Lacquer Slacker Liz: pretty jelly

Showing posts with label pretty jelly. Show all posts

Friday, March 2, 2018

Pretty Jelly Sweet Trip to Honeydukes

Sweet Trip to Honeydukes was created by Liz of Illinois-based indie polish maker Pretty Jelly especially for the February 2018 "Sugar Rush" edition of Polish Pickup. This polish was inspired by the legendary wizarding sweets shop from the Harry Potter film series, and is described as "a deep mint green holographic with peach shimmer and hot pink sparkle."

The base color is a cool, translucent, medium-toned shade of Paris green. The degree of translucence creates luminosity and allows the color to be easily influenced by its components, giving it a certain malleable complexity on the nail. Holographic properties nuance the base with aspects of blue-green in ambient light. Abundant fine pink-to-gold color-shifting shimmers combine with it to give it a dusky quality, and create a swath of golden peachy-pink along the axis of light. Tiny, reflective bright pink microflakes emit a stealthy sparkle as light travels over them.

Application was buenísimo! The consistency of Sweet Trip to Honeydukes is fluid and full-bodied with a medium-to-slightly-thicker viscosity that I added a bit of polish thinner to at the outset. Thinned, it had a fluent, even, self-leveling slip over the nail that was a pleasure to finesse with the brand's flattened-style brush. Pigmentation is sheerish. Three coats delivers full opacity and bottle color. Cleanup is easy. Sweet Trip to Honeydukes dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat accentuates the presence and effects of the components.

Photos show three coats of Sweet Trip to Honeydukes over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. It was heavily overcast and raining today when I took these and they are not as sharp as I would have liked them to be, my apologies. On the plus side, though, you can more easily traces of the sparkly pink microflakes when they're blurred.

Pretty Jelly Sweet Trip to Honeydukes

Everything about this polish speaks to the diversity, creativity and uniqueness of indie polish making -- it's literally a perfect example of what I love most about indie polish makers and their offerings. The resonant inspiration of Honeydukes is creatively rendered in the color and components, which combine to create a unique look that is beautiful in its own right, complex, unconventional and, above all, eminently wearable.

Image of Honeydukes that served as the inspiration for this polish.

Polishes like this are what makes Polish Pickup such a wonderful, exciting showcase for indie polish makers and enthusiasts!

love,
Liz

Friday, November 20, 2015

Pretty Jelly Transcendent Triennium

Transcendent Triennium is the third and final polish of the 3rd Anniversary Trio released by Illinois-based indie polish maker Pretty Jelly toward the end of October. I featured the other two polishes, Celestial and Amore, earlier this month. My initial perusal of this trio in the bottle left me with the impression that Celestial would be my favorite, and indeed that it was until I got Transcendent Triennium on my nails. It turns out I inadvertently saved the best for last!

Like the other two, Transcendent Triennium is a fabulous, over-the-top full coverage microglitter/flakie bomb. With a clear suspension base, this polish carries a mix of superabundant metallic multichromatic flakies with a strong magenta bias and tons of ultraholo microglitters in gold. The result is pure Mardi Gras! The purpley magenta of the multichrome flakies has a strong chromatic shift to gold and green at oblique angles, and while the microglitters send out sparks in all of the prismatic colors, it's the green and gold that register most strongly amidst the gleaming flakies. Everyone knows (and if they don't, they should!) that purple, green and gold are the official colors of Mardi Gras, standing for justice, faith and power, respectively, and that's exactly what I see when I look at this marvelous creation. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Application was great! The consistency of Transcendent Triennium is on the thick side and dense with components but not at all goopy or sticky. Nevertheless, I added a bit of polish thinner at the outset to get a thinner consistency most commensurate to my application skills. The microglitters and flakies distribute a little unevenly on the first coat, but not to worry because Transcendent Triennium is completely and evenly opaque after the second coat. The components are fuss-free, go on smoothly without tumbling, lay flat to the nail and even tip-wrap without missing a beat! Cleanup is best done as you go along while the polish is still wet, as once it dries those glitters and flakies become rather limpet-like. Transcendent Triennium dries naturally in good time to a surprisingly smooth finish with only the slightest discernible texture from the components that is easily smoothed with a generous layer of topcoat.

Photos show two coats of Transcendent Triennium over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Pretty Jelly Transcendent Triennium

Is that not a wonderful chaotic mix of color, gleam and sparkle? It's a perfect polish for Mardi Gras, or any other let-your-hair-down kind of celebration!

