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The Indie Shop Atlanta 2018 Coverage

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It’s that time again: time for me to cover an event two weeks after it happened. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that I went to Atlanta for the eighth installment of The Indie Shop, and saw some friends and toured some of my and my boyfriend’s regular haunts. You also saw I posted a huge haul, and I’ll talk about that in detail in a second. For now, though, the show.

Packing!

My manicure. This is a drip marble done with Digital Nails‘s Island Sunset, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Peruvian Lily, Chaotic Glitz‘s Mythological Mushroom, Ever After‘s Peach Fuzz, and Philly Loves Lacquer’s June Bug.

Boyfriend and I drove up from Florida, which was a good five hour drive. We arrived around nine o’clock at night, and enjoyed a few cocktail and a pupu platter at Trader Vic’s. We always stay at the Hilton downtown just to go to this bar. This was the view from our room. It was a beautiful night.

This year’s Indie Shop was a little smaller than last year’s event with fewer vendors. Returning brands include Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer, Poetry Cowgirl, Turtle Tootsie, Chaotic Glitz, Crystal Knockout, Envy Lacquer, Ribbits Stickits, and Ever After. Fewer brands meant fewer booths, but since the turnout was really strong, every booth was busy the entire time I was there, which was awesome to see.

My first stop was Bee’s Knees Lacquer, since I was acting as a polish fairy for a couple of people after their event exclusive trio. This table was probably the busiest one; I had to wait ten minutes just to get the table, and another fifteen just to check out. I’d heard a lot of buzz (intended) around this brand, but I couldn’t believe how popular they were in Atlanta. They also win best shirt.

The line

I bought my first-ever vinyls from Ribbits Stickits! I meant to hit them up last year, but issues with my credit card kept me from it. I met Kayla from Creative Cuticles at this booth, only I didn’t realize it was her until later. We live in the same city, and I thought it would be cool to run into her sometime. Some fan I am.

Crystal Knockout’s booth was one of my favorites from last year, and I was excited to see them come back. I love these guys because they always bring tons of jewelry with them. Honestly, I was more excited about their earrings than their polish. I got like five pairs.

They weren’t the only ones selling non-polish items. Wax melts were hugely popular with makers, as were handmade bath and body products. Turtle Tootsie Polishes brought back their amazing sugar scrubs, as well as some bath bombs and lip balms.

Smokey Mountain Lacquers was a newcomer to The Indie Shop. I think I met the maker last year working for another booth, but her setup was great, and I completely forgot to photograph it. Sorry, Kim!

Envy Lacquer was another table I didn’t get to hit up last year, so I made up for it this year by buying pretty much everything they had. I got the entire Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil collection and the exclusives.

I think this is the point where I got too busy shopping and forgot to take pictures of the actual booths. The Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer table was another busy one, and I spent the most time here, as well as the most money. I even went back for a second round when I got a coupon. I’ve been behnd on my BEGL new releases, I had to catch up!

Every table was crowded like this one. It was hard to get in just to shop. let alone photograph.

Satnin was a new-to-me brand, and though they didn’t have a lot of polish, I was impressed with the ones they did. They had a lot of multichromes and I bought all of them.

Ever After was another table I couldn’t get enough of. I’d seen swatches of their O-pal-leeze collection online, but seeing the polishes in person pretty much guaranteed I was going to buy all of them. Between those and the exclusives, I got a ton of polish there. Incidentally, none of them are shown in the photos I took of their booth.

I love Poetry Cowgirl Nail Polish. Another Florida brand, they had with them a handful of exclusives, some leftover exclusives from previous shows, and previews of some box exclusives. I spent a lot here, and they gave me some freebies, too!

Chaotic Glitz was another table I couldn’t wait to get to. I loved their exclusives last year — I worked one into my TISA manicure this year — and maker Meagan and I have been in touch on Instagram the entire time. I love these guys!

Another booth I failed to capture entirely was Pepper Pot Polish. They were the last one I went to, and at this point, I was exhausted. I did so much shopping! The maker here said she underestimated how much inventory to bring with her, and had sold a lot of it by the time I got there; one of her exclusives was completely gone, and she was kind enough to take preorders for it at the show. I love when makers do that.

