Lacquer Slacker Liz: Indigo Bananas

Showing posts with label Indigo Bananas. Show all posts

Thursday, June 30, 2016

Indigo Bananas Creme Bluelé

Today I have a sneak preview of one of the polishes from the upcoming summer 2016 edition of the Creme a la Mode box, to be released sometime in July. Creme a la Mode is a quarterly box featuring a creme polish each from four indie brands: Digital Nails, Indigo Bananas, Literary Lacquers and Octopus Party Nail Lacquer. Today's polish is Creme Bluelé, created by Andrea from Indigo Bananas.

The color is a medium-toned, highly-energized azure with apects of cornflower, a marvelous vault-of-heaven blue that is luminous to the point of Dodger blue in its intensity with an accompanying oomph reminiscent of a neon (if neon blues were actually a thing). There's a gently translucent aspect that makes it somewhat changeable depending upon the kind of light in which its viewed, but by and large it is lighter and milkier than my beloved Indigo Bananas Klein Trink Wasser while sharing a bit of that polish's intense nature. It is especially striking under incandescent light, where it takes on a lush, almost violet-tinged ultramarine look.

Application was a blissful affair. The consistency of Creme Bluelé is fluid, dense and ultra smooth with a medium viscosity and a luscious, creamy, self-leveling glide over the nail. It's a fast-drying polish but not so fast that you don't have the opportunity to finesse your application before it sets up, and went on most happily for me in medium coats from a bead-loaded brush. Pigmentation is excellent, with near one-coat coverage and completely even opacity in two coats. Cleanup is easy and straightforward with a skosh of pigment travel as you might expect but very little residual staining. Hooray! Creme Bluelé dries naturally in very good time to a rubbery/satin sort of finish that takes topcoat beautifully.

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

Indigo Bananas Creme Bluelé

Gorgeous, eh? Gazing at Creme Bluelé in the bottle did not prepare me for such a dazzlingly vibrant presence on the nail -- there's a wow factor at work here, for sure! I dare say that if you're looking for the right blue to rock with your favorite summer neons, this adorably-named lacquer is certainly up to that task.

Over the next three days I'll have sneak peaks of the other three polishes from this edition of the Creme a la Mode box for you to see. Follow Creme a la Mode or join its Fan Club on Facebook to keep up with the latest info about the impending release.

As in the past, contributors to the Creme a la Mode box will have the option to list the polishes they created for it on their respective sales platforms at a later date, so if you miss the pre-order window for the box, you may have the opportunity to purchase the polishes singly in the future.

love,
Liz

ps. This polish was provided for my honest review.

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Indigo Bananas Volcanic Corruption

We're experiencing as much of the impact of hurricane Joaquin as we're gonna get as I type this, so two caveats are in order. First, the light sucks! Even in person I had to go down and flip on the halogens in the kitchen to get a good read on the color of this polish. Hopefully the sky will have brightened up some by the time I'm ready to take pictures. Second, the low barometric pressure that is part and parcel of such a storm works as a powerful mood lifter for me -- yay! -- and makes me somewhat yappy and euphoric. So if I start going on and on and on in this post, take it with a grain of salt.

Volcanic Corruption was released by California-based indie polish maker Indigo Bananas as part of the Fall 2015 Holos collection in August this year. Every polish I've tried from this collection has been fabulous but this one may well be my very favorite. It's a medium-dark persimmon-toned red linear holo -- a brilliant, rich, resplendent embodiment of red so profoundly and archetypically autumnal that I was rendered just about speechless as I viewed it under the bright halogens in the kitchen.

As with its stablemate Synonym Bun, the appearance of the color and holographic effects of this polish alter somewhat with the application of topcoat, but to a lesser degree. The holo in Volcanic Corruption is less outwardly prismatic and more internalized generally than the other Fall 2015 Holos I've tried, including Synonym Bun, and reads more as kind of a sparkling dimensionality than the typical prismatic response. But that doesn't make the polish any less spectacular or impactful!

