I’ve managed to create a little backlog for myself, being very busy at home, so today’s polish is one I wore a week ago — Fascinante by Brazilian brand Ludurana. Fascinante is a warm autumnal multichrome that would be perfect for March… if we really had autumn here rather than hot-wet-humid or cold-wet.

I wanted Fascinante as soon as I saw it in swatches, but didn’t even bother putting it on my wishlist as it was impossible to get here. Happily though the newly opened Ninja Polish stocks Ludurana polishes (as well as many other hard-to-find and independent polish brands) and ships to New Zealand so I bought it right away. I was pretty chuffed.

This multichrome is really stunning on the nail. It flashes purples, pinks, burgundy, orange, gold, and light green. In most lighting conditions the purples, pinks, oranges and golds predominate, but I am happy to say that this isn’t a polish where you don’t get the other in-bottle shades on the nail. The light green might be more rare but it will show up when you tilt your nails. Fascinante is also a shimmer, and works well as a single coat over black (especially if you want to save your polish — the bottle is only 8ml). I used three coats by itself to get it opaque.

The brush is pretty decent, though the formula is a little runny and temperamental. This is the only polish with which I’ve experienced the much talked of Seche Vite shrinkage (away from the tips in my case), and I always cap (wrap) my tips. But the most annoying thing is how badly and easily Fascinante chipped. And peeled! It chipped a little on day one, which never usually happens, and these chips had compromised the entire mani and turned into lifting and peeling by day two. Because nothing changed but the polish I do think it’s the formula. It may just be a difficult mixture, or it may not play well with my base coat (Sally Hansen Double Duty) or with Seche Vite. But it was pretty while it lasted and I will definitely use it again, when I don’t mind having a very short term mani (maybe for special occasions).