A vegan nail polish blog. A celebration of colour and light, as well as of justice for nonhuman animals.

Soulstice Spa Kyoto

Soulstice Kyoto is a shade that looks pretty unassuming in the bottle, but really impressed me on the nail! It’s a pastel peachy pink creme, so I expected it would be nice but boring. Not boring though, in my opinion!

Soulstice Spa Kyoto

It had a good formula for a pastel; I applied generous coats with a light touch and there were only minimal streaks during the process. Two coats were enough, although I used three on my ring finger because of its ridges (I didn’t use base coat before swatching this).

Soulstice Spa Kyoto

Rather than being a nude sort of pastel peach/pink, this one is pretty bright and stark (at least on my skin tone!) which makes it really interesting to me!

Soulstice Spa Kyoto

Love it!

Soulstice Spa Kyoto

And now, as an added bonus, prepare yourselves for the cutest fluffy cat belly you’ve ever seen…

Jasmine Blossom
Jasmine! <3

Picture Polish Sunset

Hard to believe it’s already November! Today I have a decidedly summery polish to show you. I don’t necessarily follow the seasons when I choose a colour; I just wear what I feel like. Often enough, what I “feel like” does match the season, but definitely not always! Especially in mid-to-late winter, when the spring pastels and summer brights come out due to wishful thinking!

Picture Polish Sunset

This lovely bright neon coral is Sunset by Picture Polish.

Picture Polish Sunset

It dries a little matte, since it’s a neon. I didn’t add any topcoat for these photos so you can see the almost rubbery finish. The formula was fairly thick, and this is two coats. I didn’t have any issues with application.

Picture Polish Sunset

Now I’ll stare at these pictures for a bit and pretend that the temperature outside isn’t below freezing! ;)

Gosh Holographic Hero

This is Gosh Holographic Hero, the much-anticipated re-release of the original Gosh Holographic from a few years back! Apparently the holographic effect isn’t as strong as the original, but it’s still pretty strong!

Gosh Holographic Hero

The photos show three coats of this silver holo, no base or top coats.

Gosh Holographic Hero

It’s a little trickier to apply than polishes like the OPI DS holos, but I found that it wasn’t too difficult if you use generous coats with a light touch, don’t go over the same spot more than once, and wait a couple minutes between coats to prevent dragging the previous layer of polish.

Gosh Holographic Hero

The first photo was taken with flash, and the others under an Ott Lite, as there was no sunlight at the time.

Gosh Holographic Hero

This polish is available in certain countries in Europe, and Canada, as far as I know. I was lucky as a Canadian to be able to just pick it up at the drugstore. :)

Gosh Holographic Hero

Soulstice Spa St. Tropez

A quick post featuring a great nude polish! This is St. Tropez by Soulstice Spa, a yellow-toned light beige with pearly shimmer. This shade was released in their spring/summer collection earlier this year.

Soulstice Spa St. Tropez

I found the polish a little sheer, but smooth and even at just one coat. The photos show three thick coats, although I could have gotten away with two if I had used a ridge-filling basecoat underneath. The formula is slightly thick, but it self-levels pretty well.

Soulstice Spa St. Tropez

I really love this colour, and was impressed with the nice formula! Here it is in the shade:

Soulstice Spa St. Tropez

Happy Halloween! These two polishes are from China Glaze’s Halloween collection, Wicked.

China Glaze Cast a Spell

This is Cast a Spell, a blackened green with golden shimmer flecks.

China Glaze Cast a Spell

It has a great formula; shown are two coats that glided on super-smoothly.

China Glaze Cast a Spell

China Glaze Cast a Spell

And this is Make a Spectacle, one generous coat over Cast a Spell. Make a Spectacle has a ton of iridescent hex and small glitter as well as golden glass flecks in a clear base.

China Glaze Make a Spectacle over Cast a Spell

China Glaze Make a Spectacle over Cast a Spell

China Glaze Make a Spectacle over Cast a Spell

And here is Make a Spectacle on its own, 3 coats. Pardon the orangey stained nails underneath!

China Glaze Make a Spectacle

I absolutely love Make a Spectacle; I think I’m going to have to get a back-up bottle, especially considering it’s one of those thick glitter-packed polishes that tends to get used up quickly!

China Glaze Make a Spectacle

China Glaze Make a Spectacle

Hope you’re having a great Halloween! :D

Today I have a polish from No Miss to show you. No Miss is one of the traditionally vegan brands of nail polish often sold by online vegan stores.

No Miss Casselberry Cream

This is Casselberry Cream, a peachy off-white jelly polish. Shown are four coats of polish over two coats of ridge-filling base coat.

No Miss Casselberry Cream

It applied really nicely, not streaky like a lot of pale sheer polishes are, and it self-levels. The four coats were just to build up the colour so my stained nails didn’t show through (even with the ridge filler, they’re kind of orange these days, too many bright coral polishes!), not because of streaks.

No Miss Casselberry Cream

There is no top coat here; it’s a very glossy polish on its own.

No Miss Casselberry Cream

I was really pleasantly surprised by this polish; it doesn’t look like much in the bottle, yet another pale sheer nude, but I really like its jelly finish and the formula was unexpectedly good for this type of shade!

