Manicure Monday: Peachy Glitter

Posted on December 8, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Manicure Monday, and this week I have the challenge/responsibility of showing you a mani I don’t really like. It’s like an accidental ode to my grandma. This is three coats of Julep’s Lynn, two brushed coats of LA Colors’s Tinsel, and one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

Lynn is a peachy pink with a slight shimmer. Application was okay; normally I’d apply two coats as a base for glitter, but I still had some patchy coverage and streaking by coat two, so I went for the third. Drying time took quite a while, more than fifteen minutes per coat. This might have been due to me adding thicker coats to get more coverage, and then not getting it. The consistency is on the thin side, and is pretty standard Julep quality. The texture after drying was pretty and glossy. There were some brushstrokes left by the shimmer, but they’re not very obvious.

And there’s Tinsel. Tinsel is a peachy pink jelly with iridescent glitters. While there appears to be a lot of glitter in the bottle, most of it doesn’t brush onto the nail so well. See that smattering of glitter? That’s all I got from two coats. It’s pretty and all, but it really looks like it’s missing something. Perhaps that’s why I don’t like either of these polishes, they’re lacking something special, and seem bland and outdated because of it.

Final word: I’m having a really hard time thinking of this as something other than an old lady manicure.

Swatch Sunday: Color Club’s Wing Fling

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For this week’s Swatch Sunday, I’m wearing a brand I’m a little new to: Color Club! I scored a few collection sets in outlet stores, but I’ve worn all of two since then. I see this brand everywhere, so I’m excited to join the club. Pardon the pun. The beauty I’m wearing today is Wing Fling; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro.

None of the bottles in the set had name labels, so I had to improvise. Behold my terrible handwriting!

Wing Fling is a sheer and shimmery magenta. Some of the shimmers even shift from pink to orange, giving it just a hint of duochrome fun. Coverage is buildable; I got okay coverage by coat two and good coverage by three. Four might be necessary if you want full opacity. This polish did dry quickly, though, and though it dries with a nice gloss, a top coat is definitely required to bring out as much of the shimmers as is possible. It even looks a bit metallic/foil-like after top coat application. The lacquer consistency was thin, but left no streaks or holes in the coverage. Application was very easy.

I adore this color. It’s very deep and bright, but it’s not wildy bright or tawdry. I feel like this could be a polish for everyone; there’s just the right amount of sparkle, shine, and color to appeal to everyone and no more.

Wing Fling is part of the Take Wing collection from 2012, and is still available on Color Club’s website.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Prototype AG 1.1

Posted on December 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Today’s Swatch Saturday polish is no stranger! We took a brief look at Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Prototype AG 1.1 on Manicure Monday, when I paired it with China Glaze’s Exotic Encounters. Today, it gets its own manicure! I’m wearing AG 1.1 over Raspberry Cordial from Ciate, and Black Out and Hard to Get, both from Sally Hansen. All nails are topped with one coat of Speed Coat Pro, also from Ciate.

Prototype AG 1.1, as we discussed before, is a glitter topper with blue-to-purple shifting pigment and white hexes, stars, moons, squares, rectangles, dots, and diamonds. As I mentioned before, the consistency is rather thick, but because there’s so much stuff in this bottle, it’s natural for it to be that way. Despite its viscosity, it does dry quickly, and with a satin finish. The glitter does spread well over the nail, but because the glitters are so large, they do tend to clump a little bit.

How gorgeous is this! I included a before shot of the black, white, and pink, just so you can see how this polish transforms a color. These are some pretty basic cremes in pretty bold shades. The shifting pigment comes along and softens them, making them pearly and delicate. It’s absolutely amazing. It’s probably the most beautiful the darker colors; on the black, you can see everything, like looking up at the sky on a dark night. You get the maximum shifting effect as well as glitter contrast.

You probably think I’m crazy to put a polish like this over white. Yeah, maybe I am, but I really love the way it turned out. The glitters are not immediately visible, but the shift looks incredible. I am a huge fan of this color-on-color combination. It’s intricate and dainty, like tatted lace. I think it’s astoundingly beautiful.

While this is a statement polish for sure, I also feel like it’s very simple as well. There aren’t a ton of colors competing for attention, there isn’t a crazy sparkly melange of glitter. Everything is consistent and and homogeneous, and I like that about it. It’s elegant without being over the top; it demands attention but isn’t loud or obnoxious. It is truly stunning. Unfortunately, this is a one-of-a-kind polish prototype and is currently unavailable. Sorry! In the BEGL shop, however, there is one OOAK prototype for sale. Grab it before it’s gone!

