Lacquer Slacker Liz: Hare Polish

Showing posts with label Hare Polish. Show all posts

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Hare Polish Sparkwood & 21

Sparkwood & 21 was released by California-based indie polish maker Hare Polish as part of the Welcome to Twin Peaks Part 2 collection in December 2014. This is a medium-dark blue-green jelly swimming with copper flakies and microflake shimmers. The color is a darkish cyanic shade that lands somewhere between verdigris and cerulean. It's a hard one to pin down but reminds me most of something along the lines of a dense murky bondi blue. With its generous freckling of copper flakies and shimmers, it's the sort of polish that suits the season well. The components read from deeper within the jelly base as variably-sized flecks of very dark red-violet, but closer to the surface the copper color emerges, displaying gleaming flashes of pink when the light hits just right.

Application was delicious. The consistency of Sparkwood & 21 is fluid, light and smooth with a silky, self-leveling glide over the nail and well-behaved components. It has a nicely balanced viscosity for painting, a tad on the fluid side but given a jelly's common propensity for stickiness I much prefer a formula with this kind of fluidity. It's actually quite user friendly, doesn't run or pool, and is easy to manipulate with Hare's flattened flexible brush. There is a degree of translucence to the pigmentation that requires multiple layers to reach opacity. The first coat is evenly sheer. Coverage begins building with the second coat and those with shorter nails may be happy with it there. I still had areas of sheerness so I added a third coat for completely even opacity. Cleanup is fairly straightforward with some truculence on the part of the copper flakies, which part from the nail environs reluctantly, especially if given purchase in the sidewalls. You may or may not see evidence of this in the photos. Sparkwood & 21 dries naturally in very good time to a slick glossy finish. Nice!

Photos show three coat of Sparkwood & 21 over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Hare Polish Sparkwood & 21

The rich color and subtle dimensionality of Sparkwood & 21 evokes a sense of picturesque autumnal chic. I can easily conjure up a mental image of wearing this on a gusty, rainy fall day with flaming maples, purple dogwoods, and yellow pin oaks reflected in the slick black asphalt of the road that is edged by leaves already fallen.

I feel like Part 2 of creator Nikole's homage to Twin Peaks is somewhat more literal, less fantastical than Part 1. Back in February I featured another polish from Part 2, The Norwegians are Leaving. There's one other from this collection that I might grab if I see it during one of Nikole's restocks, My Log Has Something to Tell You. But I'm also wanting to re-examine the Winter 2014: Abduction of Persephone collection, which more or less just went right over my head when it was released. Oh, and I almost forgot Sea Bunny -- gotta get that one!

That's the thing about Hare. Nikole creates certain polishes that stay with you, ruminating, until you finally get your hands on them. Luckily her restocks are generally quite eclectic and include old favorites as well as newer releases.

Do you have a Hare Polish encampment in your consciousness?

love,
Liz

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM

Two Forty-five AM was released by California-based indie polish maker Hare Polish as a limited edition stand alone polish towards the end of August this year. Other than the polishes she creates for box collections, Nikole doesn't typically do limited editions. This one was limited to 75 bottles, and just happened to still be available at the time I came across Hare's blog post announcing it's release.

Two Forty-five AM is an example of what I think of as Nikole's "mini flotsam" type of polish, a creme/jelly hybrid laced with various tiny components. She describes the base color for this one as a lavender with grey and periwinkle tones. This isn't a wimpy lavender, it has a more robust character that gives the color a little push. It's like a tropical indigo with slatey-blue overtones, the sort of color you see in the clouds when it's getting ready to storm. Mixed into this color is a plethora of diminutive glitters and flakies in a variety of colors -- tiny square and hex glitters in white, shiny blue and green ultrachrome flakies and orangey copper flakies -- creating a lovely speckled pastiche on the nail. This seemingly random miscellany invites closer scrutiny and adds visual texture in a particularly graceful way. It's a charmer!

