CrowsToes Betelgeuse

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On this week's round of "wow how have I let this go untried for so very long," I'm featuring CrowsToes Betelgeuse.

indoor, bright CF lighting

Once upon a good several years ago, CrowsToes released Huginn & Muninn, one of my all time ever fave polishes... then a couple years later released what appears to be a flakie version of the same magic.

indoor, window-filtered daylight

Like its glassy metallic sister, Betelgeuse seems to be primarily either purple head-on or green at angled lighting, with an added glimmer of magenta or gold in between.  Also like its sister, there's a little something extra in the way of shimmer, this time a subtle holo dust blended into the dense flakies.

outdoor, direct sunlight

Also like H&M, Betelgeuse needs 3 coats to come up to full opacity.  The major difference here is that the jelly base is much less deeply saturated, removing that sapphire blue undertone.  

outdoor, indirect bright daylight

Where Betelgeuse truly amazes in a way totally unique to this polish is the gorgeous texture of all these ultrachrome flakies, providing a stained-glass  mosaic of colors shifting just slightly independently of each other.  This was a polish made in the heyday of flakie bombs, and is a gorgeous example of why that was super trendy in indie world.  

indoor, CF lighting

indoor, window-filtered daylight

This pretty hammered-metal look wore rather decently (better than H&M, tbh), with average edgewear and no chipping after a week. 

outdoor, direct bright daylight

indoor, bright CF lighting

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars for this shifty, sparkly beauty.  I had to manipulate a few of the flakies back to where they belonged when they tried to dangle off the edge of my nail, but other than that minor tweak application was smooth sailing.  Beautiful color and decent wear time make this a win.

Where to buy:  sadly, CrowsToes is in retirement now.  Since she occasionally is tempted back into the fray for a charity event, I haven't entirely given up hope for her return.  In the meantime, stalk destashes & blog sales.

~Michelle 

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