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.

Manicure Monday: Vesper

Posted on June 30, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Manicure Monday again, and I’m excited because it’s a wacie.com first: textured polish! I’ve been buying these up like mad, but this is the first time I’ve ever featured one on the blog. This is OPI’s Liquid Sand in Vesper; I’m wearing three coats of it without topcoat.

Vesper is a deep plum polish with black grainy glitter. You can’t see much of the purple, except around the edges of the nails. The first coat presented more purple, but multiple coats makes it harder to see. It dries with a coarse, gritty texture, as is intended. It sparkles a bit more in lower lighting; in the studio, it just kind of looks like spray-on truck bed liner. I couldn’t capture that in the studio. I probably could have in the sunlight, but I was late taking pictures today and it was pretty dusky by the time I got outside.

This isn’t to say I don’t like this polish, because I do. Nothing says summer fun like a plum, right? However, it’s not my favorite Liquid Sand. My favorites are still the ones with more emphasis on the glitter than on the texture. In any case, it’s a cool look, and I’m not sure if textured polishes are passe yet, but I’m happy to finally get around to reviewing one.

Manicure Monday: Sweet Pink and Bold Glitter

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Manicure Monday is good this week. Everything I love is here: pink, glitter, shine; I couldn’t hate this if I wanted to. For this manicure, I’m wearing two coats of Julep’s Carrie with two coats of China Glaze’s Razzle Me Dazzle Me on my accent nails. All nails are topped with one coat of Seche Vite.

Carrie is a sweet candy pink creme. It’sa really nice polish, though I wish I’d gone with three coats instead of two. Consistent with my Julep experience, the first coat was streaky and thin, and while the second coat did a lot to even out the color, there are still some bald spots. Other than that, I like it a lot. I have no other complaints than the coverage.

Razzle Me Dazzle Me is a graffiti-style glitter from China Glaze, filled with various shapes and sizes of black and pink glitters. At first, I didn’t notice the pink glitters were pink; they appear silver at first look, but are much rosier and smokier than silver. In any case, they give off a ton of shine. The black glitters are much more prominent, obviously, so much so that it overpowers the base color. I didn’t plan to use two coats of glitter, but the first coat was kind of lopsided, and I wanted to even it out. Mission accomplished, I guess.

This is an outdoor shot. It was cloudy out there, so I didn’t get many good shots, but I wanted to show you this one because of how shiny the glitter is. See how it looks green? I was standing in front of a tree. And in the other photos where it looks gold? That’s my yellow shirt.

I love this manicure. I don’t wear pink polish often enough.

Manicure Monday: Double Reverse Green on Green Gradient

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

So for this Manicure Monday, I did some actual nail art instead of phoning it in with glitter. I always feel a little weird when I do a glitterless mani, like my nails are still naked somehow. This week, I did a double reverse gradient with Julep’s Payton and Color Club’s Twiggie. Payton is shown on the non-accent nails with two coats. All nails have a coat of Seche Vite top coat and Hard Candy’s Matte-ly in Love. Photos were taken indoors and outdoors.

So the colors I chose this week go well together, but were still somewhat incongruous. Payton is a gorgeous kelly green creme that went on sheer with the first coat; the second coat even it out, but it was still deliciously shiny, a finish I’d expect from a jelly. Twiggie was a much more solid creme, and was opaque on its first coat. Together, Twiggie is the foundation of the gradient, and I didn’t get the opacity I expected from Payton, and the resulting gradient left me a little underwhelmed. Payton was so sheer that it didn’t cover over Twiggie as well as I thought it would. I will say this, though: I hated putting the matte coat over Payton. It was so shiny and so beautiful on its own that I felt like I was sucking the life of it by mattifying it. I really felt like I did this polish a disservice.

If you’re wondering how to do the double reverse gradient, it’s way simpler than it looks. Here’s the tutorial:

1. After you lay down your base colors, do a gradient the same way you usually do. For what it’s worth, I like to use eyeshadow sponge applicators instead of makeup wedges; for me, it’s more precise and makes less of a mess.

2. After your first gradient is dry, put down your striping tape as desired.

3. Do your second gradient, reversing the colors from the first gradient.

4. Peel off the tape, apply your top coat, and you’re done!

Outdoors, full sun

This really looked better in my head. I expected a stronger difference between the colors, but the sheerness of Payton didn’t make that possible. I also feel like I’m missing something; maybe I should have done a coat of Fairy Dust or something under Payton, just to add a little extra sparkle. On the plus side, and this was completely unintentional, it reminds me of a soccer field. I have been so caught up in watching the World Cup matches that I’ve been unable to think of much else. Despite the issues I’ve had with the polish compatibility, I love how this turned out.

PS: I have Payton on my toes as well. I love it. It’s like every toe is cosplaying as the toe from The Big Lebowski.

