Wacie Wednesday: Bridal Bouquet

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s the first-ever Wacie Wednesday! This is the part of the week where, if I have a new product to share, you’ll get to see it. Yeah, I told you I was serious about making my own polish. This first entry is a little rough, since I’m still missing things like branding, labelling, and a way for you to actually buy it. I’ll get on that soon, I promise. In the meantime, have a look at the very first Wacie Nail Company polish, Bridal Bouquet. It’s awesome, but don’t take my word for it.

Bridal Bouquet is a glitter toppper in a clear base; it contains pink flowers, green shreds, and iridescent hexes. I’m wearing one coat over The New Black’s Black, Essie’s Fiji and Navigate Her. It dries quickly and is easily smoothed down by top coat. I don’t really know what to say about it, other than it’s awesome and I love it. I can’t stop staring at it. The green-to-gold iridescent glitters really stand out on the black polish, and the flowers look great over the green. The light pink flowers blend in a little, but I think that’s okay. I think it still evokes the image of its namesake: soft petals, soft colors, fragrance and beauty. I think I started a nail company just to make this polish.

It’s really exciting to be one step closer, you know? I had the time of my life making this, and I hope I’ll be able to keep doing it for a long while. It would be amazing to have a career where I get to sit in a room with glitter and sparkles and just create things. I almost don’t even care if I make my investment back, just the satisfaction of doing it was, to me, worth the money.

I did a test to see what it looked like over blue. The verdict: awesome! From left to right: Sinful Colors’s Midnight Blue, Essie’s After School Boy Blazer, Julep’s Bess, Color Club’s Chelsea Girl, China Glaze’s For Audrey, Essie’s Turquoise & Caicos, and Bridal Bouquet worn alone.

Yeah, this is the best thing I ever did. If you’re interested in buying a bottle, or just interested in reviewing it, I’ll get the store and press form ready soon. I am absolutely dying to share this with everyone.

Manicure Monday: Trash Nails and Magnetic Silver

Posted on January 27, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week on Manicure Monday, we play with magnets, tweezers, and super glue. No, we’re not building a robot, we’re doing our nails! I wish we were building a robot, that would be cool.

I only used one polish this week: Sinful Colors’ Polar Opposites. I know magnetic polishes are passé and uninteresting now, but I still like the look, even if I couldn’t get mine to come out very well. As was the case with my last magnetic polish, the magnetic design looked fantastic when I pulled the magnet away, but began to fade and distort as it dried. On some nails, the design is completely invisible, whereas some others barely are. It’s too bad; the magnetic effect really brings out the fine blue-to-purple shifting glitter. It’s a shame it’s not more pronounced, it’s really pretty.

You’re probably wondering what all that crap is doing stuck to my nail. I got this nail art wheel from Claire’s with a bunch of round pyramid studs in it, and I thought that since I was only using one color, I could use a few of these studs. I thought they’d look best paired with a gray or silver polish, and since I was using one, I tried it. These are some of the tackiest, trashiest, most clothes-snagginest nails I’ve ever done. I can’t wait to see what it’s like washing my hair in the morning with these bad guys. There are pyramid studs of various sizes and colors, a teardrop rhinestone, and metal chain segments in a variety of finishes. I know they look like over-the-top hooker nails, but they make me feel kind of badass, like I could cut somebody with them. I might accidentally cut myself.

I don’t always post my right hand, but when I do, it’s tacky as hell.

I tried something new this week: the DIY gel manicure. I originally saw a post on Reddit (that I can’t find now, so here’s the tutorial I used), where someone applied layers of Gelous between their color coats to get a durability comparable to a gel manicure. I was in Sally this weekend, I saw the Gelous, and I decided to try it for myself. Application was easy, but took some time; you’re using a few different products in a short amount of time. I didn’t really like this part; I like to let my polish dry for a really long time (like an hour) before I put another down. As a result, when I went to clean up my cuticles, I got some pulling and tugging from where the polish was kind of dry, but not dry enough. I have some weird edges from that. Also, the tutorial skipped base coat altogether and jumped right into the Gelous. I wasn’t okay with that. Having bought my first bottle of Nail Envy this weekend, I started with a base coat of that, then went for my usual OPI base coat (which was probably overkill), and then went into the Gelous tutorial. We’ll see if it holds up. I really hope it does, because now that my boyfriend lives here, I have to wash dishes twice as often, and my manicures don’t hold up the way they used to when I only had to do dishes once a week.

