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

Posts tagged ‘creme’

Cult Nails Enticing and comparisons

I’ve been meaning to get this post up for a while and finally here it is. This is Enticing from Cult Nails’ second-to-last collection, Divas and Drama. I took these photos when the collection was just released, so you can see why I say “finally” since a whole other collection has come out since then!

Cult Nails Enticing

I used a base of Milani Smoothe ridge-filling base coat, then two thick coats of Enticing. I didn’t have any problems with streaks applying this way.

Cult Nails Enticing

As you can see it’s a pale milky pink with fleck-type shimmer in it, and is somewhat jellyish.

Cult Nails Enticing

I have the other polishes in this collection as well but haven’t swatched them yet (strangely enough, in a collection with a coral, a minty blue, and a flakie, the first one I wore was the less-exciting sheer pale pink!)

Cult Nails Enticing

These photos are all taken in sunlight.

Cult Nails Enticing

I compared Enticing to other pale pink polishes that I have, from left, Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, and Zoya Audrey.

Left to right: Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey

Thumb to pinkie (left to right): Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, Left to right: Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey

Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, on my thumb, is much more of a bubblegum shade than the others. The other polishes, index to pinkie, follow the same order as the bottle pic: China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey. Each swatch is two thick-ish coats over Milani Smoothe.

Index to pinkie (top to bottom): China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey

The base colour of the China Glaze, Cult Nails, and Nicole are very similar, but the shimmer and application distinguish them. China Glaze has shimmer that is coarser than Enticing, while Nicole has coarser shimmer that is actually blue, although that doesn’t always show up very obviously on the nails. In terms of application, the Nicole polish was the streakiest/most prone to bald spots of these three, followed by the China Glaze, and the Cult Nails polish had the least-streaky application.

Index to pinkie (top to bottom): China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey

Zoya Audrey, on my pinkie, is a warmer shade of pink than the other three. This polish came from one of Zoya’s two limited edition New York Fashion Week trios that came out a few months ago, this one being the Peter Som trio, so it isn’t readily available anymore as far as I know. It’s also a little streaky on application.

Index to pinkie (top to bottom): China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey

So there you go, in terms of formula the Cult Nails polish is the clear winner here, although I do prefer the blue shimmer in the Nicole polish. Just wish there was more of it so that it’d be more visible, and that the formula was more like Cult Nails’!

At any rate, Enticing is a great choice if you’re in the market for a milky pale pink with a bit of shimmer. Hopefully I’ll get to swatch the rest of the Divas and Drama collection soon (adding it to the long list of swatches and comparisons that I want to get around to “really soon”! haha)

Zoya Beach Skittles

Today I have a skittle mani to show you, using the polishes from Zoya’s Beach collection for summer 2012.

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

Thumb to pinkie are Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, and Lara. The bottle I’m holding is Zoya Tracie, the only non-creme polish from Beach.

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

I plan on doing comparison posts for all of these polishes later, so I’m not going to talk much about the formulas right now. These swatches were all two coats, though.

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

Some shade photos:

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

Later on, I added a coat of Sally Girl Way2Disco, a blue-teal iridescent glitter (shown here in the shade, since the sun was not cooperating):

Index to pinkie: Zoya Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara, topped with Sally Girl Way2Disco

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara, topped with Sally Girl Way2Disco

Stay tuned for comparisons of the Beach (and Surf, the other half of the collection!) polishes to other similar polishes in my stash! I hope to get those posts started in the near future.

Color Club Frills and Cult Nails Feel Me Up

I did some fun glitter nail art that’s been on my nails for several days now! (A long time for me, haha!)

Color Club Frills, Cult Nails Feel Me Up, and loose glitter

The yellow is Cult Nails Feel Me Up, a nice warm sunny yellow, and the coral is Color Club Frills, a deep pink coral.

Color Club Frills, Cult Nails Feel Me Up, and loose glitter

Both have nice creme formulas that go on quite smoothly (Feel Me Up is my new favourite yellow!) and are shown with two coats.

Color Club Frills, Cult Nails Feel Me Up, and loose glitter

I dabbed the coral glitter on with a finger while the yellow polish was still tacky. I got this glitter to use for making frankens, but haven’t done so yet. It’s from the online store GlitterUnique and it’s listed as solvent-resistant. When I bought it, it was called “matte salmon” glitter but I checked the site and they’re now listing it as “matte hot pink”.

