Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Elevation Polish Streets of Japan Collection + Baby Yeti and Stay Behind, Catch a Wave 2

*Press Samples*

Hi everyone! Today I have Elevation Polish's new polishes for May, the Streets of Japan Collection. This collection consists of 5 brand new polishes inspired by Lulu's adventures in Japan. There are a few other polishes releasing on May 7th along with the Streets of Japan Collection, including a limited edition Yeti (Baby Yeti), and an old favorite making a comeback (Stay Behind, Catch a Wave 2). There is also a limited edition polish for charity that I will discuss more next.

Yeti's Healing Vibes is a polish that Team Elevation has created to benefit the American Himalayan Foundation following the devastating earthquake in Nepal. This polish will be available from May 7th until May 27th and $10 from each bottle will be donated to the AHF to help aid in recovery efforts in Nepal. Please see Lulu's blog post here for pictures and more information about Yeti's Healing Vibes and you will also see Team Elevation's personal ties to this cause. You can also read more information about the American Himalayan Foundation here.

Now, let's get on to swatches of the new collection!
Shinjuku Golden Gai is described as a blood orange with a slight duochrome shimmer. The base of the polish is a gorgeous orangey coral with an intense violet/pink shimmer thoroughout that shifts slightly to blue. Formula of this polish was very nice and it built up to opacity in 3 thin coats. The shimmer is really fine but not frosty/brushstrokey at all. It serves more to make this polish really glowy. When I put this polish on, it really make me hearken back to one of my favorite older OPIs, La-Pazitively Hot. It's not the same color at all, but that polish had the gorgeous contrasting violet-blue shimmer that just made it glow like this.




Icho Namiki is a screaming neon yellow crelly filled with golden microshimmer and blue flake shimmer that reads very greyish green to me. This polish is also UV reactive and glows in the dark. I don't have a black light, but I did show you a GitD pic below, and it glows brightly!  Formula spread really easily on this polish with great coverage. It really looked fine at 2 coats, but did 3 coats for good measure and that made it even more bright. This polish is inspired by ginkgo leaves, and I totally see that! My grandmother has ginkgo trees in her front yard and the leaves turn such a vibrant and gorgeous shade of yellow in the fall. I was sure this would be my favorite, and it is definitely close to the top of my list in this collection, but there is another that (very surprisingly) stole my heart even more.





Hama Rikyu Gardens is described as a concrete grey with silver shimmer and holographic pigment with a matte finish. Formula was very easy to work with and had complete coverage in 3 thin coats (or 2 regular coats). This one is gorgeous both shiny and matte, but the matte version most fits Lulu's original inspiration, which were the concrete buildings surrounding Hama Rikyu Gardens. Adding topcoat really brings out the holographic elements of the polish and its super pretty that way as well.

(without topcoat)


(with topcoat)


Hitsujiyama Park is a delicate purply-pink with pink flake shimmer and a subtle holo effect. Formula on this one started out sheer, but built up nicely in 3 thin coats. The shimmer is very subtle in this, but adds gorgeous flashes when you move your fingers. This polish looked so innocent in the bottle, but once I got it on my nails it was pure love! It's so soft and sweet and I adore it as a neutral with a twist (because soft pink=neutral on my skintone, LOL!). I know pink isn't Lulu's favorite color, but when she does pinks they are SO GOOD! I definitely don't think pics do it justice, you have to see it in real life to see all of the subtle gorgeousness going on.




Evening Walk in the Cherry Blossoms is a glitter topper filled with purple and blue holographic glitters as well as multiple sizes of color shifting glitters and sparse fuchsia holo stars and daisy glitter. The microglitter formula is very nice wich great coverages at one coat (it's meant to be layered, of course). The stars and daisies were meant to be accents, so they definitly don't come out for each nail, which is fine by me because I really like to use larger glitters as accents. I had to do a little fishing to get them out and I placed them on a few nails. For this mani, I used 1 coats (plus placing of the larger glitters) over Hitsujiyama Park. I think it would look super pretty over a darker base as well. This is actually not an Elevation Polish, but was made especially for this collection by one of Lulu's frankener pals, Glitter Sheep. It will have a limited run of about 3 months in the shop.




I also layered it over  Shinjuku Golden Gai for kicks, and although it is an unexpected combo, I sort of liked it (and I've also got more of the shaped glitters in this mani).


Baby Yeti is a grey crelly with a subtle light grey/medium grey thermal effect. It is filled with all of the glitters and pigments imaginable (70 ingredients!) including a vareity of multicolored glitters, iridescent glitters, subtle holo, and silver shimmer. Formula was very easy to work with with full coverage in 3 thin coats (or possibly 2 careful thicker coats). I love the pops of the brighter colors against the grey and the shimmer of the base is gorgeous! This polish will be limited edition for the Month of May, so be sure grab it while you can!




Stay Behind, Catch a Wave 2 is clear-based glitter topper filled with blue and teal holo circle glitters, green/gold iridescent color-shifting glitters, and white iridescent glitters. Formula is excellent on this one with a great glitter load. I was able to get great glitter coverage with out dabbing with one coat over my base color (base is Elevation Polish Lake of the Isles). Like I said at the beginning of this post, this is a fan-favorite that is making a return to the line-up. This was one of my first Elevation Polishes when it was first released and I still love it (back when circle glitters first came into popularity). Lulu says that the formula is the same as the original, it was just d/c before due to availability of the glitters. I'm so glad that she was able to get them again, because this is a must have Elevation!




Elevation Polish is available from creator Lulu's Big Cartel Shop. She has a lot of info on restock dates and availability on the Big Cartel site as well as on her blog. Her shop is restocked on the 7th and 22nd each month unless otherwise noted. 

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