Picture Polish Calm

Calm was released sometime around the end of July/beginning of August 2015 by Australian boutique polish maker Picture Polish (PP) as one of their Collaboration shades, an ongoing series of polishes designed collaboratively with bloggers and instagrammers selected from the global polish and nail art community. This one was designed with Russian blogger Masha of Rafi Nails, who describes it as a blue-green jelly polish with holographic flakes. In the bottle, the color is a medium-dark cerulean that lightens and brightens on the nail to a medium Bondi blue, a lucid, aquatic blue-green named for the color of the waters at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. Swimming within are superabundant tiny holographic flakes, giving it PP's signature scattered holo finish. The flakes emit glints of pale gold, sea green and spring green in ambient light, and produce a beautiful dimensional bloom of pale greenish gold sparkle spangled by bright prismatic sparks in more direct light. 

Application was a pleasure. The consistency of Calm is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and a silky, self-leveling slip over the nail. Pigmentation is sheer, building gradually to opaque coverage in three coats. The flakes contribute to the coverage, and a light touch when applying will help to avoid areas of sheerness (you may notice in my photos a couple of areas where I pushed a little too hard), as will careful tip-wrapping. Cleanup is easy. Calm dries naturally in very good time to a smooth, shiny finish. As with other PP scattered holos, I find that topcoat accentuates rather than inhibits the holographic properties. 

Photos show three coats of Calm over KBShimmer Love You Strong Time treatment and KBShimmer Fillin' Groovy basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Picture Polish Calm

Picture Polish Calm

Picture Polish Calm

Picture Polish Calm

Picture Polish Calm

Picture Polish Calm

Picture Polish Calm

Picture Polish Calm

Picture Polish Calm

Picture Polish Calm

Masha notes in her post about Calm that it may lean more to blue or more to green depending upon the kind of light in which it it is viewed. For the record, we have grey, rainy skies here in Chapel Hill today.

I've had this polish in my swatching chute for the better part of a year and just kept passing it over because despite my love for cerulean it just didn't excite me in the bottle. Silly swatcher! Now that I am loving it on my nails, I feel somewhat chagrined by the carelessness of my disinterest and more than a little humbled by its beauty. The experience has the effect of drawing aspects that I love about nail polish and nail painting -- adornment, creativity, beauty, color, visual delight, contemplation, artisanship, community, enthusiasm -- into clearer focus. I love it when that happens!

Thank you, gracious people, for sharing your time with me!

love,
Liz