Color Club Frills, Cult Nails Feel Me Up, and loose glitter

The large yellow hexes were something I picked up elsewhere and was hoping I could franken with as well, but it turns out they totally melt in polish, unfortunately! But they are still nice as nail art. For these, I applied a drop of topcoat and then pressed them onto the nail, doing so carefully to get the hexes straight.

Color Club Frills, Cult Nails Feel Me Up, and loose glitter

I then sealed everything with two layers of top coat. Oh and on the right hand, the colours are reversed; the first three fingers are the coral design and the last two the yellow. Love this manicure!

Kleancolor Café au Lait

Today’s polish is one of my very favourite nude polishes, Kleancolor Café au Lait! It’s a highly pigmented beige creme with yellow and peach undertones.

Kleancolor Café au Lait

The formula is thick like Kleancolor cremes tend to be, but not in a bad way, and it covers completely in two coats. Shown are two coats with topcoat, in sunlight.

Kleancolor Café au Lait

This next photo turned out brighter/darker than the polish really is…

Kleancolor Café au Lait

I love this shade on my skintone. It’s really subtle and yet still a kind of offbeat shade because of the yellow in it. It’s what I reach for if I don’t know what I want to wear on my nails.

Kleancolor Café au Lait

Since it was starting to have small chips after day one (standard for me), I decided to add some crackle on top to cover those up for the next day. I added China Glaze Tarnished Gold crackle. Then, for good measure, I added two layers of Orly Prisma Gloss Gold, a fine gold glitter with some fine holo glitter dispersed throughout.

Kleancolor Café au Lait, China Glaze Tarnished Gold, Orly Prisma Gloss Gold

Kind of a monochromatic crackle/glitter combo. I prefer Café au Lait on its own though!

Kleancolor Café au Lait, China Glaze Tarnished Gold, Orly Prisma Gloss Gold

The holo glitter particles in Prisma Gloss Gold are very elusive; maybe they would be less so over a more contrasting base! This blurred photo is the only one I took where they sort of show up on the nail!

Kleancolor Café au Lait, China Glaze Tarnished Gold, Orly Prisma Gloss Gold

Kleancolor Pink Lady

This polish is another unique shade from Kleancolor! I haven’t seen any other polish like this, anyway. Pink Lady is a neon hot pink creme with small silver foily flake-type shimmer. It has the typical nice thick pigmented Kleancolor Creme formula. I used two coats plus top coat here. Since it has a neon formula, it dries semi-matte before the top coat is applied.

Kleancolor Pink Lady

I decided to do a Konad accent nail, but the first shade I stamped on didn’t show up very well so I ended up stamping again overtop with a different polish. The first polish I used was Kleancolor Neon Fuchsia (which is actually a neon red; I don’t see any fuchsia in it, anyway!), which didn’t really contrast enough against the base to look good. So on top I added a second stamp using Kleancolor Metallic Pink, an intense fuchsia foil.

Kleancolor Pink Lady, stamped on ring finger with Kleancolor Neon Fuchsia and Kleancolor Metallic Pink

I really like the multi-layer effect! The stamp I used was a fern design from Konad plate M83.

Kleancolor Pink Lady, stamped on ring finger with Kleancolor Neon Fuchsia and Kleancolor Metallic Pink

China Glaze Mahogany Magic

Today’s polish is one that was described by several reviewers as looking like poop when China Glaze’s Hunger Games collection came out last March! Well, I like poopy coloured polishes, haha, so this was the one that originally interested me the most from that collection!!

China Glaze Mahogany Magic

However, I didn’t really end up liking this one as much as I thought I would, once it was on the nail. Don’t get me wrong, I do like it, and there’s nothing wrong with the polish. The formula is good, no complaints; these photos show two coats plus top coat. But somehow, it ended up seeming kind of “flat” to me… some might say that all creme polishes are flat in a way, but that’s not what I mean and I’m not quite sure how else to describe it… I got kind of bored of it while I had it as my mani.

China Glaze Mahogany Magic

I think the colour wasn’t quite “ugly” enough for me; it needs some more yellow in it or something! 😀

China Glaze Mahogany Magic

Actually, I think I just need to add some kind of nail art to this in order to love it – stamping on it with another “ugly-pretty” colour would be nice… Or a coppery glitter-tipped gradient! Lots of fun possibilities are coming to mind!! So, yeah, I think I really like this, just not so much all by itself!

