More from ILNP! Short Circuit, also part of the Spring 2018 collection and also an Ultra Metallic "Bright," is described as a "mind-numbingly radiant" yellow with subtle green undertones. It's a blast! The color is a metallic chartreuse yellow or traditional chartreuse, a greenish yellow with lemon-lime aspects that's composed of superabundant, highly-reflective, flat metallic particles in a transparent base. Bold and beaming on the nail, this will be a crazy-good alternative to neon yellow come summertime. The metallic color is softly reflective in the way of foil polishes, with a finely-grained, piecey visual texture, loads of scintillating sparkle and a lively, gleaming flash. It absolutely glows, even in low light.
Application was great! The consistency of Short Circuit is fluid and smooth with a medium consistency and a silky, self-leveling slip over the nail that is a pleasure to manipulate with the brand's flexible, flattened-style brush. Coverage is provided by the metallic bits, which seem slightly more plentiful and dense here than they did in Hi-Fi, delivering a wearably opaque look in two medium coats. I added a third for the photos. As with Hi-Fi, cleanup looses a legion of shiny, sticky metallic bits to ensconce themselves about the nail environs, adhering to skin and nail like little limpets. I recommend going for as clean a manicure as possible from the outset and doing any necessary cleanup very carefully while the polish is still wet. Short Circuit dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.
Photos show three coats of Short Circuit over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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How about that?! The color can lean more to yellow or to a fresh, new-leaf green depending upon the kind of light in which it's viewed, and is brighter in person than it appears in the pics. It's definitely an in-your-face 24/7 sort of look, but I think that it's most striking in low light, where the burnished, show-stealing glow really ramps up the amperage.
love,
Liz
Hi-Fi was just released this month by Nevada-based indie polish maker ILNP as part of the Spring 2018 collection. This and six other colors make up the Ultra Metallic "Brights" subset of the collection, foily polishes "formulated with premium ingredients for truly superior metallic finishes and effortless removal."
Described simply as a purple, Hi-Fi is a true medium purple, a kind of amethyst-esque shade also known more officially as web medium purple. As a foil, it's composed of minute, flat, highly-reflective metallic pieces that give it a softly-reflective, finely-grained visual texture that always reminds me of tin foil that's been crumpled and smoothed out. I used to do just that obsessively with Wrigley's aluminum foil gum wrappers (which the company replaced with paper in 2010, btw, in order to make their packaging more cost effective) and a pencil during class in middle school because: a. I was bored, and b. I loved the piecey mirror of the smoothed out foil. But being obsessive about quirky stuff like this is pretty much the raison d'être of every middle school student, no? Maybe it was just me.
Anyway, the foily metallic finish of Hi-Fi is gloriously glowy and loaded with fine, scintillating sparkle, especially in the sun.
Application was quite agreeable. The consistency of Hi-Fi is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and a silky, self-leveling slip over the nail. Pigmentation is somewhat sheer, especially on the first coat. Two medium-to-thicker coats will net a wearable opacity, but I think the polish looks best in three thinner coats. Any visible brushstrokes that appear during application vanish as the polish dries. Cleanup scatters tiny purple bits far and wide. Hi-Fi dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.
Photos show three coats of Hi-Fi over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Any magenta-ish spots you see are my shirt reflected in the polish.
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I don't seem to gravitate as much toward foils these days as I used to, but wearing this one reminds me of how much I love that special foily radiance and sparkle, and the way the tiny metallic pieces fit together on the nail like a mini mosaic -- at least, that's how I like to think of it. It's a totally different look from the super smooth, chrome-like reflectivity of straight metallics, and foils are much more forgiving to apply and do not show nailbed imperfections like straight metallics do either. I also have Short Circuit (yellow) and Love Me Not (red) from this line to show you, and I'm thinking that I may just have to go back for Blueprint and possibly Sugar Coated (rose) as well.
What about you? Do you like to wear foils? Did you pick up any of ILNP's new Ultra Metallic "Brights"?
love,
Liz
Like Avalon and Nexus, Celeste was released earlier this month by ILNP as part of the Spring 2018 collection. This one is described as a lilac holographic polish with gold shimmers. The color is indeed a desaturated lilac that is heavily silvered by ILNP's signature holographic mix of particles and microflakes. It's also packed with loads of tiny, highly reflective pale gold microflake shimmers that light up as light travels over them and create a warm golden flash. In combination with the holographic components, they give this polish an especially lacy, ethereal look. The prismatic effects are strong, with a prominent mobile prismatic flush in ambient light and a moderately dispersed linear flare in direct light.
Application was great! The consistency of Celeste is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and a fluent, easy, self-leveling slip over the nail that is amenable to thin or thicker coats as preference dictates. Pigmentation is very good. Some sheerness on the first coat builds easily to wearable opacity in two. There's a bit of component scattering with cleanup. Celeste dries naturally in very good time to a gently textured finish, easily smoothed by topcoat.
