shimmer | Vegan Claws

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

Posts tagged ‘shimmer’

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! 🙂

Category:

Zoya

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A few older Zoya nudes

Here are a few Zoyas that I swatched recently!

Zoya Nevaeh, two coats.

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I was curious how this compared to the base shade of a couple of the Zoya satins. Comparison: Zoya Nevaeh, Zoya Ana (2 coats), Zoya Brittany (2 coats), Zoya Nevaeh.

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Left to right: Zoya Nevaeh, Zoya Ana (2 coats plus top coat), Zoya Brittany (2 coats plus top coat), Zoya Nevaeh, with flash.

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Zoya Clover, 3 coats. Some of the photos have top coat and some don’t. This yellow-beige toned off-white has a very subtle shimmer that only shows in bright light.

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And finally, one that is a very old Zoya: Phyllis. I have no idea when this actually came out; I can’t find any info online. I bought this online from Nail Polish Canada probably about 5 years ago when it must have been already discontinued for some time. Well, it’s not so old that it has the really old original Zoya logo on the bottle, but that’s about all I can say…

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Three coats of Phyllis shown here.

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It’s a sheer peachy shimmer with a slight pink-to-gold duochrome… pretty!

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Zoya

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Picture Polish Imperial

Picture Polish Imperial is a bright purple creme-based polish with tons of shimmer, especially blue glass-fleck shimmer, and small pale gold hex glitter. The glitter sometimes gives off more of a rose-gold look when it’s shining through the purple base. I used two coats of Imperial, plus top coat.

With flash:

Under ott lite:

Category:

Picture Polish

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Picture Polish Revenge and Nemesis

Picture Polish Revenge and Nemesis are gorgeous glowy burgundy duochrome shimmer polishes, without and with scattered holo, respectively. I used Revenge as an accent nail on my ring finger. I did two coats of each polish, no top coat here.

Under halogen light:

With flash:

Flash plus Ottlite:

Category:

Picture Polish

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Autumn stamping

I had better share this fall-themed manicure before the snow flies, which fortunately hasn’t happened yet here!

The base for this mani was Emily de Molly Copper Patina and Femme Fatale Infamous Riddle.

Copper Patina is a turquoise creme with pink-to-gold duochrome shimmer. I used two coats plus top coat.

Infamous Riddle is an olive-leaning green jelly with strong red-to-gold duochrome shimmer. I used three coats plus top coat for this one.

I really love both of these polishes!

I stamped fall leaves and trees on them using Kleancolor’s Metallic Orange, Metallic Mango, and Metallic Brown.

The plates used were Bundle Monster BM-04, Hehe 048, and Born Pretty BPL-015 for the tree.

So happy with how these turned out! Here are approximately a zillion more photos, heheh. 😉

Category:

Born Pretty Store stamping plates, Bundle Monster (stamping), Emily de Molly, Femme Fatale, Hehe stamping plates, Kleancolor

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Black Cat Lacquer Lotus Flower, Colour Alike 510, and comparison

I’ve got two swatches and a comparison to show you today! First up is Black Cat Lacquer Lotus Flower.

This is a nearly-neon bright pink with subtle holo and heavy gold glass fleck shimmer.

I love it so much! Two coats plus top coat, great formula.

In the shade:

Here is the comparison, top to bottom: Lotus Flower, Picture Polish Electric Dream, Colour Alike 510, ILNP Cutie Pop.

Electric Dream is the most similar to Lotus Flower, but it’s less bright/neon and has larger, scattered holo flake particles. Colour Alike 510 is quite a different shade of pink and doesn’t have gold glass fleck. Cutie Pop on the other hand is a lighter, softer pink and its holo is more prominent than its glass flecks, the opposite of the Black Cat Lacquer. I used two coats plus top coat for each of them.

Again, left to right: Black Cat Lacquer Lotus Flower, Picture Polish Electric Dream, Colour Alike 510, ILNP Cutie Pop.

And finally, here are swatches of Colour Alike 510. This one is also really pretty!

Two coats plus top coat, although it’s almost a one-coater. I’m going to try it for stamping as it seems like it might work well! In the shade:

And a couple more in the sun:

Category:

Black Cat Lacquer, Colour Alike, I Love Nail Polish (ILNP), Picture Polish, Uncategorized

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Zoya Rowan and Different Dimension Solar Flares

Zoya Rowan is a greyish taupe in Zoya’s satin matte finish. I used two coats without top coat here.

The formula was great, although the ridges in my nails tend to show through this finish!

After the swatch I added a couple of accent nails in Different Dimension Solar Flares, a slightly browner taupe creme with colour-shifting magenta/pink to gold flakes.

I used three coats of Solar Flares, no top coat, for these photos.

I then added top coat to both polishes, using my new favourite top coat HK Girl by Glisten & Glow. Dries fast and works great over nail art, though it isn’t big-3 free for those who are concerned about that.

I also wanted to compare Rowan to Orly Faint of Heart. Here is the comparison – Zoya on my index finger, Orly on my middle finger. I used two coats plus top coat of Faint of Heart.

Faint of Heart is greyer, slightly darker, and when you look at it very close up, it has a ton of tiny specks of pigment in it, kind of like a much more subtle version of the Pretty and Polished Dusty Cremes finish. Again, left to right, Zoya Rowan and Orly Faint of Heart:

Reverse order, left to right, Orly Faint of Heart and Zoya Rowan:

Category:

Different Dimension, Orly, Zoya

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Il était un vernis Matcha Doing Today?, Picture Polish Honeymoon, and stamping

I’ve got a couple of lovely pastel holos with glass-flecks and shimmer to show you today.

The lime green is Il était un vernis Matcha Doing Today? and the seafoam /minty blue-green is Picture Polish Honeymoon. First two photos under Ottlite.

I used three coats each plus top coat. Flash photos:

I then added stamping using Colour Alike “A Blue Ocean” over Matcha Doing Today and “A Fresh Mojito” over Honeymoon. The image is from It Girl plate 101.

Category:

Colour Alike, Il était un vernis, It Girl (stamping plates), Picture Polish

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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: