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

Ruby White Tips Kim

I’ve got a great polish to show you today: Kim by Ruby White Tips! I recently made my first real Indie polish purchase on Etsy, when I noticed that Laura, the creator of Ruby White Tips, advertises that all her polishes are vegan!

Ruby White Tips Kim

Kim is a beautiful nude creme with subtle holo. It’s a rose-beige-mauve nude shade; at least on my skin tone it leans mauve but I’ve seen some other swatch photos where it looks more beige.

Ruby White Tips Kim

I used two coats over ridge filler, three coats on my middle finger though, because I smudged the tip. You can see that the colour became a bit deeper at three coats; two was perfect for coverage though.

Ruby White Tips Kim

The formula was smooth but a little thick, although the thickness probably had something to do with the heat and humidity the day I wore it!

Ruby White Tips Kim

I love this polish!

Ruby White Tips Kim

I’ve got some more Ruby White Tips polishes to post about as well, so that should be coming soon.

Ruby White Tips Kim

Ruby White Tips can be found at http://www.rubywhitetips.com/ πŸ™‚

Ruby White Tips Kim

Quick post of a mani from last year!

This is Manglaze Lesbihonest (I’ll be honest, I mostly bought it for the name and the bottle artwork!), a rich fucshia matte polish with shimmer, alternating with ILF, a similar matte shimmer in an aqua/turquoise shade. Two coats each, nice quick drying formula. All photos are under my Ott light, and the last one shows them with topcoat.

Manglaze Lesbihonest and ILFManglaze Lesbihonest and ILFManglaze Lesbihonest and ILF

Today I have three more swatches to show you in my project to photograph all my Soulstice Spa polishes.

Soulstice Kiev

Kiev is a burgundy jelly polish with a hint of a brown tone.

Soulstice Kiev

This is three coats, since I found I got a little bit of cuticle drag at two coats (maybe I just didn’t wait long enough between coats).

Soulstice Kiev

In low light it can look quite dark:

Soulstice Kiev

Then I added one generous coat of Hana overtop of Kiev.

Soulstice Hana over Soulstice Kiev

Hana is a very sheer iridescent flake polish, so I didn’t bother swatching it on its own.

soulstice_kiev_hana2

The tiny flakes reflect all sorts of colours; here over Kiev the overall effect is a mainly blueish shimmer.

Soulstice Hana over Soulstice Kiev

Soulstice Hana over Soulstice Kiev

Next I have Berlin, a very dark vampy purple that has a semi-jelly formula. It’s dark enough that it often looks almost black.

Soulstice Berlin

The formula was very similar to that of Kiev.

Soulstice Berlin

I’m actually not sure whether this swatch was two or three coats; apparently I forgot to write it down.

Soulstice Berlin

Lastly, here is a comparison between Berlin, Kleancolor Black (one coat), and Kiev to show the relative depth of the colours.

Soulstice Berlin, Kleancolor Black, Soulstice Kiev

Soulstice Berlin, Kleancolor Black, Soulstice Kiev

Zoya Jacqueline

Zoya Jacqueline is from the spring Lovely collection, and is my new favourite nude polish from Zoya! It originally came out in one of the Peter Som fashion week collaboration trios last year, and I remember hoping that they would re-release it in a regular collection since I didn’t have access to the trio. Happily for me, they did!

Zoya Jacqueline

It’s a very pale, pastel yellow with a hint of beige, creme polish with just the tiniest hint of hidden shimmer in it.

Zoya Jacqueline

I used three coats over a layer of ridge filling basecoat. Two coats would probably have been enough if not for my ridges (even with the ridge filler…). I also have topcoat on in these photos.

Zoya Jacqueline

The formula was a little thick, but didn’t really give me any trouble. I love this shade!

Zoya Jacqueline

Nicole by OPI Love Me, Love the Earth is an awesome shimmery brown polish with a lot of depth. This is an oldie (but they still sell it online at Aveyou, last time I checked), so it has the old formula that’s not “big 3 free”. I find the old formulas a little thin, but easy to control and fairly quick drying, and I used three coats here. Love this shade!

Nicole by OPI Love Me, Love the EarthNicole by OPI Love Me, Love the EarthNicole by OPI Love Me, Love the EarthNicole by OPI Love Me, Love the EarthNicole by OPI Love Me, Love the EarthNicole by OPI Love Me, Love the Earth

How about a few random Cult Nails swatches?

Spontaneous, a dusty purple creme with small purple glitter. The formula was a little thinner and runnier than I expected; I used three coats for coverage and to even it out. Shown with Wicked Fast topcoat.

Cult Nails Spontaneous

Cult Nails Spontaneous

Cult Nails Spontaneous

Before topcoat, it dries a little matte and slightly textured:

Cult Nails Spontaneous

Blackout. It isn’t black, but a dark charcoal grey. If you look at it from up close in real life, you can see that it’s actually got a sheer jellyish base packed full of tiny little specks of pigment giving it a soft, smoky finish. It does look pretty much black in some lighting situations, although not quite as much as it does here in my photos.

