Iconic Effect Astral Plane

Iconic Effect Astral Plane 

This is my first Iconic Effect polish! Quite timely because the day it arrived, Iconic Effect was announced UK Indie Brand of the Year, and winner of the best UK Indie Polish (Extreme Holo Topcoat) so I was feeling a bit sheepish not having tried them yet. Especially since I won the UK Indie Mani of the Year with my Quirk Madame Thenardier mani (last mani in this post here)   :)

It's a super holographic duochrome in a bright purply-blue with a strong purple shift, a sort of coppery purple. Although I have a lot of pictures, at this time of year its hard to do a holo polish justice, but in artificial light, it is really holo - I'm looking forward to revisiting this one in the summer. Here it is in the best sunlight I had all day:

And in more subdued light, you can see the duochrome shift better...........

Popping it under my daylight lamp really shows off the holo, although this burns out the duochrome. This polish seems impossible to photograph showing off both the duochrome AND the holo at the same time!

Iconic Effect Astral Plane 

Macros are obligatory I think - starting with an abstract, fuzzy one; I love how the holo particles spread out into little pools of colour!

Iconic Effects Astral Plane 

These two are a bit more representative of what the polish looks like under my daylight lamp, with holo in full on bling mode! I could only take macros under the daylight lamp, the DSLR and macro lens need this much light.

Iconic Effect Astral Plane 

In terms of application, Iconic Effect Astral Plane is very straightforward. The polish is rather sheer, so I applied it over a dark blurple base (OPI Sapphire in the Snow) to make the duochrome and holo pop, as suggested in the swatches on Etsy. Next time I'll use it alone; I think that would give a softer look and it would maybe take a few coats to build up a good density of colour.

Actually, I bought two Iconic Effect polishes (to spread the cost of shipping, or is it so they don't get lonely in the post - I can't remember, lol); the other one I got was Northern Lights. Northern Lights is another holographic duochrome, blue-purple again but this time with more of a teal base. I think the shift is more coppery than Astral Plane.  I added a gradient of this polish over Astral Plane. The difference between the two is quite subtle but I like the finished effect!

Iconic Effect Astral Plane with Northern Lights gradient

Iconic Effect Astral Plane with Northern Lights gradient

Honestly, I'm not surprised how popular these polishes have been, they are superb! I purchased Iconic Effect Astral Plane and Northern Lights from the Iconic Effect Etsy shop.