Lacquer Slacker Liz: pastel

Showing posts with label pastel. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Picture Polish Blossom

Like Cactus and Heaven, Blossom was released in March this year by Australian boutique polish maker Picture Polish as part of the Spring Autumn 2018 collection. This is yet another Collaboration shade, created with Paulina of Paulina's Passions, according to her design. You can view her post about Blossom here.

Officially described as a "shifting soft baby pink to lilac" jelly with pink glass fleck shimmers and PP's signature mix of holographic flakes, the color is a cool-toned, pastel tint of pink that's similar to a desaturated version of Pantone's Fairy Tale, milky and delicate. It has gentle lilac undertones that seem to assert themselves more or less depending on viewing circumstances. Subtle, scattered flecks in an ever-so-slightly brighter tone of pink glisten as light travels over them, and fine holographic flakes sparkle in hues of silver, pale gold and pastel pink and azure in the sun.

Application was a pleasure. The consistency of Blossom is fluid, light and creamy with a medium consistency and a fluent, easy glide over the nail, a lovely formula that's really more of a crelly than a jelly and self-levels beautifully for a pastel. It is semi-translucent by design and a tiny bit of streakiness, mostly ridge-related, built steadily to evenly opaque coverage in three coats for me, although I think it's also beautiful at two with a touch of visible nail line. Cleanup is straightforward with a bit of stickiness on the part of the pink glass flecks. Blossom dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

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

Picture Polish Blossom

I haven't always been a fan of pastels, but this one really is so pretty and the formula exceptionally user-friendly. The cool, pale, milky pink is clean and graceful on the nail and not stark like I was expecting, a more subtle, grownup pastel shade that feels particularly flattering on the nail.

I picked this polish for today knowing that I will be wearing it for a while as Fuzzy is going in for knee replacement surgery tomorrow and I'll be staying with her in the hospital until they send her off to rehab at the end of the week. It's delicate and unobtrusive with a certain serene sensibility to it that I think will make it a good companion before and after the surgery, for me and maybe for Fuzzy as well.

love,
Liz

Friday, April 27, 2018

A-England A Midsummer Night's Dream

Hello, I've returned! Charlottesville was beautiful. It's a couple of weeks behind Chapel Hill as far as spring goes, so while the dogwoods are petering out here, they're in full bloom up there and there were loads of white and pink dogwood blossoms everywhere, suspended like lacy clouds in the misty spring green of the landscape. My 79-year-old father and his new wife were married at noon outdoors on a cool, bright, sunny spring day in front of a venerable deciduous magnolia that was covered in big, bursting purpley-mauve blooms with the rolling hills of the Virginia piedmont as a background.

Today's polish is the first of eight holographic creations from British indie polish maker A-England's new collection, Shakespeare's Fairies, released in March and inspired by the fairies of William Shakespeare's popular comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. The polish I have for you today is the namesake of that play, officially described as a delicate rose hologram with iridescent shimmers.

The base color is a pale, silvery queen pink bearing beaucoup finely-milled, luminous violet shimmers, which read as lavender on the nail and combine with the base color to give the polish a general appearance similar to Pantone's pink lavender, but more desaturated and silvery. It's the sort of misty, lightly-tinted silvery holo that Adina does so beautifully. There's a gentle, mobile golden prismatic flush in ambient light that explodes into a dense, sparkling scattered holographic flare in the sun with a certain dusky quality to it that surprised me.

Application was wonderful. The consistency of A Midsummer Night's Dream is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and a fluent, creamy, self-leveling slip over the nail that goes on naturally in thin-to-medium coats from A-England's excellent, flexible, paddle-style brush. Pigmentation is very good, delivering evenly opaque coverage in two coats. Cleanup is easy. A Midsummer Night's Dream dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat accentuates the presence of the violet shimmers and does not affect the holographic properties of the polish in any way.

Photos show two coats of A Midsummer Night's Dream over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

A-England A Midsummer Night's Dream

This is a beautiful, supremely elegant polish, smooth and serene on the nail with that gorgeous, misty, dimensional prismatic bloom that makes you want to be constantly flexing your fingers to see it travel up and down the nail. The shimmer effects are particularly prevalent, producing a soft, unambiguous pink-lavender color that's graceful and flattering. Very nice!

love,
Liz

Thursday, March 22, 2018

ILNP Celeste

Like Avalon and Nexus, Celeste was released earlier this month by ILNP as part of the Spring 2018 collection. This one is described as a lilac holographic polish with gold shimmers. The color is indeed a desaturated lilac that is heavily silvered by ILNP's signature holographic mix of particles and microflakes. It's also packed with loads of tiny, highly reflective pale gold microflake shimmers that light up as light travels over them and create a warm golden flash. In combination with the holographic components, they give this polish an especially lacy, ethereal look. The prismatic effects are strong, with a prominent mobile prismatic flush in ambient light and a moderately dispersed linear flare in direct light.

Application was great! The consistency of Celeste is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and a fluent, easy, self-leveling slip over the nail that is amenable to thin or thicker coats as preference dictates. Pigmentation is very good. Some sheerness on the first coat builds easily to wearable opacity in two. There's a bit of component scattering with cleanup. Celeste dries naturally in very good time to a gently textured finish, easily smoothed by topcoat.

