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

Posts tagged ‘blackened’

Some Zoya Polishes and a Seche Vive Review

I received a bottle of Seche Vive “Instant Gel Effect” top coat to review from the folks at Nail Polish Canada. 🙂 I thought I’d do a post on my favourite use for Seche Vive: smoothing out texture polishes to make them glossy! Here it is over Zoya’s new pixie dust, Juniper!

IMG_20181020_185807

I find it works best when you let the texture polish dry (or mostly dry), then add a layer of Gelous (from Sally Beauty), followed by the Sèche Vive. (Maybe two layers of Gelous for a really stubborn textured polish!)

Unlike Seche Vite which needs to go over wet polish, Vive is supposed to be used over dry(er) polish. So I let the Gelous dry for a couple minutes before adding the Seche Vive.

IMG_20181020_185843

IMG_20181020_185938

And here is an older mani with Zoya Saint and Alice, where Alice has been topcoated using the Gelous/Sèche Vive combo.

IMG_8048

Thor in the next pic!

IMG_8050IMG_8054IMG_8052

One caveat, the instructions say to put Sèche Vive over dry polish, but the reason I said dry(er) above is that I find it works best over semi-dry, but not fully dry polish. At least, when I tried to put a second layer of it over itself on Zoya Saint, this wrinkling happened:

IMG_8055

So, I’m not positive if that was because it was dry before I applied more, or if Sèche Vive just doesn’t like going on top of itself!

One last pic, this is Zoya Roxy with Kissy on the tips, all smoothed with Sèche Vive. In addition to texture polishes, it does a great job on regular glitters that tend to be a bit gritty!

IMG_8126

All that to say, although I don’t use it with every mani, I really like the Sèche Vive gel effect and it’s my go-to for smoothing glitters and textures!

Advertisement

A England Briarwood and Briar Rose

Today I have two A England polishes to show you, Briarwood and Briar Rose from the Burne-Jones Dream collection. Briarwood is a deep reddish-brown metallic based holo. Its base is more brown, but it has a metallic red shimmer to it. Briar Rose is a similar holo in a fuchsia pink shade. These are pretty much perfect in terms of formula. The photos show just one coat of each, and no top coat. I love these! Not much more to say about perfection so I’ll let the photos speak for themselves!

A England Briarwood

A England Briarwood

A England Briarwood

A England Briarwood

A England Briar Rose

A England Briar Rose

A England Briar Rose

A England Briar Rose

Orly Smolder

Orly Smolder is from last fall’s Fired Up collection (these photos were actually also taken last fall, still have a backlog of posts!). It’s a beautiful, dark glowing burgundy wine red shimmer. It’s not so dark that it ever looks black, and there is a hint of an orange flash to it in the bottle, that doesn’t really show up on the nail. Gorgeous colour, though!

Orly Smolder

This is two coats (plus topcoat), and the formula is great, no complaints at all.

Orly Smolder

This mani was a couple of days old when I took the photos, so if you click to look at the full size photos you may see a few scratches on the surface and some tip wear, but that’s just my usual wear and tear.

Orly Smolder

This one is *almost* as awesome as Flicker, my favourite from the Fired Up collection!

Orly Smolder

One last pic, under my Ott Lite:

Orly Smolder

Soulstice Kiev, Hana, and Berlin

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

Some Cult Nails Swatches

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

Picture Polish Voodoo and Comparison

Picture Polish Voodoo is a gorgeous deep plum/burgundy base with golden glass fleck shimmer, giving an overall brownish-burgundy look.

Picture Polish Voodoo

The burgundy base is a little sheer, so that the golden glass flecks shining through it often appear like red sparkles. As you can see in the bottle in the following shot, they’re definitely gold though!

Picture Polish Voodoo

The formula was a little thick but not difficult to work with. These photos show two thick coats of the polish.

Picture Polish Voodoo

I love it!

Picture Polish Voodoo

I did a comparison of Voodoo to China Glaze Midtown Magic, which I previously reviewed here. From top to bottom, the photo shows Midtown Magic, Voodoo, Midtown Magic.

China Glaze Midtown Magic and Picture Polish Voodoo

The main difference is that Midtown Magic is darker, more blackened. The shimmer also has more red in Voodoo, due to it shining through its base. My favourite of the two is Voodoo since it’s not as blackened!

Soulstice Spa Troy

I have another Soulstice Spa polish to show you today! This one is called Troy.

Soulstice Spa Troy

It’s a charcoal shimmery polish with a weak scattered holo effect.

Soulstice Spa Troy

It has a quick-drying formula that applies best with a light touch, using somewhat thick coats and not going over the same spot more than once. Using that technique, I didn’t really have any problems with the application (although the photos are showing a bit of a bald spot on the side of my index that I didn’t notice in real life!).

Soulstice Spa Troy

The photos show two coats of Troy. These are true holo particles, not glitter, so it’s smooth even without topcoat.

Soulstice Spa Troy

The next two photos are in the shade.

