Femme Fatale Melobasina

 Once more, we delve into the treasures to be found within Mount Untried...

indoor, bright CF lighting

Melobasina was the color of the month way back in February 2015, named for a genus of jewel-toned beetles.  Like its namesake, this one was shifty in a very organic-looking way. 

outdoor, bright direct sunlight

The above pic shows the full range of shift just perfectly - in some light it's black, in others it's purple, and it easily hits a deep metallic forest green, all packed with small rainbowy ultrachrome flakies.

outdoor, indirect daylight

The original blogger photos at the time of release showed Melobasina as a blackened green (below):

outdoor, bright afternoon daylight

And while it easily shifted to green at angles, this instead looked to my eye as smoky purple at least 2/3 of the time (below):

outdoor, indirect daylight

There's both a shifty shimmer in here, pulling this from purple to green, as well as the interplay between that shimmer and the flakies.  It's a gloriously complex polish, without at all having a "kitchen sink" hodge-podge going on. 

outdoor, bright direct sunlight

I'm showing 3 thin coats here.  While Melobasina looked good at 2 under my bright desk lamp, light shone easily through the underside, so I knew I'd need the 3rd coat to avoid it looking patchy.  Besides, building up those flakies & shimmer was very well worth it. 

indoor, bright CF lighting

Rating:  4 out of 5 stars.  This is vampy, complex, shifty, and green at least part-time, so it's a clear winner for me.  Like many very dark colors, it did show edgewear a bit quicker than I'd like, but the formula was smooth and easy to work with.  A single layer of topcoat was all that was needed - despite the flakie density, they were quite tame. 

Where to buy:  haunt destashes to find this gem from a few years back. 

~Michelle