Lacquer Slacker Liz: Pretty Serious

Showing posts with label Pretty Serious. Show all posts

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Pretty Serious Velvet Bow

Like Peace on Earth, Velvet Bow was released in December 2016 by Australian indie polish maker Pretty Serious Cosmetics as part of the Ghosts of Christmas Past collection. The color is a deep variation of crimson with a blackened aspect that gives it the general appearance of something along the lines of Harvard crimson. Stunningly dimensionalized by ultrafine particulate shimmers, it has a sultry "lit from within" glow and a sleek, gleaming semi-metallic finish.

Application went beautifully. The consistency of Velvet Bow is fluid, dense and very smooth with a medium-to-thicker viscosity and a lush, velvety, self-leveling glide over the nail with some pull to it. Those who prefer a more full-bodied viscosity will have no problem with this polish, but I added a couple of squirts of polish thinner to my bottle for a little more fluency on the nail. Pigmentation is outstanding, an easy one-coater. I added a second to finesse some of my lines, but it did not alter the look at all. Cleanup was much, much less problematic than I feared it would be, with light pigment travel and almost no residual staining -- hooray! Velvet Bow dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat adds a becoming gloss and enhances the presence and effects of the shimmers.

Photos show two coats of Velvet Bow over KBShimmer Love You Strong Time treatment and KBShimmer Fillin' Groovy basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Pretty Serious Velvet Bow

A consummate old-school-style shimmer! It is so luxurious and plush that you feel you could just dive into it! Drop-dead sexy, too. You can't help but be impressed by this classic candy apple shade, even if you aren't into reds. If you are, it's a must have!

love,
Liz

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Pretty Serious Peace on Earth

Peace on Earth was released last month by Australian indie polish maker Pretty Serious Cosmetics as part of the Ghosts of Christmas Past collection. It's a cool pastel green with ultrafine coppery pink particulate shimmers, a doppelganger to Yves Saint Laurent's coveted limited edition lacquer Peace Green of last spring. Kaz excels at recreating hard-to-find classic lacquers, and this is a beautiful example of her expertise. The color is a pale, milky, cyanic pastel green that is similar in depth and tone to Crayola's magic mint. Superabundant pearly pink shimmers give it a creamy, nacreous sheen and a pale pink effervescence along the axis of light, and it has a dimensional luminosity on the nail that reminds me of fine silk satin.

Application was dreamy. The consistency of Peace on Earth is fluid, full-bodied and super creamy with a medium viscosity and a lux, buttery, self-leveling glide over the nail. It has remarkably even coverage for a shimmery pastel shade and provides uniform opacity in two coats without streaks or brushmarks. To lessen the appearance of my nail ridges in the photos, I added a third coat, but would happily wear it at two otherwise. Cleanup is easy. Peace on Earth dries naturally in average time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat intensifies the presence and effects of the shimmers.

Photos show three coats of Peace on Earth over KBShimmer Love You Strong Time treatment and KBShimmer Fillin' Groovy basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Pretty Serious Peace on Earth

The base color has a blue cast to my eye in these pics -- in person, it is more unambiguously green. This is an astonishingly beautiful polish in person, more so than a photo can show. I had one coat on my nails and found my mouth opening into a jaw-drop of wonderment and admiration, complete with silent "oh WOW!" The effervescent pink shimmers give the base a certain vitreous translucent quality, and their contrast with the milky green, the exquisite creamy sheen and the resplendent glow of this polish on the nail create an almost visceral sense of luxury. Extraordinary!

love,
Liz

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Pretty Serious Bunny Foo-Foo

Bunny Foo-Foo was released at the end of May this year by Australian boutique polish maker Pretty Serious Cosmetics as part of the latest installment of the ongoing Well Meaning But Ultimately Quite Awkward Pet Names series. This latest batch of six polishes has been nicknamed Pastel Pet Names to differentiate it from its predecessors.

