Lacquer Slacker Liz: matte

Showing posts with label matte. Show all posts

Friday, April 28, 2017

Lollipop Posse Lacquer We're Gonna Serve

We're Gonna Serve is the fourth and final polish of the Kiki Vol. 2 collection by Lollipop Posse Lacquer (LPL). Described as "a matte, blue-leaning teal that is packed with shifting shimmer and on-tone micro flakies," the color is a vibrant medium-toned variation of blue-green that lands somewhere between Pacific blue and Bondi blue on the light/dark spectrum, leaning more to Pacific blue in bright ambient light and direct sun and deepening slightly to more of a Bondi blue in lower light. Swimming within are superabundant microflake shimmers, which give the polish a delicately stippled visual texture on close inspection and create a dimensional glow along the axis of light. With its silky soft, luminous matte finish, it reminds me of brightly colored beach glass.

Application was most agreeable! The consistency of We're Gonna Serve is fluid and smooth with a medium consistency and a fluent, even, self-leveling glide over the nail. Like the other Kiki Vol. 2 mattes, it sets up quickly and appreciates a deft hand using as few brushstrokes as possible, but I found it a pleasure to work with even so. Eminently paintable! Pigmentation is very good, delivering evenly opaque coverage in two medium coats. Cleanup is easy. We're Gonna Serve dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, matte finish.

Photos show two coats of We're Gonna Serve over treatment and basecoat, no topcoat.

Lollipop Posse Lacquer We're Gonna Serve

What an amazing blue! It's definitely greener and more tropical than LPL's Bid Adieu to You Ennui from the Christmas Kiki collection but shares the same opulent, saturated jewel-tone kind of quality, which is only enhanced by the luxurious velvety matte/satin suede finish. I mean, the color just about jumps off the nail, even in low light! The look is vibrant, sexy and high-end, and something about it just makes me want to put on some sueded silk, spritz myself with Chanel Coco pure parfum and roll around on a big, soft leather sofa with Sam Elliot.

We're Gonna Serve is tied with I Hope You're Up Girl for my favorite of Kiki Vol. 2, but Karen did a superb job of curating the colors for this collection and I love seeing all four of them together a la Amy McG's collage photo in her review on Polish Etc. The review also includes excellent photos of each polish with a glossy topcoat in addition to the natural matte finish, so be sure take a look if you're curious about how they look glossy.

love,
Liz

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Lollipop Posse Lacquer Spilling Tea

Another from the Kiki Vol. 2 collection by Lollipop Posse Lacquer for you today, and it's a yellow! I haven't featured a matte yellow polish here since Literary Lacquers' Curious Yellow in July of 2015, and I think today's is only the third matte yellow ever in my stash (if you count Zoya's PixieDust Solange as a yellow).

Spilling Tea is described by creator Karen as "a shimmery, golden mustard matte." For some reason, it's much more difficult for me to visually discriminate between shades of yellow than other colors, and I kind of made myself a little crazy trying to determine the exact nature of this one. It's a warmer yellow with a strong amber aspect, and to my eye it's very close to Pantone's cyber yellow. While it does contain a moderate amount of ultrafine shimmers, this one does not have the added flakies that the other Kiki Vol. 2 polishes do, so the effect is more subtle, a delicate glistening. They also contribute to the softly glowing luminosity of the velvety matte/satin suede finish.

Application was awesome! Yellows are often streaky and just generally difficult to apply. Not this one! The consistency of Spilling Tea is fluid, smooth and dense with a medium-to-thicker viscosity to which I added a couple of squirts of polish thinner at the outset. At a thin-to-medium viscosity, it had a light, fluent slip over the nail with outstanding self-leveling properties for a matte polish. As light a color as it is, pigmentation is a touch more sheer than yesterday's I Hope You're Up Girl. I used three coats to get an opacity that adequately camouflaged the smile lines on my swatching hand, although I found it to be wearable at two for the shorties on my Cinderella hand. Cleanup is easy. Spilling Tea dries naturally in good time to a smooth, matte finish.

Photos show three coats of Spilling Tea over treatment and basecoat, no topcoat.

Lollipop Posse Lacquer Spilling Tea

The ambery look of this yellow makes it very wearable -- it's almost like a pastel orange. I realize that my pasty pinkage is not the best showcase for this kind of color, but I still appreciate the look and the visual tactility of the matte finish is deeply cool. To me, it's much more appealing and unusual than a shiny yellow. It has more of an abstract geometric color block style a la Piet Mondrian that really makes a statement, with a very modern, chic feel on the nail.

love,
Liz

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Lollipop Posse Lacquer I Hope You're Up, Girl

The next polish from the Kiki Vol. 2 collection released this month by Lollipop Posse Lacquer is I Hope You're Up Girl, described as "a matte berry shade that is filled with blue shifting shimmer and pink to blue shifting micro flakies." The color is a medium-dark variation of magenta along the lines of telemagenta or smitten from the Resene Color List, a rich, feminine hue that takes a slightly muted quality with the velvety matte finish. It reminds me of sueded silk. The shimmers and microflakes give the plush finish a gorgeous blue glow along the axis of light.

