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

Posts tagged ‘creme’

From the Vault

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.

fall1

Next, Orly Wild Wisteria with China Glaze Brownstone accent:

wild_wisteria_brownstone

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:

shabbydrab2

With Color Club Jingle Jangle overtop:

shabbydrab_jinglejangle

Color Club Earthy Angel:

cc_earthyangel

cc_earthyangel2

Color Club New Bohemian:

cc_newbohemian

cc_newbohemian2

Color Club Nomadic in Nude:

cc_nomadicnude

cc_nomadicnude2

Color Club Rad Nomad:

cc_radnomad

cc_radnomad2

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!

cc_redical_thor

cc_redical2

With an accent of Cult Nails Hypnotize Me and Nubar V matte top coat:

redical_hm_matte

redical_hm_matte2

Category:

China Glaze, Color Club, Cult Nails, FingerPaints, Frankenpolish, Joe Fresh, Kleancolor, Nubar, Orly

Tagged with:

More Soulstice Swatches

I’ve got some more Soulstice Spa swatches for you today! 😀

Venice: gold foil, two coats. It dries fast, and has an excellent formula.

Soulstice Venice

Soulstice Venice

Soulstice Venice

Nairobi: metallic bronze, two coats. Also dries fast and has a great formula.

Soulstice Nairobi

Soulstice Nairobi

Soulstice Nairobi

Soulstice Nairobi

Soulstice Nairobi

Madrid: candy apple red jelly. It has a smooth formula, and is even okay at one coat for a sheer wash of cherry. Two coats in the photos. I swatched this without base coat, and it stained pink a little bit, so be sure to use a good base coat!

Soulstice Madrid

Soulstice Madrid

Soulstice Madrid

Soulstice Madrid

Lisbon: a metallic navy with a good consistency. I used two coats, and it bubbled a little as it dried because I used a too thick second coat. I think three thin coats would have been better – I used three thin coats on my thumb, and it didn’t have any bubbles.

Soulstice Lisbon

Soulstice Lisbon

Soulstice Lisbon

Soulstice Lisbon

Category:

Soulstice Spa

Tagged with:

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/ 🙂

Ruby White Tips Kim

Category:

Ruby White Tips

Tagged with:

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

Category:

Soulstice Spa

Tagged with:

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

Category:

Zoya

Tagged with:

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

Category:

Cult Nails, Kleancolor, Misa

Tagged with:

Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry

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

Category:

Beauty Without Cruelty

Tagged with:

Soulstice Spa San Francisco and Beauty Without Cruelty Tangerine

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

Category:

Beauty Without Cruelty, Soulstice Spa

Tagged with:

Color Club Blue-ming

This beauty is Color Club Blue-ming, from last spring’s Blossoming collection. I love this almost-neon-bright pastel turquoise! But I wasn’t quite able to capture its unique shade in the photos, unfortunately… Picture it slightly greener and brighter!

Color Club Blue-Ming

It’s kind of streaky, not surprising for a pastel like this. These first photos in the sun show three coats of polish.

Color Club Blue-Ming

Before the last two photos, I added a fourth coat due to smudging a couple of nails! I also added a layer of top coat. In the shade:

Color Club Blue-Ming

Indoors with flash:

Color Club Blue-Ming

Despite its streaky formula, this is one of my favourite polishes because of its unique colour! Love the almost-neon pastels!

Category:

Color Club

Tagged with:

Zoya Evvie, Katherine, and Rekha

These three polishes are from Zoya’s fall 2012 Designer and Gloss collections, although all three were part of last spring’s New York Fashion Week limited edition releases as well, and that’s when I got them.

Zoya Evvie with No Miss Peacock

Evvie is a dark, dusty grey-leaning green creme. It was originally released in the Peter Som collaboration trio. This is a great colour; I loved wearing it. Shown are two coats plus top coat, and the formula was good.

Zoya Evvie with No Miss Peacock

On my index finger, I have a coat of No Miss Peacock Glitter over Evvie. Peacock is a green and blue glitter polish with small rectangular shaped glitters, almost like bar glitter cut in half.

Zoya Evvie with No Miss Peacock

Next is Katherine, a deep plum/eggplant purple jelly that was also originally from the Peter Som trio.

Zoya Katherine

It’s a very transparent sort of jelly; this first photo is three coats over a ridge filling base coat. At the time I swatched this I had a fiberglass wrap on my index finger, and it still shows a bit through the polish. Gloss is a good name for the collection Katherine comes from – there’s no top coat here, the shine is all Katherine.

Zoya Katherine

These other two photos show four coats of Katherine. She has a very nice jelly formula, and will make great jelly sandwiches. I decided to leave my index and its wrap out of the last photo. 😉

Zoya Katherine

And finally, Rekha, a red semi-jelly shade that was originally from Zoya’s Bibhu Mohapatra collaboration trio. I believe it was named after the designer’s mother, and recreates the shade of red nail polish that she wore.

Zoya Rekha

Only two coats are needed, but I’m wearing three in these photos because I applied the polish before going to bed and didn’t use a quick-dry top coat, so unsurprisingly by the time I took photos in the morning there were some little scratches on the surface.

Zoya Rekha

Rekha seems to me a very neutral shade of red, neither cool nor warm, and is a great version of a classic colour. Here she is in the shade:

Zoya Rekha

Category:

No Miss, Zoya

Tagged with: