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

Posts tagged ‘holo glitter’

Black Cat Lacquer The Emperor

The Emperor by Black Cat Lacquer is from their Tarot collection. The name is also one of the (many, many) nicknames of one of my cats – SP, aka Emperor Spee. 😀

The Emperor is a dark brown creme-based holo with additional irregular-shaped micro holo shards. I had seen them described as both ‘flakes’ and ‘shreds’ so I wasn’t sure if they were flakes of true holo particles (smooth) or if they were more like glitter shards (slight texture that needs a topcoat to smooth), so I wanted to mention that it’s the latter, in case anyone is uncertain like I was. Here is the Emperor under Ottlite:

blackcatlacquer_theemperor_zoya_codie_nina_ott 

I used two coats plus top coat. The accent nail has a base of Zoya Codie with a half moon in Zoya Nina. Under halogen light:

blackcatlacquer_theemperor_zoya_codie_nina_halogen 

With flash:

blackcatlacquer_theemperor_zoya_codie_nina_flash2 

Love this deep brown combo, even if in most lighting the contrast between the two colours on the accent nail wasn’t as strong as I’d thought it would be. 

blackcatlacquer_theemperor_zoya_codie_nina_flash

And here are some pics of my feline Emperor Spee; he’s a little black cat and with the bright sunlight bringing out the brown highlights in his fur, The Emperor polish matches him well! ❤  

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Black Dahlia Lacquer New Dawn and comparison

This pretty light rosy taupe nude shade is Black Dahlia Lacquer New Dawn. 

blackdahlialacquer_newdawn3 

It’s full of holo microglitter, turquoise glass fleck, and pink-purple-blue shifting microflakies. 

blackdahlialacquer_newdawn2 

I used two coats plus top coat. 

blackdahlialacquer_newdawn 

In the shade:

blackdahlialacquer_newdawn_shade 

I did a comparison with a couple of polishes that aren’t really that close, heheh. Index finger is Ruby White Tips Kim and ring finger is Maya Cosmetics Vintage. 

rubywhitetipskim_blackdahlianewdawn_mayavintage2 (Top to bottom: RWT Kim, BDL New Dawn, Maya Vintage, BDL New Dawn)

Kim is pinker and has very subtle scattered holo particles (not microglitter like New Dawn). Vintage is a much darker dusty rose-mauve and also has holo particles as opposed to microglitter. 

rubywhitetipskim_blackdahlianewdawn_mayavintage (Left to right: RWT Kim, BDL New Dawn, Maya Vintage, BDL New Dawn)

Edit: Laura of Ruby White Tips has commented below that she’s currently got a 20% off code good for all Ruby White Tips polishes, please scroll down to the comments for the code and link to her store if you’re interested in Kim or any of her other polishes. You can see some of her other shades that I’ve posted about before by checking out my brand Category “Ruby White Tips”. 🙂

Black Dahlia Lacquer Austin City Limits

The next Black Dahlia Lacquer I have to show you is Austin City Limits, a light periwinkle/cornflower leaning blue holo with added gold holo microglitters and pink-purple shimmer flecks.

blackdahlialacquer_austincitylimits_flashott2

There was no sun unfortunately so these first photos are all with flash and/or Ott Lite.

blackdahlialacquer_austincitylimits_flashott

Two coats plus top coat, no issues with the formula.

blackdahlialacquer_austincitylimits_flash1

This photo is under halogen lighting:

blackdahlialacquer_austincitylimits_artificial

Shaded natural light:

blackdahlia_austincitylimits_shade

The pink-purple shimmer flecks were hard to capture in photos, but I think this photo I took at work does the best job of it (hey, fluorescent office lighting is good for something after all!):

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The second day I added stamping with my new Messy Mansion XL rectangular stamper, which I love and highly recommend! It’s squishier than the Konad stampers, plus the rectangular shape helps to get patterns on straighter.

blackdahlia_austincitylimits_stampingmm13

This is basically the first time that I’ve done a full-nail pattern on all ten nails, since I used to have so much trouble with patchy spots and getting them on straight.

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I stamped using China Glaze Gold Fusion (one of the magnetics, they’re great for stamping!) and the plate is Messy Mansion MM13. I’m excited to do lots more stamping with this new Messy Mansion stamper! 😀

blackdahlia_austincitylimits_stampingmm13_

Io, Saturnalia! With Indigo Bananas Polishes

Happy Saturnalia! Today is the first day! I don’t have any nail art or anything, but this gold mani is appropriately festive, I think. Photos are under halogen light except the last one, which is fluorescent office lighting.

