Friday, May 9, 2014

Hare Polish Abbot Kinney Swatch And Review

One of my favorite bloggers and reader, Liz from Lacquer Slacker Liz, asked what my favorite sights of LA are... There's definitely quite a few vistas that are remarkable here in LA, and I always try to bring my guests to see them whenever they visit.  One of my favorites is the Getty Museum located high on top of hill not too far from the beach that affords beautiful views of both the coast and the city.  The Getty itself has beautiful architecture and a stunning garden that makes for a peaceful and tranquil visit.  Another museum I like is the Natural History Museum for its beautiful rose garden.  A favorite pastime of mine is having a picnic amongst the fragrant blooms and listening to the water fountain nearby bubble happily.  I suppose the list could go on and on, but other sights include Santa Monica, Venice beach, Hollywood Blvd at 2am in the morning, the Thai temple in North Hollywood, and of course my culinary favorites in San Gabriel Valley, Westminster, Little Osaka, Koreatown, and Culver City.

Of Hare's Viva Los Angeles collection, Abbot Kinney is probably the most familiar to me.  I've spent quite a few afternoons there wandering along the street and browsing the trendy boutiques and smelling the delicious scents from the restaurants.  The street is constantly evolving with new restaurant openings, cutting edge food trucks, and high end clothing.  There's something incredibly unique about the street, in that it manages to stay cutting edge but still maintains an old town feel.  If you could take the inspiration of this street and turn it into a polish, I would say that Nikole hit it straight on the nail(no pun intended) with the colors she used to create Abbot Kinney.  The grey base represents the street and buildings, and the colorful green hexes, salmon circles, and gold glitters are like the beautiful clothing in the window displays.  The formula of this was a bit sheerer than the previous three I've swatched and I ended up using 4 coats here, finished with a layer of topcoat.

Hare Polish Abbot Kinney
Hare Polish Abbot Kinney

Hare Polish Abbot Kinney
Hare Polish Abbot Kinney

Hare Polish Abbot Kinney
Hare Polish Abbot Kinney

Hare Polish Abbot Kinney
Hare Polish Abbot Kinney

Hare Polish Abbot Kinney
Hare Polish Abbot Kinney
Hare Polish Abbot Kinney
Hare Polish Abbot Kinney
It's been a few months since I've visited Abbot Kinney, but it's one of those places I know I'll return to again soon.  It's one of the few streets in LA that isn't over run with mainstream culture and manages to stay unique.  I hope there's a street like that in every city - do you have a street like this in yours?


3 comments:

  1. This one is really unique and cool :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wonderful post, Thithi! I LOVE hearing about your favorite spots in LA. You've written about visiting the Getty before here on the blog. I've seen lots of photos of that beautiful museum, it's a place I would love to see.

    This polish is kinda fabulous, even if it did takes four coats for opacity. The color mix is exciting and energetic, I love the green with the orange and pink, it's totally unexpected. Excellent job translanting it for us, it really helps in understanding Nikole's vision for this polish. I'm now wishing I had included this one in my order, maybe I can snag it at the next restock....

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think this is one of the most interesting shades from the new collection. It's so unique and I just want to keep staring at it. That being said, I really like it! The glitters work so well together in the gray base. I don't know if I've ever been to the Natural History Museum, which is weird, since I'm less an hour away but maybe I went when I was little, I can't remember. I have gone to the California Science Center which is right next door to the museum. If you haven't already, you should totally take LO there! I think she would love it. My niece had such a fun time there. Heck, even I loved it!

    ReplyDelete