Lacquer Slacker Liz: brass

Thursday, January 5, 2017

ILNP Victoria

Victoria was released last month by Nevada-based indie polish maker I Love Nail Polish (ILNP) as part of the Winter 2016 collection. It's another new addition to ILNP's Ultra Holo line of polishes, "specifically formulated for maximum, in-your-face holographic sparkle." The base color is described by creator Barbra as an aged brass, and I agree. It's a light, semi-translucent variation of ecru or khaki, a neutral grey-brown that's sort of like a lightened wet sand color. The built-in translucence allows plenty of light to penetrate and fire up the superabundant holographic components, which range from nanoscale particles to tiny microflakes, creating a beautiful shimmery appearance imbued with pale, nuanced shades of lavender and azure spangled with gold in ambient light. Direct sun generates an extra sparkly linear prismatic flare featuring arcs in all of the rainbow colors framing a shimmering semi-metallic central swath of aged brass and shading to a darker grey-brown around the edges of the nail.

Application was wonderful. The consistency of Victoria is fluid, light and very smooth with a medium viscosity and a silky, self-leveling slip over the nail. Top notch! Pigmentation is very good. Slight sheerness on the first coat builds easily to wearably opaque coverage with the second. I added a third to see if it would make a difference, and while it didn't really look any more opaque it did give an impression of greater density to the base color and provided a little more oomph to the holographic effects, small but noticeable differences. Cleanup is easy. Victoria dries naturally in very good time to a smooth shiny finish. Topcoat highlights the shimmery effects of the holographic components and does not inhibit their prismatic properties in any way.

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

ILNP Victoria

The gentle, muted base color of this polish makes an excellent platform for showing off ILNP's Ultra Holo formula. Fabulous prismatic shimmer and sparkle transform this shy neutral to a magical faerie dust manicure! I absolutely adore the exquisite, spring-like hues generated by the holo pigment in ambient light, delicate lavender, pale misty blue and a kiss of rose, with golden sparks from the holographic microflakes like dew caught by the rising sun. Much, much prettier than I expected!

love,
Liz

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Deborah Lippmann Chain Reaction

Chain Reaction was released by Deborah Lippmann as part of the Rock This Town Limited Edition Trio boxed set for holiday 2012. Officially described as a dirty brass glimmer, the "dirty brass" part was what originally attracted me to it. Turns out it's a freaking gorgeous metallic glass fleck shimmer! It has a murky dark grey-green transparent jelly base packed with foily brass-toned glass flecks that are accented by flakey iridescent shimmers in green and purple. It's got a blackened speckled brassy look in indirect light and turns into a scintillating sparkle monster in the sun, with sparks of green, purple, blue and red. Stunning!

Application was lovely. This is a well behaved polish with a smooth, fluid consistency and an excellent viscosity for painting. It self-levels nicely and dealt with my nail ridges with aplomb. Pigmentation, given the transparency of the jelly base, is buildable. Because of the reflective nature of the foily brass flecks, the first coat may look like it's providing good coverage... until you take a look at it in the sun. I used two medium coats. Cleanup is an exercise in patience and shimmer wrangling, as this is one of those polishes that throws shimmers everywhere when it comes in contact with acetone. Chain Reaction dries naturally in very good time to a metallic foily finish that wants a good topcoat for shine and to pop the shimmer colors.

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

Deborah Lippmann Chain Reaction

I love the earthy organic minerally look of this polish! It's like a cross between bronzite and stichtite. I also love the way the dark murky base frames all the glass flecks and shimmers, it's creates a mini mozaic on each nail. The closer you get to this polish, the more dimensional and striking it becomes.

Apparently Chain Reaction is very similar to Nicole by OPI For Gold Time's Sake, which coincidentally (or not!) was released around the same time in the fall of 2012. It reminds me a little bit of Butter London Wallis, but Wallis is much greener, kind of a brassy olive to Chain Reaction's olive-toned brass. And Wallis doesn't have the purple shimmer that Chain Reaction does.

I guess if you had either of those two you might not consider Chain Reaction worth seeking out. Personally, I say BUY ALL THE FOILS! I found this on ebay, where I get all my Deborah Lippmann polishes, for around $10 plus a couple of bucks shipping.

love,
Liz