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

Posts tagged ‘purple’

Color Club Port-folio

Here’s another polish from last fall – Color Club Port-folio from the In True Fashion collection. This is a great purple with duochrome green/pink shimmer. First photo is under a halogen lamp.

Color Club Port-folio

Shown are two coats (three on a couple of nails where I had bald spots). Next three photos in overcast natural light:

Color Club Port-folio

Color Club Port-folio

Color Club Port-folio

The formula on this one is good, but a little care does need to be taken to get the brush strokes straight (they’re much less noticeable after it dries, though). The last two photos are under the Ott Light, and the first one really shows the fuchsia-pink shift of the duochrome.

Color Club Port-folio

Color Club Port-folio

I was afraid I might not like this one on me, since I don’t really care for dark purple/green duochromes on myself (I like them on others though), but I *love* this medium purple one!

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 – 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!

From the Vault

I still have some really old photos from when I started blogging, so I thought I would post them in a few installments!

This first one is a fall mani that I really loved! Thumb to pinkie: Finger Paints Sketchy Character, a mustard yellow frankenpolish, Kleancolor Fashionista, China Glaze Brownstone, Joe Fresh Pumpkin. The glitter gradient over everything was done with Nubar Lime Green Glitter and Orange Glitter.

fall1

Next, Orly Wild Wisteria with China Glaze Brownstone accent:

wild_wisteria_brownstone

I’ll finish up this first vault post with swatches of the creme half of the Color Club Back to Boho collection, along with a couple of layering combos using them.

Shabby Drab:

shabbydrab2

With Color Club Jingle Jangle overtop:

shabbydrab_jinglejangle

Color Club Earthy Angel:

cc_earthyangel

cc_earthyangel2

Color Club New Bohemian:

cc_newbohemian

cc_newbohemian2

Color Club Nomadic in Nude:

cc_nomadicnude

cc_nomadicnude2

Color Club Rad Nomad:

cc_radnomad

cc_radnomad2

Color Club Red-ical Gypsy – gotta say, the stereotypical gypsy-themed polish names just make me think of cultural appropriation… This is a nice red though, and look! An appearance from my little Thor!

cc_redical_thor

cc_redical2

With an accent of Cult Nails Hypnotize Me and Nubar V matte top coat:

redical_hm_matte

redical_hm_matte2

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.

Soulstice Kiev

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).

Soulstice Kiev

In low light it can look quite dark:

Soulstice Kiev

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.

soulstice_kiev_hana2

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.

Soulstice Berlin

The formula was very similar to that of Kiev.

Soulstice Berlin

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

Soulstice Berlin

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

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

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.

Zoya Katherine

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

Orly Synchro

This is a very picture heavy post, because this polish is quite the chameleon! Orly Synchro is from the Electronica collection released for early fall 2012.

Orly Synchro

It’s a duochrome shimmer that is kind of frosty. The colour ranges from coral to pink to purple to nearly blue, depending on the angle.

Orly Synchro

The formula was a bit thick and sticky; not the easiest to work with. Care also has to be taken to get the brush strokes straight.

Orly Synchro

It’s also pretty sheer, and this was three coats, the last one thick.

Orly Synchro

Totally worth it though! The colours are amazing! It makes me think of a sunset.

Orly Synchro

Orly Synchro

Orly Synchro

Orly Synchro

In the shade:

Orly Synchro

I also swatched it using one fairly thick coat over black (one coat of Kleancolor Black). The layer on my ring finger somehow ended up being thicker than the others, and it shows in the photos; the ring finger has more of a pinkish-purple tone while the other fingers show off the more blue side of the polish.

Orly Synchro over black

Orly Synchro over black

I found the trick to applying Synchro to be using a thick enough final coat that you have time to straighten out the brush strokes before it starts to get sticky.

Orly Synchro over black

I just love all the colours in this! And how it looks quite different over black versus on its own!

Orly Synchro over black

Orly Synchro over black

Orly Synchro over black

In the shade:

Orly Synchro over black

On my thumb in this last photo is one coat of Synchro over a light pink (Joe Fresh in the shade Blush):

Orly Synchro over black and pink (thumb)

China Glaze LOL

A quick post with a classic, but unfortunately hard to find, polish: China Glaze’s LOL from the OMG collection. It’s a gorgeous glowy purple linear holo. I can’t remember now if this was two or three coats…

China Glaze LOL

China Glaze LOL

China Glaze LOL

China Glaze LOL

China Glaze LOL