No Miss Casselberry Cream

I compared Casselberry Cream to some other similar polishes I have: from left to right, No Miss Casselberry Cream, Zoya Lucy, OPI Barre My Soul, and Orly My Beau.

No Miss Casselberry Cream, Zoya Lucy, OPI Barre My Soul, Orly My Beau

Again, I did two coats of ridge filler before applying the polishes, and used four coats of each polish for comparison’s sake.

No Miss Casselberry Cream, Zoya Lucy, OPI Barre My Soul, Orly My Beau

Left to right: No Miss Casselberry Cream, Zoya Lucy, OPI Barre My Soul, Orly My Beau

As you can see, they each have a different off-white tone; Casselberry Cream is more peach, Lucy is white with slight yellow undertones and is also the most sheer of the bunch, Barre My Soul has a pink undertone, and My Beau is the yellowest and the most opaque at four coats. My Beau was also the streakiest of them, and needed the fourth coat to smooth out all the patchiness. I didn’t wait all that long between coats since it was just a comparison, and by the end I had a few bubbles starting to form, mainly but not only in the OPI (but I find bubbles develop more easily on my ridgey ring finger in general, so that’s probably not the OPI’s fault). So, I recommend waiting several minutes between coats, although I suppose that’s pretty much a given when you’re applying four coats of any polish!

No Miss Casselberry Cream, Zoya Lucy, OPI Barre My Soul, Orly My Beau

Left to right: No Miss Casselberry Cream, Zoya Lucy, OPI Barre My Soul, Orly My Beau

And here is Azrael on top of my Helmers! <3

I have two polishes by Picture Polish to show you today, both with scattered holo particles, both from their recent collaboration collection. All the photos are in direct sunlight.

Picture Polish Demeter

This is Demeter, a dark brown with scattered holo. This shade was a collaboration with Katie who runs Harlow and Co.

Picture Polish Demeter

Shown are two coats of Demeter. It was a little streaky on the first coat, but a second thick-ish coat evened out nicely. These two polishes contain true holographic particles, not glitter, so they’re smooth to the touch.

Picture Polish Demeter

Next is Kryptonite, an emerald green jelly with scattered holo. This one was a collaboration with More Nail Polish blog.

Picture Polish Kryptonite

The formula was really similar to that of Demeter, except that this one is in a translucent jelly base. The photos also show two coats.

Picture Polish Kryptonite

Both of these are great polishes!

Picture Polish Kryptonite

This is a mani I did last week and liked a lot. The base colour is Zoya Kieko, a red-toned medium purple creme from last year’s Summertime collection. I used two coats of Kieko, which had a very nice formula, no complaints. I used a dotting tool to make the flowers – the centres are Zoya Reagan, and the petals are Zoya Lara, both from the Beach collection, and finished with Poshe top coat.

Zoya Kieko with dots in Reagan and Lara

Zoya Kieko with dots in Reagan and Lara

Zoya Kieko with dots in Reagan and Lara

Zoya Kieko with dots in Reagan and Lara

China Glaze Want my Bawdy

Today I have another of the China Glaze New Bohemian polishes to show you. This is Want My Bawdy – groan-worthy name that looks like something OPI would come up with, but beautiful indigo blue shimmer with slight purple duochrome!

China Glaze Want My Bawdy

The duochrome on this one is very mild; it’s the least duochrome in the collection, but there is a bit of a purple flash at an angle in the right light, as seen in the above photo.

China Glaze Want My Bawdy

The formula was thin and sheer, and I got some bald spots in my application from not waiting long enough between coats (as often happens, I was rushing to get my swatching done before the sunset!). These swatches show three coats of the polish, no top coat.

China Glaze Want My Bawdy

In the next two photos I swatched it over black as I usually do with duochromes (one coat of Want My Bawdy over one coat of Kleancolor Black), but it didn’t really change the look of this one much. It mostly just makes it appear more blackened around the edges. This next photo is with flash (all the others are in sunlight).

China Glaze Want My Bawdy over black, with flash

Despite the very subtle nature of the duochrome in this polish, I’m personally not disappointed with it! It’s a beautiful glowy blue, and that hint of purple flash that comes out occasionally is just an added bonus. :)

China Glaze Want My Bawdy over black

Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve

This amazing polish is Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve, which I haven’t seen for sale here in Canada (it’s supposed to be exclusive to Target stores and we don’t have those yet), but I was able to get with the help of someone having a blogsale! (Thanks again, Amy! :) )

Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve

Shown are three coats plus a layer of topcoat; the polish is slightly sheer to allow the duochrome iridescent shimmer to show through.

Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve

I recommend waiting a minute between coats to avoid any balder spots near the cuticle, but other than that the formula was good!

Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve

These photos are in natural light, various degrees of shade/partial sun.

Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve

I love the finish on this polish! As you can see, there are a whole lot of colours in the flecked/foily particles: mauve, blue, copper, pink, plum, and a lovely warm golden orange colour shift at an angle. It’s the kind of polish that doesn’t really belong to just one colour family!

Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve

There are two other polishes in this release that have a similar finish, and I’ll be posting those at a later date. :D

Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve

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