duochrome | Vegan Claws

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

Posts tagged ‘duochrome’

Orly Synchro

This is a very picture heavy post, because this polish is quite the chameleon! Orly Synchro is from the Electronica collection released for early fall 2012.

It’s a duochrome shimmer that is kind of frosty. The colour ranges from coral to pink to purple to nearly blue, depending on the angle.

The formula was a bit thick and sticky; not the easiest to work with. Care also has to be taken to get the brush strokes straight.

It’s also pretty sheer, and this was three coats, the last one thick.

Totally worth it though! The colours are amazing! It makes me think of a sunset.

In the shade:

I also swatched it using one fairly thick coat over black (one coat of Kleancolor Black). The layer on my ring finger somehow ended up being thicker than the others, and it shows in the photos; the ring finger has more of a pinkish-purple tone while the other fingers show off the more blue side of the polish.

I found the trick to applying Synchro to be using a thick enough final coat that you have time to straighten out the brush strokes before it starts to get sticky.

I just love all the colours in this! And how it looks quite different over black versus on its own!

In the shade:

On my thumb in this last photo is one coat of Synchro over a light pink (Joe Fresh in the shade Blush):

Category:

Joe Fresh, Kleancolor, Orly

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China Glaze Want my Bawdy

Today I have another of the China Glaze New Bohemian polishes to show you. This is Want My Bawdy – groan-worthy name that looks like something OPI would come up with, but beautiful indigo blue shimmer with slight purple duochrome!

The duochrome on this one is very mild; it’s the least duochrome in the collection, but there is a bit of a purple flash at an angle in the right light, as seen in the above photo.

The formula was thin and sheer, and I got some bald spots in my application from not waiting long enough between coats (as often happens, I was rushing to get my swatching done before the sunset!). These swatches show three coats of the polish, no top coat.

In the next two photos I swatched it over black as I usually do with duochromes (one coat of Want My Bawdy over one coat of Kleancolor Black), but it didn’t really change the look of this one much. It mostly just makes it appear more blackened around the edges. This next photo is with flash (all the others are in sunlight).

Despite the very subtle nature of the duochrome in this polish, I’m personally not disappointed with it! It’s a beautiful glowy blue, and that hint of purple flash that comes out occasionally is just an added bonus. 🙂

Category:

China Glaze, Kleancolor

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Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve

This amazing polish is Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve, which I haven’t seen for sale here in Canada (it’s supposed to be exclusive to Target stores and we don’t have those yet), but I was able to get with the help of someone having a blogsale! (Thanks again, Amy! :))

Shown are three coats plus a layer of topcoat; the polish is slightly sheer to allow the duochrome iridescent shimmer to show through.

I recommend waiting a minute between coats to avoid any balder spots near the cuticle, but other than that the formula was good!

These photos are in natural light, various degrees of shade/partial sun.

I love the finish on this polish! As you can see, there are a whole lot of colours in the flecked/foily particles: mauve, blue, copper, pink, plum, and a lovely warm golden orange colour shift at an angle. It’s the kind of polish that doesn’t really belong to just one colour family!

There are two other polishes in this release that have a similar finish, and I’ll be posting those at a later date. 😀

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Nicole by OPI

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China Glaze Fast Track

China Glaze Fast Track is a taupey-beige nude with heavy golden shimmer flakes. It was released last spring in the Hunger Games collection.

Shown are two thick coats. In the sun photos, there’s also a layer of topcoat. As evidenced by the sideways watermark, these pics were also taken using my phone, haha!

I found the formula a little thick but didn’t have any problems with application.

The sun photos didn’t quite catch all the tiny sparks of different colours, little flashes of orange and green, that are often reflected in the sparkle of this awesome polish!

Here it is in the shade:

As a bonus here is what I ended up doing to this mani after a couple of days, mainly because I didn’t want to take the time to remove Fast Track first, and then I just kept adding things, haha…

Over Fast Track is a coat of Orly Nite Owl, an opaque taupe with silver shimmer, then two layers of Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze, Nubar Petunia glitter on the tips, and Spoiled by Wet n Wild’s Trust Fund Baby over it all!

