Lacquer Slacker Liz

Friday, September 8, 2017

Picture Polish Meow

Meow was released in August 2016 by Australian boutique polish maker Picture Polish as a Collaboration shade, one of six new Collaborations in that release. Collaborations are PP's ongoing series of polishes designed by bloggers and instagrammers selected from the global polish and nail art community. This one was created with instagrammer and nail artist Natasha of nata3110nata and is officially described as a "sage green jelly holographic." The color is a dusty, coniferous medium-dark teal-ish green, a rich and unusual shade of blue-green that's like a skobeloff or pine green with a drop or two of grey added. It has a softened, heathery sort of vibe that reminds me of a well-worn flannel shirt -- very Pacific Northwest! Abundant holographic flakies dapple the finish with shimmering, silvery flecks that emit a scattered prismatic display in the sun.

Application was wonderful. The consistency of Meow is fluid, light and creamy with a medium viscosity and a silky, self-leveling slip over the nail, a fantastic, eminently-paintable formula that's just what we've learned to expect from this brand. Pigmentation is very good. A bit of translucence to the first coat builds easily to evenly opaque coverage with the second. Cleanup is easy. Meow dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Meow over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Picture Polish Meow

I think this is gorgeous! Soft and cozy, perfect for cooler weather -- there's also a mellow earthiness to it that you don't usually see in teal polishes, which are typically jewel-tones. Wearable and easygoing but also quite chic! I don't have anything else like it. Highly recommend!

love,
Liz

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Top Shelf Lacquer Boozed Up

Like Tanked, Boozed Up was released in July this year by Ohio-based indie polish maker Top Shelf Lacquer as part of the Drunken Creme Fall Holos collection. This one is described as an amaranth red. It's a creamy, medium-toned reddish rose color with a muted aspect and hints of puce and thulian pink, very similar to the web color pale red-violet. It reminds me of rose clay. Abundant finely-milled holographic pigment dusts it with tiny golden motes, giving it a delicately-grained appearance that evolves into a diaphanous net of fine prismatic sparkle in the sun with vestigial holographic arcs of violet and gold sparks.

Application was wonderful. The consistency of Boozed Up is fluid, light and creamy with a thin-to-medium viscosity and a fluent, even, self-leveling slip over the nail, an eminently-paintable formula that went on easily in medium-to-thin coats and is a pleasure to finesse with TSL's flattened, flexible brush. Pigmentation is excellent, almost a one-coater. Cleanup is easy. Boozed Up dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish.

Photos show two coats of Boozed Up over KBShimmer Fillin' Groovy basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Top Shelf Lacquer Boozed Up


Top Shelf Lacquer Boozed Up

Top Shelf Lacquer Boozed Up

This struck me as a very traditional, old fashioned sort of nail color at first and I wasn't entirely sold on it in the bottle. But on the nail it is just lovely, a rosy, pan-seasonal hue that is sleek, feminine and very flattering to the fingers and hands. The muted aspect plays well with the creaminess of the color, giving it an earthy, serene sensibility that I find extremely appealing.

love,
Liz

Wednesday, September 6, 2017

OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!

Turn On the Northern Lights was released in July by venerable mainstream polish maker OPI as part of the twelve-piece Iceland collection for Fall 2017. It's been over a year since I last featured a mainstream polish on this blog -- indies are my jam! But there are some great colors, deep, dusty greys and blues, in the Iceland collection, and Turn On the Northern Lights is one of them.

OPI calls this a deep purple. To my eye, the base color is a dark ultramarine kind of blue with a certain delicious denimy softness to it bearing fine particulate shimmers that have a pink/gold/green shift, somewhat similar to unicorn pee but much more subtle/less shifty. You can see the shift spectrum fairly easily in the bottle, but on the nail you have to do a little finger yoga and be looking for it. By and large they read as reddish pink, and combine with the ultramarine base to give the polish a deep indigo appearance with a transparent pink sheen. They light up in the sun, creating a lovely misty flush of twinkly pink particles along the axis of light.

Application was quite agreeable. The consistency of Turn On the Northern Lights is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and a pliant, buttery, self-leveling glide over the nail, a great OPI formula in a creme/jelly hybrid style. Pigmentation is very good, slightly sheer and streaky on the first coat but building to evenly opaque coverage with the second unless you use very thin coats, in which case you may need a third. Cleanup is straightforward with a bit of pigment travel but less trace staining than I expected from such a deep color. Turn On the Northern Lights dries naturally in good time to a smooth, glossy finish. Topcoat accentuates the presence of the shimmers.

Photos show two coats of Turn On the Northern Lights over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!

A beautiful, classy deep blue, a great stand-in for navy and not your typical mainstream shimmer polish. The effects are more sophisticated and indie-like, with the carefully translucent crelly formula that allows light to penetrate and create the inky indigo color, the pink sheen and twinkling flush of pink in the sun. The consensus among reviewers seems to be that Turn On the Northern Lights is a very welcome surprise from OPI and the star of the collection. Definitely worth checking out!

love,
Liz