Lacquer Slacker Liz: Lacquistry

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Lacquistry Chinese New Year

Today's post is of another "better late than never," Chinese New Year from Lacquistry. Chinese New Year, the day, was 19 February and for the record I did wear this amazing polish on that day. It just gets to the blog a few days later.

Chinese New Year was recently released by Arizona-based indie polish maker Lacquistry to celebrate the day. You probably remember Lacquistry from creator Jenna's celebrated Amazeballs, the Blended Family version of which I feature on the blog last June. Chinese New Year is a medium-tone dazzlingly bright slightly blue-based red version of the original Amazeballs, not to be confused with REDiculous, a different red version Jenna created for Christmas 2014. Unfortunately I failed to snag a bottle of REDiculous, but Jenna differentiates between it and Chinese New Year thusly: "REDiculous was a lighter pink-based red with superfine metal flake particles. Chinese New Year is a deep true red with larger reflective metal particles." You can find a side by side comparison of these two, along with a beautiful red and gold manicure featuring Chinese New Year on the Australian blog, More Nail Polish, here.

Application was mostly about cleanup, but I'll get to that later. Chinese New Year is basically superabundant thin metallic flakies in a red-pigmented suspension base. And when I say pigmented, I mean profoundly! It applies like a typical well-made component filled polish, with a smooth, fluid consistency that is dense with flakies. For me, it preferred to go on in thicker rather than thinner coats. Pigmentation is out of this world intense. One coat is almost more than enough, truly! I wish I had the skills to apply an error-free one coater, but it was not to be. After one coat I had some lines to correct so I applied a second.

Cleanup. Cleanup, in a word: don't! If you can manage it. This polish is seriously pigmented and the pigment transfer at the application of acetone is immediate and pervasive. It runs right round the nail, staining everything a bright pink. Plus, when you go to remove a bit of polish on the nail you end up with bright metallic flakies there that stick like limpets. I spent more time cleaning up my cleanup than I did on cleanup. And still, as you'll see, there are traces of pink and bright silvery-gold flakes left over (not to mention purple and green microglitters left over from an incomplete removal of yesterday's Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler 2.0). Nature of the beast. If you have a steady hand and are prepared to produce a perfect manicure in one pass, you won't have these issues. Chinese New Year dries naturally in good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Chinese New Year over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Lacquistry Chinese New Year


Lacquistry Chinese New Year

Beauty! As you can see, the irregularly-shaped metallic flakes give Chinese New Year a fabulous pebbled visual effect. In direct light, this translates to a beautiful scintillating sparkle in shades of pink and red all across the nail. Add to this that Chinese New Year is perfectly self-leveling and camouflages all nail bed flaws, and cleanup issues aside you've got a winning red metallic polish!

love,
Liz

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Lacquistry Amazeballz: A Blended Family

Amazeballz: A Blended Family is a spin off of the maverick polish Amazeballz by indie polish maker Lacquistry, which was originally released in the spring of 2012 to the jubilance, awe and acclaim of polish enthusiasts everywhere. Amazeballz is a metallic flake glitter bomb, only it's not like the typical glitters found in polish. These highly reflective flakes, suspended in a clear base, are relatively large-sized irregularly-shaped flat shardy particles that lay perfectly level and smooth on the nail when applied. The color is a cool gold, or as Jenna says, kind of a cross between silver and gold, a platinum color that is similar to the way sterling silver looks when it's just begun to tarnish. Layered to opacity, this polish presents as a beaten metal coating on the nail, very smooth, reflective and blindingly blingy with scintillating sparkles from the individual flakes.

Since the debut of the original Amazeballz, Jenna, the owner and creative force behind Lacquistry, has branched out from the parent polish into particle size variations. There is a Fine variety, an Extra Fine variety and now the Blended Family variety, which incorporates all three particle sizes into one polish. Jenna created A Blended Family for those who "who simply cannot decide if they want Amazeballz Original, Fine, or Extra Fine." Hello! I'm so glad she decided to make this version.

Amazeballz: A Blended Family applies just like a regular polish. The suspension base is thick but nice and fluid, easy to control, with excellent flow over the nail. Each brushful delivers an astonishing amount of the metallic flakes, which disperse evenly over the nail without any extra effort or manipulation. I was extremely impressed by the opacity delivered in just one coat! I've seen manicures with Amazeballz layered over a metallic base polish as well as layered to opacity over itself, and believe it's just a matter of personal preference as to how best to wear it because the look is totally awesome regardless. I chose to do two coats of A Blended Family by itself for this manicure and it looks completely opaque to the unaided eye. It's practically impossible to clean up after this polish, as you will see in my photos, because once those flakes are on there, they're not about to go anywhere far. Amazeballz: A Blended Family does indeed dry naturally to a smooth finish, and it does this in very good time. The brilliant reflective shine created by the cobbled mosaic of metallic flakes is only enhanced by topcoat.

Photos show two coats of Amazeballz: A Blended Family over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl. Chagrins du jour include the mess o' metallic flakes that I made attempting to cleanup minor swipage made during application and a serious case of peely flaky skin on the fingers of my left hand especially. Not sure what's up with that, salt scrub rendezvouses are definitely in order.

Lacquistry Amazeballz: A Blended Family

This is an amazing polish. I walked into the dining room where Fuzzy was busy working on a sculpture and before I could even raise my hand or speak a word she noticed it: "What's that on your NAILS?!" followed by exclamations of wonder and delight as I explained what it was and how it worked. Only the fact that her hands were coated with sculpture medium prevented her from grabbing my hands for closer inspection.

Amazeballz is for me the ultimate metallic foil and far more interesting visually than any straight metallic could ever be. More wearable too, since straight metallics show every nail bed flaw while the composition of Amazeballz allows it to disguise all flaws. I adore the mostly unseen tiny gaps left here and there between flakes -- they add dimension to the mosaic, beaten metal look of the polish and allow sparks of light to bounce from their edges. From afar (as in, at arms length), the look of Amazeballz reminds me of the abstract, wavy, impressionistic reflective quality of an antique silver-backed mirror.

Just a spectacular polish composition and a must have for any polish enthusiast, truly! You can find Amazeballz in its various iterations at Jenna's Lacquistry etsy shop.

love,
Liz