Baroness X Alhambra

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The 2015 Ex Libris collection by Baroness X is, to date, the only complete collection I own in entirety.  Sure, there's only 4 of them and not the dozen typical for big mainstream brands, but there's also no filler - every one of these are utterly GOLD.

Baroness X Alhambra
indoor, bright CF lighting
Alhambra, like her sisters, is a glassy shiny jelly (cobalt blue in this case), sprinkled with iridescent flakies, and packed with the Clarins 230/Fantasy Fire type shimmer that we all swoon over.

Baroness X Alhambra
indoor, window-filtered daylight
This jelly was very forgiving to work with, self-leveling very nicely at each coat, and looked pretty good in 2.  I'm wearing 3 here to make sure everything is even, but that 3rd coat didn't deepen or alter the final color, so ok to stop at 2.  In some brighter light pics here, my free edge is visible, but this is one of those strange cases where the camera "sees through" the shimmer - this was absolutely visually opaque though squishy IRL, and even in fairly bright sunlight I didn't see an obvious nail line.

Baroness X Alhambra
outdoor, bright sunlight
That gorgeous shimmer steals the show in bright sunlight, or anywhere there's enough brightness to light the little sparks within.  Like all representatives of this type of shimmer, the flash starts out ruby red when viewed directly (tinting the polish look overall more navy/violet than the base looks alone), then shifts to bronzed gold (as in the macro above), then on over to that lovely emerald (below).

Baroness X Alhambra
outdoor, bright sunlight
In lower light, the iridescent aqua-flashing flakies take a more prominent appearance.

Baroness X Alhambra
window-filtered daylight
Bonus: though this is a saturated, rich blue - no staining of my cuticles!

Baroness X Alhambra
direct afternoon sunlight
Rating:  a gorgeous 4 out of 5 stars, I love this one.

Where to buy:  Though plenty of these 230 shimmer polishes are suuuuuper limited edition and sell out quickly, Alhambra and her sisters have been available in the core lineup for a while now, direct from the Baroness herself.

~Michelle

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