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

Posts tagged ‘plum’

Some Zoya Polishes and a Seche Vive Review

I received a bottle of Seche Vive “Instant Gel Effect” top coat to review from the folks at Nail Polish Canada. 🙂 I thought I’d do a post on my favourite use for Seche Vive: smoothing out texture polishes to make them glossy! Here it is over Zoya’s new pixie dust, Juniper!

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I find it works best when you let the texture polish dry (or mostly dry), then add a layer of Gelous (from Sally Beauty), followed by the Sèche Vive. (Maybe two layers of Gelous for a really stubborn textured polish!)

Unlike Seche Vite which needs to go over wet polish, Vive is supposed to be used over dry(er) polish. So I let the Gelous dry for a couple minutes before adding the Seche Vive.

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And here is an older mani with Zoya Saint and Alice, where Alice has been topcoated using the Gelous/Sèche Vive combo.

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Thor in the next pic!

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One caveat, the instructions say to put Sèche Vive over dry polish, but the reason I said dry(er) above is that I find it works best over semi-dry, but not fully dry polish. At least, when I tried to put a second layer of it over itself on Zoya Saint, this wrinkling happened:

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So, I’m not positive if that was because it was dry before I applied more, or if Sèche Vive just doesn’t like going on top of itself!

One last pic, this is Zoya Roxy with Kissy on the tips, all smoothed with Sèche Vive. In addition to texture polishes, it does a great job on regular glitters that tend to be a bit gritty!

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All that to say, although I don’t use it with every mani, I really like the Sèche Vive gel effect and it’s my go-to for smoothing glitters and textures!

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Zoya Mason and Colour Alike 547

Zoya Mason is a gorgeous red-toned purple shimmer with red pigment sparks. I paired it with Colour Alike 547, which has a brown-plum base with holo and duochrome that shifts blue-purple-plum-fuchsia-orange. I used two coats plus top coat for each of these polishes.

First photo in overcast natural light:
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Flash photos:
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Various states of partial sun/shade:
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Eat Sleep Polish Supernova, Jupiter Grapes, and Planet Pluto

Today I have three Eat Sleep Polish holos with colour-shifting glass flecks to show you. First, Supernova with an accent nail of Jupiter Grapes. Supernova is a fuchsia/plum sort of shade with blue-to-fuchsia glass flecks. Jupiter Grapes is a slightly blue-toned purple with similar blue-to-fuchsia glass flecks, although they don’t appear as prominent as in Supernova. Under Ott lite:

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With flash:

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In shade:

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On my right hand I did the opposite using Supernova as the accent and Jupiter Grapes for most of the nails. With flash:

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Shade:

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Later I decided to compare Jupiter Grapes and Planet Pluto, which is an indigo-toned blue, again with glass flecks that mostly appear blue in this polish. Here is Planet Pluto with a ring finger accent of Jupiter Grapes, in sunlight:

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In shade:

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And finally a sunlight phone pic showing all three polishes:

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Il était un vernis Something to Remember

Something to Remember by Il était un vernis is a taupe-leaning purple scattered holo with pink shimmer that is hard to capture in photos. It does show in these photos, but it’s much more apparent and complex-looking in real life!

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I used two coats plus top coat. The formula was excellent, as with the other Il était un vernis shades I’ve tried so far.  

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Under Ott lite:

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Again under Ott lite, showing the shimmer on the side of the bottle:

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And at an extreme angle back in the sunlight, the shimmer looks to have a bit of a duochrome aspect to it:

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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.

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Shade:
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Ott light:
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From the Vault, again…

More random old stuff!

Nubar Pink Flame, under artificial light:

Nubar Pink Flame, artificial light

Nubar Pink Flame, artificial light

Nubar Pink Flame, artificial light

Comparison: left to right, Finger Paints Catwalk Queen, Butter London Bumster (middle and ring fingers), Misa Hot Couture. The Butter London and Finger Paints polishes are quite close, Finger Paints just has slightly more orange, while the Misa is noticeably darker.

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Butter London Bumster by itself:

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OPI Pepe’s Purple Passion (in light box and camera wouldn’t focus properly on the polish surface!):

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I’ll admit, while I ended up really liking Pepe’s Purple Passion, I mainly wanted it for the name, because of this handsome guy whose name is Pepe. Although we usually call him Tex. 🙂

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Essence Wanna Be My Sunshine with accent nail in NYX Girls Pure Green, all layered with LA Girl Zesty Citrus overtop:

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Illamasqua Elope:

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Glitter Gal Transfusion and comparisons

I recently got the opportunity to review one of Glitter Gal’s newer holos, Transfusion! Transfusion is a deep red-violet shade and is really gorgeous!

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Its colour is somewhere in between burgundy and purple. I used two coats and no top coat for these photos.

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The formula is great; no issues at all!

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Lovely, and unique holo shade!

Glitter Gal Transfusion

Here is a comparison to some other burgundy and purple holos I have.

