Swatch Sunday: Finger Paints’s Sugar Cookie for Two

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Swatch Sunday is fun today, because I’m using a brand I’ve never worn before. I’ve gotten a few Finger Paints polishes here and there at Sally Beauty sales, but this is my first time working with one. I’m wearing one coat of Finger Paints’s Sugar Cookie for two over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray and OPI’s I just Can’t Cope-acabana, as well as one coat of Alter Ego‘s She Shines top coat.

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Sugar Cookie for Two is a clear glitter topper with metallic bar glitters in gold, silver, and black. Application wasn’t as easy as I’d have liked it to be. I don’t know if the brush was just thin or the glitters just slip off the brush back into the bottle, but I had a hard time getting the glitter onto my nail. It didn’t spread well at all. I had to dip back into the bottle two or three times just to cover one nail. As a result, the glitter is really sparse in some places and clumpy in others. Overall, I got pretty good coverage with it, but I would have liked it to be more even. On the plus side, drying times were good, and the glitters feel smooth to the touch when dry. Also, the glitters are short bars, so they’re easy to work with. The longer ones want to hang off my nail like eyelashes, and I didn’t have that problem with these.

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I really like this look, all complaints aside. The glitters are super shiny and reflect tons of light and color. The combo is a little jarring, maybe, but I think it makes my nails look like luxurious little cupcakes. I’m a little curious to know what it would look like as a full-coverage glitter; I’ve worked with all-bar glitter polishes before, like the Nails Inc. Feather ones, and three coats covers up pretty much everything. This might look really nice at three full coats, though I do wonder with how this one applies whether it could achieve full coverage at all.

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Since I found Sugar Cookie for Two in a sale bin, it’s possible that it has been discontinued. Other Finger Paints polishes are sold at Sally Beauty Supply.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype JJ 1.1

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Swatch Saturday is here again! It’s been a busy week for me; in addition to my usual weekly features, I’ve been working on the Wacie Nail Company launch all week, so I’ve done a mani every day since Monday. Crazy. Today’s swatch is of Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype JJ 1.1. You’ll remember I wore this on Monday as part of my Manicure Monday post, and I liked it so much I wore it a second time. Also because it was next in the queue. I’m wearing one brushed coat of JJ 1.1 over Revlon’s Bare Bones, Deborah Lippmann’s Shape of My Heart, and Ciaté’s Sugar Plum, as well as one coat of Alter Ego‘s She Shines top coat.

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JJ 1.1 is a clear glitter topper with glitters that are primarily purple, bright pink, and deep blue. There are a few other multicolored surprise glitters in red, green, yellow, and aqua. The glitter applies very evenly, leaving a good variety of different glitters on the nail. I did have a little trouble with the glitter sliding into my cuticle, but I’ll say that’s a user error. Drying times were good; the lacquer was not gooey or tacky for very long. It’s very easy to use.

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In the days since I wore this polish the first time, I found out this is a prototype of a custom commissioned by Jackie, who is also in the BEGLove Facebook group. It was made to represent the beauty of Texas wildflowers like bluebonnets and paintbrushes. It’s a really nice image, actually. I haven’t been to Texas yet, but I can’t wait to see the spring flowers there. I can only imagine how gorgeous they are. The flower concept kind of makes my cityscape image seems lame.

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I guess less is more with this polish. Last time I put on two coats because I really wanted a truckload of glitter, but I lost a lot of the finer details. The smaller rainbow glitters are completely invisible. I can’t tell if I got any stars or any other fun shapes. I definitely prefer this look.

As JJ 1.1 is a prototype, I have the only bottle. Other BEGL polishes are available from their shop.

Manicure Monday: Skyglow and Yellow

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Manicure Monday is here! I think this week was kind of a dud. My base polish was pretty hard to work with and the mani quality suffers because of it. I’m wearing three coats of Sally Hansen’s Quick Canary with two coats of Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype JJ 1.1 on my accent nails. All nails are topped with one coat of Alter Ego‘s She Shines top coat.

