Carpe Noctem Cosmetics: South Haven Sunset, Interstellar Towel, & Pro Amico

Good evening!  I have some stunning polishes to show you today from a new-to-me indie creator.  Carpe Noctem Cosmetics is a brand I've been stalking for awhile on Etsy and Facebook.  Emily, the mastermind behind Carpe Noctem, has some gorgeous creations and I finally had to free up some budget room to nab a few of her lovelies.  Today, I've got swatches of South Haven Sunset, Interstellar Towel, and Pro Amico.

 South Haven Sunset is listed on Etsy as a denim blue, but my bottle at least runs more toward the green edge of things.  On the nail, the blue becomes more pronounced and it has a beautiful golden shimmer.

There's a bit of a duochrome effect going on that's so, so pretty!   Application was a breeze and SHS is fully opaque in 2 coats (or less, depending on how thick of a layer you apply).  I've got 2 coats and no top coat on for these photos.

It was no surprise that I'd love SHS, a bit of shimmer in a cool color base that applies like butter?  What's not to love?!

Next up, we have Interstellar Towel.  I've got to hand it to Emily; not only are her polishes gorgeous, they're also some of the most difficult to photograph, probably because of said gorgeousness lol  IT is a olive/purple/gold multi-chrome effect polish.  It might actually be impossible to catch all of the shift in this on camera...it certainly was for me lol

To my eye, IT looks like the above photo in natural light.  Every time I snapped a photo, however, the olive/gold took over and the lovely purple completely disappeared.  I was able to get a bit of that purple by using the flash above, but I'm the first to admit, it's not the world's greatest photo.  However, I wanted you guys to be able to see as much of the shift as possible and that purple deserves a spotlight all its own!

Application was, again, easy breezy.  I'm wearing 3 coats here (IT is the sheerest of the 3 I'm showing today) with no top coat.  At first I thought IT would be really similar to Essie's For the Twill of It, but the Essie is much more grey and I greatly prefer the shift in IT.

 Indoor fluorescent lighting

Last and my favorite of these 3, is Pro Amico.  PA is a reformulation of Emily's original Man in White.  I don't own the original, but I've got to say, PA is a beautiful polish in its own right.  Again with the hard to photograph-ness.  This polish looks different in every light...it's like magic!  I'm showing it here in 3 different settings so you can get an idea of the versatility of this polish.

 Indoor 40 watt bulb

Described as a blue base with a periwinkle to pink shift, PA is that and more.  Looking at it right now in the ambient light of my living room, PA is a midtone purple with a strong pink shift.  Under the camera lens, the blue base makes much more of a statement, while in daylight, the periwinkle shines.

Indoor ambient light, taken with camera phone

I expected PA to be more sheer than it was; these photos show 2-3 coats, the first 2 have one coat of Seche Vite and the last has no top coat.  And I hate to be a broken record, but application was smooth.

Over all, I really can't say enough nice things about Carpe Noctem Cosmetics polishes.  If you haven't given them a try, I urge you to do so before restocking becomes an issue.  Because I'm foreseeing that CNC is going to start selling out fast!  Emily is a real sweetheart as well.  She also loves to do custom polishes, so if you have something in mind but aren't seeing it, give her a shout and I bet she can work up something lovely for you!  She stocks 3 (THREE!) sizes of bottles currently, which is pretty awesome.  A small (6ml) bottle will run you $3-4, the medium (12ml) bottles are $6-7, and the large (15ml) bottles are $9-10 with exceptions for her Spectraflair top coat and custom work.

Carpe Noctem Cosmetics is currently having a celebratory 1200 Facebook likes giveaway, so be sure to enter.  Lots of great stuff in that one (18 prizes so far)! I'd also like to remind you to enter The Nail Files Turned 2! Giveaway and tell your friends to do so as well :)

Thanks so much for reading!