Of course these close-up photos really don't give you an accurate idea of what Transcendent Triennium is like in person. From arm's length, it's a metallic pinkish purple, quite light and reflective and filled with bright sparks in every color of the rainbow. The multichromatic effects are dynamic, especially in low light, with hues of green and gold creeping in from the edges and sweeping across the nail. Not your everyday sort of polish, but it will definitely hold its own when you're craving something extravagant and unusual.

love,
Liz

Friday, November 13, 2015

Pretty Jelly Amore

Like Celestial, Amore was released by Illinois-based indie polish maker Pretty Jelly as part of the 3rd Anniversary Trio toward the end of October. This is another full coverage flakie/glitter bomb, this time with an orange-tinted suspension base bearing superabundant bronze ultraholo microglitters and multichrome flakies in pink, gold, red and blue. On the nail, it has a rosy magenta appearance with overtones of purple and a foily aspect with an absolutely delirious amount of sparkle from the ultraholo microglitters in every prismatic hue. There's a strong multichromatic shift from magenta to green at oblique angles, and the green and yellow sparks from the microglitters really stand out against the rosy tones of the flakies.

Application was drama-free. The consistency of Amore is paintably fluid, slightly fluffy and dense with components. It has an easy, self-leveling spread over the nail with no trouble from the microglitters or flakies, which lie flat to the nail without stickups, stacking or free edge protrusions. Coverage is accomplished by the components, and is excellent for a polish of this type, with even opacity in two coats. I added an extra tip wrap in between coats to avoid any sheerness there. Cleanup is best done as you go along, while the polish is still wet, and you'll want to do as little of it as possible as those tiny microglitters and flakies do go everywhere. Luckily, this polish is easy enough to work with that a clean manicure is completely within the realm of possibility. Amore dries naturally in good time to a slightly pebbly texture from the components that is mostly smoothed with a layer of topcoat, or maybe two if you're looking for a glassy finish.

Photos show two coats of Amore over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Girly Bits Smooth Move basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Pretty Jelly Amore

Once again my camera was bewildered by all of the light play and apparently tried to compensate by upping the contrast. In person, Amore is both lighter and brighter than it appears in my photos. It's a real chameleon too. With that magenta/bronze/green shift going on, you never know what color will take the stage next. One minute, it's a purpley magenta, the next it's a playful, dainty rose, the minute after that it's a pinkish bronze... and always with that magnificent sparkle.

I have one more from this trio to show you, Transcendent Triennium, and I think I'll try for a glassy finish with that one. As you can see, these polishes play well with topcoat and show no shrinkage or pull back. They're more difficult to remove than a creme or shimmer, but I didn't feel the need to break out the tin foil.

Fun polish!

love,
Liz

Monday, November 9, 2015

Pretty Jelly Celestial

Celestial was released by Illinois-based indie polish maker Pretty Jelly as part of the 3rd Anniversary Trio toward the end of October to celebrate the brand's third anniversary on 10 November. All three of these polishes are full coverage microglitter/flakie bombs, spectacularly sparkly and festive. Celestial bears a mix of superabundant silver ultraholo microglitters and profuse multichromatic flakies in a rainbow of colors, all suspended in a clear base. It's like the flashiest, most colorful opal you can imagine, a roll of purple foil gift wrap, a rainbow and a disco ball all got into one of those telepods from the 1986 movie The Fly and melded during teleportation. You open the door to the receiving telepod, and there's your bottle of Pretty Jelly Celestial.

On the nail, it's just an explosion of sparkles and gleams, brilliantly colorful and ultra dynamic. There's a general impression of purple/magenta foiliness beneath, with bright prismatic sparks of light from the microglitters shooting from the surface and a silvery flash overall. Total eye candy!

Application was wonderful. Creator Liz has always seemed to take great care that her polishes provide the easiest, most satisfying application, and despite its teeming components, Celestial is no exception. The consistency is fluid, dense and eminently paintable with none of the goopiness or stickiness or component folderol that you might expect from such a composition. It has a smooth, self-leveling spread over the nail, likes to go on in medium coats and is surprisingly easy to manipulate with Pretty Jelly's flattened flexible brush. Coverage is excellent -- this is very nearly a one coater for those with a generous hand, and I used two medium coats with an extra tip wrap in between for a completely even opacity. So impressive! With use and exposure to air, the components tend to build up and become a little gummy on the brush, but closing the bottle and giving it a brisk shake returns it to its original state. I did my cleanup, the little that was needed, as I went along and had no problems, although you may see a few free-roaming microglitters around my nail environs in the photos. Celestial dries naturally in very good time to a remarkably smooth finish with just a hint of discernible texture from the components.

Photos show two coats of Celestial over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. The unbelievable amount of light play in this polish utterly confounded my poor camera, macro and all. But it pretty much confounds the eye in person too!

Pretty Jelly Celestial

Look at how those sparkly microglitters are doing their dead level best to steal the focus in these photos! My camera compensated by exaggerating the contrast -- in person the look is more homogeneous in terms of light and dark than my photos show. You can see this better plus view all of the pretty colors of the multichrome flakies in Celestial by visiting its listing in Pretty Jelly's etsy shop and hitting zoom for the swatch photo.

Despite its consummate outrageousness, Celestial is unexpectedly easy to wear. It dries down beautifully to a smooth compact layer on the nail without any shrinkage or tip pull to speak of, even with a generous coat of Seche Vite over it, and just sparkles its little heart out!

Fuzzy, not known for her love of glitters and such, said, "Well, that's a party." And that it most definitely is!

love,
Liz