Lacquer Slacker Liz: purple

Showing posts with label purple. Show all posts

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Lollipop Posse Lacquer What a Million Filaments

What a Million Filaments was released last month by Ohio-based indie polish maker Lollipop Posse Lacquer as part of The Sylvia Plath Quad celebrating the brand's third anniversary. It's described as "an electric purple linear holographic polish that suspends green/blue/purple color shifting micro glitters and blue iridescent flakes."

The color is a slightly heathery, rich medium purple with strong red-violet overtones, kind of like a plummy take on a Munsell purple, a garnet-like shade that's difficult to describe but immediately recognizable as purple. One of the first things you notice about this polish in the bottle are copious blue microflakes interspersed with tiny green microglitters, which have have an almost psychedelic quality against the bold purple base color. Their appearance on the nail is more subtle and scattered but no less delightful, tiny gleaming bursts of blue and green as the light catches them. Abundant holographic pigment gives the purple base a finely-grained visual texture and a heathery quality, nuancing it with hues of red-violet, violet and plum in ambient light. In the sun, there's a slightly dispersed but super sparkly linear prismatic flare predominated by arcs of azure and bright red.

Application was fantastic. The consistency of What a Million Filaments is fluid and creamy with a medium viscosity and a plush, even, self-leveling glide over the nail that is easy to control. I experienced a tiny bit of tumbling on the part of the components, but no stacking or stickups. Pigmentation is very good to excellent -- I used two coats for these photos. Cleanup was surprisingly easy. What a Million Filaments dries naturally in good time to a shiny finish that is very slightly textured, easily smoothed with topcoat. Topcoat also accentuates the presence of the components.

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

Lollipop Posse Lacquer What a Million Filaments

This is a beautifully-composed polish and very Sylvia Plath, I think. The name comes from a line in her great 1962 poem, "Lady Lazarus," and I feel that the boldly contrasting elements in the polish really do justice to the fierceness and electricity of that work. On the nail, it has a lush, plummy presence, richly colorful but not the least bit gaudy or overly flamboyant -- there's a certain confident, sophisticated sensibility to it that, to me, reflects very well upon the wearer. Love this!

xo,
Liz

Thursday, May 24, 2018

Dreamland Mrs Mia Wallace

Mrs Mia Wallace was created by Noelie of Missouri-based indie polish maker Dreamland Artisan Nail Lacquer especially for the May 2018 "90s Pop Culture" edition of Polish Pickup. This polish was inspired by nail color worn by the character of Mia Wallace, played by Uma Thurman, in Quentin Tarantino's 1994 postmodern masterpiece Pulp Fiction. Noelie writes

In 1994, pop culture collided when Mrs Mia Wallace danced her way onto the screen. The very definition of a vamp, Mia was mysterious, gorgeous, dangerous, and drop dead sexy (no pun intended), and she was wearing a very, very special polish on her fingers and toes. That polish changed the landscape of nails away from flower type colors to the rainbow we now know and love. People waited in lines around the block and put themselves on in-store waiting lists to obtain a bottle of the blackened red stunner that everyone was talking about. Spawning endless dupes, and setting the nail industry on a new and exciting journey, it was a real game-changer - so much so that 24 years later, we've tackled the idea of making it vamp like it's 1994, but sparkle like it's 2018.

That polish was Chanel's No. 18 Rouge Noir, known in the US as Vamp.

Noelie's take is a deep, dense, plummy, venous blood color that is similar to Very Dark Reddish Purple from the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names or Benjamin Moore's Dark Purple. Superabundant tiny silver holographic microglitters blanket it with a glamorous, twinkling field of delicate prismatic sparks in ambient light that explodes into bold, brilliant sparkle in the sun, where the intensity of the color takes on an almost chocolatey sensibility.

Application was great! The consistency of Mrs Mia Wallace is fluid and full-bodied with a medium viscosity and a fluent, even, self-leveling slip over the nail, going on easily in medium coats. The brand's flattened-style brush holds quite a lot of polish -- take care not to overload! Pigmentation is excellent, very close to opaque in one coat although I used two like I always do. Cleanup is straightforward. Mrs Mia Wallace dries naturally in very good time to a sandy-textured, matte finish that wants a good glitter-smoothing topcoat to look its best.

Photos show two coats of Mrs Mia Wallace over treatment and basecoat with a layer of Girly Bits Glitter Glaze plus a layer of Seche Vite for the ultimate glassy finish.