Photos show two coats of Celeste over KBShimmer Love You Strong Time treatment and KBShimmer Fillin' Groovy basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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So pretty! I love the delicate, lacy look of this polish, it reminds me of a springtime landscape when the dogwoods are in bloom everywhere or the flowering plum trees here on our place when the breeze releases the tiny petals to fall like light snow. Between the shimmers and the holographic components, there's all kinds of sparkly lightplay too, and the pastel lilac color is the perfect springtime backdrop. Exquisite!
love,
Liz
Like Avalon, Nexus was released earlier this month by Nevada-based indie polish maker ILNP as part of the Spring 2018 collection. It's officially described as a raspberry holo with red/pink/gold color-shifting shimmers.
The color is a translucent but vibrant, medium-dark variation of red-violet with a strong magenta lean, similar to red-purple or Crayola's cerise, with aspects of rose and Mexican pink. It has an intense, energetic quality on the nail with a lively semi-metallic flash. Luminous, tiny color-shifting microflake shimmers read mostly as a bright pinkish-red or deep pink within the base, shifting through flame to gold as you turn your fingers into the light and giving the look a fiery red sheen at certain angles. Holographic microflakes create a loose net of silvery flecks in ambient light that ignites into a scattered field of bright prismatic sparkle in the sun.
Application was great! The consistency of Nexus is fluid, light and smooth with a medium consistency and a silky, self-leveling glide over the nail. Pigmentation is sheer and requires three coats for most evenly opaque coverage and best color presentation. Cleanup is easy with minimal scattering of the holographic microflakes. Nexus dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.
Photos show three coats of Nexus over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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This brilliant raspberry pink lacquer with it's twinkling shimmers and bright, semi-metallic flash has a jewel-tone quality that I usually associate with winter polishes. It is highly animated, bold and showy on the nail, and the flash gives it a little of that decorative, "gift wrap ribbon" sensibility that I love. The scattered prismatic sparkle in the sun is a perfect accompaniment.
love,
Liz
Avalon was just released released this month with the new Spring 2018 collection from Nevada-based indie polish maker ILNP. Officially described as a chartreuse holographic polish, the color is a light, bright, translucent yellow-green with aspects of lemon-lime and olivine, similar to pear. The mix of holographic components, sized from minute particles to tiny flakes, gives it a golden, reflective, semi-metallic quality on the nail with loads of sparkle -- never more so than in the sun where it's densely blanketed with scattered prismatic sparks and a somewhat dispersed linear flush that travels up and down the nail as you flex your fingers in the light.
Application was great! The consistency of Avalon is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and a fluent, self-leveling slip over the nail. Pigmentation is sheer and requires at least three coats for best opacity, even though it may look wearable at two in direct light. Cleanup is straightforward, with some scattering of holo flakies. Avalon dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, satiny finish. Topcoat does not in any way inhibit the holographic properties of this polish.
Photos show three coats of Avalon over KBShimmer Love You Strong Time treatment and KBShimmer Fillin' Groovy basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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My pics really do not do justice to this polish -- it's an exceedingly spry yellow-green that's fresh and buoyant and perfect for spring! Much brighter in person than my photos show. While not classified as a metallic, it does have a shiny metallic sensibility on the nail that adds considerable pizzazz to the look.
love,
Liz
Night Light was released in March 2016 by Nevada-based indie polish maker ILNP as part of the Spring 2016 collection. It's classified as one of ILNP's Jellies, sheer polishes that can be layered to opacity or worn over another lacquer for different effects. Creator Barbra describes this one as a "deep blue-violet jelly loaded with holographic micro-flakes." I wore it by itself.
The color is a translucent medium-dark blue with a softened, dusky quality, similar to liberty from the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names, with aspects of denim and dark sapphire. It's absolutely packed with silvery holographic microflakes, giving it a dimensional, flecked, "snowy night" vibe in ambient light that displays a stealthy prismatic flush as you flex your fingers. This does little to prepare you for the look in direct sun, where it explodes into a dense, dimensional blanket of brilliant prismatic sparkle in every color of the rainbow with a mobile semi-linear effect.
Application was excellent. The consistency of Night Light is fluid, smooth and slightly fluffy with a medium viscosity and a fluent, self-leveling glide over the nail that goes right where you put it and stays there. Pigmentation is sheer, building to evenly opaque coverage and bottle color in three coats. Cleanup is straightforward, with some scattering of the holo microflakes. Night Light dries naturally in very good time to a beautiful glossy finish.
Photos show three coats of Night Light over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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There was a time when I avoided ILNP's Jellies because of the three coat requirement for opacity, but I've learned to appreciate the dimensionality and character that their native translucence gives them on the nail. I really love the dusky, mellow quality that the translucent formula brings to Night Light's medium-dark blue; it's such a graceful look, and the feel is simultaneously classy and easygoing, effortlessly chic. Until you get it into the sun, anyway, where the profusion of brilliant prismatic sparkle steals the show.
My significant other came to inspect the "polish of the day" while I was applying it, so I stuck my hand into a shaft of direct sun and pretty much knocked his socks off -- I even got an OMG out of him. C'est si bon!
love,
Liz
