Continuing my series of comparison posts to the ever-elusive Ninja Polish Mystic Glacier:
Part 1 is here,
Part 2 is here,
Part 3 is here, and now we're settling in for Part 4 - the end (for now).
Polish collectors place a premium on "OG UP," that is, the original red-to-green shifting pigment by which Clarins 230 launched a thousand ships. Treasure seekers comb the back stock rooms of auto paint & body shops to find half empty forgotten containers of this magic, makers hoard their last precious grams of the stuff like dragons on gold, and apocryphal tales about the source of the magic (the inventor of this pigment is said to have perished in the 2004 Indonesian tsunami, losing the formula to us forever) to why it's so hard to come by (it's apparently used in printing the hologram images for counterfeit protection on EU currency). Since it's gotten so rare, plenty of other makers reach for the more readily available "aurora" pigments - these have a similar red-to-green flash, though generally believed to not be as saturated a ruby or emerald on the far ends of the shift.
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| indoor, bright CF lighting |
As with the rest of this series, all photos below were taken after my standard nail prep (clean nails & basecoat under each), and are in the same order as these bottle shots above:
- index finger = Great Lakes Lacquer Purifying Light
- middle finger = Ninja Polish Mystic Glacier (NB: my watermark is always on this one)
- ring finger = Shleee Polish Beauxbatons
- pinky finger = Ethereal Lacquer The Dark Mark over blue crème
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| indoor, bright CF lighting - one coat |
At one coat, all are sheer, and all 3 contenders have perfect formulas - smooth without streakiness, and Purifying Light and Beauxbatons are sparkly AF. If being low on the gorgeous fire was part of why the "real" 230 polishes just don't match up to MG, that's not a problem here. The Dark Mark is a very sheerly smoke-tinted topper which I've layered over Glitter Gal She'll be Right (which I'd also used under a topper in Part 1), a lovely cadet blue nicely opaque in just one coat. I've avoided painting TDM over just the outermost edge of this nail so you can see how much the topper changes the base color at each coat.
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| indoor, bright CF lighting - two coats |
At two coats, it's readily apparent that though Purifying Light and Beauxbatons are similar shades of blue in the bottle, they are ultimately going to end up nowhere near as saturated a blue as Mystic Glacier. It's also worth noting that PL has a smattering of holo dust and Beauxbatons is packed with holo flake, both of which will also differentiate the final look from MG a good deal.
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| indoor, bright CF lighting - three coats |
Three coats brings all of these polishes to nearly visually opaque, with Beauxbatons and PL lightly sheer at the free edge to the same degree as MG. TDM's flaming shimmer is actually building up to a point where I think a fourth coat may begin to swamp the undie color, so I'll stop here.
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| indoor, CF lighting - three coats |
The degree to which each polish visibly showed the red to green shift has been one of the metrics that really set Mystic Glacier apart throughout this series. At three coats here, all 3 contenders show obvious shift, though as hinted, not
quite as intensely ruby or emerald at the extremes as the "real" stuff.
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| indoor, bright CF lighting - three coats plus topcoat |
Topcoat isn't as crucial for these aurora polishes as for the 230 polishes, but it does smooth everything out nicely, and MG still benefits hugely.
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| indoor, CF lighting - three coats plus topcoat |
What topcoat does enhance, though, is making sure that the shift really pops.
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| outdoor, shady daylight |
As with prior comparisons, I think that the shady natural light photos highlight the differences in base color... but in a marked difference to the rest of the comps, even in shade all of these show lovely hints of red-to-green shift.
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| indoor, window-filtered shady daylight |
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| outdoor, direct bright sunlight |
In full sunlight, all four of these polishes blaze with shimmery fire. The particle sizes and the intensity of ruby red don't look identical to my eye, but the "feel" is very similar.
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| outdoor, direct bright sunlight - note these are still pinkish compared to MG's gold |
At angles, a bit more difference comes to light. The aurora polishes don't shift to between red to gold (above) or green (below) at the same "time" (i.e., angle of the light) as MG does, so I believe the purported difference between these two types pigments is absolutely factual. That being said, whether it's the quantity or the particle size of the 230 pigment makers are using, or some other indefinable factor, I just don't find much with the same quantity of searing flame as MG, until I considered these aurora pigments.
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| outdoor, direct bright sunlight - note that at the farthest angle, these are more yellowy-green than MG's emerald |
With the right base color, this aurora topper is IMHO as close as you can get. Below is The Dark Mark brought alongside Mystic Glacier for a side-by-side comparison (no changes in number of coats/etc to either):
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| outdoor, direct bright sunlight |
Where to buy: Purifying Light was a group custom from earlier this year, and
I don't know if GLL will be offering it again. Shleee has released Beauxbatons a few times, so it's worth
checking out her store or
stockists to hunt for a bottle. The Dark Mark was from a recent
collection by Ethereal, currently out of stock, but she does release aurora-packed toppers occasionally if this one isn't available.
~Michelle
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