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

Posts tagged ‘nude’

Misa Epiphany, Taking Chances, and a comparison

Today I have my two picks from Misa’s Wanderlust collection for fall 2012 to show you.

First is Misa Epiphany, a light beigey mustard shade with gold shimmer. The finish is kind of like a creme with shimmer flecks in it. I used two thick coats; I found the formula to be thick but not a problem to work with if you use thick coats and don’t manipulate it too much.

I love this shade! It makes me think of a shimmery version of China Glaze’s Kalahari Kiss. The large version of this next photo gives a good view of the finish.

The second polish I got from this collection is Taking Chances, which has the same finish as Epiphany but in a coppery, dusty light orange with gold shimmer. Very appropriate for fall!

Formula was also similar to Epiphany, maybe a bit less thick. This was also two thick coats.

I really like this shade as well, but when I opened the package, I thought, “this looks familiar!”

Here is Taking Chances next to Sephora by OPI’s That’s What Fringe is For, from their spring 2012 collection.

Misa Taking Chances and Sephora by OPI It's all About the Fringe (Misa, SOPI, Misa, SOPI)

Left to right: Misa, SOPI, Misa, SOPI

They aren’t *exact* dupes, but, well, for all intents and purposes they are dupes. It’s really hard to see the differences, so I’m including several photos of the comparison. From index to ring are the Misa, SOPI, Misa, SOPI, two coats of each.

Misa Taking Chances and Sephora by OPI It's all About the Fringe (Misa, SOPI, Misa, SOPI)

Left to right: Misa, SOPI, Misa, SOPI

The biggest difference is in the formula, since the OPI is much thinner (not runny though). It also seems that the Misa has slightly bigger shimmer particles, making it appear a tiny bit lighter at times with the added reflectivity. Just barely.

Misa Taking Chances and Sephora by OPI It's all About the Fringe (Misa, SOPI, Misa, SOPI)

Left to right: Misa, SOPI, Misa, SOPI

Great colour, but if you have one of these two you probably don’t need the other! Unless you have the mini bottle of the Sephora version, like I do, and want the Misa as a backup!

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Misa, Sephora by OPI

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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.

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.

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! 😉

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China Glaze Kalahari Kiss and I Herd That

Here are the other two On Safari polishes that I recently purchased. First up is Kalahari Kiss, a very yellow-toned beige creme (I love this colour!). Shown are two coats and I had no issues with the formula; it went on quite smoothly. Photos are in partially sunny and shady conditions.

I did a glitter-tipped gradient using I Herd That over Kalahari Kiss. I Herd That is an orange-toned bronzy glitter with holo glitter in it. It was quite easy to apply, I just brushed and dabbed it on to make the gradient. I did two coats of the glitter at the tips, receding to one coat further back on the nail, then added top coat. The glitter dries a bit rough (and matte) so a layer or two of topcoat is needed if you want to smooth out the texture and get it nice and shiny.

Under my Ott Lite:

This next photo features my beautiful girl Azrael!

Next I have two coats of I Herd That over bare nails (plus one coat of Poshe topcoat) to show how it looks on its own. As before, it was easy to apply, no need to “place” the glitter or anything like that.

Since a few people had expressed curiosity about how this one compares to last winter’s Ulta-exclusive China Glaze glitter polish, Fireside Glow, I decided to do a comparison. I compared it to Fireside Glow and Ulta-mate Holiday, the other Ulta-exclusive glitter in that same release, both of which I was able to obtain thanks to a helpful US-based nail polish enthusiast! 🙂

Left to right, Fireside Glow, I Herd That, Ulta-mate Holiday:

The swatches show two coats of each polish. I found the formula thinner on the Ulta exclusive shades; they were not quite as easy as I Herd That to get opaque in two coats without getting bald spots, but no big issues. Index to pinkie, Fireside Glow, I Herd That, Ulta-mate Holiday, I Herd That.

As you can see, Fireside Glow is not all that close to I Herd That after all; it’s much more of a pinkish copper shade. Ulta-mate Holiday is obviously much more yellow than the others and seems to have a higher concentration of holo glitter whereas the others also have copper and orange glitters mixed in respectively. I Herd That seems to have a little less holo glitter than Fireside Glow.

On the other hand I found I Herd That to be sparklier than the others in lower lighting situations, probably because of the greater amount of non-holo glitter, if I had to guess why!