Barry M Peach Melba

Today for your viewing pleasure, I’ve got more photos than necessary of a plain peach creme! Heh. I like the photos and don’t feel like choosing. This is Barry M Peach Melba, a very nice creme peach shade.

Barry M Peach Melba

Shown are three coats, and my index has a layer of Poshe topcoat overtop to cover up a big smudge that I got from removing a cat hair that got into the wet polish before I could take the pictures!

Barry M Peach Melba

It’s a pastel shade of coral-toned peach, not too pale and not too bright. Disclaimer: these photos were taken in sunlight as the sun was beginning to set, so they are more orange-toned than in other lighting situations.

Barry M Peach Melba

I found the formula a little thick and hard to level, hence the need for three coats. I added a few drops of thinner to the polish. All that may have had something to do with the hot and humid weather. (I suspect this might be a frequent theme in my posts for the next few months… “It was thick and I had to add thinner, but…”)

Barry M Peach Melba

I found that it dried very quickly, but again the weather might have been a factor…

Barry M Peach Melba

I really like peaches and corals lately; I’ll have to do some more comparison posts for these shades! Especially since these ones turned out a little too orange!

Barry M Peach Melba

White Creme Comparison

Today I’ve got a comparison to show you of the plain white creme polishes that I own. As you’ll see, one of the four is the clear winner in terms of opacity and formula!

White creme comparison

From left to right, we have: Color Club French Tip, Kleancolor White, Sally Girl Pure, and Milani White on the Spot. This is the order in which I acquired these polishes, and getting the Milani from their fast-dry line with its supposed “one coat formula” is what prompted the comparison. I was skeptical and figured that was total BS since white cremes are notoriously streaky and badly-behaved, but as it turns out, the Milani white is actually *almost* a one-coater so the claim is only a slight exaggeration!

This first photo shows one coat of each polish, index to pinkie (bottom to top) in the same order as the bottles. I applied them all with a fairly thick coat (basically just not wiping off the brush on the bottle rim before applying), since whites and pastels usually benefit from a light touch rather than applying a lot of very thin coats which tend to go on streakier.

White creme comparison - 1 coat

As you can see, the Milani on the pinkie is actually not bad, some bald areas but not too streaky looking! The other three polishes were very similar to one another (in terms of how the photo looks, the Sally Girl on my ring finger has an unfair disadvantage here, since that nail has the most ridges and for some reason has more of an orange stain than the others!). They were streakier and less self-leveling than the Milani. My mini bottle of Kleancolor needed a few drops of thinner in it, but that was no doubt just due to the fact that it’s the one I’ve actually used the most. I actually prefer the Kleancolor’s thick consistency among those three other polishes.

Here they are at two coats (without top coat). You can see that the Milani on my pinkie is the most opaque and smoothest; the others are slightly ridged lengthwise since they don’t self-level as well as the Milani. In terms of drying time, I didn’t really notice the Milani being much quicker than the others or anything, but they all dried fairly quickly.

White creme comparison - 2 coats

Next I wanted to compare them in terms of how well they do for stamping. As a base I used one coat of Kleancolor Plum (followed by some quick dry top coat), then I used a design from Konad plate M15 and stamped on each polish in the same order as before (here, left to right). Please disregard the smudged/missing and crooked parts (augh, that pinkie!); that’s just user error and not the polishes!! They all worked pretty similarly but the Milani and the Color Club gave a slightly brighter white image.

White creme comparison - stamping

Next I stamped using the French tip designs from Konad M86. (Polishes are in the same order index to pinkie, so now, right to left.) As you can see they don’t work so well for these larger-area images, though the actual gaps in the design are more user error than anything else. None of them leaves a very opaque image though; the stamps all have a sort of rippled look to them. Not sure if that could be reduced a bit by using a lighter touch when transferring the image onto the stamper. Again the Milani and Color Club give a slightly brighter result.

White creme comparison - stamping

After stamping on the French tips I carefully went over them again with polish, just brushing it on, to fill them in and attempt to make them somewhat presentable. Here’s the result; all of them worked fine for this but the Milani did give the smoothest result. In terms of brushes, I should mention that the Fast Dry Milanis have a flat wide brush, similar to OPI and Kleancolor brushes. (Even the Kleancolor minis have a flat brush, though on a smaller scale. The other two polishes here have skinny round brushes.)

White creme comparison - french tips

Another photo featuring Wade in the background!

So there you have it; best white creme polish in my (albeit limited) experience is definitely Milani’s White on the Spot!

