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

Posts tagged ‘flakie’

Pretty Serious Kashmir and Orly Fowl Play comparison

Kashmir by Pretty Serious was created in collaboration with blogger Christine of Serenity Nails. 

prettyserious_kashmir 

It’s a warm dark purple with lots of shimmer and red-gold-green flakies. I used two coats plus top coat and the formula was excellent. 

prettyserious_kashmir_shade2 

It looks slightly redder in real life compared to my photos, I found. In the shade:

prettyserious_kashmir_shade 

I did a comparison to Orly Fowl Play which ended up not being as similar as I expected. 

prettyserious_kashmir_orly_fowlplay

In the bottles you can already tell they definitely aren’t dupes. 

 prettyserious_kashmir_orly_fowlplay4 

Left to right: Orly Fowl Play, Pretty Serious Kashmir, Orly Fowl Play, Pretty Serious Kashmir. 

prettyserious_kashmir_orly_fowlplay3

I used three coats (plus top coat) for Fowl Play as it has a more sheer jelly base. Fowl Play also has much more dense flakies including blue microflakies in addition to the larger red ones. Kashmir’s flakies hardly show up at all in comparison. Kashmir is also warmer/redder than Fowl Play. 

prettyserious_kashmir_orly_fowlplay2 

I used to also own OPI Merry Midnight, which is very very close to Fowl Play, so I’m holding a swatch stick of Merry Midnight for the last two photos (the stick has one, two and three coats of Merry Midnight going progressively up the stick). Flash:

prettyserious_kashmir_orly_fowlplay_opi_merrymidnight2

Merry Midnight is almost the same as Fowl Play but its base is not quite as dark and so is a bit closer to the base colour of Kashmir. Shade:

prettyserious_kashmir_orly_fowlplay_opi_merrymidnight

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Black Dahlia Lacquer Swan River Daisy

Black Dahlia Lacquer Swan River Daisy is a turquoise/teal crelly with red-gold-green shifting flakies in it. Two coats plus top coat, great application. Love this polish!

blackdahlialacquer_swanriverdaisy4 blackdahlialacquer_swanriverdaisy3 blackdahlialacquer_swanriverdaisy2

blackdahlialacquer_swanriverdaisy_ig

Black Dahlia Lacquer – Lime Green Daisies, Lilac Petals, and Bleeding Hearts

Today I’ve got three beautiful Black Dahlia Lacquer polishes to show you! The first one is Lime Green Daisies, which was from the New Year’s multichrome flake duo. It’s a metallic, yellow-toned pastel green with copper-pink/green multichrome flakes, strong gold shimmer, and turquoise glass flecks. I used two coats plus top coat for this swatch.

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blackdahlialacquer_limegreendaisies2

blackdahlialacquer_limegreendaisies

Under Ott Lite:

blackdahlialacquer_limegreendaisies_ott

Next is Lilac Petals; this was the exclusive extra polish I received in a ‘buy 4 petite-sized polishes get an exclusive petite polish free’ sale not long ago. It’s got a denim blue base with metallic red-maroon flakes and pink and blue glass flecks. The photos show two coats, no top coat. Love!

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blackdahlialacquer_lilacpetals2

blackdahlialacquer_lilacpetals

In the shade:

blackdahlialacquer_lilacpetals_shade

And the third polish I have to show today is Bleeding Hearts. This is from the Valentine’s Day collection. It’s an almost-neon pinky purple with multichrome flakies and turquoise glass flecks. I used three coats, although two would probably be fine as well, and no topcoat in this swatch.

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In the shade:

blackdahlialacquer_bleedinghearts_shade

All three of these are just gorgeous! Black Dahlia Lacquer really makes some great polish. 😀

Black Cat Lacquer He Loves Me Not and comparisons

This beauty is Black Cat Lacquer He Loves Me Not, released in February 2014 in an indie collaboration box (but I got it secondhand from someone’s blogsale). 

blackcatlacquer_helovesmenot

It’s a neon pinky-purple with these great blue flakes. The flakes are opaque and tend to sink to the bottom of the bottle, but turning it upside down for a minute or two before use solves that.

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Here you can see a bunch of the blue flakes up against the side of the bottle:

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I used three coats plus top coat and didn’t have any issues with application. 

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I love these blue flakies!

