Ethereal Lacquer Ophidia

I'm still playing with the nail art challenge prompts on facebook, and while "ladybugs" had me reaching for colors & plates right away, the other ones need a bit more thinking about to come up with a design that I like. For this round, I'm working on "penguins"...hmmm...

indoor, CF lighting

I've started with Ethereal Lacquer Ophidia, a recent jewel from PPU.  It's a very soft, sheer off-white that's absolutely loaded with aurora shimmer to give the look of iridescent snakeskin.  You could probably use this as a topper in one thick coat, as long as you picked a color where the impact of the milky base would look nice.

outdoor, afternoon sunlight

Most typically, aurora and Clarins 230-type toppers and polishes are done in darker bases to really make the transition from red to bronze to green pop.  Ophidia still shows that shift beautifully, but it's a more subtle, gauzy, fairy-like way that's very much in keeping with Ethereal Lacquer's "house style."  The green shift at the far end was very much in evidence, but impossible to catch on camera.

shady, overcast daylight - note the glimmer of red flipping to bronze over the curve of the nail

While the look is overall delicately ethereal, the shimmer is very heavy, blazing in the sun and glimmering in low light.

outdoor, bright sunlight

I'm wearing 3 coats here.  The first went on as a barely-there sheer wash that would be a really pretty "my nails but better" quick mani if you didn't have time for a full round of layers of color + cleanup.  The second and third coats I applied a bit thicker than usual to try and build the base color up, and this resulted in some uneven patches - 4 thin coats may work better if you want this level of opacity.  Complete opacity is not something I typically work toward for Ethereal's polishes, and this could certainly be worn over a white or nude undie if that was a concern, but I prefer this delicate peek-a-boo translucency.

indoor, CF lighting, showing hints of green sparkle around the curve

I'm really into spring right now, I'm excited about everything in the garden greening up, watching my birdfeeders, enjoying the warmer weather... so the idea of wintry snowflakes & penguins just isn't working for me.  Instead, I went with a penguin of a different color.

indoor, bright CF lighting

This clean, simple little line drawing of a penguin from BM-416 was exactly what I needed for a rainbow of pop art penguins.  I'm using various one-coater holo polishes to make a rainbow of penguins from thumb to pinky.

indoor, bright CF lighting

The lines on this image were thin enough that the holo didn't really blaze through except in very bright sunlight, but these polishes worked great for clear images, so it's still a win for me:  Super Chic Realm of Erotica, SC Rum Billie, SC No Rest for the Wicked, a England Lady of the Lake, Llarowe CBL Addicts Blue Me Away.

indoor, bright CF lighting, and some more green sparkle in the bottle

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars for Ophidia.  She's beautiful and wore nicely, a perfect palate cleanser between brighter, more saturated shades, understated but not underpowered.

Where to buy:  as always, PPU is a one-and-done event, but who knows if this will be the polish that returns for rewind month in June.

~Michelle