Lacquer Slacker Liz: WingDust

Showing posts with label WingDust. Show all posts

Sunday, November 16, 2014

WingDust Collections Like Yoda...But Less Green!

Like Yoda But Less Green is the last of the four polishes I bought during my recent WingDust spree at Llarowe. This polish is a tribute to Stephanie's indie polish mentor, Hailey. It's a medium-dark dusky violet jelly scattered holo sprinkled with tiny metallic hex glitters in lavender, fuchsia and green. Those little hexes really steal the show in this one -- they are highly reflective and mega flashy! The jelly base is perfect for letting these sparklers twinkle through the layers of polish. In bright indirect light the holo pigment serves to introduce light into the interior of the polish, merging the purple with an indigo blue so bright and pervasive it's hard to tell exactly which is the true color of the polish (in low light you can definitely see that it's purple). In direct light a prismatic sheen blankets the surface with rainbow colored sparks that form a loose linear flair.

Application was ok. The consistency of Like Yoda But Less Green is distinctly gel-like, on the thicker side with a bit of stickiness. A few squirts of polish thinner made it easier to work with. With thicker polishes I have a hard time getting precise lines around the edges and cuticle, the viscosity makes the polish want to cling to itself and the brush more rather than transfer to the nail. I love my polish thinners! They are invaluable in amending polishes to my skills that I wouldn't be able to apply otherwise and have saved me a lot of frustration. Thinner is right up there with fast dry topcoat and ridge filling basecoat as a polish enthusiast's must haves for me.

Like Yoda But Less Green is well pigmented for a jelly-based polish and provides even, completely opaque coverage in just two coats. I only needed a little bit of cleanup and it was easily done with no trace of staining. Like Yoda But Less Green dries naturally in average time to a shiny finish with some texture from the glitters that is mostly smoothed with a generous layer of topcoat.

Photos show two coats of Like Yoda But Less Green over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. It looks more blue than purple in most of these pics because of the flush of indigo released by the holo pigment, but in a few of them (well, maybe only one) you can see that the actual base color is a purple-leaning violet.

WingDust Like Yoda But Less Green

This sparky little number would be great to wear for a day spent outdoors where sunlight can fire up the colors of those little glitters. It would make a great companion for a street fair or outdoor craft show, twinkling away in the sun.

Like Yoda But Less Green seems atypical for a WingDust creation in that the glitter is so uniformly small and scattered, but it works beautifully, better than a still photo can show. On the nail, this polish with its random colorful sparkles reminds me of Australian fairy opal, or opal in sandstone matrix.

opal in sandstone matrix (source)

If you go to the source of this photo, there's a short movie showing the sparkle in action as the piece is tilted in the light. That's what I mean about Like Yoda But Less Green. The opal flecks in this stone are infinitesimal, much tinier than the glitter in this polish, but the twinkling effect is very like.

love,
Liz

Friday, November 14, 2014

WingDust Collections Prize Winning Petunia

Stephanie, the owner and creative force behind WingDust Collections, tell us in her description of this polish that "prize-winning petunia" was a pet name that her mother had for her kids when they were little. Of course we'll never know the context in which this was used but I hear it in my head as something like, "Well, aren't you just the prize-winning petunia!" I used it in this way on Fuzzy and it was met with delight -- Fuzzy LOVES being the prize-winning petunia! In any case, this polish is Stephanie tribute to her mom.

Prize Winning Petunia is one of Stephanie's glitter jelly holos. It has a medium-toned violet scattered holo jelly base swimming with a bouquet of analogously-colored hex glitters in purple, lavender, lilac, pink and blue, some of them iridescent, as well as tiny metallic teal squares. The mix produces a fetching menage of purples, blues and pinks on each nail, accented by colorful flashes from the iridescent glitters when the light hit them just right and pops of teal from the tiny squares, all misted over by the silvery scattered holo pigment, which sends out sparks of rainbow colors in direct light.

