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

Posts tagged ‘shimmer’

Cult Nails Deal With It

This lovely super-bright lime green with golden yellow shimmer is Deal With It, from Coco’s Untamed Collection by Cult Nails. The collection was designed by Coco, the thirteen year old daughter of Cult Nails’ creator. I’ll have reviews of the other shades coming later!

Cult Nails Deal With It

The formula on this one is a bit sheer; here I used two coats but three would be better for those who don’t like visible nail line. The formula is a little bit thick, but not problematic to apply.

Cult Nails Deal With It

As you can see it dries to a satin finish; there must be some neon pigment in it which is not surprising! At any rate, this is an awesome shade!

Cult Nails Deal With It

Beauty Without Cruelty polishes

Beauty Without Cruelty was one of the first brands to produce entirely vegan cosmetics and today I have swatches of my Beauty Without Cruelty polishes to show you. I only have four of them, and it just so happens that three of them are pink. For each of them, I have two photos in the sun followed by one in the shade. I didn’t use any topcoat for these photos.

Beauty Without Cruelty Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea is a light/medium pink creme, not bright but not too dusty. The formula was thin and a bit runny; this is two coats (three on my index because I messed it up).

Beauty Without Cruelty Sweet Pea

Beauty Without Cruelty Sweet Pea

Next, Pink Crush. This is a bright fuchsia squishy-looking semi-jelly polish. The formula was not as runny as Sweet Pea, and this was two coats.

Beauty Without Cruelty Pink Crush

Beauty Without Cruelty Pink Crush

Beauty Without Cruelty Pink Crush

Rich Plum is a rich shimmery purple. This one made me realize that these polishes don’t have mixing balls, as the shimmer was uneven in my bottle and I had to shake it quite a bit to get it distributed. Shown are two coats; this one can show very slightly visible brushstrokes and I recommend waiting a few minutes between coats to prevent dragging.

Beauty Without Cruelty Rich Plum

Beauty Without Cruelty Rich Plum

Beauty Without Cruelty Rich Plum
The last one I have is Geranium, a magenta-pink creme. The formula was thin but not runny, and this is two coats.

Beauty Without Cruelty Geranium

Beauty Without Cruelty Geranium

Beauty Without Cruelty Geranium

These polishes have a flat brush that is less wide than the OPI pro-wide brush. The BWC nail polish line is pretty basic; there are only about 15 colours, but the polishes, brushes and bottles are pretty nice overall! I have two more of the shades on the way to me that I purchased from a blog sale, so I should have a couple more swatches to show once they arrive!

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.

Misa Epiphany

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.

Misa Epiphany

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!

Misa Taking Chances

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

Misa Taking Chances

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

Misa Taking Chances and Sephora by OPI It's all About the Fringe

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!

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.

China Glaze Knotty

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.

China Glaze Knotty

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! 😉

China Glaze Knotty

China Glaze Deviantly Daring and No Plain Jane

I’ve got the first two of six new China Glaze polishes from their New Bohemian collection today! These shades have duochrome to varying degrees, and a metallic finish that’s slightly brushstrokey but not in a bad way, in my humble opinion – I wouldn’t quite call them frost, and I didn’t have trouble getting the brush stokes straight.

I’ll start with No Plain Jane, the purple shade; I was actually a little disappointed with this one since the duochrome didn’t seem as orange as I expected; more of a pinkish-goldenish-copper shade, and the purple can look paler and almost lavender in some lighting. This swatch is three coats, and I found the formula a bit thick and sticky for this kind of polish. First photos are in sunlight:

China Glaze No Plain Jane

China Glaze No Plain Jane

China Glaze No Plain Jane

These next photos are under my Ott Lite:

China Glaze No Plain Jane

China Glaze No Plain Jane

Next I layered one coat of No Plain Jane over Kleancolor Black. Layered this way, it photographed bluer than it is – it’s definitely more of a red-leaning purple like the first photos showed. Sunlight:

China Glaze No Plain Jane over black

China Glaze No Plain Jane over black

China Glaze No Plain Jane over black

This one is a bit more colour accurate:

China Glaze No Plain Jane over black

In indirect natural light:

China Glaze No Plain Jane over black

Next is Deviantly Daring; I love this rich teal-blue-green shade! Two coats shown here, and this one had a great formula. Sunlight:

China Glaze Deviantly Daring

China Glaze Deviantly Daring

China Glaze Deviantly Daring

In the shade, if you click to enlarge this photo you can kind of see the fine gold shimmer that gives this polish extra depth; it’s more visible in the bottle than on the nail but is really pretty:

China Glaze Deviantly Daring

This next photo is under the Ott Lite – I think that bright green flash that you can see near the bottom right of each nail is actually a reflection from the wall with its bright lime-green paint job, so I’m a little hesitant to post this, but I guess I’ll just say that this one isn’t totally accurate of what the polish looks like in real life!

