Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Matunda Ya Kwanza

Posted on October 25, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For this week’s Swatch Saturday, I’m wearing an amazing Kwanzaa-themed polish from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. This is Matunda Ya Kwanza, worn here at three generous coats with two coats of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro.

Matunda ya Kwanza is a light purple jelly filled to the top with glitters of every shape, color, and finish. There are so many kinds of glitter in here that I couldn’t possibly name them all. This is an explosion of color and glitter. The jelly is very light and very transparent, so the glitter from previous coats shows through nicely. It’s like a fine glitter patina on my nails. Naturally, since the jelly is so thin, it’s probably better worn over a light purple polish. It does look excellent that way. Because I wore three coats, it’s a bit thick and I probably should have stuck with two. It looks fantastic either way.

Trivia: The phrase “matunda ya kwanza” is a Swahili phrase meaning “first fruits of the harvest“.

I’ve told you guys about how much I love BEGL glitter toppers, right? They’re just absolutely perfect. The consistency is usually on the thicker side, but that’s because they’re packed with glitter, and no matter how much glitter is in it or how much I blob on, it’s always dry and smooth in a flash. It’s the best.

Sunlight photos. Because shiny.

I admit I didn’t know a lot about Kwanzaa before I got this polish. As much as I feel like a carpetbagger for saying it, I just thought the polish was pretty. The more I read about it, though, the more it’s something I’d like to be a part of. New cultural experiences are such a fun learning opportunity for me. I hope I don’t sound patronizing when I say that.

Manicure Monday: On the 101

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Sorry for two late posts in a row; today relatives were in town. I didn’t finish this manicure until like seven o’clock today, and I just now have a chance to actually write about it. Today’s polish is one I love a lot, On the 101 from Wet ‘n Wild. I have on three coats with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro.

On the 101 is a black jelly with various sizes of metallic red glitter. Application wasn’t too bad; Wet ‘n Wild have their really wide brush, and I usually have huge problems with it; I get a ton of polish in the cuticle, where I need it the least. I didn’t really have that problem today, though. This went on pretty cleanly. The glitters are a little hard to get, so if you want to wear this alone as a glitter jelly, three coats is definitely necessary. Even with black undies, you still may want two coats just to ensure maximum glitter pretty. It also dries somewhat matte, so if you want high shine, you’ll need a top coat.

So this is one of my favorites. I can’t remember if it was late 2012 or early 2013, but I was living alone, and I was kind of using nail polish as a bribe to get myself to walk the half-mile to Dollar General to get cat food, ramen, cheap wine, and other broke girl necessities. Previously, the only nail polishes they had were many varieties of LA Colors. I’d already bought a ton of those, and wasn’t interested. In fact, on the day I found this, it seems like I wasn’t even interested in buying polish, I was just passing through the aisle and noticed the new Wet ‘n Wild display. This particular bottle was unlike anything I had at the time, and even though I’d seen indies like this, I’d never seen anything like it in a store. I had to have it. I don’t think I could have even spared the two dollars it cost me, but I had to have it. I bought it so long ago, but today’s the first time I ever used it.

It was late when I took these, so I wasn’t able to get sunlight shots of it. I bet this is huge in the sunshine though. It shines really nicely indoors.

Finally, let me apologize about the charm. Since I was using only one polish, I wanted to add something extra, but I don’t have any red acrylic bows, like I’d usually use. I had this cute silver bow, so I put it on with a tiny dab of super glue. I don’t know if I used too much, or if it’s a remnant from the last time I wore it, but there’s this dried white unsightly mess all around it. It definitely looks worse in the photos than it does in real life, I really had no idea it was there until I saw the photos. I’m really embarrassed.

Swatch Sunday: Butter London’s West End Wonderland

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Swatch Sunday is super late this week. I got distracted with mimosas and quiche and a bunch of long-neglected housework after. I’m wearing my first-ever Butter London for the swatch today! This is West End Wonderland, which I was lucky enough to get in a swap. This is three coats with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro.

West End Wonderland is a full-coverage glitter; it’s a clear base packed full of superfine gold and copper glitters. Because there’s so much glitter, I don’t recommend it as a glitter topper. It spreads so evenly and so thickly (even when you use a light hand!) that it would obscure the base color quite a bit. Like a lot of jam-packed glitter polishes, it dries very quickly. It does have some texture when dry, but since the glitter grade is so fine, it’s not rough or unpleasant to the touch. Make sure you stay in the lines with this one, though; that glitter is tough to clean up with a brush.

I really like this look. Since I’m already seeing Christmas items in department stores, I’m thinking about what a fantastic holiday polish this is. It’s perfect for this season, really. Gold is a classic color for autumn and winter, after all. Something else I like about this is that it’s glittery, but it’s not overtly so. Personally, this is not really my style, but if you’re one who doesn’t like a lot of glitter, this may be for you. Also, I didn’t get a chance to photograph it in the sunlight, but West End Wonderland is beautiful in the sun. It’s not wildly shiny like a lot of glitters are. This one is pretty modest.

