Swatch Sunday: Shleee Polish’s Beautiful Dreams

Posted on August 7, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Welcome back, reader! I’m excited about today’s swatch; it’s from a brand I’ve been dying to try forever! This is Beautiful Dreams from Shleee Polish; I’m wearing one coat over LA Girl’s Black, China Glaze’s White on White, P2’s French Kiss (pink), and Nails Inc.’s Baker Street (blue).

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Beautiful Dreams is a clear-based glitter topper with a primarily white glitter mix — shapes include stars, moons, hearts, dots, and clouds — with silver moons and stars, iridescent hexes, and a strong blue-to-purple shift. Application was good; I didn’t have to fish for the shape glitters, and the glitters brushed on evenly. Product consistency was also good; it wasn’t too thick or thin. It dried quickly and with a glossy finish; I used top coat for extra smoothness and shine.

When this polish came out early this year, I jumped on it. This was the first time I’d ever seen the cloud glitters, and I still get so excited about new glitter shapes, I have to buy the polish I see them in first. Beautiful Dreams is a great use for them, too; the overall look is ethereal and celestial, and the clouds just belong. It’s a perfect mix of glitter and shimmer. I am crazy impressed with it, as well as with Shleee in general.

The following photos were taken in direct sunlight. The shift gets a little washed out — especially in midday — but still looks gorgeous. You may also be wondering why I used a white polish as a base for white glitter. I think there’s something charming about white over white; it’s giving the shift and the silver glitters a chance to stand out.

Beautiful Dreams is currently not in stock; other Shleee Polishes are available in their etsy shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Sephora by OPI’s Skinny Jeans

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Swatch Sunday this week is a trip down memory lane, though maybe not as far back as we’ve ever been. Remember Sephora by OPI? This was a line I loved, and wearing it now takes me back to a simpler time when a nine dollar nail polish was a real splurge and top coat wasn’t yet a regular part of my manicure. This is Skinny Jeans; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Skinny Jeans is a turquoise polish with a greenish shimmer. Application was very easy; though the product formula is a little on the thin side, it’s still very silky and covers well. The first coat was nearly opaque, the second filled it out nicely. There are some slight brush-strokes, but they’re barely noticeable and fade into the shimmer. The drying times were good, and it dried with a smooth, glossy finish. I used top coat for extra shine and protection.

I believe this is the first time I’ve ever worn this polish alone with top coat. I think I’ve used it as a base for glitter once since I started the blog, but yeah. It’s a little weird. It’s yet another reminder that it wasn’t that long ago I was 25 and wore a lot of blue nail polish (without top coat).

In the sunshine, the blue is a lot warmer than it is in the studio, but the green shimmer is still as potent. It’s a lovely ocean blue in any lighting!

The entire Sephora by OPI line has been discontinued. You can still find bottles on Amazon.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Seche’s Collage Overlay

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Swatch Sunday again! Today’s swatch is Seche’s Collage Overlay! This is a serious glitter topper. I’m wearing one brushed coat over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray, Essie’s Fiji, and Ciaté’s Sugar Plum, as well as one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Collage Overlay is a clear-based glitter topper with holographic pink bar and hex glitters in various sizes, as well as large white hexes. Application was tricky with this; there’s so much glitter and it tends to clump together, making it a challenge to get even coverage. The bar glitters are pretty long in this polish and can be difficult to work with as well. You can see them sticking off the edges of the nail and into the cuticle. On the plus side, it does dry quickly with some chunky glitter texture. I used top coat for shine and smoothness.

So I really wanted to love this look. I really loved it the first time I used it; I paired it with a hot pink jelly for a sandwich, and it made a really great look. I love the glitters in this mix; I love how it’s holo glitter, but it’s not much like any holo glitter I’ve ever seen. The color is unique. I love the white hexes as a monotony breaker. I just wished it brushed on a bit better. It’s a mess.

I took some photos outside, and let me tell you, this is blinding in direct sunlight. Look how washed out these sunlight photos are. This will give you some indication of how shiny it is. It was kind of painful to look at.

Collage Overlay might have been discontinued by Seche. Other Seche products are available in stores nationwide; I got mine from Sally Beauty Supply.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Sally Hansen’s Magenta Moves

Posted on July 10, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Welcome back, reader! It’s Sunday, so it’s time for swatches! Today’s swatch is an oldie but a goodie, Sally Hansen’s Magenta Moves! I still remember the day I plucked this polish out of a Target sale bin. For this swatch, I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Magenta Moves is a bright pink creme polish. Application was a challenge due to the wide Insta-Dri brush. I love the product formula; the pigmentation is excellent, delivering an opaque first coat, but the brush was about as wide as my whole nail and made application somewhat of a mess. The polish itself, though, is very nice. It’s well-pigmented and opaque, and dries evenly and smoothly with a glossy finish. I used top coat for even more shine.

Let’s talk about the stained cuticle. I know you’re looking at it, I can’t stop looking at it, I’m kind of embarrassed about the whole thing. This is the unfortunate downside to the Insta-Dri formula. Because you get such fantastic one-coat coverage and strong color, you’ll also get some staining if you’re not careful. I figured this would happen, so I took all the precautions I could — I slathered my cuticules in oil before I started, and I tried my damnedest to keep the color off my skin to begin with, but because the brush was so wide and my nails are so little that it just happened anyway. And let me tell you, that pink stain was not easy to remove. I used a boatload of acetone and washed dishes, and the only thing that took it off was cuticle remover. It’s really my own fault for having neglected cuticles, but even so, let this be a warning.

Magenta Moves has been discontinued by Sally Hansen; other Insta-Dri polishes and Sally Hansen products are available in stores nationwide.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Mystery Brand’s Glitter Glow in the Dark Polish

Posted on July 3, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Hello reader! This Sunday’s polish is one of those fun novelty ones from around the holidays. I don’t have a brand or a shade name, just this cute pumpkin face — looks strangely sinister in the dark — and a dainty, glowing look. I got this from Rite Aid in Atlanta a few years ago, and that’s really all I can tell you about it. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

This mystery polish is a translucent glow in the dark polish with a fine iridescent glitter mix. Application was good; the consistency was about what I expected, not too thick or thin. The glitter is well-distributed and evenly applies to the nail. It’s very sheer, so building to opacity is not what this polish was suited for; however, this doesn’t have a grainy appearance that some glowers have with multiple coats, making it a good polish for layering. It dries quickly and with a glossy finish, though there is still a bit of texture from the glitter.

I bought these — I also have a pink equivalent — because I couldn’t turn down glow in the dark polishes with glitter. I’m not the kind of person who (usually) goes after novelty products, but these were so cute and not really something I expected to find, so I got them. I like how barely there it is; I forget I’m wearing polish at all. Even the glitter is inconspicuous unless the light is shining right on it. And, of course, the glow is pretty powerful if you’ve been holding it under the light. One thing I worry about is wear length and quality; a few hours after finishing the mani, I got a chip.

I took some outdoor photos. The sun didn’t come out for me today, but it looks nice regardless. These photos were taken in mostly cloudy conditions.

I have these polishes listed as Rite-Aid, since that’s where I got them, and there’s no branding or anything else on it. I’d love to learn more about who makes these!

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Rica’s Alchemical Seas of Hope

Posted on June 26, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Welcome back! Today’s swatch is a fun one; it’s my first-ever Rica polish! This is also a charity polish from the Lighthouse of Hope box curated by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. This is Alchemical Seas of Hope; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche vite top coat.

Alchemical Seas of Hope is a green jelly with green and gold glitters, as well as a fine golden shimmer throughout. Application was good; even though there’s a lot of glitter in the bottle, there isn’t a lot that comes out on the brush. Additional coats deepen the jelly while only adding a few bits of glitter. I kind of like this look as is, but I wish there’d been more glitter. The green jelly is wonderfully squishy. The polish dries quickly enough and with a textured glitter finish. I used top coat for smoothness and extra shine.

You might notice the edges on some nails to be ragged and chipped at the tips. I’m not completely sure what caused this. I can tell you that some nails have thicker coats of polish than others, and that might have led to easy chipping. Also, Seche Vite never seems to play nice with glitter jellies and crellies, shrinking the edges away from the tip of the nail. Either way, I do apologize for how terrible it looks. I didn’t really realize it was this bad until I took photos.

As I mentioned, Alchemical Seas of Hope is a polish in a charity box called the Lighthouse of Hope. $60 from each box is donated to I Need a Lighthouse, a depression awareness network. Rica had this to say about their polish:

“I named it Alchemical Seas of Hope because sometimes depression can feel like you’re in turbulent seas. As hard things may seem to be, there is always a lighthouse of hope in the horizon. Don’t lose sight of that.”

The Lighthouse of Hope Box contains eight polishes from eight makers, including Rica’s Alchemical Seas of Hope. The box is $80; $60 of it goes to charity. It’s available from the Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer shop. Other Rica polishes are available from their etsy shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Revlon’s Sweet Revenge

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Happy Sunday! Today’s post is a little different from the usual Swatch Sunday business, because we’ve got a twofer as the polish this week. Revlon’s French Mix set comes with two colors and encourages you to do some nail art with them. This set is called Sweet Revenge. In the photos below, I’m wearing three coats of each polish with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Before I talk about the polishes, I want to talk about the packaging, because it directly affects the quality of the polish. While this double-ended polish brush seems really stylish and convenient, I’ve had nothing but problems with them. The brush caps break and stops fitting inside the brush cap, or the polish itself dries out. Either way, the polishes end up becoming unusable. When I took this one out to use it, the brush to the purple polish was broken, and the pink polish was totally dried out. If you have any of these polishes and you hate the packaging as much as I do, you may be pleased to know that the brushes and caps from mini polish bottles from TKB Trading are the same size and will fit very well. This is how I was able to separate mine and save the polish inside.

The pink in this set, as I mentioned, was totally dried out, but I saved it with polish thinner. Because of this, and because I had to use so much, I can’t speak for the consistency of this polish, or what it was like before I had to thin it out. When I applied it, it was on the thinner side, and required all three coats for full opacity.

The purple polish is very opaque, and achieved full opacity by the second coat. The pink shimmer, though fine, appears best in lower light; the studio lights washed it out a bit. The purple polish was the best suited for nail art because of its opacity. Both polishes dried quickly with glossy finishes.

I did a quick skittle mani just to see how well each one works for actual nail art. The pink, though it does work for some things, isn’t thick enough to fully cover the purple, which is opaque enough to cover anything. I’ll definitely be using the pink as the base color from now on. Photos were taken in both the studio and outdoors in direct sunlight.

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Sweet Revenge, the French Mix series, and the double-ended brushes in general seem to be discontinued by Revlon, because I don’t see them on their website (good). Other Revlon products are available nationwide.

I bought this product myself.

Swatch Sunday: Reverie Nail Lacquer’s Secret Garden

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Hope you’re having a good Sunday, reader! Today’s swatch is from a new-to-me brand, Reverie Nail Lacquer! I bought this polish because I’d seen Reverie around the nail polish internet, and being so smitten with the sheer amount of glitter in their polishes, I had to try one. This is Secret Garden; I’m wearing three coats of Secret Garden with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Secret Garden is a deep green jelly with, according to the maker, a “pastel rainbow of glitters”. Application is good; though the jelly is dense with glitter, it’s very easy to brush on and apply; you get a great amount of glitter on the brush, but it’s never clumpy. I could have stopped at two coats, or even just wear one coat over a deep green creme like Zoya’s Envy. Three coats was total overkill. Surprisingly, the glitter lies flat on the nail and very little texture is felt with top coat. The polish dried quickly and with a glossy-glitter finish.

So I am astonished by how much glitter they packed into this bottle. It’s really incredible! There’s no dabbing or sponging to do here, you just brush it on and you get all the glitter you could ever want. I am so impressed by the formula. The intensity of the jelly color, the huge variety — as well as quanitity — of glitters, and the ability to apply it without issue, it’s basically my ideal polish. It may be the best glitter jelly I’ve ever worn.