Slightly blurred to show the holo sparkle in the sun:

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Kleancolor Café au Lait

Today’s polish is one of my very favourite nude polishes, Kleancolor Café au Lait! It’s a highly pigmented beige creme with yellow and peach undertones.

The formula is thick like Kleancolor cremes tend to be, but not in a bad way, and it covers completely in two coats. Shown are two coats with topcoat, in sunlight.

This next photo turned out brighter/darker than the polish really is…

I love this shade on my skintone. It’s really subtle and yet still a kind of offbeat shade because of the yellow in it. It’s what I reach for if I don’t know what I want to wear on my nails.

Since it was starting to have small chips after day one (standard for me), I decided to add some crackle on top to cover those up for the next day. I added China Glaze Tarnished Gold crackle. Then, for good measure, I added two layers of Orly Prisma Gloss Gold, a fine gold glitter with some fine holo glitter dispersed throughout.

Kind of a monochromatic crackle/glitter combo. I prefer Café au Lait on its own though!

The holo glitter particles in Prisma Gloss Gold are very elusive; maybe they would be less so over a more contrasting base! This blurred photo is the only one I took where they sort of show up on the nail!

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China Glaze, Kleancolor, Orly

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Zoya June

I can hardly believe it’s already June! But since it is, I thought I’d post some photos of Zoya’s polish named June!

June is a light sheer nude beige with pink tones and shimmer.

Here it is in the shade:

Shown are three coats over a ridge-filling base coat (I think it was Zoya’s Get Even that I used).

In the shade the pink tones really come out.

The formula on this one is nice, not streaky at all; the three coats were only due to the sheerness and not any application issues.

And here it is in the sun:

In the sun the shimmer comes out and the colour seems less pink.

The shimmer is June is made up of tiny little fine shimmery flecks in a sort of opalescent silvery shade that reflect several different colours in the sun, as you can see in the bottle in this next photo.

June is nothing too flashy, but she’s a nice little polish!

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Soulstice Spa Harbour Island and Cape Cod

Soulstice Spa has released four new polish shades into their collection for spring 2012, and today I have two of them to show you, complete with comparisons to a couple other polishes I have.

The two polishes I got are Cape Cod, a light, slightly muted blue with pearly shimmer, and Harbour Island, a pale, sheer peachy-pink-nude jelly with holographic glitter in it! As a bonus, a couple of adorable kitties will be making an appearance in today’s photos! 😉 All photos are taken in direct sunlight.

These next photos are three coats of Cape Cod. At first I found the formula to be thick so I was having trouble evening out my coats but I added a little Beauty Secrets thinner and that helped a lot.

I really like this shade of blue and the fine pearly shimmer!

The shimmer has a sort of blueish glow to it in the sunlight, very cool!

This polish reminded me of Milani Antique, another light blue with the same type of finish, so I did a little comparison. Index and ring are Antique, middle and pinkie are Cape Cod, three coats each. As you can see the Milani is a couple shades darker than Cape Cod.

And here is my boy Thor checking out the comparison, haha!

Next up, Harbour Island. These photos are also three coats.

The formula was really smooth and easy to apply but it’s a sheer and the third coat adds more sparkle and reflectivity.

The base colour of this polish is pale peach with a bit of a pinkish tone.

The holo glitter does dry slightly rough, but top coat easily takes care of that (these photos include top coat).

As always you can click on any of these photos to see the sparkly holo glitter in better detail!

I can’t say that I have any other peach/nude jellies with holo glitter! But here is a comparison to the closest thing I have, LA Splash Sparkling Jellyfish. Sparkling Jellyfish, in the middle in the following photo, is significantly deeper, brighter and more pink.

And finally, Harbour Island makes a great layering polish; here it is over China Glaze V, a light orange-coral creme. Hanging out in the photo is my boy Wade! (Wade lost an eye to a severe upper respiratory infection as a kitten when he first arrived at the shelter, but it doesn’t slow him down in the slightest! Nor does it prevent him from being the alpha male in our little feline “colony”!)

The other two polishes in this release, which I don’t have (yet, at least!), are St. Tropez, a beige nude that looks to have pearly shimmer similar to Cape Cod, and Kauai, a berry pink with golden shimmer. If you’re curious about them, blogger Glazed Talons reviewed them both here. These shades are available directly through Soulstice Spa on their website; Nail Polish Canada also sells Soulstice but they don’t have these new shades in stock yet as of the time I’m posting this.

