Picture Polish Cyan is a wonderful light blue creme-based shade with scattered holo. It was designed by blogger Marta from Chit Chat Nails. I used three coats plus top coat here, the third coat mainly for good measure; dry time was good. In (late-afternoon) sunlight:
In the shade with Azrael looking on!
Under Ott Lite, looking paler/brighter than in real life:
with flash:
Love this colour! 😀
Black Dahlia Lacquer Wild Bergamot is a medium blue-grey creme with dense gold flake shimmer. Here it is shown with flash.
This was a ‘one-batch’ polish and I just checked and it looks like unfortunately it’s already sold out as it’s no longer listed in the Black Dahlia Lacquer store. 😦 BDL people, if there’s any one-batch polish that you change your mind about and add to the permanent collection, make it this one!! 😀 I love it that much! It’s a unique shade of blue-grey in my collection.
Here it is shown in shade/overcast light:
Wade was hanging around at one point while I was photographing it, nudging my hand and then licking my wrist, so I made a collage 🙂
I added an accent V of Illamasqua Mélange on my ring finger using scotch tape to make the V shape. The rest of the photos are in the sunlight that appeared a little later yesterday.
On my right hand I did two nails in Mélange. I love Mélange as well, the gold and copper-pink flecks in the green are just perfection! I’d love to have a whole collection of shades with those flecks in them…
March Fo(u)rth and conquer! Today I’ve got another cat-themed Kunimitsu polish to show you – Classic Tabby!
This is two coats of Classic Tabby, a clear-based glitter topper, over Milani Teddy-Bare. The cat stamp on my thumb is from plate HB49 and is done with Kleancolor Black.
I used three coats of Teddy-Bare as the base, as I found the polish to be a bit thin and runny. Here it is on its own before the topper, but note that the first two photos are the most colour accurate – it’s definitely a taupe brown, not a chocolate brown as it appears in the rest of the photos. Sorry about that, the rest of them were taken in late-afternoon sunlight whereas the two above were taken the following day around midday.
Kunimitsu Classic Tabby contains various sizes of metallic brown, metallic burgundy, and matte black hex glitter, as well as tiny matte black bars (“hairy” glitter, very appropriate for the cat theme haha).
I didn’t have any trouble with placing the glitter, it spread quite nicely, even the tiny bars which I was worried might all line up in the same direction, but that didn’t seem to be the case!
Now, he isn’t technically a “classic” tabby (just stripes instead of swirls/”bull’s eye” pattern, so he’s a “mackerel tabby”), but this polish and layering combo makes me think of my handsome Wilbur:
❤
We do have a true classic tabby in our clowder also – beautiful Seymour is a classic tabby but with white as well:
Look at his adorable toe pads! ❤
Today I have a cat-themed polish for you: Russian Blue by Kunimitsu Nail Potions on Etsy.
It’s a shimmery greyish-blue with light blue microglitter and gold dot glitter to represent the cats’ eyes.
Shown in three coats plus topcoat.
I did have to work a little to get the gold dots out of the bottle and placed onto the nail, but it wasn’t too problematic.
I really like this fun, pretty polish!
And here is my little blue boy, Julius! Isn’t he handsome? 😀 He is also just about the friendliest little guy imaginable; he loves everyone, including a dog named Fluffy who lives in an apartment down the hall from us.
Julius was adopted from a local shelter where he had been brought as a stray kitten. He has a chronic upper respiratory infection (I had to clean some crusts off one of his eyes to prep him for his photo shoot, in fact). He’s been on every antibiotic in the book over the years but the infection always comes back. On a serious note, it’s really lucky for him that he was adopted by people who would never return him to the shelter for sneezing globs all over their furniture and stuff year after year, because that “shelter” isn’t a no-kill and I don’t know if cats returned for that kind of issue might then be deemed “unadoptable”… 😦
Love you, Julius! ❤
I recently learned of Black Dahlia Lacquer, an indie brand based in Texas that just launched last fall, who make vegan polishes. The polishes looked great, so I had to place an order to check them out! 😉
From left to right, Dandelion Fields, Beach Jasmine, My Butter Half, 90 in November (this one wasn’t part of my order but was sent as an extra!), Daffodil Petals, Austin City Limits. The polishes come in an 8ml ‘petite’ size, which is what I ordered, as well as regular 14ml full size. Today I’ve got swatches and a comparison for Beach Jasmine but I hope to also photograph the rest of them soon!
I love the bottles, the 8ml bottles have the same unique shape as the full size ones, which is a really nice touch! The brush, again even in the mini size bottles, is a flat wide brush, my favourite type.
Beach Jasmine is a light taupey-beige creme with lots of gold flecks. A beautiful nude colour!
I used two coats here. (My coats seem to have been a bit thinner on my index finger than the other nails and I think maybe it shows a bit in the photos…) The formula was smooth and easy to apply. Very happy with this polish!