Application was nothing less than transporting, a nirvana-like bliss undoubtedly generated in concert by my hurricane-induced euphoria and the fantastic formula of the polish in equal measure. The consistency of Volcanic Corruption is quite fluid but not runny, light and silky smooth with an effortless, self-leveling slip over the nail. Such a lovely formulation, thinner than some but possessed of a wonderfully balanced viscosity for painting and completely obliging in every way, just a joy to work with. Pigmentation is very good with wearable coverage in two medium coats. As there is a touch of translucence to the formula, I used three coats to achieve the most even opacity and depth of color I could, and I found the color significantly fuller and richer at three coats. Given the intensity of the color I was a little apprehensive about cleanup but it went very well, really! Some pigment travel as you might expect but overall this cleans up without too much fuss. Volcanic Corruption dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat seems only to enhance everything I love about this polish, so of course I think it's a good thing, but be aware that it does slightly transform the appearance of the color and the nature of the holographic properties.

Photos show three coats of Volcanic Corruption over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Indigo Bananas Volcanic Corruption

So my photos turned out ok, as you can see, but the color is slightly warmer and more substantial in person. It has powerful orange undertones that enrich the red tremendously, reminding me of the reds that you see in handwoven oriental carpets. There's plenty of bright pink to this shade as well, but it doesn't inform the coloring in the same robust way that the orange does. It's like, if you took all the brilliant reds, oranges and pinks, the flame colors of fall, if you took them in their most saturated variations and distilled them into one shade, it would be the color of Volcanic Corruption. The essence of autumnal imagery: foliage, spices, gourds, what-have-you. This is IT! It's the brightest, most vivid and intense red holo that I've yet experienced.

Highly recommended!

love,
Liz

Friday, September 25, 2015

Indigo Bananas Indigo Montoya

Indigo Montoya was released by California-based indie polish maker Indigo Bananas as part of the Fall 2015 Holos collection in August this year. As you may guess from its name (tip of the hat to the 1987 fantasy comedy adventure film The Princess Bride), this is a deep blue linear holographic polish. It has a medium-dark violet-blue base that is beautifully shaded with brilliant hues of sapphire, ultramarine and indigo blue courtesy of its abundant finely-milled holographic pigment. Unfortunately it is overcast here today so I don't have direct sun to provoke a full prismatic display, but if Indigo Montoya is anything like its sister polish, Olive Time and Space, the holo flare should be dramatic and fully linear in the sun. Even in bright indirect light, you can see a few tiny sparks of yellow, orange and red edging a central blaze of bright sapphire and saturated ultramarine, which shades to deep indigo at the edges of the nail. Low light and shade gentles the base color to a silver-speckled denim.

Application was a treat. The formula for Indigo Montoya is similar to its stablemates, Olive Time and Space and Synonym Bun, having a fluid, light and very smooth consistency with an easy, self-leveling glide over the nail. This is a user friendly polish with a very nicely balanced viscosity for painting that is a pleasure to work with. Pigmentation is buildable, with some sheerness to the first coat building quickly to even, opaque coverage with the second. Given the propensities of the other two polishes that I've shown you from this collection, I decided to add a third to see if it would deepen the color or enrich the holographic effects. In my opinion, while it's eminently wearable at two, three coats does indeed provide a richer, more dimensional look. Cleanup was easy and straightforward. Indigo Montoya dries naturally in good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat does not diminish the holographic properties of the polish in any way.

Photos show three coats of Indigo Montoya over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Indigo Bananas Indigo Montoya

Judging from other photos of this polish that I've seen online, I expect that the brightness and intensity of all of the blues generated by the holo pigment that you see here will be exponentially greater in direct sun. Take a look at Debbie's photos in her review of this collection on The Crumpet to see what I mean. Wow! The indigo really takes the stage in those pics!

With so many holographic polishes available from indie polish makers these days you can have your pick of various blues, but I think this one is especially lovely and so easy to wear. The brighter blues in it reminds me of clear fall skies and the deep indigo around the edges bring to mind rain-slicked asphalt roads littered with fallen leaves. I've only seen a hint of fall's touch in the leaves of the trees around here, but our big red maple by the front porch has some flame-tipped branches high in the canopy, a sure sign that autumn is here at last.

love,
Liz

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

Dark Side of the Maroon was released last month by California-based indie polish maker Indigo Bananas as part of the inaugural Crème à la Mode box, a quarterly box collection of creme polishes from four indie polish makers. Described as a berry-maroon on the Crème à la Mode website, this is a dark rich boysenberry color, like a Tyrian purple with hints of red. It is vampy-deep, but retains its red-violet nature in dim light and doesn't look black. To me, this polish has an arcane, seductive feel on the nail that speaks of spell-casting and other magical powers, the sort of shade a dark enchantress would wear.

