This past Spring when MAC released their Jeanius Collection, the two items I thought were of most interest were the lacquers, ‘Frayed to Order’ – a soft white matte, and ‘Biker Blue’ – a deep shimmering blue. What I find interesting is the juxtaposition of the dark, vampy polish to the delicate & airy light one, and that contrast is what appealed to me the most. All swatches are with Sèche Natural base coat; in order to enhance the finished effect of the lacquers, no top coat was applied.
‘Biker Blue’ is deep mysterious pool of darkness; this is a blackened navy base with the finest peacock blue shimmer throughout. I love how sunlight brings out its inner fire (top photo), making for a truly mesmerizing blue, while flash (bottom photo) gives you the full effect of the shimmer particles. Application was a breeze and two coats gave perfect opacity and coverage.
The only polish in my stash that comes close to ‘Biker Blue’, is none other than Illamasqua’s iconic ‘ Phallic’. The swatch photos above are index & ring fingers – ‘Biker Blue’, middle & pinkie fingers – ‘Phallic’, and while it’s fairly obvious that the two are quite close, you can still see that ‘Phallic’ has a brighter blue base and even finer shimmer compared to ‘Biker Blue’s’ indigo/denim leanings and slightly chunkier shimmer.
What I really loved about ‘Frayed To Order’, is how cloudy and diffused it appears. This is a soft, matte white shade with an opalescent look to it which can flash either pink or green at times. What’s interesting to note is how by adding that duo chrome finish and then making it a soft matte, it becomes an extremely wearable white shade. Application was a little tricky, mainly because of how quickly it dries (as do all mattes) forcing you to work quickly to avoid streaks, dragging and bald spots but with three thin coats like I did here, it left a perfectly even smooth finish.
Digging through my stash, I came across a CHANEL polish dating back to Spring of 2000, Le Vernis Facettes in ‘Recto-Verso’ – another opalescent white shade that dried to a dull satin finish that I would have sworn was so similar to ‘Frayed To Order’…until I noticed that the CHANEL’s flash was violet & blue, and that the finish was completely different. The other candidate I found is yet another older CHANEL (not sure when it dates, but approx. 1998-2000), Le Vernis Glacé in ‘Diabolo’ which once again has that opal fire to it…but this one flashes green, is quite sheer, and the finish is a far cry from anything resembling matte. As you can see from the swatches above (index – ‘Recto-Verso’, midd;e & pinkie – ‘Frayed To Order’, ring – ‘Diabolo’), while all three have that same milky white base, the varying hues of the colour flashes do nothing to highlight any similarities but instead showcase how different they all are. I’m fairly certain that even by adding a matte top coat, they still won’t come close to each other. Please note that I applied three thin coats of lacquer for these swatches.
Final thoughts: For the vampy polish lovers out there, ‘Biker Blue’ is a beautiful and chic option, primarily due to the shimmer in its depths, and also because it never comes off as “just another dark shade” but maintains its blue integrity. ‘Frayed To Order’ as you can see from my comparisons, is truly unique in that this is a white shade like it’s never been done before: soft, fiery and matte all at the same time. I thought the formulas were easy to work with, and application relatively streak free, with the added bonus of a lovely shiny finish on ‘Biker Blue’. Ask to go through your nearest MAC counter’s makeup drawers, and you possibly could still score either one of these shades!
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