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

Archive for October, 2013

Happy Halloween! with Zoya Dhara

Happy Halloween! 😀

Zoya Dhara with topcoat under Ott Lite

Here’s my Halloween mani, featuring Zoya Dhara, my black and white glitter franken, and black cats! (In that first picture the bottle I’m holding is Beatrix, not Dhara, because I grabbed the wrong one!)

Zoya Dhara with topcoat and flash

Here are some photos of Dhara before the additions. Zoya Dhara is a deep orange texture polish with gold glitter, from the fall 2013 Pixie Dust collection.

Zoya Dhara in overcast light

This is just one coat! I’m really glad I got this polish, it’s awesome!

Zoya Dhara in overcast light

Zoya Dhara in overcast light

I had some sun during the late afternoon so I went outside to get sun photos with my phone camera:

Zoya Dhara in sun

Zoya Dhara in sun

As mentioned, the black and white glitter I added to most of the nails is my own frankenpolish. On the ring finger, I first used a layer of topcoat to smooth out the texture, and then stamped a black cat using Kleancolor Black and stamping plate HB49, which is made by HB Nails and has a bunch of cat designs. I ordered the plate from Amazon UK, not sure if it’s still available there.

Zoya Dhara with topcoat and flash

Finally, a blurry shot to show all the sparkle that topcoat brings out in Dhara!

Zoya Dhara with topcoat and flash

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Maya Cosmetics Nefarious Aquarius

I have an indie polish to show you today, from the brand Maya Cosmetics which I was excited to learn states on their website that their polishes are vegan friendly!

Maya Cosmetics Nefarious Aquarius

This is Nefarious Aquarius, a teal/turquoise holo polish! Photo above is with flash, and the following ones are under Ott Lite.

Maya Cosmetics Nefarious Aquarius

Two coats, no complaints about the formula! It’s all around just a great polish!

Maya Cosmetics Nefarious Aquarius

Maya Cosmetics Nefarious Aquarius

Maya Cosmetics Nefarious Aquarius

And finally, not the greatest photo, but here is how it looked outdoors in the sunlight:

Maya Cosmetics Nefarious Aquarius

From the Vault, again…

More random old stuff!

Nubar Pink Flame, under artificial light:

Nubar Pink Flame, artificial light

Nubar Pink Flame, artificial light

Nubar Pink Flame, artificial light

Comparison: left to right, Finger Paints Catwalk Queen, Butter London Bumster (middle and ring fingers), Misa Hot Couture. The Butter London and Finger Paints polishes are quite close, Finger Paints just has slightly more orange, while the Misa is noticeably darker.

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Butter London Bumster by itself:

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OPI Pepe’s Purple Passion (in light box and camera wouldn’t focus properly on the polish surface!):

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I’ll admit, while I ended up really liking Pepe’s Purple Passion, I mainly wanted it for the name, because of this handsome guy whose name is Pepe. Although we usually call him Tex. 🙂

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Essence Wanna Be My Sunshine with accent nail in NYX Girls Pure Green, all layered with LA Girl Zesty Citrus overtop:

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Illamasqua Elope:

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Zoya FeiFei and comparison

Today I have another polish from last fall to show you! Zoya FeiFei from the Diva collection.

Zoya FeiFei

FeiFei is a multicoloured foily fleck polish that is predominantly blue, with hints of gold among others. I love this type of foily flecks.

Zoya FeiFei

Three coats are shown, and the formula was great.

Zoya FeiFei

Zoya FeiFei

Under Ott Lite:

Zoya FeiFei

Zoya FeiFei

With flash:

Zoya FeiFei

One coat over black, in overcast natural light. It doesn’t really look much different over black, just, well, darker.

Zoya FeiFei over black

I compared FeiFei to Zoya Crystal, another blue with gold.

Zoya FeiFei and Crystal

Left: FeiFei, right: Crystal.

Three coats of each polish.

Zoya FeiFei and Crystal

Pinkie to index: Crystal, FeiFei, Crystal, FeiFei.

Crystal is a lighter, more true blue than FeiFei, and only has blue and gold flecks. The flecks are slightly bigger in Crystal as well. FeiFei is murkier in comparison due to the multi coloured flecks giving off an overall greyish look.

