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

Posts tagged ‘creme’

Layering with FingerPaints flakies

Back in January Sally Beauty Supply released an awesome collection of flakie polishes under their FingerPaints brand called Special Effects. These have been reviewed tons of times online already and are probably sold out by now at most Sally stores, so I just wanted to share a few layering combos I did with some of these polishes over the last few weeks. Unfortunately there wasn’t any sun for any of these pictures though.

Two coats of Motley, the green-blue-violet flakie, over three coats of Sally Girl Peabody in very overcast natural light:
Fingerpaints Motley over Sally Girl Peabody

Fingerpaints Motley over Sally Girl Peabody

Two coats of Asylum, the red-yellow and blue-violet flakie, over two coats of Nubar Pink Flame, again not very good lighting; this is artificial light:
Nubar Pink Flame with Fingerpaints Asylum

Nubar Pink Flame with Fingerpaints Asylum

Two coats of Twisted, the most colourful of these flakies (it’s pretty much like all the others in the collection mixed together), over two coats of OPI Russian Navy Suede, overcast light:
Fingerpaints Twisted over OPI Russian Navy Suede

Fingerpaints Twisted over OPI Russian Navy Suede

I definitely like the last combo best – I’ve determined that I really prefer flakies over dark colours where they stand out clearly, rather than over pale colours.

Category:

FingerPaints

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

I wasn’t originally planning to do anything special with my nails for Valentine’s Day, but then I put on Zoya’s Cho right before bed last night, didn’t use quick-dry topcoat, and woke up with my own fingerprints on several of the nails, haha!

So, this morning I decided to add some glitter to cover up the fingerprints – LA Girls Glitter Addict polishes in Inspire (light pink) and Animate (red). I topped it off with a layer of Zoya Lucy, a sheer jellyish off-white, for a somewhat subtle-looking jelly sandwich. Pics are in artificial light with flash.

Zoya Cho, LA Girls Glitter Addict Inspire & Animate, and Zoya Lucy

Zoya Cho, LA Girls Glitter Addict Inspire & Animate, and Zoya Lucy

Category:

LA Girl, Zoya

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Zoya Natalie, SpaRitual Savoir Faire, & what not to do with drying drops…

Today I’ve got a couple of polishes I’d like to share, and a nail art combo using both that got ruined because I was forgetful! More on that later!

First is Zoya Natalie, an orangey brown shade with a bit of a dusty mauve undertone. I really like this! Two coats, great formula.

Natural light:
Zoya Natalie

Zoya Natalie

Artificial light:
Zoya Natalie, artificial light

Next up, SpaRitual Savoir Faire – an old-fashioned looking dusty pink-mauve that I wouldn’t have given a second look not long ago! As it is, I only got it because it was part of a good deal on a set of five SpaRituals, but now that I’ve tried it I kind of like it. I guess I’m branching out into shades I didn’t like before! I like that it’s a relatively light, conservative pink that I actually don’t hate on my skin tone! This is two coats; formula was also great.

Natural light:
Sparitual Savoir Faire

Artificial light:
Sparitual Savoir Faire, artificial light

Now here is the mani I did using both of those polishes plus Zoya Flowie, which is similar to Natalie but much lighter and less orange. I had on Savoir Faire, and then used French tip guide stickers midway up each nail and painted Natalie above the stickers, Flowie below on the tips. I like the combination of all these dusty rosy-undertoned shades.

The unfortunate part happened after I used Zoya’s drying drops to dry the polish before peeling off the stickers. I waited a few minutes, intending to wash off the residue from the drying drops before applying top coat, but I got distracted by something else and by the time I finished waiting I had forgotten all about rinsing first! So I put on the top coat which turned all cloudy around the edges because it was being applied overtop of drying drops! Oooops, haha! Hence the “what not to do” part of the post title. It’s more visible on the large version of the photos so you may want to click on them if you want to see the icky cloudy ring-around-the-polish. So there is my manicure advice for today; don’t do what I did! 😀
Zoya Natalie, Sparitual Savoir Faire, Zoya Flowie

Zoya Natalie, Sparitual Savoir Faire, Zoya Flowie

Category:

SpaRitual, Zoya

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Sally Girl TTFN and comparisons

If you’ve been to a Sally Beauty Supply store lately you may have noticed that they have five new shades in their Sally Girl line of mini nail polishes. I got a couple of the new ones, including this one called TTFN. And guess what, these new ones actually show the names on the bottles! At the top right of the little sticker along the side. No more cross-referencing the 6-digit number on the sally.com site to try to figure out what the polish’s name is, haha!