After I left here, I met up with my boyfriend in Decatur. We hit up some bars, got some food, and did some more shopping. I love Decatur, it’s such a fun and unique little place. Sunday morning, on a chilly, rainy day, we headed back to Florida.

Now, onto the haul! Not including the preorders and other things I had shipped to me, I ended up taking home 111 bottles of polish. This includes everything in the VIP bag. I got something from every booth, which I’m kind of proud of. Last year, I felt rude chatting up makers without buying anything from them. This year, I got to meet everyone and had a great time doing it. I can’t wait to go back next year!

Trying to carry all of this out of the hotel was a chore. I had to get a second tote bag. And, of course, I thought it wouldn’t be that bad to carry it all around with me while we hung out in Decatur.

My arms were sore the next day.

The VIP bag contained polishes from makers who didn’t attend the event, like Savannah Lacquer, Pretty Beautiful Unlimited, and Colors by Llarowe,

Here’s a photo of my little Decatur haul. I have been obsessed with handmade local goods lately, and so I picked up a lot of handmade jewelry and things at Homegrown Decatur. Those giant seashell rings are from Kismet Jewelers. They’re both amazing shops, and they’re right next door to each other, so you don’t have an excuse to not visit them both.

And that’s it! See you next year, Atlanta!

Update: The Great wacie.com Camera Lens Failure of 2017

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Update, May 18: Holy crap, I miss you guys! I miss my blog!

I wanted to take this time to update everyone on the status of wacie.com. I truly hoped that my camera lens issue would have been resolved by now. My autofocus gear box finally came in from China, but to actually do the repairs, I have to buy a screwdriver set to open non-standard Canon screws. Yep, this means more waiting, but hopefully it won’t be too much longer. I cannot apologize enough for this long hiatus. I miss blogging and I’m dying to get back to it.

In the meantime, maybe you, reader, will make an appearance here as a guest blogger!

As I’m sure you know, I use a camera to create content for wacie.com. I’m sure you also know that it’s not easy to manually focus a camera with one hand. This week, my lens’s autofocus broke, and until I have it repaired or replaced, I won’t be able to take photos for the blog. Until this issue is resolved, there will be no new posts by me.

This is also a call to any readers who are also bloggers. If you’d like to be a guest blogger on wacie.com, do send an email to the address on the Contact/Disclosure page.

Sometimes bad things happen to good cameras.

The Indie Shop Atlanta: wacie.com Event Coverage

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Welcome back, reader! If you’re part of the indie polish community, you likely heard about The Indie Shop event that took place in Atlanta this past weekend. If not, just imagine a craft fair with nothing but nail polish. The Indie Shop, presented by Envy Lacquer, brought polish makers and polish addicts together in one place for a few hours of shopping and socializing. I was lucky enough to go, and of course, I took photos.

My journey to The Indie Shop starts at a MARTA station, Atlanta’s rapid transit system. I was a little too optimistic on how quickly MARTA could get me from downtown to Buckhead, and I actually ended up being an hour late to the show and missed the early VIP shopping window. As a result, a few things I wanted to grab were sold out before I even got there. I love mass transit, though, and I make it a point to use it when I’m travelling around a new city.

I was really surprised by the crowd size. I got there a bit after 11:00; these were all early access shoppers. Every booth had shoppers, and every maker was busy talking to customers, and not just about polish; I overheard conversations about drunk accents, Doctor Who, and tattoos, among other things. Though The Indie Shop is a pop-up store event, it was very much a social event also.

The Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer event exclusives

I met a lot of new people and I had the opportunity to try a lot of new brands. The only maker there that I was really familiar with was Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer, and while I’d heard of most of the others, I didn’t own anything they’d made. If you can believe it, this is the first time I’ve owned anything from brands like KBShimmer, Colors by Llarowe, and Bliss Polish. I tried to get something from every maker — I felt rude chatting someone up at their booth for ten minutes and not buy anything — but my card got declined most of the way through and I missed out on a few makers. I didn’t get to Joy Lacquer, Envy Lacquer, KBShimmer, or Pampered Polishes, unfortunately. I really wanted one of those KBS rainbow scrubs.

Scratch-off cards were a big part of the event; they contained discounts for the event and individual online shops.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience at The Indie Shop, and if Boyfriend ever allows me to return to an event like this, I’d love to go back. I spent so much, though, that I doubt I’ll get to do this again as a shopper. Maybe Wacie Nail Company will be a vendor at some point! Sometimes it seemed like the makers were having more fun than the customers anyway.

