July | 2012 | Vegan Claws

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

Archive for July, 2012

Nubar Beguiling Carmine and China Glaze Sacred Heart

Like my previous post, these are some photos from a few months ago while I had my nails filed into claws.

First up is Nubar Beguiling Carmine (not made from actual beetle-derived carmine, of course!). I love this red! It’s a deep, brown-based red, not bright but not too dark.

Shown are two coats plus topcoat. There’s a little bit of cuticle drag so I probably should have added a third coat or waited longer in between coats.

Other than that no issues with the formula, it was quite smooth.

Beguiling Carmine is from the Polished Chic collection.

Next I’ve got China Glaze Sacred Heart, from the Ink collection. This is supposedly a neon, but it really doesn’t seem neon to me. The colour isn’t neon-bright, nor does it dry matte like most polishes with neon pigments do (no topcoat on this swatch).

But it is a nice jellyish candy-apple red that leans warm. Shown are three coats; no application issues with this polish.

In the bottle, Sacred Heart seems less bright and more brick-like than it does on the nail.

And here is a photo of both of these polishes together, showing the contrast between the depth of the two shades! …trying to remember now… I think I had the camera sitting on the table and took this photo with my chin! 😀

Category:

China Glaze, Nubar

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Comparison: Color Club’s Pure Energy and Wicked Sweet

As mentioned in my previous post, here is my comparison of Color Club’s two neon blue polishes with turquoise shimmer, Pure Energy and Wicked Sweet. These photos were taken several months ago, during a week when I had my nails filed into little claws. I’ve done this a couple of times, but it usually only lasts about a week before the points start breaking off and I file them down.

The photos show three coats of each polish. On my index and ring is Pure Energy from the Electro Candy collection; on my middle and pinkie is Wicked Sweet from the Wicked Sweet collection.

The formula was good on both of them, thin and smooth. They’re a little sheer, hence the three coats.

Wicked Sweet is a scented polish; it smells like blueberry candy.

Aside from the scent these two polishes are practically identical. The main difference is that Wicked Sweet dries a little glossier before topcoat. There’s no topcoat in the pictures, and in this last picture you can kind of see how Wicked Sweet is a little more reflective which brings out the shimmer a bit more. Being neons, neither of them is especially glossy before topcoat, though. I wonder if it’s the scented additive that also adds that slight bit of extra shine…

Category:

Color Club

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Misa Skinny Dipping and Comparison

Skinny Dipping is the second of two polishes I got from Misa’s Hot Summer collection for summer 2012. It’s a gorgeous neon aqua shade with blue shimmer!

The polish was fairly sheer; I think the sheerness helps add depth with the shimmer though. I used three coats here.

The consistency was a little thin on the first coat, but seemed less so by the third coat (that’s probably the effect of the humidity that day…).

The polish dries to a satin finish due to the neon pigment in it. I didn’t use any top coat for these photos, so as you can see it’s definitely not totally matte.

I really love the blue shimmer in this! In the shade:

This polish is quite unique, at least in my collection. I did a comparison to the most similar polish I have, Color Club Wicked Sweet (which itself is basically a dupe of Color Club Pure Energy; that reminds me I have some old posts still waiting in the archives that I should really get around to posting some day!). Left to right, Wicked Sweet, Skinny Dipping, Wicked Sweet, Skinny Dipping:

These two polishes are kind of like opposites – Wicked Sweet is blue with turquoise shimmer, and Skinny Dipping is turquoise with blue shimmer!

I also used three coats of Wicked Sweet, although it wasn’t quite as sheer as Skinny Dipping. This next photo really shows off the difference in the base colours:

Another big difference between the two is that Wicked Sweet is scented; it has a blueberry-candy scent to it.

I like how these two complement one another!

Category:

Color Club, Misa

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Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

I’ve got a gorgeous duochrome from Glitter Gal to show you today! This is one of six new duochromes they recently released, and the lovely Kerry from Glitter Gal gave me the opportunity to review it (thanks, Kerry!). This one is called Buckled Bronze and it’s got a great plum-burgundy-bronze-copper colour shift!

Here it is with the box it comes in. I really like these new Glitter Gal bottles, square and solid and stylish looking – they’ve really done a nice job on their new packaging.

These photos are of one generous coat of Buckled Bronze over one coat of Kleancolor Black; these are sheer duochromes that show their full effect over black (or another very dark colour).

No topcoat here; it dries quite glossy on its own. The formula was thin and smooth, perfect for this sort of layering polish.

As always you can click on any of these photos to get a better view.

