Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Green

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Swatch Saturday is a little late today due to World Cup and oversleeping. I’m almost done swatching all of the American Apparel polishes I bought while I was on vacation, and this is my penultimate neon polish. This is Neon Green at three coats; two nails have two coats of white polish under them. All of them are topped with one coat of Seche Vite. Note: I put this on in a hurry, and so it’s not my best work. There are some dings in the polish; those are entirely my fault.

Neon Green is awesome. Seriously. It is crazy bright, probably visible from space. Compared to the other neon polishes, this one was a little thinner than the others, but it’s not too bad at the third coat. It looks really nice at three coats, and the color really pops. Neons are the best!

I put white polish on my ring and pinky nails, as I have with every other neon review so far. I’m not sure how obvious the difference is with this one. The ones with white undies aren’t all that much brighter than the ones without. It’s almost not even worth doing.

I took a couple photos outside, even though it’s gray and stormy outside. The color looks amazing outside, but in the photos it’s not much of a change.

I’ve been looking forward to next week’s swatch for a long time now. I can’t wait to show it to you guys.

Summer of Untrieds Day 11: Summer

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Day 11 of the Summer Untrieds Challenge is simply titled “Summer”, so I scanned through the Polish List, looking for something that spoke to me. After a couple of rounds, I found Super Temp and thought it was perfect. After all, what says summer like the temperatures in Florida in July? I’m pretty sure Super Temp is actually a Doctor Who reference, but I’m going to overlook that for now. Anyway, here is Super Temp from Digital Nails at three coats and one coat of top coat.

Super Temp is described by Digital Nails as “a brighter-than-most-can-handle orange coral jelly-crelly, with loads and loads of golden microflakes”. The consistency was a little thick but still easy to work with; I’m going to chalk that up to all the gold flakies in here. There’s a ton of them, and they shine beautifully in the light. The opacity is just right, too; even though it’s meant to be a thick jelly, my first coat was nearly opaque. This is seriously really fun to wear.

I knew I needed this when I first saw it. I don’t own a ton of orange polishes, and I’m always on the lookout for more, especially when they’re as bright and insane as this one. It makes my fingers look tanner, too. It’s a summery color for sure! I’m just sorry I couldn’t get an outdoor sunshine photo of this, it would have been crazy. Actually, if I’d wanted to be accurate about Florida’s summer, I would have used something gray and blah, because it has rained every day this week.

One more thing: you’ll notice the bottom of my bottle is faded white. I actually have a few bottles doing this, and I don’t know what causes it. The polish in the bottle is fine, but the stuff on the bottom is a completely different color. What gives?

Summer of Untrieds Day 10: Purple

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

The Summer of Untrieds Challenge requires me to wear purple today, so I went with Ciate’s Pillow Fight, a dusky, dreamy lilac creme. I’m wearing three coats of it with one coat of Seche Vite top coat. All photos were taken in the studio today.

This Ciate experience went a little better than my last; Hopscotch was never fully opaque, even after three coats. Pillow Fight is nice, though. It applied well and dried pretty quickly. My brush had a loose hair in it though, which looks like it came off on my pinky nail. Lame.

I’m not sure how much I like the color, though; I don’t feel like I’m pulling it off well. It’s so soft and really pretty in the bottle, but it doesn’t look like much on me, at least not on its own. I bet it would look awesome in a gradient or with some glitter.

On a side note, it feels like this month is moving so slowly because I’ve been painting my nails and posting every single day. I actually like it a little. The first half of this year went by so quickly and quietly, and that kind of unnerves me.

Wacie Wednesday: Wintergreen

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week’s Wacie Wednesday is all about Wintergreen, a sheer white with a strong pearly green flash. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

I kind of really love how this turned out. This is actually its second formulation; the first one was much more opaque, but thicker and more difficult to work with. I poured a lot of it out (like half) and replaced it with clear lacquer base, and now it’s beautiful.

The green flash changes depending on the angle; it’s not very obvious here.

