red | Vegan Claws

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

Posts tagged ‘red’

Zoya India and Comparison

This burgundy-red beauty is India from Zoya’s Ignite collection of last fall. Shown in two coats, no top coat. Great formula. It’s got a ton of glass-fleck shimmer that reflects golden, red and purple tones.

Under Ott Lite:

Here’s a comparison between India and Zoya’s Anastasia, Joe Fresh Cinnamon, and FingerPaints Palette of Perfection.

Left to right: Zoya Anastasia, Zoya India, Joe Fresh Cinnamon, FingerPaints Palette of Perfection

Anastasia is shown in four coats; it’s a lot more sheer. It also has a more plum-leaning base, and the base is metallic instead of jellyish like India’s. I would say Anastasia is like a plum version of Zoya Autumn with its more metallic base.

Top to bottom: Zoya Anastasia, Zoya India, Joe Fresh Cinnamon, FingerPaints Palette of Perfection

Joe Fresh Cinnamon is shown in two coats like India. It’s got a lighter red base and less intense golden shimmer than India.

Left to right: Zoya Anastasia, Zoya India, Joe Fresh Cinnamon, FingerPaints Palette of Perfection

And finally, FingerPaints Palette of Perfection is also two coats. It’s a truer red with no hint of burgundy/purple, and its golden shimmer gives it a very warm/orangey tone.

Left to right, under Ottlite: Zoya Anastasia, Zoya India, Joe Fresh Cinnamon, FingerPaints Palette of Perfection

Love this comparison as an ombré mani!

Top to bottom, under Ottlite: Zoya Anastasia, Zoya India, Joe Fresh Cinnamon, FingerPaints Palette of Perfection

Category:

FingerPaints, Joe Fresh, Zoya

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China Glaze Spring in My Step and Valentine’s Day Stamping

Happy Valentine’s Day! This mani started out with a polish I like a lot, Spring in My Step from China Glaze.

Four coats plus top coat. The four coats are needed, but the formula is thin so it doesn’t seem too thick on the nail, and it dries super quickly. Like, quick enough that this polish and the others I have from this collection (last spring’s City Flourish) are among those I would choose when rushing to cover up naked nails before leaving for work in the morning! I know a lot of people hated the formula of the pastels in that collection, but I loved it!

I then added some stamping using Bundle Monster plates BM-H16 and BM-H17. I received both of these plates as gifts from the people at Nail Polish Canada, H16 last year and H17 this year. I think they send them out to regular customers or something. Thanks NPC! 🙂

The polishes I used for stamping were Kleancolor Iridescent Fuchsia (which is a ridiculous name as it’s not in any way iridescent, it’s a straight creme polish!) and Red Alert. Someday I hope I’ll get the hang of stamping so that the whole images will transfer without gaps and smudges 😉

I coloured in a few of the stamps using OPI Guy Meets Gal-veston, a coral pink jelly polish.

Here’s a close up of the thumb stamp, since it didn’t show up very well in the other photos.

And here’s the right hand – here, I coloured in some of the stamps using OPI Houston We Have a Purple, another jelly from the Texas collection.

Disclosure: the stamping plates used in this manicure were provided free of charge by Nail Polish Canada.

Category:

Bundle Monster (stamping), China Glaze, Kleancolor, OPI

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OPI La Boheme

OPI La Boheme is a hard-to-find polish from the 2003 Holiday on Broadway collection by OPI, and is also pretty much my favourite polish ever. Most of the photos are with Ott Lite; a couple where noted are with flash.

It’s a deep burgundy-red with sparkly colour-shifting pigment that goes from red to gold to green.

I wore this polish when I got married. 🙂

I’m not sure whether this was two or three coats. These photos were taken a while ago and I don’t seem to have written it down, at least not in my usual notebook…

It can look very different in different lighting. With flash the purple-ish side comes out:

The rest of the photos show one coat layered over black for maximum multichrome colour-shifting goodness.

With flash, again bringing out more purple:

How much do I love this polish? Well, I even have a backup bottle, and purchased both of them at crazy ebay prices. I still think it was worth it. No regrets for this one!! 😀

Category:

OPI

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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.

Shade:

Ott light:

Category:

P2, The Lady Varnishes

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Valentine’s Day mani featuring LA Girl Sand Blast polishes

Sorry for the lack of posts lately, things have been busy! And now, I’ve got a cold, blech, but anyway…

I signed up for Nail Polish Canada’s Valentine’s Day Nail Art Challenge, and here is the mani I did. Two versions of it, actually, as I added some stamping later!

I started with my favourite plain white polish, Milani White On the Spot, and then sponged on a textured gradient using two LA Girls Sand Blast polishes, Sandals (pink) and Sand Dune (red).

I originally wanted the heart on the middle finger to be a sort of reverse-gradient with the two colours in the opposite order, but it didn’t quite work out that way, so I dabbed on some more white after removing the heart shape I had cut out of masking tape.

