Look Up, Look Way Up

I missed last night’s Perseid meteor shower, thanks to the cloud cover that moved in right at peak viewing time, and on account of the fact that I went to bed at 9:00, because I’m an old and I need my rest. No excuse, I know, but cut a lady some slack – yesterday came with its own peculiar set of stressors, and sometimes the only way to deal with a day like that is to just close your eyes and hope tomorrow is better. So apologies, Perseid – I’m sure your big show was just lovely.

So in lieu of watching an actual cosmic event, I thought I’d paint my nails with a bit of stardust, or more specifically, Lac Attack’s glow-in-the-dark APWBD (Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, or Professor Dumbledore for short.) APWBD, which is stuffed with all manner of holographic half moons, squares and bars, leans towards the green on account of its glow-in-the-dark pigment, and so I paired it with Mentality Nail Polish’s Shindig, a green-adjacent turquoise from their fantastic line of jellychrome polishes. There’s a nice little hit of pink shimmer running throughout Shindig as well, which plays off nicely against the purple holo glitter. Not quite Perseids-level impressive, but pretty nonetheless!

Half Moon Holo

This polish, Lac Attack’s APWBD from the Harry Potter collection, is beyond cool and so well themed to its character inspiration, Albus (Percival Wulfric Brian) Dumbledore. Between the little half moon glittery bits, which evoke the headmaster’s twinkling bifocals, to the almost celestial mix of soft, ethereal colours (I seem to recall Dumbledore swanning around Hogwarts in his favourite lavender robes), to its unexpected glow-in-the-dark finish (Dumbledore is nothing if not a man of surprises), this polish has the Headmaster of Hogwarts’ name allllll over it. Literally!

I’ve tried APWBD over white before with some success, and over a more thematically-appropriate silver and turquoise gradient with even more, but until now, never over black (or very, very dark navy, as the case may be.) Which is a shame, because even with the slightly hazy finish the glow-in-the-dark pigment imparts when layered over darker colours, it really makes the glitter pop, giving this mani a pretty, sparkling night sky kind of look that wouldn’t be the least bit out of place decorating the enchanted ceiling in Hogwarts’ famed Great Hall.

Metallic Moon

It’s sort of a shame I had to cover up the metallic-on-metallic gradient under this glitter, Lac Attack’s APWBD, because gradients and I typically do not get on so well, and this one is unusually slammin’. I think it’s the doing of the base polish I used here, Essence’s Icy Princess, a wonderful-to-apply silver foil that seems to very nearly repel the polish sponged on top of it so you – and by you I mean me – can’t ruin your gradient by painting a giant globby bit straight into the middle of each nail like you – again, me – nearly ALWAYS do!

But cover it up, I did, with APWBD, a Harry Potter-inspired glitter topper from Lac Attack. It’s a beautiful polish whose sparkling glitters – silver and blue holo moons, purple squares and an assortment of rainbow holo bars and hexes – are set off by its lightly lime-tinted, glow in the dark base. It’s a super fun polish befitting both the Headmaster of Hogwarts (the APWBD stands for Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore) AND my first genuinely awesome gradient!

Glow Get ‘Em

Hey, the 1980s called – it’s looking for its glow in the dark nail polish.  You seen it?  I’ve seen it, of course, because it’s currently all over my nails.  What can I say, I am perpetually drawn to the (glow in the) dark side where all the gimmicky, “I won’t possibly use this more than once” polishes live. 

Except these polishes, far from being flashy gimmicks, are actually really lovely, with super consistencies, beautiful colours, fun glitter and so much glow pigment, your nails will look lit from within for HOURS after a fresh illumination boost (try to remember this when you do your nails right before bed and then wake up, seconds from shrieking terrified nonsense at the tiny glowing oogie boogies that have disturbed your sleep.)

Here I’ve shown two new-to-me polishes, Lac Attack’s Harry Potter-inspired glitter bomb, APWBD (Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore) over top of Serum No. 5’s white cream, Pure Glow Getter.  I’ve been admiring Serum’s glow in the dark creams, shimmers and glitters for some time now, and their recently released spring collection seemed like a good place to begin what’s sure to become an unhealthy materialistic obsession.  In its native state, Pure Glow Getter isn’t really anything too special – a nice, easy to apply white cream that dries to a low sheen satin finish.  But turn off the lights, as Vanilla Ice would “rap,” and IT GLOWS!  My camera/photography skills have proven insufficient in capturing its opalescent glow, but trust me when I say it’s an incongruous combination of eye-searing brightness and subtle, only-visible-in-the-dark “texture” (it’s not textured at all, actually, but when it’s all lit up, it looks almost furry.)

And over top of Pure Glow Getter, of course, we have the aforementioned APWBD, a glow in the dark glitter topper packed with purple, blue, green and silver holographic glitter (squares, hexes, bars and, evoking the Headmaster of Hogwarts’ spectacles, tiny little holographic half moons.)  Unique, outstanding stuff – just like Mr. Dumbledore himself.