May Day!
Kleancolor Black with red stars that I picked out of Kleancolor Blind Date, in honour of International Workers’ Day.
Posts tagged ‘creme’
OPI My Pointe Exactly
This polish is OPI My Pointe Exactly, from their new NYC Ballet collection of sheer pastel jellies. It’s a lovely light grey jelly shade with a fairly smooth formula. I did still have some issues with streakiness, but the ridge filler I used was giving me some trouble so that was likely a contributing factor. It was a bottle of Milani Smoothe that is getting close to empty and seems to be causing bubbles. I probably need to add more thinner and wait longer for it to dry before applying polish… I honestly can’t remember now if this ended up being three or four coats of My Pointe Exactly, but I really like the result.
I recently heard a tip for applying these types of polishes without streaks; It consists of applying a quick dry top coat over the first coat of colour, waiting for it to dry completely, then adding a second coat of colour and top coat as usual. It apparently lets you apply sheers and pastels using only two coats rather than 3 or 4 to even out streaks. I’ll have to try this next time. It should be especially helpful in keeping it looking like a translucent jelly (personally, I really like the translucent jelly look, although I know some people hate being able to see their nail line through the polish). This is the only shade I have from this collection so far, it’s the most unique of them and the one that initially spoke to me, but that might change sooner or later…
FingerPaints Lemon Sour
Lemon Sour is another polish from Finger Paints’ spring collection, Gumdrops and Lollipops. It’s a pretty pastel yellow creme.
Shown here are three coats in full sunlight. Most pastel yellows are quite streaky; this one is better than average on that front. I would have been happy with it at two coats for everyday wear, but since I was photographing it I added the third just to make sure there were no thin spots showing through. The polish was well-pigmented like Finger Paints cremes tend to be, and it also felt a little bit too thick – I think it will benefit from some polish thinner next time I use it.
I’ve accumulated a little collection of very similar pastels yellow shades in the search for the ones with the best formulas; I’ll have to do a pastel yellow comparison post soon!
Zoya Tamsen
Here’s another great red from Zoya! Tamsen is a warm, orange-based tomato red creme.
Shown are two coats in full sunlight. The formula on Tamsen is smooth and easy to work with.
In partly cloudy light:
Nubar Toasted Marshmallow
Nubar Toasted Marshmallow is from Nubar’s spring 2012 collection, Jellybeans. I’ve seen it described as the oddball shade in the collection… Well, it’s the one I was most interested in, haha! It’s one of those yellowy tan shades I just love. I’m not sure that it really resembles a toasted marshmallow since toasted marshmallows are not smooth and uniform in colour like this, but it definitely reminds me of caramel or maybe whole mustard seeds.
This swatch shows two coats with top coat (I was wearing it as a full manicure); the formula was nice and smooth and gave me no problems. It has a slightly squishy-looking jellyish quality to it, but not anywhere near as much as one would expect in a collection called “Jellybeans”, to be honest. Still, I love it for what it is! Photos are in natural partly-sunny light.
The colour actually reminds me of Misa Hot Couture; I’ll have to do a comparison post of these two polishes!
Zoya Perrie with black and white glitter
I recently made this frankenpolish (nail polish that you mix together yourself!) top coat of black and white hex glitter. As far as frankens go, this one isn’t particularly original or complicated; it’s basically just LA Girls Glitter Addict in Uninhibited, thinned out with some clear polish and with some loose white hex glitter added. I still haven’t decided on a name for this creation… I love making frankens; it’s so much fun!
The base shown here is Zoya Perrie, a warm toned, light yet bright purple. This polish is a one-coater with a great formula! The sun was setting when I took these photos, so apologies that the colour is a bit off – Perrie looks redder than she should. If you click on the large versions of the photos you can see where the glitter sort of sinks into the polish a bit leaving slight pock-marks… I’m not sure if this is just from not letting the base colour dry enough before adding the glitter coat, but a second layer of top coat would take care of it!
NYX Girls Pure Green and LA Girls Purge
A little late, but this was my requisite green manicure last Saturday for St. Patrick’s Day! This is NYX Girls Pure Green with accent nails in Purge from the LA Girl Glitter Addict line.
Shown are two coats of Pure Green, a jellyish kelly green, layered with two coats of Purge on the accent nails, with top coat. Pure Green has a nice smooth formula and these were two medium-thick coats. I got a few tiny bubbles from slopping on a bit too much top coat, but they weren’t very noticeable. Overcast natural light.
Comparison: FingerPaints Circus Peanuts and China Glaze Peachy Keen
I recently got four polishes from the FingerPaints spring 2012 collection, Gumdrops and Lollipops, and today I have Circus Peanuts to show you. I love the colour; it’s a pinky, pastel coral peach creme shade. The formula isn’t the greatest but not the worst either. It’s quite thick and very pigmented like most FingerPaints cremes are, but it’s also a little streaky like a lot of pastels are. I ended up using three coats to even out a few slightly patchy spots I could still see after two coats. I’m thinking that adding some thinner to this polish will help with the application.