In the shade:
Since I love nudes with gold shimmer, I had a few in mind that this one reminded me of: Cult Nails Mazo, China Glaze Fast Track, and Essence Irreplaceable.
This first photo shows two coats of each polish. As you can see, Mazo is much more sheer than the others.
Left to right, 2 coats each: Cult Nails Mazo, Black Dahlia Lacquer Beach Jasmine, China Glaze Fast Track, Essence Irreplaceable
Next photos show 3 coats of Cult Nails Mazo on the index and 3 coats of China Glaze Fast Track on the ring (the third wasn’t really necessary but I wanted to better cover my ridges on that nail).
Left to right: Cult Nails Mazo, Black Dahlia Lacquer Beach Jasmine, China Glaze Fast Track, Essence Irreplaceable
Mazo is more yellow-toned, Fast Track is browner, and Irreplaceable is just slightly more grey.
Left to right: Cult Nails Mazo, Black Dahlia Lacquer Beach Jasmine, China Glaze Fast Track, Essence Irreplaceable
Irreplaceable is definitely the closest to Beach Jasmine though. Irreplaceable’s shimmer is slightly more dense and has a very slight green shift to it that doesn’t show on the nail, but the two are close. I believe Irreplaceable is hard to find now, so this polish is a good replacement (har, har!) for anyone looking for it.
Top to bottom: Cult Nails Mazo, Black Dahlia Lacquer Beach Jasmine, China Glaze Fast Track, Essence Irreplaceable
Now, I can’t show a polish with Jasmine in the name without showing my beautiful Jasmine. 😉
Jasmine is the most feral of our cats; she’s almost 9 years old now and has been with me since the age of 6 months, but it’s just in the past two years that she’s really allowed me to pet her at all (and then, just in her ‘safe’ situations – but in those situations, she’s learned that she really likes it!).
She’s much more comfortable with other cats than with humans. Here she is on the bed with Oliver (one of her littermates, who adapted much more easily to us humans), Seymour who is licking Oliver, and the baby of the family, Wu, on the right!
Zoya Autumn is from last fall’s Ignite collection. It’s a great metallic orange-copper base with sparkly gold shimmer flecks. Two coats plus top coat.
Little Wu kept photobombing me. ❤
Indirect light:
I compared Autumn to four other shades: OPI Bronzed to Perfection (2 coats), which has more of a creme base with added shimmer, Deborah Lippmann Phoenix Rising (3 coats), which has small bronze, pink, and greenish-gold glass flecks in a (I think) clear base, Sparitual Rusted Lux (3 coats), a rusty red jelly base with heavy gold glass fleck, and Sparitual Conduit (3 coats), a brownish jelly base with the same gold glass flecks. The differences show best in the shade and artificial light photos.
Thumb to pinkie: OPI Bronzed to Perfection, Deborah Lippmann Phoenix Rising, Zoya Autumn, Sparitual Rusted Lux, Sparitual Conduit
Shade/indirect light:
Thumb to pinkie: OPI Bronzed to Perfection, Deborah Lippmann Phoenix Rising, Zoya Autumn, Sparitual Rusted Lux, Sparitual Conduit
Ott Lite:
Thumb to pinkie: OPI Bronzed to Perfection, Deborah Lippmann Phoenix Rising, Zoya Autumn, Sparitual Rusted Lux, Sparitual Conduit
I love all of these!
I’ve got something a little different on the blog today! I was contacted not long ago by Vegan Cuts, a vegan business that has an online marketplace and two different kinds of monthly subscription boxes, and asked if I’d like to review one of the monthly beauty boxes. (The other subscription box is a vegan snack box! cool!)
Here’s how they describe the beauty box: “The easiest way to discover cruelty-free brands without committing to full-size products or prices. Each month you’ll receive a delivery of 4-7 new products to try, ranging from unique cosmetics to luxurious skincare.”
I received the December box to review, and here it is!
I had a little helper when I was trying to take items out of the box and photograph them. Fred Hampton!
Fred says that his personal favourite items from the box are the little crinkly packing paper strips, and the tube of lip balm! 😉
Anyway, let’s see everything that was in the box, shall we? 😀
Nail polish! A set of four minis from the Color Club Harlem Lights collection. I’ll be giving these babies their own swatch post in the near future!
Next, a sample of Soapbox black soap – I haven’t tried this yet, but I love black soap! – a Ferro eyeshadow sample, and two LA Fresh oil-free face cleansing cloths. I tried one of the cleansing cloths – it was really nice, does a great job removing makeup, and leaves your face feeling refreshed, no rinsing needed.
Here we have a cute little pleather coin purse by Lavishy, a tube of Spearmint Jersey Shore Sun lip balm, and two Everyday Minerals makeup samples. I’ve been using the lip balm and I love it! Nice and minty and very moisturizing and conditioning. My lips have been pretty chapped with the extreme cold weather lately – the spearmint oil in this lip balm feels all tingly (in a good way!) and it does a great job getting rid of peeling, flaking skin.