I’m wearing three coats here, just because I always put on three coats for swatches, but I actually really liked this at one coat. I wish I’d taken photos of it then; it was sheer enough to see my nail line beneath, but the green flash was still very prominent. It was a very cool look just on its own. With three coats though, it’s still a little sheer, but the white is more apparent.

It’s also not very apparent in sunshine.

I’m also rethinking the name a little. At the time (about a day ago) it seemed perfect, but wearing a polish called Wintergreen in the middle of July is a little weird.

Summer of Untrieds Day 8: Glitter With Colored Base

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

The polish I chose for the challenge today is another recent acquisition from my vacation; I bought this and a few others from the Times Square Sephora. This is Candy Shop from Deborah Lippmann; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Candy Shop is a pink crelly with a rainbow of glitter, very similar to China Glaze’s It’s a Trapeze. I love these glitter crellies; they are always so cute and sparkly without being too flashy. What I don’t love is trying to clean my cuticles up with these; I never get clean, sharp edges.

Even though it was overcast, I took a couple outdoor shots anyway, and they turned out pretty well. There’s a nice shine from the glitter, and you can really see the dimension in the layers.

Despite the mess, this polish is fun and cute. I almost feel bad that I won’t be wearing it for very long. Good thing it’s going to be impossible to take off tomorrow.

Manicure Monday: Minimalism with Color

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I really love this week’s Manicure Monday. I paired these two together on a whim, not really knowing if they went together or not. This is one dabbed coat of Literary Lacquers‘s My Secret Garden over three coats of Revlon’s Barely Blush, topped with one coat of Seche Vite.

As you can see, Barely Blush is a polish I’ve had for a long, long time. I’ve raved about Revlon’s Sweet Nothings collection before, and how easy they are to wear; even though they can be layered over anything and still look amazing, I’ve only ever worn them alone. I love the pearly, subtle shimmer over bare nails so much. Barely Blush is a sheer nude with a pink-to-purple shift and tiny iridescent glitters. I love it. I can’t get over it.

My Secret Garden from Literary Lacquers is a clear glitter topper with pink, lavender, blue, yellow and green matte hexes with iridescent sparkles. I was afraid the glitter would overpower the softness of the base color, and that the base color wouldn’t be a strong enough foundation for it. I’m so glad I was wrong. The bright glitters definitely stand out, but I don’t think it takes too much away from the rest of the manicure. It also looks very nice over Barely Blush: the twinkly glitters in My Secret Garden and the pink pearl shimmer in Barely Blush lift each other up quite well. It’s like a marriage made in polish heaven.

Outdoors, sunlight

I’m also going to say this counts for the Summer of Untrieds Challenge, since this is the first time I’ve used My Secret Garden, and it’s the first time I’ve featured Literary Lacquers on the blog. Everybody wins.

Summer of Untrieds Day Six: Orange

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Day Six of the Summer Untrieds Challenge is orange, and my first untried orange on the polish list is Ciate’s Hopscotch, so here we are. I have a ton of untried Ciate polishes from their advent calendars and various nail art kits, so I’m excited to finally use one. I’m wearing three coats of Hopscotch with one coat of Seche Vite.

This one varies a bit in different lighting conditions. In my office, it looks pretty orange, but in the studio, it’s a tomato red. I liked the formula and consistency of the polish, it applies evenly and easily. It dries with a very shiny finish, almost shiny enough to go without a top coat. My one complaint is that it’s still sheer enough after three coats that my nail line is still visible; this is something that’s not too obvious in photos. It’s not a bad thing, really; I’d hoped for more opacity.

You can see the visible nail lines here.

I love orange polish, and this is one I definitely want to revisit in the future.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Yellow

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’m taking a brief break from the Summer of Untrieds Challenge to bring you the regularly scheduled Swatch Saturday. I’m still working through my American Apparel neons haul, and I’m still having a ton of fun with them; I like each one better than the last. This week, I’m wearing three coats of Neon Yellow. My pinky and ring nails have white polish beneath the neon. All nails are topped with one coat of Seche Vite. Photos were taken indoors and outdoors.

