Manicure Monday: Morning Light/Evening Gradient

Posted on September 15, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I love putting glitter over gradients! My Manicure Monday project this week was to take Morning Light from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer and use it in a fun new way that really shows how versatile it is. I made a gradient with Essie’s Fiji and No More Film, then put on two coats of Morning Light and one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

I swatched Morning Light way back in January, and I really loved the way it looked over dark polish, but I didn’t want to just wear it over black again, that would be too easy. I went through all of my polishes and after a few misses, chose purple and pink cremes. I wanted a light pink for glitter visibility, but I wanted a darker one to bring out the shimmer. I thought I did pretty well.

I must admit that I’m not too happy with the gradient. I ran out of eyeshadow sponges the other week, so I used one of the hexagonal sponges that came in a China Glaze ombre set. I didn’t really like this method. I didn’t have as much control over the blending and the building of color. I also got polish all over the sides of my fingers and it took forever to clean it up. I will probably not use this method again.

I’m pleased with this look, though. The green shimmer in Morning Light totally transforms No More Film from a deep plum to something lighter and duskier. Also, I noticed something this week that I didn’t when I swatched it: the green shimmer shifts to red! At certain angles, the green disappears and a warm red shimmer takes its place. So cool!

Manicure Monday on Tuesday: Fun With Thermals

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’m always excited to share a first on the blog. For Manicure Monday this week, I’m wearing Tomboyish from Pretty & Polished, one of my first-ever indies, my first-ever thermal polish, and the first-ever thermal on the blog. I’m wearing three coats of Tomboyish with one coat of Digital Nails‘s Spectraflair top coat and Color Club’s clear coat.

The label got soft and peeled a bit from dipping the bottle into water to change its color.

Tomboyish is a deep teal-to-dusty blue thermal polish with a light sprinkle of holographic sparkle. The consistency is thick due to extra pigments, but it’s still very easy to use and apply. The first coat was very sheer, but coverage builds with additional coats. It dries quickly, and with a matte finish. In this regard, it’s very much like an ordinary polish.

Thermal polishes change color with heat, and that’s what makes this polish special. The teal color deepens when it’s exposed to cold temperatures, and it fades to blue when exposed to warm temperatures. Body heat is enough to effect the change, and it happens instantaneously; if I dipped my fingertips in cold water, the teal color would deepen, but would fade back to blue as they warm up again. If your nails are longer than your fingertips, you’ll often have a nice gradient effect; the part of your nail grown past your finger will be different than that’s closer to your cuticle. It’s an awesome, effortless look.

I wanted just a little bit more sparkle with Tomboyish, so I put on a Spectraflair top coat made by Digital Nails. The holo isn’t as strong as it would be if it was a holo polish, but being able to turn any polish I own into a holo is pretty cool.

I’ve had this polish for a long time, so I think the effect isn’t as potent as it used to be. The first time I used it, the light color was much lighter, and now it hovers somewhere in between. It’s still pretty cool, and it still changes, but not like it used to.

I love thermals, and I’ve got more in the pipeline. I can’t wait to wear them.

Manicure Monday on Tuesday: Celestial Gradient

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

So it’s been a while since I did a manicure like this; I haven’t been into nail art much lately, just doing the accent-nails-with-glitter-is-easy mani. I swatched Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Weary Traveller a couple months ago and wanted to wear it in a new way, so I did a glitter gradient thing with it. The colors in my gradient are Sally Hansen’s Black Out and Essie’s Urban Jungle, with Weary Traveller sponged onto the tips.

I wasn’t sure how to do this at first; I definitely wanted a look that would show the jelly properties of Weary Traveller, so I thought the best way to do that would be with a nude and black gradient. The first time I tried this, I couldn’t get the jelly sheer enough to show the nude without streaks. I kind of wish that had worked out. I also didn’t get a fantastic gradient since my nails are so short.

I used Color Club’s clear coat again this week. So far, it wears well, but it doesn’t smooth glitter out very easily. I don’t want to use more than one coat on a mani like this, since there are already so many layers. I’m also afraid of shrinkage.

I should really start doing nail art again. I forgot how cool gradients look.

Manicure Monday: Summer Bronze and Gold

Posted on August 25, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For Manicure Monday this week, I’m wearing one of the super-gorgeous Naked polishes! Every time I get one of these out, I think about how foolish I was to buy this Urban Decay set, and how glad I am that I did, because it’s nowhere to be found now. This is Smog, and I’m wearing two coats topped by one coat of Seche Vite. My glitter accents are Orly’s Too Fab.

Smog is a bronze polish with a rich golden shimmer. It’s wonderfully opaque in two coats, dries quickly enough, and delivers even color. It reminds me of chocolate ganache, just rich and sweet and shiny. Delicious. I want to wear this so much more often, but the bottle is so small and scarce that I never want to run out.