One of these things is not like the others. It’s Sinful Colors’ Polar Opposites!

In unrelated news: Wacie Nail Company is a thing that’s really going to happen, and soon. Last week I ordered some supplies for a R&D run, and the last of it will arrive tomorrow. I will probably spend all my free time this week huffing lacquer fumes and inhaling glitter, and hopefully, I’ll have working prototypes by Friday. I’m really excited about making polish, sharing it with everyone, and doing something more constructive with my time than refreshing Reddit. I hope you’re looking forward to it!

Swatch Saturday: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Morning Light

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Okay, I’ve been really excited about this for a while now. I’m going to start swatching all my Blue Eyed Girl Lacquers! I should probably just rename Swatch Saturday to BEGL Saturday because I’m probably going to spend the rest of this year’s Saturdays on them. My first BEGL swatch, one of the first ones I ever bought, is a shade called Morning Light. I’m wearing three coats of it here with three coats of Seche Vite top coat. All photos were taken indoors with natural outdoor light. Also, given the relationship between bloggers and indie polish brands, I should note that I was not compensated for this post. I purchased this polish myself, and even if I hadn’t, that would not affect my opinions in any way. That said, let’s go!

As you can see, Morning Light is a very sheer pink with a red to green shifting shimmer. There’s a big variety of glitter in here: red stars, aqua butterflies, red squares, purple, gold, and holo hexes, and more. Worn on its own, Morning Light is soft and natural. When layered, you only see the shimmer and glitter. While I haven’t experimented much with layering, I expect it would look good over anything.

Here you’ll see it worn over Essie’s Fiji and The New Black’s Black. This is one quick coat of Morning Light over two coats of color. Note the green shimmer; it’s much more pronounced over the black than over the pink. However, over the pink, the glitters are more visible and more prominent.

This polish came to me at a time when I was new to indies and everything was exciting. I bought this for one reason: butterfly glitter. How awesome is that? I know butterfly glitter is everywhere now, but for me, this was big. It completely changed the way I thought about nail polish, and what nail polish could be. Unfortunately, Morning Light is discontinued. Sorry! If you liked this, you should check out the Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer store and grab the BEGL Winter Collection before it’s gone. Also, let me leave you with one last photo of my BEGL collection. Yeah, when I said it might take me all year, I wasn’t exaggerating.

Plus like five more.

Manicure Monday: Barely There Glitter Gradient

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week we have another subtle, dainty, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it manicure. These soft shades didn’t pair together as well as I thought they would, but I still like the result.

Revlon launched a little duochrome nail line called Sweet Nothings sometime around 2006 or 2007, I forget exactly when. I snapped them up when Walgreens had them on final clearance for $2 each. I’ve had these babies for a long time now, and I’ve gotten so much mileage out of them because they’re so versatile. They’re easy to wear; they look amazing worn over light colors, dark colors, or alone. There were only a few shades in this line, and sadly, I’ve already run out of one. Using the last of a discontinued product is always a hard thing for me to do.

Right, so the polish. Here I’m wearing two coats of Rendez-Blue. It’s a sweet, milky blue with lots of pink shimmer. The blue would probably be more visible on a dark color; here I’m only wearing it over base coat. The pink shift is hard to capture on camera, but I think I did well enough.

The glitter I used for the gradient is Julep’s Camille. Camille is a clear base with iridescent glitter that shifts from orange to green. The colors in the glitter are the complete opposite of Rendez-Blue, but I kind of like the contrast. I was afraid the glitter would blend in and it would just look like a bunch of nothing on my nails. Given the subtle colors, it already kind of does, but the glitter helps it stand out.

