CrowsToes Huginn & Muninn

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 heck of a lot going on here.

outdoor, indirect light

The deep blue base is often visible at the cuticle edges or when looking across the nails at some angles.  I needed 3 coats for opacity, which of course brings up the idea of saving this one by painting one over black - while you'd still get the pair of color-shifting pigments, you'd lose this gorgeous blue tint, so I'll stick with H&M solo.  Like at least one other CT polish I've tried in the past, the first coat of this went on somewhat draggy.  Having learned my lesson the first time, I thinned it a little before the 2nd coat, and then even a few drops more before the 3rd, after which I got the glassy shine you see here.

outdoor late afternoon sunlight

Huginn & Muninn were Odin's ravens, and this polish captures and intensifies the iridescence that you can sometimes see in the feathers of ravens and grackles.  These colors are all richly saturated, and the changing pigments are super shifty.

In brighter light, the shimmer would start to peek out from the pearly finish.

And then show shifting itself from purple to gold.  Interestingly, at a lot of the angles and lighting conditions that made the shimmer pop the most, the base color looked the darkest.  H&M doesn't ever look black to me in any but the dimmest lighting, though.

outdoor overcast lighting + flash

The flash pic shows off both the blue base and some of the shimmery sparkles.

outdoor early morning sunlight

That richly saturated emerald green just kills me.  Swoon!

Rating:  5 out of 5 stars.  Though the formula wasn't perfect (I had chipping and some irregular edge wear after 3 days), the color(s) were amazing.  Definitely a can't-stop-staring kind of polish.  I'm hoping that the thinned-down, smoother consistency will help with durability next time around.

Where to buy:  CrowsToes polish can be found at Llarowe.  Check CT's or Llarowe's facebook pages for restock info.

~Michelle