Final word: I really love these Butter London glitters. They’re like grown-up versions of a nail polish I had when I was younger. My sister gave it to me when I was in like fifth or six grade; it was the first glitter polish I ever owned. If I remember correctly, it was fine purple holo glitter like this, and it dried with a really gritty finish. It was a pain in the ass to take off, but I always put it right back on again. It was also the first time I ever used the last drop of a nail polish. I dearly loved that bottle.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Guided by Starlight

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’d originally planned to wear this Christmas beauty last weekend, but I chose to forego the weekly swatches so I could wear my birthday cupcakes during the whole birthday weekend. Sorry! I believe this one was worth the wait. This is Guided by Starlight from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer, worn at three coats with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

Guided by Starlight is a white crelly with gold and silver holo hex, dot, square, moon, and star-shaped glitters. Inspired by the Christmas holiday and the birth of Christ, this polish was designed with a celestial motif. Despite this, I think it’s a pretty wearable polish year-round. I’m not sure I’d recognize it as a holiday polish in other months of the year, even though all the signs are there. This would look fantastic on someone with a great tan.

Application went well, but I feel like three coats was maybe a tad unnecessary. The crelly is a bit more solid than in typical glitter crellies; between that and the large quantity of glitter, the consistency was rather thick. I suppose thinner would solve this problem, but I think I like the way it looks this way. The added coats cover the holog effect from the glitter, but not the glitter itself. It’s so cool.

I didn’t notice how opaque it is until I went outside. I really love this! It’s so creamy, so sparkly.

So I ran out of the Color Club clear coat I was using. I really liked it. It dried quickly, it held up well, and it didn’t pull or shrink. It’s also a shame, because I have no idea where to buy it so I can replace it. On the plus side, though, I get to try something new, and pull something out of my stash. I’ve got a few bottles of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro, as a result of buying so many caviar nail sets on sale at Sephora. It’s okay, I guess. I gave it five minutes to dry after applying it, and it still felt a bit wet and sticky. With the Color Club coat, I would have been ready to go after five minutes. I was a little afraid to get started with it still sticky like that, but everything went well. Everything else about it is fine, though: I still get a high shine and it feels durable. We’ll find out soon enough. I hope this is something I can keep using. I seriously have five bottles of this stuff.

Wacie Wednesday: Snowcrush

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Snowcrush is the newest Wacie Nail Company polish! It is a clear glitter topper with white shreds and iridescent hex glitters. I’m wearing one coat over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray, Ciate’s Candy Floss, and Sally Hansen’s Limestone. All nails are topped with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

I love the look of all-white glitter toppers. They’re so effortlessly elegant. The white shreds you see happen to be the only white glitter I have, so I dumped a ton of it in a bottle, and used some fine iridescent shreds to fill it out. This is definitely a pretty simple polish, but it’s really pretty. For as little thought as I put into it, it has no business being this pretty right out.

White toppers also have the benefit of looking amazing over any color. As you can see, I wore it with some very bright polishes. Over black, the iridescent glitters would really shine. Over white, it would look like freshly-fallen snow (or at least what I imagine freshly-fallen snow looks like. I live in Florida. I wouldn’t know).

In the sunshine, this is crazy. You can’t see how much sparkle is coming from the iridescent glitters, but trust me, it’s blinding. I love iridescent glitters because they sparkle in any lighting condition.

Final word: this polish is a win. I love white glitters (they’re pretty over everything), shred glitters (they create the illusion of variety, even though it all came from the same bag), and iridescent glitters (shiny!). I’m really looking forward to making a batch of it this share with everyone.

Manicure Monday: Pale Gold and Glitter

Posted on October 13, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

As much as I hated to take off my cupcake nails, it’s Manicure Monday again. I’m moving on from my birthday mani to wear this sparkly gold one. This is Julep’s Amelia at three coats. The glitter is Essie’s On a Silver Platter, worn here at one coat. All nails are topped with Color Club’s clear coat.

Amelia is a sheer, frosty, pale gold polish. Three coats was definitely necessary for this one, because my nail line was still visible after two. In some lighting conditions, it’s still visible after three. As you can see, this one has a lot of frost, and as a result, a lot of visible brush strokes. Also, some weird bubbling occurred, but I’m not sure that’s a problem with the polish itself. Despite the formula, application was pretty easy. Julep polishes always tend to be a little thinner than I like them, and I end up with flooded cuticles and patchy coverage. This one is nice in that regard, I had no flooding and no issues with getting even coverage. If only the same were true with the brush strokes.

On a Silver Platter stole the show here, didn’t it? My gosh, this glitter is fantastic. The Essie website describes it as a “pearlescent gold with holographic violet glitter”. It’s just striking. I don’t usually like dark glitters in light bases, but I love this one a lot. Both the golden shine and the rainbow add something unique to the look. Application was easy; the glitters came out easily and spread well. And look at it in the sun! Gorgeous.

I can give or take Amelia, it’s not really anything special to me. This glitter, though, is something I need in my life forever.

2014 Birthday Nails!

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s my birthday! I’m not going to do a proper write-up of all the polishes today, I’m just going to show this off because I am way too proud of it.

