Hello my lovelies! I took a bit of a hiatus for the weekend and I'm back and recharged. I hope you all had a nice Mother's Day and got to spend time with family. My brother and nephew were in town so we took a mini food tour of LA, mostly spending time in Koreatown, the westside for some fish tacos, and then to Portos bakery for some cuban sandwiches and sweets. Not too much sight seeing per se, but we did spend a chunk of time at USC checking out the campus with my nephew so he could get a feel of what campus life was like there. My college, Rutgers, seems much more grittier than the manicured lawns of USC. It's the perfect bubble in the middle of chaotic downtown.
Speaking of downtown, Los Angeles' downtown has been booming and undergoing a significant reformation. It use to be a seedy area that was deserted at night except for unknown illicit activites, but it has since turned a full 180 degrees. It's now bustling with a young crowd, expansive loft spaces, trendy restaurants and hip lounges Part of that growth is Gallery Row, a street that has now become a hotbed of beautiful art boutiques and galleries. Back in my younger years when I had time to spare in that area of town, we would come at night and find live music being performed at some of those galleries, which then later expanded to the infamous once a month Artwalk. It has now become a community event where live music, food vendors, and galleries collaborate to create a night full of energy and visual beauty. Aside from the beautiful commissioned gallery art, there is also an abundance of street art found all over downtown, from huge colorful graffiti murals to small quirky stencils in the sidewalk. You can turn a corner into an alley and then unexpectedly run smack into the most jaw dropping piece of graffiti out of nowhere. That's probably my favorite thing about downtown. I often wanted to drive aimlessly through those streets and capture those works on film. Nowadays being a mom, I don't see that happening any time soon!
From all this Nikole takes inspiration to create a polish called Gallery Row, a muddled dark navy base that has a multitude of equally muddy glitters that manage to come together into a lively creation of color and energy. There are rust colored circles, fuchsia hexes, green and yellow mini glitters, along with pink and silver squares. It reminds me of the days when I'd drive through the empty streets of downtown under a clear midnight blue sky, and the pieces of graffiti art whirling by as I passed. The formula itself was easy to apply, needing only three thin coats for full opacity and a high density of glitter. I had no trouble with stacking or dragging of glitters, but make sure to allow each coat to fully dry being applying the next. I finished with a layer of topcoat to smooth and add shine.
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| Hare Polish Gallery Row |
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| Hare Polish Gallery Row |
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| Hare Polish Gallery Row |
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| Hare Polish Gallery Row |
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| Hare Polish Gallery Row |
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| Hare Polish Gallery Row |
In my opinion, this is probably Nikole's best translation of a Los Angeles location into a nail polish - the dark base color does an excellent job of portraying downtown Los Angeles at night with its mysterious and gritty streets, while the colorful mix of glitters bring the viewer straight into the growing art scene that is found within. This finishes my small swatchathon of the Viva Los Angeles collection, and regrettably I didn't get the last of the collection called Bowl of Roses. I'll make sure to rectifiy that the next time Nikole has a restock! Out of all that I swatched, it's hard for me to choose which is my favorite since they're all so beautiful. I would say Gallery Row is amongst the top two or three or four. Heck, don't make me choose! Which was your favorite?
