Wacie Wednesday: Dynamica

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s always a great day to wear red! The Wacie Nail Company prototype I’m wearing today is called Dynamica; it’s a strawberry red jelly with a smatter of holo pigment. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

This polish is everything I love. It’s red, it’s holo, it’s versatile. Because I’m wearing three coats, it’s visibly opaque. The first coat is quite thin, however, and can be used for jelly sandwiches or similar looks. It didn’t occur to me until just now to demonstrate it with a layer of glitter beneath, but I may do that in the future. I want to wear this again soon.

Dynamica is yet another holo experiment. I was trying to see just how little holo pigment I could get away with using. As you can see, this is rather delicate for a holo; there are no intense punch-you-in-the-stomach rainbows here, and I wonder if it can even be called a holo. Because the polish is translucent, the holo particles from the previous coats shine through, but they are now red, not rainbowy. It doesn’t serve that purpose, it’s merely a little extra sparkle to complete the look. Even in the sun, it’s still very subtle.

It didn’t occur to me until just now that this is a very similar color to Maneater, a Wacie Nail Co. polish I swatched last month. I wish I’d thought of it in time to do a side-by-side comparison. I did use the same red pigment for both, but Maneater is more opaque and warmer than Dynamica. They look like dupes, but they’re totally not.

Finally, a day where the sun is actually shining! This is the first manicure in over a week it wasn’t storming while I was taking photos. I got super lucky this week.

Manicure Monday: Heavenly Jewel Tones

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For Manicure Monday this week, I got to use a glitter topper I absolutely love. Revlon’s Heavenly is a beautiful mix of iridescent glitters. It looks incredible over dark colors; I wore it over black about this time last year. I decided to try it over jewel colors for a fancy, muted look. My under-colors this week are Zoya’s Envy, Revlon’s Persuade, and Ulta’s Moody Blues; I’m wearing two coats of each, two coats of Heavenly, and one coat of Seche Vite.

I don’t know what to say about Heavenly I haven’t already said. It’s nothing short of amazing. It transforms any polish into a shining beautiful mermaid. It’s so cool how so many colors can come from two different glitters. The first coat of it was kind of lacking, so I went for a second, and made a bit of a mess with it. That’s why my cuticles are so rough-looking. I’m a little embarrassed by it.

A quick word to my under-colors: Zoya’s Envy is a dark green creme that is the perfect base for this glitter. I almost used this color only until I started to wonder how it would look over blues and reds. Moody Blues is a dark blue creme that dries with a matte finish. Persuade, the wine creme, flooded my cuticles because it was so thin, but I’ll chalk that up to being a brand-new full bottle. All three cremes look fantastic in two coats, and all three work very well beneath this glitter.

One more thing: I did some shopping this weekend at Ulta, and I grabbed a lot of new hand creams to try. My dishwasher has been broken and washing dishes by hand every night is destroying my hands, making them red, flaky, and itchy. I fully admit to buying this Anatomicals cream because it made me laugh, but I really like the cream so far. I put it on before I go to bed, after I finish my skincare routine, and it makes my hands really soft and smells fantastic.

I almost chose pastels for this instead since it’s still summer, but I’m so glad I didn’t. I love this look.

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.

Wacie Wednesday: Esoterica

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For this week’s Wacie Wednesday, I’m wearing Esoterica, a jet black scattered holo. I have on three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

I made Esoterica when I was feeling particularly creative but had few supplies. Like many of my prototype polishes, I made it with what I had on hand, which was basically white and black polish. That explains the deep color. I set it aside, and when I got some holo products to experiment with, I got it back out. I was actually able to make three bottles of this polish from what I’d made before. Even after mixing it down, it’s still quite pigmented; one coat was all I needed to achieve the perfect opacity.

Unfortunately, it is not a sunny day. It’s been raining since I woke up this morning, and I don’t see the sun coming out at all, so I resorted to using the flash on my camera to get the good holo pics. I’m actually surprised with how well they turned out, even though the results aren’t optimal. Scroll through and enjoy the holo goodness.

The flash isn’t too bad. I’ve definitely done worse. The holo looks more linear here than in the photos without it.

I still want to experiment with other holo products, so this will probably not be the final version of Esoterica. However, this probably will make it into a collection sooner rather than later. You know, when I finally launch my company.

Manicure Monday: Glitter Explosion over Orange

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Manicure Monday is so fun this week! I’ve got two fun polishes, Wet ‘n Wild’s Orange Smoothie and Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s St. Nick’s Sweet Treats. I love these together so much. I have on three coats of Orange Smoothie, one brushed coat of Sweet Treats on my accent nails, and one coat of Seche Vite.

Orange Smoothie is a sheer orange with golden shimmer. I like it, for the most part: the consistency was about average, and it dried pretty quickly with a nice shine. The brush was stupidly wide and made a mess, so application wasn’t terribly easy. It is still pretty sheer; I can see my very thin nail line through three coats of it. However, it looks so nice when the light hits it that I don’t even care.

St. Nick’s Sweet Treats is a veritable glitter explosion. It completely makes this manicure. This is the glitter topper to end all glitter toppers. The glitters are mostly white, red, and gold, with smaller glitters in different colors and silver micro-flakies. I am not exaggerating when I say there is a little of everything in this bottle. It applies beautifully; what you see here is one brushed coat. There was no dabbing here, no blobbing, no sponging, no nonsense. The lacquer-to-glitter ratio is perfect. I had no trouble with this at all.