Application was lovely. The consistency of Dark Side of the Maroon is fluid, light and very smooth, with an effortless silky glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. Pigmentation is buildable. There's a degree of crelly-like translucence to this polish, so very even coats are necessary for most uniform coverage. Wearable opacity is achievable in two coats, but I used three for this manicure to get the most consistent coverage I could for the photos. Cleanup was surprisingly easy considering the deep coloring, with just a little pigment travel and a skosh of residual staining. I am always supremely relieved when dark colors don't run rampant at the touch of acetone. Dark Side of the Maroon dries naturally in very good time to shade that's slightly darker than it looks in the bottle and a beautiful glossy finish.

Photos show three coats of Dark Side of the Maroon over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Indigo Bananas Dark Side of the Maroon

While I was editing these photos (which, incidentally, show the color as brighter than it appears in person), I got in a big argument with myself about exactly what shade of berry best represented the color, boysenberry, mulberry or dark raspberry. Basically, they're all deep purpled shades of red-violet, and it's difficult to articulate the differences between them because they do overlap. I settled on boysenberry, but I'm not entirely comfortable with that. What about burgundy?

Perhaps I should let creator Andrea have the last word. Berry-maroon it is!

love,
Liz

Friday, September 18, 2015

Indigo Bananas Synonym Bun

Synonym Bun was recently released by California-based indie polish maker Indigo Bananas as part of the Fall 2015 Holo collection just last month. Creator Andrea describes this as a "warm reddish brown linear holo," and I agree. It's a dark mahogany or sinopia, an earthy organic red-brown with a certain golden radiance to it that gives it a wonderful fiery quality.

Andrea advises that topcoat alters both the color and holographic effects, and that it does. I'm of the camp that never, ever goes without topcoat, so that the topcoated version is what you will see in my photos. However, I can tell you that without topcoat it has a perfect linear prismatic flare in rainbow colors that floats over a gleaming semi-metallic flash of red-brown. With topcoat, the base color becomes exponentially more intense. It deepens and develops a rich igneous glow. The holographic effects are somewhat internalized and do more to shade the base color with varying tones of auburn, rust and deep cordovan. Direct sunlight generates a slender flame-shaped band of deep glowing indigo with a corona of red sparks that perfectly complements the deep rich red-brown of the base color.

Application was sweet! The consistency of Synonym Bun is fluid, light and very smooth, with an easy, self-leveling flow over the nail. This is a user-friendly polish that is a pleasure to work with, amenable to thin to medium coats and not in the least bit finicky. There's a degree of translucence to the formula, so the first coat is somewhat sheer. But opacity builds quite quickly with wearable coverage after two coats. Andrea suggests using three coats for fullest color, so that's what I did. Cleanup is easy and straightforward. I experienced very little pigment travel with a bit of accompanying trace staining.

Synonym Bun dries naturally in very good time to a beautiful glossy finish, so if you wished to forgo topcoat you would still have the glossy look that topcoat brings to a manicure. If you do use topcoat, especially a quick-dry topcoat, be aware that it will transform both the appearance of the base color and the holographic effects. This polish seems to have a particularly intimate symbiosis with topcoat that is difficult to describe. In any case, I did apply a quick-dry topcoat to this manicure.

Photos show three coats of Synonym Bun over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Indigo Bananas Synonym Bun

Synonym Bun has the kind of lush dimensionality that I associate with silk velvet, and it's a match made in heaven for the sultry, glowing cordovan coloring the polish takes on with topcoat. With its blush of sparkling russet, it's the epitome of a fall polish. In low incandescent light, it reads as a deep burgundy and has a gleaming pink flash. Some would call it... sexy!

I think it would be the bees knees presiding over a fall feast. Thanksgiving, perhaps?

love,
Liz