These next two photos are with flash in addition to sunlight. Head-on, the flash shows just how nearly purple this polish appears in some lights!

And at more of an angle, the bronze tone becomes prominent:

At extreme angles, the polish even shifts to gold and green. If you click on the full size version of this next photo, you can see all the little multicoloured sparkles along with the gold-green shift – love it!

These next few photos are in indoor light.

Indirect natural light, sorry for the weird lumpy-looking reflections:

Under my Ott Lite:

Ott Lite plus flash:

And here is what the polish looks like on its own – as you can see it’s definitely sheer! Left to right, one, two, three, and four coats of Buckled Bronze. The pinkie with four coats shows how the base of the polish is kind of a smokey taupe colour.

Anyway, as you may have guessed by now, this is a great polish and I love it! The colour scheme is right up my alley. This and the other five new Glitter Gal duochromes, shown in the following company promo image, are available here on their website, or from one of their international distributors listed here.

Disclosure: This polish was provided to me by the company for my honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Category:

Glitter Gal, Kleancolor, Uncategorized

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China Glaze Kalahari Kiss and I Herd That

Here are the other two On Safari polishes that I recently purchased. First up is Kalahari Kiss, a very yellow-toned beige creme (I love this colour!). Shown are two coats and I had no issues with the formula; it went on quite smoothly. Photos are in partially sunny and shady conditions.

I did a glitter-tipped gradient using I Herd That over Kalahari Kiss. I Herd That is an orange-toned bronzy glitter with holo glitter in it. It was quite easy to apply, I just brushed and dabbed it on to make the gradient. I did two coats of the glitter at the tips, receding to one coat further back on the nail, then added top coat. The glitter dries a bit rough (and matte) so a layer or two of topcoat is needed if you want to smooth out the texture and get it nice and shiny.

Under my Ott Lite:

This next photo features my beautiful girl Azrael!

Next I have two coats of I Herd That over bare nails (plus one coat of Poshe topcoat) to show how it looks on its own. As before, it was easy to apply, no need to “place” the glitter or anything like that.

Since a few people had expressed curiosity about how this one compares to last winter’s Ulta-exclusive China Glaze glitter polish, Fireside Glow, I decided to do a comparison. I compared it to Fireside Glow and Ulta-mate Holiday, the other Ulta-exclusive glitter in that same release, both of which I was able to obtain thanks to a helpful US-based nail polish enthusiast! 🙂

Left to right, Fireside Glow, I Herd That, Ulta-mate Holiday:

The swatches show two coats of each polish. I found the formula thinner on the Ulta exclusive shades; they were not quite as easy as I Herd That to get opaque in two coats without getting bald spots, but no big issues. Index to pinkie, Fireside Glow, I Herd That, Ulta-mate Holiday, I Herd That.

As you can see, Fireside Glow is not all that close to I Herd That after all; it’s much more of a pinkish copper shade. Ulta-mate Holiday is obviously much more yellow than the others and seems to have a higher concentration of holo glitter whereas the others also have copper and orange glitters mixed in respectively. I Herd That seems to have a little less holo glitter than Fireside Glow.

On the other hand I found I Herd That to be sparklier than the others in lower lighting situations, probably because of the greater amount of non-holo glitter, if I had to guess why!

Slightly blurred to show the holo sparkle in the sun:

Category:

China Glaze

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Misa Good to be Green and Comparisons

Good To Be Green is a new apple-green creme polish from Misa’s Hot Summer collection. Since I love this colour, I couldn’t pass it up, although I was sure I already owned a dupe. Turns out I was wrong!

I found the formula a little thin when I tried it; this is two coats, the second somewhat thick. I actually had some pooling due to the thinness of the polish, which is rare for me these days, but in the end it turned out fine, nice and opaque.

I thought this one would be the same as Orly Green Apple, but it turns out not to be. The Orly is on my index, the Misa on my middle finger. As you can see, the Misa is a deeper green; the Orly is several shades lighter. I also applied the Orly in two coats, the second being thick.

I included a couple of other polishes in the comparison to show that they’re basically in a different shade family – OPI Who the Shrek Are You? on my ring finger, and Zoya Mitzi on my pinkie, both much more yellow than Good to Be Green.

Who the Shrek Are You? was also a bit thin (everything seemed to be applying thin that day, and yet it was very hot and humid; I thought I might be in the Twilight Zone…) and I used three coats since it was on my ridgey ring finger.

A shade or two lighter than Who the Shrek Are You?, Zoya Mitzi is a very yellow-based neon lime matte polish; here I added topcoat to it for the sake of the comparison with the other glossy cremes. Mitzi was streaky to apply and prone to dragging, so I used three coats to cover some bald spots and streaks.

