Hoof Polish Rock Afire Swatch

Alright! I'm alive! (Sort of.) Asides from the insomnia bender, anxiety, dealing with the Cough of Death™ and coping with the Great Coconut Milk Break Out of 2013, I am totally here. For serious. This week I have something pretty special to share here on Claw of Cthulhu. My nail polish bestie Caitlin from Addicted to Lacquer was nice enough to surprise me the other week with her very own first run of her indie polish called Hoof Polish. (I recommend that you read up on the whole back story here because it's very endearing and I love that she created these polishes from all the things she loves in life.)

Up first on deck is Hoof Polish Rock Afire. This is the one I was most excited over and although it took me a while to find a good pairing, it surely didn't disappoint.



Now, from the bottle I had no idea to expect. Caitlin's personal swatches always showed this one as green but in the bottle, it was mostly brown. Don't be fooled by this one in the bottle - that green shimmer is not a force to be reckoned with! The formula is generously saturated with this stuff, and has peekaboo bits of a warm copper micro glitter and sprinkled with larger opaque brown glitters. A truly unique combination and I had a lot of fun playing with this one.

Initially I swatched it over Color Club Ho Ho Holly but didn't seem to get the results I was looking for. Caitlin says that Rock Afire built up on its own and surely it did after three coats. I wanted to know the true nature of the polish itself so here's the essence of Hoof Polish Rock Afire solo:







I found that I couldn't wear Rock Afire on its own due to my skin tone matching it almost to a tee. Swatching it over Color Club Ho Ho Holly looked OK but I found the foil nature of Ho Ho Holly overwhelmed Rock Afire. That's my own mistake though because I forgot how potent Ho Ho Holly can be. It does, however, showcase the cute unique brown hex glitters as well as giving Rock Afire a more golden touch.





So after my own trials and error with Ho Ho Holly and then isolating Rock Afire on its own, I thought I had it. Actually, I think I won with this one... I swatched Rock Afire over top of Cult Nails Swanbourne, which is a deep chocolatey brown polish. It was an excellent match, letting Rock Afire's green clover-y shimmer work its magic and be in the spotlight, yet maintaining the peekaboo micro glitter shine, as well as paving a foundation for those dark chocolate glitters that are so unique.





Kind of in the same vein of flakie polishes, I think Rock Afire is best paired with a darker polish like Cult Nails Swanbourne because of that green shimmery magic. I think it would also work well over a deeper green polish like OPI Jade is the New Black.

More from Hoof Polish is yet to come this week! As Jim Raynor would say - stay frosty.