When I saw the display for the new Pacifica nail polishes at my local Shoppers Drug Mart, I initially sort of dismissed them since they are definitely fairly expensive, especially for the drugstore. But then I saw that there were some pretty interesting looking ones and decided to pick one up and give it a go - I was in that kind of mood, I guess. Once I had applied it, I decided to pair it with some graphic stamping that I figured would give a sort of vintage wallpaper type of look because... well, it just made sense in my head. 

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Admission time: It wasn't until I was taking the photos of this finished mani that I noticed that this bottle said this polish is a top coat. I guess it makes sense, although I would argue that as a top coat this polish would probably be a lot less interesting. I would describe this polish as a pearly white base absolutely jam packed with itty bitty gold glitters, medium size dark grey/silver (?) hex glitters, and a sort of pink to gold iridescent shifty microshimmer. It's super interesting and as it dries I feel like there's a sort of sage green lean to it, which could absolutely just be my eyes playing tricks based on what's in the base. 

For this mani, I applied three coats to get full opacity - you could probably get opacity in two thicker coats, but I think this formula gets a little bit funny in texture with thicker coats so I would recommend three thinner ones. It definitely dried down with some texture, so you might need a glitter top coat or a couple of layers of a thick regular top coat to get a really smooth finish. I ended up top coating before I applied my stamping to give a smoother base to stamp onto.

I honestly don't even know what made me think of doing this sort of vintage, 60s inspired stamping for this mani, but I feel like it sort of worked in the end. I chose this sort of metallic teal stamping polish because I felt like the tone of the blue would pop on that sort of sagey toned base and would drive home the inspiration I was going for but also keep it modern as well. Modern vintage. Anyway... as I tend to do, I alternated the direction that I applied the image on my nails to give a little bit of added interest.

Once I was finished with my stamping, I sealed it in with a water based top coat and then finished with a generous coat of quick dry glossy top coat and voila!

Honestly, I don't know if I'd recommend this polish or not. I think it was a solid formula and is a really interesting polish to find in the drugstore, so maybe if you're looking for something really unique that you can get locally this is something worth taking a look at. For me, though, this price point is where a lot of indies fall and that's where I would tend to spend my money personally. Still, it performed well and I do like the overall look of it, so I wouldn't try to talk you out of it either.

A selection of nail polishes by Pacifica are available in Canada at Shoppers Drug Mart in store and online now!

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