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In shade:

blackcatlacquer_helovesmenot_shade

I did a comparison with Fingerpaints Gorgeous Graffiti and Glam Polish Beauty School Dropout, similar neon purples that have blue flecks of different types. 

bcl_helovemenot_fp_gorgeousgraffiti_glam_bsd

Left to right, He Loves Me Not, Fingerpaints Gorgeous Graffiti, Glam Polish Beauty School Dropout, three coats each. 

Left to right: Black Cat Lacquer He Loves Me Not, FingerPaints Gorgeous Graffiti, Glam Polish Beauty School Dropout

Left to right: Black Cat Lacquer He Loves Me Not, FingerPaints Gorgeous Graffiti, Glam Polish Beauty School Dropout


 

The Fingerpaints is slightly more purple and has translucent blue glassfleck-type flecks rather than opaque flakes. 

Top to bottom: Black Cat Lacquer He Loves Me Not, FingerPaints Gorgeous Graffiti, Glam Polish Beauty School Dropout

Top to bottom: Black Cat Lacquer He Loves Me Not, FingerPaints Gorgeous Graffiti, Glam Polish Beauty School Dropout


 

The Glam Polish is slightly pinker and dustier and has much smaller blue glassflecks as well as scattered holo. 

Left to right: Glam Polish Beauty School Dropout, FingerPaints Gorgeous Graffiti, Black Cat Lacquer He Loves Me Not

Left to right: Glam Polish Beauty School Dropout, FingerPaints Gorgeous Graffiti, Black Cat Lacquer He Loves Me Not

Black Dahlia Lacquer Dandelion Fields

This beauty is Black Dahlia Lacquer Dandelion Fields. I think it’s my favourite of the six BDL polishes I have so far! It’s a muted coral-leaning orange holo with pinkish-copper flecks.

blackdahlialacquer_dandelionfields_ott2

This is two coats plus top coat, shown under Ott Lite. I found the formula slightly thick but not difficult to apply.

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Under warm halogen light it looks a bit more yellow than it really is:

blackdahlialacquer_dandelionfields_halogen

With flash:

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blackdahlialacquer_dandelionfields_flash

In the shade:

blackdahlialacquer_dandelionfields_shade2

blackdahlialacquer_dandelionfields_shade

There was no sun when I swatched it, but there was the following day when I was wearing it as a mani. Here it is in the sun. The accent nail has a layer of Indigo Bananas Hay Ride, one of the new multichrome flakies (which are amazing!)

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This last photo was taken on the bus, sorry for the weird reflections! But it shows off the accent nail better than the full sun shot. 🙂

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Ruby White Tips Batworld Collection – Sweet Faced Cornelius and Mr. Kitty

I have the final two polishes that I own from the Ruby White Tips Batworld collection to show you today!

The polish Sweet Faced Cornelius is named after this sweet little guy:

Photo credit: Batworld.org

Photo credit: Batworld.org

Cornelius, the polish, is a sheer layering jelly polish full of iridescent green shimmer, flakes/tiny shards, and holo particles. The first two photos show four coats of polish over my bare (stained!) nails.

Ruby White Tips Sweet Faced Cornelius

Ruby White Tips Sweet Faced Cornelius

The rest of the photos show one coat of Cornelius over black.

Ruby White Tips Sweet Faced Cornelius over black

The polish was thick but not difficult to work with, even when I did the four coats on its own.

Ruby White Tips Sweet Faced Cornelius over black

It also dries almost totally smooth; no extra layers of topcoat needed here.

Ruby White Tips Sweet Faced Cornelius over black

I’m looking forward to trying this one over one of those deep green with golden flecks polishes, like China Glaze Cast a Spell; I think that will look awesome as well!

Ruby White Tips Sweet Faced Cornelius over black

The final polish I have to share is Mr. Kitty, named after this little bat who was in turn named after the feral cat who brought him to the sanctuary! Ms. Kitty is a feral cat the Batworld staff take care of, and apparently three times so far she has brought weak or injured bats to the sanctuary door, without harming them at all herself.

Photo credit: Batworld.org

Photo credit: Batworld.org

Mr. Kitty the bat next to the polish! You can see just how tiny he is, about the same size as the bottle of polish!

Photo credit: Batworld.org

Photo credit: Batworld.org

Mr. Kitty the polish is a sheer taupe based polish with pink duochrome shimmer and tiny flakes in it. It’s kind of a chameleon and looks different in different lighting! The pink/magenta shimmer sometimes leans lavender or purple, and other times shifts more to a golden/coppery, rusty brick tone.