Category:

China Glaze, Glitter Gal, Nubar, Orly, Wet n Wild

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Soulstice Santa Monica and Nevis

I’m very excited today to be able to show you two brand new polishes from Soulstice! Santa Monica and Nevis are two of four shades that have just been released. This half of the set isn’t your traditional fall colours, but they are gorgeous!

On the left we have Santa Monica, a light lavender with blue/pink duochrome glass flecks, and on the right, Nevis, a leafy green creme. The following photo shows the shimmer in Santa Monica that the previous one didn’t catch!

Santa Monica is really, really pretty. It’s sheer at first, since it has a jellyish base to allow the shimmer to sparkle through. The formula was good, slightly thin but not runny. I used three coats here.

Disclaimer: please note that I took these photos as the sun had just begun to set, so they appear a bit warmer than in real life! (Also, my index finger is still growing out the last of the break I had a while back, so any irregularities you might see there at the tip are not the fault of the polishes!)

These next two photos at an angle show the colour shift in the shimmer better. As usual, you can click on any photo to enlarge it and get a better look at the details.

Blue duochrome glass flecks, of course, mean instant love to me. 😉

And here is what Santa Monica looks like in the shade:

And now for Nevis! I definitely have a soft spot for this sort of green, bright and leafy and bold!

I found the formula thin on this one, and the first coat went on streaky as a result. However, a second slightly thicker coat evened it all out!

This shade of green looks like it’s close to Misa Good to Be Green, which I loved, and I love this! As a side note, just after I did my comparison post for Good to Be Green, I ended up with two other polishes that are a lot closer to it than the ones in my comparison photos! With this one, that makes three similar ones I have, so I’ll have to revisit that comparison in a new post!

Here is Nevis in the shade:

The other two shades in this release are Napa, a shimmery deep red, and St. Barts, a shimmery deep teal, that also look like they’re going to be great! I’m definitely looking forward to picking those up when Nail Polish Canada gets them in stock… For those of you in the US, the four new shades are already available from Soulstice’s web store!

Disclosure: The polishes in this post were provided to me by the company for my honest review. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Category:

Soulstice Spa

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China Glaze Unpredictable

Today I have another duochrome from China Glaze’s New Bohemian collection to show you! The first two polishes I reviewed from the collection are here.

This is Unpredictable, a metallic green/teal duochrome. Like the other polishes in the collection, the metallic finish is slightly brushstrokey but not so much that it really qualifies as “frost”.

Shown are three coats, but I probably could have gotten away with two. No issues with application other than taking a bit of care to get the brushstrokes straight. Here you can see that head-on, the leaf-green aspect is prominent, whereas the above photos at a bit more of an angle show off the teal side of the polish.

In the shade:

The rest of the photos show one coat of Unpredictable over one coat of Kleancolor Black, deepening the overall effect. As usual lately, please disregard any lumps in the too-thick base polish!

In the shade:

This polish didn’t disappoint; I think the duochrome is quite apparent and the two green tones are really nice!

Category:

China Glaze, Kleancolor

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Orly Flicker

Another amazing wonderful polish today! …at least, in my opinion! Picture heavy post! 🙂

This is Orly Flicker from the new Fired Up collection for fall 2012. It’s a gorgeous orange-red with slight duochrome, and is very aptly named!

The formula was thin and somewhat sheer. I used two coats, the second one thick (except I ended up using three coats on my index & middle because the second coat had been thinner on those fingers).

The duochrome isn’t super-intense but it’s definitely there, as you can see in some of the photos at different angles.

In the shade:

As usual with duochromes, I also tried it out over black. Here is one coat of Flicker over one coat Kleancolor Black:

Mmmm, sparkly and glowing!

It applied slightly streaky over the black but that was just because I was rushing. Not to mention that my mini bottle of Kleancolor Black is on its last legs and needed more thinner; it was a bit lumpy.

This was the only polish I picked up from this collection, but I’m so glad I did! It’s amazing! ❤

Category:

Orly

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Orly Emberstone

Here’s a post of photos from my most recent week-long foray into a pointy nail shape (which was a couple of months ago now)! This is Orly Emberstone from last year’s Mineral FX fall collection. It’s a gorgeous complex shade with a slightly duochrome finish that is somewhere in between foil and glass fleck. It’s a bright red full of sparkles of orange and magenta/pink.