Revlon’s Rendez-Blue, Julep’s Camille

So, quick announcement: it turns out that wacie.com is a nail blog after all. Yeah, that wasn’t really my intention, but I felt really inspired and motivated over the weekend and decided to start my own indie polish brand, Wacie Nail Company. Yeah, I’m excited, too! Since wacie.com is already mostly about nails, I decided just to use wacie.com for my nail shop and blog, and move my writerly pursuits somewhere else. If you’re interested in reading my bad fiction and fail stories, please hop on over to my new blog. Thanks for reading!

Swatch Saturday: Black Bird’s Only You

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Here’s a polish I’ve wanted to review for a long time. This is a polish I got in a Reddit gift exchange exclusively for makeup and nail polish. My gifter was in Germany, and she sent me a a lot of good German cosmetics. Now I’ve developed a taste for it and I can’t get it in America. Surely this is what hell is like. It’s probably no surprise that I’ve wanted to review this one for a long time. Here it is, finally, in three coats, topped with three coats of Seche Vite.

Black Bird’s Only You is a cool blue creme. I think it’s what Neptune would have looked like if it had just a bit more pigment. The formula is a little on the thin side, but still easy to use and apply. The color goes on evenly and covers well; I used three coats, but I could have gotten away with two. It has a shiny finish when dry, but I’m worried about the wear. This may just have to do with my nails not being long enough to wrap the tips, but I didn’t expect to see worn-down tips this soon after putting it on. Maybe it’s top coat shrinkage. I don’t know. I’m kind of embarrassed to post them like this, but not embarrassed enough to redo them.

Verdict: If you can get your hands on it, I suggest you try it out. I really want more from this brand. The formula is lovely, the coverage is nice, and I adore this bottle design. If you’re German and you like me, please help me get a few more bottles.

Also, for funsies, here it is with accent nails. The glitter is a Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer one-off prototype with white shapes and blue to purple shift. Oh mama.

Manicure Monday: Dainty Glitter Crackle

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’m always afraid of manicures like this. They never turn out the way I want them. Those light, girlish pinks are never opaque enough, and in my experience, crackle polishes won’t crackle if you look at them sideways. Thankfully, this one turned out quite well.

I have no clue what that string is hanging off my nail. I swear it wasn’t there when I took the photos.

The light pink I used this week is Wet ‘n Wild’s Sugar Coat. After three coats, I still had a visible nail line, but it was very shiny and pretty regardless. The crackle, China Glaze’s Luminous Lavender, is more subtle than I expected. It wasn’t the glitterbomb the bottle makes it look like. It dries matte is somewhat gritty, so it takes a good top coat to bring out the shine in the glitter. Overall, I like this look. These soft, dainty manicures always make me feel different, like less really is more. I feel like I’ve gone on that tirade before in another post. I’m not a less is more sort of person, but manicures like these make me feel like it’s true, like it’s not so bad being feminine and sweet, like I could be that person in the future. Whether I actually want to be that person remains to be seen. Also, you can even really tell I nicked the polish off my middle finger nail while I was chopping vegetables for dinner last night.

I tried something different this week: using a brush instead of the pointed cotton swabs to clean up my cuticles. After buying four packs of them and blowing through them in two weeks, I decided that investing in a good brush was really a more efficient and less wasteful solution. I settled on an angled eyebrow brush from Nyx. It was thin, flat, and would give me just the right amount of space between my polish and my cuticle. The brush didn’t make it past the first cleanup phase. I like to clean up after every step, and so I was cleaning up the three coats of pink before I put on the crackle when it started shedding. Fibers were coming out in the acetone, on my polish, all over the place. I ended up making an emergency trip to Walgreens to find the pointed cotton swabs, only they were out. I bought an eyeliner brush that’s a little thicker than the one I had, but it got the job done, for now. I’ll probably have to go to the art supplies store to grab a paintbrush that can handle the acetone.

