Pahlish Transistor

This year has brought us a smorgasbord of polishes using the aurora pigments that are similar but much more available versions of the impossible to find Clarins 230-type red-to-green shifty shimmer.  I may have ended up with a double handful of what I swear was the hottest color combo around, fiery red aurora in cool, deep navy, and I was trying to slow my roll.  Then I saw someone's swatches of this and YOINK!!

indoor, CF lighting

So.  Yeah.  What you see in that bottle shot above is basically everything you needed to know about this little number.  We have a deep slate-teal jelly base, liberally dusted with red-to-green aurora shift, then topped up with flakies that shift in nearly the same color spectrum.

overcast morning daylight

I love polishes that look different, but just as lovely, in different lighting conditions.  In shade or low light, of course, the flakies really take center stage, and I'm sure this would be really interesting matte as well.

outdoor, late afternoon daylight

In bright sunlight, the red flash of the shimmer is absolutely flaming embers smoldering out from the murky teal base.  The above pic is only partial sunlight, but that glow is still well on display.

window-filtered daylight.  mmmmmmm that green flash

Of course, the best aurora shimmers get pretty close to the effect of 230, and Transistor is right there being lovely.  The sparks in direct light are a cool magenta-red, there's plenty of golden bronze flash (especially from the flakies), and at angles it gets close to the true deep emerald of "unicorn pee" polishes.

window-filtered, overcast daylight

To let all those shimmers shine through, Transistor is fairly sheer.  You could easily use this polish as a topper with a matching opaque crème undie if preferred, and it would probably look fantastic over most shades of deep blue or green.  I much prefer the depth of these jellie flakies by themselves, so I'm wearing 2 and a half coats solo, where my last coat was a thin one brushed on here and there as needed, plus topcoat as always.  This was glassy smooth, with zero flakie poke-up to be had.  

indoor, bright CF lighting

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars for this beauty, with my only (minor) gripe that it wore fairly quickly, as jellies tend to do on me.  Edgewear was smooth and even, and I had no chipping, but the dark color meant that my free edge looked more balded than it otherwise would have.  Still, the formula was utter perfection, with smooth and even flakie + shimmer disbursement and no need to push things around with the brush.

Where to buy:  Pahlish releases "bespoke batches" that are one-and-done periodically in her store.  Transistor was one of these from early this summer, so is gone by this point.  Stalk destashes, and keep an eye on her facebook page to be notified about new bespokes.

~Michelle