Ott Lite photos:

Ruby White Tips Mr. Kitty

I used two thick coats over ridge filler, except on the ring finger where I used one coat over black (no ridge filler underneath, but I should have used some!).

Ruby White Tips Mr. Kitty

I found the formula to be thick (it was also very hot and humid that day, so that most certainly contributed!), but didn’t have any problems until I came to the layered accent nail. I had a little trouble applying one even layer over the black, but I added a few drops of polish thinner and then it was fine.

Ruby White Tips Mr. Kitty

I really like this one both on its own and over black!

Ruby White Tips Mr. Kitty

Sunlight photos, which tend to show off the purple/magenta aspects:

Ruby White Tips Mr. Kitty

Ruby White Tips Mr. Kitty

Oh yeah, the polish also comes with this cute little bat charm attached:

Ruby White Tips Mr. Kitty

Ruby White Tips Mr. Kitty

In partial shade:

Ruby White Tips Mr. Kitty

Ruby White Tips Batworld Collection – Ethereal and Poppy

Hi all, I have two more polishes from the Ruby White Tips Batworld collection to show you today! The first two polishes, Boo2 and Peekaboo, were shown in my last post here. As mentioned there, half the proceeds of this collection go to the Batworld sanctuary to help them rescue, rehabilitate and care for orphaned and injured bats.

The first polish I’m showing you today, Ethereal, is probably my very favourite from the collection so far. When I was preparing this post I went to the Batworld.org website to get photos of the rescued bats who inspired these polishes, and I was very sad to learn that Ethereal, the little albino bat, just recently passed away suddenly. You can read her story here. Rest in peace, little one. 😦

Rest in peace, Ethereal. Photo credit: Batworld.org

Rest in peace, Ethereal. Photo credit: Batworld.org

Here is a bottle picture of the lovely polish named for Ethereal. I love the matte peach glitters in this one, they make it so very unique.

Ruby White Tips Ethereal

The swatches of Ethereal show three coats of polish. Two would probably be okay for those who don’t have yellowy-stained nails like I do. It would also make a great layering polish over many other shades!

Ruby White Tips Ethereal

The formula was thick but not too thick, with a good amount of glitter (I didn’t have to do any dabbing or placing of glitter when applying it). There’s a lot going on in this polish, with its white shimmery base, peach matte hex glitter, satiny white hex glitter, square iridescent glitter that reflects pink and green, sparse scattered micro holo particles and pink/purple shimmer flecks, and small iridescent flakie shards that reflect blue and purple… and maybe some other things I’m not catching? 🙂 Despite all that, it’s in no way “too busy”, it all works perfectly together! Did I mention this one is my favourite? 😉

Ruby White Tips Ethereal

A slight texture can be felt from all the flakes and glitter, but a good topcoat takes care of that.

Ruby White Tips Ethereal

Ethereal in the shade:

Ruby White Tips Ethereal

I had an email conversation with Laura, the creator of Ruby White Tips, and she mentioned plans to create a new shade “in memory of” Ethereal and possibly retiring this one, so if you like it like I do, I’d suggest picking it up sooner rather than later.

The second polish I have to show today was inspired by Poppy, an “Indian flying fox”, one of the largest species of bat, who was “retired” from a zoo. Glad she is now in a non-exploitative sanctuary!

Photo credit: Batworld.org

Photo credit: Batworld.org

This is two coats of Poppy the polish (three on my pinky, just because of a smudge). The application of this polish was smooth and easy.

Ruby White Tips Poppy

The shade of the polish fits its name, being a red shimmer that has a brick undertone and pink shimmer. There is holo microglitter throughout the polish.

Ruby White Tips Poppy

The microglitter leaves a bit of texture on the nail, so a coat or two of a good topcoat is recommended. I know I took some photos pre-topcoat and some after adding a layer of topcoat, but I can’t remember now which each of these particular photos were, sorry about that!

Ruby White Tips Poppy

A nice, pretty shade to go with a very pretty bat! 😀

Ruby White Tips Poppy

As I mentioned, I was talking to the creator of Ruby White Tips, and shared with her the link to my first Batworld swatch post. She was kind enough to offer a coupon code for my readers for 15% off purchases at her Etsy store! (Discount not valid on Mystery Bags.) The code is VEGANCLAWS. Thanks, Laura, and glad you like the swatches! 😀

Ruby White Tips Batworld Collection – Boo2 and Peekaboo

I’m excited today to show you two of the five polishes I have from Ruby White Tips’ Batworld collection! The creator donates half of the proceeds from polishes in this collection to Batworld, a Texas no-kill organization that does rescue, rehabilitation, and sanctuary work for orphaned and injured bats.

