Pahlish Valley of Ashes

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Apparently, I'm on a Pahlish kick lately...

indoor CF lighting
Valley of Ashes is from a Great Gatsby-inspired collection, and I think it may be the most ingenious interpretation of source material I've ever seen: it's grey like the valley, with a bright emerald flash peeking through like the green light across the water in the book.  Awesome.

outdoor, indirect sunlight
Valley is a crelly finish that had a much thinner consistency than I typically expect from indies in general, and Pahlish in specific - I often have to thin down her crèmes a little, but this was smoothly flowy and bordered right up to the edge of being too thin.  The thinness means that if you want to use it as a layering polish, or if you like the subtle VNL veiled look, one coat will do ya:

indoor, incandescent light, one coat, no cleanup.
The electric green sparkle to this was more hidden in low light, and strangely nonexistent when in light from multiple sources (example: in a high-ceilinged department store that had more than a dozen lights overhead).  It never appears to be a flat grey, though, and even when it's not green, it's still shimmery.

outdoor, indirect late afternoon light
The green is richer and much more present than my camera shows here, though, no matter my attempts to catch it in different lighting.

with flash - note all that shimmer in the bottle - it's really there on the nail, too
Sparkly green fire in a nice grey would be enough for me, but guess what?  Secret duochrome!!!

indoor CF lighting
See how the green tinges toward purple on the top edges of those 2 nails?  Here's a sadly blurry pic that shows the purple twinkle off better:


The subtle duochome shift of the shimmer crept up on me plenty of times:

outdoor, direct sunliht
Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  Valley of Ashes didn't wear so well on me (chippy on my dominant hand by day 2), but GAH that color!

Where to buy:  this is an older color, and Pahlish hasn't mentioned on fb any inkling of bringing it back.  Llarowe still has a listing for this color, though, so maybe it'll be restocked some day?  Well, here's hoping, because now i REALLY need a bottle of Beautiful Little Fool!

~Michelle

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