Soulstice Spa Troy

Soulstice Spa Troy

And this last photo is under the Ott light. Subtle in terms of holo, but a really nice quick-drying charcoal!

Soulstice Spa Troy

Edit: Prompted by the comment from Derya, here’s a comparison of Troy to OPI My Private Jet (most recent version that is still available in stores) and Color Club Revvvolution. 🙂 (Photos taken under my Ott light this morning.)

Color Club Revvvolution, Soulstice Troy, OPI My Private Jet (scattered holo with reddish-brown flash version)

Color Club Revvvolution, Soulstice Troy, OPI My Private Jet (scattered holo with reddish-brown flash version)

As you can see My Private Jet, the brownish-charcoal scattered holo version, that is, is darker than Troy and has a reddish-brown shimmer flash to it. Revvvolution is more of a true grey charcoal with none of the brown that the other two have.

Color Club Revvvolution, Soulstice Troy, OPI My Private Jet (scattered holo with reddish-brown flash version)

Color Club Revvvolution, Soulstice Troy, OPI My Private Jet (scattered holo with reddish-brown flash version)

These swatches have two coats of each polish. In addition to being the lightest in colour, Troy was also the sheerest of the three. Revvvolution is the most opaque; it’s nearly a one-coater. It’s also different in that its holo is more linear rather than scattered. My Private Jet’s scattered holo is a bit more apparent than Troy’s.

Color Club Revvvolution, Soulstice Troy, OPI My Private Jet (scattered holo with reddish-brown flash version)

Color Club Revvvolution, Soulstice Troy, OPI My Private Jet (scattered holo with reddish-brown flash version)

China Glaze Cast a Spell and Make a Spectacle

Happy Halloween! These two polishes are from China Glaze’s Halloween collection, Wicked.

China Glaze Cast a Spell

This is Cast a Spell, a blackened green with golden shimmer flecks.

China Glaze Cast a Spell

It has a great formula; shown are two coats that glided on super-smoothly.

China Glaze Cast a Spell

China Glaze Cast a Spell

And this is Make a Spectacle, one generous coat over Cast a Spell. Make a Spectacle has a ton of iridescent hex and small glitter as well as golden glass flecks in a clear base.

China Glaze Make a Spectacle over Cast a Spell

China Glaze Make a Spectacle over Cast a Spell

China Glaze Make a Spectacle over Cast a Spell

And here is Make a Spectacle on its own, 3 coats. Pardon the orangey stained nails underneath!

China Glaze Make a Spectacle

I absolutely love Make a Spectacle; I think I’m going to have to get a back-up bottle, especially considering it’s one of those thick glitter-packed polishes that tends to get used up quickly!

China Glaze Make a Spectacle

China Glaze Make a Spectacle

Hope you’re having a great Halloween! 😀

Gosh Fossil Grey and SpaRitual Conglomerate

Today I have a rock-like mani to show you: Gosh Fossil Grey with an accent nail of Sparitual Conglomerate.

Gosh Fossil Grey and SpaRitual Conglomerate

This is two coats of Fossil Grey, which had a slightly thick but good formula. It’s a warm/yellow leaning grey pearl base with silvery shimmer that gives an almost speckled effect.

Gosh Fossil Grey and SpaRitual Conglomerate

On the ring finger I applied one generous coat of Sparitual Conglomerate, from their recent fall collection, over Fossil Grey. It also had a nice formula, and it wasn’t too difficult to get a good density of the black and white hex glitters on the nail.

Gosh Fossil Grey and SpaRitual Conglomerate

I love Conglomerate; it’s quite unique with its deep charcoal grey base, its dense, fine gold shimmer throughout, and its scattered black and white hexes!

Gosh Fossil Grey and SpaRitual Conglomerate

On its own, Conglomerate is opaque in two coats. Glad I picked this one up, it’s really interesting and the gold shimmer makes it very wearable for me!

Gosh Fossil Grey and SpaRitual Conglomerate

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

Today I’ve got another polish from Coco’s Untamed collection by Cult Nails. The polishes in this collection were all designed by Coco, the daughter of Cult Nails’ founder!

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

I Got Distracted is a black jelly with small holo glitter and medium green glitter. Maria of Cult Nails shared the family joke behind the name of this shade – “I got distracted” is Coco’s classic excuse for anything she was supposed to do but didn’t, used so often that it just had to make an appearance among the polish names.

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

Shown are two coats; the formula was fairly thick but I found it easy to apply using thick coats. I almost didn’t need the second coat, as this polish is quite pigmented. It dries gritty from all the glitter so a good thick topcoat is in order. In these sun photos, I had on two layers of Cult Nails topcoat: one that I applied right after the polish, and another the following morning. The sun photos were also taken with my phone, which probably has something to do with the reason that the watermark ended up going on sideways! haha!

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

The rest of the photos only have one layer of topcoat and were taken just after finishing the mani. In the shade:

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

And finally, a couple of photos that show off the glitter a bit better! Under the Ott Lite:

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

With flash:

Cult Nails I Got Distracted