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

Posts tagged ‘grey’

A England Cathy and Jane Morris

Today I have A England Cathy and Jane Morris to show you. Cathy is a pale grey with a lavender tone, subtle holo, and blue shimmer flecks. Jane Morris is a charcoal grey holo with blue-to-purple glass fleck shimmer. 

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I used two coats each plus top coat. Jane Morris is almost a one-coater. Both have great formulas! I stamped a crane on Cathy using Jane Morris and Hehe plate Hehe-048. 

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Partial shade:

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Under halogen light, to bring out the purple side of the shimmer in Jane Morris:

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With flash:

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Zoya Rowan and Different Dimension Solar Flares

Zoya Rowan is a greyish taupe in Zoya’s satin matte finish. I used two coats without top coat here. 

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The formula was great, although the ridges in my nails tend to show through this finish!

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After the swatch I added a couple of accent nails in Different Dimension Solar Flares, a slightly browner taupe creme with colour-shifting magenta/pink to gold flakes. 

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I used three coats of Solar Flares, no top coat, for these photos. 

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I then added top coat to both polishes, using my new favourite top coat HK Girl by Glisten & Glow. Dries fast and works great over nail art, though it isn’t big-3 free for those who are concerned about that. 

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I also wanted to compare Rowan to Orly Faint of Heart. Here is the comparison – Zoya on my index finger, Orly on my middle finger. I used two coats plus top coat of Faint of Heart. 

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Faint of Heart is greyer, slightly darker, and when you look at it very close up, it has a ton of tiny specks of pigment in it, kind of like a much more subtle version of the Pretty and Polished Dusty Cremes finish. Again, left to right, Zoya Rowan and Orly Faint of Heart:

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Reverse order, left to right, Orly Faint of Heart and Zoya Rowan:

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Emily de Molly Lace Man and stamping

Emily de Molly Lace Man is a medium grey polish with lots of gorgeous pink shimmer. 

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I used two coats plus top coat and it had a very nice formula. 

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I stamped a couple of accent nails over Lace Man using Orly Rose Radiance, which is a great polish for stamping. The image is from Pueen 108.

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Love this polish and combo!

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I later added some more stamping so that the one remaining plain nail became the accent nail! This last photo is with flash. 

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Black Dahlia Lacquer Wild Bergamot and Illamasqua Mélange

Black Dahlia Lacquer Wild Bergamot is a medium blue-grey creme with dense gold flake shimmer. Here it is shown with flash.

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This was a ‘one-batch’ polish and I just checked and it looks like unfortunately it’s already sold out as it’s no longer listed in the Black Dahlia Lacquer store. 😦 BDL people, if there’s any one-batch polish that you change your mind about and add to the permanent collection, make it this one!! 😀 I love it that much! It’s a unique shade of blue-grey in my collection.

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Here it is shown in shade/overcast light:

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Wade was hanging around at one point while I was photographing it, nudging my hand and then licking my wrist, so I made a collage 🙂

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I added an accent V of Illamasqua Mélange on my ring finger using scotch tape to make the V shape. The rest of the photos are in the sunlight that appeared a little later yesterday.

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On my right hand I did two nails in Mélange. I love Mélange as well, the gold and copper-pink flecks in the green are just perfection! I’d love to have a whole collection of shades with those flecks in them…

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Kunimitsu Nail Potions Russian Blue

Today I have a cat-themed polish for you: Russian Blue by Kunimitsu Nail Potions on Etsy.

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It’s a shimmery greyish-blue with light blue microglitter and gold dot glitter to represent the cats’ eyes.

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Shown in three coats plus topcoat.

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I did have to work a little to get the gold dots out of the bottle and placed onto the nail, but it wasn’t too problematic.

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I really like this fun, pretty polish!

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And here is my little blue boy, Julius! Isn’t he handsome? 😀 He is also just about the friendliest little guy imaginable; he loves everyone, including a dog named Fluffy who lives in an apartment down the hall from us.

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Julius was adopted from a local shelter where he had been brought as a stray kitten. He has a chronic upper respiratory infection (I had to clean some crusts off one of his eyes to prep him for his photo shoot, in fact). He’s been on every antibiotic in the book over the years but the infection always comes back. On a serious note, it’s really lucky for him that he was adopted by people who would never return him to the shelter for sneezing globs all over their furniture and stuff year after year, because that “shelter” isn’t a no-kill and I don’t know if cats returned for that kind of issue might then be deemed “unadoptable”… 😦

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Love you, Julius! ❤

Essence Gorgeous Bling Bling and Grey-t To Be Here

Essence Gorgeous Bling Bling, two coats. Burnt orange-brown creme with gold flakes. Back when my nails were long…

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Grey-t To Be Here, three coats. Light grey creme with pink shimmer flecks.

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A few odds and ends

I have a few random phone pics of relatively-recent manis to share today!

Quo by Orly Infinity and Beyond (same as Orly Milky Way), layered over Cosmetic Arts Sky High (which I think is the same as Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau). Accent nail is just the Cosmetic Arts by itself.

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Kleancolor Concrete, a one-coater, with Kleancolor Yogurt Raisins on the accent nail.

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Maya Cosmetics Big Chief, two coats. The glitter was a little sparse but other than that it had a great formula.

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And finally, Misa High Brow, a gorgeous vampy purple shimmer with a satin-matte finish. On my rarely-seen right hand:
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On my usual hand, with topcoat:
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Glitter Gal – Navy I Will Navy I Won’t, Big Smoke, and Gloss Boss topcoat

Today I have swatches and reviews of a couple of Glitter Gal’s new releases to show you! For those who don’t know, they’ve just released two new collections of creme shades, a new holo, two new holo topcoats, and a colour-enhancing high-gloss topcoat!