Manicure Monday: Dark Labyrinth

Posted on June 9, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For Manicure Monday this week, I’m wearing something new and exciting. This is Dark Labyrinth from Digital Nails, a feast of glitter and science. I’m wearing three coats of it with one coat of Seche Vite. Dark Labyrinth is a black jelly with teal, neon pink, and lime green hexes, followed up with green stars. If you look closely, you’ll also find black circles, stars, and hexes. There’s a method to this madness, which I’ll quote directly from Digital Nails:

“The concept is that the blackness of the jelly base upon layering, will obscure the shapes of the bright colors underneath, representing all that human kind knows about our universe.”

Maybe I’m still kinda high on the last episode of Cosmos last night, but I think this is an interesting and awesome way to interpret the nature of our universe. This was derived from an even greater quote from Galileo Galilei about the importance of the language of mathematics:

“Philosophy [nature] is written in that great book which ever is before our eyes — I mean the universe — but we cannot understand it if we do not first learn the language and grasp the symbols in which it is written. The book is written in mathematical language, and the symbols are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without whose help it is impossible to comprehend a single word of it; without which one wanders in vain through a dark labyrinth.”

I love this polish. Even setting its concept aside, there is so much beauty in this polish. The neon colors and shapes jump right out at you, and only in certain lighting conditions can you see the darker ones. I was maybe a bit heavy-handed in my application; I’d hoped to see more of the black shapes through the jelly, but I really did obscure them quite well. I got such a great coverage that I forgot it’s a jelly base. It’s only when I see the few tiny black hexes scattered across the larger, brighter shapes I remember they’re there. This is likely true for many objects in space as well.

Outdoors, cloudy

I know I say this a lot, but polishes like this are the reason I came to indies. Here is a polish that’s not only gorgeous, but has something important and intelligent to say.

Manicure Monday on Tuesday: Post-Vacation Pink Moons

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’m back from vacation, and the wacie.com hiatus is over! I had a blast while I was on vacation, but I felt a bit guilty about ignoring the blog. I actually took my laptop and some polish along with me, thinking I would have time to update while travelling. I seriously overestimated the amount of free time I would have. I also didn’t take a whole lot of nail pictures while I was gone, even though I painted my nails; painting my nails while tipsy in a hotel room at 1 AM does not make for good manicures. Anyway, I’m still trying to get my groove back, so this week’s post is not only late, it’s probably also deviating some from the usual format a little. I was gone so long, I actually forgot how I normally take pictures.

I decided to do something easy this week, just to celebrate being back in my natural habitat. I neglected my usual hand and cuticle care, and also suffered a lot of breaks while I was gone, so I spent a lot of time just soaking and taking care of my nails, and after all that, I just didn’t feel like doing something intricate or time-consuming. Also, I’d had a plan for these two polishes before I went on vacation; I have no idea now what it was. This week, I’m wearing a mystery color from Maybelline, and Sephora by OPI’s Dear Diary….

I expected Dear Diary… to be much more sheer than it came out on my nails. The first coat was sheer and pretty streaky, but the second evened it out. There are still some places that are thin and bald, this is most evident on my thumb, if you’re able to see it at all. On every other nail, it’s mostly opaque.

Sunlight

I have no idea how to identify this Maybelline polish. It’s a shame, because even though it’s an oldie, it’s a gorgeous color. It’s a rosy mauve with a pretty shimmer. It doesn’t seem to wear well; I put it on yesterday; this isn’t even 24 hours later. I’ll chalk this up to my nails being so short I can’t wrap the tips.

This bottle comes from a time way back when I had a problem peeling the stickers from things, so that’s how it came to be a nameless mystery color. I’d really love to know its name. If you can identify it, please help me out!

Manicure Monday on Tuesday: Pre-Vacation Celebration in Blue

Posted on May 13, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Manicure Monday is a little late this week, what with the craziness of work, upcoming boyfriend’s birthday, and packing for vacation. I’m also going to have to re-learn how to stick with the same manicure for seven days. Anyway, I’m wearing Wet ‘n Wild’s I Saw A Comet over Sephora by OPI’s Mermaid to Order; I’ve got on two coats of each with two coats of Seche Vite.

Mermaid to Order is a gorgeous shimmery turquoise. Actually, I hesitate to call it a turquoise, because it leans either blue or green, depending on the viewing angle and lighting conditions. It goes on easily and smoothly, but with very visible brush strokes. Even adding the glitter to it wasn’t enough to hide the brush strokes. I chose this polish as an under coat because it’s the same color as the jelly base in I Saw A Comet. I wish I’d chosen a creme polish for this, though, so that the glitter can stand on its own without added effects from the base color.