Too Fab is the opposite. Orly bottles are enormous, and I’ve had this one for a pretty long time. This is like the metallic gold glitter topper that never stops giving. My bottle is a hair more than halfway full, but I will be using it until the end of time, probably. I didn’t expect to get so much glitter on my accents; this is one coat, after all. I wanted to be able to see the Smog through the glitter. It’s still pretty, though. I think the gold and the bronze complement each other very well.

Outside, this is just blinding. The gold shimmer in Smog is really visible here, and the glitter throws so much light it’s insane. You can see the light flaring off of it. It’s crazy.

Handcare rave: I got this cream the other weekend from Ulta. Le Couvent des Minimes Soothing Night Hand Creme has the most delicious lavender scent, and it makes my hands pretty soft. I use it right after I wash dishes in the evening, when my hands are the most dry. It absorbs well, smells incredible, and feels very light after application. The price is a little steep; it was something like $8 for a .8oz tube, but oh my gosh, it was so worth it to me.

Final word: these are the perfect polishes for the end of summer and the beginning of the school season. I could not have chosen better.

Manicure Monday: Heavenly Jewel Tones

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For Manicure Monday this week, I got to use a glitter topper I absolutely love. Revlon’s Heavenly is a beautiful mix of iridescent glitters. It looks incredible over dark colors; I wore it over black about this time last year. I decided to try it over jewel colors for a fancy, muted look. My under-colors this week are Zoya’s Envy, Revlon’s Persuade, and Ulta’s Moody Blues; I’m wearing two coats of each, two coats of Heavenly, and one coat of Seche Vite.

I don’t know what to say about Heavenly I haven’t already said. It’s nothing short of amazing. It transforms any polish into a shining beautiful mermaid. It’s so cool how so many colors can come from two different glitters. The first coat of it was kind of lacking, so I went for a second, and made a bit of a mess with it. That’s why my cuticles are so rough-looking. I’m a little embarrassed by it.

A quick word to my under-colors: Zoya’s Envy is a dark green creme that is the perfect base for this glitter. I almost used this color only until I started to wonder how it would look over blues and reds. Moody Blues is a dark blue creme that dries with a matte finish. Persuade, the wine creme, flooded my cuticles because it was so thin, but I’ll chalk that up to being a brand-new full bottle. All three cremes look fantastic in two coats, and all three work very well beneath this glitter.

One more thing: I did some shopping this weekend at Ulta, and I grabbed a lot of new hand creams to try. My dishwasher has been broken and washing dishes by hand every night is destroying my hands, making them red, flaky, and itchy. I fully admit to buying this Anatomicals cream because it made me laugh, but I really like the cream so far. I put it on before I go to bed, after I finish my skincare routine, and it makes my hands really soft and smells fantastic.

I almost chose pastels for this instead since it’s still summer, but I’m so glad I didn’t. I love this look.

Manicure Monday: Glitter Explosion over Orange

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Manicure Monday is so fun this week! I’ve got two fun polishes, Wet ‘n Wild’s Orange Smoothie and Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s St. Nick’s Sweet Treats. I love these together so much. I have on three coats of Orange Smoothie, one brushed coat of Sweet Treats on my accent nails, and one coat of Seche Vite.

Orange Smoothie is a sheer orange with golden shimmer. I like it, for the most part: the consistency was about average, and it dried pretty quickly with a nice shine. The brush was stupidly wide and made a mess, so application wasn’t terribly easy. It is still pretty sheer; I can see my very thin nail line through three coats of it. However, it looks so nice when the light hits it that I don’t even care.

St. Nick’s Sweet Treats is a veritable glitter explosion. It completely makes this manicure. This is the glitter topper to end all glitter toppers. The glitters are mostly white, red, and gold, with smaller glitters in different colors and silver micro-flakies. I am not exaggerating when I say there is a little of everything in this bottle. It applies beautifully; what you see here is one brushed coat. There was no dabbing here, no blobbing, no sponging, no nonsense. The lacquer-to-glitter ratio is perfect. I had no trouble with this at all.

Unfortunately, it stormed all day, and so I don’t have any gorgeous sunlight photos to post. I know this would be a stunner outside for sure.

Manicure Monday: Blue Nubs With Glitter Accents

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This Manicure Monday has me trying to dress up my nubs a little. Actually, I paired these polishes months ago, and expected to see it on nails a little longer than this. Ah, well. On this lovely Blue Monday, I’m wearing three coats of Sinful Colors’s All Mighty, and my accent nails are three coats of Different Dimension‘s (blue) Da Ba Dee. All nails are topped with one coat of Seche Vite.

