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

Archive for the ‘Wet n Wild’ Category

OPI Goldeneye and Comparison

Happy solstice! 😀 I thought I would post a sunny colour to celebrate.

OPI Goldeneye

This is OPI Goldeneye, which I used in a couple of previous nail art manicures. I love gold polishes and this one is a great one, full of irregular foily flecks.

OPI Goldeneye

The swatch shows three coats; the polish is sheer but has a good formula.

OPI Goldeneye

I did a comparison of Goldeneye to a few other yellow gold polishes. First, here’s a bottle comparison of Goldeneye to Orly Glitz & Glamour. Goldeneye has more of an orange/copper tone to it than Glitz & Glamour.

OPI Goldeneye and Orly Glitz & Glamour

Top to bottom: OPI Goldeneye (3 coats), Orly Glitz & Glamour (2 coats), Sparitual Solstice (2 coats), Wet n Wild The Gold and The Beautiful (3 coats).

OPI Goldeneye, Orly Glitz & Glamour, Sparitual Solstice, Wet n Wild The Gold and the Beautiful

OPI Goldeneye, Orly Glitz & Glamour, Sparitual Solstice, Wet n Wild The Gold and the Beautiful

Glitz & Glamour and Solstice are yellower than Goldeneye and are dupes to one another; I’d guess they’re probably the exact same polish in fact, since Orly and Sparitual are made by the same company.

OPI Goldeneye, Orly Glitz & Glamour, Sparitual Solstice, Wet n Wild The Gold and the Beautiful

The Wet n Wild polish is the sheerest of these shades. Instead of a foil it’s more like sparse glass flecks. At three coats here, it’s still quite sheer. I like to use this one in frankens when I want to add some gold flecks!

OPI Goldeneye, Orly Glitz & Glamour, Sparitual Solstice, Wet n Wild The Gold and the Beautiful

Category:

OPI, Orly, SpaRitual, Wet n Wild

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China Glaze Fast Track

China Glaze Fast Track is a taupey-beige nude with heavy golden shimmer flakes. It was released last spring in the Hunger Games collection.

China Glaze Fast Track

Shown are two thick coats. In the sun photos, there’s also a layer of topcoat. As evidenced by the sideways watermark, these pics were also taken using my phone, haha!

China Glaze Fast Track

I found the formula a little thick but didn’t have any problems with application.

China Glaze Fast Track

The sun photos didn’t quite catch all the tiny sparks of different colours, little flashes of orange and green, that are often reflected in the sparkle of this awesome polish!

Here it is in the shade:

China Glaze Fast Track

China Glaze Fast Track

As a bonus here is what I ended up doing to this mani after a couple of days, mainly because I didn’t want to take the time to remove Fast Track first, and then I just kept adding things, haha…

China Glaze Fast Track with

Over Fast Track is a coat of Orly Nite Owl, an opaque taupe with silver shimmer, then two layers of Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze, Nubar Petunia glitter on the tips, and Spoiled by Wet n Wild’s Trust Fund Baby over it all!

China Glaze Fast Track with

Category:

China Glaze, Glitter Gal, Nubar, Orly, Wet n Wild

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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!

Zoya Tracie

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

Zoya Tracie

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.

Zoya Tracie

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.

Zoya Meg

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

Zoya Meg

Zoya Meg

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!

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.

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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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.

Zoya Shelby

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:

Zoya Shelby

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!

Zoya Shelby

Zoya Shelby

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.

Zoya Shelby comparisons

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.

Zoya Shelby comparisons

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.

Nubar Pink Creme, Zoya Shelby, Gosh Bubblegum, Milani Tip Toe Pink

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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Multi-Coloured Glitter Comparison

When I reviewed Soulstice Spa’s LA in October, I mentioned that I would do a comparison with several other multi-coloured glitter polishes I have. It’s been a while but here is that comparison. I don’t own the famous “original” glitter of this type, Deborah Lippmann’s Happy Birthday, but here are the ones I do have.

OPI Rainbow Connection, Soulstice LA, Essence Circus Confetti, NYX Girls Carnival, Wet n Wild Party of 5 Glitters

From left, OPI Rainbow Connection, Soulstice Spa LA, Essence Circus Confetti, NYX Girls Carnival, Wet n Wild Party of 5 Glitters. Click on any of these photos to see more detail in the larger versions. And please excuse the pink-stained nails! All of these polishes have clear bases and any pink or orangey colour you see is just the evidence of my most recent manicures.

OPI Rainbow Connection, Soulstice LA, Essence Circus Confetti, NYX Girls Carnival, Wet n Wild Party of 5 Glitters

Here they are at one coat, thumb to pinky in the same order as above: thumb OPI Rainbow Conncetion, index Soulstice Spa LA, middle Essence Circus Confetti, ring NYX Girls Carnival, pinky Wet n Wild Party of 5 Glitters. OPI and Essence are clearly the densest of the bunch, followed by the Soulstice.

At two coats:

OPI Rainbow Connection, Soulstice LA, Essence Circus Confetti, NYX Girls Carnival, Wet n Wild Party of 5 Glitters

OPI Rainbow Connection, Soulstice LA, Essence Circus Confetti, NYX Girls Carnival, Wet n Wild Party of 5 Glitters

And at three coats:

OPI Rainbow Connection, Soulstice LA, Essence Circus Confetti, NYX Girls Carnival, Wet n Wild Party of 5 Glitters

OPI Rainbow Connection, Soulstice LA, Essence Circus Confetti, NYX Girls Carnival, Wet n Wild Party of 5 Glitters

As mentioned above the OPI and NYX are denser than the others, and the Essence and Wet n Wild are least dense. The OPI is different in that it has larger hex glitters in addition to the small and medium.