Disclosure: the Soulstice Spa polishes in this post were provided to me for review. All opinions are my own honest opinions. (The other polishes in this post were purchased by me. The cats were rescued from the street and adopted from a shelter, respectively. :P)

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China Glaze, LA Splash, Milani, Soulstice Spa

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Cult Nails Let’s Get Nekkid Collection

Today I have swatches of the latest Cult Nails collection to show you! The collection is called Let’s Get Nekkid and consists of four nude shades for a wide variety of skin tones as well as a green glittery flakie polish. The nudes are all named after nude beaches. As usual, you can click on any of the photos to see more detail.

I’ll go from lightest to darkest for the nudes, so first up is Mazo. This one works best as a nude on my pale self. It’s a sheer beige base with lots of golden shimmer. The shimmer is the large flake-type shimmer particle. Shown is three coats, but it was already smooth and even at only one coat (this one has the best formula in the collection in my opinion), so the choice of how many coats to use is strictly based on how sheer you want it to be.

Next is Baker, a deeper and more opaque tan beige with orange tones in it and with similar golden shimmer. The formula seemed a little thicker than Mazo but was still fairly smooth and even and could probably be used at one coat for a sheer wash of colour. I used three coats for the photos (it’s more opaque than Mazo, still a relatively sheer polish though, so I used three coats since my nails are a bit stained).

Tulum is a dusty chocolately medium taupe-brown with golden shimmer that doesn’t show up as much as it does in the first two polishes; I’m not sure if that’s just because the base is more opaque or if the particles themselves are different. This one was a little streaky on the first coat, and the formula was a little thin and threatened to run down the brush stem and flood the nail if I wasn’t careful. Adjusting to that, a second thicker coat on top of the first evened out the polish.

I did a comparison to Power Thief from Cult Nails’ previous collection (which I reviewed here), and as you can see, Power Thief (on the left) has more of a reddish-pink undertone and has denser shimmer that shows up more on the nail. The shimmer in Power Thief is silvery and flashes little sparkles of blue and pink in the light.

Cult Nails Power Thief and Tulum

Cult Nails Power Thief (left) and Tulum (right)

Cult Nails Power Thief and Tulum

Cult Nails Power Thief (left) and Tulum (right)

The final nude shade is Swanbourne, a very deep neutral brown, again with golden shimmer. Like Tulum, this shade is opaque and the shimmers don’t show up as much as they do in the first two shades. Shown are two coats.

Last but not least we have the green flakie, Toxic Seaweed. This is a blue-toned green jelly with lots of small glitter and flakies that shift from red to yellow to green. This one has the same ingredient issue as Clairvoyant does, so unless they can find a new supplier or substitute for that ingredient, it will be limited edition. So, if you like this one, get it while you can; it’s still available on Cult Nails’ website as of the time I’m publishing this post!

The formula on this one was thinner than I expected, but only because I imagined it would be super-thick and it wasn’t. It applied just fine and this was two coats. I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about this one; I love it at an angle when the flakes are reflecting yellow, but straight on it can have a red-and-green kind of Christmasy look to it that isn’t really my favourite.

Since I usually show the glitter or flakie polish over the others when I review Cult Nails collections, I did it again here although it’s not really as appropriate in this case – Mazo is too light to change its look, Baker just kind of makes the colour more muted by removing the blue tone, over Tulum it becomes sort of a swampy looking thing (kind of interesting, actually) – layering it over Swanbourne makes the most sense! This photo shows one coat of Toxic Seaweed layered over Mazo, Baker, Tulum and Swanbourne (left to right).

My overall impression of this collection is great; I love nudes and these ones have golden shimmer which makes me love them even more! Those with cool, pink-toned skin may not be quite as thrilled with this collection as I am, but I can see Mazo becoming a go-to nude polish for me since it matches my skin tone quite well and looks good at one coat (or at least it would without the stained nails!!) as well as at two or three! Baker is another favourite; I love the golden orangey-peachy tan tone. All of these shades are pretty unique in my collection. I do recommend waiting a couple minutes between coats when applying the darker among these polishes to prevent dragging and bald spots.

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

I wasn’t originally planning to do anything special with my nails for Valentine’s Day, but then I put on Zoya’s Cho right before bed last night, didn’t use quick-dry topcoat, and woke up with my own fingerprints on several of the nails, haha!

So, this morning I decided to add some glitter to cover up the fingerprints – LA Girls Glitter Addict polishes in Inspire (light pink) and Animate (red). I topped it off with a layer of Zoya Lucy, a sheer jellyish off-white, for a somewhat subtle-looking jelly sandwich. Pics are in artificial light with flash.

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