Essie Mercury in Retrograde Duo

I felt bad that I'd never swatched the orginal Essie Mercury in Retrograde duo that came out in 2018, so I finally remedied that. (I swatched one of the 2019 duos in 2019 and the other in July of this year.) This duo is all about blue shimmer with a purple shift: Keep Calm ... (lighter), And Mercury On (darker).

 

Keep Calm is on the sheer side; I swatched four coats and still saw some nail line peeking through at times. I'll use a skintone base next time, and also use topcoat, as looking at these photos, I think it could use some. It is very delicate and pretty, and the shift shows even without a dark base.

 

 

 

I of course did try it over different bases. Left to right below: Keep Calm alone, over Essie Butler Please (medium blue), over SinfulColors Into the Blue (dark blue), over Orly Plum Sugar (dark purple). The shift shows in all cases; definitely pops more the darker the base. There was not that big a difference between a dark blue base and a dark purple base; the shimmer dominated enough that both of those looked very similar to each other.

 

 

And Mercury On is more opaque than Keep Calm. My swatch is three coats, though two might have worked fine as well. I did add clear topcoat to this one.

 

 

 

These are both nice polishes. I think Keep Calm will be nice for winter manicures; has that whole Elsa ice princess vibe going on.