Manicure Monday: Kickass Glitter Accents and Blue

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

Today’s manicure is one of my favorites. I haven’t had a favorite in a really long time now.

My two colors this week are Sephora by OPI’s Skinny Jeans and Digital Nails’s Wibbly Wobbly. I really love how it came out. I thought the nails without the glitter would be too plain, but the colors actually work really well and I don’t feel like the rest of my nails are too plain. This is a fantastic match. Something else I worried about was the glitter going on too thick and making the nails fat. That didn’t happen the way it did with this glitter. I brushed the glitter on instead of dabbing it, so maybe that made a difference. I could have just Wibbly Wobbly as a glitter topper, but I really wanted that multi-layered glitter look. I’m pleased as hell with how it turned out.

Sephora by OPI’s Skinny Jeans, Digital Nails’s Wibbly Wobbly

So, a little something about Wibbly Wobbly: I think it’s the polish that sold me on indies. I saw a Reddit post with Wibbly Wobbly over black, and I’d never seen anything like it before: all those different glitters, the huge dot glitters… I needed it. I went to buy it immediately after, but I reigned myself in somehow, even though there was like one bottle left and it seemed like destiny. I couldn’t bring myself to pay ten dollars plus shipping for a bottle of polish. When I got a prize for being a finalist in a game design contest, all that went out the window. Ultimately, it’s this polish that led to my delightful indie polish problem.

Manicure Monday: Red Crackle over Blue

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

There isn’t much to say about this manicure that I didn’t say the last time I used a crackle top coat. I got a very cool, very unpredictable, very 2009 manicure.

The red stained my cuticles.

I’ll say a word to Dianna, the blue base I used. Usually Julep polishes have varying degrees of quality, and I’m happy to report this is one of the better ones. It was nearly opaque in the first coat.

Julep’s Dianna, Nicole by OPI’s Red Texture

I used to think solid creme colors were boring. If it didn’t have shimmer or glitter, I wasn’t interested. I suppose less is more with them, and that’s a cliche that never quite found itself into my practical life advice files. There’s something about bold, shiny nails without anything to distract from the color. Maybe someday I’ll try it.

Manicure Monday: Hearts of Gold Over Blue

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I waited until the coffee kicked in to start this entry. Best coffee is best best best coffee best.

Note the blue cuticle on the middle finger. I had a hell of a time getting my cuticles clean.

This week I faced two challenges: having a polish that stained my cuticles to hell, and trying to get large glitter out of a bottle. My blue polish, Orly’s Witch’s Blue, is a beautiful jewel color. It’s dark and mysterious and dramatic. I knew the holo gold hearts in Revlon’s Hearts of Gold would stand out nicely against it. What I didn’t count on, though, was the fine gold glitter overpowering the background color, or the haphazard way the hearts landed. I did manipulate them a little with a toothpick, but mostly wherever they are is where they landed. Also, I really had to work for these hearts. A little further down, you’ll see that the Revlon bottle is about a third of the way empty. Yeah. I wasted a good bit of it just trying to get the hearts out.

I went back and traced my cuticles after I took that first photo. It’s better now.

I love the colors in the hearts, though. Holo glitter is beautiful! I just keep looking at my nails and fanning them back and forth to watch the rainbow.

Rainbow!

Not the rainbow.

Orly’s Witch’s Blue, Revlon’s Hearts of Gold FX

They’re kinda messy, kinda sloppy, but I’m into it.

Manicure Monday: Blue and Silver Gradient

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

This week I have two fantastic polishes and a beautiful shiny gradient.If it wasn’t so gross and cold and overcast outside, these nails would be absolutely blinding.

I started with two coats of OPI’s Austin-tatious Turquoise. It’s a bottle I’ve had for a few years now, acquired in that legendary Ulta haul where I had a ton of reward points and left the store with like ten bottles of OPI. I don’t know, the bottle count changes each time I remember it. It’s like a fishing story. Unfortunately, I had a lot of problems with this color. The first coat was thin and uneven; the second did not cover or improve anything. I was only able to gain opacity when I started sponging it on to create the gradient. I was really disappointed by it, because it’s beautiful in the bottle. It takes a lot of work to get it to look good on my nails.

This is me trying to demonstrate the duochromatic properties of Austin-tatious Turquoise. It almost worked.

Shine is the total opposite. Opaque in two coats, it makes this gradient reflective and, well, shiny. There isn’t a better name for this polish. I liked the silver so much, I added a rhinestone to each nail to add more. Overkill? Probably. Pretty? Totally!