I loved Crystal Knockout‘s booth, and I think theirs was my favorite. They had a wide range of products, from polish to body to handmade jewelry. They had these holographic Luna from Sailor Moon earrings that I totally regret not buying. And they’re from Florida!

Turtle Tootsie Polishes

These mani bomb cupcakes were irresistible.

Bluebird Lacquer. Lou was my favorite maker to talk to, she was super cool!

Let’s have a look at my haul, shall we? This was the first time I’d bought any polish in a year, and I’m happy to say I broke my no-buy in the most epic way possible. Fifteen of the polishes below were included in my VIP package, and I bought fifty more. I’m also trying mani bombs for the first time, as well as indie wax tarts.

These are the contents of the VIP bag. Since I was late, I didn’t look inside first, and I ended up with some dupes.

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer: These Be Rubies, Fairy Favors, Siren’s Fever Dream, Starlight in the Gloom, Elfdan Thrall, The Cedar Forest, When the Nights Grow Cold, The Siren’s a Callin’, Green’s Alexandrite With Me, The Color Box

Dainty Digits: Stream of Enchantment. There were two versions, a light and a dark.

Bluebird Lacquer: Realm of the Fae, It’s Fall Over Me, Shine Bright Like a Rhinestone, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Looking Spritely, plus wax tarts, soaps, and acetone additive

Chaotic Glitz Polish: House Gnome, Mythological Mushroom, The Dryad, The Xana, plus mani bombs

Colors by Llarowe: One Precious Daisy, Ruel Ghorm, Once Upon a Time, Guardian of the Forest, Genofeva of Brabant

Pahlish: Hempstock, Holland 1945, Raggedy Man Goodnight, Invisibility Cloak, Golden Afternoon, Go Ask Alice

Jior Couture: The Foulest Stench, Opal, Stevonnie

Bliss Polish: Up in Atlanta, Secret Groves, Fairy Castles

Crystal Knockout: Pegasus Landing, Magic in the Mist, Dryad Charms

Turtle Tootsie Polishes: VIP in Atlanta, Immortal Imp, Cherry Blossom body scrub

Ever After Polish: Woodland Nymph, Rollin’ With My Gnomies, Andromeda, Dark Forest, Magically Delicious, Peach Fuzz, Enchanted Brook, Unicorn Approved, Bold and Unwavering, Popular

Poetry Cowgirl Nail Polish: Faerie Whispers, Faerie Wishes She Could Be Here, VIPs Talking With the Trees, Find me a Four-Leaf Clover. Got the last one because it came with an extra bag of glitter. Like I’m going to pass up glitter.

Everything I saw there was gorgeous, but my favorite exclusives are Poetry Cowgirl’s Faerie Whispers and Color by Llarowe’s Genofeva of Bravant. Other favorites include Bluebird’s Shine Bright Like a Rhinestone, Pahlish’s Invisibility Cloak, and Baroness X’s Sakura Skies from the Color Box. I’m looking forward to swatching these guys in the future; I’ve had to shake up my Swatch Sunday schedule after buying all these, so you’ll get to see some of them soon.

Oh, and remember how I said I had some extra bottles of things? It just so happens that wacie.com‘s fourth anniversary was the same day as The Indie Shop, so look for a giveaway in the next few days. I’m putting together a package that will include a few things from my Indie Shop VIP bag, some Wacie Nail Company exclusives, and some other fun things I can find. I think you’ll enjoy it.

I bought these polishes myself.
Yes, all of them.

Guest Post for Secretary’s Nail Art

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Hello reader! I hope you like guest posts, because I’ve got another one to share. Dina from Secretary’s Nail Art recently had a baby, and I got to step in and help her out. It’s look that’s a little of everything, but mostly it’s pink.

Follow the link to see more!

A Look Back at 2016

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Hello reader! Now that 2016 is behind us, I wanted to look back on some of my blog highlights and share my favorite nail art looks, and maybe share some of my 2017 blogging goals with you. I guess I could have waited to do this on my blog-versary in March, but it feels more appropriate to do it now.

