Unicorn Pee Galore! Cirque 'Coronation' vs Tonic 'Serendipity'

Are you a fan of Unicorn Pee?

If you're wondering what on earth I am blathering on about, here's a link to a reddit thread about it. It's basically a famous pigment with a distinct red-to-green shift that originally appeared in the nail polish Clarins 230, and later a dupe by Max Factor called 'Fantasy Fire'. I own Fantasy Fire, which has since been re-released under the same name but without the 'pee'. 

The nail polish community affectionately referred to this rare, gorgeous pigment as 'unicorn pee' or 'UP' for short due to its magical look. The pigment's sale has been discontinued as it started to be used in US currency I believe, although there are many similar pigments of a larger particle size available for sale. These are called 'aurora pigments' or 'UP dupes', and dupes with a different colour shift, like green to pink, or blue to purple, are termed 'UP siblings'. 

However, some of the older polish brands have had some hoarded original pigment which always creates a real splash, and high demand, when released in new polishes. In the last year the Indie Polish world got very excited over the limited editions of Cirque 'Coronation' and Tonic Polish's 'Serendipity' (from their Unicorn Pee collection) which contained the OG pigment. I wanted to photograph them side by side to show the pigment in different colour bases. 

Indirect Sunlight / Natural Shade

'Serendipity' is a raspberry jelly that is an ode to 'Lula', one of Tonic's more popular polish colours, whilst 'Coronation' is a royal purple with scattered holo glitters. I think they are both stunning polishes. 'Serendipity' shows the green shift at an angle better, though I love the way the red shift contrasts against the purple base in 'Coronation'.

'Coronation' I found to be a rather thick formula. I'm not sure if the polish was affected by the travel (I ordered mine from Femme Fatale, whereas 'Serendipity' came straight from Tonic HQ) but here I have thinned out the polish by at least 5 drops of solvent. Along with a good shake, this made it much easier to apply. This was two coats. 

I find all jellies hard to get even application with whilst keeping it sheer. I tried to keep a light hand and each coat thin and even. It worked out a bit better with 'Coronation' than 'Serendipity', this could be because of the jelly colour, or the density of the pigment dispersion. 

Indirect Sunlight / Natural Shade

Direct Sunlight

Whilst 'Serendipity' is much thinner and easier to apply, you can see in picture 3 (above, direct sunlight) especially where the polish seemed to have pooled closer to the nail edges away from the apex of the nail curve. An extra layer of 'Serendipity' makes it much more even but it becomes a dark red polish rather the raspberry jelly so many of the swatcher photos seemed to achieve. 

I think they are both gorgeous, although I have to admit the UP shift is not as strong as if I used a normal jelly base and added 'Apotheke', which is Tonic's release of the original UP pigment in a clear base to be used as a topper, over it. 

Indirect Sunlight / Natural Shade

Extreme angle to capture the green colour shift

That all being said, I do think UP looks best in sheer, layered polish. It seems to bring a real, sparkly, ethereal feel to your nails especially when transitioning to different lighting. I spend forever in the shower when having unicorn pee or UP dupe polish as the overhead lighting makes the shift so stunning. It's mesmerising and such a fun stim. 

What's your favourite UP polish, if any?