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This is Indigo Bananas Suneater, with Indigo Bananas Impact on the accent nail. Indigo Bananas is another indie brand with vegan polishes, and they have a lot of great stuff that I was excited to discover!

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Suneater is a metallic yellow gold holo with slight green duochrome. Three coats, but it dries very quickly.

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On the accent nail is Impact, a metallic gold with green/copper duochrome (wasn’t really able to capture the coppery pink side in these photos) and orange and gold holo glitters in several sizes of hex and some small squares. Two coats over Suneater.

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Love these two polishes!

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Kunimitsu Chocolate Point Siamese and Cinnamon Raisin

Kunimitsu Nail Potions is a new-to-me indie brand sold on Etsy, that I just recently learned makes vegan-only polishes (and lip glosses too!). A bunch of the polishes are inspired by cats, and the brand name is in memory of one of the creator’s cats. All these photos are taken with flash and under the Ott lite, since it was dark out.

Kunimitsu Chocolate Point Siamese and Cinnamon Raisin

These two polishes are Chocolate Point Siamese and Cinnamon Raisin (the ring finger accent). I thought they complemented each other really well, having the same base colour but with different glitters.

Kunimitsu Chocolate Point Siamese and Cinnamon Raisin

Chocolate Point Siamese is a nude beige slightly shimmery base with brown and holo light blue medium hex glitter, very small brown glitter, and tiny gold sparkles. Cinnamon Raisin has the same base and the two sizes of brown glitter, but also purple and lilac medium hexes and small gold hexes. They both seem to have some holo microglitter in there too, but it’s sort of hard to tell! But there are tiny little flashes of holo-looking sparkle sometimes.

Kunimitsu Chocolate Point Siamese and Cinnamon Raisin

Shown are two coats of each polish, and I found they covered well and the base was smooth. I did have to do some shaking and tilting of the bottle to get out a good amount of glitter, and do some dabbing to distribute it where I wanted it.

Kunimitsu Chocolate Point Siamese and Cinnamon Raisin

Drying time was very good! All photos do include a layer of topcoat. Overall I’m really impressed with these and looking forward to trying the others I got!

Don’t you love the awkward hand pose clutching two mini bottles? Haha 😀

Kunimitsu Chocolate Point Siamese and Cinnamon Raisin

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).

rubywhitetips_peekaboo

In the shade:

Ruby White Tips Peekaboo

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

Holiday Nail Art Challenge Week 1: Snow!

I recently got an invitation from Nail Polish Canada to participate in a holiday nail art challenge contest they’re holding. This is week one of three, and the theme for the week is snow! Something I’m glad to say we haven’t really had much of here yet – it was snowing off and on today actually, for the first time of the season, but it didn’t accumulate at all. 🙂

Orly Au Champagne and Zoya Twila

Here is my snow mani – the base is two coats of Orly Au Champagne, with a gradient of Zoya Twila overtop.

Orly Au Champagne and Zoya Twila

The snowflakes are loose white bar glitter and hex glitter that I fixed into place with a thick layer of Poshe topcoat over everything.

Orly Au Champagne and Zoya Twila

The little silver, blue and holographic bar glitters in Twila make for an interesting textured night sky backdrop for the snowflakes, in my humble opinion 😉

Orly Au Champagne and Zoya Twila

Be sure to check out all the other entries of the week here and vote for your favourite! 🙂

Orly Au Champagne and Zoya Twila

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

Today I’ve got another polish from Coco’s Untamed collection by Cult Nails. The polishes in this collection were all designed by Coco, the daughter of Cult Nails’ founder!

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

I Got Distracted is a black jelly with small holo glitter and medium green glitter. Maria of Cult Nails shared the family joke behind the name of this shade – “I got distracted” is Coco’s classic excuse for anything she was supposed to do but didn’t, used so often that it just had to make an appearance among the polish names.

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

Shown are two coats; the formula was fairly thick but I found it easy to apply using thick coats. I almost didn’t need the second coat, as this polish is quite pigmented. It dries gritty from all the glitter so a good thick topcoat is in order. In these sun photos, I had on two layers of Cult Nails topcoat: one that I applied right after the polish, and another the following morning. The sun photos were also taken with my phone, which probably has something to do with the reason that the watermark ended up going on sideways! haha!

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

The rest of the photos only have one layer of topcoat and were taken just after finishing the mani. In the shade:

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

And finally, a couple of photos that show off the glitter a bit better! Under the Ott Lite:

Cult Nails I Got Distracted

With flash:

Cult Nails I Got Distracted