Sweet Baby Octopolish!

The first pics of CrowsToes new 9 Realms collection had plenty to interest a polish junkie, but my duochrome-loving self was immediately drawn to Huginn & Muninn, and managed to snap it up on the launch a couple of weeks ago.  I'm happy to say it completely lives up to hopes. indoor CF lighting H&M is a rich sapphire not-quite-navy blue jelly base that's packed with duochrome flash twice over.  There's a smooth, pearlescent pigment in there that shifts very strongly from rich, royal purple to a vibrant emerald with no stops in between (in other words, this doesn't shift through blue or teal or red, it's solely the 2 colors) that's always visible in any lighting condition.  In bright, direct indoor or sunlight, there's additionally a sparkly shimmer pigment that shifts from pinky-purple to bronze gold, which is totally invisible in diffuse light indoors or out. that shimmer! that shift! Just like you see in the bottle, there's a whole ...

At the end of March, Llarowe launched a handful of polishes that each benefited a different charity.  Though they were all pretty, Wind Beneath My Wings, with proceeds to go to  the Prostate Cancer Foundation , was the clear standout of the bunch. indoor CF lighting WBMW is a dusky greyish blue that has both an almost-linear holo and a rich copper shimmer.  The base color is soft like a well-worn old pair of jeans, and was nicely opaque in 2 coats.  Though I've disliked CBL brushes for being too soft & floppy before, this bottle's brush had just the right stiffness for both flexibility and good coverage. outdoor, late afternoon direct sunlight That copper shimmer is just fantastic.  As you can see from both of the above photos, it's not shy, and sparkles like embers in the smoky blue in both softer indoor light and brighter sunlight.  The scattered holo is of course more apparent in the sun than indoors, but even in bright light isn't so...

Trying out some of my fun Hits Mari Moon duochromes during my recent comparison experiments reminded me that the only one I'd really worn so far was the incredible Unconventional.  When my partner suggested a rich green for my next mani (he often picks the general color out for me), I went straight for Chameleon. In the bottle, Chameleon is a rich green.  In direct sunlight or direct indoor light, it's instead a lighter silvery green with a pinkish flash in the middle (more pastel-y indoors, more shiny outdoors, but the same sort of muted greens). It is unfortunately a bit sheer, and it needed all 3 of the coats I put on.  You can see through it in a few patches, but only at juuuuust the right angle. yeah, right there at the tip of my middle finger. Indoors or out, as soon as it leaves the bronze-mossy greens... Chameleon can head right for a heart-stopping emerald... And then just a touch of teal blue... Before hitting a rich royal purpl...

Like the last 2 KPT thermals I've posted, Blood Thick as Gold is from Polished by KPT's fall/Halloween 2013 collection, but still available at her store as of today. indoor CF lighting BTaG shifts from a warm red in the cold/room temperature state, to a warm gold-ish nude in the warm state.  At all temperatures, nearly translucent gold flakies peeked out, adding a subtle flash no matter what color the rest was.  Suz passed this one on to me (thank you!) because it was too warm on her skin tone, which started me down-the-rabbit-hole of searching to try and figure if I was "warm" or "cool"...  I would have sworn I'm cool, but i think this looks nice on me, so clearly, I still don't 100% have a grasp on it. Anyway.  Like a  lot of thermals I've tried, it's pretty thick and more than a little gloopy - it'll be thinned down a bit before I use it again.  It goes warm quick enough, and the warm color is nude enough, that cleanup is a lit...

After playing around with  Solar Flare , I wanted to move right on to another of my Picture Polish LEs, Illusionist. indoor CF lighting Illusionist was my fave from this collection before it got here, and it certainly didn't disappoint.  I still didn't feel the need for black nails in the springtime weather, so like it's sister, this is 3 super sheer coats of this polish (that's intended for layering over black).  The formula on this was perfect, utterly and completely self-leveling to a flawless glass-smooth finish even before topcoat. outdoor, indirect late afternoon sunlight All of the colors you catch in the bottle up there are readily evident on the nail, from a flashy aqua: outdoor, direct afternoon sunlight To a shimmery magenta: same outdoor afternoon And even picking up a hint of coppery gold at the edges: Illusionist is still plenty flashy indoors, it definitely didn't need the sun to bring out the color play: indoor office...

Aussie brand Picture Polish recently released a LE collection of space-themed duochromes, all of which are sheer and intended to be layered over black to make the color shift really pop out.  I picked up a few of them, and while I love the idea of getting the color in the bottle, it's just too springtime for black nails.  Since there's plenty of swatches of these over black anyway, I wore Solar Flare on its own. indoor CF lighting In the bottle, Solar Flare is a gorgeous rich copper that shades into wine at the center and green to nearly blue at the edges, with a scattering of fine silvery holo glitter thrown in the mix.  I'm wearing 3 coats in all pictures here - as advertised, this is a very sheer polish. indirect afternoon sunlight Also as advertised, SF is super shifty, easily going all the way from wine to greenish bronze with a tilt of the fingers.  The holo glitter, though, usually appears silver in most lighting, only really flashing tiny ra...