Lacquer Slacker Liz

Thursday, May 26, 2016

Glisten & Glow From Tokyo, With Love

From Tokyo, With Love was released by Connecticut-based indie polish maker Glisten & Glow as part of The Holo Hookup May 2016 collaboration box entitled From The Holo Hookup, With Love. The Holo Hookup is a monthly polish box featuring creations by Cupcake Polish, Different Dimension and Glisten & Glow along with a contributing guest polish maker that changes each month. With a few exceptions, I don't usually go for collaborative box collections like this, but I really really REALLY wanted this particular polish!

Officially described as a "reddened coral linear holo with added pink shimmers and holographic microglitters," the color of From Tokyo, With Love is sort of a vibrant salmony bittersweet variation of coral with holographically-nuanced overtones of Brink pink and electric crimson and a protean quality that leans it more to orange, pink or red depending upon the circumstances in which it's viewed. A wash of intense rosiness suffuses the look, and metallic pink microflake shimmers and infinitesimal pink microglitters work within the base to give this polish a gleaming semi-metallic appearance, further enhancing the brilliance of its colors. They also add extra sparkle to the holographic display in direct sun, which is as perfectly prismatic, delineated and powerful as I've ever seen in a non-silver holo, with every one of the rainbow colors cleanly represented in its shifting, sparkly flare. In bright ambient light there's a softened, analogously-colored display with a glowing violet heart edged by a misty arc of cyclamen pink before shading to a fiery orange-red at the edges of the nail.

Application was ah-MAZ-ing! The consistency of From Tokyo, With Love is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and an even, self-leveling glide over the nail. You know that quality where the polish goes exactly where you put it and stays there? Well, this polish has that in spades. Seriously, it sticks the application like Simone Biles sticks her tumbling runs. Exceptional! Pigmentation is excellent with slightly translucent but wearable coverage in one coat, completely opaque coverage in two and full bottle color in three. I used three coats for this manicure to make the most of the color and holographic effects. Cleanup is easy and straightforward, but this polish applies so precisely that you'll probably have very little cleanup to do. From Tokyo, With Love dries naturally in very good time to a smooth shiny finish. Topcoat does not inhibit the holographic properties in any way that I could tell.

Photos show three coats of From Tokyo, With Love over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Glisten & Glow From Tokyo, With Love

I quite like this luscious changeling coral! I'll be featuring the other polishes from that May 2016 Holo Hookup box over the next several days.

xo,
Liz

Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Petal to the Metal

Petal to the Metal was released toward the end of February 2015 by Connecticut-based indie polish maker Octopus Party Nail Lacquer (OPNL) as part of Le Duo de Fleurs Confites, or The Candied Flower Duo, one of two polish duos created in collaboration with Fair Maiden Polish that made up The Collection Naturals.

Creator Dave describes this as "a pastel rose linear holographic with orange-green iridescent glitter." Depending on your eye, this could be seen as nude-pink or a muted lilac with creamy pink overtones, a delicate sand-washed pink lavender sort of color with a weightless sense to it, as if it were floating on the nail. Abundant finely-milled holographic pigment nuances the base color with tender, dimensionalizing hues of baby pink, palest violet and champagne, and generates an exquisite sparkling pastel rendition of a linear prismatic flare in direct sun with an underlying semi-metallic champagne-colored gleam. The tiny hex glitters light up in shades of pale minty green and peachy champagne as light travels over them, adding a soft, dreamy twinkle.

Application was blissful. The consistency of Petal to the Metal is fluid, incredibly creamy and dense with a medium viscosity and a buttery, self-leveling glide over the nail. This formula shares the same eminently paintable, uber smooth texture as OPNL's Kin Peaks, and is just a delight to work with. Pigmentation is very good, delivering wearable opacity for shorter nails in two coats, three for longer nails. Cleanup is easy and straightforward, with only a little bit of stickiness on the part of the tiny glitters. Petal to the Metal dries naturally in good time to a smooth shiny finish. Topcoat does not inhibit the holographic properties of the polish in any way.

Photos show three coats of Petal to the Metal over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

OPNL Petal to the Metal

I think my pinkage washes out the delicate blushing lavenderness of this polish a little bit, but Petal to the Metal does manage to squeak in as one of those mnbb (my nails but better) shades on me, for which I am truly grateful. It takes on a delicate taupey look in very low light, shade and under incandescent light, which is actually just as pretty as its lilac face. It has a beautiful sheen to it that makes your nails and nail evirons look very clean and well-groomed and I'm even more grateful for that! And as I mentioned above: awesome creamy formula. Win!

ttyl,
Liz

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Elevation Polish Taylor Glacier

Taylor Glacier was released by Minnesota-based indie polish maker Elevation Polish as part of the Glacier collection in November 2015. This is a rich purple multichrome polish with shifts over the purple/red/gold spectrum, rich post-sunset-hued colors that are breathtaking in their gamut. The base color is a dark patriarch purple with a gorgeous lit-from-within glow. Shades of Munsell purple and deep red violet segue to raspberry, rosy magenta, crimson, flame, and blood orange as you turn your hand in the light, finally giving way to a bronzey gold at oblique angles. The colors are deep but intense, with a glowing, fathomless dimensionality and a plush silky look to the finish. Spectacular!

Application was a messy affair. The consistency of Taylor Glacier is fluid, oily and smooth with a languid, thicker viscosity that I found difficult to work with. Somehow I just don't get the physics of painting with thicker formulas -- I can't seem figure out how to take advantage of the polish's natural flow over the nail without overloading the brush, which sooner or later leads to flooding. So it was with Taylor Glacier, which sets up rather quickly, further complicating my efforts. But I got it on there! Pigmentation is good, with evenly opaque coverage and full bottle color delivered in three coats. Luckily, cleanup was easier than I expected. There's some pigment travel but only a trace of residual staining. Taylor Glacier dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, slightly flat finish that wants a good topcoat to look its best. Topcoat also seems to accentuate the glowing, semi-metallic nature of the multichrome pigment.

Photos show three coats of Taylor Glacier over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Elevation Polish Taylor Glacier

This polish is named for the Taylor Glacier in East Antarctica, a cold-based glacier about 54km/34mi long that flows into the western end of Taylor Valley to Lake Bonney in the McMurdo Dry Valleys area of Victoria Land. Where the tongue of the glacier touches the frozen surface of Lake Bonney, red iron-rich hypersaline water from a sub-glacial pool sporadically emerges from small fissures in the ice cascades, creating a feature known as Blood Falls.

Taylor Glacier, Taylor Valley and Blood Falls, 2013. (source)

Blood Falls seeps from the end of the Taylor Glacier into Lake Bonney. The tent at left provides a sense of scale for just how big the phenomenon is. Scientists believe a buried saltwater reservoir is partly responsible for the discoloration, which is a form of reduced iron.. Credit Peter Rejcek, 2006. (source)

The stunning multichrome spectrum and effects in Taylor Glacier are similar to those of my favorite multichrome polish ever, CrowsToes Indian Summer. These purple/red/gold shifters create particularly bold colors, which I associate with those brief moments just after the sun goes down, when the vivid hues of sunset burn intensely on the horizon, filling the very air with color, and the sky assumes that incredible shade of electric blue that precedes twilight.

love,
Liz