Clave

This is SquareHue Clave, from the Salsa collection:

I have to be honest and tell you I don't even remember ordering this. (I have the SquareHue subscription where you pick two out of the three polishes, each month, or you can choose to skip the month. What you can't do is only pick one, which is what I'm always wanting to do.) This is a charcoal crelly, I'm sure I'll wear it, but I can't think why I thought I really wanted (much less needed) it.

I also haven't been able so far to find the wheel I was using when I took this picture to confirm, but I think the swatch above Clave is SquareHue Y2K, which is a more metallic charcoal. Clave is darker - almost black - and has a nice depth to it.

I went to look up what "clave" meant in a salsa context, and it turns out that while it literally means "key" in Spanish, what it means in music is a type of percussion instrument, and a type of rhythm - it's easier to show you than to tell you, really:

This piece is called Rumba Clave, and both performers are playing claves - it means those dowel-like things, which you see often in salsa music. (There is a really long Clave article on Wikipedia, clearly lovingly written by somebody, but it's somewhat over my head - I was a music major long ago and I get some of it, but music theory is what drove me into changing my major in the first place, and that's exactly what that article is long on.) One thing about it, this year of SquareHue is teaching me things about dance music that I probably never would have known, otherwise. The only context I knew for "Clave" was in the Mortal Instruments books, which is not at all the same thing.