I like how it ended up even though it wasn’t what I had originally planned.

Later, I added some stamping using Bundle Monster plate BM-H16. I received this plate in the mail recently from Nail Polish Canada.

The note in the package didn’t mention the blog so I’m not sure if it was sent for review purposes or just as a thank you for spending so much money in their store (ha ha!) or what, but either way I thought it was very sweet! Thanks, NPC! 🙂

The roses design on the ring finger didn’t really turn out so well what with the bumpy textured base polish, but I like how the flowers on stems on the other fingers look!

The first, simpler version with just the gradient and speckled/sponged heart is going to be my entry for the challenge. You can visit the Valentine’s Day Nail Art Challenge page here to vote for your favourite!

Disclosure: the stamping plate in this post was provided free of charge by Nail Polish Canada.

Category:

Bundle Monster (stamping), LA Girl, Milani

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Some Random Pics

A few random manis from various points over the past year or so!

Pretty and Polished Phoenix over Joe Fresh Mustard:

China Glaze Trendsetter with foily gradient accent – the green is Nicole by OPI My Favourite Gold over Brilliant Idea, and the gold is either Orly Glitz & Glamour or OPI Goldeneye, I don’t remember…

Soulstice Spa Crete… I still don’t like silver on me!

Category:

China Glaze, Joe Fresh, Nicole by OPI, OPI, Orly, Pretty and Polished, Soulstice Spa

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Indigo Bananas Fiery the Angels Fell

Happy New Year!! Today I have an awesome Indigo Bananas duochrome to show you! Fiery the Angels Fell is a glass-fleck polish that shifts between red and orange with a little fuchsia and gold in there too. It also looks to me like there are some very, very fine holo specs throughout the polish!

I used two coats (plus top coat) and found the formula smooth and thick, with very dense glass fleck. On the accent nail I used one coat over black, and as you can see I did have a little trouble with the thickness there; I wasn’t able to apply a thin even coat. So I think if I use it over black again I’ll add a little thinner first, or do one thick coat instead of trying to do a thin one.

Beautiful, beautiful polish! Warm halogen light shows off the orange side of the polish:

Category:

Indigo Bananas

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Authority Cosmetics Swatches and Review

Today I have four polishes to show you from the relatively-new brand of vegan polishes, Authority Cosmetics. Two cremes, a slight duochrome shimmer, and a glitter topper – let’s get started with the swatches, shall we? 😀

This great lime green creme is Disco. I used two coats.

The formula was thick and pigmented and went on without streaks; I was really impressed!

The glitter topper, I Heart You, has a clear pink base and is filled with small iridescent glitter and pink and red heart-shaped glitter. I applied one thick coat over Disco and wasn’t sure if it would work out with the green and pink layered, but it turned into a really great olive green shade! I think it actually ended up being my favourite combo with I Heart You! A couple of swirls of the brush generally brought out 1-3 hearts from the bottle without trouble, and there was a little placement of hearts involved to get them distributed evenly on the nail.

The second shade, Paradise, is a medium bright blue creme, also thick and pigmented like Disco. In fact, this swatch shows just one thick coat.

I probably should have done two thinner coats instead of one thick, since I ended up getting a few tiny bubbles as it dried, but I wanted to see if it covered in a single layer.

The sun had gone away so this next pic is under the Ott lite:

Here is one coat of I Heart You over Paradise, turning it a dusty periwinkle. Sorry for the little bald spots in the glitter; I didn’t notice until I took the photos!

Last but certainly not least, the duochrome, Emerald Sky. This is a shimmery green-teal-blue subtle duochrome in a smoky, slightly blue-purple base! (These first photos in natural light are a little too blue, and the later ones under Ott and halogen light are more colour accurate.)

The base is sheer to let the shimmer show through, and the formula is thinner than the other polishes. It builds to a nice glowy colour in just two coats though, which is what is shown here.

Under Ott Lite:

With flash:

Here it is again under Ott lite, with a layer of I Heart You on the ring finger:

I also did a comparison with one coat over black versus two coats alone (bottom to top in the photos).

Applying over black makes the look more opaque and dark, but doesn’t really change much about the colour shift. At an extreme angle, you can see the shimmer shifts more to blue.

This last photo is under halogen light.

Authority Cosmetics is available on their website here. They have just 10 colours so far, but if they’re all like the ones I’ve reviewed here, the quality is great! I have to say I am impressed with these! 🙂

Disclosure: The polishes in this post were provided for review. Opinions expressed are my own honest opinions.

Category:

Authority Cosmetics

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OPI Movin’ Out

I’ve got an oldie, hard-to-find polish to show you today. This is one of my favourites, OPI Movin’ Out from the Holiday on Broadway collection from 2003! One coat over black, showing off the warm purple-to-green multichrome and red-to-green colour shifting pigment sparkles. So gorgeous! The photos were taken under the Ott lite, except the two noted.