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.

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.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s St. Nick’s Sweet Treats

Posted on October 4, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I take back everything I have ever said on this blog. In fact, I may as well just close it down. My swatch this week from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer is the most perfect polish I have ever used, and I really doubt it gets better than this. This is St. Nick’s Sweet Treats, and I’m wearing one coat over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray, Essie’s Marathin, and Zoya’s Bevin, as well as one coat of Color Club’s clear coat. Seriously, this is the polish I want to wear for the rest of my life.

St. Nick’s Sweet Treats is a holiday-themed glitter topper that contains large amounts of red and gold glitters, and smaller quantities of purple, blue, and green metallic and holo glitters. Overall, the amount of glitter in this bottle is huge. There is so much glitter, so much shine, so much to look at it’s crazy. The best part: It doesn’t even matter what colors I use as undies. It’s barely visible beneath all that glitter. I could wear literally any color and it would look fantastic under all this confetti.

Application was surprisingly easy. You might think that all this glitter would clump and gather on itself, and that never happens. The glitters spread well and with even coverage. There’s also a pretty even representation of each type, even with the small colored glitters.

This is a crap photo, but I posted it anyway just to show you how shiny these glitters get. I used the built-in camera flash for this. The colors in the glitter really come alive here.

So, final word: Perfect. Application is perfect, appearance is perfect, everything about it is gorgeous and I love it. This is absolutely my favorite BEGL, and my polish of the year all years.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Death by Restock

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s the last of the 2013 Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Halloween polishes! I always feel a little inadequate when I’m reviewing BEGLs, because I am literally a year too late on these; the 2014 collection is being reviewed by real nail bloggers and the polishes are absolutely gorgeous. This one is too, though! Death by Restock is the final polish from the Nail Polish Frights collection. I’m wearing three coats alone with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

BEGL describes Death by Restock as a “red jelly base with red, burgundy, and black glitters and black and candy red holo skulls”. The skull glitters are rare, as I only got one and it’s on my right hand. The other glitters are plentiful, though, and spread evenly across the nail. The first coat was very sheer, and looked like watermelon, thanks to the black glitters. The next coats build up to a deep bloody red, and the black glitters look much less obvious and harsh. It’s a look that takes a classic color and adds even more drama and depth.

I don’t think I even need to comment on the consistency and application, because it’s always perfect with BEGL: the consistency is just right, it dries quickly, the glitter applies well, and it’s easy to clean up and wear. It dries a little on the satin side, so top coat is necessary to get that sexy jelly shine. It doesn’t get much better than this.

I think this could be my favorite from the whole four-piece collection. I mean, they are all super-gorgeous in their own way, but I think this one appeals to me the most. I love red polish, jellies, and glitter, so this is basically the wacie.com dream polish.

Let’s take a minute to talk about the idea of death by restock: BEGL has released two major collections back-to-back: Far From the Sun came out this summer, and the Ladies of Doctor Who came out this past weekend. Also, a special polish is out to commemorate the second birthday of Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl. On Tuesday, I ordered everything, which set me back more than I care to admit. My boyfriend is probably going to break up with me when he finds out. It’s worth it.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Cart Jacked by Witches

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s another discontinued Halloween polish for Swatch Saturday this week! This is the third of four polishes in the Nail Polish Frights collection from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. This is Cart Jacked by Witches, and I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

Cart Jacked by Witches is a purple jelly with various shapes of purple, green, and black glitters. Supposedly there are black holo pumpkin glitters in here, but I didn’t find any. This polish is loaded down with glitter, and so the consistency is quite thick. It could do with some thinner. Despite the thickness, however, it dried quickly. I love BEGL glitter toppers for this reason; there’s never an issue with drying times, no matter how much I glob on.

I like this polish a lot. It doesn’t look much like a Halloween polish, and is versatile enough for year-round wear. Of course, during this time of the year, the purple and green combo is reminiscent of Halloween, but in March, it would just be a polish with a creative color scheme. It may also double as your Mardi Gras polish. If we ignore its holiday theme, it’s a really unique and attractive polish. I like it a lot.

For those who have never shopped online from small businesses, to be cart-jacked is to have an item in your shopping cart be purchased by someone else. It can happen during restocks, when a seller has a limited supply of something. Imagine this: you’ve waited all week for this seller to restock a polish you’ve been dying for. You set four alarms on your phone so you don’t miss it. You sit down and prepare yourself, calming your mind so that your fingers can be quick. The shop opens, you have the polish in your cart, you’re already fantasizing about wearing it, and suddenly, as you check out, there’s a notice that says your item is sold out. You, my dear, have been cart-jacked.

Only one more Halloween BEGL left! After that, we move into Christmas. Like in retail stores, Christmas on this blog is coming much too early.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Sell Souls for ISOs (OBO)

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I got some Halloween costume catalogs in the mail this week, so it’s officially not too early to post this manicure. We’re still looking at long overdue swatches from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Halloween 2013 collection. This polish is called Sell Souls for ISOs (OBO); I’m wearing one generous coat of it over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray and Essie’s Fashion Playground.

Sell Souls for ISOs (OBO) is a clear glitter topper with orange shimmer, orange and black glitters, white skull-and-crossbones, and holo orange pumpkins. The skull and pumpkin shaped glitters were new at the time, and that was enough to sell me on this polish (or any polish, really). The description doesn’t really do it justice; you can look at the bottle and see a myriad of different shapes, sizes, and finishes of glitter. It’s a well-rounded mix. The skulls and pumpkin glitters are scarce, I fished for a pumpkin glitter for like fifteen minutes and the only one I got was the one on my thumb. They’re rare on purpose, so that they can easily be avoided, in case you happen not to like them, or happen to be wearing the polish in September.

Application was easy, but because I swirled the polish around so much fishing for glitter, I ended up with a lot of bubbles. The drying time was pretty good for a polish like this; I really blobbed it on and it was dry in five minutes. The consistency was a bit thick, and got thicker as I used it, but that’s to be expected from a polish like this, and is easily remedied.

Outdoors, this polish is amazing. The metallic orange glitters really shine (hee) in direct natural light.

Now for a little lesson on lacquerista vernacular (because sometimes my mom reads this): “ISO” stands for “in search of”, and is used on message boards and such to express a strong desire to own a certain polish. These are often small batch polishes that aren’t widely available or have been discontinued by the maker. A desperate lacquerista might resort to some pretty drastic measures to own it, hence the name of this polish. We all have a polish we’d sell our souls to own. Mine is Lobster Roll from Enchanted Polish. You don’t know the horrible things I’d do for it.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Discontinued Limited Edition

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

All right, I know it’s just barely September, and I know it won’t be Halloween for quite some time, and yet I’m wearing Halloween polish. As I’m going down the Polish List, I’ll be running into some seasonal confusion. It’s going to happen. It’s only going to be weird if we let it be.

This beauty is called Discontinued Limited Edition, and was part of Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Nail Polish Frights collection from last fall. As you can guess, this polish was a discontinued limited edition, which is truly horrific. I’m wearing three coats of Discontinued Limited Edition with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

Discontinued Limited Edition is a black linear holo with orange shimmer. It’s gorgeous, right? We all know black holos are amazing and perfect, but this one has a little extra, this bit of orange peeking out from the center of the linear rainbow. It’s not always obvious, and it doesn’t appear in all lighting conditions, but it’s glorious when it does. It’s just enough to make it subtly but unmistakably Halloweeny.

I found the consistency to be a bit thick, but this means it was opaque in two coats, and was still quite easy to work with. It dried quickly. It dries with a bit of a shine, and the holo effect was still pretty strong without the topcoat, but the topcoat really brings out the orange shimmer.

I only took outdoor photos today. Holo photos in the studio never turn out well, so I decided to not to bore you with them. It’s been mostly cloudy all day, but there was one somewhat-sunny patch in the backyard, so I went for it. It served me well, but I really want to see that orange shimmer in direct sunlight.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Self-Satisfied

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Swatch Saturday this week is glitter chaos! I’m wearing Self-Satisfied from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer, a smorgasbord of neon glitters. I’m wearing one dabbed coat over Eaton Terrace from Nails Inc., and Saltwater Taffy and Skylight from Cover Girl, topped with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

BEGL describes Self-Satisfied as a glitter topper “predominantly yellow and green neon glitters with pink, blue, orange, and purple neon glitters, baby blue holo moons, fuchsia dots, and silver holo butterflies”. I’m not sure it’s possible to count every size, color, and type of glitter in this bottle. Attempting to do so would probably result in some kind of head-clutching space madness.

