Hare Polish "Wonderland Wanderlust"

Hello, darlings!!  I have a very special polish to show you today, and not just because it is a Hare Polish, a rare "vintage" harkening back from the Bohemian Holiday collection in 2013.  No, this is a particular treasure because this very bottle was first swatched and so lovingly described by an extraordinary lady and blogger that I admire so much: Lacquer Slacker Liz!!  The final memory-laden paragraphs of her "Wonderland Wonderlust" review actually made my breath catch; there are few things I love better than concise prose that evokes such insight, such feeling, with a poetic and elegantly understated clarity, as Liz does so well in her exquisite recollections.  There is something about artistic expressions that are so en pointe, so precise, that manage to inspire the greatest emotive response in me with the most minimal explication... these are the things that I find the most enrapturing.  It's something that I love about nail polish, and color in general: it is so simple and unassuming a thing, and yet it speaks volumes, tells stories, weaves images.  In architecture we call it doing the most with the least, and it is a beautiful balance indeed.

This polish strikes this balance and tells its tale with captivating ease.  Wandering in wonderlands, especially in winter, is one of my most favorite pastimes, and Hare Polish mastermind Nikole represents it brilliantly with this woodland tapestry, nearly cognizant with its imagery of red berries and rustling botanicals, of shifting lights through the trees as the sky deepens into heavy dusk.

May & Freyja, cavorting in wonderland

FREYJA CUDDLE CHARGE

"Wonderland Wanderlust" is a stonewashed steel blue crelly dappled with pale golden green circles, light red squares, and coppery gold mica flakes flashing cerise-tinted sparks.  The circles are technically true gold, but I actually didn't even fully realize that until I read the Hare Polish blog post on this.  Shrouded in stormy blue, they have always looked like a very muted, green-veiled golden hue.  Looking now, I'm wondering why I was even confused; regardless, I prefer that they read like a pale laurel green on the nail!  I think the overall composition is stunning that way.

Rather than completely topcoat glossing the inherent glitter crelly bumpiness into submission, I decided after two to just embrace the slight hammered metal texture, and ultimately decided that it was a quite interesting effect.  Usually I like a varnished gloss look, but it requires so much topcoat (unless you have glitter food!) and so shortens the lifespan of a mani for me that trying to appreciate the natural personality of a polish is sometimes the easiest route.  I mean, that's essentially how textures began.  The formula on this polish was fabulous, and I used two easy coats that basically just distributed themselves nicely across the nail. 

❄ * ♥ * ❄ * ♥ * ❄

As you might have noticed, the dogs don't understand congenial wandering; they do, however, have a very good grasp of frolicking, frisking, gamboling, and otherwise losing their absolute dog minds in wonderland.  It's a good time all around.  On one outing over winter break, my darling boyfriend directed me to cuddle a tree for a picture, but despite his immense competency with most everything else in life, photography really does escape him.  I never feel that managing to get something into focus is a great accomplishment until he gets behind a lens; and yet, I felt that there was something wistful and quaint about his effort here:

As you can see, this was the most splendid of days; cold and clear, powdery and perfect, the light crystalline as it fractured in the winter woods.  They are my most treasured times, the hours spent in wonderland.  My gratitude to dearest Liz for this gift of a memory in a bottle, both mine and hers, is inarticulable.  ♥

XOXO
Marisa + Sprinklepuff