China Glaze Deviantly Daring

Now, here is one coat of Deviantly Daring over one coat Kleancolor Black, in sunlight:

China Glaze Deviantly Daring over black

China Glaze Deviantly Daring over black

China Glaze Deviantly Daring over black

China Glaze Deviantly Daring over black

China Glaze Deviantly Daring over black

In shade:

China Glaze Deviantly Daring over black

So, one of these two polishes was nice but mainly just “okay” in my opinion, and the other is a definite winner! The other four shades from this collection are on my ever-expanding “to swatch” list!

Comparison: Color Club’s Pure Energy and Wicked Sweet

As mentioned in my previous post, here is my comparison of Color Club’s two neon blue polishes with turquoise shimmer, Pure Energy and Wicked Sweet. These photos were taken several months ago, during a week when I had my nails filed into little claws. I’ve done this a couple of times, but it usually only lasts about a week before the points start breaking off and I file them down.

Color Club Wicked Sweet and Pure Energy

The photos show three coats of each polish. On my index and ring is Pure Energy from the Electro Candy collection; on my middle and pinkie is Wicked Sweet from the Wicked Sweet collection.

Color Club Wicked Sweet and Pure Energy

The formula was good on both of them, thin and smooth. They’re a little sheer, hence the three coats.

Color Club Wicked Sweet and Pure Energy

Wicked Sweet is a scented polish; it smells like blueberry candy.

Color Club Wicked Sweet and Pure Energy

Aside from the scent these two polishes are practically identical. The main difference is that Wicked Sweet dries a little glossier before topcoat. There’s no topcoat in the pictures, and in this last picture you can kind of see how Wicked Sweet is a little more reflective which brings out the shimmer a bit more. Being neons, neither of them is especially glossy before topcoat, though. I wonder if it’s the scented additive that also adds that slight bit of extra shine…

Misa Skinny Dipping and Comparison

Skinny Dipping is the second of two polishes I got from Misa’s Hot Summer collection for summer 2012. It’s a gorgeous neon aqua shade with blue shimmer!

Misa Skinny Dipping

The polish was fairly sheer; I think the sheerness helps add depth with the shimmer though. I used three coats here.

Misa Skinny Dipping

The consistency was a little thin on the first coat, but seemed less so by the third coat (that’s probably the effect of the humidity that day…).

Misa Skinny Dipping

The polish dries to a satin finish due to the neon pigment in it. I didn’t use any top coat for these photos, so as you can see it’s definitely not totally matte.

Misa Skinny Dipping

I really love the blue shimmer in this! In the shade:

Misa Skinny Dipping

This polish is quite unique, at least in my collection. I did a comparison to the most similar polish I have, Color Club Wicked Sweet (which itself is basically a dupe of Color Club Pure Energy; that reminds me I have some old posts still waiting in the archives that I should really get around to posting some day!). Left to right, Wicked Sweet, Skinny Dipping, Wicked Sweet, Skinny Dipping:

Misa Skinny Dipping and Color Club Wicked Sweet

These two polishes are kind of like opposites – Wicked Sweet is blue with turquoise shimmer, and Skinny Dipping is turquoise with blue shimmer!

Misa Skinny Dipping and Color Club Wicked Sweet

I also used three coats of Wicked Sweet, although it wasn’t quite as sheer as Skinny Dipping. This next photo really shows off the difference in the base colours:

Misa Skinny Dipping and Color Club Wicked Sweet

Another big difference between the two is that Wicked Sweet is scented; it has a blueberry-candy scent to it.

Misa Skinny Dipping and Color Club Wicked Sweet

I like how these two complement one another!

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

I’ve got a gorgeous duochrome from Glitter Gal to show you today! This is one of six new duochromes they recently released, and the lovely Kerry from Glitter Gal gave me the opportunity to review it (thanks, Kerry!). This one is called Buckled Bronze and it’s got a great plum-burgundy-bronze-copper colour shift!

Here it is with the box it comes in. I really like these new Glitter Gal bottles, square and solid and stylish looking – they’ve really done a nice job on their new packaging.

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

These photos are of one generous coat of Buckled Bronze over one coat of Kleancolor Black; these are sheer duochromes that show their full effect over black (or another very dark colour).

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

No topcoat here; it dries quite glossy on its own. The formula was thin and smooth, perfect for this sort of layering polish.

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

As always you can click on any of these photos to get a better view.

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

These next two photos are with flash in addition to sunlight. Head-on, the flash shows just how nearly purple this polish appears in some lights!

