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

Archive for January, 2014

Ninja Polish Shillelagh

Yet another green indie. I love this – and the other few Ninja Polish Enigma collection polishes I own. I hope they start production up again soon; I’d love to get Mystic Glacier (and all the others I don’t have yet!)

Anyway, this one is Shillelagh, a green base with multichrome red-to-green colour shifting pigment. Three coats (it’s a little sheer to allow the colour shift to show prominently), no issues with application.

Flash photos, showing off the red-gold side of the colour shift:

Ninja Polish Shillelagh

Ninja Polish Shillelagh

Ninja Polish Shillelagh

And Ott Lite photos, showing off the green end of the colour shift, making this pretty much the glowiest glowy green ever!:

Ninja Polish Shillelagh

Ninja Polish Shillelagh

Ninja Polish Shillelagh

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Pretty and Polished Old Green River and Sand Art, and Maya Cosmetics Deuces

This post is heavy on indies and heavy on green. 😀

Maya Cosmetics Deuces, a creamy chartreuse green with subtle holo, two coats:

Maya Cosmetics Deuces

In overcast light:

Maya Cosmetics Deuces

With one thick layer of Pretty and Polished Sand Art on the middle finger, with flash:

Maya Cosmetics Deuces and Pretty and Polished Sand Art

Next, Pretty and Polished Old Green River, an unfortunately discontinued amazing glowy green with gold shimmer, also two coats, under Ott lite:

Pretty and Polished Old Green River

With flash:

Pretty and Polished Old Green River

Under halogen light;

Pretty and Polished Old Green River

With one thick coat of Sand Art overtop:

Pretty and Polished Sand Art over Old Green River

Pretty and Polished Sand Art over Old Green River

With topcoat overtop:

Pretty and Polished Sand Art over Old Green River

Pretty and Polished Sand Art over Old Green River

I love all three of these!!

Vegan Cuts Beauty Box

I’ve got something a little different on the blog today! I was contacted not long ago by Vegan Cuts, a vegan business that has an online marketplace and two different kinds of monthly subscription boxes, and asked if I’d like to review one of the monthly beauty boxes. (The other subscription box is a vegan snack box! cool!)

Here’s how they describe the beauty box: “The easiest way to discover cruelty-free brands without committing to full-size products or prices. Each month you’ll receive a delivery of 4-7 new products to try, ranging from unique cosmetics to luxurious skincare.”

I received the December box to review, and here it is!

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I had a little helper when I was trying to take items out of the box and photograph them. Fred Hampton!

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Fred says that his personal favourite items from the box are the little crinkly packing paper strips, and the tube of lip balm! 😉

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Anyway, let’s see everything that was in the box, shall we? 😀

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Nail polish! A set of four minis from the Color Club Harlem Lights collection. I’ll be giving these babies their own swatch post in the near future!

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Next, a sample of Soapbox black soap – I haven’t tried this yet, but I love black soap! – a Ferro eyeshadow sample, and two LA Fresh oil-free face cleansing cloths. I tried one of the cleansing cloths – it was really nice, does a great job removing makeup, and leaves your face feeling refreshed, no rinsing needed.

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Here we have a cute little pleather coin purse by Lavishy, a tube of Spearmint Jersey Shore Sun lip balm, and two Everyday Minerals makeup samples. I’ve been using the lip balm and I love it! Nice and minty and very moisturizing and conditioning. My lips have been pretty chapped with the extreme cold weather lately – the spearmint oil in this lip balm feels all tingly (in a good way!) and it does a great job getting rid of peeling, flaking skin.

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Here’s a better look at the Lavishy coin purse. Really nice textured-look pleather!

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Here are the Everyday Minerals samples – All Smiles blush and Finishing Dust finishing powder. The little sample packets are recloseable at the top.

allsmiles

I actually already own a larger size of this blush, so I thought I’d show a photo of what it looks like! I used to have a container of Finishing Dust too, but I must have used it up because I couldn’t find it!

ferro

Here is the Ferro eyeshadow sample, and below is the label on the back.

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Swatches, left to right: All Smiles Blush, Finishing Dust, and Hollywood Blvd. eyeshadow. In sunlight:

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With flash:

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The Vegan Cuts website states that when they send makeup in the beauty box, it won’t be anything that is specific to only a narrow range of skin tones, and I think they’ve succeeded with that here! All Smiles is a coral-pink shade of blush that should look good on just about anyone. If I recall correctly, I think it’s Everyday Minerals’ most popular shade of blush. Finishing Dust, which as I’ve mentioned, I’ve used before, is a very translucent powder for setting your makeup and absorbing moisture, and doesn’t add any colour itself when applied as a finishing powder. Hollywood Blvd. eyeshadow looks like a great neutral brown tone that has some pink and green sparkle to it.

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In the box, there was also a card with more information on each of the items and about Vegan Cuts.

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So there you have it! A subscription box service without any animal use, such a great initiative! The variety of items in the December box was great, and the items I’ve tried so far are awesome. According to the website, the January boxes ship out on January 20th, so there’s still time to sign up for them. Subscribing costs 19.95$USD per month, with varying rates for shipping depending on where you are (free shipping to the US, 8$ to Canada, and 15$ to other countries). For more info you can refer to their website here: http://vegancuts.com/beautybox

Disclosure: the products in this post (except the one noted) were provided by Vegan Cuts for my honest review.

NCLA Poolside Party, All Eyes On Me

Today I have one of my favourite creme polishes to show you, NCLA Poolside Party, All Eyes On Me. One reason I love this so much is the uniqueness of the almost-neon pastel peach shade. I previously showed it in a swatch wheel comparison here.

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This is one of those colours that is really difficult to photograph accurately! The first two photos are with flash, and the last two are under Ott lite, and give a pretty good indication of the colour in different lighting, I think.

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I used three coats of Poolside Party, plus top coat. The formula is admittedly difficult to work with; it’s got the streakiness typical of pastels. But so worth it!

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I would highly recommend this for anyone who likes peach and/or neon-pastel shades!

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Some Random Pics

A few random manis from various points over the past year or so!

Pretty and Polished Phoenix over Joe Fresh Mustard:

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China Glaze Trendsetter with foily gradient accent – the green is Nicole by OPI My Favourite Gold over Brilliant Idea, and the gold is either Orly Glitz & Glamour or OPI Goldeneye, I don’t remember…

China Glaze Trendsetter with lime/gold foily accent

China Glaze Trendsetter with lime/gold foily accent

Soulstice Spa Crete… I still don’t like silver on me!

Soulstice Crete

Soulstice Crete

Soulstice Crete

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Happy New Year!! Today I have an awesome Indigo Bananas duochrome to show you! Fiery the Angels Fell is a glass-fleck polish that shifts between red and orange with a little fuchsia and gold in there too. It also looks to me like there are some very, very fine holo specs throughout the polish!

I used two coats (plus top coat) and found the formula smooth and thick, with very dense glass fleck. On the accent nail I used one coat over black, and as you can see I did have a little trouble with the thickness there; I wasn’t able to apply a thin even coat. So I think if I use it over black again I’ll add a little thinner first, or do one thick coat instead of trying to do a thin one.

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Beautiful, beautiful polish! Warm halogen light shows off the orange side of the polish:

Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell