Elevation Polish Journey Through Music Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Happy New Year lacqueristas,

Welcome back!  I have a lot of exciting posts coming up but today I'm the most excited to share the newest collection from Elevation Polish which will be releasing this January.  I know some of you are wondering where the hell have your EP posts gone Tamira?  In fact they haven't gone anywhere I have the October and November collections up on Instagram which I will be importing over here along with some nail art.  It was just easier while I was traveling like mad.  December's collection I don't have because of mail snafu.  So hopefully that explains where things have been.  Now today I am so freaking giddy because Lulu really decided to take 2015 by storm!  There is so much holo, blue, blue (yes I repeated it twice), shimmer, and duochrome happening here I nearly died of nailgasm.  But let me stop hyping and just show you the goods ;)  Let me just warn in advance this post will be pic heavy! Also if you haven't already go over and read Lulu's blog post about the inspirational songs behind this collection - read it here.

Walk A Little Farther

A Modest Mouse inspired pale blue with darker blue shimmer that is highly reminiscent of Aphubel. Not only did I love and obsess over Aphubel endlessly, but as I recall I got every single version including the one from Kicking It Old School.  So obviously I love this color!  This one was smooth applying for me and required about 2 coats for the opacity I got here.  You may be able to get away with one thick coat if you are careful.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Accent polishes: Elevation Polish Arabian Sea II, Weddell Sea, Mount Ogden (SPB), and Stay Behind, Catch A Wave, Lynnderella Shapeshifter

Stamping Polish: Mundo de Unas 37, 3,and 30

Accentst: 2mm clear rhinestones

Damn that looks good on me lol! See that shimmer ack it's LOVE!  Obviously feeling myself a little too much here ;)  So basically I morphed this polish.  I decided yes - winter, fresh starts, and snow. So I took several colors from my Elev-a-stash that were in this color family and using the saran wrap method got busy creating a winter wonderland.  The overtones of green are definitely coming from SBCAW.

Yeti Hugs Feel So Close

Oh another Yeti limited edition!  The Yeti's have a special place in my heart.  I own most of them except a few exclusive contest related colors and the ones that were made for CosmoProf.  Yeti Hugs Feel So Close is beautiful! Its a soft soft soft whitish grey crelly and inside are these lovely pinkish, blue and I think maybe a little purple colored shimmers.  You cannot see them as well as you should in  the photographs, but they are magical!  I had a tiny bit of trouble with this one tending to drag out so when applying a bit of patience is needed in between layers for a smooth finish.  Two coats here for opacity.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat / Essie Matte About You

Accent colors:  Elevation Polish Kilauea, Mount McKinley, Mount Ventoux, Sarychev, Torres del paine, Pa'ako, Wagagai, and Cuernos del Paine

Stamping plate: Fab Ur Nails FUN14

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas Navy (3)

So I kinda went bonkers when I created the nail art for this one.  I can't even tell you what I was thinking just that I needed COLOR! A lot of it.  Oh wait I vaguely remember looking at this picture. I had just finished reviewing my FUN plates and was like I need to use this floral pattern or the world might end.  I need it to be blue on blue or blue on gray and I need it to burst with life!  Ahem - you can hear the cage rattling right? I felt manic when I created this.  I loved it so so much!

I also mattified this mani with Essie's matte topcoat! Ok this is just divine.  Also this is a testament to how amazing the EP shades are.  I created this solely with my old EP polishes and the colors marry so well as I've said many times before I know Lulu must have a strong eye for her color families.

The Sea Was Red (Red Sea 2)

So this is where we get a bit pic heavy because TSWR is a shifter so bear with me! This is direct light under my Ottlight. Basically you are seeing the red emerge.  This polish is unbelievably holographic. This is one of the strongest linears I've seen so I expected the duochrome to disappear, but it didn't...

Indirect light from the Ott light causes a gold orangey color to emerge.

Totally indirect light so now it looks like holographic brown sugar and note the holo is still very strong even out of light.  Crazy! Wait let me pause and actually talk about the greatness that is TSWR. Ah the infamous Red Sea - coveted like a first born child alas as an SBP it was not to be mine.  I tried so hard for that beautiful lady.  It was tragic when the ship sailed, but for those like myself who were craving this gorgeous polish now we can get it!  Formulation on this polish with it's' reddish orange/golden brown shifting duochrome was fantastic! I like my holos thin for a couple reasons - easy application, stamping potential, and watermarbling.  The minute I saw this one I was like I have to try to marble with this!  And so I did....

Oh hello watermarble!  You should have known this was coming because of the kick I've been on lately with watermarbles.  This one is epic.  Everything shining and good is in this mani.  I was stopped so often on the street when I wore this I thought I might not make it home with my nails intact!