Sally Girl TTFN

Sally Girl TTFN

Two coats of TTFN. It was a little streaky on the first coat, but a second thicker coat evened everything out. Colour-wise, this slightly dusty, minty sage green is in between Orly Ancient Jade (which is a tiny bit deeper and brighter), and Misa Catch a Flick (which is a little lighter), as the following photo shows (top to bottom, Catch a Flick, TTFN, Ancient Jade).

Orly Ancient Jade, Sally Girl TTFN, Misa Catch a Flick

In terms of formula, Ancient Jade had a formula that was thinner than TTFN but was also more pigmented and opaque. Catch a Flick had a formula similar to TTFN, a little streaky on the first coat but evening up at the second.

I also compared a couple of other colours for reference. Thumb to pinky, NYX Girls Algae, much darker and bluer, Orly Ancient Jade, Sally Girl TTFN, Misa Catch a Flick, and Nubar Vogue Vert, lighter and more of a dusty yellow-based sage.

NYX Girls Algae, Orly Ancient Jade, Sally Girl TTFN, Misa Catch a Flick, Nubar Vogue Vert

NYX Girls Algae, Orly Ancient Jade, Sally Girl TTFN, Misa Catch a Flick, Nubar Vogue Vert

Category:

Misa, Nubar, NYX, Orly, Sally Girl

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OPI Fly and comparisons

At the risk of making it seem like all I post is OPI, here’s yet another one! This is OPI Fly from their recently released Nicki Minaj collection. I wasn’t going to get any polishes from this collection but when I saw them in store I couldn’t resist getting Fly. I’m powerless against turquoise!

I didn’t have any good light for swatching but I figured I’d just do it anyway. This is two coats of Fly, no top coat, in natural overcast light.
OPI Fly, overcast natural light

With Flash:
OPI Fly, with flash

Since I’m a total sucker for this kind of colour, I (of course) already had a polish that is very, very close to Fly, that polish being Milani’s Fresh Teal, which is one of their neons. I also added Kleancolor Catch Me to my comparison, since it’s fairly similar as well.

These are all two coats, no top coat – index and ring: OPI Fly, middle and pinky: Milani Fresh Teal, thumb: Kleancolor Catch Me.

In overcast natural light:
OPI Fly, Milani Fresh Teal, Kleancolor Catch Me, overcast natural light

With flash:
OPI Fly, Milani Fresh Teal, Kleancolor Catch Me, with flash

OPI Fly, Milani Fresh Teal, Kleancolor Catch Me, with flash

OPI Fly, Milani Fresh Teal, Kleancolor Catch Me, with flash

Milani Fresh Teal is just a tiny smidgen brighter and greener than Fly. I found the Milani more opaque than the OPI at one coat (it could probably be a one-coater if you use a thick coat). Both applied really well and were self-leveling.

The Kleancolor is similar to Fresh Teal in terms of hue but is a few shades lighter (and is the most opaque of these three polishes, easily a one-coater, like a lot of Kleancolor cremes are); I just thought I’d add it for comparison’s sake.

I should probably redo this comparison when there’s sun to do a better job of showing the differences, as the flash tends to wash things out…

My preference/recommendation between Fly and Fresh Teal is Fresh Teal. Not only is it less expensive it’s also a bit more opaque and brighter.

Category:

Kleancolor, Milani, OPI

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Dark teal comparison featuring Nicole by OPI

Someone on a nail board I frequent asked for a comparison of Zoya Cynthia, from last fall’s Smoke collection, and Nicole by OPI Khloe had a Little Lam-Lam from their new Kardashian collection. (Now let me just say that I don’t know anything about the Kardashians except that their names all start with K and they’re on the cover of a lot of magazines in the supermarket checkout line. So, I really don’t know what this polish’s name refers to, but anyway… I’ll just refer to it here as Khloe!)