Since I dabbed this polish on, I’m not sure how long it took to dry, but it seemed dry enough after a 15 minute drying period. The glitters spread evenly enough, but I will admit that I placed a few here and there, just to cover some bare spots. Application is pretty typical for a glitter topper like this, but the look you get is so unique and so worth it.

This isn’t the first time I’ve worn Self-Satisfied; I brought it on vacation with me a couple months ago. I took a picture of my nails with the Washington Monument. I’m wearing it over Julep’s Cody.

Self-Satisfied, and well as its insane pink counterpart, Watch the Walls, are on sale at the BEGL store for $6 each. I adore both of these polishes, and I definitely say they are worth grabbing.

I’m going to hijack the end of this post to say goodbye to an old friend. Last August, I bought a four ounce bottle of Seche Vite. Everyone thought I was crazy to buy so much at once, but I was living alone at the time, I couldn’t get to Sally Beauty whenever I wanted, and I got tired of having to buy a new bottle every few weeks. It was so worth the $15 I paid for it. Last Wednesday, I used the very last of that giant bottle. That giant bottle of Seche Vite has gotten me through nearly every manicure in the past year. Good night, sweet prince.

This is the day I got it. My polish is OPI’s Get Your Number.

My interim top coat is Color Club’s clear coat. I’m not sure if this is a full-fledged top coat, but it dries quickly and leaves a nice shine, and that’s enough for me. This is my first time using it, so I don’t know how well it’s going to wear, but we’ll find out. Either way, it’s fun using something new.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Skating in the Snow

Posted on August 23, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Thanks to Swatch Saturday this week, it’s winter in August! As I write this, my phone says it is 101 degrees outside, but Skating in the Snow from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer is keeping me cool. I mean that figuratively, of course; I’m so sweaty you don’t even know. I am wearing three coats of Skating in the Snow alone with one coat of Seche Vite.

Skating in the Snow is a white crelly with lavender and blue hexes, iridescents, and pink and blue dots. Applying this was pretty easy; some glitters sink, but that’s easily rectified with shaking and keeping it upside down for a minute or two. Otherwise, it can be tough to get the glitter to spread evenly. Apart from that, this polish dries quickly, cleans up easily, and is semi-opaque at two coats. Three coats, seen here, was a little too much. I covered up all the glitters from previous coats.

I’ve lived most of my life in Florida, so I can count all the times I’ve ever seen snow on one hand. I’ve been ice skating exactly once. I can imagine this polish as a winter scene, though: revellers in candy-colored snow suits, surrounded by white, laughing and enjoying themselves. I’ll probably never experience such a thing, but it’s nice to think about, especially in August.

In the sunshine, the crelly looks a bit more opaque. The previous coat’s glitters are harder to see, and the iridescents don’t shimmer so well. It’s still quite pretty, though. The whiteness makes my fingers look tan.

Final Word: Skating in the Snow is still available in the BEGL shop, and it’s on sale! Don’t miss out on this soft but colorful polish.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Blue Moon Over Georgia

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Swatch Saturday! I am super excited to try the polish I have on this week. Blue Moon Over Georgia is a special Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer given to me by Julie, the creator herself. When I visited my boyfriend in Atlanta last year, I got to meet up with her and have a couple drinks at the Brick Store Pub in Decatur. She gave me this amazing polish, and I’m finally trying it out. I’m wearing three coats of Blue Moon Over Georgia with one coat of Seche Vite.

Blue Moon Over Georgia is a deep blue jelly with sky blue dots, squares, and crescent moons, as well as a fine blue shimmer. Application was okay; the consistency was a little thinner than I expect from BEGL, and the first coat flooded my cuticles. I also had to fish around for the moon glitters, but that’s to be expected. It dries quickly though, and leaves a nice matte finish. The issues are pretty inconsequential. Coats two and three went on beautifully.

It has been a really lousy week for weather here; it’s been rainy and gray all week long. This means I don’t get to share any photos of this polish in the sunlight. I love looking at jellies in the sun, because you can see all the way down through the many coats and see all that glitter shining back at me. It looks like that’s going to have to wait for another day.

Final word: This polish is gorgeous, and I was so fortunate to get it.

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