This is another comparison that would make a nice ombre mani! I love the progression of these bright green shades.

Category:

Misa, OPI, Orly, Zoya

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China Glaze Desert Sun and Comparisons

Desert Sun is one of three shades I picked up from China Glaze’s new On Safari collection. I’ve got another post in the works featuring the other two polishes but I’ll start with this one!

This is one of those “ugly-pretty” shades I love so much. It’s a medium orangey-brown creme. It actually turned out to be a bit more orange than I expected.

I found the formula a little thin, but no big application issues. This is two coats. In the background of this next photo is Azrael; she’s standing on top of a covered litterbox that’s next to the solarium window where I take my pics…

I compared this shade to some similar ones I have. From index to pinkie, we have OPI Ginger Bells, China Glaze Desert Sun, OPI & Apple Pie, and Joe Fresh Pumpkin. Each swatch is two coats of polish, no top coat.

Desert Sun is very similar to OPI & Apple Pie, but Apple Pie is slightly more brown. I found the formula to be better on Desert Sun, as OPI & Apple Pie was thinner & seemed more prone to bald spots. Apple Pie is also an older OPI from before they went “big 3 free” so it has DBP, toluene, etc in it as well as the old skinny brush.

As you can see Ginger Bells is darker and has more of a red tone than the others, and Pumpkin is the least brown of these shades.

If I had realized that Apple Pie was going to be a bit browner than Desert Sun, I would have switched their places and turned this comparison swatch into an ombre mani!

Category:

China Glaze, Joe Fresh, OPI

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Cult Nails Enticing and comparisons

I’ve been meaning to get this post up for a while and finally here it is. This is Enticing from Cult Nails’ second-to-last collection, Divas and Drama. I took these photos when the collection was just released, so you can see why I say “finally” since a whole other collection has come out since then!

I used a base of Milani Smoothe ridge-filling base coat, then two thick coats of Enticing. I didn’t have any problems with streaks applying this way.

As you can see it’s a pale milky pink with fleck-type shimmer in it, and is somewhat jellyish.

I have the other polishes in this collection as well but haven’t swatched them yet (strangely enough, in a collection with a coral, a minty blue, and a flakie, the first one I wore was the less-exciting sheer pale pink!)

These photos are all taken in sunlight.

I compared Enticing to other pale pink polishes that I have, from left, Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, and Zoya Audrey.

Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, on my thumb, is much more of a bubblegum shade than the others. The other polishes, index to pinkie, follow the same order as the bottle pic: China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey. Each swatch is two thick-ish coats over Milani Smoothe.

The base colour of the China Glaze, Cult Nails, and Nicole are very similar, but the shimmer and application distinguish them. China Glaze has shimmer that is coarser than Enticing, while Nicole has coarser shimmer that is actually blue, although that doesn’t always show up very obviously on the nails. In terms of application, the Nicole polish was the streakiest/most prone to bald spots of these three, followed by the China Glaze, and the Cult Nails polish had the least-streaky application.

Zoya Audrey, on my pinkie, is a warmer shade of pink than the other three. This polish came from one of Zoya’s two limited edition New York Fashion Week trios that came out a few months ago, this one being the Peter Som trio, so it isn’t readily available anymore as far as I know. It’s also a little streaky on application.

So there you go, in terms of formula the Cult Nails polish is the clear winner here, although I do prefer the blue shimmer in the Nicole polish. Just wish there was more of it so that it’d be more visible, and that the formula was more like Cult Nails’!

At any rate, Enticing is a great choice if you’re in the market for a milky pale pink with a bit of shimmer. Hopefully I’ll get to swatch the rest of the Divas and Drama collection soon (adding it to the long list of swatches and comparisons that I want to get around to “really soon”! haha)

Category:

China Glaze, Cult Nails, Kleancolor, Nicole by OPI, Zoya

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China Glaze He’s Going in Circles

Just a quick post to show some pics of another great holo; this one is He’s Going in Circles from China Glaze’s (limited edition, unfortunately) Kaleidoscope collection of a few years back. It’s a great minty green scattered holo polish; actually what I would probably call semi-linear since it does give off a somewhat linear rainbow effect made up of scattered sparkles. These photos show two coats with top coat (OPI’s DS topcoat). Nothing to mention about the formula other than it’s one of those formulas of the smooth, perfect and easy to apply holo variety. It’s discontinued but it can often be found on ebay or from blogsales for a not-too-crazy price, generally in the 12-15$ range. Shown in full sun.