Hare Polish Golden Years over Impala Azul Pavao

 

as if!

Don't we all need someone like this in our lives? Heck yeah. 

Today's nail mail was a beautiful red creme I ordered from Elevation Polish, an indie in Colorado. The creator of Elevation Polish loves traveling, mountain climbing, ice climbing and nail polish. All her polishes are inspired by mountains she's climbed or places she's been. The red polish I ordered is called Ave Secretan. It's named after a street in Paris that borders her favorite Parisian park.

Getting a red polish is a big deal for me. Before this one came, I only had two reds in my whole stash. What do you think of red nail polish? Very dramatic. Maybe I'll bring the new red with me and swatch it for the first time when I come up for your birthday.

I bet I know what you're thinking right now... that you'll be getting nail polish as your birthday present! Hmmm. Think so? ⍢

On to today's polish. It is a total jawdropper called Golden Years by Hare Polish in Los Angeles, CA. The creator of Hare is Nikole, and I think she is a genius polish formulator. I love every Hare polish I've tried. Some of them leave me speechless. I go around for days thinking about how to possibly described them in words. Words are so two-dimensional. Well they are!

Nikole describes Golden Years: “a semi-sheer navy blue jelly packed full of gold glitter in squares and hexes in all kinds of sizes, mysterious iridescent blue glitter, navy blue hexes and delicate gold flecks.” Which is true, of course. But the polish itself, once it's on your nails... well all I can say is that it is much more than that.

Selecting "underwear" for Golden Years: since it has a navy blue translucent base, I pulled out a navy blue creme. The golden glitter is enveloped and layered in the navy blue, and yellow plus blue equals.... anyone? anyone? Green, that's right! So I also pulled out a dark medium blue with lime green shimmer. Finally I grabbed my trusty ocean-blue-colored jelly Impala Azul Pavao (used this one underneath Deborah Lippmann Across The Universe, 'member?).

To test them out, I swatched on a polish wheel.

Wheel swatches, left to right: Hare Golden Years 2 coats alone,  Hare Golden Years 2 coats over Impala Azul Pavao, Hare Golden Years 2 coats over NYC Empire State Blue, Hare Golden Years 2 coats over Mabelline Color Show Sapphire Siren

wheel swatches and polishes, a little closer so you can see the differences between them

It's much easier to see nuances of color in person than it is in a photo. Why do you think that is? I think it is because your eyes depend on light to see color. And in person, every time you change your viewing angle your eyes can see a slighty different version of the color. In a photo, there is only one viewing angle and one version. 

Of the underwear polishes I tried, I thought that the Impala Azul Pavao combo turned out closest to what the polish looks like when swatched by itself. So that's the one I picked and that's why I picked it. I took a lot of pictures to try a give as much of a sense of how stunning Golden Years is as I could.

Hare Polish Golden Years and Impala Azul Pavao

Hare Golden Years bottle shot -- see what I mean about how gold and blue make green?

Hare Golden Years over Impala Azul Pavao

Hare Golden Years over Impala Azul Pavao

wonderful, no?

Hare Golden Years over Impala Azul Pavao

Hare Golden Years over Impala Azul Pavao -- it might not look like it, but all that glitter dried to a silky smooth finish... oh yeah, my apologies for the skankity bits of dried skin and cuticle decrepitude -- I overdid it yesterday ⍨

at the window

Hare Golden Years

Hare Golden Years out the house y'all -- even though it was cloudy here AGAIN☔ those glitters in Golden Years still sparkle like all get out

EXTREME CLOSE UP WHOA -- and again, apologies for culticle flakiness... I wouldn't subject your tender eyes  to such a frightful sight if this polish wasn't so fan-FREAKING-tastic... I mean, look at all those glitters swimming in the blue jelly, look! *squeal*

Hare Golden Years over Impala Azul Pavao, waving bye bye -- please to ignore the knuckle boo boo on my ring finger... cut myself shaving ⍤

Eleanor, do you love it? TDF²! 

The way the colors play up when light reflects and refracts off the shiny glitters through the blue jelly base of this polish remind me of dark water rushing over mica and sparkly pebbles, or over wavy green reeds. Deeply cool. In the pool! I feel like a naiad wearing this. Poseidon's daughter. Woof.

At night the glitter is all watery sparkly too. *admires fingernails in the lamplight* Woof!

Nail polish is so awesome.

love,
Aunt Liz