OPI’s Austin-Tatious Turquoise, Orly’s Shine

Manicure Monday: Blue Crackle Over Copper

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I was looking forward to this manicure for a while. I bought Essie’s Penny Talk a few months ago, when I was just climbing onto the Essie bandwagon. My boyfriend and I were grocery shopping and I found the supermarket’s small section of nail polish. I flipped and grabbed as many bottles of it as I could hold (like four). My boyfriend caught me, made me put them all back, and literally dragged me away from the shelf. I didn’t put them all back though. I sneaked this one.

I’ve never shown swatches or pre-cleanup pictures on the blog before, but I knew I needed to photograph this one before I finished. I mean, look at this. I didn’t expect this metallic finish at all, and I am blown away by it. I’ve seen the other Essie metallic colors in stores, but I was never interested in them until I put this on. This is just breathtaking.

This is two coats of Penny Talk with no topcoat.

Dat shiny.

Unfortunately, it’s not very forgiving if you don’t have perfectly smooth nails. I have some nail peeling and dents from peeling off polish, and you can see every ridge and crease through the polish. I’ve never had this happen before. It may be time to invest in a ridge filling base coat, because I plan to buy more of these.

The actual manicure.

I know crackle toppers are long over, but I still like them. I like how unpredictable they can be, and how each nail is its own unique, chaotic piece of art. This particular crackle topper was sent to me from Germany, so I’m really excited to finally try it. I really love the way the metallic finish shines through the cracks. The crackle itself dries matte, but when I put the topcoat on, I get this incredible shine from both. I didn’t think I would like a crackle manicure so much.

Essie’s Penny Talk, P2’s Crackling Top Coat in Blue Bomb. I really love that German sticker on the bottle.

Manicure Monday: Glitter Half-Moon Over Amethyst

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

Today’s nail experiment surprises me with its elegance.

It took me forever to figure out what to do this week. I had two randomly chosen polishes; one is a very powerful, commanding purple with a blue flash, and the other is a dainty glitter topper with a slight blue tint. In tests, I couldn’t get them to work together. Putting the glitter on top of the purple always cancelled out the shifting colors, and my nails are so short that making thick necktie stripes would not have worked. I was totally out of ideas, and it didn’t occur to me until just before I started that I should use the glitter as the undies for a half moon mani. Best idea ever.

Sinful Colors’s Hottie, Sally Hansen’s Purple Potion

To me, this is like the nail equivalent of an evening gown. The purple conjures images of both royalty and jewels. The glitter is the sexy underwear beneath. It lays a foundation that is inconspicuous, but adds a nice touch of sparkle that supports the purple without overpowering it. I’m really surprised I could get such an elegant mani that’s also so simple and quick to do.

This is blurred to show you the glitter and the blue shimmer.

It was rainy when I took the first couple of photos, and as soon as I sat down to write, the sun came out, so I took a one more.

Manicure Monday: Blue Glitter on Pink

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

These post-birthday nails are so shiny, I couldn’t get a decent picture of them. It’s rainy and overcast today, and what little light I could get from outside reflected off of the glitter and made things complicated. Even in person, they look like this. It’s impossible to see the glitter, only the shine. After ten tries with similar results, I gave up. This was the best I could do.

Seriously, this was the only almost-good one.

I tried a few new things this week. I bought a new base coat like three weeks ago, and the indie seller I bought it from took an eternity to ship it, so I broke down and grabbed this OPI one. I actually really like it. It dries very quickly and cuts my mani time down significantly. I’m really impressed with it. The pink from this week, Love Rocks, is perfectly opaque after two coats. I’m always excited to use Essie polishes because I have so few of them, so I really love the blue metallic glitter from Stroke of Brilliance. It made my photography a nightmare, but it gives me an effect I couldn’t get from anything else.

Sally Hansen’s Love Rocks, Essie’s Stroke of Brilliance

I didn’t think I would like this mani so much. I had the pink, I needed a blue, and Stroke of Brilliance was the first one I grabbed from the blue section, so I used it. (Someday maybe I’ll write about my haphazard polish sorting and zero-effort mani planning). I’m actually really pleased with it.

Manicure Monday On the Road: Birthday Cupcakes

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

It’s my birthday week, so I’m visiting my boyfriend in Atlanta for the week. Unfortunately, this means I have one photo of my manicure, taken with an iPad. Unfortunately, it means I had to type this blog entry on an iPad as well.

They look kinda melted.

I used a lot of colors in this manicure, as you can see. Here’s a list:

Green: Sally Hansen’s Mint Sprint
Blue: OPI’s Eurso Euro
Pink: P2’s French Kiss
White: Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get
Accent nails: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES!

