CrowsToes is one of my super fave indie polish makers. She has a flair for colors that are totally unique in a way that really catches my fancy. As an added bonus, she makes up things in big enough batches that even if you miss out on one you really wanted at a collection launch, fear not, it'll be in stock no trouble by the next go-round. Today, i have one from the Pleiades collection, Merope.
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| indoor CFL lighting |
Merope has a sheer bruise-colored jelly base that's packed with soft shimmer and color-shifting electric blue-to-wine microflakies. Out in the sun, it's truly glorious.
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| direct late afternoon sunlight |
The shimmery bruised-plum base color is like a dark neutral, making it softer around the edges than a starker base color would. I'd assume it's very wearable for people of many different skin tones. While the electric blue fire really sparks in direct light, an equally sparkly wine fire shows up in angled lighting.
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| same outdoor late afternoon sunlight |
The indoor look wasn't at all disappointing by comparison, just a little less metallic-flashy, and still packed plenty of color-shifting goodness. Check out the difference in color gradient down all these fingers!
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| indoor office fluorescent lighting |
Even in lower lighting, the shift was still present. I'm a huge fan of this particular mix of colors, and I don't have anything else even a little like this in my stash. It is a little sheer (you can see some light shining through in the close up here), but the sparkles make everything look opaquely dense in every situation but macro photography.
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| indirect morning sunlight |
The metallic tone to the sparkle had me worried this one might be a pain to remove, but nope, these are flakies, not glitter at all. This came off no more challenging than any other shimmer polish would.
I've seen both reviews recommending black undies with this, and others saying it's fine without, so here's a comparison for you: in all the pics above, i'm wearing 3 coats sans undies, while the swatch stick shows 2 coats alone on the left half or over black on the right half (my thumb is still 3 coats solo).
In all the lighting conditions throughout my house, the swatch over black looked very close if not completely identical to the 3 coats alone. This might not be true in bright sunlight, where a black base would smother the warm neutrality of the plum base. I'm unlikely to use this one up quickly, and I prefer the warm base to a stark black one, so I'm happier with 3 coats alone.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars. The shimmer! swoon!
Where to buy: CrowsToes maintains
a list of stockists on her blog, just scroll down the column on the right.
~Michelle
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