Two Forty-five AM is an example of what I think of as Nikole's "mini flotsam" type of polish, a creme/jelly hybrid laced with various tiny components. She describes the base color for this one as a lavender with grey and periwinkle tones. This isn't a wimpy lavender, it has a more robust character that gives the color a little push. It's like a tropical indigo with slatey-blue overtones, the sort of color you see in the clouds when it's getting ready to storm. Mixed into this color is a plethora of diminutive glitters and flakies in a variety of colors -- tiny square and hex glitters in white, shiny blue and green ultrachrome flakies and orangey copper flakies -- creating a lovely speckled pastiche on the nail. This seemingly random miscellany invites closer scrutiny and adds visual texture in a particularly graceful way. It's a charmer!
Application was dreamy. The consistency of Two Forty-five AM is fluid, light and creamy-smooth, with an easy, self-leveling glide over the nail. It has a perfectly balanced viscosity for painting, with no interference at all from the copious glitters and flakies. As a creme/jelly hybrid, there's a degree of translucence to the formula but it builds quickly to wearable opacity in two medium coats. I added a third for the photos, but I actually prefer it at two coats where lingering sheerness gives it a delicate, diaphanous quality. This polish went on so nicely that I barely had any cleanup to do, but as with all component-laden polishes I suggest doing your cleanup as you go along while the polish is still wet and the glitters and whatnot haven't had a chance to adhere firmly to skin, nail or cuticle. Two Forty-five AM dries naturally in very good time to a surprisingly smooth, shiny finish with almost no discernible texture from the components.
Photos show three coats of Two Forty-five AM over Pretty Serious Rock On nail strengthening treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base ridge-filling basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. It's overcast and raining here today so the blue-grey overtones are strong, and I imagine that you would see more of the lavender in the sun.
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
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| Hare Polish Two Forty-five AM |
Nikole's mini flotsam polishes tend to have a random, organic feel, but I've often found them to possess distinct structures in terms of color. Two Forty-five AM is a particularly good example of this. On a color wheel, the complementary color for purple (base color) is green (green ultrachrome flakies). Triadic complementary colors are orange (copper flakies) and blue-green (blue ultrachrome flakies). The tiny white square and hex glitters are a what I call a creator's conceit, or signature touch. Nikole often includes tiny squares like these white ones in her component mixes. In this polish, they sort of pull all of the other components together with a delicacy that keeps the focus on the many small pieces of this puzzle.
I absolutely love this color, even if my photos don't show as much of the lavender as you see in person. It has a wonderful synchronicity with the overcast sky right about now, and possesses a pleasantly insouciant feel on the nail, a sort of imperturbable, relaxed serenity that makes it quite gratifying to wear.
I think I'll keep this one on for a few days.
love,
Liz
Okay, so when I woke up this morning, THIS greeted me on my FB feed. I have to say that this is pretty special. I sort of have a hard time defining something as special, given the proliferation of polishes out there. I tend these days to stay away from polishes with all the "junk" in them, simply because I loathe the removal process. But that GREEN...it really makes the polish in a crazy-lovely way. How was the removal?
ReplyDeleteActually, I can see you wearing this, Melissa. It's much more lavender in person than my photos make out to be, and very creamy. The little speckles are quite subtle unless you look closely. I've worn it for three days, just took it off this morning, and wasn't tired of it yet. It's another one of those "casual" type polishes that are just really nice to hang out with.
DeleteRemoval was only slightly more scrubby than a creme, about equal to a chuncky shimmer or flakie polish. The little white glitters are the sticky ones, but the extra effort only amounts to about 15-30 seconds more per nail. No tin foil needed. Now that I think about it, most of Hare's mini flotsam type polishes are like that.