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

Posts tagged ‘vampy’

A few odds and ends

I have a few random phone pics of relatively-recent manis to share today!

Quo by Orly Infinity and Beyond (same as Orly Milky Way), layered over Cosmetic Arts Sky High (which I think is the same as Color Club Take Me To Your Chateau). Accent nail is just the Cosmetic Arts by itself.

20140220-120319.jpg

Kleancolor Concrete, a one-coater, with Kleancolor Yogurt Raisins on the accent nail.

20140226-182450.jpg

Maya Cosmetics Big Chief, two coats. The glitter was a little sparse but other than that it had a great formula.

20140226-184231.jpg

And finally, Misa High Brow, a gorgeous vampy purple shimmer with a satin-matte finish. On my rarely-seen right hand:
20140226-184337.jpg

On my usual hand, with topcoat:
20140226-184354.jpg

Advertisement

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

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

Picture Polish Monroe (Original Version)

Today I have the original version of Picture Polish’s Monroe to show you. This one was re-released earlier this year in a slightly different form, but I don’t have the new version to compare.

Picture Polish Monroe (original version)

Monroe is a deep burgundy jelly with subtle fine holo particles. In some light it can look quite dark as the above photo shows.

Picture Polish Monroe (original version)

The first coat was pretty patchy; I used three coats in all for the swatch.

Picture Polish Monroe (original version)

It has a thick jelly formula, and I recommend waiting a few minutes between coats to prevent dragging the previous layer near the cuticle.

Picture Polish Monroe (original version)

The holo is subtle, but it’s a great twist on a plain burgundy jelly!

Picture Polish Voodoo and Comparison

Picture Polish Voodoo is a gorgeous deep plum/burgundy base with golden glass fleck shimmer, giving an overall brownish-burgundy look.

Picture Polish Voodoo

The burgundy base is a little sheer, so that the golden glass flecks shining through it often appear like red sparkles. As you can see in the bottle in the following shot, they’re definitely gold though!

Picture Polish Voodoo

The formula was a little thick but not difficult to work with. These photos show two thick coats of the polish.

Picture Polish Voodoo

I love it!

Picture Polish Voodoo

I did a comparison of Voodoo to China Glaze Midtown Magic, which I previously reviewed here. From top to bottom, the photo shows Midtown Magic, Voodoo, Midtown Magic.

China Glaze Midtown Magic and Picture Polish Voodoo

The main difference is that Midtown Magic is darker, more blackened. The shimmer also has more red in Voodoo, due to it shining through its base. My favourite of the two is Voodoo since it’s not as blackened!

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.

Wet n Wild On the Prowl (partial) collection

Wet n Wild Cougar Attack

On Halloween I posted Wet n Wild’s Cougar Attack (an awesome brown jelly with orangey-copper glitter, shown again above) from their limited edition and annoyingly hard to find On the Prowl Halloween collection; here are the other polishes I got from the same collection.

Buy Me a Drink
Wet n Wild Buy Me a Drink
Wet n Wild Buy Me a Drink
A gorgeous glowy shimmery plum burgundy. This is my favourite from the collection after Cougar Attack. Shown is three coats, no top coat (none of these photos have top coat).

Ready to Pounce
Wet n Wild Ready to Pounce
Wet n Wild Ready to Pounce
Wet n Wild Ready to Pounce
This is a blue-based purple with red-purple shimmer. It’s also nice and glowy, though less so than Buy Me a Drink. This was two coats, but it could have used three because of the crappy brush (more about that later). The colour is off in the last photo, but it shows off the shimmer really well if you click on it for the larger version.

Jungle Fever
Wet n Wild Jungle Fever
A light grass green shimmer with metallic shimmer particles. This was three coats.

Tangled in My Web
Wet n Wild Jungle Fever and Tangled in My Web
Medium-sized, opaque black hex glitter in a clear base. This is one thick coat over Jungle Fever, sort of dabbed on more than just brushed on, which is how I usually apply polishes like this. I really like this one too.

I decided to turn the Jungle Fever – Tangled in My Web layering into a jelly sandwich by adding a coat of Barry M Lime overtop. Here it is in natural light and then under a lamp.
Wet n Wild Jungle Fever and Tangled in My Web, with Barry M Lime
Wet n Wild Jungle Fever and Tangled in My Web, with Barry M Lime

I did have application problems with the shimmers from this collection. I don’t know if I was just unlucky, but the brushes were awful. Uneven bristles that leave big drag marks all down the nail. The formula of the polish is thick and not very self-leveling too, which certainly doesn’t help with the drag marks! Cougar Attack had a better brush than the shimmers, or perhaps I just didn’t notice anything since it’s a glitter polish so I expected it to end up a bit bumpy. I didn’t notice any issues with the brush on Tangled in My Web, but then since it’s a clear layering glitter, again, it’s quite possible that I just didn’t notice since it applies so much differently.

Anyway, this collection has some great shades, brush problem notwithstanding! My favourites are Cougar Attack, Buy Me a Drink, and Tangled in My Web. The other two shades in the collection that I didn’t end up getting are Behind Closed Doors (I have NYX Girls Dorothy which from what I can tell online is a dupe with a much better formula) and Correction Tape, a multi-coloured layering hex glitter.

China Glaze Midtown Magic

I think this is one of my new favourite polishes. This one is from China Glaze's recent fall collection, Metro. It looks almost black, but it's actually a dark vampy plum. Before putting it on, I thought it really was going to be black – I must have previously read in blog reviews that it wasn't, but had forgotten by the time I got around to trying it! It has golden shimmer that looks like a combination of gold and red sparkles as it shines through the plum base. A really gorgeous combination.

This is two coats with Poshe topcoat; the first coat was a bit streaky but a second, thicker coat evened it out.
China Glaze Midtown Magic

China Glaze Midtown Magic

China Glaze Midtown Magic