Soulstice Spa Harbour Island and Cape Cod

Soulstice Spa has released four new polish shades into their collection for spring 2012, and today I have two of them to show you, complete with comparisons to a couple other polishes I have.

The two polishes I got are Cape Cod, a light, slightly muted blue with pearly shimmer, and Harbour Island, a pale, sheer peachy-pink-nude jelly with holographic glitter in it! As a bonus, a couple of adorable kitties will be making an appearance in today’s photos! 😉 All photos are taken in direct sunlight.

These next photos are three coats of Cape Cod. At first I found the formula to be thick so I was having trouble evening out my coats but I added a little Beauty Secrets thinner and that helped a lot.

I really like this shade of blue and the fine pearly shimmer!

The shimmer has a sort of blueish glow to it in the sunlight, very cool!

This polish reminded me of Milani Antique, another light blue with the same type of finish, so I did a little comparison. Index and ring are Antique, middle and pinkie are Cape Cod, three coats each. As you can see the Milani is a couple shades darker than Cape Cod.

And here is my boy Thor checking out the comparison, haha!

Next up, Harbour Island. These photos are also three coats.

The formula was really smooth and easy to apply but it’s a sheer and the third coat adds more sparkle and reflectivity.

The base colour of this polish is pale peach with a bit of a pinkish tone.

The holo glitter does dry slightly rough, but top coat easily takes care of that (these photos include top coat).

As always you can click on any of these photos to see the sparkly holo glitter in better detail!

I can’t say that I have any other peach/nude jellies with holo glitter! But here is a comparison to the closest thing I have, LA Splash Sparkling Jellyfish. Sparkling Jellyfish, in the middle in the following photo, is significantly deeper, brighter and more pink.

And finally, Harbour Island makes a great layering polish; here it is over China Glaze V, a light orange-coral creme. Hanging out in the photo is my boy Wade! (Wade lost an eye to a severe upper respiratory infection as a kitten when he first arrived at the shelter, but it doesn’t slow him down in the slightest! Nor does it prevent him from being the alpha male in our little feline “colony”!)

The other two polishes in this release, which I don’t have (yet, at least!), are St. Tropez, a beige nude that looks to have pearly shimmer similar to Cape Cod, and Kauai, a berry pink with golden shimmer. If you’re curious about them, blogger Glazed Talons reviewed them both here. These shades are available directly through Soulstice Spa on their website; Nail Polish Canada also sells Soulstice but they don’t have these new shades in stock yet as of the time I’m posting this.

Disclosure: the Soulstice Spa polishes in this post were provided to me for review. All opinions are my own honest opinions. (The other polishes in this post were purchased by me. The cats were rescued from the street and adopted from a shelter, respectively. :P)

Pastel Skittles Mani

Just a quick post today to share a recent pastel skittles (each nail a different colour, for those who aren’t familiar with nail-polish-addict-speak ;)) manicure I did. I felt like doing something spring-like and cool-toned, and here are the polishes I decided on: Essence You Belong To Me, Milani Original, Essence A Lovely Secret, Milani Dressmaker, and Milani Antique.

Essence You Belong To Me, Milani Original, Essence A Lovely Secret, Milani Dressmaker, Milani Antique

Essence You Belong To Me is a pastel turquoise creme with some fine pearly secret shimmer; Milani Original is a mint green creme; Essence A Lovely Secret is a lavender creme with fine warmer-toned and slightly darker magenta-purple glitter; Milani Dressmaker is a pale minty jade with turquoise shimmer; Milani Antique is a slightly muted/dusty light blue creme with fine pearly secret shimmer. Three coats of each polish (actually I think I added a fourth of Dressmaker, since it’s a pretty sheer polish).

Unfortunately there was no sun when I wore this, so the shimmer of the polishes doesn’t show up very well in the photos, although if you click to enlarge them you can see some, especially in the first photo. These pics include topcoat; I had been wearing the mani a while when I took them. Overcast natural light:

Essence You Belong To Me, Milani Original, Essence A Lovely Secret, Milani Dressmaker, Milani Antique

Essence You Belong To Me, Milani Original, Essence A Lovely Secret, Milani Dressmaker, Milani Antique

Artificial light (Ott light) – the colours are truer in this photo, as the previous ones make them seem a little darker than they are:

Essence You Belong To Me, Milani Original, Essence A Lovely Secret, Milani Dressmaker, Milani Antique