January: Elevated Gradient

February: Neon Satisfaction

You’ll notice these photos are tiny. Why? Because in March, The Great wacie.com Server Crash of 2016 happened! My webhost had a hardware failure, and for whatever reason, several months of posts were lost and had to be pieced back together with images and text cached by Google. It was an extremely frustrating and embarrassing time for me.

March: Spring Hibiscus

I miss these long nails.

This is probably my favorite look of the year.

Third Anniversary Do-Over

I mentioned earlier that my blog’s anniversary is in March. For last year’s anniversary, I recreated the first-ever mani I posted on my blog. I don’t know yet what I’ll do for my fourth year, but it’ll probably be awesome.

April: Dusty Watermarble

May: Neon Splatter

I went to Hawaii in May. As a result, this is my least active month on the blog for the year.

June: Orange Jello Sandwich

My first Empties Roundup post was also in June.

July: Beyond

August: Ombre Hearts

September: Popples

October: Stripey Blue Frosting

This was a look I did to celebrate my birthday.

November: Ruby Opal

December: White Snow Blue Lava

So there’s my year! This was probably the busiest year for the blog, since I broadened my sujects quite a lot. I did tons of swatches and nail art, but I also ventured into product reviews and makeup talk. I don’t think this will ever become a full lifestyle or beauty blog, but I’m definitely having fun with it in this format. I’m kind of excited to see what it’ll evolve into in 2017. Here are a few beauty goals I have in mind, though.

1. Write more
I wrote 175 posts in 2016, averaging about 14 per month. It doesn’t sound like much to me, like I did way more work than that, especially when it started to feel stressful. That said, I’d like to do at least one more post every week.

1b. Write on my other blog more
I have a second blog that I want to start posting to more. It’s been so long since I’ve bothered with it that I don’t even remember the login credentials. I still want a place to talk about myself and my life, a place to seem like I have a life away from my nails.

2. Build a real skincare routine
I still feel insecure about my skin. I’m frustrated that I’m 31 and I still get acne. I want to take every preventative measure I can against wrinkles and anti-aging. I also want to try a 10-step Asian beauty routine. If you’re over 30 with oily skin and hormonal acne, I want your recommendations.

3. Stop competing
I know one of the big rules of blogging is not to compare your success with others’, but I feel so competitive about it. At the risk of sounding whiny, I always look at other bloggers who’ve been working on their blogs for about as long as I have, and watching their blogs grow faster than mine is kind of frustrating. I don’t want to feel like that anymore.

4. Do more real nail art
I love glitter toppers and I think I use at least one every week, but sometimes it feels lazy. I want to go back to the basics: watermarbling, gradients, dotting. I love my glitters, but it’s starting to feel like a cop-out.

I think that’s it! Anyway, I think 2017 is going to be an exciting year, and I’m looking forward to the good times, the challenges, and the time we spend together. Thanks for reading!

Birthday Mani Digest 2016

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Welcome back, reader! As you know, I took a bit of time off these past couple weeks to celebrate my birthday. It was only supposed to be one, but the arrival of Hurricane Matthew led to everything being postponed. That madness is now over, and now I’d like to show you what my nails were up to during the downtime. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen most of these lovelies already. I promise I will not be mentioning my birthday again until next October.

Birthday Mani #1: Pink Frosting With Sprinkles
Essie’s Good Morning Hope with Lynnderella‘s Icing Glass Garland

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The first birthday mani was a fun warm-up with an untried Lynnderella topper. I had a lot of fun wearing this; Icing Glass Garland was a lot more interesting in real life, however. There is a lot of iridescence and color-changiness. It doesn’t look like much over Good Morning Hope, but it still made for a fun and dainty look.

Birthday Mani #2: Cupcakes
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Eleanor, China Glaze’s White on White, LA Girl’s Black, Orly’s Water Lily, P2’s French Kiss, Ciate’s Pillow Fight

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I always do cupcakes to celebrate my birthday, and this year’s mani was actually done in the middle of the hurricane. Even though the hurricane was an unwelcome birthday event (thanks, universe), we still had a good time. A lot of our friends live in evacuation zones and came to stay with us when the call came to evacuate, so we still had a party and ate food and played board games. It was not the worst experience.

Birthday Mani #3: Hello Dalek
Digital Nails‘s Hello Dalek

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This was last week’s Manicure Monday post, but I’m including it for continuity. Monday was my actual birthday, and it was a ton of fun to wear a party on my nails as well. When your birthday is on the worst day of the week, you have to party any way you can.