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I want to love this mani. I love the big clashing colors, and I love the glitter and how it overwhelms everything else, but I had so much trouble with Quick Canary that I’m put off the whole thing. I just could not get it to dry. I guess it needed to be thinned; the consistency was thick, but was still easy to apply, so I kept going and put down two more coats. Then I put on the glitter and top coat. Those dried, but Quick Canary was still wet, and so while I’m trying to clean up my cuticles, my top layers are sliding around on top of wet, gooey polish. Not cool, Sally. I did the best I could, but my cuticles are still a raging mess.

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I’m glad the other polish behaved. Prototype JJ 1.1 is a fun glitter topper; I’ve nicknamed it Skyline because it reminds me of a night out in the city; the bright lights of buildings, the glowing sky, the feeling of being swallowed up by the tall buildings and swathes of people. I love the frenetic pace of huge and complicated cities, and wearing this polish is wearing that energy on my nails. It’s the one redeeming thing about this manicure.

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Quick Canary is available wherever Sally Hansen polishes are sold; I got mine at Target. Prototype JJ 1.1 is a one-off bottle and is not available anywhere else. Other BEGL polishes are for sale in their shop.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Sunday: Fantasy Makers’s Night Glow

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I know I said all the unseasonal polishes were over with, but I lied. Swatch Sunday’s subject is a Halloween-themed glow in the dark polish, complete with gravestone-shaped bottle. I’m wearing three coats of Fantasy Makers’s Night Glow with one coat of Alter Ego‘s She Shines top coat.

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Night Glow is a pretty typical glow in the dark polish. It’s very sheer; even at three coats, I can still see my whole nail bed. I’m not sure full opacity could be achieved. The polish did dry quickly and with a gloss. The formula isn’t bad, but I won’t say much about it; my bottle is pretty old — at least five years, if not closer to ten — and it was quite thick when I opened it, so I did have to thin it out. This is probably irrelevant. What really matters is that it glows in the dark. I got one good photo of the effect in action; it glows a vibrant green.

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I love glow in the dark polish. It is so fun and so satisfying to wiggle my fingers around in the dark when I go to bed. My boyfriend think it’s annoying but I love it. It feels a little weird, though, to wear such a sheer color without any glitter or other adornments. I’m wearing practically nothing at all. It’s like wearing a revealing dress, I suppose; when I first put it on, I’m a little insecure, but the longer I wear it, the more it grows on me, and at the end of the night I feel sexy and empowered. The analogy is a bit of a stretch, but I think you get it.

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Final word: the polish isn’t anything special. It’s probably the most available and affordable glow polish out there; I see it everywhere around Halloween. However, the quality is comparable to the glow polishes I’ve tried from China Glaze and American Apparel, so it’s whatever. If you need a glow in the dark polish, this would be a good one, but this particular one isn’t at all a must-have.

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Fantasy Makers is usually available in drugstores during Halloween. I got mine at a costume shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Plum Tired of the Cold

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The last winter polish for the season is finally here! This is Plum Tired of the Cold from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s 2013 winter collection. I’m wearing three coats here with one coat of Alter Ego‘s She Shines top coat.

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The mini-decant is courtesy of Angela at Older Ladies Like Color Too.

The mini-decant is courtesy of Angela at Older Ladies Like Color Too.

Plum Tired of the Cold is described by BEGL as a “blackened plum shimmer base packed with gold micro hexes, red hexes, diamonds, and circle glitters, wine and burgundy hexes, and black hexes and holo dots”. When they say it’s packed, it’s packed. The glitter is varied but still even; I might not have gotten one of every kind of glitter on every nail, but I got one on each hand, which is often enough that I don’t wonder if they’re really in there. The base color itself is pretty dark, which means I could only get by with one coat if I really wanted to. The coverage is buildable and the color darkens with each coat. The formula applies evenly, even with all the glitters. The consistency was on the thicker side, but that’s expected in a polish like this. Drying times were good; the polish dries to a satin finish. Top coat really brings out the shine in the glitters.

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While I loved this entire collection, the big glitter polishes were my favorites. Tacky Winter Sweater has to be my favorite because it’s pink, but I think this one is second fiddle. It’s a deep and rich color, which I love, and it’s full of shimmer and glitter and shine. It’s a beautiful polish.

