Lacquer Slacker Liz

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Octopus Party Nail Lacquer Kin Peaks

I was so enamoured with the look of light blue on my nails after Glam Polish Catch Me If You Can that I couldn't resist the opportunity to do it again with another light blue that only just arrived in the mail. Kin Peaks was released for pre-order by Connecticut-based indie polish maker Octopus Party Nail Lacquer (OPNL) during the second week of December 2015. This is a light to medium azure blue linear holo bearing tiny silver particulate shimmers. To my eye the color shows gentle grey overtones, generated in part by the holographic properties of the polish I think, and reads as something along the lines of iceberg blue. It is sleek and serene on the nail with a soft surface twinkle from the silver shimmers, a subtle glistening aspect that suits the blue beautifully. The base color brightens up considerably in direct sun and becomes very Cinderella/Alice in Wonderland-like, displaying a delicate, sparkling linear prismatic flair in the subdued rainbow palette that customarily accompanies light-colored holos.

Application was truly wonderful. The consistency of Kin Peaks is fluid, light and very, very smooth -- unequivocally the creamiest and most buttery formula I have experienced in a long time. How is this even possible? I mean, it's a light blue for crying out loud! Yet it goes on like butter, self-levels like nobody's business and is generally just a dream to work with. Pigmentation is excellent for a paler blue, another miracle. Two thin coats will render smooth even opaque coverage for most people. Camouflaging my nail ridges required three. Cleanup is a breeze. Kin Peaks dries naturally in very good time to a beautiful glossy finish. Topcoat accentuates the presence of the shimmers and does not interfere with the holographic properties of the polish in any way that I could detect.

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

OPNL Kin Peaks

This polish is too photogenic for my camera to capture the delicate grey overtones that I see in person. In fact, it's looking like quite the Carolina blue in my pics. Could it be because there's a Carolina/Georgia Tech basketball match up this afternoon? Nah, even Dave couldn't pull that off. Or could he?

OPNL's polish names are frequently allusive. Besides the Twin Peaks synonym, I pondered whether Kin Peaks could also be an homage to Kim Peek (1951-2009, RIP), the American megasavant and inspiration for the character of Raymond Babbit in the 1988 film Rain Man. I'm sure there's more in there, the results of Dave's supranaturally-focused synapses operating at full tilt. I'm not very good at puns. Skin Peeks? Unlikely. Sounds like a marital aid... or something you do with one of those 15X magnifying mirrors....

Oh cephalopod,
Your random bits of knowledge
Often frighten me.

I'll be wandering around muttering to myself and staring at my finger nails, if anybody asks.

love,
Liz

Saturday, January 2, 2016

Great Lakes Lacquer Those Who Matter

Like Silence, Those Who Matter was released the second week of December 2015 by Michigan-based indie polish maker Great Lakes Lacquer as part of the Doctor's Orders collection, a series of polishes inspired by and named for quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Dr. Seuss.

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. -- Dr. Seuss

Creator Mariah describes this polish as "a deep cranberry red with royal purple shimmer and a linear holographic affect." It's a deep rich red-violet shade with aspects of magenta, a vivid burgundy along the lines of Crayola's jazzberry jam. Along side finely-milled holographic pigment, it bears profuse particulate shimmers in a robust purple, which produce a beautiful purple glow. The holographic pigment shades the base color with shifting hues of blue and indigo, and direct light generates a gorgeous glowing indigo flare edged by tiny sparks in prismatic colors. Under incandescent light the polish develops a striking chromatic dimensionality with an overt pinkish red flash. The balance between red and purple is slightly tipped toward purple by the shimmers in most circumstances, but not to the exclusion of the polish's reddish burgundy richness.

Application was great! The consistency of Those Who Matter is fluid, creamy and dense with a plush glide over the nail that has a bit of pull to it and very good self-leveling properties. This polish sets up and surface dries rather swiftly, so thin to medium even coats decisively applied are best. Pigmentation is very good, with evenly opaque coverage achievable in two coats. I added a third to ensure the non-appearance of my nail ridges, which I suspected would try to make an appearance as the polish dried down. Cleanup is easy and straightforward, with only a tiny bit of pigment travel and no residual staining to speak of. Those Who Matter dries naturally in good time to a smooth shiny finish. Topcoat does not inhibit the holographic properties of the polish in any way that I could tell.

Photos show three coats of Those Who Matter over Pretty Serious Rock On treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Great Lakes Lacquer Those Who Matter

I love the look of a deep wine-colored polish anyway, so elegant and full-bodied and feminine, and this is wine with an ardent dimensional purple glow. And that indigo flame! Mariah coaxed some incredibly intense colors out of this mix of elements and the results are stunning. Just an exceptionally beautiful polish!

Love!

ttyl,
Liz

Friday, January 1, 2016

Glam Polish Catch Me If You Can

Happy New Year everyone!

Like yesterday's Now You See Me, Catch Me If You Can was released by Australian indie polish maker Glam Polish as part of the Masters of Illusion collection in April this year. This is another complex holographic tour de force by creator Rachel, with a mixture of ultraholo microglitters, sterling silver and iridescent flake shimmers and blue-to-violet color shifting glass flecks in an azure-tinted base packed with finely-milled holo pigment. The azure blue is imbued with violet speckles courtesy of the profusion of shifty glass flecks, giving it a finely-grained look and protean powers of changeability -- under incandescent light it converts to a pale cornflower! Mostly, though, it's a sweet wintry sky blue sprinkled with bright sparks in prismatic colors from the ultraholo microglitters, which light up in in all but the lowest of lights. The gleaming silver flakies fit perfectly into this ensemble, and I believe that they, in concert with the glass flecks, are responsible for a certain glistening frostiness to the demeanor of this polish.

Application was messier than I expected, thanks but no thanks to my shaky hands. However I discovered something helpful: this polish is actually not as difficult to clean up after as I thought! The microglitters do enjoy loitering in the sidewalls, but everything else comes off without a hitch. Hallelujah! As long as you don't have hand tremors, Catch Me If You Can is a pleasure to apply. It has a fluid, smooth, dense consistency with a graceful, self-leveling glide over the nail. It is a user-friendly polish that is easy to manipulate with Glam's slender round flexible brush, quite a coup for a component-laden lacquer such as this. Wearable coverage can be had in two medium coats, although I used three to ensure full opacity for the photographs. Catch Me If You Can dries naturally in good time to a gently textured finish, mostly smoothed with a single layer of topcoat. Adding a second layer produced a slightly glassier-looking finish, but didn't alter the appearance of the polish enough that I would recommend it over a single coat.

Photos show three coats of Catch Me If You Can over treatment and basecoat with a double topcoat of Seche Vite.

Glam Polish Catch Me If You Can

This polish reminds me of Disney's 2013 film Frozen, remarkable given that I haven't seen it. I hold the indie polish community at large responsible for this, since everything I know about the movie I learned from seeing various polishes and polish collections inspired by it.

Frozen aside, I love this violet-speckled light blue glitterfest! It's more dimensional and dynamic and altogether much prettier in person than my photos show. And along with the rest of the Masters of Illusion collection, it is still available from Glam's online shop! If you'd like to see photos of all of these polishes, I recommend Jenny's excellent review on Lavish Layerings.

ttyl,
Liz