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

Posts tagged ‘black’

OPI Man of La Mancha

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.

OPI Man of La Mancha

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!

OPI Man of La Mancha

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.

OPI Man of La Mancha

OPI Man of La Mancha

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!!

OPI Man of La Mancha

OPI Man of La Mancha

OPI Man of La Mancha

OPI Man of La Mancha

OPI Man of La Mancha

Category:

Kleancolor, Nubar, OPI

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Orly Androgynie

Orly Androgynie is from their Holiday 2011 collection. It’s a black jelly with holographic and gold microglitter and larger hex iridescent glitter that combines with the black base to reflect colours that are light but not pastel. It’s kind of similar to Sephora by OPI’s 212-Sephora, but with multicoloured hex glitter instead of flakies.

I love the look of this polish. Its formula wasn’t the greatest though; there’s not enough suspension base in it so the glitter sinks to the bottom. I found that standing the bottle upside down overnight before I used it, as well as standing it upside down between coats of polish, helped a lot with that and I was able to get a proper amount of glitter onto the nail. The formula also seemed a bit thick-yet-runny at the same time. I can’t remember if this was 2 or 3 coats, but whichever it was it’s with topcoat. The end effect was worth the hassles! These first two photos are in natural overcast light.
Orly Androgynie
Orly Androgynie
Blurred to show the sparkle:


Orly Androgynie

Androgynie's sparkle


And finally, the full mani in the sun:
Orly Androgynie

Category:

Orly

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China Glaze CG in the City

Today I have for you China Glaze’s CG in the City from the fall 2011 Metro collection. This is a really interesting and unique glitter with lavender, silver, copper and opaque black very fine glitter.

These photos show 4 coats with Poshe top coat. Since the glitter is fine, one coat of top coat is enough to make it pretty smooth. The first two photos are taken directly under my Ott light, look cooler than in real life, and if you click on the full-size versions, the second one also seems to show more colours in the flashes of glitter than are generally seen in real life.
China Glaze CG in the City

China Glaze CG in the City

The next two photos are not the greatest pics but are taken under warm indoor light and I think they give a better representation of how the polish looks in everyday life.
China Glaze CG in the City

China Glaze CG in the City
Although this polish is fascinating and has a nice formula, for some reason it just doesn’t do much for me. I guess I just don’t really care for the lavender/silver on my skintone. I like how it looks in the first two photos better than how it really looks. Actually, I like how it looks in all these photos better than I liked it as a mani. Maybe the glitter is just too fine for my tastes and I’d prefer it if there were bigger pieces of the individual colours to distinguish them better at a glance. I’ll have to try it again using only a couple of coats layered over top of another polish (I’m thinking something bronze or coppery) to see if I can make it work for me…

Category:

China Glaze

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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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