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Let me get in one last whine about how much I hate cold weather: I hate cold weather. Lately, it hasn’t been as warm as I’d like it to be; it’s been gray and rainy and hovering around 65 degrees. It sucks, but it isn’t cold. On the bright side, since this is the last winter polish, it means we’ll have BEGL spring polishes to liven up the rainy days. I can’t wait to wear them.

Plum Tired of the Cold has been discontinued by the maker and is no longer available. You can buy other BEGL polishes from their shop.

I did not purchase this polish, but it was not sent for review or evaluation.

Manicure Monday: Serenity Gray

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Manicure Monday today is awesome! I got to pair a favorite creme with an insane glitter shifter. I’m wearing two coats of Sally Hansen’s Grey Area with two coats of Digital Nails‘s Serenity on my accent nails. All nails are topped with one coat of Alter Ego‘s She Shines top coat.

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I almost don’t even want to bore you with the details of my gray polish. I know you’re not looking at it. You’re probably not even looking at these words, and I don’t blame you. Grey Area is a warm charcoal creme that’s pretty versatile. It’s one of the first polishes I bought to use for nail art, and it does everything well, even water marbles. It goes on opaque and smooth and glossy in one coat. It’s the best. I love it.

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Serenity, the show-stopping glitter you see here, is one of the most exciting polishes I have in my collection. The shift is so strong and so dramatic, and occurs in any lighting condition. I cannot stop waving my hands around in front of my computer monitors, just to see it happen. It’s green-to-purple at most angles, and when a light source is directly in front of it, the purple-to-pink-to-gold happens. It’s incredible. I’m just going to stop writing now and let you drool over this glitter.

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I really love this combo. The gray is dark and interesting, and the glitter just makes my eyes fall out of my head. It’s truly stunning. I’m also a little upset I waited this long to try it. Also, I’m trying the accent nails in a different place today because I saw other people do it and it’s cute.

Grey Area is available wherever Sally Hansen is sold; I think I got this bottle from Target. Serenity can be found in the Digital Nails shop.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Sunday: Estée Lauder’s Black Plum

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Swatch Sunday!! Today’s swatch is luxurious and glamorous. I feel like such a Fancy Nancy with this on. I’m wearing Estée Lauder’s Black Plum; this is three coats with one coat of Alter Ego‘s She Shines top coat.

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Black Plum is a deep blackened plum (surprise) with a subtle lilac shimmer. The shimmer didn’t translate well to the nail, but it looks gorgeous in the bottle. You can see it somewhat in the sunlight (photos below), but in the studio it’s basically invisible. However, this formula was a joy to work with. I had perfect opacity in two coats, and the consistency was on the thin side, but not to thin as to be watery. My favorite thing about this formula, though, is the high gloss it dries with. This is some wicked shiny nail polish. In fact, I think I dulled it when I put on my top coat. It looks like plastic leather sexiness when it dries. It’s absolutely gorgeous.

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This is my first Estée Lauder polish; in fact, I don’t have much experience with the brand at all, apart from some lipsticks and skincare minis from gifts with purchases. This polish was also in a gift with purchase, probably the only thing from it I’ve actually used. I’m really impressed with it. I’m disappointed the shimmer doesn’t capture well, but I love it anyway, so much so that there’s definitely a trip to the Estée Lauder counter in my future.

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Here are those sunlight photos. You can see the tiny lilac shimmer if you look really hard. Otherwise, it just presents as a rich plum creme. I’m totally fine with this.

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You can get this polish wherever Estée Lauder is sold. I get mine from Belk.

This polish was a gift with purchase. It was not sent for review or evaluation.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Toasty Warm

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It’s another winter polish this Swatch Saturday! This is the next-to-last of the Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer winter collection from 2013. This is Toasty Warm; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Alter Ego‘s She Shines top coat.

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Toasty Warm is a deep and rich blackened red with red glitters. It applies very easily; it was almost opaque on the first coat, and had perfect coverage on coat two. The glitters are suspended well in the polish; there’s no digging for it or struggling to even it out. The polish consistency was just right, not too thick or thin. It was pretty quick-drying; it reached its dried satin finish in about five minutes. I added a top coat to really bring out the beautiful amber shimmer.