Glitter Gal Big Smoke, Gloss Boss, Navy I Will Navy I Won't

Here are the polishes that I am reviewing today – Big Smoke, a medium-dark grey creme, the new colour-enhancing topcoat Gloss Boss, and the new blue holo called Navy I Will, Navy I Won’t.

Glitter Gal Big Smoke

Let me start with the grey creme, Big Smoke. Two coats, no topcoat, in the first photo. The formula was smooth and thinner than some creme formulas, but not too thin.

Glitter Gal Big Smoke, Gloss Boss

Then I added a layer of Gloss Boss topcoat. Super shiny, and dried quickly!

Glitter Gal Big Smoke, Gloss Boss

Nice, simple deep grey! The previous photos were with flash. Here’s one under the Ott lite without flash:

Glitter Gal Big Smoke, Gloss Boss

And now, the new holo, Navy I Will, Navy I Won’t! I’ve gotta say, the colour is great and the name is great, but I wouldn’t have put the two together! It’s a medium, saturated/almost bright blue, not a navy.

Glitter Gal Navy I Will Navy I Won't

I used two coats; the formula was great. These first two photos are without topcoat, the above with flash and below with just the Ott lite. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to photograph it in sunlight, since, well, it’s the darkest month of the year, here!

Glitter Gal Navy I Will Navy I Won't

There is a very slight teal-leaning metallic shimmer to the surface of the polish, when the light shines on it, as you can see in some of the photos.

Glitter Gal Navy I Will Navy I Won't and Gloss Boss

Gloss Boss is said to enhance holographic polish, rather than dull the effect like some topcoats tend to do. The rest of the photos include one layer of Gloss Boss, and as you can see the holo is still obvious and the polish is a lot glossier. Again, the above photo is with flash and the following is under the Ott lite.

Glitter Gal Navy I Will Navy I Won't and Gloss Boss

I’ll have to round up all the topcoats I have at some point to do a comparison on how they each affect holographic polishes!

Glitter Gal Navy I Will Navy I Won't and Gloss Boss

A couple more flash photos to show off this beauty… Check out the linear holo flame:

Glitter Gal Navy I Will Navy I Won't and Gloss Boss

These and the other new releases are available on Glitter Gal’s website: http://www.glittergal.com.au/. I’m not sure when their other distributors will get these collections in, but I imagine it’ll be soon!

Disclosure: The polishes in this post were sent for review. The opinions expressed in the review are my own honest opinions.

Zoya FeiFei and comparison

Today I have another polish from last fall to show you! Zoya FeiFei from the Diva collection.

Zoya FeiFei

FeiFei is a multicoloured foily fleck polish that is predominantly blue, with hints of gold among others. I love this type of foily flecks.

Zoya FeiFei

Three coats are shown, and the formula was great.

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Zoya FeiFei

Under Ott Lite:

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Zoya FeiFei

With flash:

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One coat over black, in overcast natural light. It doesn’t really look much different over black, just, well, darker.

Zoya FeiFei over black

I compared FeiFei to Zoya Crystal, another blue with gold.

Zoya FeiFei and Crystal

Left: FeiFei, right: Crystal.

Three coats of each polish.

Zoya FeiFei and Crystal

Pinkie to index: Crystal, FeiFei, Crystal, FeiFei.

Crystal is a lighter, more true blue than FeiFei, and only has blue and gold flecks. The flecks are slightly bigger in Crystal as well. FeiFei is murkier in comparison due to the multi coloured flecks giving off an overall greyish look.

Zoya FeiFei and Crystal

Index to pinkie: FeiFei, Crystal, FeiFei, Crystal.

Some Cult Nails Swatches

How about a few random Cult Nails swatches?

Spontaneous, a dusty purple creme with small purple glitter. The formula was a little thinner and runnier than I expected; I used three coats for coverage and to even it out. Shown with Wicked Fast topcoat.

Cult Nails Spontaneous

Cult Nails Spontaneous

Cult Nails Spontaneous

Before topcoat, it dries a little matte and slightly textured:

Cult Nails Spontaneous

Blackout. It isn’t black, but a dark charcoal grey. If you look at it from up close in real life, you can see that it’s actually got a sheer jellyish base packed full of tiny little specks of pigment giving it a soft, smoky finish. It does look pretty much black in some lighting situations, although not quite as much as it does here in my photos.

Cult Nails Blackout

I used two coats although it was still just slightly patchy with its jelly base so I could have used a third.

Cult Nails Blackout

This photo is more true to colour, where you can tell that it’s grey and not black:

Cult Nails Blackout

Comparison with a couple of medium-dark greys to show how much darker it is: Kleancolor Concrete (1 thick coat), Blackout (2 coats), Misa Office Polish-tics (3 coats, it was a bit thin). I should have also compared it to a true black, ah well…

Cult Nails Blackout, Kleancolor Black, Kleancolor Concrete

Top to bottom: Kleancolor Concrete, Cult Nails Blackout, Misa Office Polish-tics

Evil Queen, a pink-toned red semi-jelly. I don’t usually like cool toned reds on me, but I really like this one!

Cult Nails Evil Queen

It was almost a one-coater, but I did two coats for the photos.

Cult Nails Evil Queen

Great formula, shiny and smooth!

Cult Nails Evil Queen

Cult Nails Evil Queen

Feelin’ Froggy, a cool/neutral green with green shimmer. This one is sheer to let the shimmer shine through and I needed three coats. It’s a little cooler toned in real life; I’d say the first photo is the most colour accurate.

Cult Nails Feelin' Froggy

Cult Nails Feelin' Froggy

Cult Nails Feelin' Froggy