Lacquer Slacker Liz: Cult Nails

Showing posts with label Cult Nails. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Cult Nails Nakizzle's Shizzle

Nakizzle's Shizzle was released by boutique polish maker Cult Nails as part of the Dance All Night collection for summer 2013. Described as a "bright, but soft blue" and a "bright take on a traditional pastel blue," this is a vibrant light sky blue. It's a classic azure shade and a perfect stand-in for Carolina blue, as I'm sure the UNC alums in my family would agree. Though a whitened color, it is bright, unmuddied and fresh. Direct sun enhances the brightness. Perfect for summer!

Application was pretty good. The consistency of Nakizzle's Shizzle is fluid and creamy, with a smooth, full-bodied flow over the nail. Pigmentation is very good. As with most whitened shades, there is a certain amount of streakiness to contend with, especially on the first coat. But even though it doesn't have the primo self-leveling properties of other Cult Nails cremes, it levels out to even, wearable coverage with the second coat. Camouflaging my ridges required three coats, but I would happily wear it at two if I weren't photographing it. Cleanup is easy and straightforward with a little bit of pigment travel but no residual staining. Nakizzle's Shizzle dries naturally in good time to a shade that is slightly brighter than bottle color and a smooth glossy finish.

Photos show three coats of Nakizzle's Shizzle over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Apologies for the slack cleanup and various dings!

Cult Nails Nakizzle's Shizzle

Pure-T sky blue! Slightly brighter and less milky than what I'd call a baby blue. It does have a sense of depth to it and isn't quite as flat as my photos make it seem. I think this qualifies as a pool blue also, for those who love that family of blues. It's got a lighthearted, cheerful feel on the nail, good for deflecting any broody, negative vibes that may be lurking about. And if you're looking for a color to pair with yellow in your attire or in nail art, this blue looks especially sweet with it. It would make a beautiful fresh background for some daisy nail art, methinks....

love,
Liz

Monday, April 27, 2015

Cult Nails Love at First Sight and Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls

Love at First Sight was released by boutique polish maker Cult Nails as part of the Dance All Night collection for early summer in May 2013. Described as a "bright pastel influenced purple," this is a creamy medium-light purple or floral lavender shade with strong pink overtones. It's right there where purple, lavender and lilac meet, just a hair more purple than the Crayola color wisteria. To me it has a certain subdued quality that keeps it in the soft bright category. The pastel influence is readily apparent and it places Love at First in a unique spot relative to other creamy purples. I have an abundance of creamy mid-toned grape purples, and this would hold up at the very light end of that spectrum, but it is fairly bold and bright compared to a true pastel lavender or lilac. Suffice to say I have nothing else quite like it in my stash.

Application was dreamy. The pastel influence does not extend to the formula, which is on point with Cult Nails' best. Love at First Sight has a fluid, creamy consistency with a perfectly balanced viscosity for painting, a buttery glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. Pigmentation is excellent with the potential for one-coat coverage, but I used two to be sure of completely even opacity. It's unusual to find a color that is whitened, as this clearly is, with such even, streak-free coverage. Lovely! Cleanup is easy with a little bit of pigment travel but no residual staining. Love at First Sight dries naturally in good time to a glossy finish.

Photos show two coats of Love at First Sight over treatment and basecoat with a bubbly topcoat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl.

Cult Nails Love at First Sight

I thought that this would make a perfect base for an Ursula glitter manicure. Ursula is the main antagonist in Disney's 1989 animated fantasy film The Little Mermaid, and my generous polish bestie Marisa of Tiny Twinklings recently gifted me the two Ursula polishes from indie polish maker Ellagee's 2014 Villainous Holo-ween collection. The first of the two, The Importance of Body Language, I liked too well by itself to add the matching glitter topper and I'm glad I saved the latter for later because in the interim Love at First Sight arrived in the mail. My path was clear.

Ursula (source)

Poor Unfortunate Souls is the glitter topper from the Villainous Holo-ween Ursula duo, named for the song Ursula sings to Ariel to seduce her into trading her voice for the chance to become temporarily human. It's a gorgeous concoction of holographic turquoise hex glitters sized from micro to medium along with medium hex glitters in black and red. The turquoise holo glitters sparkle in dramatic flashes of sea green and bright blue, perfectly accompanied by the red and black.

