metallic | Vegan Claws

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

Posts tagged ‘metallic’

Zoya Valentina and Denise

My apologies for the lack of posts! I mostly post on Instagram these days. I’m @ariix_veganclaws if you’d like to check out my manis there. 🙂

Today I have entirely-too-many photos of a couple of beautiful discontinued Zoyas. Zoya Valentina is a gorgeous red with a pinkish tone and subtle duochrome shimmer that shifts to gold at an angle. I used two coats of Valentina here but the second was hardly needed. Zoya Denise is also a pinkish red, sometimes appearing more pink or more red (I used it in 3 coats on my toes and it seems more red, here in two coats seems more pink) with chunky golden fleck shimmer. She’s kind of like a pinkish-red sister to Anastasia, Pru, Ivy, if you’re familiar with those (also discontinued) Zoyas. Here they are in bright sunlight.

And here are some not-so-good photos in artificial light, they give a better idea of how Valentina looks most of the time (more metallic) as opposed to in bright sun.

My advice is if you see these available at some random nail supply that carries discontinued Zoyas, grab them! 🙂

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Zoya

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Zoya Jasmine, Zoya Blossom, and stamping

I’ve got some more nails inspired by my cat Jasmine to show you today! Her full name is actually Jasmine Blossom so I wanted to use these two polishes together for some nail art. First some swatches of the polishes used. Both are older, discontinued Zoya shades.

Zoya Jasmine, three coats plus top coat. The third wasn’t strictly necessary but did deepen the colour slightly. Shown here in overcast natural light.

Jasmine is a shimmery metallic berry red-pink. Under Ott lite:

With flash:

Zoya Blossom, a slightly peachy off-white with fine pink shimmer. I’m not sure if this was three or four coats; I apparently forgot to write it down! I did write down that the formula was a little thin (which makes me think it’s probably four coats) but surprisingly un-streaky for a white! Under Ott lite:

Under halogen light:

With flash:

I then stamped over Blossom using Jasmine, with an image of jasmine blossoms (? that’s what I decided these flowering branches were, anyway! haha) from plate Hehe-023. Photos of the stamping are all with flash.

I loved this combo!!

And now some photos of my semi-feral Jasmine: a collage with her sitting in a box and with her brother Thor, with whom she’s very close (and Julius lolling about in the background of one!) , and then one of her on the bed (she was actually leaned up against my leg when I woke up from a nap!)

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Hehe stamping plates, Zoya

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Smitten Polish A Parliament Of Owls and stamping

This gorgeous apricot-toned gold holo is A Parliament of Owls by Smitten Polish. Three coats with an easy to work with and fast-drying holo formula. In the sun:

With flash:

smitten_parliamentofowls_flash

In shade:

smitten_parliamentofowls_shade

I stamped it using Smitten Polish Seasonal Lattes and a design from Messy Mansion plate MM-13. Under halogen light:

With flash:

In shade:

smitten_parliamentofowls_stamping_shade

Category:

Messy Mansion (stamping), Smitten Polish

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Black Cat Lacquer Royals

A quick post to show Royals by Black Cat Lacquer. I can’t remember now if this was two or three coats, but I do remember it has topcoat. 🙂

With flash:

blackcatlacquer_royals_flash2

Shade:

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Black Cat Lacquer

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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.

Under Ott Lite:

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!

In the 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.

In the shade:

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

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Black Dahlia Lacquer

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Milani Golden Sea, Zoya Dillon, and a failed watermarble attempt

Today I have a mani from a couple months ago to show you (trying to finish up with my backlog of posts before starting on all the more recent swatches I have!), as well as a fail from the mani that directly preceded it!

The blue is Milani Golden Sea, an older shade, and the metallic/shimmery pastel green on my ring and pinkie is Zoya Dillon from last year’s spring collection. These first two photos are in sunlight taken with my phone.

Golden Sea has a metallic turquoise blue base with some gold shimmer and sparse, hard-to-tell-they’re-holo holo particles. I didn’t even realize that’s what they were until I did the water marble fail I’ll show at the end of the post, and saw them under the halogen light on the very thin film of polish. So, I wouldn’t call it a holo polish but it actually does have these tiny (smooth and flat, non-glitter) sparse holo particles! As always you can click on any photo to get a larger version; I think the particles show best in either the halogen shot below or the first sunlight ones…

In the shade:

Under halogen light:

With flash:

And here is my first ever attempt at water marbling, which did not work at all! It was really cold in the apartment a couple months ago when I tried it; that was probably my first mistake! The polishes dried on the cold water before I could do any marbling. The polishes I used were the two from the mani above plus Zoya Piaf, the shimmery yellow that was also my base polish. The first marble attempt is the one on my ring finger, where the polishes spread out super thin and dried that way. That’s where I saw that the particles in Golden Sea were actually holo. I kind of liked the effect even though I didn’t get to do any marbling, so I tried for another finger, the index, but for that attempt the polishes barely spread out at all so I got this ridiculously thick mess! It doesn’t show that well in the photo, since the angle is pretty much head-on, but it was like a big, thick, lumpy decal that I decided to just put on my nail anyway, haha! Planning to try water marbling again some time, now that the weather is warmer!

Category:

Milani, Zoya

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Zoya Autumn and Comparison

Zoya Autumn is from last fall’s Ignite collection. It’s a great metallic orange-copper base with sparkly gold shimmer flecks. Two coats plus top coat.

Little Wu kept photobombing me. ❤

Indirect light:

I compared Autumn to four other shades: OPI Bronzed to Perfection (2 coats), which has more of a creme base with added shimmer, Deborah Lippmann Phoenix Rising (3 coats), which has small bronze, pink, and greenish-gold glass flecks in a (I think) clear base, Sparitual Rusted Lux (3 coats), a rusty red jelly base with heavy gold glass fleck, and Sparitual Conduit (3 coats), a brownish jelly base with the same gold glass flecks. The differences show best in the shade and artificial light photos.

Thumb to pinkie: OPI Bronzed to Perfection, Deborah Lippmann Phoenix Rising, Zoya Autumn, Sparitual Rusted Lux, Sparitual Conduit

Shade/indirect light:

Thumb to pinkie: OPI Bronzed to Perfection, Deborah Lippmann Phoenix Rising, Zoya Autumn, Sparitual Rusted Lux, Sparitual Conduit

Ott Lite:

Thumb to pinkie: OPI Bronzed to Perfection, Deborah Lippmann Phoenix Rising, Zoya Autumn, Sparitual Rusted Lux, Sparitual Conduit

I love all of these!

Category:

Deborah Lippmann, OPI, SpaRitual, Zoya

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Nubar Gold Leaf

Gold Leaf is an awesome older golden-bronze/burgundy duochrome from Nubar. I think this was two coats. Various lighting, with and without flash.

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Nubar

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P2 Before Sunrise and The Lady Varnishes Orodruin

P2 Before Sunrise is a metallic burgundy red polish with duochrome that shifts to a plum-purple with a hint of blue at extreme angles. I got this polish in a swap with a lovely woman from the Netherlands. Two coats, although the second was hardly needed.

On the accent nail is Orodruin from indie polish maker The Lady Varnishes. It’s a shimmery copper-orange duochrome with a tiny bit of holo sparkle in it, that shifts to a golden yellow and then greenish yellow. It dries to a satin-matte finish; here I’ve used two coats plus top coat.