Application was dreamy. The consistency of Two Forty-five AM is fluid, light and creamy-smooth, with an easy, self-leveling glide over the nail. It has a perfectly balanced viscosity for painting, with no interference at all from the copious glitters and flakies. As a creme/jelly hybrid, there's a degree of translucence to the formula but it builds quickly to wearable opacity in two medium coats. I added a third for the photos, but I actually prefer it at two coats where lingering sheerness gives it a delicate, diaphanous quality. This polish went on so nicely that I barely had any cleanup to do, but as with all component-laden polishes I suggest doing your cleanup as you go along while the polish is still wet and the glitters and whatnot haven't had a chance to adhere firmly to skin, nail or cuticle. Two Forty-five AM dries naturally in very good time to a surprisingly smooth, shiny finish with almost no discernible texture from the components.

Photos show three coats of Two Forty-five AM over Pretty Serious Rock On nail strengthening treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base ridge-filling basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. It's overcast and raining here today so the blue-grey overtones are strong, and I imagine that you would see more of the lavender in the sun.

Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM

Nikole's mini flotsam polishes tend to have a random, organic feel, but I've often found them to possess distinct structures in terms of color. Two Forty-five AM is a particularly good example of this. On a color wheel, the complementary color for purple (base color) is green (green ultrachrome flakies). Triadic complementary colors are orange (copper flakies) and blue-green (blue ultrachrome flakies). The tiny white square and hex glitters are a what I call a creator's conceit, or signature touch. Nikole often includes tiny squares like these white ones in her component mixes. In this polish, they sort of pull all of the other components together with a delicacy that keeps the focus on the many small pieces of this puzzle.

I absolutely love this color, even if my photos don't show as much of the lavender as you see in person. It has a wonderful synchronicity with the overcast sky right about now, and possesses a pleasantly insouciant feel on the nail, a sort of imperturbable, relaxed serenity that makes it quite gratifying to wear.

I think I'll keep this one on for a few days.

love,
Liz

Sunday, August 16, 2015

Hare Polish Dreams Under a Microscope

Dreams Under a Microscope was released by Los Angeles-based indie polish maker Hare Polish as part of the ongoing Jackalope series of stand-alone polishes in mid-July this year. This polish has a medium-light dusky turquoise blue creme/jelly hybrid base that is stuffed with more goodies than a Christmas stocking. There are tiny square glitters in pearly white and lavender and an assortment of flakies in charcoal, copper and white as well as multichromatic flakies with a predominantly purple shift but flash magenta, blue and lime as well, plus a sprinkling of fine holographic pigment. The abundant components combine to add to the muted quality of the color, which leans ever so slightly to the azure side of the cyan/azure spectrum, and provide the polish with the deliciously speckled egg-like appearance that never ceases to charm. Soft and demure in low light and shade, Dreams Under a Microscope brings forth a delightful cornucopia of tiny sparkling bits in the sun, which twinkle like grains of quartz in a macadam road at high noon. With immense visual interest and dimensionality, each nail swims with minute bits of shape and color like miniature portraits of oceanic flotsam seen from high above.

Application was lovely. The consistency of Dreams Under a Microscope is fluid, light and smooth. This is a thinner formula than what I usually expect from Hare and I love it! User-friendly and easily manipulated with Hare's flattened flexible brush, it has a silky slip over the nail, goes right where you put it and stays there. The components are very well-behaved and I experienced no tumbling and only a few free edge protrusions, which disappeared with a tip-wrapping swipe of the brush. Self-leveling properties are excellent. The base has a degree of built-in translucence, so opacity is achieved through multiple coats. However, I believe that those with shorter, less stained nails than mine may be completely happy with the coverage at two coats. I used three for this manicure. Cleanup is easy and straightforward provided you do it before the components have the opportunity to dry on skin or cuticle, at which point they become a little sticky. Dreams Under a Microscope dries naturally in very good time to an ever-so-slightly textured shiny finish. Two layers of topcoat would probably render a glassy finish, but I only used one. Topcoat seems to enhance the presence and effects of the components.

Photos show three coats of Dreams Under a Microscope over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Hare Polish Dreams Under a Microscope

A sweet, unusual polish with true indie soul, I am loving this gentle turquoise with its abundance of multi-colored components. It has received the full benefit of Nikole's love for rich, unexpected color combinations, only here in miniature. I read once that the common human adoration for tiny things stems from an evolutionarily-bred desire to protect and treasure their offspring, but I think there's more to it than that. Attention to detail is a natural human attribute. Miniatures provide an array of detail in a tightly bounded space, and I think limitations of size increase the visual and intellectual stimulation exponentially.