Manicure Monday: Green and Galaxy Glitter

Posted on December 1, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Thanksgiving is over, and we’re back on schedule! I missed you guys! For this week’s Manicure Monday, we’re sticking with the usual glitter accent nails, but I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I’m wearing three coats of China Glaze’s Exotic Encounters, with one coat of Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Prototype AG 1.1 on my accent nails. All nails are topped Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

Exotic Encounters is a deep jungle green creme. It’s rather dramatic; it dries so smoothly and with such a high gloss that it makes top coat nearly unnecessary. It does dry quickly, and achieves opacity in two coats. The consistency is just right, and application was perfectly easy. This polish was a total win for me. It’s an absolutely gorgeous shade of green, and it’s so shiny!

Prototype AG 1.1 kind of steals the spotlight. It guess it kind of deserves it. AG 1.1 is an icy blue-to-warm violet shifting polish with white glitters in various shapes and sizes. Each fun shape is in here: moons, stars, diamonds, rectangles, dots, and squares, along with some smallers dots and hexes. There are no hearts, but I’ll let it slide. It’s a bit thick, but it’s so loaded up with glitter and pigment that it’s expected. It goes on easily and is so much fun to wear. I’m very surprised by how it transforms a creme polish. It doesn’t even look like the same color with this shifty glitter madness on top of it. It’s amazing. I actually call it SPACELINGERIE in my own personal files, because it’s celestial, sultry, and leaves just enough to the imagination.

I almost feel like this look is a bit dull, since it looks like all the accent nails are having all the fun. That might be true. I love it, though. I simply cannot get enough of AG 1.1. It’s also my Swatch Saturday this week — surprise! — so look forward to it. It’s amazing.

Manicure Monday: Sparkle and Caviar

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

My Manicure Monday today is kind of an experiment. The polish I have on is one I love, Revlon’s Sparkle Aplenty. I needed an accent piece, so I tried caviar nails for the first time. I’m wearing three coats of Sparkle Aplenty with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro, and my caviar mix is Ciate’s Midnight in Manhattan.

Sparkle Aplenty is a black crelly with lots of metallic silver glitters in various sizes. It went on pretty easily; the first coat was thin and streaky, but the second one evened it out nicely. Full opacity was reached at two coats. The glitters spread well and evenly. This polish dries quickly and with a satin/semi-glossy finish. Because glitter is the bulk of the polish, there’s lots of glitter texture after drying; a top coat would definitely be necessary with this.

I thought the Midnight in Manhattan would be the perfect caviar mix, because they contain the same colors. The caviar beads are actually a bit more colorful; in my office, it just looks like silver and black beads. In the studio, I find out that they’re gold, as well as some greens, blues, and purples that I failed to notice before. Also, for some strange reason, the corners of my caviar nail appear to flare out instead of curling under, like the rest of my nails do. It looks weird when all my nails appear slender and tapered, and then one looks like a duck foot. It bothers me. It’s wrong.

I do admit I liked this mani a lot better before I added the caviar. I should have just used studs again. I don’t hate caviar nails (yet), but I have a ton of bead jars (thanks, Ciate advent calendars), and I wanted to use one, just to see what the two-year-old fuss was about. Perhaps I’ll like them more in the future. Today, I don’t. Today, I just see fail.

Swatch Sunday: Claire’s Mystery White

Posted on November 23, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For this edition of Swatch Sunday, I am bringing you a super oldie. This is a polish I’ve had since about 2008, and I almost thought this would be this bottle’s last mani. This is a mystery polish from Claire’s; there’s no indicator of the shade name anywhere. I’m wearing this at three coats with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

This mystery polish is a milky and frosty white with small iridescent glitters. Before I put this on, it was thick and goopy. I might have put too much thinner in it, because the application was quite streaky, and three coats was still pretty sheer. The white pigment is very chalky and dries matte, which doesn’t do any favors for the glitter. The finish is gritty and the glitter is covered up, leaving it to look like chunks and bubbles in the finished look. It’s not ideal, and probably wasn’t intended. This polish did dry quickly, so it has that going for it, which is nice.

Like I said, I’ve had this bottle for many years. It’s one of the oldest bottles in my collection. I remember I grabbed it because I just wanted a white polish, and this was the first one I saw. This wasn’t long after I’d finally stopped biting my nails, and is one of the first bottles of polish I owned as an adult. Even though the polish itself is kind of sucky, I’ll be sad when this runs out, just because I’ve had it forever. It’s like one of my oldest children. When it’s finally gone, it will be kind of sad. I might even feel the need to recreate it in the future.

If anyone reading this happens to know the same of the shade, I’d love to know what it is!