Cynthia is definitely darker (almost looks black in low light), and has less green in it. I found another polish in my collection that’s much closer to Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter. I also added LA Colors Jungle to the comparison, but it’s a significantly lighter teal than the others.
dark teal creme comparison: Zoya Cynthia, NOPI Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter, LA Colors Jungle

Here are the four polishes at one coat, under my Ott light. From left to right, Zoya Cynthia, Nicole by OPI Khloe Had a Little Lam-Lam, Joe Fresh Hunter, and LA Colors Jungle.

dark teal creme comparison: Zoya Cynthia, NOPI Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter, LA Colors Jungle

Cynthia is the darkest of the bunch and the least green; it’s a blackened teal but it could also pass for navy. At one coat it also has a pretty cloudy texture to it.

Two coats (no top coat), overcast natural light:
dark teal creme comparison: Zoya Cynthia, NOPI Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter, LA Colors Jungle

Khloe has a really smooth formula, great application. Joe Fresh Hunter is nearly identical in colour, though I prefer Khloe’s formula and brush. Not that Hunter’s formula is bad either. My brush on Hunter was a little screwy though; it has one bristle just slightly longer than the others. I’ll have to trim it… The brushes are fairly similar in shape though, both wide and flat, which I personally prefer in a brush shape.

Two coats, still without topcoat, setting sun:
dark teal creme comparison: Zoya Cynthia, NOPI Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter, LA Colors Jungle

dark teal creme comparison: Zoya Cynthia, NOPI Khloe, Joe Fresh Hunter, LA Colors Jungle

At first I was going to say that Hunter is maybe a hair darker and less green than Khloe, but I don’t know if that’s even accurate (it almost looks like Hunter is slightly lighter in these photos – apologies that they aren’t the greatest; I did what I could with the light I had!) Either way, it’s really hard to pinpoint any differences in the two colours. Khloe does dry glossier before top coat, though.

So there you have it, a less expensive alternative to Khloe for those of us who have access to Joe Fresh polishes, although Khloe’s formula is slightly better and the bottle contains more polish (a standard 15 ml, versus 6 ml).

Category:

Joe Fresh, LA Colors, Nicole by OPI, Zoya

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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 Bus Stop Crimson

I have a couple of longer fall-collection-related posts I’ve been meaning to get around to, but have been so busy lately it doesn’t seem to be happening, so I thought I’d go ahead with some shorter posts in the meantime. This is Orly Bus Stop Crimson, a really great red! Not too bright but not too dark, warm toned, with a semi-jelly creme finish. It’s part of Orly’s core collection, I believe. This is two coats with top coat. Please excuse the small scratches on the surface and the tip wear; I had already been wearing this for a day when I took the photos. On the ring finger is one coat of Bus Stop Crimson topped with two coats of Nicole by OPI Glitter in my Stocking from their new holiday glitters (and again, with top coat). Also a great polish, sparkly warm gold glitter with sparse red glitter and I think even some silver glitter in there. It dries a little rough but an extra layer of top coat would fix that. Love both of these polishes!

Orly Bus Stop Crimson with Nicole by OPI Glitter in my Stocking

Orly Bus Stop Crimson with Nicole by OPI Glitter in my Stocking

Orly Bus Stop Crimson with Nicole by OPI Glitter in my Stocking

Category:

Nicole by OPI, Orly

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Kleancolor Fashionista

Just a quick post to show one of my all-time favourites. This is Kleancolor Fashionista, an awesome olive-green creme. Two coats with Poshe top coat. I find that Kleancolor makes really great cremes, always opaque and smooth.
Kleancolor Fashionista
Kleancolor Fashionista

Category:

Kleancolor

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Zoya Codie

This is Zoya’s Codie from the recent fall Smoke collection. It’s a dark brown creme with a distinctly green undertone. I love the colour, but didn’t love the application quite so much!

I found that the formula was kind of thick, and had a bit of that thick-yet-runny thing going on. Shown in the photos are 3 coats, no base coat or top coat. It was streaky at one coat and there were still a few bald spots at two coats. I also got some bubbling. The bald spots and bubbles were probably due to not waiting long enough between coats. I need to remember to be more patient with Zoya cremes and let them dry for a few minutes between coats!

In sun:
Zoya Codie
In overcast natural light:
Zoya Codie

I do really love this shade though. I’ll definitely try it again with a bit more patience, I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end!

Category:

Zoya

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