Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Damn Fine Coffee was released by indie polish maker Hare Polish as part of the Welcome to Twin Peaks collection for winter 2013. This polish has a dark murky brown jelly base swimming with iridescent golden hex glitters in two sizes and abundant small irregularly-shaped red and gold flakies. The base color is a raw umber kind of brown with a drop of grey in it, almost like a very deep dark taupe. It's definitely much more of a coffee color than the usual chocolatey browns we see in nail polish, with enough translucence to it that all of the components show themselves from within the layers. The iridescent golden hexes have a gold/copper shift to them and the red flakies are an especially cool touch. 

Application was primo. For a jelly glitter, Damn Fine Coffee has one of the nicest formulas I've ever come across: fluid and smooth with excellent glitter payoff and an even, self-leveling flow over the nail. Pigmentation builds easily to opacity in two medium coats, possibly three if you use thinner coats that I did. In my glee over the formula I loaded my brush a bit too generously, which resulted in some glitter tumbling and protrusions over the free edge, but a more restrained approach should not have these issues. Cleanup was easy except for those little red flakies, which were absolutely tenacious. After many passes with the cleanup brush, I finally just let them be. Damn Fine Coffee dries naturally in good time to a surprisingly smooth, shiny finish. 

Photos show two coats of Damn Fine Coffee over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat. Thanks to my overenthusiastic application I had a few glitter stickups, so I applied a smoothing coat of Essie First Base before a topcoat of HK Girl. 

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

Hare Polish Damn Fine Coffee

This polish is a tribute to the character of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper from the American television serial drama Twin Peaks (1990-91), known for his eccentric crime solving proclivities, quirky mannerisms and a predilection for cherry pie and black coffee from the Double R Diner.

Agent Cooper, played by Kyle Maclachlan, enjoys a damn fine cup of coffee (source)

The choice of Dale Cooper as a polish inspiration is itself inspired. As Rachel from Stuff I Swatched said in her review of this polish: "...THIS NAME! Much like Coop, it's just TOO PERFECT!" So true. Merging a seminal character with his seminal brew and turning it into such an interesting polish with Hare's hallmark glitter melange is just too cool. This may not be the prettiest (The Knockouts of the Double R, perhaps) or most unusual (Flesh World, hello) polish from the Welcome to Twin Peaks collection, but it's the one I appreciate the most.

love,
Liz