Dreamland Mrs Mia Wallace

Noelie's microglitter polishes are perfection, I just love them! This is a fabulous look, intensely vampy and mysterious with the glamorous twinkle of countless prismatic sparks. I don't often gravitate toward colors this dark, but I love this one a lot for the Pulp Fiction reference and its homage to the Chanel Rouge Noir phenomenon, so significant in the evolution of nail polish culture. Outstanding!

xo,
Liz

Monday, May 14, 2018

A-England Peaseblossom A Fairy

Continuing with A-England's Shakespeare's Fairies collection, today's polish is Peaseblossom A Fairy, officially described a violet red hologram with additional iridescent glimmer. The color is a bold, well-saturated, medium-dark red-violet, a lush, berried purple-ish red shade that's about 3/4 of the way between red and magenta on the color wheel, closer to magenta than red. It's saturated enough to nearly swallow the holographic effects in ambient light, but reveals a beautiful prismatic flush in bright direct light featuring a flame-shaped flare of bright red and indigo sparks.

Application was excellent. The consistency of Peaseblossom is fluid and smooth with a medium-ish viscosity that is slightly thicker than the other Shakespeare's Fairies, and I added a little bit of polish thinner to my bottle at the outset. Thinned, it had a fluent, velvety, self-leveling glide over the nail that was opaque in one medium coat, although I used two like I always do. There's some pigment travel with cleanup but little to no residual staining. Peaseblossom dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Peaseblossom A Fairy over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

A-England Peaseblossom A Fairy

Adore!! Red-violet polish is always among my favorites for the poignancy of the color and the fiercely feminine, romantic sensibility it evokes. It just seems to have this amazing, almost untamed kind of vitality, making for an irrepressibly lively, dramatic manicure that simply brims with panache. Superb!

love,
Liz

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Picture Polish Heaven

Like Cactus, Heaven was released in March this year by Australian boutique polish maker Picture Polish as part of the Spring Autumn 2018 collection. It is also a Collaboration shade, created with CeasarShop.fi/Nail Polish Heaven, a Finnish online polish vendor.

Described as a soft lavender jelly bearing PP's signature mix of holographic flakes, the color is indeed a light, creamy lavender similar to the ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names' lavender shade known as pale lavender or pale lilac, but it's definitely a cooler rather than a warmer shade. Abundant holographic flakes read as silver within the base, giving the polish a gently stippled appearance and veiling the look with pasteled prismatic sparks in the sun, most notably in pink, azure and pale gold.

Application was a pleasure. The consistency of Heaven is fluid, light and silky with a medium viscosity and a fluent, easy slip over the nail that self-levels beautifully. Pigmentation is sheerish on the first coat but builds to a wearable opacity with the second if using medium coats. Cleanup is easy. Heaven dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

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

Picture Polish Heaven

I really like this polish. It's a perfect Goldilocks kind of lavender shade -- it has a slightly more robust and full-bodied presence than a pastel, but daintier and milkier than a floral lavender. The silvery holographic flecks give the look a delicate, graceful air on the nail. If you love lavender, you should have this!

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, April 19, 2018

Cirque Dusky Skies

Like Taos and Palm Springs, Dusky Skies was released earlier this month by NYC-based indie polish maker Cirque Colors as part of the Desert Bloom collection. This polish shares the same vibrant pink shimmer and delicate holographic sparkle as the other two, here in what is described as a deep blue-violet base.

The color is a medium-dark to dark but vibrant modern royal blue, also known as web royal blue. It combines with the pink shimmers to produce a gorgeous, shifty blue-violet melange with aspects of ultramarine, color wheel violet, indigo, electric indigo and Munsell purple that vary in prominence and depth of hue according to viewing circumstances. Running along the axis of light is a broad, dimensional mist of visible shimmers that ranges in appearance from pink in direct light to a rich Munsell purple in low light and shade. Tiny, scattered holographic microglitters with a dainty, unobtrusive prismatic twinkle complete the look.

Application was wonderful. The consistency of Dusky Skies is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and a fluent, even, self-leveling glide over the nail. Pigmentation is very good. Some sheerness on the first coat builds quickly to a wearable opacity with the second if using medium coats. Thinner coats will require three. Cleanup is easy. Dusky Skies dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, satiny finish that wants a glossy topcoat to look its best.

Photos show three coats of Dusky Skies over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Cirque Dusky Skies

Beautiful! This my favorite of the three Desert Bloom polishes that I purchased.

My father is getting married on 21 April and I'll be driving up to Charlottesville, VA tomorrow to attend the wedding, staying for the weekend and into next week so I'm not sure exactly when I'll be posting again. Probably not for a week or so. Not to worry, I'll be back!

love,
Liz