Dance Legend Thermo 169

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The last completely untried thermal in my stash is Dance Legend's Thermo 169.

indoor, CF lighting
I bought 169 and another in the same series a good 2 years ago, and then left 169 untried after utterly disliking her sidekick (the colors were all wrong on me and the formula was thick/chippy/streaky/no bueno).  Polish wizards that release thermals usually say that the color change is only a sure thing for about 6 months, and then the polish "settles" into a shade somewhere between the warm and cool color, but closest to the original cool one.  This long-delayed test-drive is an experiment in thermal pigment longevity, since I know it worked fine when I swatched it on arrival.

indirect sunlight
169's formula is a pretty perfect consistency that doesn't pool or require much clean-up, but takes about 3 coats to completely cover any streaky places.   It dries down to a really interesting finish that to my eyes looks dead-on for powdercoated aluminum, but was flawlessly smooth to the touch. Faux-texture for us texture haters?

direct sunlight
Almost instantly on application, 169 was a bright true-metallic silver, and it appeared that way 90% of the time. I never had any visible gradient or french tip effect while going around my regular day.  But wait a sec, the silver is this polish's warm color, and it's distinctly different than the nude-pink metallic of the bottle...


Yup, there's a subtle hint of taupe at the free edge here in the macro view...

wet fingernail contest!
And there's that warm pink, only captured by dunking my fingers in ice water, and gone by the time I try to dry off.  I'm thinking much like my other recent DL thermals, this one is a "cold-sensitive" example, to keep using the lingo that KPT does.  It still works perfectly well 2 years later, but it might not be as interesting as it can be until the winter months.

Rating:  3 out of 5 stars.  The 3 coats is a little fussy for a metallic silver, but it does shine like crazy and wear like a BEAST.  I'll revisit when a chill is in the air to see if it's drama factor ups the love.

Where to buy:  check DL's list of international stockists to peruse their thermals.

~Michelle

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