For most beauty buffs, there is no more sought after item than a clear, lush, vibrant, sexy red lacquer. Red polishes are the holy grail of nail polishes, a mythical, temperamental animal that tends to exist solely in our well-manicured dreams. Variations in skin tone, product manufacturing and just plain old personal preference being what they are, it’s little wonder no one can agree on what makes the perfect red – everybody’s doing something a little different with this iconic hue. But there are a few markers of an excellent red lacquer, and this gorgeous, vampy crimson, KB Shimmer’s Such a Vlad-Ass, meets every single one.
Caught somewhere between a clear cherry red and a watery Merlot, Such a Vlad-Ass is a true chameleon, its blue-tinged base making it an especially flattering choice for pale skinned vamps such as myself (tangent: the first semi-professional writing assignment I ever tackled was a full page write-up of “fun facts!” about the original “vampire”, Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler to his friends.) Vlad was a mercilessly cruel despot who ruled 15th Century Romania through terror and torture – as such, there are very few fun facts about the man (“Vlad’s favourite activities include things I can’t talk about in this family-oriented publication!”) It was an odd piece.)
Where Such a Vlad-Ass really shines, however, is in its formula, a smooth, glossy creme that’s just thin enough to flow evenly onto the nail, but also thick enough to actually stay on the nail and out of your cuticles. Cleaning up stainy reds is no one’s idea of a good time, and the less of that time you spend trying to acetone-away red-based boo-boos, the better. Such a Vlad-Ass is very nearly a one-coater, applying just as nicely as its collection and order-mate, navy blue Soul Deep, although I used two coats for these photos and one coat of Seche Vite, because I always do – a good topcoat will always enhance your manicure, and I love the depth Such a Vlad-Ass takes on under all that high gloss shine.
I’ve always loved KB’s gorgeous glitters and holos, but I’m really starting to come around to Team Creme. And if all of KB’s creme offerings are as lovely as Soul Deep and now Such a Vlad-Ass, that spells potentially bad things for my finances! If you like these polishes as much as I do, your wallet can take a ding, too, at both KB Shimmer and Harlow & Co.
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Such a gorgeous color!!! Absolutely love the finish.
It’s SO gorgeous – I’m obviously super impressed! 🙂
Hmm…not bad for a creme that is red..some of my lesser faves….if I do gotta do red I do like the cherry/raspberry ones like this…
My fave is a Darling Diva (holo) called Rooms on Fire.
But as always, fun reads here as well….nothing like a little Vlad tangent!! 😀
I love wearing reds just as a wearable polish, no funny sheep and time rip business! Because sometimes you just really want sexy, blood red nails! I will have to look up this Rooms on Fire you speak of – I love a good red (clearly!)
And thank you – I always aim to educate, or at least amuse (but hopefully both!)
Rooms on Fire looks more pinkish in the pix I have saved on Pinterest, but it’s a nice cherry raspberry red to my eye in person…
Ahh, I just went over to your board and checked it out – holy crap, that’s a keeper. I love the mega holos. Have you tried any from ILNP? They’re AMAZING.
I can’t reply under your question about ILNP mega holos..but it appears I do not have any. I’ll have to fix that. Actually they make so many great polishes in big collections, I end up loving many of them and planning to buy and then don’t….but I just saved Happily Ever After to a Bloglovin version of the “NP I Don’t Have” … it was a crazy close up on Polished Lifting’s blog. Maybe if I focus on just one I could successfully order without putting them all in my cart and then being paralyzed by the cost….LOL…such terrible problems.
Oh, I know that feeling well – “Excuse me, how did we get to $327?” I find there’s so many polishes out there that are *so* similar, that sometimes I just find a brand I really like and go with theirs. Like, right now Cirque’s doing these mega multichrome polishes that look exactly like the ones ILNP had, and then Polish Me Silly slightly before that, and Hits before that…there’s only so many ideas under the sun. So I just find the one I like the best and then go with that. I also have a pretty strict “no dupes” policy, where I try not to buy something that looks like something I already have. It actually really does keep the cost down.
I hadn’t thought of it that way, that red nail polish is basically like red lipstick – its hard to find your perfect red! I love Revlon Vixen which I am so worried may have been discontinued.
Vixen is EXCELLENT – so nice and deep, and I like that it’s on the darker side. I have a bottle from forever ago that I’ve been nursing along – I didn’t realize it was on the endangered list (or – oh no – do you think they’ve pulled it altogether?)
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