Here’s a better look at the Lavishy coin purse. Really nice textured-look pleather!
Here are the Everyday Minerals samples – All Smiles blush and Finishing Dust finishing powder. The little sample packets are recloseable at the top.
I actually already own a larger size of this blush, so I thought I’d show a photo of what it looks like! I used to have a container of Finishing Dust too, but I must have used it up because I couldn’t find it!
Here is the Ferro eyeshadow sample, and below is the label on the back.
Swatches, left to right: All Smiles Blush, Finishing Dust, and Hollywood Blvd. eyeshadow. In sunlight:
With flash:
The Vegan Cuts website states that when they send makeup in the beauty box, it won’t be anything that is specific to only a narrow range of skin tones, and I think they’ve succeeded with that here! All Smiles is a coral-pink shade of blush that should look good on just about anyone. If I recall correctly, I think it’s Everyday Minerals’ most popular shade of blush. Finishing Dust, which as I’ve mentioned, I’ve used before, is a very translucent powder for setting your makeup and absorbing moisture, and doesn’t add any colour itself when applied as a finishing powder. Hollywood Blvd. eyeshadow looks like a great neutral brown tone that has some pink and green sparkle to it.
In the box, there was also a card with more information on each of the items and about Vegan Cuts.
So there you have it! A subscription box service without any animal use, such a great initiative! The variety of items in the December box was great, and the items I’ve tried so far are awesome. According to the website, the January boxes ship out on January 20th, so there’s still time to sign up for them. Subscribing costs 19.95$USD per month, with varying rates for shipping depending on where you are (free shipping to the US, 8$ to Canada, and 15$ to other countries). For more info you can refer to their website here: http://vegancuts.com/beautybox
Disclosure: the products in this post (except the one noted) were provided by Vegan Cuts for my honest review.
I have another Kunimitsu Nail Potions swatch to show you today!
This is Orange Tabby, a light orange creme with small orange bar glitter and several sizes of orange hex glitter.
On my index finger, I layered it in two coats over Pretty and Polished Crush, because I thought it was going to be sheer, but I was wrong! The other nails show three coats of Orange Tabby by itself.
I did have to do some shaking between coats and searching with the brush to get the amount of glitter I wanted out of the bottle. Not a high price to pay for an adorable orange polish!
I didn’t include my pinkie in the first few photos because I had done a layering experiment there too, and wasn’t really thrilled with how it turned out. I did two coats of Orange Tabby over Pretty Serious Seasonal Sunset, and while the combo isn’t bad, I don’t really like it next to the other nails! But anyway here it is in the last few photos.
Now, obviously, a post about a polish named Orange Tabby needs some orange tabbies! 😉
This is Wu. He was just little in this photo from right after we adopted him. He has three legs (and gets around just fine).
And this big ball of orange fur is Possum! I took her in off the streets of Montreal where she’d been living for a month after being abandoned.
Possum with Gretchen, doing some sort of half-nap, half-wrestling match, hehehe:
Little Wu loves to cuddle and nap with Wade:
More random old stuff!
Nubar Pink Flame, under artificial light:
Comparison: left to right, Finger Paints Catwalk Queen, Butter London Bumster (middle and ring fingers), Misa Hot Couture. The Butter London and Finger Paints polishes are quite close, Finger Paints just has slightly more orange, while the Misa is noticeably darker.
Butter London Bumster by itself:
OPI Pepe’s Purple Passion (in light box and camera wouldn’t focus properly on the polish surface!):
I’ll admit, while I ended up really liking Pepe’s Purple Passion, I mainly wanted it for the name, because of this handsome guy whose name is Pepe. Although we usually call him Tex. 🙂
Essence Wanna Be My Sunshine with accent nail in NYX Girls Pure Green, all layered with LA Girl Zesty Citrus overtop:
Illamasqua Elope:
I still have some really old photos from when I started blogging, so I thought I would post them in a few installments!
This first one is a fall mani that I really loved! Thumb to pinkie: Finger Paints Sketchy Character, a mustard yellow frankenpolish, Kleancolor Fashionista, China Glaze Brownstone, Joe Fresh Pumpkin. The glitter gradient over everything was done with Nubar Lime Green Glitter and Orange Glitter.
Next, Orly Wild Wisteria with China Glaze Brownstone accent:
I’ll finish up this first vault post with swatches of the creme half of the Color Club Back to Boho collection, along with a couple of layering combos using them.
Shabby Drab:
With Color Club Jingle Jangle overtop:
Color Club Earthy Angel:
Color Club New Bohemian:
Color Club Nomadic in Nude:
Color Club Rad Nomad:
Color Club Red-ical Gypsy – gotta say, the stereotypical gypsy-themed polish names just make me think of cultural appropriation… This is a nice red though, and look! An appearance from my little Thor!
With an accent of Cult Nails Hypnotize Me and Nubar V matte top coat:
Vegan Claws 
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