Indie Spotlight: I Love Nail Polish Brand A.C.Slater

*All products purchased by me.  Unsolicited review*

Hi there!  I hope a few of you are still home and awake on a Friday night.  I'm about down for the count, but I wanted to throw a quick post up about this gorgeous polish!  A few weeks ago, I Love Nail Polish had a restock and a pre-order release of some new colors.  I was lucky enough to snag a few of them and I've yet to be disappointed by anything Barbara has shipped out to me.  This polish is no exception!

A.C. Slater is a liner holographic with a dark greyish brown base; I'd call it mink.  The color itself is beautiful, soft and shimmery.  And that holographic....wow!  Warm and smoky with that colorful flash, this polish evokes outdoor bonfires on the beach and the sun setting on the water.  Simply sublime! 
 

As with every other ILNP polish I've tried, the formula was excellent.  Opaque in 2 coats and oh! so smooth!   I've used one coat of Sally Hansen Inst-Dri as a top coat for durability but the finish on this polish is so shiny, a top coat may not be necessary (unless, like me, you have a job that requires getting your hands beat up all day long!).  Even with my tough-on-the-nails day at work, I only had a bit of tip wear and no chips at all.

A.C. Slater currently retails for $10 for a 12ml bottle, however, the site is currently out of stock.  These babies go fast over at ILNP's website, so you'll want to follow the Facebook page to keep up with restocking information, new products, and any other pertinent news.  Additionally, if you sign up for an account on ILNP's site, you'll be notified by email of upcoming restocks and when they go live.  I will also say that ILNP has the BEST pre-order/restock system for ordering I've experienced for such a high-volume brand, including text/email notification when your turn in line comes up.  It's pretty awesome!

*All products purchased by me.  Unsolicited review*

Before I let you guys go, I wanted to let you know that I'm part of a pretty fantastic giveaway currently over at ColorSutra's blog.  She's celebrating 2K Facebook likes with a 31 prize (yes! 31!) giveaway!  Tons of great indie makers and other bloggers have united for this one and you won't want to miss it!  Go enter and good luck!  Thanks so much for reading!

Try It On Tuesday Times Three: I Love Nail Polish UltraChromes

*All polishes purchased by me.*

Hi there!  I have an epic Try It On Tuesday for you guys today!  Not just one but three polishes!  And not just any three polishes, three I Love Nail Polish UltraChromes!  I'm sure that by now you guys have seen swatch after swatch of these lovelies but they're just so pretty, I know I haven't gotten tired of looking at them yet, so I'm hoping you all feel the same.  I've already shown Birefringence to you, so today I have the other three in the collection: Mutagen, My Little Glacier, and Cygnus Loop.

 Outdoor shade

First up is Mutagen.  (I've tried to get a few different lights in my photos so you can get an idea of the shift in these polishes.  That said, once you get these babies on your nails, no pictures compare!)  Mutagen is a brilliant green multichrome that shifts through a spectrum of colors; bright green to blue to purple to an orange-y gold.  

 Indoor, lightbox

The greens in this polish really wanted to come out and play, so much so that I couldn't seem to capture much else in the way of shift.  You can see the purple shift in the above and below photo.  And the shift is there in real life, but the green is the most pronounce color.  Lucky thing it's a gorgeous, glowing color!
 

 Indoor, lightbox

The application was great.  As I said in my Birefringence review, these ILNP UltraChromes are formulated to be opaque in 2-3 coats and they totally deliver.  
 

 Underwater

I recently discovered the beauty of photographing multichrome polishes underwater.  It really brings out their full spectrum of color and shift, so I've got an example of that for each of the UltraChromes.  Yay!  

 Outdoor Sun

Next we have My Little Glacier, a surprise favorite for me.  MLG is a steely, icy blue multichrome that appears silver in some lights.  You'll also catch glimpses of red, purple, teal and yellow as you move.  I'm not sure what I expected from MLG but I did not expect to love it as much as I do.  It's the least shifty of the bunch, but the base titanium blue color is just so lovely that I don't care!

 Indoor with flash

 The above photo shows what you can expect from MLG indoors in ambient light.  IRL it's a bit lighter, but it definitely reads as a silvery blue. 

Indoor, lightbox

Again, application was great; smooth and opaque in 2-3 coats.  I swear all I've done for the past 2 days is stare at my hands lol

 Underwater

As you can see in the underwater shot, MLG does have a lovely shift, although it's not as evident in normal lighting as in the other three.  I would still recommend this polish for it's gorgeous color!

