Nubar | Vegan Claws

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

Archive for the ‘Nubar’ Category

Zoya Tracie, Meg and comparisons

Since October is Depression Awareness Month (yup, it’s not just for breast cancer!) and the depression awareness colour is green, I thought a green-heavy first post of the month would be appropriate.

So, I’ve got Zoya Tracie and Meg from the Beach and Surf collection, along with nail wheel comparisons with tons of other green shades!

This is Zoya Tracie, two coats. I love this colour, soft yellow-toned green creme base with subtle pearly silver shimmer.

The formula was a little tricky, thick yet threatening to drip down the brush stem, and I had to take care to let it dry between coats to prevent dragging. Worth it for such a great shade! The photos include base and top coat.

Meg is a medium green foil. I also had a little streaking and dragging with this one, but then I didn’t use a base coat for this swatch so that may have been the reason. This is two coats of Meg.

Really nice polish as well, but much less interesting than Tracie to me. Tracie is much more unique.

And now for the massive comparisons! The first photo shows the nail wheels in direct sunlight, and the second photo shows them under the Ott Lite. Clicking on the photos will bring up a bigger version where it’s easier to see the polishes (but then, the caption isn’t included, so the close-up polishes and their names aren’t visible together; sorry about that). Meg and Tracie are the polishes in the middle that are almost touching, one on each wheel.

Zoya Tracie & Meg green comparison wheels

Left wheel, clockwise from top: Color Club Mol-ten, Color Club Kiss Me Mistletoe, Wet n Wild Jungle Fever, Cosmetic Arts You Sleigh Me, Zoya Meg, Kleancolor Metallic Green, Butter London Dosh, Finger Paints Comet’s Collar, NYX Girls Luscious Green, Zoya Midori, Nicole by OPI Make Mine Lime, Sparitual Greenhouse, Gosh Golden Dragon.
Right wheel, counterclockwise from gap in polishes: NYX (Salon line) Lime, Nicole by OPI My Favourite Gold, OPI Simply Smashing, Kleancolor Jazz Olive, Zoya Tangy, Misa Secrets, OPI Bikini Envy, Zoya Tracie, Milani Original, LA Girl Color Addict Urge, Soulstice Telluride, Misa Fountain of Youth, Milani Key Lime Shine, Nubar Baby Sprout, NYX (Salon line) Pastel Pistachio, Nubar Kiwi.

No exact dupes to these Zoyas, but Wet n Wild Jungle Fever is very close to Meg, and Cosmetic Arts You Sleigh Me (next to Meg) is also pretty similar. The base colour of the NYX Salon polish in Pastel Pistachio is pretty close to Tracie, but the NYX polish is just a plain creme without any shimmer. OPI Bikini Envy is the shimmery polish that I’d say is closest to Tracie, but the OPI is lighter, more sheer, and frostier. Actually, I’m thinking Tracie is pretty similar to what it would look like to mix NYX Pastel Pistachio and OPI Bikini Envy together!

A couple pairs of notable near-dupes in here: Color Club Mol-ten and Kiss Me Mistletoe (Mistletoe is scented, though); OPI Simply Smashing and Nicole by OPI My Favourite Gold (which I think is an odd name, my favourite gold is a green??).

Category:

Butter London, Color Club, Cosmetic Arts, GOSH, Kleancolor, LA Girl, Milani, Misa, Nicole by OPI, Nubar, NYX, OPI, Soulstice Spa, SpaRitual, Wet n Wild, Zoya

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Soulstice Monterey and comparisons

I’ve got another Soulstice polish to show you today; this one is an older shade that I purchased online from Nail Polish Canada.

Monterey is a medium dusty blue creme. In fact, on applying one coat, it looks like the base is sheer and milky, which gives the polish its soft, dusty look. I had a hard time capturing the true colour of this shade; in real life it seems a bit softer than some of these photos suggest.

Monterey covers pretty well in two coats, although the formula is slightly thin so if your nails have ridges like mine, it’s better at three coats, which is what I used for these photos. I didn’t have any base coat under this swatch, so a ridge filler probably would have helped too.

Monterey in the shade:

I have a comparison to some other blue polishes that are actually not very similar to Monterey at all! From left to right, Cult Nails Time Traveler, Monterey, Nails Inc Baker Street, and Sally Girl Epic which is like a lighter version of Baker Street. Monterey actually looks truer to colour in this photo.

Left to right: Cult Nails Time Traveler, Soulstice Monterey, Nails Inc. Baker St, Sally Girl Epic

After doing that comparison, I realized that I actually *did* have a polish that was much closer to Monterey than the others, Nubar Boyfriend Jeans. This photo makes these polishes look darker than they are, but it shows the two relative to each other.

