Lacquer Slacker Liz

Friday, September 27, 2013

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns has a medium toned bright azure blue jelly base carrying small iridescent turquoise and azure hex glitters and an abundance of blue shimmer. The somewhat sheer azure base has a lovely delicate milkiness to it that builds in intensity concurrently with the color saturation as the polish is layered, creating an intense azure blue with a translucence that gives the impression of limitlessness. The twinkling turquoise and blue glitters shimmer from within this cloudy translucence, and the effect is very pretty indeed.

As with the other Elevation Polishes I have experienced, Azure Caverns is beautifully formulated. The base is both fluid and slightly viscous and bears the glitters and shimmer easily, smoothly and evenly onto the nail. Being a jelly, at least two coats is necessary for even coverage but opacity and the depth and brilliance of the color are even better with three. Dry time is fast, and the polish dries naturally to a satiny finish that wants a layer of topcoat to best show off the iridescent glitters within.

Photos show three coats of Azure Caverns with a topcoat of Poshe.

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns, showing perfect match to bottle color

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns, macro shot in the bottle

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

at the window...

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns


Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

Elevation Polish Azure Caverns

Lulu, the owner and creative force behind Elevation Polish, is a mountain climbing aficionado and names all of her polishes after places she's visited around the world. Azure Caverns is named for the Marble Caves of Lake General Carrera, South America's second largest lake located high in the Andes on the border between Chile and Argentina in the heart of Patagonia. The geological formations that make up the Marble Caves are on the Chilean shores of the lake, which is fed by rivers coming off of Andean glaciers. The waters of Lake General Carrera are turbid with glacial particulates that refracts blue in the light from the sun, giving it a distinct milky brilliant blue color -- exactly the color of Azure Caverns.

Lake General Carrera is bounded by cliffs and formation of pure marble, and over time the water has worn fantastic sinuous caverns and columns out of the marble where it meets the lake. The veining in these marble formations can appear blue, gray or purple, depending upon the time of year. I found a wonderful set of photos on Flickr by photographer Jorge Leon Cabello, which you can see here. Two other sites with photos and information about the Marble Caves are WonderMondo and EnvironmentalGraffiti, the latter of which features some of Jorge Leon Cabello's photos in it's small slideshow about the caves.

I loved learning about this natural wonder and seeing photos of Lulu's inspiration for this polish, and I've got to say she really pegged it with Azure Caverns. I highly recommend viewing the Flickr photo set, it adds so much to understanding the creative vision that produced this beautiful polish. Wearing it, I can almost hear the water lapping at those twisting pillars of blue-veined marble and dappling the marble roofs overhead with reflected sunlight....

love,
Aunt Liz

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Essie For the Twill of It

For the Twill of It is part of Essie's just released Fall 2013 collection. It's a well-pigmented dark metallic grey loaded with duochromatic shimmer that shifts from purple to teal green. The color shift is definitely the star of this show, and it is much more apparent in person than could be shown in any photograph. I actually found the base steel grey color to be the shyest of the three that this polish shows.

The formula is liquid and dense with pigment and shimmer, making it a bit brushstrokey. Nemesis! A good topcoat helps smooth the brushstrokes but doesn't eliminate them entirely. As with most duochrome/multichrome polishes, every odd contour of the nail bed is made readily apparent, so be prepared to have a good look at my nail ridges!

I used two coats of For the Twill of It plus a topcoat of Seche Vite for the photos. Apologies for the flaky skin and acetone residue, it was a bad finger day.

Essie For the Twill of It (wuv, twoo wuv!)

Essie For the Twill of It

I'm convinced that there's physics involved in why the brilliant teal green shift that is visible in person gets lost in photographic translation. Somehow the camera just fails to read it except for around the edges of the purple. That last photo was the best I could do and it's not even close to what I was seeing with my eyes. The purple, on the other hand, is very overt and chatty.

I've taken a couple of millimeters off my nail length, did you notice?

love,
Aunt Liz

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Zoya Jem

Zoya's Jem is a lovely well-pigmented dark plummy purple with flecked duochrome shimmer that shifts from magenta to gold. It's got enough red in it that it takes on a brown look under low incandescent light, but in natural light the shimmer gives it a jewel-like boysenberry-colored glow.

Jem has Zoya's wonderful dense but fluid formula and provides complete coverage in one coat for those more careful than I am. I did two coats plus a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Zoya Jem

I think Jem is beautiful in photographs, but I don't think it's beautiful on me. I felt very self-conscious when I wore it, like it was too formal or something. There's an air of the statuesque to dark polishes like Jem that I just can't cotton to somehow, it's just not ever been part of my self expression.

Could I learn, do you think?

love,
Aunt Liz