Here are the five polishes I have from the collection. There has since been a sixth one released (which of course I just had to order as well! ;)). I’ve decided to split the swatches into two posts because I have so many pictures. Today I’ll show you Boo2 and Peekaboo!

Ruby White Tips Batworld.org collection

Each polish in the collection is named after one of the bats who are permanent residents of the sanctuary (because of injuries that didn’t heal well enough for them to be released safely). Here are the real Boo2 and Peekaboo who inspired these two polishes:

Photo credit: Batworld.org

Photo credit: Batworld.org

Boo2 is the one who is looking at the camera and comforting Peekaboo in this photo. They say that he is Peekaboo’s boyfriend. 🙂

And here is the nail polish named after Boo2:

Ruby White Tips Boo2

It’s a great “blurple”/deep periwinkle shade with a warm purple shimmer and holo microglitter, and is kind of hard to photograph accurately, so I’ve included photos in several different lighting situations. These first few are in partly sunny light. Two coats of polish.

Ruby White Tips Boo2

There isn’t any top coat in the first few photos, and it dries to a satiny finish. There is also a bit of texture from the holo microglitter, so it’s probably best with a good thick topcoat.

Ruby White Tips Boo2

The next group of photos are under the light of a halogen lamp. The latter of these ones (the ones with topcoat) are the most colour accurate of all the photos, I’d say, and show off the warmer purple shimmer the best.

Ruby White Tips Boo2

Ruby White Tips Boo2

The rest of the photos have one layer of topcoat added. I think next time I’d use two layers, or a thicker topcoat.

Ruby White Tips Boo2

Ruby White Tips Boo2

Ruby White Tips Boo2

Ruby White Tips Boo2

And the last two are in shade/overcast light. It isn’t quite as blue in real life as it looks here.

Ruby White Tips Boo2

Anyway, this is such a great shade of purple/blue!

Ruby White Tips Boo2

Next up is Peekaboo! Peekaboo is a pinkish lilac shimmer with micro holo particles, sparse medium holo hex glitter, and some very small iridescent shards scattered throughout the polish.

Ruby White Tips Peekaboo

Peekaboo has a more sheer formula, and this is three coats. I love it like this but I think it’d also look great layered over a similar creme, such as Zoya Perrie, for a more opaque look.

Ruby White Tips Peekaboo

No topcoat in these photos; this one dries shinier than Boo2 does.

Ruby White Tips Peekaboo

It also has smooth holo particles rather than the slightly bumpy microglitter (the larger hexes and small iridescent shards in Peekaboo, though, do add their own small amount of texture).

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In the shade:

Ruby White Tips Peekaboo

I love both of these! Stay tuned for swatches of the other three polishes!

Picture Polish Pshiiit

I recently learned that Australian brand Picture Polish is vegan-friendly, so of course I had to buy some of their polishes to try them out!

Picture Polish Pshiiit

This beauty is a brand-new shade called Pshiiit, as it was a collaboration with French web-store owner and blogger Camille of Pshiiit. Picture Polish recently did several collaboration shades with e-tailers in their distribution network, and I’ll also have swatches of a couple of the others soon.

Picture Polish Pshiiit

Pshiiit is a teal jelly with flakies and lots of fine gold shimmer as well as some microglitter thrown in. Gorgeous! I recommend clicking on the photos to see all the detail of the finish in the larger versions!

Picture Polish Pshiiit

I found the formula had a little of the thin-yet-thick thing going on, but didn’t have trouble with it and a second, thick coat evened everything out. This could easily be worn as a layer over a creme polish for those who don’t like visible nail lines.

In the shade:

Picture Polish Pshiiit

Love it! Great job, Camille and Picture Polish! 😀

Illamasqua Whack with Nubar Orange Glitter and Fingerpaints Twisted

Some quick pics of a manicure I did last week! This is Illamasqua Whack, a red-toned orange creme with a really nice formula. It’s almost a one-coater; I ended up doing two coats here. I dabbed on Nubar Orange Glitter at the tips and then a layer of Fingerpaints Twisted over everything!

Illamasqua Whack with Nubar Orange Glitter and Fingerpaints Twisted

Illamasqua Whack with Nubar Orange Glitter and Fingerpaints Twisted

Illamasqua Whack with Nubar Orange Glitter and Fingerpaints Twisted