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I have a deep affinity for these dark and vampy colors; they’re so dramatic and striking. They also shine like crazy with top coat on. I love this a ton. I wore these colors a ton when I was younger, because I wasn’t allowed to wear black nail polish. Every time I wear a deep color like this, 13-year-old me is giving almost-30 me a high-five.

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It’s a little weird wearing it this time of the year, though. As I write this, it is 83 degrees outside. It’s sunny, it’s warm, it’s gorgeous. “Toasty warm” doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel right now; right now, I do not have socks on. I do not have on a hoodie or long pants. It did not take my 13 year old LCD monitor 25 minutes to warm up. This is the beginning of the year for me, when I can crawl out of my flannel and wool cocoon and bask in the sunlight. Unfortunately, I understand that a lot of you got snow on the first day of spring. I am so sorry. Hang in there, my northern buddies. This too shall pass.

Toasty Warm is long discontinued and is no longer for sale from the maker. Other Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are available from their shop.

This polish was a gift. It was not sent by the maker, nor was it sent for review or evaluation.

Manicure Monday: Pink and Nude Watermarble

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For the first time on this blog, I tried a water marble. I’ve actually tried some before, but circumstances kept me from finishing them. This mani didn’t turn out quite the way I imagined it, but it’s growing on me. My water marble was done with L’oreal’s Broadway Boogie and Sinful Colors’s Timbleberry. I have one nail each with Broadway Boogie, Timbleberry, and Ciate’s Love Letter. All nails are topped with one coat of Alter Ego‘s She Shines top coat.

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At first I was just going to do a gradient with these colors, and then put the glitter on top. I’m so glad I did something different. Gradients are just so easy; they’re my fail-proof nail art look. I used to be hooked on watermarbles and did them constantly, but as I started to wear more indies, I just got used to laying down glitter and calling it a day. It feels good break away from that.

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A quick word about the polishes I used: Broadway Boogie, a warm nude creme, really lengthens my nails. Timbleberry, a bright warm pink, is very vibrant, though faded a little in the marble. Love Letter, a shifting pink-to-orange microglitter, complements the warm and cool tones in this look.

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I would love to do another look like this. I used to do so much nail art, and now I barely do any. I kind of miss it.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Sunday: Emerald & Ash’s California Stop

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Swatch Sunday comes to you in a more timely manner today. I’m excited to show you California Stop from Emerald & Ash. It’s from their textured Road Trip collection. I’m wearing three coats without top coat.

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California Stop is a brick red jelly with shimmer and reflective silica beads; the silica beads are what gives this polish its texture. The texture is fine and still pretty smooth to the touch. I thought the drying times were good; my nails were bathroom dry in about fifteen minutes. Applying it was tricky; with all the beads and reflective goodness in it, the brush widened quite a bit, and was wider than my smaller nails. This made application on my thumb really nice, but made a mess on my pinky. I don’t blame this on the polish, just on my small hands. I got perfect opacity in three coats, though those who use lighter coats may need more.

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Inspired by the ever-present red stop sign, this color is the exact shade of sun-aged red found in signs all over my neighborhood. To me, it evokes childhood memories of being in the car with my mother, driving around in my grandparents’ suburb, seeing the faded signs, the palm trees in every yard, and the sun in my eyes. Now that I think about it, that car was the same color as those signs.

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The polishes in the Road Trip collection were the first textured indie polishes I’d ever seen, and I just thought they were really cool. They aren’t as coarse as mass-market textures, and they are beautiful in their shimmery monochrome simplicity. Also, at the time, I was getting ready to embark on a two week long road trip with a friend, so I was all about road tripping. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get any of the polishes until recently, and by then, three of the seven were out of stock. It’s a shame, because there really isn’t anything else like them in my collection.

The reflective effect works best in dimmer, direct light, so in bright midday sunshine, it’s not as obvious. Out here, you get the shimmer and color of the polish, but not the reflective effect.

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California Stop, as well as three of the other Road Trip collection polishes, are still in stock on the Emerald & Ash website. They are clearance priced, so it’s likely quantities are limited.

I bought this polish myself.