Thumb to pinkie: Picture Polish Monroe (original version), Ozotic 513, Glitter Gal Transfusion, Zoya Aurora, LA Girl Sparkle Ruby

Thumb to pinkie: Picture Polish Monroe (original version), Ozotic 513, Glitter Gal Transfusion, Zoya Aurora, LA Girl Sparkle Ruby

Here we have Picture Polish Monroe (original version – the new version has much larger holo particles and is closer to LA Girl Sparkle Ruby from what I’ve seen in photos), Ozotic 513, Glitter Gal Transfusion, Zoya Aurora, LA Girl Sparkle Ruby. Two coats of each (although Sparkle Ruby could be a one-coater).

The comparison under the Ott Lite:

Thumb to pinkie: Picture Polish Monroe (original version), Ozotic 513, Glitter Gal Transfusion, Zoya Aurora, LA Girl Sparkle Ruby

Thumb to pinkie: Picture Polish Monroe (original version), Ozotic 513, Glitter Gal Transfusion, Zoya Aurora, LA Girl Sparkle Ruby

As you can see, these are all great polishes but none of the others are similar to Transfusion! I love Transfusion, and its sister polish, a warm brick-red holo shade named Hot Chili, is going on my wish list!

You can order Glitter Gal polishes directly from them here or from one of their distributors listed here.

Disclosure: Glitter Gal Transfusion was provided to me by the company for review purposes. The opinions stated are my own honest opinions.

Soulstice Kiev, Hana, and Berlin

Today I have three more swatches to show you in my project to photograph all my Soulstice Spa polishes.

Soulstice Kiev

Kiev is a burgundy jelly polish with a hint of a brown tone.

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This is three coats, since I found I got a little bit of cuticle drag at two coats (maybe I just didn’t wait long enough between coats).

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In low light it can look quite dark:

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Then I added one generous coat of Hana overtop of Kiev.

Soulstice Hana over Soulstice Kiev

Hana is a very sheer iridescent flake polish, so I didn’t bother swatching it on its own.

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The tiny flakes reflect all sorts of colours; here over Kiev the overall effect is a mainly blueish shimmer.

Soulstice Hana over Soulstice Kiev

Soulstice Hana over Soulstice Kiev

Next I have Berlin, a very dark vampy purple that has a semi-jelly formula. It’s dark enough that it often looks almost black.

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The formula was very similar to that of Kiev.

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I’m actually not sure whether this swatch was two or three coats; apparently I forgot to write it down.

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Lastly, here is a comparison between Berlin, Kleancolor Black (one coat), and Kiev to show the relative depth of the colours.

Soulstice Berlin, Kleancolor Black, Soulstice Kiev

Soulstice Berlin, Kleancolor Black, Soulstice Kiev

Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry

A quick post today! This is Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry, a dark mulberry purple/plum creme.

Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry

The swatch is two coats. The formula was a little thin and I probably should have done three coats; there’s a bit of a bald spot on my ring finger in particular.

Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry

Nothing too exciting, but a nice basic shade!

Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry

Beauty Without Cruelty Deepest Mulberry

Zoya Evvie, Katherine, and Rekha

These three polishes are from Zoya’s fall 2012 Designer and Gloss collections, although all three were part of last spring’s New York Fashion Week limited edition releases as well, and that’s when I got them.

Zoya Evvie with No Miss Peacock

Evvie is a dark, dusty grey-leaning green creme. It was originally released in the Peter Som collaboration trio. This is a great colour; I loved wearing it. Shown are two coats plus top coat, and the formula was good.

Zoya Evvie with No Miss Peacock

On my index finger, I have a coat of No Miss Peacock Glitter over Evvie. Peacock is a green and blue glitter polish with small rectangular shaped glitters, almost like bar glitter cut in half.

Zoya Evvie with No Miss Peacock

Next is Katherine, a deep plum/eggplant purple jelly that was also originally from the Peter Som trio.

Zoya Katherine

It’s a very transparent sort of jelly; this first photo is three coats over a ridge filling base coat. At the time I swatched this I had a fiberglass wrap on my index finger, and it still shows a bit through the polish. Gloss is a good name for the collection Katherine comes from – there’s no top coat here, the shine is all Katherine.

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These other two photos show four coats of Katherine. She has a very nice jelly formula, and will make great jelly sandwiches. I decided to leave my index and its wrap out of the last photo. 😉

Zoya Katherine

And finally, Rekha, a red semi-jelly shade that was originally from Zoya’s Bibhu Mohapatra collaboration trio. I believe it was named after the designer’s mother, and recreates the shade of red nail polish that she wore.

Zoya Rekha

Only two coats are needed, but I’m wearing three in these photos because I applied the polish before going to bed and didn’t use a quick-dry top coat, so unsurprisingly by the time I took photos in the morning there were some little scratches on the surface.

Zoya Rekha

Rekha seems to me a very neutral shade of red, neither cool nor warm, and is a great version of a classic colour. Here she is in the shade:

Zoya Rekha