 Indoor, lightbox

Lastly, but far from least, is Cygnus Loop.  CL and Birefringence are no doubt my absolute favorites of this collection.  I knew from the moment I saw the first swatches of them that I'd love them.  How could I not?!  CL is a multichrome stunner that shifts from bright purple to deep red to orange to yellow and back. 

Indoor, lightbox

I can't wax poetic enough about this polish!  The only thing that can make a bright metallic purple polish better is to give it shift (or holo, but that's another story!) like this. 

 Outdoor, full sun

I should also mention the finish of these polishes.  Each of the UltraChromes has a nice, shiny finish with that sort of frostiness that all metallics seem to have.  The wear was fairly good, I did have some tip wear after 24 hours but nothing drastic.

Underwater

As if you needed more convincing about the beautiousness of this polish, here's an underwater shot of CL.  I simply can't care about anything else whilst looking at this loveliness!

I urge you guys to give these polishes a shot...they're just so pretty, I know you'll love them as much as I do!  They each retail for $12.50 for a 12ml full size bottle.  I know it might seem steep, but trust me, this is one collection that's worth it!  

*All polishes purchased by me.*

 

If you're interested in joining the Try It On Tuesday group, all you need to do is "like" SassyPaints Facebook page.  Every week on Tuesday, simply post a single photo of your Try It On Tuesday polish, add a link (it can be instagram/flickr/tumblr/whatever, not just blogs!) and the brand/name of your chosen polish.  Easy peasy, right? :)

Thanks so much for reading!

I Love Nail Polish: Birefringence Review and Comparison

Oh. Em. Gee., guys.  Seriously, I'm so excited I can't even greet you all properly!  A few weeks ago, I joined in the absolute craziness that was I Love Nail Polish's Ultra Chrome pre-order.  After a frustrating website experience (and I understand that they've fixed things up over there to make it all much smoother...none of the web site people ever seem to understand how nutty we nail folk are about our polish!) and an almost unbearable wait (and a shout out to Raquel from Sunshine Nails who made the wait more bearable by sharing the pain lol), my Ultra Chromes arrived today!  I could not wait to try them out, but I couldn't decide on which I wanted to use first because they're all so beautiful.  So, I asked my bf to pick.  After a little deliberation (the bf takes his polish-picking duties seriously), he handed me Birefringence.

Now I have to apologize that my photography skills aren't enough to give you guys every color shift this lovely has.  I did my best and I hope you'll get an idea of how magical this polish is.  Birefringence (which means "double refraction" according to Google, rather fitting) is a shifting fantasy, teal to sapphire to amethyst to fuschia, with a touch of gold around the edges.

In addition to the sensational shiftiness, Birefringence and the other Ultra Chromes are opaque by themselves, no undies, in 2 coats!  Most other duo/multichromes require a dark base to show off their shifting powers.  Not so with these beauties.  I did use 3 coats in these photos, just because I could.  The first coat goes down a little thin and you'll want to make sure each coat is completely dry or you'll probably bald and drag a bit, but the second coat covered completely!  Color me impressed!

After staring at the gloriousness of Birefringence for a bit, I realized it reminded me of my precious bottle of Sally Hansen's Nail Prisms in Turquoise Opal.  I was curious to see how they'd compare side by side.  The following photos are the result of that experiment.

Ok, ok, I know the font is tiny, so I'll give you a run-down of what's happening here.  My index finger and thumb are sporting the aforementioned 3 coats of Birefringence.  My middle finger has 5 (!) coats of Turquoise Opal.  Then my ring and pinky fingers have 2 coats of Birefringence and Turquoise Opal respectively, over 2 coats of Deborah Lippmann's Edge of Glory in black.  I had to use a flash to get the difference to show up here.  In many lights and from most angles, they look the same.  However, TO is more green in ambient light whereas Birefringence shows more blue.  The shift is remarkably similar.  Since TO is discontinued and the prices I've seen on Ebay make Lynnderella's look like a steal (hello $40!), Birefringence seems very reasonable at $12.50 for a 12ml bottle.  It might be a good substitute for those not willing to take out a second mortgage for TO. (I bought my bottle a million years ago on CLEARANCE.  Seriously, if I'd known then what I know now, I'd have cleaned them out and be making bank on Ebay myself lol)

I decided to try something I've never done before.  I'd read that photographing your holos and multichromes underwater really make the colors dance.  I figured now was as good a time as any to test it.

Dance, baby, dance!  Holy wow!  And that's what I'll leave you all with this evening.  You're welcome ;)

Thanks so much for reading!