Top to bottom: Nubar Boyfriend Jeans, Soulstice Monterey

Closer, but far from being a dupe; Boyfriend Jeans has a hint of teal in it in comparison.

I love Monterey; I love the milkiness and the way it builds up and the fact that it’s super glossy (no top coat in these photos). And as the comparisons show, it’s also a totally unique shade of blue in my polish stash!

Category:

Cult Nails, Nubar, Sally Girl, Soulstice Spa

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Zoya Myrta and Comparisons

Zoya Myrta is from their summer 2012 collection, Surf. I’m slowly but surely trying to do large nail wheel comparison posts for all of the Beach and Surf polishes. I like to see where shades fit into the colour spectrum of similar shades, and hopefully you do too, dear readers. 🙂

Myrta is an orange-red coral shade, with a finish somewhere between foil and glass fleck. This is two coats of Myrta, with two coats of Cult Nails Get it On base coat underneath as I’d heard this polish stains. The two coats of base coat did prevent staining, but did cause a bit of bubbling; not sure if I didn’t wait long enough between coats, or if Zoya just doesn’t play nicely with Cult Nails base coat…

Bright, shimmery, pretty!

Here are my nail wheel comparisons with Myrta! I used pretty much any polish in remotely the same colour family here, so the wheel is full! I realized afterward that I probably should have numbered or somehow indicated the start position on the wheel, but hopefully it’s not difficult to find Myrta as it’s pretty much at the top in both photos (more specifically, it’s the one right above the letter ‘L’ in the word ‘WHEEL’ that is on the centre of the wheel) and right next to it is the matte Manglaze polish (I applied topcoat to only half of this matte shade’s swatch). As usual, each swatch shows a progression of one, two and three coats of the given polish.

Like last time, I have to apologize again for the lack of appropriate lighting to properly and accurately show the nail wheel comparisons. Again, I did one photo in the sun and one under the Ott Lite. I’m waiting on a soft lightbox that I ordered, so hopefully soon I’ll be able to take better photos of these types of comparisons. Sun photo:

Clockwise from top: Zoya Myrta, Manglaze Butt Taco (matte, left side of swatch with topcoat), Color Club Feel the Beat, LA Colors Fiery Orange, Nubar Arencia, Milani Metal Gear, Orly Flicker, LA Girl Copper Alloy, No Miss Tamarack Tangerine, Soulstice Rio, LA Colors Coral Reef, Milani Glitzy Jam, Milani Just Peachy, Milani Melt With U, LA Colors Aztec Orange, Orly Emberstone, Milani Orange Burst, Milani Flashlight.

Ott Lite photo:

In terms of similarity, I’d say that Myrta is closest to LA Colors Aztec Orange (4th shade to the left of Myrta), although Aztec Orange has a sheerer base and more sparse shimmery flecks. As you can see, some of the shades on the wheel are dupes or near-dupes to one another, notably Milani Orange Burst and Flashlight, and the trio of LA Colors Fiery Orange, Nubar Arencia, and Milani Metal Gear.

Category:

Color Club, LA Colors, LA Girl, Manglaze, Milani, No Miss, Nubar, Orly, Soulstice Spa, Zoya

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Zoya Shelby and Comparisons

When I posted my Zoya Beach skittles, I promised swatches and comparisons of the Beach and Surf collection polishes, and the project is going slowly but I’ve finally got the first one ready: Zoya Shelby, a bubblegum pink creme.

I used three coats for this swatch because I was having issues with streaks and lumps, but I think I had just had too much coffee that day or something since I only needed two coats of Shelby when I did the skittles.

In shade:

These next two photos were taken the following day so they include top coat. I can’t remember what happened to my index finger to make it no longer presentable, I suppose probably a chip! As usual, the ridges on my ring finger are just the way the nail is, not the fault of the polish!

Now for some comparisons. Each swatch on the nail wheel progressively shows the polish at one, two and three coats from base to tip. These were taken in full sunlight which is probably not the best light for photographing nail wheels (diffused light would be better), so I’m including two photos at different angles.

Left to right: China Glaze Pink Underground, Wet n Wild Candylicious, Milani Tip Toe, Zoya Shelby, Gosh Bubblegum, Nubar Pink Creme, OPI Got a Date To-Knight, China Glaze Empowerment, OPI Pink Friday

I included one shimmer polish (Pink Underground) since the shimmer is subtle and the base colour is in the same family. I also included some popular darker (Candylicious) and lighter (Got a Date, Pink Friday, Empowerment) pinks to show where Shelby fits into the spectrum.