Application was a delight. The consistency of I Hope You're Up Girl is fluid, smooth and dense with a medium viscosity and a silky, even slip over the nail that sets up quickly but is very easy to work with even so. Self-leveling properties are fantastic for a matte polish and handled my ridges with aplomb. Pigmentation is excellent, delivering evenly opaque coverage on the first coat that deepens to full bottle color with the second. Cleanup is easy. I Hope You're Up Girl dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, matte finish.

Photos show two coats of I Hope You're Up Girl over treatment and basecoat, no topcoat.

Lollipop Posse Lacquer I Hope You're Up, Girl

You guys know how I feel about red-violet and darker magenta shades, so the fact that I love this will surprise no one. Really, it is just so complimentary and beautiful on the nail, and the velvety matte/satin suede finish with its soft blue glow adds a certain mysterious, almost elusive quality to it, as though it would slip away from you if you tried too hard to grasp its true nature. Very romantic and feminine.

love,
Liz

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Lollipop Posse Lacquer Lock the Doors Tight

Karen of Ohio-based indie nail polish maker Lollipop Posse Lacquer has just released a sequel to her fabulous Christmas Kiki collection, my favorite holiday set from 2016! The new series, Kiki Vol. 2, featuring four shimmery colors in the same velvety matte finish as their predecessors, released on 14 April. I got all four and will be sharing them here beginning today with Lock the Doors Tight.

This is described as "a vibrant, grass green matte shade that is filled with shifting shimmer and on-tone green and gold micro flakies." The color is a bright, cool medium shade of green with a certain luminosity to it, the way that a polished piece of gemstone jade is luminous. It's not quite as weighty as a jade green, though, a little cleaner and brighter, more like an emerald or a Paris green. The luminous color is intensified by the microflake shimmers and the velvety matte/satin suede finish, which has a remarkable sense of being both organic and grounded and utterly luxurious.

Application was great! The consistency of Lock the Doors Tight is fluid, smooth and almost creamy, with a medium viscosity and a fluent, easy glide over the nail. Like most mattes, it sets up quickly and overworking will cause unevenness to the finish so it appreciates a deft hand using as few brushstrokes as possible. Self-leveling properties are very good as is pigmentation. Wearable opacity can be had in two coats, maybe three if you have a strongly demarcated smile line or ridges that need camouflaging. Cleanup is easy. Lock the Doors Tight dries naturally in good time to a smooth, matte finish. Subsequent coats take longer to dry and are very vulnerable to dings and marring until they dry completely. Cuidado!

Photos show three coats of Lock the Doors Tight over basecoat, no topcoat.

Lollipop Posse Lacquer Lock the Doors Tight

As with the Christmas Kiki polishes, the names of the Kiki Vol. 2 polishes come from lyrics of the 2012 song "Let's Have a Kiki" by the band Scissor Sisters.

This bright happy green was surprisingly difficult for my camera to capture for some reason, and the color in the photos has a washed out appearance compared to the polish in person, where it is more saturated and vibrant. The microflake shimmers are mainly noticeable upon close inspection but do create a soft cyanic glow along the axis of light at arm's length.

love,
Liz

Friday, January 13, 2017

Lollipop Posse Lacquer Bid Adieu to Your Ennui

Bid Adieu to Your Ennui is the last of the three polishes that I got from the Christmas Kiki collection released by Ohio-based indie polish maker Lollipop Posse Lacquer in November 2016. There is a fourth polish, This Kiki is Marvelous, a topper with magenta and cyan iridescent glitters plus scattered holo dust that is specifically formulated to coordinate with each of the three matte polishes in the collection, although I don't see its listing in LPL's shop right now.

Bid Adieu to Your Ennui is officially described as "a matte, ocean blue shade that is filled with blue-green shifting shimmer." The base color is a bold, rich variation of azure along the lines of the web color royal blue. Superabundant ultrafine shimmers in a cyanic shade of electric blue create a dimensional, radiant swath along the axis of light of the matte/satin suede finish, giving the polish a gorgeous glow.

Application was great! The consistency of Bid Adieu to Your Ennui is fluid and full-bodied with a medium-to-thicker viscosity to which I added a couple/few squirts of polish thinner at the outset. Thinned, it had a fluent, silky smooth glide over the nail with the same outstanding self-leveling properties as Dishing Just Desserts and A Party for Calming All Your Nerves. Pigmentation is very good, delivering evenly opaque coverage in two coats. I used three for this manicure to ensure fullest, richest color, but I don't think that it significantly altered the look. Cleanup is easy. Bid Adieu to Your Ennui surface dries very quickly to a matte finish but remains tender underneath for a while longer and is easily marred during that time.

Photos show three coats of Bid Adieu to Your Ennui over treatment and basecoat, no topcoat.

Lollipop Posse Lacquer Bid Adieu to Your Ennui

How gorgeous is that, eh?!

LPL's Christmas Kiki collection is my absolute favorite of all the holiday collections that came out this year. I loved the concept and inspiration, "Let's Have a Kiki" by Scissor Sisters; the three exuberant, jewel-tone colors were fresh and exciting and beautifully formulated and that matte finish just bewitchingly beautiful. Each of them is equally fabulous, I cannot choose a favorite. They are sold out in LPL's shop at the moment, but you can follow Lollipop Posse Lacquer on Facebook to find out when Karen does a restock. I say, get all three!

love,
Liz