Birthday Mani #4: Glitter Frosting
Digital Nails’s Pandorica, Model City Polish‘s Sheena is a Punk Rocker, Wacie Nail Company’s Your Daring Escape, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Walk Through the Tulips
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This look includes the polish I made myself for my birthday! Your Daring Escape is a silvery-white holo with holographic glitter and pearl pink and metallic silver flakies. I wanted a holo-meets-glitter-gradient look, but as the sun never came out that day, a lot of the beauty got lost.

Birthday Mani #5: Stripey Blue Frosting
Literary Lacquers‘s Bluestocking Romance, Hard Candy’s Sky, China Glaze’s Mosaic Madness

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This was the mani I got the most compliments on for sure. I’d always wanted to do this moving stripes design, and this was the day I felt like dealing with the striping tape. It came out so much better than I expected it would, though I’m a little disappointed it smeared a little with the top coat. I’d totally do it again.

I also want to take this time to share some birthday manis of years past. I realized at some point that I’ve been doing the annual cupcake mani for five years now; the annual cupcake mani predates wacie.com, even. I love doing little retrospectives like this; if I’ve learned anything from this, it’s that my cupcake painting skills have gotten only marginally better.

2012
Colors Unknown, but probably all Sinful Colors

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Look at this. I almost don’t even want to share this, but we all have to start somewhere, right? I do remember waiting practically all day for the dots to dry, and they still smudged when I put the top down. Not only was this before wacie.com came to be, but I think it was also before the days of quick-dry top coat. Those dark, dark days.

2013
Sally Hansen’s Mint Sprint, OPI’s Eurso Euro, P2’s French Kiss, Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES!

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These look more like mashed potatoes than cupcakes. This was my first birthday post on the blog. Going back and reading the post, about it, I completely forgot all that stuff happened! I do remember doing this mani in Boyfriend’s tiny Atlanta living space, trying not to bother him and his roommate with nail polish smell. I got acetone on his desk and ruined the varnish. I still feel bad about that.

2014
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Dawn Breaks and If You’re a Seascape, Indigo Bananas‘s Moonlight (Clair de Lune), P2’s French Kiss, American Apparel’s Neon Pink, Essie’s Fiji, Ciate’s Candy Floss

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That P2 polish finds its way into every birthday mani, doesn’t it? I loved this look a lot. I totally wore it to a fancy restaurant. Here’s the post!

2015
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Ocean Warmed by the Sun, Digital Nails’s Purple Reign, Nails Inc.’s Pudding Lane, Hot Topic’s Light Blue, Estee Lauder’s Black Plum

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This is last year’s mani, and the mani that celebrates the big 3-0. This was also one of the last photos I took on my phone before Drunk Me left it on top of the car and broke the camera forever. Good times!

Again, a huge thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday; I cherish all of you! Thank you so much for tolerating all of the birthday posts.

Pretty sure I bought all these polishes myself.

Update: The Great wacie.com Server Crash of 2016

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I have to talk about something difficult today, and I’m not really sure how to do it, so here goes. wacie.com suffered a catastrophic loss of data this weekend, resulting in the past fourteen months of posts being lost. The web host I use had a hardware failure and lost all the backups, and I didn’t keep any of my own backups, so all that work really is basically gone. Google caches the pages without the photos, but recovering photos in their original quality is going to be a bigger, more difficult task. Please bear with me while I work through this. I hope to be able to restore a majority of the posts in the future. I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience.

I’m just really disappointed about the whole thing. wacie.com is a big part of my life, something I spend a great deal of time on each day, and I’m so sad and so frustrated to have a year’s work suddenly be lost forever. Moving forward, I’ll do as much as I can while maintaining the regular posting schedule. I’ll redo any swatches I can’t recover. I want wacie.com to continue to be a resource for indie nail polish info, so that’s why I won’t be giving up on it. I just wanted to apologize and get back to work.

March 19th Update: The blog is mostly restored now. I scraped what I could from Google’s cached pages; I got all the text back, and I got mostly-complete sets of thumbnails of images. If you’re a maker and need better-quality photos of swatches, please contact me. Otherwise, I hope the restored entries, though compromised, are still helpful and relevant. Thanks for understanding.

wacie.com Third Year Anniversary Post!

