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

Archive for August, 2013

Yellow and Gold Textured Ombré

More texture! This is a mani I did a few weeks ago featuring four textured polishes. Actually, one of them is not really a textured polish, it’s a glitter striping polish, but it doubles as texture really well!

The polishes are Nicole by OPI Lemon Lolly (yellow jelly based texture), Zoya Solange (yellow-gold texture), LA Colors Art Deco striper in 24K Glitter (medium gold complex-looking glitter), LA Girl Sands of Time (white gold texture with some medium hexes). Love this! Photos in overcast light.

Nicole by OPI Lemon Lolly, Zoya Solange, LA Colors Art Deco striper in 24K Glitter, LA Girl Sands of Time

Nicole by OPI Lemon Lolly, Zoya Solange, LA Colors Art Deco striper in 24K Glitter, LA Girl Sands of Time

I did Lemon Lolly on my thumb as well as on my index.

Nicole by OPI Lemon Lolly, Zoya Solange, LA Colors Art Deco striper in 24K Glitter, LA Girl Sands of Time

Nicole by OPI Lemon Lolly, Zoya Solange, LA Colors Art Deco striper in 24K Glitter, LA Girl Sands of Time

With topcoat, photos taken under Ott lite:

Nicole by OPI Lemon Lolly, Zoya Solange, LA Colors Art Deco striper in 24K Glitter, LA Girl Sands of Time

Nicole by OPI Lemon Lolly, Zoya Solange, LA Colors Art Deco striper in 24K Glitter, LA Girl Sands of Time, with topcoat

Sparkly!

Nicole by OPI Lemon Lolly, Zoya Solange, LA Colors Art Deco striper in 24K Glitter, LA Girl Sands of Time

Nicole by OPI Lemon Lolly, Zoya Solange, LA Colors Art Deco striper in 24K Glitter, LA Girl Sands of Time, with topcoat

Jordana Wild Shore and Yellow Madness

I’m really liking textured polishes, but at first I wasn’t too sure about the ones that aren’t glittery and sparkly. I think they’ve grown on me, though!

Jordana Wild Shore and Yellow Madness

These two are by Jordana, which is made by the same company that makes Milani. These seem to be the exact same polishes as Milani’s Texture Creams, only they were a couple dollars cheaper so I got these instead!

Jordana Wild Shore

I started out with Wild Shore, a teal green creme with texture. I can’t remember whether I did two or three coats, and I don’t seem to have written it down. I do remember having a little trouble with application, as I found these really need thin coats in order to get the best finish (so I’m thinking I probably ended up doing three thin coats), and at first I was making my coats too thick. Then I was trying to find the right balance between thin coats but having enough polish on the brush.

Jordana Wild Shore

But I’m really happy with the way it turned out! I then sponged on a gradient using Jordana Yellow Madness along with Wild Shore.

Jordana Wild Shore and Yellow Madness

I love the combination of yellow and turquoise! And the sponging really brings out the texture of these polishes, since the sponging technique leaves less polish on top of the texture particles. Looks really sugary and crystalline!

Jordana Wild Shore and Yellow Madness

LA Colors Illusion and Wisteria

I’ve got a quick post for you today featuring two LA Colors polishes.

Illusion is a periwinkle blue creme with a slightly jellyish quality to it, and the accent colour, Wisteria, is a warm lilac creme with hidden shimmer. Two coats each plus topcoat, and I applied dots of Illusion to the accent nail using a dotting tool.

LA Colors Illusion and Wisteria

LA Colors Illusion and Wisteria

LA Colors Illusion and Wisteria

Nicole by OPI That’s What I Mint

Today I have That’s What I Mint to show you, one of the texture polishes from Nicole by OPI.

Under my Ott light:

Nicole by OPI That's What I Mint

It’s not actually mint at all, it’s a deep teal with lots of sparkle, including gold glitter. Shown are two coats, and I had no issues with application.

Natural light:

Nicole by OPI That's What I Mint

Teal textured glitter with a hint of gold, it should be no big surprise that I just love this polish!