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

ILNP Celeste

So pretty! I love the delicate, lacy look of this polish, it reminds me of a springtime landscape when the dogwoods are in bloom everywhere or the flowering plum trees here on our place when the breeze releases the tiny petals to fall like light snow. Between the shimmers and the holographic components, there's all kinds of sparkly lightplay too, and the pastel lilac color is the perfect springtime backdrop. Exquisite!

love,
Liz

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Picture Polish Bardot

Bardot was released in 2015 by Australian boutique polish maker Picture Polish as an addition to PP's Opulence line. Officially described as a French baby pink scattered holographic polish, the color is a desaturated peachy pink nude, a milky, barely-there sort of shade along the lines of the traditional Japanese color shironeri, or unbleached silk. It has PP's traditional scattered holo formula with silvery holographic flakies, which seem to have a more moderate presence here than in other PP scattered holos, perhaps due to the creaminess of the color. But they do give the polish a subtly sparkling shimmer that lights up in delicate, pasteled prismatic hues as light travels over it.

If you follow Chit Chat Nails, Bardot strikes me as a very Marta kind of color.

Application was lovely. The consistency of Bardot is fluid, light and creamy with a medium viscosity and a fluent, silky smooth slip over the nail. Self-leveling properties are very good for a white-based shade. Pigmentation is sheer -- translucent and a bit streaky on the first coat but building up and evening out with subsequent coats. I used three, but I suspect that with an even hand and the proper mojo some folks could achieve wearable opacity in two. Cleanup is easy. Bardot dries naturally in average time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat helped to smooth out lingering areas of unevenness.

Photos show three coats of Bardot over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Picture Polish Bardot

I think my camera skews the color a little cool. In person, there's more warmth to it.

Picture Polish makes some lovely nudes and near nudes, some with holo and some without. Bardot's slightly peachy beige quality places it right on the line for me in terms of wearability -- almost a little too warm, but not quite. It's a beautiful, "character shoe" kind of shade, delicate, creamy and clean on the nail, making for a very tidy-looking manicure. It makes me want to try Grace, another soft pinky nude Opulence color with a greyer undertone than Bardot. If you'd like to see a side-by-side comparison of these two, Edina of Lakkomlakkom features exactly that in her review of Bardot, here.

Picture Polish is available through their website and various international stockists. I usually purchase my Picture Polish from Color4Nails, but when I went to place my order recently, Firefox wouldn't let me on the site due to some kind of security issue. I've since discovered that Safari doesn't share Firefox's security scruples, but at the time I just decided to go ahead and buy directly from Picture Polish in Australia, ordering enough polish to take advantage of free international shipping. Incredibly enough, my package arrived in only TWO DAYS via DHL! How amazing is that?

xo,
Liz

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

KBShimmer Playing With The Buoys

Playing With The Buoys was released in June 2016 by Indiana-based indie polish maker KBShimmer as part of the Summer 2016 collection. It's a pale greenish blue white-based hue that reads as something along the lines of light cyan on the nail, a little more green than celeste. You could call it a pastel robin's egg blue or turquoise. The white base gives it a degree of luminosity on the nail, with a soft, sun-bleached vibe. I love the pun in the name, I think it's one of Christy's best!

Through no fault of its own this polish brought out the worst of my application habits, which is especially unfortunate give how tractable the formula is, very smooth and not at all patchy or streaky. Suffice to say that the formula is great -- my application, not so much. It is a white-based color and I totally psyched myself out over it, shaky hands, uneven pressure on the brush, overstroking the polish, why do I do this? Anyway, the consistency is fluid, light and creamy with a medium viscosity and a fluent glide over the nails. Self-leveling properties are very good, as is pigmentation, delivering evenly opaque coverage in two coats with a deft, even hand. I needed three, and even then had to rely on Seche Vite to smooth it completely. Cleanup, luckily for me, is easy. Playing With The Buoys dries naturally in very good time to a beautiful glossy finish.

Photos show three coats of Playing With The Buoys over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

KBShimmer Playing With The Buoys

This is a gorgeous color with that fresh, clean-and-tidy look that makes for a very flattering manicure. There's a certain heady, "on holiday" quality to it -- Sheila of Pointless Cafe described it as a "Dior St. Tropez vibe" and while I believe she was talking about the actual polish of that name, the villa in St. Tropez that houses Dior's boutique and café reflects it perfectly, look:

See that trim color? I would so love to be sitting under one of those umbrellas right now with a lobster salad or ceviche and a flute of chilled champagne....

xo,
Liz

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Different Dimension dreaMS

Like No MS'ing Around, dreaMS was released earlier this month by Different Dimension as one of a trio of limited edition custom polishes for Crystal's Charity Lacquers, with a portion of the proceeds donated to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. This is the blue of the bunch, officially described as "a lightened teal blue linear holo with added shimmer," but it's not nearly as simple as it sounds. It is an extraordinarily shimmery shade, and the base color appears to me to be a silvery, slightly dusky pastel blue along the lines of light steel blue. Tiny gleaming microflake shimmers are a brighter, more cyanic blue, almost a turquoise, with some shifting pinkish/reddish interference that is largely unnoticeable on the nail, and give the polish an overall look that is more of a Columbia blue, a light azurey shade blanketed with shimmering electric blue sparks. The holographic effects lend a rich, finely-grained visual texture and create a slightly dispersed but very sparkly linear prismatic flare in the sun, where the overall color of the polish brightens considerably to a buoyant baby blue.

Application was most agreeable! The consistency of dreaMS is fluid and smooth with a medium viscosity and a full-bodied, self-leveling glide over the nail, not quite as creamy as No MS'ing Around but equally user-friendly. Pigmentation is very good to excellent, delivering evenly opaque coverage in two thin coats. Cleanup is straightforward but not necessarily easy, especially if you tend to have swipage issues like I do. The shimmers, freed by acetone, disperse and settle, glistening happily, over the nail environs and are the very soul of intractability to chase down. dreaMS dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat doesn't appear to affect the holographic properties in any way.

Photos show two coats of dreaMS over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Different Dimension dreaMS

A perfect blue holo for the warmer months, shimmery and fresh.

love,
Liz