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

Release: 1 September 2020

8 polishes

Sophie of Femme Fatale Cosmetics is bringing us another beautiful collection inspired by a painting! This time her inspiration is Boreas Abducting Oreithyia by Joseph-Ferdinand Lancrenon:

This painting depicts the story of Boreas, the Greek god of the North Wind, abducting Oreithyia, an Athenian princess and later the goddess of cold mountain winds, as told via Ovid’s epic “Metamorphoses”.

As she interpreted the colors and shading quite literally, Sophie included her visual inspiration for each shade in the collection as well as the inspiration behind the names, so I opted to include those descriptions to aid in understanding the collection. I hope you enjoy that bit of the creative background of this set!

Oreithyia

Oreithyia features a soft cream base with silver flakes, tiny holo microglitters, and holo microflakes. The overall look is an elegant soft taupe. It has a bit of a pearlescent feel to it, although I’m not sure where exactly that’s coming from since there’s no shimmer listed in the description. It’s a very soft and elegant shade. Sophie recommends three coats, but I was happy with the airiness and coverage at two, so I stopped there.

This shade is inspired by Oreithyia herself in the painting.

2 coats + top coat

Boreas

Boreas features a beautiful goldenrod base with coppery-orange metallic flakes. For some reason this one was not showing up properly on my phone screen. If this color appears more yellow than orange to you, please know that it leans more orange than yellow in real life. It’s a bright and lively shade that made me smile when wearing it.

This shade was inspired by the colors of Boreas in the painting.

2 coats + top coat

Haemus Grotto

Haemus Grotto is a molten golden linear holographic. The metallic sheen on this one is stunning! It’s a bright shade, but it’s not a flat yellow gold–it’s got a little bit more of an antique edge to it. Like a lot of yellow shades, it has a bit of a green cast on my skin, but this will change depending on your own skin tone.

This shade is inspired by some of the coloring of Boreas in the painting, while the name comes from the cave Oreithyia was taken to in the Haemus Mountains (Haemus Mons was an ancient Greek name for the Balkan Mountains).

2 coats + top coat

Chartreuse Shroud

Chartreuse Shroud features a bright green-leaning chartreuse base with blue shimmer and the tiniest silver holo microglitters. They’re so tiny they create no texture. The shimmer is a little bit shy, so I have some photos under different lighting to bring it out a bit more. Unfortunately this one is displaying as an atrociously bright acid green on my phone screen. In real life it is pretty bright, but there’s also a softness to it, and in no way is it neon.

This shade and name are inspired by the bright green veil around Oreithyia in the painting.

2 coats + top coat

Flower Thickets

Flower Thickets features an olive crelly base with lots of gold metallic glitters. Such a simple combination, but it’s a stunner. It’s almost chartreuse-y in that it has a lot of yellow, but it definitely is solidly green. Unfortunately it’s showing up like an obnoxious shade of green on my phone screen. Please know that in reality it’s a soft and natural shade.

Two coats of polish was close, but I opted for a third for total coverage. Two thicker coats would produce a bit of a lighter effect. Even with the heavy glitter load one coat of top coat smoothed everything over.

This shade is named after the flowering vale around the river Ilisus, where Oreithyia was abducted.

3 coats + top coat

Cold North Wind

Cold North Wind features a deep brown base with green/purple shifting shimmer and scattered holo microflakes. I just adore shimmery brown shades. This one feels so earthy and grounded and natural.

This shade is inspired by Boreas’ wings from the painting.

2 coats + top coat

Wrapped in a Cloud

Wrapped in a Cloud is a trithermal that transitions between a deep navy blue (coldest), deep purple (middle), and a murky greyed-out turquoise (warmest). The warmest state is very hard to describe, so I’m very sorry for my attempt 😆

It’s been warm here in New Jersey (USA), so even my most valiant attempts at catching the coldest state yielded disappointing results. So I’ll show you the transition between the middle and warmest states first.

The iridescent glitters really appear to float within the polish. It’s an incredible effect. The glitters also look beautiful against the base color in any state, even the warmest, despite my less-than-ideal description above. Sorry again 🙃

This shade was inspired by the clouds behind the couple in the painting.

3 coats + top coat

And in these two photos, you can just barely make out the darkest blue shade at the very tips of my nails. Hopefully you can see all three states: the dark blue, the dark purple, and whatever that final color is (grey-turquoise??).

(I had to move so fast to capture the cold state that I had no time to grab the bottle AND pose. So I just posed. 🙃)

Ilisus

Rounding out the collection is Ilisus. If you’re an FF fan you’ll recognize this finish! Ilisus features a sheer jelly base with strong blue/purple shimmer and silver holo glitters in all different sizes. The official description gives the base color as a “murky sea green”, but I don’t see much, if any green. Maybe there’s a twinge of it? The overall base effect is more of a desaturated blue to my eye. This kind of sheer and shimmery base with loads of holo glitter is one of FF’s signature finishes, and it’s always a welcome sight in an FF collection 😊

I was so impressed when I was able to cover in just two coats! I added two coats of top coat to smooth over the glitters.

This shade was inspired by the river from which Oreithyia was taken.

2 coats + top coat

Sophie blows me away every time. Visual art and FF is such a powerful combination! I just love the story of the color palette and finishes. This collection is definitely on the warmer side, which I deeply appreciate, although I think cooler skin tones would also rock the elegant Oreithyia or any of the darker shades. Or forgo that and wear whatever you want. FF polishes never shy away from wild and unexpected colors and combinations, and this collection is full of them.

The Unrequited Love collection will be available for preorder starting September 1st at 9am AEST.

Femme Fatale Cosmetics: http://www.femmefatalecosmetics.com.au/

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