Officially described as a minty green, Bunny Foo-Foo is an aqua pastel, a white-based cyanic tint that you might just as easily call minty blue. In fact, the color reads as more blue or more green depending upon viewing circumstances and the skin tone of the wearer. It has a sunbleached quality and while not a neon does possess a bit of phosphorescent glow in low light and shade. This is not a soft, pliant pastel. It's bright, fresh and eminently summery, definitely a dues-paying member of the pool blue family, as Paola of Nail Polish Pursuit demonstrates in situ, here.

Application was quite agreeable. The consistency of Bunny Foo-Foo is fluid, light and creamy with a medium viscosity and a smooth, easy glide over the nail that self-levels beautifully for a white-based polish. Some sheerness and streaking on the first coat evens out nicely to evenly opaque coverage with the second. Cleanup is easy. Bunny Foo-Foo dries naturally in very good time to a gorgeous glossy finish.

Photos show two coats of Bunny Foo-Foo over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Pretty Serious Bunny Foo-Foo

This aqua shade pulls very blue on me, which I have a feeling will not be the case for everyone but I do think that it is fairly well-balanced between blue and green. Bunny Foo-Foo actually looks ok on my pinkage, so I'm happy with this polish even though I purchased it entirely for sentimental reasons. I must have delivered the little bunny foo-foo joke -- song, full pantomime and "hare today, goon tomorrow" punchline -- hundreds of times as a little kid.

Down came the good fairy and she said....

lol,
Liz

Thursday, August 25, 2016

Pretty Serious Free Sample

Like Destash, Free Sample was released in July this year by Australian indie polish maker Pretty Serious Cosmetics as part of the Serious Business collection, a series of polishes named for terms commonly used by polish enthusiasts. I suspect that there may be a singularly Kaz-related rationale behind this name, as "free sample" is not particular to or even commonly used for nail polish. Trust Pretty Serious for inside humor, whether we get it or not!

Free Sample is a delicate pastel pink with a cool lean, very like Crayola's piggy pink or a slightly more desaturated variation of my beloved mimi pink. It is swimming with tiny translucent iridescent microflake shimmers that impart a faint faerie-like blue and pink twinkle to the finish in ambient light, strengthening to bright pinpoint sparkles in the sun. Even though they are fairly stealthy most of the time, their presence adds a subtle diaphanous quality and intricacy to the look.

Application was tetchy. The consistency of Free Sample is fluid and full-bodied with a medium-to-thicker viscosity that I thinned as much as I dared. Thin coats are the way to go with this one, using a light hand and as few strokes as possible and allowing some extra dry time between coats. Thinned, it self-leveled fairly well but left streaks over my ridges that finally disappeared with the third coat. Cleanup is pretty straightforward. Free Sample dries naturally in average time to a smooth, shiny finish. It is quite vulnerable to marring while setting up so don't do anything rash like TYPE unless it's closer to dry or you've got your quick-dry topcoat on it -- ask me how I know! Topcoat helps a lot to smooth out any lingering unevenness.

Photos show three coats of Free Sample over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Pretty Serious Free Sample

John says he gets a 50s vibe from this polish -- you? I wish I'd been able to capture the shimmers a little better, but hey, it makes my fingers look relatively tan, huzzah! I have only a scant handful of pastel pinks like this in my collection, it's a particularly dainty, girly shade that I'm not sure suits me very well -- I am no delicate flower. ;)

xo,
Liz

Sunday, August 21, 2016

Pretty Serious Destash

Destash was released last month by Australian indie polish maker Pretty Serious Cosmetics as part of the Serious Business collection, an eclectic series of polishes named for commonly used polish enthusiast lingo. Destash, literally de-stash, is what must happen when there are so many polishes that one's collection can no longer be hidden from loved ones. Well, that's one reason. Syn: purge. Related: destash regret.

