Colors by Llarowe Hellcat

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A couple of weekends ago, I had a girls' afternoon out that involved pedis, resulting in Color Club We'll Never Be Royals being on my toes as we speak.  Usually, I end up matching my hands to  my feet at least once a pedi color, and to that end reached into the vault...

Colors by Llarowe Hellcat
outdoor, direct sunlight
Llarowe released Hellcat back in 2013, when she used to theme occasional polishes around fighter planes.  It's a multichrome along the lines of HITS Unconventional and the above-mentioned Royals, one of my all time fave shifts, and I forgive a whole lot for that purple-wine-scarlet look.

Colors by Llarowe Hellcat
outdoor, direct sunlight
Hellcat was quite thick the first time I wore it, and it's quite thick now.  That means it takes a mere 2 coats for total opacity, which was somewhat unheard of back in the day for a duochrome, but also means that chips and edgewear are gonna show up more quickly than ideal.

Colors by Llarowe Hellcat
outdoor, shady/overcast daylight
In addition to the utterly fabulous color shift, Hellcat has slightly translucent gold flakes in the mix.  They nearly vanish in very bright light, but are quite prominent in lower or shady light when the color shift is also peak.  I'm not sure what these are made of or how that differs from the flakies we're getting lately, but this particular flavor of flakies imparts some hammered metal texture to the final look.  Nowhere near as noticeable as shaped glitters would be, but even a thick layer of topcoat left these little micor-divots visible.

Colors by Llarowe Hellcat
flakies:  sometimes gone in bright direct sunlight.  shift:  always winning
Colors by Llarowe Hellcat

Rating:  sometimes I change my rating when I revisit something, either downgrading a polish I thought was super when I was a noob or dialing up a beauty that needs a more skilled hand to apply.  Hellcat stays right at the 3 out of 5 stars I decided on when I first wore it.  The color is such a huge win, but the flakie texture and the over thick formula and underperforming wear time less so. 

Where to buy:  long discontinued, blog sales & destashes are your only shot here.

~Michelle

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