Wear Test: Kelara Mercury

No Comparison Thursday today.  Instead, today's post is going to be something a little different.  When I receive items from makers for review, I will choose one of their polishes to wear for a longevity test.  I'll wear the polish for as long as it takes for it to chip.  As you'll see today, I'll take pictures each day to show exactly how the polish is lasting each day.  At the end, I'll review the polish as normal and discuss a little about the longevity.  Today's wear test is for Kelara Mercury.

First, here's the basic info on Mercury.

Color: Blurple with teal and red flashes and fine holographic glitters.

Finish: Chrome – a polish that shifts between colors depending on the angle you look at it.

Bottle / Brush: TKB hexagon brush – lid is tapered at the bottom and larger at the top, which helps with handling the brush and application.  The wand is an average length.  The brush is thin but long, so you have to make sure you don’t load up on polish on your brush otherwise it may pool up on your cuticles.

Opacity: High – opaque at one coat, but I used two for the photos.

Glitter Application: N/A

Consistency: Thick – thick but is easily remedied with some polish thinner.

Overall Ease of Application: Easy – applies well without pooling, dragging, streaking, or balding.  Spreads evenly and smoothly.

Stampability: Not tested for stamping.

Dry Time: Quick – dry to the touch without smudging in under 3 minutes.

Day One:

Easy application.  Gorgeous finish.  Items used:

• Basecoat: Orly Bonder
• Topcoat: OPI Topcoat (black label)

Blurry so you can see the holo glitters.

Day Two:

Still staying strong.  No tip wear.  One chip on my right hand where I applied only one coat (after a smudge) and used Seche Vite on top instead of the OPI top coat.  Otherwise, the wear on the rest of my fingers was flawless.

Day Three:

Still looking great.  Minimal tip wear.

Day Four:

I think the only reason I got any chips is because of how much I use my cuticle balms.  It lifted at the sides mostly, so I'm pretty sure that a little oil got up under the polish causing it to sheet off.  Add to that the fact that I'm a picker, and you get this.

Overall Thoughts: This has been my favorite of all of the Kelara's I received.  It's absolutely gorgeous in person.  I had a very hard time capturing all of the shifts on camera, so I tried posting pictures in different lighting and from both my camera and my iPhone.  The holographic particles are really unique because they aren't linear, like Enchanted, but scattered.  Also, unlike Enchanted, the polish is much more pigmented, goes on less streaky, has just as strong of a shift, but is opaque in fewer coats.  This is a great alternative to Enchanted's Magical Mystery Tour, which is currently sold out.  The other thing in Kelara's favor is that it's significantly cheaper than Enchanted starting at only $9 versus Enchanted's $13.

You can purchase Kelara's at their Etsy store.  Follow them on Facebook for news and updates.  Spoiler Alert: They're going to be introducing some fab holos next week!!!!!  I CANNOT wait!  I'm a sucker for anything holographic...

In other news, it's time for me to go back to the low/scheduled buy and to work through my untrieds.  I need to thin my stash quite a bit.  I spent all day yesterday building a new drawer system and organizing my polishes.  There are several that are quite dupish, so I'll be adding those to the Comparison Thursday lineup.  I've already tossed several into my sale stack.  I just need to take pictures and organize the sales page.  That being said, you'll probably see quite a few gel manicures for a little while as I still have several gel polishes that are sitting in my untried stack as well as the regular polishes.

What's your longest wearing polish?

*I was not financially compensated for this post. I received a sample for review purposes. The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.*