Cult Nails Blackout

I used two coats although it was still just slightly patchy with its jelly base so I could have used a third.

Cult Nails Blackout

This photo is more true to colour, where you can tell that it’s grey and not black:

Cult Nails Blackout

Comparison with a couple of medium-dark greys to show how much darker it is: Kleancolor Concrete (1 thick coat), Blackout (2 coats), Misa Office Polish-tics (3 coats, it was a bit thin). I should have also compared it to a true black, ah well…

Cult Nails Blackout, Kleancolor Black, Kleancolor Concrete

Top to bottom: Kleancolor Concrete, Cult Nails Blackout, Misa Office Polish-tics

Evil Queen, a pink-toned red semi-jelly. I don’t usually like cool toned reds on me, but I really like this one!

Cult Nails Evil Queen

It was almost a one-coater, but I did two coats for the photos.

Cult Nails Evil Queen

Great formula, shiny and smooth!

Cult Nails Evil Queen

Cult Nails Evil Queen

Feelin’ Froggy, a cool/neutral green with green shimmer. This one is sheer to let the shimmer shine through and I needed three coats. It’s a little cooler toned in real life; I’d say the first photo is the most colour accurate.

Cult Nails Feelin' Froggy

Cult Nails Feelin' Froggy

Cult Nails Feelin' Froggy

A quick post today! This is Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry, a dark mulberry purple/plum creme.

Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry

The swatch is two coats. The formula was a little thin and I probably should have done three coats; there’s a bit of a bald spot on my ring finger in particular.

Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry

Nothing too exciting, but a nice basic shade!

Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry

Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry

Today I have some photos to share of LA Girl Electric Coral, one of their new scattered holos.

I’ve been wearing this polish all week (which never happens!), and only today on the 7th day have I gotten a chip (also never happens)!

LA Girl Electric Coral

Electric Coral has a red-orange jelly base with lots of coarse scattered holo particles. The holo is visible in indoor lighting as well as sunlight.

LA Girl Electric Coral

Shown are two coats over ridge-filling basecoat, with top coat. The formula was great. I took the photos after I had already been wearing it a few days.

LA Girl Electric Coral

I really really love this polish, that’s about all I have to say! πŸ˜€

LA Girl Electric Coral

Under my Ott Lite:

LA Girl Electric Coral - Ott Lite

Extra blurry to show extra sparkle:

LA Girl Electric Coral

I still have a lot of swatches and manis from last year to post! (Ah, my nails were a lot longer then!) Today I have a comparison between two lovely oranges.

Soulstice Spa San Francisco

This is Soulstice San Francisco, an orange semi-jelly that I love!

Soulstice Spa San Francisco

The swatch shows two coats. The formula was nice and smooth.

Soulstice Spa San Francisco

Next I have the comparison with Beauty Without Cruelty Tangerine. I found that they look more similar in the photo than they did in real life. But you can still see that Tangerine is a more opaque creme, and the shade of orange is a bit dustier. San Francisco is more of a burnt orange shade.

Soulstice Spa San Francisco and Beauty Without Cruelty Tangerine

Pinky to index: Tangerine, San Francisco, Tangerine, San Francisco

The comparison shows two coats of each polish.

Soulstice Spa San Francisco and Beauty Without Cruelty Tangerine

Pinky to index: Tangerine, San Francisco, Tangerine, San Francisco

And finally, swatches of Beauty Without Cruelty Tangerine on its own. Three coats in the swatches.

Beauty Without Cruelty Tangerine

Beauty Without Cruelty Tangerine

Beauty Without Cruelty Tangerine

Beauty Without Cruelty Tangerine

Hi all, if anyone’s reading πŸ˜‰ Back from my hiatus and going to try to start posting regularly again. πŸ™‚

The polish I have on today isn’t new, but I think it was way before its time! This is totally a pre-texture craze texture polish! It’s Komodo Dragon by LA Splash (the bottle says Kamodo Dragon, but that just looks so wrong…)
These first two photos are under a halogen light (actually I think it might be a compact-fluorescent imitation of halogen, but anyway…)

LA Splash Komodo Dragon - halogen lamp

It’s a matte, metallic olive green with gold and green fine glitter that dries to a rough bumpy texture. This is two coats over a ridge filling basecoat. I didn’t have any trouble with application, although it’s quite a thick polish and it’s best to wait a few minutes between coats to let it fully dry. One coat was almost enough; maybe if I’d loaded up the brush with more polish I would have stopped there.

LA Splash Komodo Dragon - halogen lamp

I remember seeing a swatch stick of this on a blog at some point, and the blogger’s review of it was basically, “wtf is this, it’s muddy olive green, it’s not shiny at all, the glitter isn’t very sparkly, and it dries all bumpy! gross!” Heheh. But nowadays it seems to fit right in with all the textured polishes popping up recently.

Next photo is in overcast natural light:

LA Splash Komodo Dragon - overcast natural light

Unfortunately there’s no sun here today. These last two photos are with flash:

LA Splash Komodo Dragon - with flash

LA Splash Komodo Dragon - with flash

I personally think this polish is pretty cool, after all! πŸ˜€