Dance Legend Reptile

By -
After KPT Calypso was so fantastic, I've decided it's thermal-palooza around here...the fact that a pair from KPT arrived at about the same time as a pair of Dance Legend LE thermals did has everything to do with this plan.  First up of the DLs is Reptile.

bright CF lighting
Reptile is one of a trio of Mortal Kombat-themed polishes, so obviously this gets stuck in my head every time I ponder that.  Anyway, all 3 of these are tonal thermals that shift from a lighter to a darker tone of the same color.  Reptile is a bright, saturated kelly green when warm, and a very dark, near-black evergreen when cool.

bright CF lighting
At it's darkest, Reptile reminds me a lot of the pics I've seen of NARS Zulu - you can always just barely tell it's green, though.

indirect, overcast daylight
Unfortunately, unlike Calypso's hovering right at that thermal ideal point most of the time, I rarely had these awesome french tips hanging out - it was usually either/or on me.  The warm color is such a vibrant, summery green that the contrast is lovely when it does happen.

bright CF lighting
Reptile's formula is not quite clear enough to count as a jelly, but it is less than 100% opaque... the better to let the pretty flakes and shimmer shine through.  At very odd angles, I did catch a glimmer of color shift for these flakes, so they appear to be the gold-to-red iridescent sort, but they nearly always appeared as yellow or metallic gold IRL.  The finish dries down quite rubbery matte, so a topcoat is utterly essential here.

indirect, overcast daylight
Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  It's a chippy little brat, needing touch-ups after less than 24h (not entirely uncommon to thermals IMHO), but the color is lush.

Where to buy:  Reptile is a limited edition according to DL's site, so snap it up quick!  Buy direct from them, or from their list of international stockists.

~Michelle

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Topcoat battle! HK Girl VS Pro-FX quick dry!

By -
Image
I'm sure that every polish geek has a half a handful (or plenty more) topcoats - I myself have my go-to quick dry, a thicker one for chunky or unsmooth finishes, some back-up "lesser" quick drys, and a matte.  Having that many, though, honestly means we're all still looking for MORE! For a couple of years now, my holy grail TC has been HK Girl.  I'd been pretty happy with INM Out the Door for a year or so, but HKG dries much faster to a harder (aka more chip-resistant) finish, so I made that switch around the time we started blogging here.  I've never had the love affair with Seche that plenty do - it seems more stinky to me and I get shrinkage often enough to have never bought more after my first 99 cent mini of it.  I've seen a few blog posts mentioned some behemoth from WalMart, and remembered to pick up a bottle when driven to the commercial den of iniquity by a wild goose chase for multichrome notebooks, which brings us to... Topcoat Battle!!!! ...
Read more

ILNP Masquerade & Comparison

By -
Image
Every time I Love Nail Polish releases another batch of their multichromes, my wallet is going to take a little hit.  Their formula is always great, but the colors .  OMG, I die with these super shifters.  From the most recent release, my first pick was Masquerade.  Ginormously pic-heavy post in 3...2...1... Masquerade is a very sheer charcoal grey base packed with magically light-bending pigment that goes from a rich magenta-wine color, through a lighter pink, then bronze, on its way to a vibrantly saturated emerald green.  It took 3 coats to get it to visible opacity, of the sort where it can look sheer if you hold your fingernails up to the light.  Though it's most often a metallic to slightly brush-strokey chrome, in the sunlight, a sparkly shimmer peeks out. outdoor, bright sunlight The color range can be soft and muted: ok, "muted" for something like this, anyway.  outdoor, overcast/cloudy day It can be mostly wine: outdoor, ...
Read more

China Glaze Pearl Jammin' + comparison

By -
Image
For my first new mani of this year, I went straight for one that was on so many people's best of 2016 lists, China Glaze Pearl Jammin'.  This lovely lady sold out super quick, and for a while was going for INSANE prices on ebay, but I found one at normal retail price on Amazon. indoor, bright CF lighting for both Pearl Jammin' is a greyed sky-blue base packed with warm coppery shimmer that's thankfully just as beautifully flashy on the nail as it is in the bottle.  The formula is a little squirrely, the sort that's both slightly too thin and yet dries so fast that it gets gummy if you go over the same area twice.   3 coats are needed for even coverage with the sorta thin/sheer formula, but that's the price to pay for having the shimmer this bright, and all minor irregularities smooth out perfectly with a layer of topcoat.  I stamped my accent nails with the cute dreamcatcher image on BM-407 using Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl. Then we promptly had...
Read more