Here are the polishes I used:
Thumb: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Dawn Breaks
Index: Indigo Banana‘s Moonlight (Clair de Lune)
Cupcakes: P2’s French Kiss, American Apparel’s Neon Pink, Essie’s Fiji, Ciate’s Candy Floss
Pinky: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s If You’re a Seascape

I also want to take a moment to thank everyone who’s participating in the giveaway! If you haven’t entered yet, you have, of this writing, eight hours left to enter to win two Ciate polishes. The winner will be announced tomorrow! I’m so excited, this is my first giveaway and it is going gloriously well. I can’t wait to do this again.

Wacie Wednesday: Son of Slop Bucket

Posted on October 8, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

A few months ago, I had a polish on the blog called Slop Bucket. It was the weirdly-wearable result of mixing several failed Wacie Nail Co. prototypes into one bottle. Shortly after I did that manicure, I took another batch of old prototypes and mixed them up to create Son of Slop Bucket. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

Son of Slop Bucket is a frosty mossy green with a hodgepodge of glitter. It would be difficult to list every glitter in here, because it’s basically every glitter I’ve ever used, along with every pigment, shimmer, dye, etc. I’ve ever used. Because there’s so much stuff in it, it was nearly opaque in one coat. Because it’s so opaque, the glitters just get buried under the next coat of polish. This is especially obvious with the larger glitters; check the index finger. There’s a large dot that got covered and just looks like a sheet pulled over a dinner plate.

I didn’t expect this one to turn green. I was hoping for black, since a lot of black prototype polishes got mixed in. I’m really pleased with the color; it’s muted, but still quite noticeable. Same with the glitters; they don’t stand out a whole lot, but just enough. There’s a ton of shimmer in it, and it’s the most prominent component. It really pulls everything together.

I’m not sure I’ll even bother to keep this. It was a fun experiment, but I can’t really see myself wearing this — or the original Slop Bucket — ever again. I do want to mix them both together and see what happens, though. It can’t get much worse.

Manicure Monday: Repurposed Top Coat with Resolute Glitter

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Manicure Monday! I had some fun with this week’s manicure. The holo polish I used this week wasn’t intended to be used as one, and I put a discontinued glitter topper over it. Here is Ulta’s Holographic “top coat” at three coats with Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Resolutions and Color Club’s clear coat.

This holographic top coat from Ulta originally came in a Nail FX set with three other top coats: there was a matte top coat, a UV-sensitive, a smoky top coat (which is a thin black jelly topper) and this holographic top coat. I bought this kit specifically for this holographic top coat, and I expected it would be something like a Spectraflair top coat. It’s definitely not suited to be a top coat. It is impossible to apply a thin and even coat over any polish. Thin coats are streaky and draggy, and even coverage requires at least two coats, and by then you’ve covered up whatever polish you were trying to improve. I gave up and decided to use three coats for full coverage. It looks pretty great this way. You’d never know it was meant to be a topper unless you specifically bought it for that purpose.

On the plus side, Holographic Top Coat does dry quickly. Application really took three coats, though. I was aiming for two, but even after two coats, I still had streaks and bald spots. Luckily, the third coat evened everything out. It would be a shame if it was still patchy, then it would be useless as both a top coat and a polish.

Resolutions is a glitter topper with mainly black hex and star glitters, but also contains blue shimmer and varieties of blue, pink, green and yellow glitter shapes. It’s a really fun look, especially with the silver polish; the look is cool, steely, and a little chaotic. Unfortunately, this guy is discontinued.

Final word: I’m surprised at how well I was able to take a crappy top coat and make a gorgeous manicure with it.

Swatch Sunday: Broadway Nails’s Pretty Duckling

Posted on October 5, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

So I’m doing something new on the blog this week. As of this post, I have 878 bottles of nail polish, about 500 of which I’ve never even used. I started doing Swatch Saturday as an outlet for my untrieds, and then I just ended up with a hundred Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers. So this new feature, Swatch Sunday, will take a look at the other polishes in the queue.

My polish for this first official Swatch Sunday is Broadway Nails’s Pretty Duckling. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

Pretty Duckling is a yellow-tinted jelly polish with fine iridescent glitters. For the longest time, I couldn’t decide whether to use it alone or as a topper. I really wanted to try this over black, but I decided that the base had enough color to stand on its own. It’s still pretty translucent; the nail line is still pretty visible, but the color is still very bright.

Pretty Duckling was easy to apply, but due to the glitter size and quantity, the consistency is very thick. It’s almost like applying a textured polish, but this one actually dries with a smooth finish. It’s similar to those Sinful Colors glitters, like Hottie and Nail Junkie. It’s a very similar mix of glitter in a similar colored base. If you like those, you’ll like this.

This is especially vibrant in the sunshine. Also, it’s finally sunny again! I can’t remember the last time I could take an outdoor photo.

I like it alone, but it would also look great over a yellow creme, or any creme, really. I’m looking forward to trying it again soon.

Wacie.com

Home of Wacie Nail Company

Author Archives: Stacie Wacie