In the sunlight, you can see the layers of jelly and glitter interacting with each other. I mentioned wearing this over a creme earlier, and though you could do that, I don’t think I would. Seeing the layers of glitter is just so nice. There is nothing I dislike about this look.

Secret Garden is out of stock; other Reverie Nail Lacquers are available from the Reverie etsy shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Island Girl’s Mahalo Color

Posted on June 5, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Happy Sunday! I promised an Island Girl polish swatch, so here it is! Mahalo Color was the first one I grabbed off the rack, so it’s the first one I’m going to swatch. Here is three coats of Mahalo Color with one coat of Seche Vite.

Mahalo Color is a neon pink creme polish. Application was all right; the polish was difficult to control at times. It would leave streaks in the color if you went over a wet place a second time, and it didn’t self-level, leaving some ridges in the color if my application wasn’t 100% smooth. Luckily, my top coat evened a lot of these problems out. The polish dries quickly and with a matte finish.

I don’t feel like this is very high quality polish. If I didn’t use top coat, I would have absolutely hated the way this polish looks. The matte finish wasn’t a good matte finish, and the unlevelled color made it look like latex paint. It was sad. I mean, I guess I shouldn’t be disappointed, since the polish is more of a souvenir curiosity than anything else. It gives my hands a good tan, which was something I actually didn’t get in Hawaii.

Something that really bothers me about this polish is that it’s not the same color in my nails as it is in the bottle. On my nails, it looks more red than pink. I mean, it’s still bright and neon and awesome, but it’s not the color I wanted. I decided to try Mahalo Color over a white base to see what happened. I expected it would be a little truer to the bottle color, but it’s not. It’s more or less the same, maybe a touch redder with the white base than without. Again, it’s a souvenir. I’ve got other neon pinks I like better.

Island Girl is available at ABC Stores in Hawaii and Las Vegas, as well as their website.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Rainbow Honey’s Sakura Matsuri

Posted on May 8, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Happy Sunday! It’s been a great weekend so far! My swatch this Sunday is Sakura Matsuri from Rainbow Honey; I’m wearing one coat of Sakura Matsuri over Essie’s Mint Candy Apple (blue), Ciaté’s Candy Floss (pink), and OPI’s Dutch Tulips (red), as well as a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Sakura Matsuri is a clear-based glitter topper with pink matte, red metallic, iridescents in blue and green, and pink and white flower-shaped glitters. Application was okay; it was sometimes hard to get the flower glitters, and when I did, I’d get tons of them, as well as a lot of lacquer on the brush. It was difficult to apply to the smaller nails, and took quite some time to dry. The glitter still had a bit of texture when dried, so I used top coat.

This is my first Rainbow Honey polish, and I think it’s adorable. I think it’s pretty unique as far as toppers go, since the flowers are the main focus of the concept, and quite a literal execution with the flower glitters. The polish is fairly monochromatic; the glitters all stay within very light shades of pink. The red accent glitters add sparkle, and the iridescent glitters add dimension. The flower glitters are always the focus of the look, and the other glitters don’t detract from it.

In the sun, you can see how the colors vary, and you can see the definition of the glitters best. You can also see how the glitter smudged the red polish. I actually didn’t notice this until I was processing these photos.

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The Rainbow Honey online shop is currently on hiatus, and I’m unsure whether Sakura Matsuri is still for sale.

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Category Archives: Swatch Sunday

Swatch Sunday: Shleee Polish’s Beautiful Dreams

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Sephora by OPI’s Skinny Jeans

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Seche’s Collage Overlay

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Sally Hansen’s Magenta Moves

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Mystery Brand’s Glitter Glow in the Dark Polish

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Rica’s Alchemical Seas of Hope

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Revlon’s Sweet Revenge

I bought this product myself.

Swatch Sunday: Reverie Nail Lacquer’s Secret Garden

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Island Girl’s Mahalo Color

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Rainbow Honey’s Sakura Matsuri

I bought this polish myself.