Nail Polish Review: "Supernatural" by Mooncat

 Mooncat (formerly known as "Live Love Polish") is an indie nail polish brand founded in 2014 by Michelle and Wayne Lin. Mooncat is known for unique specialty finishes like magnetics, shimmers, and holographic glitter. The company rebranded in 2021 to a more punky, alien-esque vibe. 

Today's review is of a polish that I've actually had in my collection for quite a while, and kind of forgot I owned. I was browsing through my polish tower, trying to find something to wear for my weekly manicure, when my eyes fell on Live Love Polish's "Supenatural" (though the company still sells Supernatural in their new packaging and branding, my bottle was purchased back when the brand was still Live Love Polish. However, for consistency's sake, I'll keep referring to it as Mooncat). 

Mooncat describes Supernatural as follows: "spectacular tales and supposed sightings of iridescent flakies floating against a romantic magenta jelly backdrop with otherworldly allure." The dramatic description is fitting, considering Supernatural was a part of Mooncat's "Dragon's Lair" collection, released for the Halloween season, before it rebranded; you can still purchase the six individual polishes that were originally in the collection, but not as a set. 

I've gone through multiple phases with Supernatural: one period where I only wore it with a matte topcoat, one where I felt it needed a holographic glitter topcoat to jazz it up, and one where I simply stopped liking the polish. As a rule, I lean towards brighter and happier polishes (I like dark polishes in theory, but not on me), but, having not worn Supernatural for at least a year now, I can say that it hits a perfect balance of moody and lit-from-within.

As usual in my reviews, I will use a list of criteria to review Supernatural to provide a full scope of the polish: Color, Opacity, Ability to Self-Level, and Finish/Effect. 

Color: Supernatural is a color-accurate polish looking at the bottle; some colors tend to present quite differently on the nail next to the bottle, but Supernatural's "romantic jelly backdrop" translates well onto the nail once it's built up. As it's a darker jelly polish, the first two coats on the nail tend to be misleading, appearing as a much lighter magenta than the dark and syrupy color in the bottle. Only with a third coat (on my long nails) does it reach that depth of color shown in the bottle and on the website. Another thing to mention is that Supernatural doesn't look black on the nail, which is one of my polish pet peeves: this polish is distinctly dark magenta from afar. 

Opacity: As I mentioned before, Supernatural is a jelly polish, which means it's intentionally sheer. Therefore, it usually takes a minimum of 3 coats to reach opacity on my longer nails. Not only does Supernatural need 3 coats to reach the appropriate depth of color that's advertised on the website, but it also needs 3 coats to cover up some of the patchiness I was experiencing. On my second coat, I could still see some visible nail peeking through towards the cuticle in certain lighting, which required a third and final coat to cover up. Again, this isn't out of the ordinary for jellies, so I was satisfied with that. 

Ability to Self-Level: Supernatural is fairly self-leveling. Because it has a multitude of chunky flakes of iridescent particles suspended in the polish, it makes getting a smooth surface a little tricky. I wouldn't call Supernatural beginner friendly due to this, as it requires a bit of manipulation with the brush to smooth any bumps out. Additionally, because this polish requires 3 coats, layering the flakes on top of each other with each coat makes it slightly thick on the nail. In spite of these factors, it's not the thickest polish I've ever worked with, but it's also not beautifully self-leveling like a crème polish would be. 

Finish/Effect: The most appealing aspect of this polish is the abundance of flakies suspended in the polish, containing colors ranging "from shades of yellow to green to blue and violet to red to orange." In the world of nail polish, one of the most effective formula combinations is a jelly base + iridescent flakies, of which Supernatural fits perfectly. This combination is so special because of the nature of jelly polish--it's sheer, so any flake or glitter particle becomes visibly embedded within the layers of each subsequent coat, creating a beautiful, multidimensional effect, almost like fossilized amber or opal. As I mentioned, this polish seems to glow from within, as if there were burning embers buried underneath the polish. 

I've definitely neglected this polish over the last few years. Now that I'm wearing it for the first time in a long time, I can see that it needs no additional top coats or glitters--the deep magenta is a romantic replacement for the traditional black around this time of year, and the iridescent flakies are absolutely mesmerizing and perfectly suited to the name of this polish, "Supernatural."