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

Archive for March, 2012

Nubar Toasted Marshmallow

Nubar Toasted Marshmallow is from Nubar’s spring 2012 collection, Jellybeans. I’ve seen it described as the oddball shade in the collection… Well, it’s the one I was most interested in, haha! It’s one of those yellowy tan shades I just love. I’m not sure that it really resembles a toasted marshmallow since toasted marshmallows are not smooth and uniform in colour like this, but it definitely reminds me of caramel or maybe whole mustard seeds.

This swatch shows two coats with top coat (I was wearing it as a full manicure); the formula was nice and smooth and gave me no problems. It has a slightly squishy-looking jellyish quality to it, but not anywhere near as much as one would expect in a collection called “Jellybeans”, to be honest. Still, I love it for what it is! Photos are in natural partly-sunny light.

Nubar Toasted Marshmallow

Nubar Toasted Marshmallow

Nubar Toasted Marshmallow

The colour actually reminds me of Misa Hot Couture; I’ll have to do a comparison post of these two polishes!

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Nubar

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Zoya Perrie with black and white glitter

I recently made this frankenpolish (nail polish that you mix together yourself!) top coat of black and white hex glitter. As far as frankens go, this one isn’t particularly original or complicated; it’s basically just LA Girls Glitter Addict in Uninhibited, thinned out with some clear polish and with some loose white hex glitter added. I still haven’t decided on a name for this creation… I love making frankens; it’s so much fun!

The base shown here is Zoya Perrie, a warm toned, light yet bright purple. This polish is a one-coater with a great formula! The sun was setting when I took these photos, so apologies that the colour is a bit off – Perrie looks redder than she should. If you click on the large versions of the photos you can see where the glitter sort of sinks into the polish a bit leaving slight pock-marks… I’m not sure if this is just from not letting the base colour dry enough before adding the glitter coat, but a second layer of top coat would take care of it!

Zoya Perrie with black & white glitter

Zoya Perrie with black & white glitter

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Frankenpolish, LA Girl, Zoya

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NYX Girls Pure Green and LA Girls Purge

A little late, but this was my requisite green manicure last Saturday for St. Patrick’s Day! This is NYX Girls Pure Green with accent nails in Purge from the LA Girl Glitter Addict line.

Shown are two coats of Pure Green, a jellyish kelly green, layered with two coats of Purge on the accent nails, with top coat. Pure Green has a nice smooth formula and these were two medium-thick coats. I got a few tiny bubbles from slopping on a bit too much top coat, but they weren’t very noticeable. Overcast natural light.

NYX Girls Pure Green with LA Girl Glitter Addict Purge

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LA Girl, NYX

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Nubar Wildlife and LA Girl Crowd Surfing

Wildlife is one of Nubar’s amazing duochrome polishes. It was released with their Going Green collection, and it’s a green that is olive but that shifts to leafy green at one angle and to gold through to copper complete with pinkish tone at another angle. It’s a great shade and quite unique!

Nubar Wildlife and LA Girl Crowdsurfing

I layered it on my ring finger with LA Girl Crowdsurfing from the Rockstar line since these two polishes seem to go well together. Crowdsurfing is a very very sheer green jelly base (definitely best for layering rather than on its own) with red-gold flakies and tiny green iridescent glitter. It actually reminds me of Cult Nails’ Toxic Seaweed, which I recently reviewed, except it’s like its very, very watered down cousin with much less colour and glitter. I have the same “hmmm” uncertain feeling about Crowdsurfing’s colour scheme as I do with Toxic Seaweed (in that it kind of has a red-green Christmasy thing going on), but it really does go quite well with Wildlife! Just adds a subtle sparkle to it, and a slightly more green tint.

Nubar Wildlife and LA Girl Crowdsurfing

Shown are two coats of Wildlife. Wildlife has a great formula, like all the Nubar duochromes I’ve tried, and applying it is a breeze. On my ring finger are two coats of Crowdsurfing overtop of Wildlife. No complaints with Crowdsurfing’s formula either; it’s your typical flakie consistency and easy to apply.

Nubar Wildlife and LA Girl Crowdsurfing

More photos to show off all the different angles! As usual, you can click on any photo to see more detail of the lovely duochrome.

Nubar Wildlife and LA Girl Crowdsurfing

Nubar Wildlife and LA Girl Crowdsurfing

Nubar Wildlife and LA Girl Crowdsurfing

Nubar Wildlife and LA Girl Crowdsurfing

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LA Girl, Nubar

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Comparison: FingerPaints Circus Peanuts and China Glaze Peachy Keen

I recently got four polishes from the FingerPaints spring 2012 collection, Gumdrops and Lollipops, and today I have Circus Peanuts to show you. I love the colour; it’s a pinky, pastel coral peach creme shade. The formula isn’t the greatest but not the worst either. It’s quite thick and very pigmented like most FingerPaints cremes are, but it’s also a little streaky like a lot of pastels are. I ended up using three coats to even out a few slightly patchy spots I could still see after two coats. I’m thinking that adding some thinner to this polish will help with the application.

FingerPaints Circus Peanuts

When this first came out I wondered how it compared to China Glaze Peachy Keen. Turns out they’re in the same colour family but not really all that close.

FingerPaints Circus Peanuts and China Glaze Peachy Keen

Circus Peanuts is a bit lighter and definitely pinker; Peachy Keen is more of an orangey peach. This photo shows three coats of each.

FingerPaints Circus Peanuts and China Glaze Peachy Keen

FingerPaints Circus Peanuts (index and ring) and China Glaze Peachy Keen (middle and pinky)

The formula on Peachy Keen is streaky and significantly more difficult than Circus Peanuts’ in my opinion. While I used three coats for each, the third was definitely necessary on Peachy Keen whereas I felt that I could have gotten away with two for Circus Peanuts if I had been a bit more careful. Shown below is the result after three streaky coats (with top coat but after about a day and a half of wear). This polish, while not quite as thick as Circus Peanuts, definitely could benefit from a good dose of thinner just to attempt to make it less streaky. I really love the colour though, so I think it’s worth the hassle of its application!

China Glaze Peachy Keen

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China Glaze, FingerPaints

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