This is three coats with topcoat, but the third coat wasn’t really necessary; I just did it to add even more depth to the colour. This has a great formula; I had no complaints. Really pretty shade! Be sure to click on the larger versions of the photos to see the flecky/foily detail of the finish and the slight duochrome that appears in the shade!

Shade photo:

Category:

Orly

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China Glaze Deviantly Daring and No Plain Jane

I’ve got the first two of six new China Glaze polishes from their New Bohemian collection today! These shades have duochrome to varying degrees, and a metallic finish that’s slightly brushstrokey but not in a bad way, in my humble opinion – I wouldn’t quite call them frost, and I didn’t have trouble getting the brush stokes straight.

I’ll start with No Plain Jane, the purple shade; I was actually a little disappointed with this one since the duochrome didn’t seem as orange as I expected; more of a pinkish-goldenish-copper shade, and the purple can look paler and almost lavender in some lighting. This swatch is three coats, and I found the formula a bit thick and sticky for this kind of polish. First photos are in sunlight:

These next photos are under my Ott Lite:

Next I layered one coat of No Plain Jane over Kleancolor Black. Layered this way, it photographed bluer than it is – it’s definitely more of a red-leaning purple like the first photos showed. Sunlight:

This one is a bit more colour accurate:

In indirect natural light:

Next is Deviantly Daring; I love this rich teal-blue-green shade! Two coats shown here, and this one had a great formula. Sunlight:

In the shade, if you click to enlarge this photo you can kind of see the fine gold shimmer that gives this polish extra depth; it’s more visible in the bottle than on the nail but is really pretty:

This next photo is under the Ott Lite – I think that bright green flash that you can see near the bottom right of each nail is actually a reflection from the wall with its bright lime-green paint job, so I’m a little hesitant to post this, but I guess I’ll just say that this one isn’t totally accurate of what the polish looks like in real life!

Now, here is one coat of Deviantly Daring over one coat Kleancolor Black, in sunlight:

In shade:

So, one of these two polishes was nice but mainly just “okay” in my opinion, and the other is a definite winner! The other four shades from this collection are on my ever-expanding “to swatch” list!

Category:

China Glaze, Kleancolor

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Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

I’ve got a gorgeous duochrome from Glitter Gal to show you today! This is one of six new duochromes they recently released, and the lovely Kerry from Glitter Gal gave me the opportunity to review it (thanks, Kerry!). This one is called Buckled Bronze and it’s got a great plum-burgundy-bronze-copper colour shift!

Here it is with the box it comes in. I really like these new Glitter Gal bottles, square and solid and stylish looking – they’ve really done a nice job on their new packaging.

These photos are of one generous coat of Buckled Bronze over one coat of Kleancolor Black; these are sheer duochromes that show their full effect over black (or another very dark colour).

No topcoat here; it dries quite glossy on its own. The formula was thin and smooth, perfect for this sort of layering polish.

As always you can click on any of these photos to get a better view.

These next two photos are with flash in addition to sunlight. Head-on, the flash shows just how nearly purple this polish appears in some lights!

And at more of an angle, the bronze tone becomes prominent:

At extreme angles, the polish even shifts to gold and green. If you click on the full size version of this next photo, you can see all the little multicoloured sparkles along with the gold-green shift – love it!

These next few photos are in indoor light.

Indirect natural light, sorry for the weird lumpy-looking reflections:

Under my Ott Lite:

Ott Lite plus flash:

And here is what the polish looks like on its own – as you can see it’s definitely sheer! Left to right, one, two, three, and four coats of Buckled Bronze. The pinkie with four coats shows how the base of the polish is kind of a smokey taupe colour.

Anyway, as you may have guessed by now, this is a great polish and I love it! The colour scheme is right up my alley. This and the other five new Glitter Gal duochromes, shown in the following company promo image, are available here on their website, or from one of their international distributors listed here.

Disclosure: This polish was provided to me by the company for my honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Category:

Glitter Gal, Kleancolor, Uncategorized

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Vegan Claws

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

Posts tagged ‘duochrome’

Orly Synchro

China Glaze Want my Bawdy

Nicole by OPI Just Busta Mauve

China Glaze Fast Track

Soulstice Santa Monica and Nevis

China Glaze Unpredictable

Orly Flicker

Orly Emberstone

China Glaze Deviantly Daring and No Plain Jane

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

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