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

Posts tagged ‘glass-fleck’

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!

Soulstice Spa Santa Monica and Nevis

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!

Soulstice Spa Santa Monica

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.

Soulstice Spa Santa Monica

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!)

Soulstice Spa Santa Monica

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.

Soulstice Spa Santa Monica

Blue duochrome glass flecks, of course, mean instant love to me. πŸ˜‰

Soulstice Spa Santa Monica

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

Soulstice Spa Santa Monica

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

Soulstice Spa Nevis

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!

Soulstice Spa Nevis

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!

Soulstice Spa Nevis

Here is Nevis in the shade:

Soulstice Spa Nevis

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.

Orly Preamp

Like Flicker, this is another of my new favourite Orlys! This one is Preamp from the Electronica collection.

Orly Preamp

It’s a slightly jellyish lavender-pink with lots of hot pink glass-fleck shimmer.

Orly Preamp

These first photos in the shade show two thick coats of the polish. The formula was a little thick but smooth.

Orly Preamp

In these next sun photos, I have an accent nail of Milani Hot Pink, a bright pink jelly with golden glass-fleck shimmer. I believe this was three coats of Hot Pink. Both polishes have topcoat added here.

Orly Preamp with Milani Hot Pink accent

I thought these two went together really well!

Orly Preamp with Milani Hot Pink accent

I really love glass-fleck polishes in general, and Preamp is a great one!

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.

Orly Emberstone

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!

Orly Emberstone

Orly Emberstone

Shade photo:

Orly Emberstone

China Glaze Knotty

China Glaze Knotty was released in 2011 as part of the Anchors Away collection. It’s pretty unique, being a glass-fleck nude beige polish.

China Glaze Knotty

I used three coats, the last one thick, since it’s a fairly sheer polish, and I felt like it needed all three coats. The drying time was long (it was still dentable for several hours even with quick-dry top coat), which isn’t surprising given the number and thickness of coats I used. These photos were taken before I added the top coat.

China Glaze Knotty

The beige is neutral-to-yellow in its undertones, and I find it almost gives me a “mannequin-hands” look except for the glass fleck shimmer! It’s a really pretty, subtle polish, and I think it’s worth the long dry time! I just won’t be wearing it on days that I’m trying to get a mani done quickly! πŸ˜‰

China Glaze Knotty

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)

OPI The Show Must Go On

Today’s post will be short on words but heavy on pictures. This is another example of my favourite type of polish – duochrome glass fleck!

OPI The Show Must Go On is from their Burlesque collection which was a holiday 2010 collection. It’s red but shifts colours from fuchsia through to orange, copper and even some golden yellow at extreme angles. I love it! It has a great formula too. Shown are three coats, but the third one I just put on before photographing because I’d had the polish on a while and somehow got some hairline cracks, not chips, in it while doing dishes! Two coats is enough for opacity. Shown in various lighting situations as listed.

Ott Light:

OPI The Show Must Go On

OPI The Show Must Go On

Sun:

OPI The Show Must Go On

OPI The Show Must Go On

Natural light, various degrees of overcast/partly sunny:

OPI The Show Must Go On

OPI The Show Must Go On

OPI The Show Must Go On

OPI The Show Must Go On

OPI The Show Must Go On

OPI The Show Must Go On

OPI The Show Must Go On

OPI The Show Must Go On

OPI The Show Must Go On

Color Club Metamorphosis and comparison

Today I have Color Club Metamorphosis to show you, and a comparison to Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus which I previously blogged about here. These two are very close dupes!

Metamorphosis is from Color Club’s recently released Take Wing collection for summer 2012. It’s a teal glass-fleck with blue/violet duochrome.

Here it is at two coats in natural overcast light. Formula was great.

Color Club Metamorphosis

Color Club Metamorphosis

Color Club Metamorphosis

And here are the two polishes side-by-side in the bottle.

Color Club Metamorphosis and Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus

On the nail, two coats each. Index and ring are Metamorphosis, middle and pinky are Iceberg Lotus. The only difference I saw is that Metamorphosis is slightly denser/more opaque.

Color Club Metamorphosis and Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus

Color Club Metamorphosis and Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus

Two coats each over one coat of Kleancolor Black, again index and ring are Metamorphosis, middle and pinky are Iceberg Lotus. It doesn’t really show in the pictures, but Iceberg Lotus seemed to show very slightly more duochrome, probably because it’s slightly more sheer.

Color Club Metamorphosis and Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus, over black

Color Club Metamorphosis and Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus, over black

Color Club Metamorphosis and Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus, over black

Color Club Metamorphosis and Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus, over black

So there you have it; I’d say these are definitely dupes! Good thing they’re awesome! πŸ˜€

Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus

This is another one of my very favourite polishes! I believe Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus was first released last spring. I still see it at some stores that sell Nicole polish, but not others, here in Canada. It’s an amazing teal duochrome with a near-foil glass-fleck shimmer finish that flashes from blue through to purple. I photographed it over black since it really brings out the duochrome that way. The formula is great; no complaints there. Two coats over one coat of Kleancolor Black, shown in natural overcast light.

Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus over black

Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus over black

Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus over black

Nicole by OPI Iceberg Lotus over black