Wet ‘n Wild’s Sugar Coat, China Glaze’s Luminous Lavender

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Light Year

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Glitter! My final American Apparel polish is a great one. Light Year is just loads and loads of holo hex glitter. It’s worn here sponged over black with three coats of Seche Vite topcoat. Look at it shine; this is what glitter is supposed to look like.

The bottle shot there is not really representative of the typical result. The glitter itself is very silver; I think it picked up some red color from either the curtains behind it, or from my red t-shirt.

I didn’t get a very good glitter payout with this one. I could get like five pieces of glitter on the brush at most, so I gave up and used a sponge to dab on the rest. Like with the Galaxy swatch I did a couple weeks ago, I got overzealous and put on too much. Sometimes I don’t know when to quit.

I like this one. I like how it looks over black, and I like staring at the glitter when it changes colors. I just wish it was easier to apply.

And there we go: we’re done swatching my American Apparel nail polishes. Next up: a bottle from Germany, and a plethora of indie polishes from Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer. This is starting to get good.

Manicure Monday: Matte Pink Glitter

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

New year, new glitter! Here’s my first manicure of 2014. I’ve decided to try out a matte coat over glitter, and I’m not sure how much I like the result, but here it is.

A Cut Above is a fantastic glitter topper made up of various sizes of pink glitter. It applies evenly with the brush, which means I didn’t have to flood my cuticles and waste a lot of polish to get this look. It went on very easily. When I put the matte top coat on, I felt like I was taking something away from it, but maybe I got something in return. The glitter still shines, but has a softer quality. It’s pretty and it’s interesting, but I’m not sure if I’ll do it again. I want my glitter to shine.

Also, I seem to have this problem with matte topcoats; the tips wear down more easily. Do you see those exposed tips? I just did these, and somewhere between applying the topcoat and taking the photos, the tips are worn down. That’s embarrassing. I feel dirty posting them, they’re so bad. Maybe it’s just this topcoat, but every time I use it, I have the same problem. I hate it.

Sally Hansen’s Black Out, Essie’s A Cut Above

I’ll mention this on the side: About a year ago, when I was living alone, I needed acetone. The store nearest me, which was about a half mile away, was perpetually out of acetone, so I sucked it up and went the extra mile (literally) to Walgreens. Meanwhile, I had some Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, and I didn’t yet own any Essie polishes, so I knew I’d leave with a few of those, too. It took me ages to find the acetone; it ended up being on some hidden aisle endcap outside of the cosmetics department. As I walked around looking for it, I’d found tons of other things to buy, and I spent literally every cent I had on my wallet. I felt a little guilty (and a little relieved I didn’t have to put things back), but I did what I went to do. I bought acetone (at least I didn’t forget that) and I got my first Essies. Also, I walked three miles just to buy them, which says quite a lot about my dedication and/or insanity.

The haul from that fateful day.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Pink

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I love neons! I’m almost through the American Apparel haul from October; I have one left and a couple others until get into my extensive Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer stash. I think I’m reaching a point where I’m more excited about swatching my unused polishes than doing any kind of nail art.

My first swatch of the year is American Apparel’s Neon Pink. I don’t have anything to add to that. It’s neon, it’s pink, it’s bold and obvious. It’s definitely my kind of polish. You’re seeing it here with three coats and three coats of Seche Vite top coat. All the photos were taken indoors with natural outdoor light.

Before I started, I couldn’t decide whether to use a white foundation coat, or to use it on its own to demonstrate the true color and consistency of the polish. I did both. Can you tell which is which? You probably can, because I suck at cleaning up my cuticles, and you can see the white edge peeking out on my index and ring fingers. I’m surprised to see there’s not much of a difference between the two. The first two coats without the white freaked me out a little, because they were so different. Without the white, I was afraid of having two vastly different colors on my hands, and one with a visible nail line. When I put on the third coat, it was opaque and neon and perfect. Only in some lighting conditions I can see the difference, and even then, it’s very subtle. Without the white, the pink is sweeter and juicier; with it, it has just a teensy bit more pop.

I’m impressed with the quality of this polish. I got great coverage and great color payoff. I’m starting to regret not buying the other neon shades they had.

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