Colour-wise, the Wet n Wild is the most different among them since it has fewer colours and lacks any yellow or warm-toned orangey red glitter. It’s also my least favourite of these polishes for that reason. The Essence polish has more pink glitter than any of the others, including some lighter pink, and has some darker blue as well. NYX Girls Carnival is missing the light pink and dark blue of the Essence, but also has small cool-toned cherry-red glitter that the others aside from Wet n Wild don’t. OPI Rainbow Connection and Soulstice Spa LA are similar colour-wise to the NYX Girls but without the cool-toned cherry red. I’d say the NYX also has a higher concentration of yellow glitter, and the Soulstice has a lower concentration of pink glitter. The yellow glitter in Essence is a paler than the yellows in all the others, more of a gold.

My picks from these are, well, the denser ones/ones with the most yellow glitter – NYX Girls Carnival and OPI Rainbow Connection, followed by Soulstice LA!

Category:

Essence, NYX, OPI, Soulstice Spa, Wet n Wild

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Wet n Wild On the Prowl (partial) collection

Wet n Wild Cougar Attack

On Halloween I posted Wet n Wild’s Cougar Attack (an awesome brown jelly with orangey-copper glitter, shown again above) from their limited edition and annoyingly hard to find On the Prowl Halloween collection; here are the other polishes I got from the same collection.

Buy Me a Drink
Wet n Wild Buy Me a Drink
Wet n Wild Buy Me a Drink
A gorgeous glowy shimmery plum burgundy. This is my favourite from the collection after Cougar Attack. Shown is three coats, no top coat (none of these photos have top coat).

Ready to Pounce
Wet n Wild Ready to Pounce
Wet n Wild Ready to Pounce
Wet n Wild Ready to Pounce
This is a blue-based purple with red-purple shimmer. It’s also nice and glowy, though less so than Buy Me a Drink. This was two coats, but it could have used three because of the crappy brush (more about that later). The colour is off in the last photo, but it shows off the shimmer really well if you click on it for the larger version.

Jungle Fever
Wet n Wild Jungle Fever
A light grass green shimmer with metallic shimmer particles. This was three coats.

Tangled in My Web
Wet n Wild Jungle Fever and Tangled in My Web
Medium-sized, opaque black hex glitter in a clear base. This is one thick coat over Jungle Fever, sort of dabbed on more than just brushed on, which is how I usually apply polishes like this. I really like this one too.

I decided to turn the Jungle Fever – Tangled in My Web layering into a jelly sandwich by adding a coat of Barry M Lime overtop. Here it is in natural light and then under a lamp.
Wet n Wild Jungle Fever and Tangled in My Web, with Barry M Lime
Wet n Wild Jungle Fever and Tangled in My Web, with Barry M Lime

I did have application problems with the shimmers from this collection. I don’t know if I was just unlucky, but the brushes were awful. Uneven bristles that leave big drag marks all down the nail. The formula of the polish is thick and not very self-leveling too, which certainly doesn’t help with the drag marks! Cougar Attack had a better brush than the shimmers, or perhaps I just didn’t notice anything since it’s a glitter polish so I expected it to end up a bit bumpy. I didn’t notice any issues with the brush on Tangled in My Web, but then since it’s a clear layering glitter, again, it’s quite possible that I just didn’t notice since it applies so much differently.

Anyway, this collection has some great shades, brush problem notwithstanding! My favourites are Cougar Attack, Buy Me a Drink, and Tangled in My Web. The other two shades in the collection that I didn’t end up getting are Behind Closed Doors (I have NYX Girls Dorothy which from what I can tell online is a dupe with a much better formula) and Correction Tape, a multi-coloured layering hex glitter.

Category:

Barry M, Wet n Wild

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A few Halloween manicures

A few Halloween NOTDs (nails of the day) from the past couple of weeks! (Although, really, I would wear these anytime!)

Milani Flashy Orange with Wet n Wild Ebony Hates Chris stamped on (I’m not very good at stamping yet…)

Milani Flashy OrangeThe other hand, with scurrying spiders!

Milani Flashy Orange

A candy manicure: China Glaze Liquid Leather with Nubar V for Men matte topcoat, in an attempt to make nails that look like Panda Licorice!

China Glaze Liquid Leather, Nubar V for MenWet n Wild Cougar Attack (I broke down and bought this on ebay… I doubt they even release these limited edition collections here in Canada…)

Wet n Wild Cougar Attack

The next day I added some nail art using the orange and black striping polishes from the Orly Instant Artist “Flights of Fancy” collection. The collection also included a dotting tool which is what I used to create the web-like design.

Wet n Wild Cougar Attack

China Glaze It’s Alive from their recent Halloween release:

China Glaze It's Alive

It’s Alive with OPI’s glow-in-the-dark Zom-body to Love as slimy tips:

China Glaze It's Alive, OPI Zom-body to Love

My attempt at capturing it glowing in the dark:

China Glaze It's Alive, OPI Zom-body to Love

Happy Halloween everyone! 🙂

Category:

China Glaze, Konad (stamping plates), Milani, Nubar, OPI, Wet n Wild

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