Nicole by OPI That's What I Mint

Here it is with topcoat in the last two photos. It needs two layers of top coat to smooth it completely; I applied one layer and then later on, after it was fully dry and the polish had “eaten” the top coat a bit, added the second layer. The photos were taken after applying the first layer of top coat.

Nicole by OPI That's What I Mint with topcoat

With topcoat under the Ott light:

Nicole by OPI That's What I Mint with topcoat

Ruby White Tips Bubblegum Martini

I’ve got another Ruby White Tips polish to show you today; this time it’s Bubblegum Martini from the Happy Hour collection.

Ruby White Tips Bubblegum Martini

Bubblegum Martini is a neon pink jelly polish full of different colours and shapes of iridescent glitter, shards, and tiny flakes. I love the iridescent blue-purple squares!

Ruby White Tips Bubblegum Martini

I used three coats. Being a neon, this polish dries matte, and I also used topcoat for these photos. The formula was good, and it dries very quickly!

Ruby White Tips Bubblegum Martini

This last photo is under my Ott light:

Ruby White Tips Bubblegum Martini

Color Club Port-folio

Here’s another polish from last fall – Color Club Port-folio from the In True Fashion collection. This is a great purple with duochrome green/pink shimmer. First photo is under a halogen lamp.

Color Club Port-folio

Shown are two coats (three on a couple of nails where I had bald spots). Next three photos in overcast natural light:

Color Club Port-folio

Color Club Port-folio

Color Club Port-folio

The formula on this one is good, but a little care does need to be taken to get the brush strokes straight (they’re much less noticeable after it dries, though). The last two photos are under the Ott Light, and the first one really shows the fuchsia-pink shift of the duochrome.

Color Club Port-folio

Color Club Port-folio

I was afraid I might not like this one on me, since I don’t really care for dark purple/green duochromes on myself (I like them on others though), but I *love* this medium purple one!

China Glaze Sun of a Peach and comparisons

Here’s another neon from the China Glaze Sunsational collection!

China Glaze Sun of a Peach

Sun of a Peach is a neon pastel peach, and a great unique colour! I like the name too, haha.

China Glaze Sun of a Peach

The formula is a bit difficult to work with, but not really worse than other neons or pastels.

China Glaze Sun of a Peach

I used three coats to even everything out. The photos include base coat and top coat.

China Glaze Sun of a Peach

I think the colour is certainly worth putting up with the neon formula. With flash:

China Glaze Sun of a Peach

In the shade:

China Glaze Sun of a Peach

And here is a nail wheel comparison with other peaches, neon and non-neon, and some that lean more towards coral. The photo was taken with flash, but somehow the polishes still look a bit darker than they do in real life. So, word of warning that these aren’t colour accurate, but give a good indication of the relative differences in these polishes!

Sun of a Peach and peach/coral comparisons

1) China Glaze Sun of a Peach, 2) Misa Shake it to the Samba, 3) China Glaze Peachy Keen, 4) Nubar Orange Creme, 5) NCLA Poolside Party All Eyes On Me, 6) Joe Fresh Orange Sorbet, 7) Kleancolor Mango, 8) Jessica Tangerine Dreamz, 9) NYX Amazon, 10) Cult Nails Scandalous, 11) OPI Apricotcha Cheating, 12) FingerPaints Circus Peanuts, 13) NYX Girls Naked Pink, 14) Funky Fingers Daiquiri on the Deck, 15) Barry M Peach Melba, 16) Kleancolor Pastel Orange, 17) Illamasqua Purity, 18) Essence Rebels Peach Punk

None of these are close to Sun of a Peach; the most similar are Kleancolor Mango which is darker and much less bright, and oldie NYX Amazon which is a translucent jelly with iridescent glitter, however. But as you can see there are some dupes and near-dupes among the other polishes – notably China Glaze Peachy Keen and Misa Shake it to the Samba which are basically identical. Cult Nails Scandalous is also similar to OPI Apricotcha Cheating, and Kleancolor Pastel Orange to Illamasqua Purity, but those pairs aren’t close enough to be dupes.