Swatch request: For Purple Rain. :)

Hello!

When I posted my stash & swatch list, I told everyone to let me know if there were any polishes you'd like to see swatched. Purple Rain asked to see Finger Paints Asylum, which gave me the perfect excuse to pull this out and play with it.

Side note: This is a discontinued polish, but...during the Sally Beauty Red Tag Clearance sale before this last one, I found this in the sale bin and got it for something like $1.50. It must have been shoved into some corner somewhere and then discovered--don't know don't care, just love that I own it. Another reason to check out these sales!

Aaaannd, back to our regularly-scheduled polish swatch. I wanted to test the range of Asylum, which is a flakie topper, so I swatched it over 4 different polishes:

From left to right we have:
1) Julep Angela (this may be a dupe for Sally Hansen Black And Blue; I'll check this out further)
2) Julep Faye
3) Julep Tracy
4) Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris

Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris is a standard black creme, while Julep Angela is a blackened-teal blue; these should show Asylum to best advantage with a bold contrast. Julep Faye is a lighter polish, but still has a bit of color, so I was interested to see how Asylum would show up on this (or if it would at all). Finally, Julep Tracy is a sand texture polish, 'cause I wanted to see how a flakie would look over that sort of finish. All polishes are covered with Seche Vite except for Tracy.

Here they all are with one generous coat of Finger Paints Asylum:

Ebony Hates Chris shows Asylum in all its blue-and-orange flakie glory. The colors are so bold and pretty; this is why I love flakies!

Over Angela (index finger), the effect is a little different, because of the tealier base; the blue flakes still stand out, though, and the orange flakes give a flash of warm color.

Over Faye (middle finger), the polish is harder to see, but it did show up better than I thought, and goes nicely with the carmel neutral base. This is much more subtle, the sort of manicure that I think you could wear to work, but that still has enough flash to keep you feeling special and pretty throughout your day. :)

Finally, Tracy was the biggest surprise to me, I love how Asylum looks over this polish! It shows up in the pictures, but the effect came through much better in real life. As the light plays off of the textured surface, it glints and glimmers off of the flakies, but not in an overpowering way. Tracy is already a really pretty polish, but this was flakie icing on the textured cake. I can't wait to play more with flakies over textured polishes from now on. :)

In terms of formula, this isn't a hit-you-over-the-head flakie, meaning if you put on a thin coat, you're only going to get a few flakies; it's not like some other flakies out there that will completely cover the surface of your base with flakies in one stroke. You could easily get fewer flakies than I have here with a normal thin coat of this. Accordingly, the polish is thin, not the thicker sort of formula you get with Revlon Moon Candy, for example. It applies quickly and easily, and dries fast--I don't have any topcoat over it in these pictures.

I'm a flakie fanatic, so it's not surprising I'm very pleased with this. What do you think? And thanks out to Purple Rain for requesting this! It's such a help to know what it is you guys would like to see--please keep the requests coming. I'm happy to swatch whatever, so I'd rather have it be something I know someone specifically wants to see, if I can. :)

Hugs and flakies!
M.