Lacquer Slacker Liz: Ever After Polish

Showing posts with label Ever After Polish. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Ever After Polish Playing With Fire

Playing With Fire was created by Rachel of Ohio-based indie polish maker Ever After Polish especially for the "Gem & Gemstones" January 2018 edition of Polish Pickup. Inspired the black opal, it has a black jelly base packed with orange, red and green color-shifting flakes as well as tiny blue holographic hex glitters and even tinier green microglitter squares.

This is a deeply cool lacquer! There are so many blue holographic glitters in there that the base, which is a translucent black, almost takes on a bit of a midnight blue/indigo vibe. The translucence of the base allows great light penetration, and all of the component colors are easily visible. Copious irregularly-shaped metallic flakies, which range in size from tiny to medium, gleam brightly as light travels over them, predominantly in variations of flame with bright green and gold being the rarest, surrounded by a galaxy of twinkling sparks in all kinds of blues from ultramarine to azure to deep turquoise.

Application was a little tetchy. The consistency of Playing With Fire is fluid and packed with components, with a thin-to-medium viscosity and a fluent, self-leveling flow over the nail. Component pay-off is excellent. You definitely feel the flakies as you apply, and I experienced tumbling with occasional stickups and attempted protrusions over the free edge. A light, careful touch will minimize this, and you can gently press any stickups down while the polish is tacky. Pigmentation is very good. Some sheerness on the first coat builds to wearable opacity with two, but I like the look at three better. Be sure to wrap your tips with every coat to avoid any sheerness there. With all of the potential for sticking components, I did my cleanup as I went along and had no issues. Playing With Fire dries naturally in good time to a shiny, gently textured finish that's mostly smoothed with topcoat.

Photos show three coats of Playing With Fire over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Girly Bits Glitter Glaze.

Ever After Polish Playing With Fire

This is an awesome fantasy polish! The radiant black opal colors translate incredibly well and stand out beautifully in the black base, just like the real thing. The look of those flame-colored flakies with the bold blue sparks of the glitters just slays me -- so stunning! I thought the formula was excellent considering its component load, and any extra care needed during application is absolutely worth it for this amazing look. Here's the inspiration pic Rachel used for Playing With Fire:

Black opal cabochon

See what I mean? So cool!

Kiersten of The Busy Nails has the BEST photos of this polish -- you can see everything! Check them out here.

love,
Liz

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Ever After Polish Heart Strings

Heart Strings was released in February this year by Ohio-based indie polish maker Ever After Polish as one of two limited edition custom polishes for Crystal's Charity Lacquers, a facebook group that solicits specially created polishes from indie makers to benefit selected charities. A portion of the profits from Heart Strings and its sister polish, You Aorta Know, was donated to the Heart & Stroke Foundation. It always feels good to be part of this kind of generosity!

Heart Strings is a beautiful medium-toned reddish pink linear holographic polish bearing abundant tiny flakes in metallic pink and silver. The color looks to me to land somewhere between cerise and French rose on the spectrum of reddish pinks, with a delicious creaminess to it that gives it a particularly graceful, genteel aspect,
enhanced by misty, holographically-nuanced hues of cherry blossom pink and lavender in bright ambient light. The pink and silver flakes gleam brightly as light travels over them and appear to stand out in relief from within the polish, created a lovely limpid depth to the look on the nail. An especially sparkly, fully linear prismatic display fires up in direct sun, with slender bands in every rainbow color surrounding a central lick of shimmering, semi-metallic pale pink.

Application was wonderful. The consistency of Heart Strings is fluid, creamy and dense with a medium viscosity and a plush, velvety glide over the nail that is easy to manipulate with Ever After Polish's slightly bushy flattened-style brush. Self-leveling properties are excellent, as is pigmentation -- it comes close to being a one-coater! I used two medium coats for evenly opaque coverage. Cleanup is easy and straightforward, and this polish went on so easily that I had only a little of it to do. Heart Strings dries naturally in very good time to a smooth finish with a soft shine. Topcoat adds a becoming gloss, enhances the presence and effects of the flakies and does not interfere with the polish's holographic properties in any way.

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

Ever After Polish Heart Strings

This is a gorgeous little gem of a polish, I just love it! You don't usually see silver paired with pink, which makes this one very special for us silver lovers. The color is clean and vibrant but not too intense, an eminently wearable, flattering shade that sits prettily on the nail. It's like the nail polish equivalent of a happy hug from a child, full of honest, heartwarming sweetness.