I Saw A Comet is a faint teal jelly with fine iridescent glitters. As gorgeous as it is in the bottle (I admit I bought it because I was totally hypnotized by the glitter), I expected a little more of that look to transfer to the nail. Last week I encountered the extra-wide W&W brush, which gave me a horrible glitter payoff and just made a clear polish mess on my fingers. This week, I tried it again, and my results weren’t too much better. The brush is actually wider than a few of my nails, which left a lot of glitter stuck in my cuticle; you can see there are still a few bits of it I just couldn’t get off. For the minimal glitter look I got, the cleanup effort wasn’t really worth it.

Outdoors, sunlight

I’m going to try to keep up with Manicure Monday while I’m travelling, whenever I can find the time to actually paint my nails. We’ll see how it goes.

Manicure Monday: Red Glitter on Green

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s another crazy Manicure Monday glitter feast! Today I’m wearing Wet ‘n Wild’s Club Cabaret over Essie’s Navigate Her. It looked different in my head for sure, but I’m still into it.

First I put down two coats of Navigate Her. This is a shade I’ve worn a lot lately for various swatches and things; it’s so soft that it looks good as undies for any glitter. I chose it for this mani because I wanted a green to complement the red in Club Cabaret, and this was the only green that didn’t challenge the darker colors for dominance. It also seems to look different at different angles; in the photo where I leaned my nails back, you can see it looks a bit more yellow there than in the others, and I’m not sure why.

Club Cabaret is a lightly tinted base with black, silver, and red hexes of various sizes. I’m not sure if it’s tinted on purpose, or if the red glitters bled a little, but it seems kind of suspicious. I didn’t get much of a payoff; these W&W bottles have these really wide brushes, and while they pick up a lot of glitter, I don’t get much of it on my nails. Instead I just get clear polish flooding my cuticles. To achieve this look, I brushed the glitter onto the end of a makeup wedge and rolled it on, the way one might roll on a stamped design. I could have gotten this look trying to brush or dab it on, but it would have taken a long time to do, and there’s no guarantee it would have been applied this evenly or cleanly. Cleanup was a pain, but it was worth it.

Seeing as I planned this manicure months ago, it’s accidentally festive for Cinco de Mayo. I love it when that happens.

Manicure Monday: Gold and Glitter Magic

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Manicure Monday this week was amazingly fun. I’ve got two polishes that, at first, don’t look like they would pair together well at all. Somehow, though, it works. I’ve got on three coats of Disney Villain Varnish Queen of Hearts, with Digital Nails’s When Life Gives You Lemons as an accent. Photos were taken in the studio and outdoors.

When I think of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, I don’t think of gold. Just saying. Regardless of what villain this polish was meant to evoke, it’s a beautiful rich, warm gold with tiny microglitters. It takes three coats of achieve full opacity, but the application is smooth and easy. I kind of feel bad that I don’t use it very often. This is the first time I’ve used it as the main color in a manicure, and I didn’t realize what a beauty it is. It’s totally gorgeous.

When Life Gives You Lemons is a Digital Nails glitter. I feel like that’s all I need to say. It’s a clear base with an impressive show of purple and gold glitters, yellow holo dots and stars, tiny bar glitter (which I actually didn’t notice until I was reviewing my photos), shreds, iridescents…. The sheer amount of glitter in this bottle should be overwhelming, but isn’t. It spreads smoothly and evenly, even the large shapes. It’s also incredible in the sunlight.

While I’m not sure where you can still find the Villains Varnish collection, Digital Nails still has a few bottles of When Life Gives You Lemons in their etsy store. (It feels really good to review something that’s still available, for once.) The price is a bit higher than usual, but it was created as a charity item, with the profits from each bottle going to Alex’s Lemonade Stand, and will fund cancer research. To date, this and its sister polish, I’m a Survivor, are the most expensive polishes I’ve ever bought, but I know I bought more than nail polish; I bought a little bit of hope.

Manicure Monday: Soft Steel Shimmer

Posted on April 21, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Today’s Manicure Monday is softer and simpler than I usually like to be. I feel strange when I do these simple manicures and actually like them; it’s like I’m growing up or something. I’ve heard my mother dismiss colors with the phrase “Maybe if I was younger”, and I’d think “Who cares?” When I do subdued manis like these, I feel like I’m becoming my mother. Here, I’m wearing three coats of China Glaze’s Recycle, with Essie’s Pure Pearlfection on the accents.

Recycle is a color I’ve liked for a while. I’ve been using it a long time; this is actually my second bottle of it. It’s a nice neutral, and it’s so versatile; nearly every glitter or effect topper works well with it, and it looks good alongside any color in a gradient or dotticure. I bought it for the first time a couple of years ago because I needed a soft gray for a look and could never find the right one. It goes on well, it wears well, and I’ll probably buy it until I die.

Sunlight shot!

Pure Pearlfection was one of the first Essie polishes I ever bought, and this is the first time I’ve ever used it. I feel like this is the weakest entry in the LuxEffects line; it’s pretty, but it’s no Shine of the Times. However, I feel like maybe these polishes were made for each other; on their own, they’re subtle. Together, they are magical.

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