Ruby Wing Desert Valley – layered over Ador Beauty Maiden.

I’ve been waiting for this polish. RUBY WING! Not physically waiting, but waiting to swatch it. I try and mix things around so I don’t just use all my favourites up first, and sometimes that means I wait FAR too long to try out the ones I’m most keen on, as is the case here. But first, the base colour!

This is Ador Beauty Maiden, and it’s very pretty in it’s own right. It’s an almost putty coloured nude base with a lovely reddish shimmer through it – the shimmer looks almost duochrome, but I couldn’t get that to play properly, so maybe not. Or if it is it’s from red through to putty colour (like the base)… anyway. It’s lovely.

And sheer, this is three coats and there is still some visible nail line. Sigh.

I do like the fact that all Ador Beauty are cruelty free and/or vegan. I do. And this seems to be a brilliant little polish to use with everything, though, if I use it too much, will it no longer be a Maiden? Sorry. ahem.

And then, the star of this show (sorry, Maiden!) – this is Ruby Wing Desert Valley.

Ruby Wing are the same people who make Color Club (Forsythe Group, I believe), and they tend to come out on tops in terms of not testing on animals etc. So, happy! Love ethical business practices. The neat thing about Ruby Wing is that they change colour, not due to temperature, but on exposure to sunlight. This is one coat of Desert Valley over the three coats of Maiden.

In the shade, this looks like holographic shards in an almost clear base. It is slightly tinted, but just adds a bit of a flush to Maiden (blushing Maiden!) which, ironically, almost gives me maniquin hands. I love the look, actually. Broken DVD’s on my nude nails, nice combination of glitz and flash with subtle.

But the best thing about this is that in the sunlight this changes to a light purple…

Then goes darker

until it’s a rich deep purple with the holographic shards. OOOOH!

These are shards, not slivers or small flakes. They are huge. And next time I use these, I’ll put Glitter Food on first, because some of the edges did stick through the top coat I had (China Glaze Fast Forward) as the day progressed, and sticky outty glitter is ANNOYING. And gets picked off rapidly.

Another thing I’d do next time is apply any Ruby Wing polish in the sun. You see the streaky mess I made of my middle finger? Yeah, I thought you might have. I couldn’t see if it was even or not. Not, as it turned out. So, use it when it’s coloured. And I might do two coats next time, just to even out any strays. Clean up is also a bit tricky if you’re strapped for time, as I normally am, and I missed the edges because they were clear, then in the sun I saw the mess and it was toooo late 😀

But I love this. SO much.

Have a great day

Ami