Keeper!

xo,
Liz

Monday, April 11, 2016

Ever After Polish Burning Twilight

Burning Twilight was originally created by Ohio-based indie polish maker Ever After Polish as a custom polish for Traci of Newsie Nail Novice, and subsequently released for sale in Ever After's big cartel shop with Traci's blessing in January this year. This is a medium-toned blue-grey scattered holo with violet undertones, a deliciously dusky color that is sort of like my favorite blue bell shade from Crayola with a few added drops of violet. It's dusted with holographic particles, and swimming within are gorgeous variously-sized duochromatic flakies with a copper to red shift, to capture Traci's vision of brightly-hued fall leaves at twilight. The flakies give the base a speckled look with random metallic glints of copper, red and pink as light travels over them, and adds some extra coppery pink sparkle to the scattered prismatic display in the sun.

Application was lovely. The consistency of Burning Twilight is fluid, creamy and smooth with a medium viscosity and a velvety glide over the nail. The flakies go on beautifully and lay flat to the nail without stacking, stickups or free edge protrusions. Self-leveling properties are excellent, and pigmentation is very good, delivering completely even opaque coverage in two coats. Cleanup is easy and straightforward -- just take care not to brush any of those flakies up underneath your cuticles! Burning Twilight dries naturally in very good time to a delightfully smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat enhances the presence of the flakies and does not interfere with the holographic properties of the polish in any way that I could tell.

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

Ever After Polish Burning Twilight

Have you ever thought about commissioning a custom polish? I haven't but I sure do want to -- it figures prominently on my polish enthusiast bucket list. I just haven't been able to come up with what I felt was the right kind of inspiration. I think Traci did a fabulous job in that respect for Burning Twilight -- such a splendid combination of colors -- and Rachel did full justice to Traci's vision with her construction of this beautiful polish.

love,
Liz

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Ever After Polish PHighting

PHighting was released by indie polish maker Ever After Polish as part of the Valerie Trio at the end of April this year. This series of polishes was created to raise funds for the family of Valerie Haines, a remarkable, selfless woman of uncommon generosity of spirit who devoted her life to serving those in need, especially medically fragile and disabled children. Valerie passed away on 15 April after suffering a brain aneurysm. Miranda and Rachel, co-owners and creators of Ever After Polish, held a charity event at the release of the Valerie Trio with a percentage of sales donated to support Valerie's family of five adopted special needs children. PHighting was inspired by and created for Valerie's daughter, Laycee Renae, who suffers from Pulmonary Hypertension.

PHighting is a creamy medium lavender bearing abundant blue/magenta duochromatic flake shimmers. The color is a true floral lavender, extremely flattering on the nail, and the flake shimmers floating within the polish create a cloudy visual texture that reminds me of a mackerel sky. The predominating color of the flakes depends upon their position relative to the source of light. Direct light elicits a sparkling bright blue and leans the lavender base color toward periwinkle. Indirect light generates a glowing magenta and adds a pinkish flash along the axis of light. There are also circumstances when blue and magenta appear simultaneously on different parts of the nail. This glistening chameleon quality provides additional visual interest to the shimmer-stippled look of the polish. Very pretty!

Application was great! The consistency of PHighting is fluid and smooth with a little bit of pull to it but an easy flow over the nail. This is a fast-drying polish that likes to thicken with exposure to air, so a deft, light touch and thinner coats provide for most even painting. Closing the bottle and giving it a brisk shake periodically helps to re-establish initial fluidity if the brush thickens with polish. Coverage is buildable. The first coat was quite sheer, but the opacity builds significantly with the second coat and by the third I achieved an evenly opaque coverage I was happy with. Those with shorter nails will probably not feel the need for a third coat. Cleanup is fairly straightforward with a little bit of stickiness on the part of the flake shimmers. PHighting dries naturally in very good time to a semi-matte sort of finish that loves a generous topcoat to even everything out and add gloss.

Photos show three coats of PHighting over treatment and basecoat with a slightly bubbly topcoat of Seche Vite.

Ever After Polish PHighting

I find this kind of dewy, glistening visual texture extremely appealing. There's a certain fresh rustic quality to it that becomes an artisan-crafted polish. The lavender base color of PHighting is actually fairly deep for a lavender, but it's true to it's nature and always looks lavender, not purple or violet. I should note that the colors reflected by the flake shimmers are much more vibrant and their sparkle more pronounced in person than what you see in my photos. I wish I could have captured an image in direct sun showing the crop of gleaming blue sparks that light up under those circumstances, but my camera would have none of it. Suffice to say that this polish is even prettier and more remarkable than the photos show.

love,
Liz