reminds me of sand-washed silk, and generates a demi-flare of violet and misty thulian pink in ambient light. The base color brightens dramatically in the sun, which generates a brilliant linear holographic display, slightly dispersed by the glitters, with vibrant twin arcs of azure and bright red surrounding a gleaming lick of silvery Mexican pink.

Application was fraught with swipage. The consistency of Electric Barbie-rella is fluid, smooth and somewhat sticky with a medium-to-thicker viscosity and a self-leveling glide over the nail. It has the characteristic that I associate with jelly-ish polishes of preferring to stick to itself above anything else, and I swiped lots of skin trying to get good sidewall lines especially. No biggie, as this polish cleans up easily, and those who prefer a thicker viscosity will likely have no difficulties with it. Pigmentation is sheerish. It can achieve a wearable opacity in two generous coats, but I used three thin-to-medium coats to avoid any areas of sheerness. Electric Barbe-rella dries naturally in good time to a shiny, gently textured finish that is smoothed to the touch by topcoat. Topcoat does not affect the holographic properties in any way.

Photos show three coats of Electric Barbie-rella over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Darling Diva Electric Barbie-rella

The microglitters really stand out in close photos -- not so much to the unaided eye in person, where their presence is much more blended into the overall visual texture of the polish.

I love that microglitter-generated prismatic sparkle in this polish! It's a beautiful accompaniment to the juicy berry-pink color and the dynamic twinkle, especially in ambient light, is hypnotic and kind of addictive... I spent more time than I care to admit today flexing my fingers and staring at those winking rainbow sparks. So pretty!

love,
Liz

Thursday, January 5, 2017

Darling Diva Vivien

Vivien was created by Minnesota-based indie polish maker Darling Diva Polish exclusively for inclusion in the December 2016 edition of The Holo Hookup collaborative polish box, released for pre-order in November. Darling Diva was the special guest polish maker for this box, entitled Hollywood Bombshells, which also featured creations from regular contributors Cupcake Polish, Different Dimension and Glisten & Glow.

Inspired by British actress Vivien Leigh, Vivien is a dark red linear holographic polish with gold sparks in a jelly formula. The color is a deep, complex variation of ruby, less purple and cleaner than I usually think of for burgundy but similarly full-bodied. It is warmed to something along the lines of firebrick by abundant minute gold microflake shimmers, which appear as floating red-gold sparks and give it a handsome glowing semi-metallic underlay. Finely-milled holographic pigment generates a flare of translucent violet in ambient light, and in the sun there's a bright linear display, spangled and slightly diffused by the golden microflakes and predominated by arcs of violet, azure and red, surrounding a sparkly slender lick of semi-metallic dark red.

Application was great! The consistency of Vivien is fluid, smooth and slightly sticky with a medium-to-thicker consistency and a plush, self-leveling glide over the nail that sets up fairly quickly. Pigmentation is very good, delivering evenly opaque coverage in two coats. Cleanup is easy. Vivien dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat serves to emphasize the presence and effects of the microflake shimmers and does not alter the holographic effects in any way.

Photos show two coats of Vivien over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Darling Diva Vivien

Another marvelous bombshell polish from this box! The color is rich and dimensional on the nail, and the twinkle from those floating red-gold sparks adds an especially glamorous touch. Vivien is one of those polishes that stealthily becomes more and more luxurious and beautiful the closer you get to it, a phenomenon that I identify with precise, careful craftsmanship. This polish has it in spades!

love,
Liz

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Darling Diva I'd Just As Soon Kiss a Wookiee

I'd Just As Soon Kiss a Wookiee (and yes, it is indeed spelled with two e's -- see for yourself!) was released by Minnesota-based indie polish maker Darling Diva Polish as part of The Force collection in December 2015 to coincide with the release of the seventh installment in the Star Wars epic space opera film series, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The polishes in this collection take their inspiration and names from cinematic moments across the series. The name of this particular polish comes from an exchange between Princess Leia and Han Solo in the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back.

Kiss a Wookiee (for short) is a purple holographic polish. The color is a medium-light purple, a slightly dusky, desaturated version of something like purpureus, only with a sort of berried sense to it. It has a milky, translucent creme/jelly hybrid kind of formula that allows plenty of light to penetrate and feast upon the multitudinous holographic elements within. There's holo pigment, of course, and then all kinds of variously sized and shaped holographic shimmers, including flakes, shards and even tiny slender bars. All those shaggy bits give the polish a truly cosmic prismatic sparkle in the sun, scattered as you'd expect from this size of component but at extreme angles you can also see a vestigial linear display. Out of the sun in indirect and low light, they give the base color a delicious silvery speckled look with the occasional twinkle when one of the holographic pieces catches the light just right.

Application was an adventure. The consistency of Kiss a Wookiee is fluid and a little fluffy from all the components, with a medium viscosity and a bit of pull to it during application. The holo bits are rowdy little suckers with an inclination to tumble over the nail, stick up out of the polish and even protrude over the free edge. Somehow, though, none of that stuff really affects how the polish turns out -- protrusions are easy to guide back onto the nail and topcoat envelopes and/or manages to flatten the tiny stickups. Pigmentation is startlingly sheer on the first coat, especially if its a thin one, but builds easily to wearable opacity in two to three coats depending upon application style and opacity preference. I used three coats for best approximation of bottle color and richest holographic display. Cleanup is pretty much a matter of chasing down the holo shimmers, which are quite companionable. Kiss a Wookiee dries naturally in good time to a more compact layer than you'd expect given its initial fluffiness and the density of components, and to a shade slightly lighter and milkier than bottle color. As I mentioned, a generous layer of topcoat will smooth out any stickups and provide a nice glossy finish.

Photos show three coats of I'd Just As Soon Kiss a Wookiee over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Darling Diva I'd Just As Soon Kiss a Wookiee

This particular shade of purple reminds me of nothing so much as the 1955 children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crocket Johnson. Remember Harold?

(source)

Creator Carrie has done Harold a solid with Kiss a Wookiee!

What I love most about this polish is something that I just couldn't manage to capture in a photo. It's the predominance of electric blue in the polish's scattered prismatic display in the sun. Jennifer of My Nail Polish Obsession has a great macro of the effect in her review of The Force collection, here. That bright blue (which, now that I look, is surprisingly similar to the color of Harold's pjs... hmm...) sparkling against the purple is so unexpected and gorgeous!

I have a lot of affection for this polish with its resplendent prismatic sparkle and sweet, nostalgic shade of purple. Must be the Harold effect.

love,
Liz