All Mighty is a deep turquoise polish with blue shimmer. It’s fairly typical of a Sinful Colors polish; I mean that in the best way possible. It’s opaque and dark from the first coat, the consistency is just right, and it dries quickly. I’m always surprised with Sinful Colors’s quality. Two-dollar polish should not be this nice.

(blue) Da Ba Dee is a blue jelly with different shapes and sizes of silver and blue holo glitters. Naturally, it steals the show in this mani. The larger glitters do sink, but they’re easy to grab when the bottle sits upside-down for a few minutes. It’s not too much of a problem. It’s also a teensy bit difficult to apply to these little nails; some of the large dot glitters are almost the size of my whole nail. I’m exaggerating, but you know what I mean. The jelly base is thin, so layering is very easy with it. It’s a very nice polish.

Not bad, nubs. Not bad at all.

Manicure Monday: Opulent Gold and Crimson

Posted on July 28, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Manicure Monday is awesome this week! I have on two great polishes, a unique red and a real gold flake top coat. It’s bold, warm, and opulent. For this look, I used three coats of Julep’s Nan, two coats of Zoya’s Gilty 18k top coat, and one coat of Seche Vite.

Nan is an interesting color for sure. It’s a soft, faded crimson creme that reminds me of old fire hydrants and flaky paint. Application was pretty nice for a Julep polish; I usually have coverage issues on the first couple of coats, but this one covered pretty well on the first go. It dries with a smooth, shiny finish. This is a softer color than I like to wear, but I don’t think I have another color quite like this one, and I like that.

I love gold top coats. Gilty gives any polish luxury and shine. I wish there was just a little more gold floating in my bottle, because I got fewer flakes than I wanted, which is why I used two coats. In any case, it makes for a fantastic look, and is amazing over a warm red like this one. And what’s better than looking at these gold flakes shimmer in the sun? Nothing. Maybe pizza.

I have to take this off tomorrow. I’m totally going to do this manicure again when July is over.

Manicure Monday: Plum and Glitter Surprise

Posted on July 21, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It feels like forever since I’ve done a real Manicure Monday post. For this week, I’m wearing The Golden Age from Sephora by OPI over Essie’s Devil’s Advocate, topped with one coat of Seche Vite.

I really like Devil’s Advocate. Like really. I adore these dark, dramatic, vampy colors because you can never quite tell what color they really are. You can’t tell this is a deep plum unless you look at the very edges of it. If I didn’t know better, I’d assume it’s black. Devil’s Advocate goes on a little thin on the first coat, but evens out to full opacity on the second, and dries with a beautiful shine. It’s really easy to apply.

Unrelated: I put Devil’s Advocate on my toes when I wore Vesper earlier in the month. They’re very similar in color and I really didn’t want to experience the joys of taking Liquid Sand off my toenails.

The real star of this manicure is The Golden Age. It’s a clear glitter topper with various sizes of metallic gold and silver hex glitters. The distinction between the colors is pretty difficult to see in some lighting conditions; in my office it’s impossible to tell, but in the studio and in the sun, it’s clearly visible. It’s also very easy to apply; the consistency is thick so as to accommodate all that glitter. Also, I think this polish has my perfect glitter-to-lacquer ratio: one brushed coat is all I needed for full, even glitter coverage. It’s so easy to work with. I love it.

Sunlight! The sun came out long enough for me to take these photos. The clouds came back when I went inside.

So, there you have it: a glitter topper with secret differently-colored glitters over a black that’s really purple. I love surprises.

Manicure Monday: Monochrome with Accents

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Manicure Monday! Today I’m wearing Lost Soul from LA Colors, and my accent polish is L’Oreal’s The Sparklicious. I have on three coats of Lost Soul, one sponged coat of The Sparklicious on my accent nails, and one coat of Seche Vite.

Lost Soul is a cool gray polish with a faint silver shimmer. I’m always a little afraid of these LA Colors polishes; the quality is hit or miss. I’m happy to say this one is pretty good. The consistency is thin, but even; this actually looked pretty nice at one coat. That said, I still went for three coats, because I wanted it to be very opaque to support the glitter.

The Sparklicious is a clear glitter topper with holo silver bars with black and holo silver hexes. The glitter didn’t brush on well, and left behind a lot of clear lacquer. I don’t like to dab glitter on with a brush, so I brushed it onto a sponge and applied it that way. It’s not very even, but that’s not noticeable at first. The black and silver glitters complement the gray polish well.

I was hoping the baby shimmer in Lost Soul would be more apparent in the sunshine; it is just barely visible, but still more visible in the sun than in the studio. Those holo glitters just blow up, though.

The one thing I don’t like: when I apply the glitter this way, no amount of top coat can ever smooth it down. There’s still a lot of texture there. I’m okay with some texture, but having it on only a couple nails is kind of annoying.

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