Zoya FeiFei and Crystal

Index to pinkie: FeiFei, Crystal, FeiFei, Crystal.

OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby and comparison to Orly Flicker

Deutsch You Want Me Baby is from OPI’s Germany collection from last fall.

OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby

It’s a very nice metallic rusty red-orange. Its formula is thin and smooth and only needs two coats but I’m wearing three in the photos because my nails were in rough shape at the time and I didn’t use any basecoat.

OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby

I compared it to Orly Flicker, which came out around the same time. Left to right in the comparison photos: Deutsch, Flicker, Deutsch, Flicker. Three coats of Flicker, which is more sheer than Deutsch.

OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby and Orly Flicker

Index to pinkie: Deutsch, Flicker, Deutsch, Flicker.

OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby and Orly Flicker

Index to pinkie: Deutsch, Flicker, Deutsch, Flicker.

OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby and Orly Flicker

Index to pinkie: Deutsch, Flicker, Deutsch, Flicker.

OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby and Orly Flicker

Index to pinkie: Deutsch, Flicker, Deutsch, Flicker.

The base colour is similar between these two, but the Orly is more orange and glowy and has a mild duochrome that the OPI does not. This last photo shows that distinction best:

OPI Deutsch You Want Me Baby and Orly Flicker

Index to pinkie: Deutsch, Flicker, Deutsch, Flicker.

Both great polishes but I much prefer Flicker; it’s one of my favourites!

From the Vault

More old pics that I haven’t posted before… I think all of these photos are under the Ott Lite except for the last one.

Glitter gradient of OPI DS Temptation with Nubar Sky Sparkle.

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With Ozotic 505 overtop:

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OPI DS Desire, my favourite OPI DS shade.

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Sephora by OPI Rumba Romance with half moons in Orly Chocolate Martini.

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Milani Golden Lilac (the one with gold shimmer) and Kleancolor Gorgeous Surprise (the one with blue shimmer). I don’t remember what the base colour was that they’re layered over, unfortunately.

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Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams

Breaking the silence with a texture polish! This is Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams (what’s with all the stupid “man of my dreams” names? They already had “snow-man of my dreams” in one of the winter collections, sheesh! heheh). Anyway, this is a great polish!

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams

It’s a sparkly multicoloured texture, with predominantly brick red and burgundy tones and little sparks that appear orange and blue in the light. Very complex and deep polish!

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams

Shown are two coats; it has a great formula. As usual any of the photos can be clicked on to see the full size versions that show the sparkly detail of the texture!

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams

Here it is with topcoat. I added a third coat before the topcoat because I had a bit of tip wear from already having the polish on for a while.

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams

I did an accent thumb nail in Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve since they seem like such complementary polishes!

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams and Just Busta Mauve

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams and Just Busta Mauve

With topcoat over Cinna-man:

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams and Just Busta Mauve with OPI I Juggle Men

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams and Just Busta Mauve with OPI I Juggle Men

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams and Just Busta Mauve with OPI I Juggle Men

Busta Mauve is kind of like the foily fleck version of Cinna-man, but it does have a lot more blue and purple in it. That, and the fact that the texture “ate” my first coat of topcoat pretty well, inspired me to add OPI I Juggle Men overtop.

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams and Just Busta Mauve with OPI I Juggle Men

Love this combo!!

Nicole by OPI Cinna-man of My Dreams and Just Busta Mauve with OPI I Juggle Men

More From the Vault

My apologies for the lack of posts! Things have just been super busy lately! So I thought I’d post another group of photos from several years ago that I just never got around to posting and don’t necessarily have the info on number of coats, formula etc. anymore.

OPI Fiercely Fiona with Nicole by OPI Brilliant Idea on the accent finger.

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A frankenpolish that I call Firecracker. The ingredients for this are Martha Stewart glitter in fire opal (which does bleed colour into the base, but not too much) and some of the LA Girl Glitter Addict polishes in orange, fuchsia, and red.

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OPI Absolutely Alice with half moons in Nubar Night Sparkle.

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OPI and Apple Pie, a classic “ugly” shade, under the Ott Lite.

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