This polish has a transparent indigo-tinted jelly base bearing holographic silver microglitters, black microglitters and microflake shimmers in bright electric blue. It can be built to full coverage on its own or layered over another polish, which is what I decided to do. I chose Butter London's Royal Navy for this purpose.
Royal Navy is part of Butter London's core line. It's a super-pigmented dark blue, dark enough to pass for navy but this is actually a dark ultramarine. It's got a nice formula with a fluid, smooth, dense consistency that applies beautifully and dries to a glossy finish. What's not to love? Well, it stains like a mofo! Cleaning up after application left me with pigment travel that went from sidewall to sidewall around the cuticle and stubborn trace staining to nails, cuticles and skin. As long as there are alternatives, such as Polish My Life's Blue Pansy (a true navy) for example, I would not recommend a polish that stains like this one does.
Back to Camille Sepharial D'Artigo, I applied two coats over the Royal Navy manicure (which was two layers over treatment and basecoat plus topcoat). It's more fluid than I'm used to from Literary Lacquers, but not the least bit runny, with a nicely-balanced viscosity for painting and a smooth, even flow over the nail. The electric blue shimmers really stand out over the dark blue base, enough to give it the appearance of a deep sapphire blue with hints of violet and a stunning electric blue sheen. Scattered sparks in prismatic colors twinkle dramatically as light travels over them, like stars in the night sky. Beautiful! Camille Sepharial D'Artigo dries naturally in good time to a sandy, textured finish that surprised me by smoothing out completely after a single layer of topcoat.
Photos show two layers of Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over a full manicure of Butter London Royal Navy with a topcoat of Seche Vite.
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
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| Literary Lacquers Camille Sepharial D'Artigo over Butter London Royal Navy |
Camille Sepharial D'Artigo is fabulous over this dark blue -- there's so much more to it than the photos show! I don't know any of the Otherworld books, so I can't speak to how representative of Camille it is, but I can tell you this: it reminds me of nothing so strongly as Courtney herself, with blues and purples in her hair and those dancing eyes and that sparkle she has.
You could layer this pretty polish over a medium-toned blue so that the black glitters would be visible, or over a purple to bring out the natural purples in the indigo base. That would look very cool with the electric blue flash, I think! If this has been languishing in your untrieds, pull it out and pick a base color. It's one of those polishes that doesn't quite come together until you get topcoat on it, so be patient. The look is worth it!
ttyl,
Liz