This polish has a deep, vivid magenta-leaning red jelly base bearing abundant fine blue shimmers. The base color is very like a deep electric crimson, a vibrant shade about halfway between red and rose on the color wheel with a brightness that varies according to the amount of light in which it's viewed. The shimmers give it an ethereal blue-violet glow along the axis of light, transform the base color to a rich raspberried cerise similar to Crayola's razzmatazz and create a twinkling net of tiny sparks in the sun.

Application was lovely. The consistency of Destash is fluid, creamy and full-bodied with a thin-to-medium viscosity and a luxurious, buttery glide over the nail. It is amenable to thin or thicker coats, easy to manipulate with Pretty Serious' round flexible brush and self-levels like a dream. Pigmentation is excellent -- if this were a creme, it would be a one coater. With it's semi-translucent jelly base, it needs two coats for fully opaque coverage. Cleanup is fairly straightforward with a little bit of pigment travel and residual staining as you might expect from a well-pigmented red. Destash dries naturally in good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

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

Pretty Serious Destash

This polish is actually more complex and changeable than you'd think. As the sun goes down, the color leaves its crimson roots behind and transitions to an absolutely stunning red-violet under artificial light, a fierce, feminine shade that I love. It's like two polishes in one, courtesy of the translucent jelly base that allows the blue shimmers to work their magic in different ways according to the type and amount of ambient light. Impressive!

ttyl,
Liz

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Cherry 2000 was released by Australian indie polish maker Pretty Serious Cosmetics as part of the Post Apocalyptic Princess collection in September this year. This series of polishes is Ben and Kaz's tribute to movies and games set in a wasteland. Cherry 2000 gets its name from the 1987 eponymous sci fi cult film starring Melanie Griffith and David Andrews.

Post Apocalyptic Princess art by Lou Young (source)

This polish is a deep red-violet shade shot through with ultrafine silver particulate shimmers, which give it a semi-metallic look. It has a rich pinkish burgundy/black cherry appearance in low light and shade, but once you get it into the light it reveals fantastic radiant deep pink overtones that really put the princess into Post Apocalyptic Princess. As Christine from Serenity Nails says, it's "like black forest cake for your nails." That black cherry vibe is so very Pretty Serious! Lovers of ultrafine shimmer polishes that look like they're lit from within, take note! You'll be wanting to hunt this one down!

Application was great! The consistency of Cherry 2000 is fluid and smooth with a silky glide over the nail and outstanding self-leveling properties. A characteristic of semi-metallics and metallics is that they have a tendency to accentuate irregularities in the nail bed. Not this polish! My ridges were g-o-n-e gone with the first coat. Pigmentation is also outstanding, with even opaque coverage in one coat. As usual, I added a second coat, ostensibly to fix a few lines and ended up with the epitome of a shaky hands manicure. I mean, I flooded cuticles and sidewalls and even had blobs on my finger tips from wrapping my tips. Hey, that's what cleanup is for, right? I'm happy to tell you that despite it's profoundly pigmented formula, Cherry 2000 is actually quite user friendly when it comes to cleanup. There is definitely some pigment travel but you can remove all (or almost all, in my case) traces of it with your acetone-dampened brush and a patient careful hand. Thank goodness! Cherry 2000 dries naturally in very good time to a beautiful high-gloss finish.

Photos show two coats of Cherry 2000 over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. My disastrous second coat left some brushstrokes, but these are purely user error and not characteristic of the polish.

Pretty Serious Cherry 2000

Threw in a couple of shortie pics there towards the end, hope you don't mind....

I think this is gorgeous. I love the slinky, silky, Mata Hari-esque quality of the shimmers in Cherry 2000 and the beautiful flash of rosy pink at the access of light. It has an awesome feel on the nail, elegant but powerful and potentially dangerous. People better mind their Ps and Qs around this polish!

Each Post Apocalyptic Princess polish comes in a custom variation of Pretty Serious' usual box, graced by a special post apocalyptic version of mascot Daphne by artist Lee Young.

Daphne, dressed for distopia! (source)

Deeply cool!

love,
Liz