Left to right: China Glaze Pink Underground, Wet n Wild Candylicious, Milani Tip Toe, Zoya Shelby, Gosh Bubblegum, Nubar Pink Creme, OPI Got a Date To-Knight, China Glaze Empowerment, OPI Pink Friday

These last swatches are under the Ott Lite, showing just the polishes that are closest to Shelby.

Top to bottom: Nubar Pink Creme, Zoya Shelby, Gosh Bubblegum, Milani Tip Toe Pink

I’d say in one way that Gosh Bubblegum is the most similar of them since it also has a cool undertone while Tip Toe Pink and Pink Creme are slightly more warm. But Tip Toe Pink is the closest in terms of the depth of the shade, since the Gosh polish is definitely lighter!

Category:

China Glaze, GOSH, Milani, Nubar, OPI, Wet n Wild, Zoya

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Illamasqua Whack with Nubar Orange Glitter and Fingerpaints Twisted

Some quick pics of a manicure I did last week! This is Illamasqua Whack, a red-toned orange creme with a really nice formula. It’s almost a one-coater; I ended up doing two coats here. I dabbed on Nubar Orange Glitter at the tips and then a layer of Fingerpaints Twisted over everything!

Category:

FingerPaints, Illamasqua, Nubar

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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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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.

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

Category:

Nubar

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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!

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.

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.

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.

Category:

LA Girl, Nubar

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Sally Girl TTFN and comparisons

If you’ve been to a Sally Beauty Supply store lately you may have noticed that they have five new shades in their Sally Girl line of mini nail polishes. I got a couple of the new ones, including this one called TTFN. And guess what, these new ones actually show the names on the bottles! At the top right of the little sticker along the side. No more cross-referencing the 6-digit number on the sally.com site to try to figure out what the polish’s name is, haha!

Two coats of TTFN. It was a little streaky on the first coat, but a second thicker coat evened everything out. Colour-wise, this slightly dusty, minty sage green is in between Orly Ancient Jade (which is a tiny bit deeper and brighter), and Misa Catch a Flick (which is a little lighter), as the following photo shows (top to bottom, Catch a Flick, TTFN, Ancient Jade).

In terms of formula, Ancient Jade had a formula that was thinner than TTFN but was also more pigmented and opaque. Catch a Flick had a formula similar to TTFN, a little streaky on the first coat but evening up at the second.

I also compared a couple of other colours for reference. Thumb to pinky, NYX Girls Algae, much darker and bluer, Orly Ancient Jade, Sally Girl TTFN, Misa Catch a Flick, and Nubar Vogue Vert, lighter and more of a dusty yellow-based sage.

Category:

Misa, Nubar, NYX, Orly, Sally Girl

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OPI Man of La Mancha

Happy New Year everyone!

I recently got this discontinued OPI on eBay (it was released in their 2003 Holiday on Broadway collection) and it immediately jumped straight to the top of my list of favourites. It’s an amazing duochrome (well, multichrome really) burgundy/red that flashes through shades of orange, yellow and green at different angles, and also has a ton of fine sparkle in it.

Shown is two coats of Man of La Mancha over one coat of Kleancolor Black, my favourite one-coat black. Man of La Mancha is from OPI’s old formula (contains toluene) and so is super-smooth and easy to apply. It’s a pretty sheer polish, as many good multichromes are, so I put it over black which really shows off all the colours it shifts to. I haven’t tried it on its own or over other colours yet, but am looking forward to!

I also added a coat of Nubar 2010 flakie polish on my ring finger – the flakes have the same colour scheme as Man of La Mancha so I thought they would go well together. However, Man of La Mancha is just so sparkly and awesome that the flakies weren’t even visible in most light! In the the photos with the turquoise background below, you can see the flakes though. Those were taken in my bathroom under incandescent lights.

Anyway, I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking – short version, if you have a chance to get this amazing polish, do it!!

Category:

Kleancolor, Nubar, OPI

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Vegan Claws

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

Archive for the ‘Nubar’ Category

Zoya Tracie, Meg and comparisons

Soulstice Monterey and comparisons

Zoya Myrta and Comparisons

Zoya Shelby and Comparisons

Illamasqua Whack with Nubar Orange Glitter and Fingerpaints Twisted

Nubar Beguiling Carmine and China Glaze Sacred Heart

Nubar Toasted Marshmallow

Nubar Wildlife and LA Girl Crowd Surfing

Sally Girl TTFN and comparisons

OPI Man of La Mancha

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