Several days before I left, I packed everything I would need for this manicure. I put all five polishes into a bag with my dotting tool, pointed cotton swabs and acetone, striping tape, tweezers, and whatever else I would need to successfully complete this mani. When I started, I ended up peeling off my old mani, which took off a bit of my natural nail, but it also meant I didn’t disturb my boyfriend’s six housemates with bad acetone smell. Also, since it was a mani with rhinestones, it also meant I didn’t have to go through the kitchen hunting for foil or anything like that. So I’d already started on a bad foot. Then when it was time to start the dotting, the dotting tool wasn’t in my bag. I went through it twice, I looked in other bags several times, and it was nowhere to be found. I ended up making all my dots with the end of an unwound paper clip. It definitely shows. While this isn’t some of my best handpainting, it’s not my worst, either. Actually, it may be my best. I’m awful at handpainting.

So, the polishes. Eurso Euro had a really weird smell, somewhat different from the usual OPI smell. Now that I think about it, I have a dark blue P2 crackle with the same weird smell. Do these dark blue pigments just smell differently, or what? It had really nice coverage, and was easy to work with, but that smell. I can’t get past it. The mint green Sally Hansen is an Insta-Dri, so of course it was opaque in one coat and ready to go right away. I didn’t use the P2 for much, other than the cherry on the top of the cupcake, but it’s probably just as nice to work with.

I think the glitter crelly, Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES!, kind of stole the show here. Yes, that’s butterfly glitter you see there, as well as stars in a couple different colors, squares, and hexes. It’s a limited edition polish from Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer, and you only get it by ordering the whole Buffy the Vampire Slayer-inspired collection. Holos aren’t really my style, so they felt bad for me and gave it to me anyway. It’s an excellent polish, and I kind of dislike how exclusive it is, because it’s the best one in the collection, in my opinion. If you want in on this or any of their other polishes (you do), here’s the link to the BEGL store.

I really hate typing on an iPad, so I guess I’ll end it here. See you guys when I get back from vacation!

Manicure Monday: Half Moons and Pearls on Nubbins

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I broke a nail Sunday night. I was reaching for something, hit my pinky nail on it, and it just popped off. I couldn’t even save it. It broke completely off at the nail bed. I had to cut them all short. My nails haven’t been this short since I moved out of my apartment and broke every nail taking posters down. My fingertips touch the keyboard keys when I type and it’s weird.

This is the nubbin version of the manicure I had planned for my long, beautiful nails. I almost didn’t do it, since I thought it would look strange on small nails. And it does, kind of. I think the design probably exaggerates how short the nails are, and I almost did give up on the pattern to do a solid black, but where would the fun have been in that? Even nubbin nails deserve to be pretty.

China Glaze’s For Audrey, LA Colors’ Black Pearl

Nubbin nails are no fun, but they’ll grow back.

Manicure Monday: Black and Blue Glitter Mess

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

So I’m really excited about this week’s manicure. There are some things I would do differently, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Also, I’ll be wearing my first indie polish this week, and mostly I’m excited about that.

I really love my polishes this week. Outrageous is a soft taupe with a lot of metallic shimmer that goes on opaque in one coat. I’m pretty impressed with it, considering I paid a dollar for the bottle. I really loved it before I put the glitter on over it, and I might regret it a little. The real star here is the glitter anyway.

LA Colors’s Outrageous, Pretty & Polished’s Boy Bleu

Boy Bleu from Pretty & Polished is one of the first indie polishes I ever bought. It’s meant to be a full coverage glitter, giving a granite-like appearance. Here’s where I messed up. I thought that dabbing the glitter on instead of brushing it on would give me the most coverage, and I was a little heavy-handed in my application. My accent nails already had two coats of white polish before I added the glitter, just to make up for any bare spots that might have occurred. Thankfully, I didn’t need it, but because the coarse glitter made cleanup difficult, you can now see it around the cuticles. I’m not even sure why you can see it at the tips. Shrinkage, maybe? I don’t know, but there it is. So with the two coats of underwear, the two very thick coats of glitter, and three coats of Seche Vite, the accent nails are much thicker-looking than the others. It kind of bothers me, but it’s not that bad. I actually put so much on that I could shape and mold it with my fingers. Good thing I did, I would have had some strangely shaped nails.

Next time I’ll apply the glitter in thin coats and hope to build coverage that way, rather than trying to load it all on at once. I’ll still probably end up with fat nails again, but it won’t be so problematic.

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