No Lack Of Lacquer

Ninja Polish Zultanite

I am in love. Autumn is my favourite season and the only way to describe Zultanite is autumn in a bottle. It shifts between green, gold, and a deep reddish-brown, with oodles of similarly-shifting glitter. The glitter doesn’t shift quite as much as the base colour, so there’s some really cool contrast there. In some lights I can even see blue in the bottle, but I haven’t been able to capture that on the nail. The formula is on the thin side, easy to work with and dries quickly. I only needed one coat of topcoat to completely smooth out the glitter.

Shown here is one coat over black. You could wear Zultanite alone, but it’s very sheer and I’d much rather preserve this bottle for as long as I can. Obviously, how well it wears without chipping/tipwear will depend on what you layer it over. I used Cult Nails Nevermore and got amazing wear out of it, with no chips and only minimal tipwear after six days. I’d also love to try it over another duo/multichrome and see what happens!

It’s a truly stunning colour and I can’t wait to try the other two polishes in the Ninja Polish Facets collection, nor can I wait to see what they release in the future! I’d recommend signing up to be notified of new stock on the Ninja Polish website, since this one sells out fast whenever it appears.

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

I wanted something special for my 200th post, and what better than the latest and greatest Clarins 230 (Unicorn Pee) dupe? It’s a purple jelly base with tons and tons of duochrome shimmer that looks different in every kind of light. As near as I can tell, you can get every colour of the rainbow out of it in the right light. Fantasy Fire is also very aptly named, thanks to that shimmer, making it look like a flickering fire. The base also seems to change colour occasionally.

The downside is the sheerness of the polish. I used five (FIVE!) coats for these swatches and you can still see visible nail line. I keep using the word “light” in this post, but again, in the right light that can be less obvious. However, the bottle is so tiny that I’d really recommend layering it over another nail varnish. I’ve tried it over blue, purple, and red so far and it looks great with all three! Max Factor must know they’re onto a winner with this one.

Click for full size! They’re a must-see. And keep your eyes peeled if you want to pick up a bottle of Fantasy Fire for free…

Illamasqua Hemlock

I’m so in love with this polish. I’ve never even seen anything quite like it. Hemlock was originally released as a limited edition shade with Illamasqua’s Freak perfume, and I didn’t even hear about it until after it was long sold out, so I was thrilled when they recently re-released the colour.

Hemlock is a sheer (but nicely buildable) putty-coloured varnish, with tons of green/peachy pink colour-shifting shimmer. The green is normally the dominant colour and it’s quite something to behold in the sun. I couldn’t stop admiring my hands the entire time I had it on - which, by the way, was six days with minimal tipwear and only one or two small chips. I used four coats to get it completely opaque but you can also layer Hemlock over other colours to get a more stark duochrome effect.

17 Fury

This is a lovely (though, again, subtle) gold-green metallic duochrome which only needs two coats. It’s also pretty good about brushstrokes, unusually for a metallic. I thought it might be similar to Models Own Copper Pot, but this is far more of a gold than a copper-orange. I don’t want to describe it as “good and nice” because it makes me sound like a children’s book, but this polish is SO good and SO nice.

17 Glisten

I hate the name but I LOVE the colour! Glisten is a very subtle duochrome, though I’m not sure how to describe the base colour - sort of a golden peach? It’s extremely pretty, though. I thought it’d be quite a sheer varnish, but it really wasn’t. I only needed two coats for full opacity, which is always a lovely thing to discover.

Cult Nails Toxic Seaweed
2/03/12

I do hope I get the chance to pick up another bottle of Toxic Seaweed before it sells out! It’s limited edition due to the flakies it contains, as they’re no longer available. They flash a green-orange-gold duochrome, which looks incredible against the teal jelly base. I’m actually really glad of the flakies, because without them I suspect this would be a little too similar to China Glaze Atlantis, though the glitter there is holographic and the base has more green notes.

Much to my surprise, Toxic Seaweed was as good as opaque in two coats. I used slightly thicker coats than I normally would and while there’s a tiny bit of visible nail line when viewed up close, you can’t see any at all from further away. The formula was also fairly thick, which probably helped with the opacity. From now on, I’m probably going to ration this out and layer it, just in case I don’t get hold of that second bottle!

a-england Saint George
China Glaze Watermelon Rind

Here is the (probably not that anticipated) comparison between Saint George and Watermelon Rind, as promised. WR is on my middle finger, flanked by SG on either side.

As you can see, SG is a much deeper colour and the holo glitter has more depth to it than WR’s glass fleck finish. I also had to use three coats of WR to the two necessary for SG. They’re both lovely teals, but not even close to being dupes.

a-england Ascalon
22/02/12

First of all, I have to apologise for the picture quality! The day I swatched Ascalon it was raining, so I had to take photos in the bath to get the holo to show up. One day, my dream photo set-up will come.

An interesting consequence of this was that it really brought out the goldish-green duochrome as opposed to the purple that I’ve seen in most other swatches (though you can still see hints of it here). The base colour is the kind of charcoal grey that I’m a total sucker for, and it showcases the holo particles beautifully despite how dark it is. This was another two-coater with a formula that was wonderful to work with. I had zero application problems. Along with Dragon, Ascalon is one of the winners of The Legend and is a must-have.

a-england Dragon
20/02/12

Dragon is definitely a strong contender for my favourite of the collection. It’s a bold, unusual green with a fantastic gold duochrome running through it. The holo is less obvious than in Princess Tears, but for me, the finish makes up for that. Despite using a glossy top coat, Dragon dries somewhat matte and I genuinely have no idea how that happened. I’m not complaining; it looks absolutely incredible. The only other varnish in The Legend that has a similar finish is Saint George, though I think Dragon wins out just by being so different from anything else I own.

Another two-coater with an excellent formula. It was neither too thick nor too thin, and I feel as if it applied the best of all the collection, despite the fact that the formula didn’t differ much across it. In fact, I think I just talked myself into calling Dragon my favourite.

a-england Princess Tears
19/02/12

It’s not exactly subjective, but I think Princess Tears is the prettiest varnish in this collection (not to say that it’s my favourite; just the prettiest). The holo is absolutely out of this world. The pale grey-lilac base provides the perfect background to really make it pop and I’m not ashamed to admit that I spent most of the time wearing it moving my hands back and forth to watch the colours change. Even with a single coat as I began painting my nails, it was breathtaking.

It’s slightly duochrome as well, shifting to a different purple in some lights. That was quite difficult to capture on the nail in pictures, so you’ll have to pick up a bottle to try it out for yourselves.

a-england’s formula seems to be spot-on for most of this collection. It’s so easy to apply, extremely smooth and glossy (though the swatches are pictured with top coat), and has the perfect drying time. I used two thin coats here, which gave me flawless coverage.