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Resolutions

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Swatch Saturday again! Today, I’m bringing you the second part of Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s new year’s duo. Released early this year, 2014 and Resolutions were released alongside their winter collection. We saw 2014 last week, so today we’re looking at Resolutions. I’m wearing one light coat of Resolutions over Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get, Julep’s Martha, and China Glaze’s Pelican Gray, as well as one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

Resolutions is a glitter topper with primarily black and blue dots and hexes, as well as icy blue shimmer. There are a few colorful surprises: lime green diamonds, white blocks, black stars, purples, yellows, corals. I put on a very light coat, and I didn’t get a lot of the big colorful glitters. They’re kind of hard to fish out, and tend to hang out at the bottom of the bottle. A second coat would definitely have helped me out, and probably would have helped me get those big pink dots and hexes. Those are my favorites.

As always, this is a dream to wear and apply. I could have used a little more glitter on the brush, but that’s not too much of a worry. The base dries fast, and surprisingly, the glitter is flat and smooth on the nail, which rarely happens with polishes like this. Even the big glitters are glassy smooth. It’s nice.

Unfortunately, this is long discontinued, but a few of my favoritest BEGL glitter toppers are actually on sale in the BEGL store. If you liked this one, I think you’ll love those.

Manicure Monday: What Wizardry is This?

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

What’s this? A textured polish two weeks in a row? Yes! It’s crazy. This is What Wizardry is This? from OPI; I’m wearing three coats without top coat.

What Wizardry is This? is a warm brown textured polish with gold glitters. I found this application much easier than Solitaire‘s; Solitaire’s brush was spread wide with glitter, and even though this polish also contains a ton of glitter, the brush was not as wide, and I had a much cleaner application. Drying time was very fast, and full coverage was gained in two coats. The glitters are very potent, which is why it looks more brown in some photos and more gold in others. It’s a very pretty and interesting look.

I like when I end up wearing something seasonally relevant. Solitaire was wintry and peaceful, but What Wizardry is This? is very warm and autumnal. It’s the color of hot cocoa and firewood. This is absolutely perfect for fall.

I don’t have any brown nail charms, so I used a stud. Earlier in the year, I got a huge pack of nail accoutrements at an outlet store for super cheap, and this is the first time I’ve used any of it. Originally, I’d chosen a heart-shaped one, but it wouldn’t sit flat on my nail, so I went with this diamond/Sims plumbob shape instead. I like it. It takes up more of the nail than I wanted, but it’s a fun accent.

I wasn’t sure about this at first. When I got it, the Liquid Sand bandwagon was at full speed, and I just wanted all of them. I don’t own very many brown polishes, just because it’s not a very popular color. It’s also not very daring. This is more than just brown, though. It’s gorgeous.

Swatch Sunday: Ciaté’s Love Letter

Posted on November 16, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For today’s Swatch Sunday, we’re looking at more delicious shifty goodness. This is Ciaté’s Love Letter. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Speed Coat Pro top coat, also from Ciaté.

Love Letter is a clear polish — I think it’s a clear base, it’s either clear or very, very lightly tinted — with a boatload of gold to pink-shifting shimmer and pink glitters. I think maybe this was meant to be a glitter topper, but I tried it at three coats to see what I would get. At three coats, I have full and even coverage. Application was easy. Drying time was very quick, and the finish is smooth and unexpectedly, delightfully metallic.

Yeah, I was not expecting this at all. I didn’t think the coverage would be so full, and I didn’t think the shift would be so pronounced. I am completely gobsmacked. Seriously. I don’t think I have anything else to say, except that I don’t think I ever want to wear this as just a topper. That would be cheating it.

You can find Ciaté’s Love Letter online at CiatéLondon.com. I happened to get my bottle from Sephora, but I longer see this particular polish on their site. They do still carry Ciaté, though.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s 2014

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For today’s Swatch Saturday, I’m wearing a polish made to commemorate the new year. Here I am, wearing it in November. This is Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s 2014, shown at three coats with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

2014 is a blurple polish with a blue-to-purple shift and iridescent glitters. The shift here is very strong, and pops out just about everywhere. The glitters are scarce, and are probably unnecessary with all the shimmer and shift. I like them in there, but I can take or leave them. 2014 dries with a satin finish, and with a very quick drying time. Consistency was ideal and application was very easy.

So let me tell you about this shift. Good lord, this shift. When I say it’s strong, I mean it’s strong, like a stiff drink strong. I can’t stop looking at my nails because they’re a different color every time I look at them. Sometimes they’re emitting this icy blue shimmer, sometimes it’s a vibrant violet. I never know which I’m going to get, but I know it’s always going to be gorgeous.

2014 was released on its own, but also had a companion polish called Resolutions that we’ll see next week.Unfortunately, both are discontinued. Keep your eyes peeled in blog sales, though; this isn’t one you want to let slip by again. If you liked 2014, you might like a currently-available BEGL called Just Admiring Your Skills, Sweetie. It’s more purple than blue, but it also has an unbelievable shift. You should grab that one, too.

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