My picks for Spring 2014: Elevation Polish Cuernos del Paine and Plumeria

With spring being unleashed, leaves popping bright green and bushes blooming at full force it is about time to give an insight into my nailpolish buys for spring. Well, it is not a very wide spread brand-wise - I found the big brands were not really hitting it off from my view point but there were three brands out there who did lovely pastels and soft colors. The first being one of my favorite Indie Brands Elevation Polish - Cuernos del Paine from the Patagonia Collection released in February 2014.

Cuernos del Paine is described as greeny mint cream on Elevation Polish's Bigcartel site. Oddly the first two pictures look way more pulsating than my nails looked IRL - but maybe it is a screen thing and it will look subtler on yours. But then Cuernos del Paine does have a vibrant note that clearly pushes it out of plain pastel land and is reminiscent of that incredible fresh green of new leaves when they just start peaking out of the branches.

Elevation Polish Cuernos des Paine has one of the most awesome formulas I encountered with a light shade. It is reach, creamy, highly pigmented, selfleveling, quick drying, very shiny - what else would you expect from ANY polish? If you don't have ridged nails or aren't obsessed with slapping on two coats no matter what like me, then you will find Cuernos des Paine totally opaque in one coat if you apply a medium thick coat. Which I would recommend anyhow as the creaminess could possibly result in streakiness if applied too thinly.

Elevation Polish Plumeria is a clear based glitter filled with small and mid-sized round glitter in as many colors as you see on my nails below. There are also lots of iridescent particles floating in the base.

Application wise I found Plumeria not all that easy. Somehow, there is so much polish traveling on the brush, that I had a load of it on my nails though no glitter. I remembered a suggestion I read on a Blog (sorry, cannot remember where), to pile some of the glitter on a sheet of paper and either dip the brush in there or - as I did for my mani - pick the glitter with an orange wood stick and place it on the nail. Given the size of the glitter I found this the easiest way to prevent glitter clusters which would result in some visible bumps on the surface of the nail. Dry time was fast and I was done with one coat of Glisten&Glow HK Girl.

Final thoughts: Elevation Polish Cuernos del Paine deserves a full line of exclamation marks for its soft yet vibrant light green and its immaculate formula. Plumeria is such a happy and joyful glitter that looks good on really any light color. I am sure, it looks fun too over a black or navy cream.

I order my Elevation Polishes with their own Bigcartel site here.

Thank you for visiting and your thoughts and comments make me happy!!!

Christine