Metal Mania — Check Out The Estee Lauder “The Metallics” Collection Pure Color Vivid Shine Nail Lacquer Shades

Metallic fabrics, eye shadows, and nail lacquers always abound come autumn and winter, and this season is no exception. Lustrous gold, bronze, silver, and copper shades abound, as do regal jewel tones and smokey wildflower hues. But what’s interesting is how, every season,  fashion designers and beauty companies find ways to push the envelope, masterminding new and unexpected twists on traditional metallic finishes. This season, Estée Lauder has accomplished this very feat with its new The Metallics collection of Pure Color eyeshadows, lip lacquers, lipsticks, and nail lacquers. For the purpose of this post, we’re going to concentrate on the eight Estée Lauder Pure Color Vivid Shine Nail Lacquer ($20 at EsteeLauder.com) in the collection, all of which have this innovative reflective finish.

The Estée Lauder Pure Color Vivid Shine Nail Lacquers feature a formula that fuses together refined pearls and aluminum platelets to yield a richly pigmented chromatic finish. Each color, then, looks like it has a foil finish but it also boasts an unprecedented degree of shine and a hint of sparkle for a prismatic luster. What I love most about each color is that it looks a bit different from every angle, depending on how the oncoming light hits it.  I also adore the colors available since they’re not limited to run-of-the-mill gold, silver, emerald, sapphire and ruby shades.

ThePure Color Vivid Shine Nail Lacquer shades in the Metallics collection are:

Rose Gold

Metallic Green

Steel Orchid

Chocolate Foil

Midnight Metal

Smoked Chrome

Brushed Gold

Chrome Violet 

I had the opportunity to try six of the eight shades listed above, so read on for more details on them — and, of course, photos!

PURE COLOR VIVID SHINE NAIL LACQUER IN METALLIC GREEN

This shade is incredibly gorgeous, fusing together moss and fern green shades with a golden olive tone. And do you see that shine? It’s spectacular!

PURE COLOR VIVID SHINE NAIL LACQUER IN ROSE GOLD

This Rose Gold nail lacquer is stunning, its chromatic finish given it a near-molten feel, as if rose gold baubles had been liquified and this potion had then been brushed onto your nails. The nail lacquer also has these pretty oyster-like, pink champagne tones that make the color feel feminine and modern.

PURE COLOR VIVID SHINE NAIL LACQUER IN MIDNIGHT METAL

This was clearly meant to be a midnight blue hue with a metallic finish but, because it incorporates maritime azure, sapphire, and aquamarine undertones, the nail lacquer has this interesting, multi-dimensional feel.

PURE COLOR VIVID SHINE NAIL LACQUER IN STEEL ORCHID

This purple nail lacquer incorporates pink undertones, so that the resulting hue mirrors that found in the inner petals of a paphiopedilum orchid (albeit with a grape-y quality). Because of those raspberry tones and the high-impact metallic finish, the shade feels like a modern spin on an amethyst shade, one with way more reddish undertones for a livelier feel.

PURE COLOR VIVID SHINE NAIL LACQUER IN CHOCOLATE FOIL

This nail lacquer shade blends together bronze tones with a golden hot cocoa color, yielding a shade that’s more akin to a burnt sienna but with a lit-from-within, golden warmth.

PURE COLOR VIVID SHINE NAIL LACQUER IN CHROME VIOLET

This is by far my favorite shade in the collection — it’s this smokey, moody, gunmetal-tinged violet hue that feels enigmatic and elegant. And, when regarded underneath oncoming light, nails will reflect the light and appear almost silver-y for a futuristic feel.