Lady Macbeth Claw Polish

[Loligo]

Gloss
Deep brown-red: the color of dried blood.

I can't believe I'm the first to review something! Wow! (Have I missed this topic somewhere?)

Lady Macbeth surprises me by being quite a bit cooler in tone than either the description or the color swatch. Instead of a rusty brick-red, it's more a burgundy or maroon when it's on my fingers. It's also quite changeable depending on the light -- sunlight brings out the red (including minuscule flecks of red shimmer), while fluorescent brings out the purplish-brown aspects. It's quite nice, although I was hoping for something rustier. The glossiness is smooth and gorgeous.

[Iceblink]

This lasted 3 weeks on my toes with no chipping (and I walk about 6 miles a day, and broke in 2 new pairs of shoes during that time). Need I say more?

Oh, and the color's beautiful too--browner than I expected, and "dried blood" is a perfect description!

[Eemia]

This is the only red polish I've ever been able to wear. Red usually looks awful on me.

 

But this is the perfect shade because it's so dark. It isn't cool where it has a blue tint, or too warm where it would have orange in it. It's seems to be straight down the middle. I don't see any burgundy or maroon in it either. A true blood red, just as the description states. The brown is just enough where it mutes the color slightly and deepens it.

 

It looks very glamorous, especially on my fingernails. I keep my fingernails very short across the edge of my skin and oval shaped and this color enhances the shape beautifully. It looks sophisticated that way instead of flashy since the color is so strong. I feel very Old Hollywood wearing this. Love it.

[oakmoss]

I bought this polish (and two others) when they first came out, but didn't use any of them until today -- one thing or another kept me nervous about trying new polish when I had events I wanted to be sure my nails would look nice for, and I know I can trust OPI to look good for nearly two weeks after a manicure. So, today I handed Lady Macbeth to my nail person, who was understandably skeptical. "If you want red, I have a nice OPI..." she said, heading for the polish stand, but no, I said I wanted to give this a try. At the end, as she put on the first coat, she said, "This polish... this is better than OPI." High praise indeed from a pro who has a pile of OPI to sell! The color is great -- rich dried-blood red -- and while I can't comment on longevity yet, two coats felt like plenty, and my nails feel happy, if that makes any sense at all.

 

*Edited to add that, alas, longevity was not so great. I noticed some wear and tear chiplettes around the tips of the nails within three days, and since I wear an acrylic overlay over my natural nails, this is very fast -- polish usually looks perfect for at least a week and a half or more. BUT, that said, I will still use this polish, as the color is sublime. I have had more compliments on this color than any I've worn in a long time.

Edited November 23, 2007 by oakmoss

[Rouge]

I'm amazed by the glossiness of this polish; even without a top coat it has a rich, liquid shine to it that I don't find with any of my high-street nail polishes.

 

Two coats gives a rich, intense dark red with a tiny hint of shimmer. Three coat gives a brooding, elegant brownish-burgundy that reminds me somewhat of Chanel's Rouge Noir. It seems quite a neutral colour; neither too warm nor too cool. I've worn it now with outfits in cool-toned green and with warmer tones and it seems to coordinate perfectly with them both, so it's highly versatile.

 

I'm rough on my manicures. Usually I chip them horribly in less than 48 hours, but after four days of wear including large amounts of typing, this polish has only superficial damage on the very tips of the nails. Highly recommended!

[Moribund]

I picked this up at the last Will Call. Oh, I love the color so. I'm not generally one for reds, but this is just perfect. Two coats, and it was an opaque bloody red, with a perfect smooth top. I'm generally really hard on nail polish, usually it's chipped or flaked off within two days. This took almost a week to get to a point of needing to be removed. And maybe I'm just silly, but even disheveled, it still looked pretty nice. ^^

 

Definitely gotta try some of the other polishes.

[Lavada]

I love vampy colours, but boy do they age my hands. ):

 

Lady McB is no different, making my hands look like they belong to someone ten years older than I am, but it is totally worth it. The description is dead-on. It pulls a morbid shade of brown into an otherwise cool-ish red and turns the colour into something interesting, classy, but just unsettling enough to have you glimpse at your nails warily every now and then. Very very glossy, even without top coat, and I'm undecided about the shimmer. There's not enough, or the colour itself doesn't really suit, for 'depth' or for it to be classified as a shimmer/glass-fleck (my standard is OPI's Russian Navy, which is LOVE), but it doesn't do anything turn me off the colour itself. So it's a bit useless, but not off-putting.

 

The application and behaviour as a polish is what really earns Lady McB her name, though. The formula was nice - two coats to opacity, fairly self-levelling - but the colour itself bleeds frigging everywhere! Into my cuticles, the sides of my fingers/nails, the brush as I clean up (unsuccessfully, mind you), the brush as I apply top coat. Absolute horror.

 

And when I take it off after a week or so (fantastic staying power, by the way! Only minimal tip wear on a data entry monkey!), HOLY YELLOW STAINS, BATMAN. Urgh. Gross. Like I said, it really does live up to its namesake.

 

ps: Takes forever to dry properly on me, but that might be BPTP's formula disagreeing with my base/top coats (OPI natural base coat/Sally Hansen Mega Shine). Dents, but then can be smoothed out again with some careful finger work.