My bottle, which came with the other WingDusts I recently ordered from Llarowe, had apparently been sitting for a while. It had a bad case of glitter settling, especially the larger-sized pink hexes, which seemed to be fastened to the bottom of the bottle. Not even days upside down budged those glitters. I wonder what dynamic is at work that causes glitters to stick to the insides of the bottle like that -- something along the lines of static electricity perhaps? I used the polish before I thought of stirring the pot as it were with a tool along the lines of those plastic dental picks that have a sharp kind of curved tip at one end and a flat fern-shaped floret at the other, but before I use it again I'm going to have a go at that bottle with a dental pick to see if I can't get some of the settled glitter back into circulation.

So my application of Prize Winning Petunia was overshadowed by consternation that I wasn't getting my due in glitters. So petty, but there you go. The consistency of the polish was slightly thick but not goopy or sticky, with the lovely smooth self-leveling flow over the nail that seems to be the standard for Stephanie's creations. There was no tumbling or stacking of the glitters, which lay down flat to the nail, and only a few instances of protrusion over the free edge. I find with WingDust glitters that if I can swipe the edge while the polish is still quite wet, the brush will lift off the offending protruder quite easily. You'd think I'd be able to do this automatically as a matter of proper application technique, but no! My mind, racing ahead as is its wont, is already on the next nail before I finish the current one, so important little steps like sweeping off glitter protrusions often get leapfrogged. Prize Winning Petunia is nicely pigmented with even, opaque coverage achievable in two coats. I used three as I wanted MOAR glitters, but I didn't really get the payoff I was looking for and I point my finger accusingly at the settled glitter in my bottle as the cause. Besides that, though, I had no troubles with application.

Prize Winning Petunia dries naturally in good time to a surprisingly smooth finish with only the tiniest amount of surface texture from the components, which only needed topcoat for near glass-like smoothness.

Photos show three coats of Prize Winning Petunia over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

WingDust Prize Winning Petunia

It's still pretty lovely even if my nails aren't as glitter-filled as I was expecting, which was something along the lines of Crystal's swatch of Prize Winning Petunia on Crystal's Crazy Combos, here. And I'm very happy with how I handled applying this glitter-filled jelly. Practice may not make things perfect (sometimes perfection is just not possible despite our culture's obsession with it), but it does make them better.

love,
Liz

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl

I am such a blowhard. Honestly, the minute I make any proclamations about anything you can bet your bottom dollar that it's just a matter of time before I'll be eating my words. Like, remember what I said about not wanting any more polishes with shreds in them not too long ago? Well guess what I have to show you today? A polish with shreds in it.

But not just any polish with shreds, this one's a WingDust, and Stephanie, the owner and creative force behind WingDust, with her amazing formulary skills has made a believer out of me. So many reviewers have praised her magic touch with glitter polish formulations over and over, but jumping on bandwagons without a good first-hand reason is just not right. After working with this particular polish, I can tell you that I got my reason and I'm on board.

The polish is Steel Town Girl, a blackened tealy steel blue linear jelly holo full of potentially problematic components: iridescent aqua glass-like mylar shards and 23 carat gold leaf shredlets. Sounds hazardous, doesn't it? When this polish was first released I was just stunned and in awe of the photos I saw in reviews. Steel Town Girl was utterly unlike any polish I'd been attracted to before, so rarified and boldly complex. I secretly lusted after it while simultaneously fearing it (or rather, the application of it). However, it was constantly sold out at Llarowe so I never had the chance to step up. And then, lo! After Llarowe's last WingDust restock, there it was (briefly) in stock, and since I was getting other WingDust glitters I swallowed my apprehension and popped it into my cart.

Application was SO impressive! The consistency of Steel Town Girl is fluid and smooth but has these shardy shreds of mylar and gold leaf floating in it like icebergs. As advised, I took my time and was careful and deliberate with the brush, letting each coat dry before applying the next, and those components lay down like sweet lambs on the nail. No tumbling or dragging or stacking or spiky stick-ups, no protrusions over the free edge that weren't easily remedied with a tip-wrapping swipe of the brush. Huzzah! Pigmentation is buildable, with wearable opaque coverage in two coats. I used three for this manicure because I was greedy for the gold leaf shredlets and giddy with success. Cleanup was surprisingly easy; the gold leaf came right off without any of the limpet-like behavior I was expecting. Steel Town Girl dries naturally in good time to a remarkably smooth, shiny finish with only a slight amount of surface texture from the components. One layer of topcoat, and every nail but one was glassy smooth and glossy. The one nail had a large-ish mylar shard at the apex of the c-curve that I could still feel after topcoat, but it was the only one.

