Bluebird Lacquer Centaur of Attention 3.0

By -

 As is the case with so many people, with the world in this state I'm really not feeling festive this holiday season, and haven't been inspired to do a lot of seasonal looks.  Then I saw another polisher showing off a look with Bluebird Lacquer Centaur of Attention, and BAM ready to go!

indoor, bright CF lighting

Bluebird Lacquer released Centaur of Attention several years ago for PPU, and reds not being my usual jam, I passed.  I skipped it again when it was up for PPU rewind month the next year.  This year, after so many devastating swatches and with the declaration this was the last run for the color, I caved, and YES.

outdoor, overcast/shady daylight

This is the 3.0 version of Centaur of Attention, and per some comparisons on facebook, each version got progressively just a step darker, richer, and more holo than the one before - seeing all 3 versions side by side made me beyond glad I'd passed until this round.  It's a true neutral red, neither leaning warm/brick nor cool/wine (though it absolutely looks warmer or cooler depending on the light), vamped up beautifully by being so saturated.  

outdoor, direct sunlight

Centaur is nearly a one-coater, and I'm showing 2 + TC here.  In shade or lower light, it has that subtle hammered metal shimmer characteristic of the signature finish for older aEngland polishes which becomes a subdued fire in bright light.  

indoor, bright CF lighting

For my accent nail, I've started with 2 coats of Girly Bits Patronus, a beautiful light silver scattered holo.  I stamped the closest floral image I had to a poinsettia from UC 1-02, using Lina Kalahari Sand, then filled it in with Centaur on the stamper head.  Kalahari Sand is a light, neutral champagne gold, but got tinted copper from all the red pigment in Centaur.  

outdoor, afternoon sunlight

indoor, CF lighting

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars, and absolutely one of the best reds in my collection.  This is the kind of dramatic, bold look that gets compliments from everyone when worn, and the not quite vampy depth of color means I think this would look great on a variety of skin tones.  The downside of something being a seriously saturated one-coater is of course the risk of staining, and Centaur is widely reported to be a stainer for most people.  My basecoat did its usual excellent job there (I rarely end up with stained nails), but if this stuff gets into your cuticles, it's every bit as challenging to thoroughly eliminate as you'd expect. 

Where to buy:  since this will not be coming back, haunt destashes & blog sales, but pay attention to the version number as each batch is not identical.

~Michelle 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Topcoat battle! HK Girl VS Pro-FX quick dry!

By -
Image
I'm sure that every polish geek has a half a handful (or plenty more) topcoats - I myself have my go-to quick dry, a thicker one for chunky or unsmooth finishes, some back-up "lesser" quick drys, and a matte.  Having that many, though, honestly means we're all still looking for MORE! For a couple of years now, my holy grail TC has been HK Girl.  I'd been pretty happy with INM Out the Door for a year or so, but HKG dries much faster to a harder (aka more chip-resistant) finish, so I made that switch around the time we started blogging here.  I've never had the love affair with Seche that plenty do - it seems more stinky to me and I get shrinkage often enough to have never bought more after my first 99 cent mini of it.  I've seen a few blog posts mentioned some behemoth from WalMart, and remembered to pick up a bottle when driven to the commercial den of iniquity by a wild goose chase for multichrome notebooks, which brings us to... Topcoat Battle!!!! ...
Read more

ILNP Masquerade & Comparison

By -
Image
Every time I Love Nail Polish releases another batch of their multichromes, my wallet is going to take a little hit.  Their formula is always great, but the colors .  OMG, I die with these super shifters.  From the most recent release, my first pick was Masquerade.  Ginormously pic-heavy post in 3...2...1... Masquerade is a very sheer charcoal grey base packed with magically light-bending pigment that goes from a rich magenta-wine color, through a lighter pink, then bronze, on its way to a vibrantly saturated emerald green.  It took 3 coats to get it to visible opacity, of the sort where it can look sheer if you hold your fingernails up to the light.  Though it's most often a metallic to slightly brush-strokey chrome, in the sunlight, a sparkly shimmer peeks out. outdoor, bright sunlight The color range can be soft and muted: ok, "muted" for something like this, anyway.  outdoor, overcast/cloudy day It can be mostly wine: outdoor, ...
Read more

China Glaze Pearl Jammin' + comparison

By -
Image
For my first new mani of this year, I went straight for one that was on so many people's best of 2016 lists, China Glaze Pearl Jammin'.  This lovely lady sold out super quick, and for a while was going for INSANE prices on ebay, but I found one at normal retail price on Amazon. indoor, bright CF lighting for both Pearl Jammin' is a greyed sky-blue base packed with warm coppery shimmer that's thankfully just as beautifully flashy on the nail as it is in the bottle.  The formula is a little squirrely, the sort that's both slightly too thin and yet dries so fast that it gets gummy if you go over the same area twice.   3 coats are needed for even coverage with the sorta thin/sheer formula, but that's the price to pay for having the shimmer this bright, and all minor irregularities smooth out perfectly with a layer of topcoat.  I stamped my accent nails with the cute dreamcatcher image on BM-407 using Hit the Bottle Copper Haired Girl. Then we promptly had...
Read more