I have the second half of Moonflower Polish's La Isla de Encanto Summer 2017 Collection to show you today! If you missed it, I reviewed the other four polishes in this collection here. These are all shimmer, duochrome polishes that are made for stamping, but also can be used as regular polishes. They are inspired by Nadia's home island of Puerto Rico - let's get started on this part of the tour!
First of all, I will discuss the formula, since all performed the same.
For wear as normal polish: These are stamping polishes, so they are much thicker and more opaque than regular polishes, though they work for conventional manis. Nadia mentioned it is possible to use a polish thinner on them if desired, but I did not find that necessary. As regular polishes, they were all solid one-coaters. They self level, which is fantastic for such an opaque formula, and dry to a satiny finish that I chose to top coat. I recommend wrapping the tips to make sure you get full coverage, but there is no shrinkage. They also wore like iron on me, unlike most super-opaque polishes. After some hard use of my hands these polishes held up with zero chips or tip wear, which is unusual for me.
For wear as stamping polishes: As for stamping, since they are so opaque, they work nicely over both light and dark shades. As you will see in my examples below, they are pigmented enough to not be altered even by strongly contrasting shades. Shimmers can be more challenging to pick up than cremes, and I did have to be careful to use good technique to get perfect images - occasionally I would have to redo a pickup, but it was mostly when I was sloppy or did something wrong (I am a medium-skilled stamper). I used them all with the Moyou London Crystal Clear Stamper and found they worked best with a very quick roll. Crystal stampers more generally are less forgiving, and these polishes were up to the test. I found the one plate that was more challenging to use with them was a very shallowly etched Born Pretty Store Plate with small patterns, but I was still able to get the polish to work even under these challenging conditions.
With those notes out of the way, let's get on to the polishes! Below I will include Nadia's description of the polishes and the inspiration, since I already gave my thoughts about formula.
Flor de Maga - (Maga Flower) - red metallic with gold/purple/pink
color shifting shimmer and rose gold micro flakes . Known as the
Puerto Rican Hibiscus, it is our national flower and not a hibiscus
at all. It’s actually a completely different species.
I used Moonflower Polish Flor de Maga (Maga Flower) to stamp over Huracán using the Moyou London Suki 04 plate. I love how bold and graphic this turned out. It had no problem showing beautifully over a dark gray.
Huracán - (Hurricane) - gray metallic (not quite silver) with red/green/blue/purple color shifting
shimmer and dark violet micro flakes. Hurricanes are a basic fact of life in the Caribbean. It will always be a matter of when, never if. The word for hurricane comes from the Taino word
Hurakán which was the name for the storm god. I don’t have a picture for this one, but the
specific colors for this polish, the dark gray with purple and a slight greenish tone comes from
an experience I had in 1998 during Hurricane Georges, which was one of the worst storms to strike the island. The storm as so massive, that it had a well defined eye a few miles across. It
passed over my hometown during the day, and it was so obvious that we actually went outside
for a few minutes. The winds completely died down and the sun shone through, and when we
looked to the east we saw a massive wall of clouds, dark gray and ominous, with lightning
flashes in green. Then the wind started to pick up and we hurried back inside. I'll never forget it.
Here is Moonflower Polish Huracán stamped over Mar Caribe (Caribbean Sea) using the Moyou London Suki 12 plate. I love how powerful and shifty Huracán is! It will always be a great stamping polish for clouds and the sky.
Mar Caribe (Caribbean Sea) - metallic aqua
with green-purple color shifting shimmer and
gold-green-blue micro flakes. The Caribbean
Sea borders PR to the south. The southern
beaches tend to have white sands and
sparkling aqua water, different from the
beaches to the north that face the Atlantic. Forthis color I was inspired specifically by a small beach that’s found right at the entrance of the Dry
Forest in the town of Guanica on the southwest shore of the island. I don’t know what the official
name for the beach is, but it has some of the clearest and warmest water I’ve ever seen.
I used Moonflower Polish Mar Caribe (Caribbean Sea) to stamp over Orquideas (Orchids) using the Moyou London Suki 04 plate. It's a great water shade!
Orquideas (Orchids) - metallic violet with
indigo/purple/red shimmer and purple-blue micro
flakes. Orchids are super common in PR, some are
native and others have been brought over from
places like Hawaii. This colors was specifically
inspired by the orchids my mom and grandma both
have growing in their terraces or porch as they call
them here in FL. But Orchids In My Mom And Grandmother's Porch is kinda a crazy long name.
Even in Spanish...Orquideas en las terrazas de
mami y abuela... so I shortened it to simple Orquideas.
I stamped Moonflower Polish Orquideas (Orchids) over Flor de Maga (Maga Flower) using the Girly Bits GBC 1-01 plate. It had an image that looked a bit like the Flor de Maga! I decided to use a matte top coat on this one.
That wraps up our guided tour of Puerto Rico by Nadia! I love how much of her own life and experiences she brings into her collections - I am always sure to learn something new and a touch of Spanish language, to boot. I found myself looking at tons more images of Puerto Rico and fantasizing about a visit. It is so amazing to me that such a beautiful, historic island is part of our country. This collection has four more polishes that I reviewed earlier. If you missed it, I reviewed the other four polishes in this collection here. Do you have one of these you like best? Have you ever been to Puerto Rico? I also have a discount code for you - use HIPPY10 for 10% off!
Moonflower Polish is a stamping-polish-focused line made by blogger Nadia in Florida.
Lantern & Wren, retailer: https://www.lanternandwren.com/
Social media:
Facebook group, Painted Moonflowers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/260038131088771/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moonflowerpolish/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/moonflowerplsh/
No comments:
Post a Comment