Mani-louge

Baecoat: Duri Rejuvacoat/ No topcoat

Basecolor: Essie Black Licorice

Watermarble: Watermarble

Essie Licorice, Elevation Polish Red Sea and Just Like Nighttime

Also because I love you I did a little tutorial as well! I'm going to separate that though into a different post because I do feel things are getting a touch overwhelming because of the number of polishes I worked with for this collection.  PS this polish does stamp as well!

Storm In The Morning Light

This is a creme greyish/blue slate color.  You know like the kind you find on really fancy kitchen floors so definitely not in mine lol.  This color is so easy in that it plays well with EVERYTHING. Neutrals like this make my heart sing.  I should say this polish is also incredibly formulated! It was almost a one coater though I did use 2 here and it was so shiney when it dried it really didn't require any kind of topcoat.  In fact all the cremes in this collection were like that.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Accent colors:  Elevation Polish Yeti Hugs Feel So Close, Mount Venoux, Gunflint (SBP)

Stamping plate: Betina 04

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas Navy (3)

Just Like Nighttime

Who's nighttime is this?  I haven't had any sparklingly beautiful nighttimes like this in a long time! Lol.  In fact the nightime goodness of this polish was so epic I felt it had to be paired up with TSWR in that watermarble! Then because this gorgeous polish deserves a second showing I  let it have its independent moment as well.  Lol if I told you in total I did 4 manicures with this polish would you think I was crazy?  I would!  I'll only show 3 for today though including the swatch ;)

The formula was again flawless on this holographic. It was thin the way I like them and it spread across the water that I marbled with like a dream.  I used 3 coats for my swatches.  Oh I forgot to mentiont this polish has some little teal/blueish colored shimmers in it that are totally overwhelmed by the holo in my photos but it's gorgeous IRL!

Mani-louge
Basecoat: FNUG Aqua Coat / No topcoat

Accent colors:  Elevation Polish Kilauea, Mount McKinley, Mount Ventoux, Sarychev, Torres del

paine, Pa'ako, Wagagai, and Cuernos del Paine

Stamping plate: Fab Ur Nails FUN14

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas Navy (3)

Accents: Daily Charme 2mm gold square studs

Um yeah that floral pattern made a reappearance because I could not bear to take it off quite so immediately but also because I knew it would play well with Nightime.

Definition: The Vivid Unknown

A crazy gorgeous creamy deep teal polish.  God I love this one.  Polishes like this make me want to just dance around.  Yeah despite appearances my favorite kind of polishes that Lulu makes are cremes.  They play well with nail art and the formulas on them are always flawless.  Vivid Unknown is absolutely no exception.  I easily got away with a single coat here!  You can see the hearts bulging out of my eyes metaphorically.  Lol come to mama ;)

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas 8, 11, 13, 20, and 24

Stamping plate: Marianne Nails MN01

All I can say during this collection I went crazy with color!  I actually also made a tutorial for this look too. Again I will post it separately since it's all I can do to get up the swatches and art simultan eously. Anyway what I came up with is really simple and simply pretty!  I also got a ton of compliments on this manicure as well when I was out and about :)  Ok let's be honest this polish looks great with my skintone!

Quarter Past Midnight

A blue to purple duochrome that goes a strangely beautiful red with golden undertones in certain light.  As with most duochromes you can wear it over a black polish or straight up.  I chose to wear it alone.  I was able to get lovely opacity in 2 coats but needed a 3rd just to even things out.  This one may be my favorite of this collection next to the above!  I was surprised because historically I've had a hard time capturing duochromes.

Good lord right?  No matter which angle you turn it you get a color blast!  Look around the edges of te water droplets!  Isn't it amazing!  I turned this polish into something insane.   I don't know what was going on with me when I created nail art for this collection but it was literally all over the place lol!

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Accent polishes: Elevation Polish Pa'ako, Sunset Amongst The Palms, Mount Ventoux, Grotte Et Cascade, Unknown (sticker fell off), Mount McKinley

Sparkles: CND Northern Lights in Gold

Stamping polish: Essie Jingle Jingle

Stamping plate: Sugar Bubbles SBS09 and Pet'la Wishes 2

Oh yeah here's some indirect light on this duochrome.  Totally vampy right?

So my galaxy or yours?  Let's go with ours!  Anyway Lulu really started off the year in a mega fabulous way!  I am so in love with this collection I have several polishes that I'm getting back ups of. Essentially most of this collection lol backup collection!  I have done it before ;)  These polishes will be available on January 7th at 10PM EST and January 22nd at 10AM EST on Big Cartel.  Please keep in mind that the Yeti is a limited edition and so it will only be available for a the month of January only so get it while it's hot!  I hope everyone enjoyed my swatches and creations for this collection! And happy hunting...I'll see you next post