Great Lakes Lacquer The Deadlights

Last year when I was barely getting out of the house, I spent a lot of my nail polish budget on indies, and a lot of that on collab boxes and things like Polish Pickup and Hella Handmade Creations. Many of those polishes are still languishing in my "to be swatched" boxes but now and then I pull one out to try, like today's beauty from Great Lakes Lacquer: The Deadlights, from the September 2020 PPU. It's an orange jelly base packed with shifty pink/orange/gold flakies.

 

The Deadlights looks great at two coats. I didn't even have to add topcoat to bring out the flakies.

 

 

 

I tried adding more flakes plus some shimmer in the form of Great Lakes Lacquer Glass On, a topper I swatched last fall. I left The Deadlights alone on my index finger and added one coat of Glass On plus clear topcoat on my other digits. I don't think the pink/purple shifty shimmer in Glass On is the best companion for the orange of The Deadlights, plus it seems to obscure the flakes in The Deadlights. The combination does make an interesting glowing shade of pink in some lights, though.

 

I did like the shifts visible when I moved my fingers around, with some of the green popping off the flakies.

 

To wrap up my play with The Deadlights, instead of using a topper on it, I used it as a topper, over these three cremes: Sally Hansen Insta Dri Pump-kid (orange), Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Kook-a-mango (red orange), and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Out for Oxblood (maroon).

 

Starting with my index finger at the top, it's Deadlights alone, then over Pump-kid, over Kook-a-mango, and over Out for Oxblood.

 

Another view; I can say it works quite well as a topper:

 

My favorite combination was The Deadlights over Out for Oxblood. I mean, just look at it—such depth and contrast. I am going to have to remember this come autumn, because it would be perfect for that season.

 

Now that I'm getting out in the world more and buying polish in stores again, I've eased back on my indie buying, but swatching polishes like The Deadlights has me wondering what I've missed in the months I've been ignoring PPU and HHC, distracted by the novelty of being able to pick up polishes and study them in person before buying. Probably best I don't know. I have plenty of unswatched pretties to keep me occupied for quite a while.