Well, if one ILNP is good, two is great, right? A friend recently picked up a bottle of Dance Legend's LE Phobos, which is an aqua-to-purple duochrome with flakies that shift similarly. I wondered if I could recreate that look with what I already had (spoilers: YES), so I switched up to Sirene, then topped it with Nfu Oh 40. Unfortunately, I forgot shots of Sirene solo, until the one nail in the comparison below.
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| indoor CF lighting |
Sirene is a vibrant undersea teal head-on that very easily shifts to royal blue, magenta, and deep purple. Nfu Oh 40 is likewise electric blue-green that shifts up to lavender purple, but as translucent flakies in a clear base. All pics here are 2 coats of Sirene and 1 of 40. In some bright light, the two were at the same place in their shift - all emerald - so that the flakies were a subtle bit of texture.
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| outdoor, indirect light |
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| indoor, office fluorescents |
Other than those head-on views, though, the flakes and the base color shifted at just enough of a different angle that I ended up with complementary contrasting colors.
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| my nails are mermaids! I. DIE. |
Both get up to a lovely (though slightly different shade of) purple:
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| outdoor, shade |
And both shift incredibly:
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| outdoor, indirect sunlight |
Though it was most often a smooth, pearly chrome (some light brush strokes were there, but mostly covered by the flakies), in bright light, Sirene additionally has a lovely shimmer.
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| indoor CF lighting |
A while back, I'd
compared Picture Polish Illusionist to some similar shifters, and after loving Sirene, wanted to give that another go.
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| L-to-R: Hits Mari Moon Daring, Sirene, PP Aurora |
Interestingly enough, in the previous comparison, it definitely took 3 coats of Sirene to become opaque, while for the full mani above, 2 was perfect. When I re-swatched for this comparison, again, 3. This is one of the few polishes I know of (other than the sort of holo that needs an aqua base to work) that has a huge difference with or without base coat. With my everyday base coat (NailTek Foundation II), the finish was much smoother, less brush stroke-y, and only needed 2 coats.
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| L-to-R for both: index = Hits Daring, middle = Sirene, ring = PP Aurora |
Each of the above polishes are shown in 3 coats, no topcoat or clean-up for any of them. As with the previous go-round, all 3 of these polishes (and the very sheer PP Illusionist) are approximately the same base shade, and all shift easily to a lovely purple, with a suggestion of bronze at the edge. Sirene is the most saturated color at any point in the shift, and dries fastest. Aurora is a microglitter, so has a totally different texture and look, and is a bit less green/more blue head-on. Daring shows a fine shimmer most of the time. None of them are 100% dupes, but broadly speaking, they're a very similar color.
Rating: both Sirene and 40 are 5 out of 5 all the way. MERMAID NAILS FTW!
Where to buy: Sirene can be bought
from the ILNP store, and the remaining stock of Nfu Oh flakies are still available at
fabuloustreet.com.
~Michelle
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