Lacquer Slacker Liz

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Priti NYC Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace was released by boutique polish maker Priti NYC as part of the recent Fall in Venezia collection. This is a very deep, super saturated pthalo or Winsor blue, a dark but brilliant, unsullied blue of a similar depth as federal blue but with a brighter, cleaner quality to the color. It displays a hint of duskiness in the bottle and there's a certain creamy aspect to it on the nail in natural light. It could easily pass as a bright navy, but again, it's cleaner than what I think of as navy. It's absolutely gorgeous under incandescent light, where it displays a jelly-like radiance despite the extreme depth of tone. In low light, it has a near black appearance but my eye still sees a deep, noble blue.

Application was delicious. The consistency of Crystal Palace is fluid, creamy and dense with a luxurious buttery glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. I found it easiest to manipulate with a moderate to generous brush load, and the viscosity is so nicely balanced that there's no running or pooling even if you have a fair amount of polish on the nail. Pigmentation is outstanding, with wearable opacity in one coat although I think the color is richer with two. Such excellent pigmentation in a dark blue means some care must be taken during cleanup, as too much acetone at once will cause extensive pigment travel with residual staining. Best to try for as clean a manicure as possible from the outset! Crystal Palace dries naturally in good time to a shade that's slightly darker than bottle color and a gorgeous glossy finish.

Photos show two coats of Crystal Palace over Pretty Serious Rock On nail strengthening treatment and Girly Bits Smooth Move ridge filling basecoat (new to me and endearing itself rapidly) with a topcoat of Seche Vite, complete with a bubble or two.


Priti NYC Crystal Palace

Priti NYC Crystal Palace

My camera isn't the best at capturing dark shades, and I don't think my photos do proper justice to the rich qualities of this dark blue. It's outstanding!

love,
Liz

Monday, November 2, 2015

Great Lakes Lacquer Coral

Coral was released by Michigan-based indie polish maker Great Lakes Lacquer as a limited edition polish for October 2015 at the end of September. It's one of two limited edition polishes for October created and named for memes from The Walking Dead, and if you're a fan like creator Mariah you will recognize Coral as "a nod to Andrew Lincoln’s exaggerated southern drawl on Carl’s name."

Described by Mariah as a purple linear holo filled with pinkish coral shimmer, this lovely complex creme holo leans more violet to my eye. It's medium-toned rather intense floral lavender generously dosed with finely-milled holo pigment and teeming with tiny coral pink flake shimmers that give the polish a gleaming semi-metallic pink flash. The holographic and shimmer effects work together to nuance and dimensionalize the base color with shifting shades of amethyst, heliotrope, wisteria, pale purple, cornflower and blue violet. Simply gorgeous! Bright, indirect light generates a central blaze of cornflower-like blue violet that shades to dusky amethyst at the sidewalls. It's overcast and rainy here today so I don't have photos of the prismatic display in full sun, but from what I've seen online there's a beautiful sparkling flare dominated by blue violet and edged with a corona of shimmering sparks in bright blue, aqua, green, pink and gold.

Application was most agreeable. The consistency of Coral is fluid, smooth and dense with a silky glide over the nail and very good self-leveling properties. This is a fast-drying polish that sets up quickly and doesn't like dawdlers, so I added a bit of polish thinner to my bottle for a consistency best suited to my leisurely pace. Pigmentation is very, very good. Coverage was surprisingly opaque after just one coat, with each subsequent coat deepening the color. I ended up using three coats for full bottle color. Cleanup was easy and straightforward. Coral dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. Topcoat accentuates the presence and effects of the shimmers, and does not diminish the holographic properties of the polish in any way.

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

Great Lakes Lacquer Coral

What a beauty! I love the luxurious lavender color, that it's medium toned and so rich and vibrant. The fantastic holographic shading to the lavender base creates a soft-focus sort of dimensionality that is to die for and the overt radiant glow of the pink shimmers from amongst the violets, purples and blues is utter perfection. I've been nail-gazing and very little else ever since I applied this -- my eyes just can't get enough of it!

The name gives me the goofies, though. Coral. It's like an earworm. Every time I type it, I hear that southern drawl and have to repress the urge to snicker. Coral!

This is my first experience with Great Lakes Lacquer, a relatively new indie that just opened up shop on etsy in July this year. It won't be my last, either!

love,
Liz

Sunday, November 1, 2015

China Glaze Tongue & Chic

Tongue & Chic was released by China Glaze as part of the Autumn Nights collection for fall 2013, described as a "playful emerald shimmer." Marketing speak just kills me. Why can't they have concept and design people describe the polish? Of course, in the best of all possible worlds they'd be hiring polish enthusiasts to write the descriptors. Film at eleven.

I was inspired to seek out Tongue & Chic while looking at Rach's post about it on stuff i swatched. It's almost impossible for me to see one of Rach's manicures and NOT want the polish, but her photos of this one provoked such an exaggerated covet response that I had to go buy Tongue & Chic on ebay before I'd even finished reading the whole post. It's a gorgeous darkened blue-green shimmer polish, a teal shade with a strong cerulean vibe and beaucoup superfine metallic silver particulate shimmers that give it it a gentle semi-metallic aspect. It's one of those silky, lustrous, lit-from-within shimmers that brighten along the axis of light and deepen dramatically around the edges, giving the polish a sensational crepe de chine kind of chromatic dimensionality. We've seen a lot of these deep blue-green/skobeloff/pine shades this fall, and Tongue & Chic's variation of it might be just that except for a certain ornate quality that sets it apart. Its blackened look and the subtleties of its shimmer make for a sort of Victorian sensibility. On the nail, it has a formal, almost restrained feel to me that I find quite unusual for a teal, even one as deep as this.

Application was really wonderful. The consistency of Tongue & Chic is fluid, smooth and dense with a velvety glide over the nail and a beautifully balanced viscosity for painting. Pigmentation is outstanding -- this is an easy one-coater for those with smooth, regular nail beds. My ridges required three coats to camouflage completely, due in part to the polish's tendency to go on in thin coats. Cleanup is fraught with pigment travel as you might expect from such a saturated blue-green. I could have been more careful with the process -- I thought I'd done a pretty swell job until I saw the photos. Oh macro, you are cruel! Tongue & Chic dries naturally in fairly good time to a smooth, slightly flat finish that wants a good topcoat to look its best.

Photos show three coats of Tongue & Chic over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

China Glaze Tongue & Chic


China Glaze Tongue & Chic

If you notice, I have yet to bring down the nail length on my left hand so that it matches the right. Apparently, I am now vain enough about my photos to tolerate the obvious indiscretion of displaying varying nail lengths... but for how long? I mean, surely some sense of propriety will hit me at some point.

Ya think?

love,
Liz