I Love Nail Polish – Birefringence

Picture-heavy post incoming!

Birefringence is one of four polishes in the Ultra Chromes line from I Love Nail Polish. (What the heck is ‘birefringence’, you ask? Let Wikipedia drop some science on you.)

According to ILNP, the Ultra Chromes were formulated to be worn on their own – no base color needed. If you’re familiar with duo/multichromes, you’re aware that “undies” are often necessary to make the color shift pop. Avoiding an extra step in my mani is a change I welcome, but did the polish live up to the claim? Read on…

Wait. Before I go on, check out the packaging. The box is adorable… and the coordinating tissue paper? So cute!

Birefringence is described as a polish that “shifts through an array of incredible blues, purples, reds, oranges, yellows, and even subtle greens.” I would describe that description (heh) as accurate. While blue and purple are the strongest colors, I could certainly pick up on red, orange, yellow, and green from time to time. If you look at the bottle above, you can see a bit of that shift at the edges.

The formula is very smooth and, I’m happy to report, opaque in two coats. No base color needed! Those two coats are what you’ll see in the images below, with no top coat added. Though, if you want to extend the wear I’d advise a top coat. I did have a little bit of tip wear after the first day, which you’ll also see below.

Natural Light – in the second photo, you can see some of the red/orange/green coming out to play.

OttLight – the blue and purple stand out under the full spectrum bulb.

Incandescent light – as with the OttLight, the blue and purple really stand out.

I found myself staring at my hands so much during the week I wore Birefringence. (Yes, a week. I know! If that’s not a testament, I don’t know what is.) If you need a gorgeous distraction in your life, you can order the Ultra Chromes from ILNP.

Let me know what you think of the polish below!