My friend who's the creative force behind
Lilacquer Polishes surprised me with a full set of minis of her new Science collection, eight duochrome glitter topcoats with science-themed names. She's releasing one every other week; the first two are out now, with the third coming this Friday. She said it was okay to share them all now, so that's what I'm doing. Here are the bottles, front and back.
I started with Schrodinger's Catastrophe, which I layered over OPI Funky Dunkey. This has medium and small glitter and fine shimmer, all of which shift colors, mostly in the blue to green range. This one is available now at Lilacquer's etsy store.
The swatch above is without topcoat; these glitters lay pretty flat. I did add a few drops of thinner to all my bottles. I don't consider this a problem or imposition; having thinner on hand is just part of being a lacquer lover, like having seasonings on hand is part of being a foodie. For the rest of these swatches, I did add a layer of topcoat (except where noted, but that's much later).
I was intrigued to see the pink and yellow showing in the bottle; these are very interesting glitters indeed, and I can see myself doing lots of experimenting with them over different base colors. These are also fun to look at in different lights at different angles; below you can see the hexes all went blue/blurple when I tipped my fingers this way.
I decided to try Antimatter of Opinion (available now) over a gold foil, Milani My Network. I don't wear a lot of gold, but I love this combination. The shimmer in Antimatter did get lost against the foil, true, but the colors in the glitter looked so good I didn't mind. They mostly showed lime and gold, but also a soft orange and even deep pink or teal depending on the light and angle.
It's been way too long since I had Essie Bikini So Teeny on my nails, so that's what I used as a base for Blueberry Pi (release date: August 31). The surprise here was how much spring green the glitter showed; I could also see aqua and blue and even pink.
In low light, it got even more colorful:
A Quantum Entanglement (release date: September 14th) is the only one of the group with bar glitter, which is a nice bit of variation. I tried this over a coral creme, Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine Candy Apple Twist. The shimmer sparked orange and gold, bars were gold or rainbow depending on the light, and the little hexes were mysterious—I couldn't figure out if they were silver or purple or blue or what.
Orly Wandering Vine was my base for Gluon Nails (available September 28). I think this is what autumn would look like if leaves were made of glitter—so pretty! The shimmer mostly stayed in the orange to red range, providing a backdrop for the glitter, which put on a show of green and gold and orange with accents of blue.
Bohr-ing (available October 12th) came next, layered over Orly Shockwave. This was a carnival of color; the shimmer shifts from red orange to green and the glitter is a party with red and green and blue and yellow.
Low light shot:
I put Walk the Planck (available October 26) over Nicole by OPI Give Me the 1st Dance. As with the gold above, the foil overwhelmed the shimmer in the Lilacquer, but it brought out some interesting colors in the glitter: perwinkle and aqua and pink and acid yellow.
Here's a bonus of Walk the Planck over Essie Blue Rhapsody. I didn't let the Essie dry long enough before I started in with the Lilacquer, which made a mess, which I tried to fix with topcoat, which bubbled, so I decided it was not meant to be and started over with the silver base, which as you saw worked much better.
The God Particle (available November 9th) completes the set; I layered it over Orly After Party. The blue and pink shimmer you see is coming from the Orly; the autumnal blingy goodness is coming from the Lilacquer.
Because I just couldn't resist playing with these some more, I did Skittles, first over Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White (a creme) and then over Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Sequin Scandal (a shimmer).
Left to right in two photos below: Schrodinger's Catastrophe, Antimatter of Opinion, Blueberry Pi, A Quantum Entanglement.
Change the angle and color shifting happens—the pink and yellow in Schrodinger's Catastrophe turn periwinkle and aqua, for instance.
I swear these are the same four polishes layered on top in both pictures, though I know it doesn't look like it. These are some crazy wonderful glitters for sure.
Here are the other four, over the same two bases. Left to right: Gluon Nails, Bohr-ing, Walk the Planck, and The God Particle.
To see even more variations from these interesting Lilacquer Polishes, go look at Cilucia's swatches on
Spazz & Squee. She used some different base colors than I did, including black, and has some great closeups.
The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.
