*Disclosure: PR samples- I received these polishes free of charge in exchange for photography.*

Release: 4 April 2020

5 polishes

Burnout

Burnout features a very warm olive green base packed with red/green shifting shimmer. Such a lovely warm shade. I think that this will be a KNOCKOUT shade on darker skin tones!

3 coats + top coat

Up in Smoke

Up in Smoke features a sheer purple base packed with an overwhelming red/gold/green shifting shimmer. You can catch a hint of the purple base at certain angles, but the dominant resting color is the red from the intense shimmer, which can sometimes pull a little orange. Multifaceted and fascinating shade.

3 coats + top coat

White Smoke

This is the kind of polish no one but Ethereal could do. White Smoke is a pure shimmer polish with no base color and packed to the brim with red/gold/green shifting shimmer. Since the shimmer warms up the base a lot, it serves as a stunning shifty neutral on my warm skin tone. VNL peeks through a little bit, but it doesn’t bother me at all with shades like this.

3 coats + top coat

Smoke Show

Smoke Show features a grey-tinged blue base loaded with red/green shifting iridescent flakies. This base color kept changing as I looked at it…sometimes it looked blue, sometimes grey, sometimes blue-toned grey, sometimes grey-toned blue…but mostly I think it looks like a very desaturated blue. One might even say…a smoky blue?

The flakies really glow out of the base color, which unfortunately I had a hard time catching. The effect reminds me of embers amidst a fire.

3 coats + top coat

Smoky Quartz

And finally, Smoky Quartz is a grey base packed with holo microflakes and red/green shifting shimmer. I love this kind of holographic finish where very dense microflakes create a holographic flare line. The result is so intense and throws ridiculous amounts of rainbows. And I think it’s so fun that such a finish is done in such a muted base shade. It’s neither too light nor too dark on my skin–just the most balanced shade absolutely packed with sparkle and shift.

I did 2 coats on two of my fingers and 3 coats on the other two. If you can see the difference here, you’ll probably be able to see the difference in real life. I personally forgot which are which 😂

2-3 coats + top coat

Since I’ve always lamented over linear holographics being so much prettier than I can capture, I’ve been trying out different setups to catch the linear flame better. I’m quite proud of this one, and it really shows how strong the effect is in real life:

Everything applied well, as is usual from Ethereal.

I am always so impressed with how consistently Ethereal Lacquer creates fresh beauties while maintaining her signature brand aesthetic.

The Smoke Collection releases on April 4 at 9pm Eastern.

Ethereal Lacquer: http://www.ethereallacquer.com