Elysian Nail Lacquer - Midsummer Night's Dream collection (swatches and review)

Elysian (adj): ih-lee-zhuh n

1. creative or beautiful   2. peaceful

I love the meaning behind Elysian Nail Lacquer's name. A great polish definitely has the ability to make you feel beautiful and, for me, doing my nails really is very peaceful. 

So, I was really excited when Lauren chose me to review her new indie brand of polishes. As I opened my package and unwrapped each polish, a beautiful rainbow of color appeared on my kitchen table.

Midsummer Night's Dream 

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In true rainbow fashion, first up is Pretty Soul. This is a beautiful coral, with hot pink tones and a touch of golden shimmer. In some lights this also has a more red tint to it (as seen in most of my pics). A crelly, leaning jelly formula, that builds in opaqueness with each coat. In my photos I did 3 coats + topcoat. The whites of my nails are pretty bright, so it took that extra coat to really cover my smile lines. In real life, they still show through quite a bit, but I don't really mind it. Application was smooth (I didn't have to do any cleanup).

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Next is Queen of the Amazons; a gorgeous orange crelly. Reminded me of some of the rich, vibrant orange flowers that are actually found in the Amazon rainforest; not that I've ever been (I'm too afraid of bugs..lol). It's formula was a bit thicker, but still sheer enough that I needed 3 coats to minimize my tips from showing through. 

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Thirdly, on our rainbow tour, is Appearing Daylight. Now I am not a fan of yellow polishes, I mean before I received this collection, I literally owned 2. This however, is really really pretty! It has a thin formula and is more of a creme. It contains a beautiful golden, scattered glitter, that really just shines like the sun! It dries to a matted finish, but if you're like me and prefer glossy, you can just add a topcoat like I did. Again, I did 3 coats + topcoat. 

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Next I have Forest Fairy. This is an absolutely beautiful forest green, with subtle shimmer. This one's formula was much more opaque and only required two coats. It is pretty shiny on its own, but old habits die hard and I added the topcoat. It was slightly, and I mean slightly, streaky; but if you are careful, it shouldn't be an issue. I love greens! They, along with teals and blues, are my favorites for pedicures! 

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Moving on, I have Night With No Moon. It is glorious! I love a good blue and this one is no exception. It has a beautiful teal shimmer to it that really gives it that extra ooompf! Again, this one was much more opaque and I only did two coats + my beloved topcoat. (This one is on my toes now!)

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Lastly, at the end of every rainbow, is the pot of gold! (or at least I hope there is). This is Misapplied Magic. Its a clear base glitter topper with amazing gold shreds and tiny gold micro glitter. It is a perfect topper, as it only requires one coat over a base to really enhance it! No digging for gold (haha! I laughed after I typed that!), though I did pat a few areas on when I used it alone as an accent nail, but that's pretty normal! I did a fun little mani using it and you can see it over each color in the collection in the pictures above, as well as over a black to tan gradient below!

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I was really impressed by how beautiful the colors were. Again there is 1 or 2 that I would prefer more opaque, but everyone's preferences are different. I also really like the bottles, caps and brushes they've chosen. I believe the bottles were 15ml, the caps are round, but slightly square for easy grip and they used the larger flat brushes. I prefer these as it takes less dips to cover the nail. For this being Elysian Nail Lacquers first collection, I think they did a wonderful job and I look forward to seeing what they come up with in the future!

The entire collection will be available the beginning of June 2014. You'll be able purchase them at their shop here. Until then, you can check them out on Instagram and Pinterest, to make sure you don't miss out on any other news!

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Here's one last fun little macro pic of my swatch ball, showing each color..haha! ( I used Yellow Stopper as my base, which makes it easy to pop or push off the polish with an orange stick. Since I don't always leave swatches on for very long, they are still tacky, so like a few other ladies, I decided a while back to keep them and form a ball)

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!

The nail studs I've used can be found at Charmingly Simple Nail Art and Winstonia