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

And at more of an angle, the bronze tone becomes prominent:

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

At extreme angles, the polish even shifts to gold and green. If you click on the full size version of this next photo, you can see all the little multicoloured sparkles along with the gold-green shift – love it!

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

These next few photos are in indoor light.

Indirect natural light, sorry for the weird lumpy-looking reflections:

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

Under my Ott Lite:

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

Ott Lite plus flash:

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

And here is what the polish looks like on its own – as you can see it’s definitely sheer! Left to right, one, two, three, and four coats of Buckled Bronze. The pinkie with four coats shows how the base of the polish is kind of a smokey taupe colour.

Glitter Gal Buckled Bronze

Anyway, as you may have guessed by now, this is a great polish and I love it! The colour scheme is right up my alley. This and the other five new Glitter Gal duochromes, shown in the following company promo image, are available here on their website, or from one of their international distributors listed here.

Disclosure: This polish was provided to me by the company for my honest review. The opinions expressed here are entirely my own.

Cult Nails Enticing and comparisons

I’ve been meaning to get this post up for a while and finally here it is. This is Enticing from Cult Nails’ second-to-last collection, Divas and Drama. I took these photos when the collection was just released, so you can see why I say “finally” since a whole other collection has come out since then!

Cult Nails Enticing

I used a base of Milani Smoothe ridge-filling base coat, then two thick coats of Enticing. I didn’t have any problems with streaks applying this way.

Cult Nails Enticing

As you can see it’s a pale milky pink with fleck-type shimmer in it, and is somewhat jellyish.

Cult Nails Enticing

I have the other polishes in this collection as well but haven’t swatched them yet (strangely enough, in a collection with a coral, a minty blue, and a flakie, the first one I wore was the less-exciting sheer pale pink!)

Cult Nails Enticing

These photos are all taken in sunlight.

Cult Nails Enticing

I compared Enticing to other pale pink polishes that I have, from left, Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, and Zoya Audrey.

Left to right: Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey

Thumb to pinkie (left to right): Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, Left to right: Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey

Kleancolor Sheer Pastel Pink, on my thumb, is much more of a bubblegum shade than the others. The other polishes, index to pinkie, follow the same order as the bottle pic: China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey. Each swatch is two thick-ish coats over Milani Smoothe.

Index to pinkie (top to bottom): China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey

The base colour of the China Glaze, Cult Nails, and Nicole are very similar, but the shimmer and application distinguish them. China Glaze has shimmer that is coarser than Enticing, while Nicole has coarser shimmer that is actually blue, although that doesn’t always show up very obviously on the nails. In terms of application, the Nicole polish was the streakiest/most prone to bald spots of these three, followed by the China Glaze, and the Cult Nails polish had the least-streaky application.

Index to pinkie (top to bottom): China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey

Zoya Audrey, on my pinkie, is a warmer shade of pink than the other three. This polish came from one of Zoya’s two limited edition New York Fashion Week trios that came out a few months ago, this one being the Peter Som trio, so it isn’t readily available anymore as far as I know. It’s also a little streaky on application.

Index to pinkie (top to bottom): China Glaze Encouragement, Cult Nails Enticing, Nicole by OPI Kim-pletely in Love, Zoya Audrey

So there you go, in terms of formula the Cult Nails polish is the clear winner here, although I do prefer the blue shimmer in the Nicole polish. Just wish there was more of it so that it’d be more visible, and that the formula was more like Cult Nails’!

At any rate, Enticing is a great choice if you’re in the market for a milky pale pink with a bit of shimmer. Hopefully I’ll get to swatch the rest of the Divas and Drama collection soon (adding it to the long list of swatches and comparisons that I want to get around to “really soon”! haha)

Zoya Beach Skittles

Today I have a skittle mani to show you, using the polishes from Zoya’s Beach collection for summer 2012.

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

Thumb to pinkie are Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, and Lara. The bottle I’m holding is Zoya Tracie, the only non-creme polish from Beach.

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

I plan on doing comparison posts for all of these polishes later, so I’m not going to talk much about the formulas right now. These swatches were all two coats, though.

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

Some shade photos:

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara. Bottle: Zoya Tracie

Later on, I added a coat of Sally Girl Way2Disco, a blue-teal iridescent glitter (shown here in the shade, since the sun was not cooperating):

Index to pinkie: Zoya Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara, topped with Sally Girl Way2Disco

Thumb to pinkie: Zoya Reagan, Wednesday, Shelby, Arizona, Lara, topped with Sally Girl Way2Disco

Stay tuned for comparisons of the Beach (and Surf, the other half of the collection!) polishes to other similar polishes in my stash! I hope to get those posts started in the near future.