Or maybe I'm just an overly detail-oriented kind of person. Yeah, probably that.

love,
Liz

Saturday, July 4, 2015

Hare Polish I'm Your National Anthem

I'm Your National Anthem was released by indie polish maker Hare Polish as part of the limited edition Lana Del Rey duo at the end of May this year. For those (like me) who aren't familiar with her, Lana Del Rey (b. 1985) is an American singer-songwriter. Her music has been primarily linked to various forms of rock, indie and baroque pop as well as hip hop and trip hop, and is noted for its cinematic sound and references to pop culture. This polish is named for a line from the song National Anthem (official video) off of her 2012 Born to Die cd.

Wasn't the Cult Nails' collection A Day at the Races also inspired by Lana Del Rey? Maybe I'm making that up.

Creator Nikole describes I'm Your National Anthem as a "retro cherry red jelly with blue/purple ultrachrome flakies, gold flakies and holographic shimmer." This is a medium-dark brilliant translucent crimson jelly with a deliciously squishy look bearing ultrachrome flakies that read mostly as bright blue, golden flake shimmers that read as gold and tones of bright red depending on their depth and the unusual addition (for Hare) of a minimal dusting of holographic particle shimmers. The effect of the holo is quite subtle and mostly visible at close scrutiny and in the sun, where the particles send out tiny sparks in rainbow colors. The flake shimmers are bright and shiny and gleam from within the polish in blue, gold and tones of red as the light hits them. It's a gorgeous dimensional effect. For me, the star of this show is the divine base color. So spirited and exuberantly rich, I defy you to find a juicier, more passionate red!

Because it's also fairly translucent, I applied two coats of Deborah Lippmann All About That Base Correct and Conceal basecoat over my usual nail treatment to prevent my polish stained nails and their himalayan ridges from interfering with the tone and evenness of the color. With the basecoat taken care of, application of I'm Your National Anthem was a blast. The color is just so bright and fabulous, it made my eyes happy to work with it. The consistency of the polish is quite fluid but not runny, and light and smooth with a silky slip over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. There is absolutely none of the stickiness that often accompanies jelly polishes -- this is an eminently paintable jelly. Pigmentation is buildable. You're never going to reach bottle color with this polish, but I found three coats to provide even coverage of bright, rich color. You'll see in the photos that there's a corona of pinkish red around the cuticle edges of the polish where I didn't align my coats precisely, but this is not noticeable in person. Cleanup took some care. This polish is quite pigmented despite the translucence and I experienced some pigment travel and a tiny bit of residual staining to skin, mostly in the sidewall areas. I'm Your National Anthem dries naturally in good time to a shade that is much lighter than bottle color and a glossy finish with a skosh of visual texture where flakies touch the surface, fairly well smoothed by a generous layer of topcoat. Topcoat also enhances the colors of the flakies.

Photos show three coats of I'm Your National Anthem over two coats of Deborah Lippmann All About That Base Correct and Conceal basecoat over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment, with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Hare Polish I'm Your National Anthem

This is such an awesome polish! Nikole has a way of connecting her polish with music that is uncanny. Red strikes me as the perfect color for the song National Anthem, which deals (in part) with the discomforting ambiguities of devotion. Red is the color of sexual passion and is associated with our most physical needs and will to survive. It's also associated with power, danger, war and destruction. I'm Your National Anthem is a particularly dynamic crimson shade, mirroring both the ambition/strength of will and the accompanying disillusionment/loss of self that are touched on (among many other things) in the song.

Up at the gym today. I'm Your National Anthem was absolutely stunning under those lights. The ultrachrome flakies were gleaming in the brightest blue through that cherry red base, and the golden flakes lit up like embers in the fire do when you blow on them. The air conditioning was still out and it was thick as all get out in there but this polish looked like dynamite! My trainer said it reminded her of Rosie the Riveter. I can definitely see that!

Anyway, awesome polish and a true Hare, full of unexpected twists and wonderful surprises. Nikole, I salute you! Happy Independence day to Americans at home and abroad, and the happiest of bright red polish vibes to all!

love,
Liz