I dabbed one generous coat of Poor Unfortunate Souls over the Love at First Sight manicure. Glitter payoff is excellent, with a goodly amount of glitter per brushful. The suspension base is thicker in consistency but not sticky, and the glitters disperse easily over the nail and settle down without any trouble, no tumbling or stickups and only a couple of free edge protrusions. Cleanup wasn't a problem but in my excitement I did leave a few sparklers on my nail environs. Well, either it's all right or it's too bad, as Fuzzy says. Poor Unfortunate Souls dries naturally in good time to a shiny finish with a little texture from the glitter. I added a coat of Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter Food before my topcoat to smooth it out.

Photos show one coat of Poor Unfortunate Souls over the Love at First Sight manicure above, with a layer of Glitter Food followed by a topcoat of Seche Vite.

Ellagee Poor Unfortunate Souls over Cult Nails Love at First Sight

I'm not usually one for glitter toppers but I love this one, the color are fantastic and I think it makes for a pretty awesome Ursula manicure over the light purple of Love at First Sight! Thanks, Marisa!

love,
Liz

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Orly Orange Punch and Cult Nails Captivated

Orange Punch has long been part of Orly's core line, since before 2009 at least. It was re-released as part of the Hot Stuff collection and then again as part of the Halloween collection for 2011. It's a neonesque safety orange, very bold and very bright. I got this on ebay at some point and it's been languishing in my swatching chute ever since -- it's not very often that I feel the need to wear such an overt, in-your-face orange. But it's overcast, rainy and a bit chilly for April here in NC -- 49℉ at dawn this morning -- and I felt the need to warm things up polish-wise. This one sure did the trick!

Application was kind of amazing, and I mean that in the best possible way because I was prepared for a sheer, runny nightmare of a polish. But no! The consistency of Orange Punch is very fluid with a thinner formula that reminds me a bit of Rescue Beauty Lounge's thin formula except not quite as perfectly self-leveling. It's very easy to work with, not runny as long as you don't overload your brush and goes right where you put it. You can work very quickly with a formula like this. Pigmentation is slightly on the sheer side but not overly so. Two coats will get you color coverage with visible nail line, three coats nets nicely opaque, even coverage. Cleanup is easy with some pigment travel but no residual staining as far as I can tell -- I didn't have much cleanup to do so your mileage may vary. Orange Punch dries naturally in longer than average time to a semi-matte/rubbery finish as befits its neon heritage. Looks great with a glossy topcoat.

Photos show three coats of Orange Punch over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl.

Orly Orange Punch

This polish is actually much more feminine and flattering on the nail than I was expecting. It has a sort of dazzling floral charm, and the bright pop of color elongates my fingers. Quite the flirt, this safety orange!

Then, just because I could, I decided to add glitter.

Captivated was released by boutique polish maker Cult Nails as part of the A Day at the Races collection in spring 2011. It's a delicious pinky orange coral glitter bomb, with a coral tinted transparent base in which is suspended a beautiful mix of teensy hex glitters in a ravishing bouquet of colors: gold, pink, orange, coral, some of them iridescent. Coverage with this polish is a function of the glitters as the base is transparent, but I've seen it worn to great effect with only two coats. It is an effervescent sparkler of a polish with a distinctly summertime vibe, great for fingers or toes.

I crossed myself for luck and applied two coats of Captivated over the Orange Punch manicure. The consistency of Captivated is thicker, as suspension bases often tend to be, and a little gel-like but still fluid enough for an easy, self-leveling glide over the nail with a goodly bead of polish on the brush. It definitely took Orange Punch up a notch, giving it a blood orange flush glistening with tiny glitters. I'm thinking the glitter mix would probably stand out better over a deep pink base (as it is here), but it does very well with the orange. I didn't do any cleanup (you can tell, too) so I can't report on that aspect of the polish, but Captivated dries naturally in very good time to a surprisingly smooth finish for a glitter polish. A little bumpy, but not gritty.

Photos show two coats of Captivated over my Orange Crush manicure above with a topcoat of HK Girl. Unfortunately this ended up a rather thick-looking manicure thanks to my heavy hand and the fact that by this time I had nine layers of product on my nails. It thinned as it cured and dried, though, and eventually ended up looking just great!

Cult Nails Captivated over Orly Orange Punch

Cult Nails Captivated, bottle shot

Cult Nails Captivated over Orly Orange Punch

Feels like I've got fireworks on my nails! If you'd like to see what Captivated looks like on its own, here are some great posts: The Polished Perfectionist, Beauty Judy and The PolishAholic. This polish has been out of production for a few years but with a little patience and effort you can still find it in blog and destash sales and it occasionally shows up on ebay, where I got mine.

love,
Liz