When this first came out I wondered how it compared to China Glaze Peachy Keen. Turns out they’re in the same colour family but not really all that close.
Circus Peanuts is a bit lighter and definitely pinker; Peachy Keen is more of an orangey peach. This photo shows three coats of each.
FingerPaints Circus Peanuts (index and ring) and China Glaze Peachy Keen (middle and pinky)
The formula on Peachy Keen is streaky and significantly more difficult than Circus Peanuts’ in my opinion. While I used three coats for each, the third was definitely necessary on Peachy Keen whereas I felt that I could have gotten away with two for Circus Peanuts if I had been a bit more careful. Shown below is the result after three streaky coats (with top coat but after about a day and a half of wear). This polish, while not quite as thick as Circus Peanuts, definitely could benefit from a good dose of thinner just to attempt to make it less streaky. I really love the colour though, so I think it’s worth the hassle of its application!
Cult Nails Let’s Get Nekkid Collection
Today I have swatches of the latest Cult Nails collection to show you! The collection is called Let’s Get Nekkid and consists of four nude shades for a wide variety of skin tones as well as a green glittery flakie polish. The nudes are all named after nude beaches. As usual, you can click on any of the photos to see more detail.
I’ll go from lightest to darkest for the nudes, so first up is Mazo. This one works best as a nude on my pale self. It’s a sheer beige base with lots of golden shimmer. The shimmer is the large flake-type shimmer particle. Shown is three coats, but it was already smooth and even at only one coat (this one has the best formula in the collection in my opinion), so the choice of how many coats to use is strictly based on how sheer you want it to be.
Next is Baker, a deeper and more opaque tan beige with orange tones in it and with similar golden shimmer. The formula seemed a little thicker than Mazo but was still fairly smooth and even and could probably be used at one coat for a sheer wash of colour. I used three coats for the photos (it’s more opaque than Mazo, still a relatively sheer polish though, so I used three coats since my nails are a bit stained).
Tulum is a dusty chocolately medium taupe-brown with golden shimmer that doesn’t show up as much as it does in the first two polishes; I’m not sure if that’s just because the base is more opaque or if the particles themselves are different. This one was a little streaky on the first coat, and the formula was a little thin and threatened to run down the brush stem and flood the nail if I wasn’t careful. Adjusting to that, a second thicker coat on top of the first evened out the polish.
I did a comparison to Power Thief from Cult Nails’ previous collection (which I reviewed here), and as you can see, Power Thief (on the left) has more of a reddish-pink undertone and has denser shimmer that shows up more on the nail. The shimmer in Power Thief is silvery and flashes little sparkles of blue and pink in the light.
Cult Nails Power Thief (left) and Tulum (right)
Cult Nails Power Thief (left) and Tulum (right)
The final nude shade is Swanbourne, a very deep neutral brown, again with golden shimmer. Like Tulum, this shade is opaque and the shimmers don’t show up as much as they do in the first two shades. Shown are two coats.
Last but not least we have the green flakie, Toxic Seaweed. This is a blue-toned green jelly with lots of small glitter and flakies that shift from red to yellow to green. This one has the same ingredient issue as Clairvoyant does, so unless they can find a new supplier or substitute for that ingredient, it will be limited edition. So, if you like this one, get it while you can; it’s still available on Cult Nails’ website as of the time I’m publishing this post!
The formula on this one was thinner than I expected, but only because I imagined it would be super-thick and it wasn’t. It applied just fine and this was two coats. I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about this one; I love it at an angle when the flakes are reflecting yellow, but straight on it can have a red-and-green kind of Christmasy look to it that isn’t really my favourite.
Since I usually show the glitter or flakie polish over the others when I review Cult Nails collections, I did it again here although it’s not really as appropriate in this case – Mazo is too light to change its look, Baker just kind of makes the colour more muted by removing the blue tone, over Tulum it becomes sort of a swampy looking thing (kind of interesting, actually) – layering it over Swanbourne makes the most sense! This photo shows one coat of Toxic Seaweed layered over Mazo, Baker, Tulum and Swanbourne (left to right).
My overall impression of this collection is great; I love nudes and these ones have golden shimmer which makes me love them even more! Those with cool, pink-toned skin may not be quite as thrilled with this collection as I am, but I can see Mazo becoming a go-to nude polish for me since it matches my skin tone quite well and looks good at one coat (or at least it would without the stained nails!!) as well as at two or three! Baker is another favourite; I love the golden orangey-peachy tan tone. All of these shades are pretty unique in my collection. I do recommend waiting a couple minutes between coats when applying the darker among these polishes to prevent dragging and bald spots.
Zoya Haley
Zoya Haley is a bright, orange-toned red jelly. It’s sheer so it leaves a visible nail line. The formula is nice; I didn’t have any trouble with it. Shown are three coats with top coat, after about a day of wear. Bright and cheerful!
Vegan Claws 
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