Lacquer Slacker Liz

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Hare Polish Test Your Love

Test Your Love was released by indie polish maker Hare Polish as part of Nikole's The Coin Operation collection for fall 2013. It's a sweet medium rosy raspberry pink jelly filled with pale golden and silvery white flake glitters. The flakies have a shimmering effect from within the layers of translucent pink like clouds reflected in water, and the colors alter in accordance with their depth. Pale gold becomes sherbet or blood orange depending on how deeply buried the flakes are and silver turns into a whole range of pinks. They produce a lovely, soft mottled effect in the polish and add a gleaming pale golden/silvery sheen to the finish.

Application was very nice. The consistency of Test (I almost typed "Text," wth?) Your Love is light and somewhat gel-like but not sticky and still fluid enough for easy manipulation over the nail. Flakie payoff is excellent with plenty of shimmering flakes in each brushful that disperse easily without stacking or any undue tumbling or dragging. I did have a few shardy pieces protruding over my free edge but they were easy to guide back onto the nail while the polish was still wet. Pigmentation is not a strong point of this polish; it's translucent and meant to be that way. I was perfectly happy with the coverage afforded by three medium coats -- the very slight presence of visible nail line only in certain lights didn't detract from the overall look at all, in my opinion. Cleanup was a matter of chasing down rogue flakies with varying degrees of success. Between plying my cleanup brush and a good handwashing after, I think I got all but the most recalcitrant. Test Your Love dries naturally in very good time to a smooth kind of rubbery satin finish that wants a good topcoat to bring the whole shebang clearly into view.

Photos show three coats of Test Your Love over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of HK Girl.

Hare Polish Test Your Love

Test Your Love possesses a lot of the juicy squishiness that makes a jelly finish so beloved by polish enthusiasts. With the shimmering show-through flakies, the effect is almost magical. There's a bit of now-you-see-it-now-you-don't and what-is-that-anyway to this polish that is quite fetching. And it's such a pretty, sweet, girly color!

In case you're wondering, as I did, about how Test Your Love compares to Loaded Lacquer's Tropical Moment, though both are basically pink and have flakies otherwise they are quite different. Tropical Moment has a clear suspension base where Test Your Love has a translucent jelly base. Tropical Moment's pink appearance is without the touch of purple that gives Test Your Love it's berry-like quality. It's also got a much more overt, iridescent and sparkling range of components with bright yellow gold flakes as compared to the ethereal shimmering quality and pale gold and silvery white flakes of Test Your Love.

love,
Liz

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Hare Polish From the Balcony of the Chateau Marmont

From the Balcony of the Chateau Marmont is another polish from Hare's recently released Viva Los Angeles collection. Nikole describes this one as having a light robin's egg blue base filled with neon pink, hot pink, gold, black and white glitters as well as gold flakies and gold shimmer. I'd say that the blue is a little more robust, kind of like a medium-light azure or sky blue with a drop or two of grey in it. The eclectic collection of glitters gives it a chaotic speckled feel and I especially love the golden components for the way they add a bit of glimmery sparkle.

By the way, I was so curious about the inspiration for this polish that I googled Chateau Marmont and found all kinds of info and pictures, including the Chateau Marmont website, which I spent some time exploring. What an interesting site, I loved looking at all the floor plans for the suites and bungalows and the menus for the bar and restaurant. It's a fun site to investigate!

Back to the polish. From the Balcony of the Chateau Marmont was surprisingly easy to apply. I'd considered layering it over something like China Glaze Electric Beat but I'm glad I didn't because it really doesn't need undies. Although it has a creme-jelly hybrid sort of base with a degree of translucence to it, it's remarkably buildable to opacity with just two medium coats. I did three for the photos, but would wear it at two as the third coat really didn't make that much of a difference in the look of the polish. Glitter payoff was great -- each dip of the brush brought a nice range of components that dispersed easily over the nail. I experienced some tumbling and protruding glitters, but that's kind of par for the course with a glitter-filled lacquer like this one. I didn't do much in the way of cleanup with this mani and have a few tell-tale glitters around my nails to show for it. From the Balcony of the Chateau Marmont dries naturally in very good time to a shiny finish with some texture to it from the glitters.

Photos show three coats of From the Balcony at the Chateau Marmont over treatment and basecoat with a smoothing coat of Gelous followed by a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Hare Polish From the Balcony of the Chateau Marmont

As you can see, the surface still isn't perfectly smooth but this doesn't detract from the look of the polish. I was wearing this during a trip to the grocery store and got complimented by the check out clerk! It's a bit like having a confetti parade on your nails, very fun, and the blue is a nice one for the warmer months.

I've learned more than I would have thought about Los Angeles from this collection, especially from reading Nikole's descriptions of the polishes and LA native Thithi's posts about them over at pretty tough nails! It's not the first time a collection from Hare has taught me stuff I didn't know before, and I'm betting it won't be the last.

love,
Liz

Friday, May 23, 2014

Hare Polish Hidden Treasures in a Bowl of Roses

Hidden Treasures in a Bowl of Roses is a recent release from indie polish maker Hare Polish and is part of Nikole's Viva Los Angeles collection for spring/summer 2014. It has a medium denim blue crelly base absolutely packed with black, white, neon pink, neon green and gold glitters as well as golden shimmer. On the nail, it reminds me of hand-torched lampwork glass beads, sparkling and rich with immense visual interest.

Application was unexpectedly easy. The consistency of Hidden Treasures is gel-like but not sticky, and thick with components that spread out smoothly over the nail with minimal stacking and no dragging. Pigmentation of the base is very good. It is translucent enough to allow the glitters to peek through but opaque enough to afford real coverage where it counts, like at the nail line. I achieved completely opaque coverage in two medium coats, and had very minimal cleanup. Hidden Treasures dries naturally in very good time to a shiny finish with some surface texture from its superabundant glitter content.

Photos show two coats of Hidden Treasures in a Bowl of Roses over Seche Rebuild treatment and Butter London Nail Foundation basecoat with a smoothing coat of Gelous followed by a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Hare Polish Hidden Treasures in a Bowl of Roses

Fuzzy took a look at this and said: Wedgwood blue, with speckles! It seemed to make a lot more sense to her once I explained that it was inspired by the Rose Bowl Flea Market. There's a series on the Smithsonian Channel called Aerial America where every episode features a state and all the filming is done from a plane or a helicopter one, probably a helicopter for as close to the ground as they get. Anyway, it's a beautiful show and this polish brought it to mind. I can see it as representative of what that huge flea market could like from above, with all the vendor's canopies and wares and thousands of people wandering through.

Hidden Treasures still reminds me of lampwork glass beads, though. To kind of show you what I mean, I took a photo of a necklace I made many years ago with beads torched by Donna Millard....

Though the necklace is a different blue than Hidden Treasures, there's a look of organic randomness to Donna's lampwork that's also present in the polish. I guess I've always loved that aspect of Nikole's creations. I mean, here are all these perfect graphic little shapes scooped up and splayed out against a background of color in such an arbitrary, indiscriminate way... and yet, bounded as polish is by the dimensions of a finger nail, it takes on a natural coherence and becomes a little piece of artwork. Different on each nail but similar across the fingers, it's a look.

Hidden Treasures, indeed!

love,
Liz