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Happy Friday, reader! I don’t typically post on Fridays, but today is a special day: it’s the third anniversary of wacie.com! This is a huge day for us, and I couldn’t be more excited to bring you this post. It’s been quite a ride, and I’m so glad you’ve been a part of it.

On March 11, 2013, I posted my first-ever Manicure Monday post. I think I’d posted a few posts before that, but as wacie.com became more nail-oriented, I took them down and began to focus on nails exclusively. I’d been experimenting with nail art for a couple of years by the time I started the blog, and actually starting the blog helped me get better at it. My nails look and feel healthier, my application skills have gotten better, and I think the quality of the blog has improved, too. Three years is a lot of time for improvement, after all.

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In honor of the anniversary, I’ve decided to recreate the first manicure I ever posted. Just like last time, here’s a gradient done with Disney Villains’s Cruella de Vil with a Maybelline mystery red, along with a coat of Seche Vite top coat and Ciaté’s Mattenificent matte top coat.

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When I go back and read about the early version of this manicure, it sounds like I had a hard time with it; my mystery red was thick as molasses and cleanup was a challenge. I had just as much trouble with it this go-around. I’d thinned the mystery polish — polish thinner is something I’ve discovered since I did that manicure — but I still had trouble sponging it on. I didn’t get the contrast I got last time. I ran out of foam eyeshadow sponges I usually use for gradients and had to use the foundation blending sponges, which not only made my hands look like I’d committed a horrible crime, but made cleanup a huge ordeal. On top of that, because I did the mani from memory before I looked at the old post, I see I got the colors in the wrong order. I’m not even mad about that, because meh, close enough.

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What really gets me is that the matte coat left those white spots on my nails again. The manicure looked great — exactly like the first time should have looked — until I applied the matte top coat. I was so frustrated and upset that I just threw it away. I hate tossing a nearly-full product, but I just can’t let it ruin any more manicures. I thought about redoing them, but decided I’d just leave it, as a sort of humble reminder of where I came from as a blogger. No matter how long I keep this blog, I’ll always have room to improve. Maybe on my fourth anniversary, I’ll finally get it right.

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Here are some sunlight photos; it rained the last time I did this mani. In the sun, the glitter is a bit invisible, but still manages to sparkle a bit.

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On my past anniversaries, I’ve posted graphs and little data tidbits about the blog and what I’ve covered. I’m not going to do that this year, but I will share a few figures:
I’ve done 216 swatches.
Between swatches and Manicure Monday looks, I’ve worn Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers 108 times. Essie is my most used mainsteam polish brand at 42.
Blue is my most used color.
I now own more than 1,400 bottles of polish.

Thank you so much for making it this far with me. Thank you so much for making this blog more than a hobby, but a means to cultivate friendships, foster creativity, and strengthen a community where we all can grow together. Thank you so much for being a part of the last three years.

One polish was purchased myself. The other was a gift, not sent for consideration or review.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Dawn Breaks

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It’s Saturday, and it’s time for swatches! The lovely polish we’re looking at today is the penultimate polish in Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Far From the Sun collection; it’s called Dawn Breaks, and I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat. Also, because it’s been cloudy for five days straight, I wasn’t able to use sunlight as my lighting source, and had to rely on indoor lighting to get the holo effect to really show up. I apologize for any color inconsistencies that might have resulted.

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Dawn Breaks is a rose holo with pink and gold shimmers. Application was super smooth; the product consistency was like velvet, and the first coat was nearly opaque, with full opacity in two coats. It was on the thinner side of what BEGL usually produces, but was still very easy to control and apply. The holo effect is most powerful in sunlight, obviously, but still looks pretty good under the LED lights in my kitchen. In other conditions, the polish seems to have a metallic finish, due in part to the Spectraflair as well as the colored shimmers. The product dries quickly. I added top coat for extra shine and to embellish the holo effect.

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This polish is fantastic. The deep rose color is just magnificent, and the way it’s so well-pigmented without being goopy or sticky is just wonderful. The holo effect and shimmers are bonus; I would love this polish even without those things. It’s bright without being garish, so it’s kind of like a grown up hot pink. I love it to bits.

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Dawn Breaks is discontinued by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer; other BEGL polishes can be found in their online shop.

I bought this polish myself.