So this polish is a little different from the others I’ve worn so far. This one has the most discernable difference between the nails with the white undies and the ones that don’t. This difference is especially visible in my outdoor shots; on the index and middle nails, it’s duller, more greenish, and more transparent than the other two. It’s like lemon and lime. While the white undies makes a difference, though, I’m not sure which I like better. The white foundation gives the color some solidity, but I like the color of the foundation-less nails.

This is the best neon yellow I’ve used so far. All the ones I’ve tried before have been really thin and streaky and basically require three coats over white polish. This one has a great formula and covers well, even though I think it’s a little thinner than the other neons from this line. Despite that, you still get a great look. If you buy any neon yellow polish this summer, make it this one. Seriously, I can’t stop staring at these. They’re so loud!

This photo is the one that, I think, shows the best difference between the white undies and no undies.

I really love these neons a lot. I’m a little sad I only have two more to go.

Summer of Untrieds Day Four: Red, White, and Blue

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

When I saw the order of the day today, I knew exactly what polish I had to use. 1776 by Different Dimension is a patriotic-as-hell glitter topper with red, white, and blue stars, white bars, red dots, and tiny white glitters throughout. I bought this on sale last year, and it’s my first-ever Different Dimension polish, so I’m excited to be using it today. I feel like I cheated a bit on the challenge today, because I’m seeing a lot of intricate and ornate nail art pieces for this day of the challenge, and I just put glitter over yesterday’s creme polish. This is two coats of 1776 over three coats of Butter London’s Bumster, with one coat of Seche Vite.

I did a pretty poor job applying this. I put it on in a hurry and didn’t expect the star glitters to be so tough to get out. I managed to get one star on my left hand, but it looks great there, so it’s got that going for it. Next time, I will definitely turn this bottle over and let the glitters redistribute themselves a bit better.

It looks crazy awesome over Bumster, too. I loved Bumster on its own, and I felt a little bad painting over it, but I think these polishes compliment each other well. I love glitter over nudes, it’s such a simple look.

I thought I did a pretty good job cleaning up my cuticles, and then I went into the sun and took some photos. Nope!

Now that I’ve done this, it’s time to dive into July 4th festivities.

Summer of Untrieds Day 3: Creme

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

So this month, I’m doing something a little different. I’m doing the Summer Untrieds Challenge, a month-long challenge devised by Julie at Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl; the idea is that, every day, you use a polish you’ve never tried before. There’s a handy set of rules, and even though I don’t plan to stop my scheduled Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday manicures, I don’t see the harm in doing the rest of the polishes on the days I don’t have anything set. Technically, all the polishes I plan to use are untried, so I say that still counts. I’m picking up late on Day 3, but Day 1 was OPI and I had an OPI mani on Monday, so I say that counts too. Anyway, I’m kicking off at Day 3. The order of the day is a creme polish, so I went down the polish list and landed on my first untried creme: Butter London’s Bumster. This is three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

So I like Bumster. I have actually no idea what color this is: peanut butter? butterscotch? khaki? I have no idea, but I freaking love it. Every time I use a neutral polish in a manicure, I always feel bad that I have to paint over it. My nails always look so long and healthy and awesome in nude polish; I think I’ve said this before, but nude polish is like mascara for nails. I’m so glad I get to wear this for a while and not have to worry about painting right over it and spoiling the color.

This is the first Butter London I’ve featured on the blog. This is one of the five-dollar jobbies I found at Nordstrom Rack that one time. This is a really nice formula; even the first coat went on evenly and streak-free. There were absolutely no surprises here, and I love it.

As a result of the challenge, there will be a new post on this blog every single day. I’ve never been one to change my nail color every single day, so that’s new for me. I think it’ll be a good thing, though. I always put off my chores because I’m too attached to my new manicure. Maybe I’ll finally get some dishes done.

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