I had recently covered two of the Estee Lauder Beyond Black colors and liked them enough to go back and buy the remaining two. To say that Estee Lauder has been surprising me with their edgy colors would be an extreme understatement.

Both Black Plum and Viper are shimmers, but they are definitely more apparent in Viper than they are in Black Plum. Black Plum is appropriately named because the color is extremely dark. In a normally lit room, this one will appear almost black. Due to this, the shimmer isn’t obvious.

Viper, on the other hand, is a bit more obvious with both shimmer and color. Although it is still quite dark, there’s no mistaking that it’s green and you can see the shimmer under normal lighting. This was my preferred color. And really, how cool is it to reply to a nail color query with the answer, “Viper”?

Both of these are shown at three coats. You probably could get away with two. The application was very good and I do like the Estee Lauder brushes quite a bit. I hope that Estee Lauder continues with interesting colors and doesn’t revert back to boring pinks and reds any time soon.