Photos show three coats of Steel Town Girl over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Wow, between the dark color of the polish and the reduction of bright indirect light through my skylight due to the sun being so much lower in the sky, I had a really hard time trying to capture this one. I suppose I could try to figure out how to edit for less contrast while maintaining the vibrancy, but I really don't like the idea of having to tinker in photoshop to get pics that work. Hmm.

WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl

I took a set outside in direct sun also, which encourages the holo pigment in this polish to throw all kinds of rainbow sparks. The red ones are especially striking with the color of the base and the colors and visual textures of the components. You don't see a precisely delineated flair with this polish, but the holo effects are still strong (if that makes any sense... I'm not sure it does, actually... oh well!). The great amount of contrast between light and dark and the holo response to the sun in these pics prevented me from coaxing the blue base color to show as nicely as it does in person, but I'll let you be the judge of whether they are helpful to you.

WingDust Collections Steel Town Girl

Well suffice to say that jpegs don't do Steel Town Girl justice. It's so much more dramatic and jewel-like in person, and has a more cohesive presence than these photos show. The teal tones in the base color give it a midnight blue appearance and the more light there is, the more the gold leaf stands out, speckling the inky base with greenish gold glowing irregular shapes. The mylar shards spring forth when the light hits them just right, flashing colors of vivid cerulean, royal blue and blue-green, and all along the way there are tiny sparks of blue, green, yellow and red from the holo pigment. There's a lot going on in this polish, but it holds together on the nail in a stunning, dimensional way, creating a miniature stealthy collage of elements on each nail.

love,
Liz

Monday, November 10, 2014

Wingdust Collections I am Yours and You are Mine

After listening to Nail Newscast hosts Tia and Courtney chat with Stephanie, the owner and creative force behind indie polish maker WingDust Collections, a few weeks ago, I took advantage of a Llarowe restock to go on a little WingDust spree. I am Yours and You are mine is the first of four WingDust polishes that I bought and will be showing you here.

I am Yours and You are Mine has a jelly base that ranges from a deep berry pink or magenta to a ruby red to a reddish plum depending upon the light and circumstances in it is viewed. It is liberally sprinkled with small hex glitters in yellow, magenta, dark red and holographic gold, plus a modicum of holo pigment that dusts the entire shebang with pearly glowing particles. There looks to be some particulate shimmers in there too, in gold and red, but there's so much to see in this polish I could be making this up. It's not a sparkly polish per se, more of a twinkly glowing one, with flashes of color appearing now and then as light strikes a glitter or shimmer just right. At certain angles in low light, there's a bit of a metallic magenta flash along the axis of light. This is a lovely, almost painterly creation with a sweet countenance and boatloads of charm.

Application was great! The consistency of I am Yours and You are Mine is on the thicker side but still fluid and paintable with an even, self-leveling flow over the nail. As with all jellies, pigmentation is buildable. The coverage and glitter payoff are so even that you could conceivably wear it at any degree of opacity. The first coat is sheerish and bright raspberry pink. With the second coat, the base color deepens and reddens. Three medium coats will give an approximation of the bottle color, perhaps slightly lighter and less purple. I used three medium coats for this manicure. Cleanup is fairly easy. Those tiny glitters, of course, are pretty sticky if they end up on skin or cuticle and you may see that I missed a few in the photos. I am Yours and You are Mine dries naturally in good time to a shiny finish with a hint of texture from the components that smooths out with a single layer of topcoat.

Photos show three coats of I am Yours and You are Mine over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. It was late enough in the day that the conditions in my lightbox bathroom were too dim to get good photos of this beauty, so I took my pics outside with the sun low on the horizon.

WingDust I am Yours and You are Mine

This is a dynamic polish with a lot of light play and still photos don't do justice to how pretty that is. It's extremely photogenic. I usually take thirty to forty photos for my posts but with I am Yours and You are Mine I ended up with over seventy, almost all of them keepers so I had a hard time picking. The color is very rich in all of its iterations and the polish really draws the eye with the random scatterings and speckles of glitter on each nail. It's lively and charismatic with an otherworldly edge to it. I think I've fallen under its spell....

love,
Liz