Pahlish La Belle Endormie

La Belle Endormie was recently released by indie polish maker Pahlish. It is described by Shannon, the owner and creative force behind Pahlish, as a "vibrant red-toned purple jelly packed with bright gold metallic shimmer," and that it is. But like many of Shannon's shimmer polishes, which is my favorite genre from her, La Belle Endormie is more than the sum of its parts. It has a very dark red-violet jelly base through which the metallic gold shimmers read as gold, crimson, burgundy, violet, magenta and pink when you examine it closely. From afar this polish is a vampy enigma, deep and rich in an indeterminant color that hovers around burgundy. It has a glow to it that is unusual for such a dark shade, perhaps springing from a combination of the natural light-capturing translucence of the jelly formula and the reflective capacity of the shardy golden shimmers, which are relatively large in size.

Application was très bon! The consistency of La Belle Endormie (French for "sleeping beauty") is fluid and light, with none of the stickiness that sometimes accompanies jellies. It goes on smoothly and stays where you put it, self-leveling as it does so. For me, it was easiest to apply this polish in medium coats, but thinner ones will bring out more of the purple in the color. Pigmentation is really great for a jelly, with even opaque coverage in only two coats. 

This is a user-friendly polish that is amenable to repairs, should you need to do them as I did. I made the mistake of succumbing to the charms of the cat before I began painting, picking him up for a cuddle. As a consequence, numerous downy, almost invisible hairs clung to my fingers and nails and inserted themselves into my polish, requiring tweezers and a great deal of patience to remove. When will I learn? The bumps, divots and hair tracks I accumulated in the process of extracting cat hairs were surprisingly easy to repair with small dots and patches of additional polish, which melted into the background and became invisible with topcoat. Other cleanup was without issues beyond a few stubborn shimmery bits that resisted my efforts to sweep them away. La Belle Endormie dries naturally in good time to a smooth shiny finish.

Photos show two medium coats of La Belle Endormie over treatment and basecoat with a bubble-free topcoat of Seche Vite. Huzzah!

Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Pahlish La Belle Endormie

Although La Belle Endormie is a relatively simple shimmer polish by Shannon's standards, the combination of the bright metallic gold of the shimmers and the incredible deep and saturated red-violet of the jelly base works together magically to turn it into something really special on the nail. I'm betting my sister Kate and my cousin Christie will find this one quite fetching. How about it you guys?

love,
Liz