Unfortunately, it stormed all day, and so I don’t have any gorgeous sunlight photos to post. I know this would be a stunner outside for sure.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Monster’s Tea at Tiffany’s

Posted on August 9, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I love today’s swatch! This is Monster’s Tea at Tiffany’s from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer; it’s a Tiffany blue polish with green-to-red shifting shimmer. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Monster’s Tea at Tiffany’s is a really easy polish to work with. The consistency is just right, and it dries quickly to a semi-matte finish. Full opacity is acheived after two coats. All you need here is a top coat to bring out the shimmer.

What sets this polish apart from any other old Tiffany blue is the shifting shimmer. At most angles, generally when the light is behind you, you’ll see green. You’ll see the red when the light is in front of you. Mind you, I’m using studio lights to capture the green shimmer, and regular CFL lighting in my office to get the red. I could not manage to get the shift in the studio at all.

Because the light is everywhere outdoors, the shimmer doesn’t lean one way or the other, at least not in photos. The green is easy to see, but the shift, while it does appear to occur, is not very strong. The color itself, though, stands out beautifully. It is absolutely gorgeous out there.

I love this polish. I love walking from room to room and seeing my nails change.

Monster’s Tea at Tiffany’s is, as of my writing this, currently available from the BEGL shop, but stock is very low. Do yourself a favor and pick up this polish. It’s such a fun twist on a classic color, and you really need to see it to believe it.

Wacie Wednesday: Skybright

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Skybright is my Wacie Wednesday pick this week. This calm blue crelly contains three different colors of small blue hexes and squares. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

So there’s a lot of glitter in here, probably more than it needs. Skybright dries with a gritty textured finish, and is still gritty after applying top coat. Because there is so much, it does dry quickly. It dries semi-matte, but that’s tough to notice with all the glitter shining in your face.

I must still be bitter about having to cut my nails, because I can’t stop thinking about how good this would look on longer nails. The roughness of the polish is emphasized by the shortness of my nails.

At least in the sun this looks good. You can really see the glitter layers there. That adds a lot to the look.

I don’t want to down on this polish too much, because I don’t think I’d be being fair to it. I feel like there are a lot of factors keeping it from looking its best. I would like to revisit this in a month or two to see what it really looks like.

Manicure Monday: Blue Nubs With Glitter Accents

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This Manicure Monday has me trying to dress up my nubs a little. Actually, I paired these polishes months ago, and expected to see it on nails a little longer than this. Ah, well. On this lovely Blue Monday, I’m wearing three coats of Sinful Colors’s All Mighty, and my accent nails are three coats of Different Dimension‘s (blue) Da Ba Dee. All nails are topped with one coat of Seche Vite.

All Mighty is a deep turquoise polish with blue shimmer. It’s fairly typical of a Sinful Colors polish; I mean that in the best way possible. It’s opaque and dark from the first coat, the consistency is just right, and it dries quickly. I’m always surprised with Sinful Colors’s quality. Two-dollar polish should not be this nice.

(blue) Da Ba Dee is a blue jelly with different shapes and sizes of silver and blue holo glitters. Naturally, it steals the show in this mani. The larger glitters do sink, but they’re easy to grab when the bottle sits upside-down for a few minutes. It’s not too much of a problem. It’s also a teensy bit difficult to apply to these little nails; some of the large dot glitters are almost the size of my whole nail. I’m exaggerating, but you know what I mean. The jelly base is thin, so layering is very easy with it. It’s a very nice polish.

Not bad, nubs. Not bad at all.

Swatch Sunday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Is That a Technical Term, Jiggery Pokery?

Posted on August 3, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

So my swatch this week is something I’ve been dying to wear since I got it. It goes by the name Is that a Technical Term, Jiggery Pokery? (and will henceforth be referred to Pokery); it’s described by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers as “hot pink jelly base with silver, pink, and hot pink holo glitters”. What’s not to love? Then this happened:

Nail vs. Dryer door handle.

So, on my freshly-clipped nubbins, I give you Pokery in what’s left of its hot pink majesty. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Pokery is probably my favorite BEGL offering thus far. Look at the plethora of glitters in here; there are so many I can’t really even identify them all. I just know there are tons of butterflies, tons of stars, tons of shining silver hexes. It’s magical. Even though the colors don’t vary much, there’s still a lot of glitter diversity with all the different finishes. No nail looks exactly the same, because no two nails have the same glitters on them. I love that.

In the sun, you can see the glitter variety better. The pink jelly stands out less, and the glitter shapes more.

For now, Pokery isn’t available from the BEGL store, but I heard a rumor it’s coming back with a new Doctor Who collection in September. Definitely stay on the lookout for it, you need this.

I hate how short my nails are now. I still can’t believe it just ripped off at the base like that. This is what my nails looked like when I was a biter, and it’s not a look I care much for. They were the perfect length a day ago, and now they’re this. Regardless of my nail length, I’m super excited to be wearing this polish. Nails will grow back, after all.

Summer of Untrieds Post-Mortem

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

The Summer of Untrieds Challenge is now over, and I thought I’d present some final numbers and statistics to show how it turned out.

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from Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl

The objective of the challenge was to use at least one untried polish per day that fit the theme, which means that, at minimum, one would use 31 previously untried or unused polishes. I did not adhere to the challenge guidlines every single day; 17 out of the 31 manicures I did this month were done for the challenge. The others were previously scheduled regular posts. However, even on the days I didn’t follow the challenge, I still used one untried per day. I used 34 untried polishes total.

The following stats include all the manicures done in July:

Wacie Nail Company was the brand I used most often, and that’s because I have those posts scheduled each week. American Apparel and Ciate tied with four, and China Glaze had three.

Purple was the most frequently used color with six manicures. Green saw five, Silver and gray had four, red and pink each had three.

Some other numbers:
Glitter played a part in eight July manicures.
Four polishes were neons. Three were holos. Only one was crackle.
Dinner was late due to the challege about 50% of the time. Boyfriend was annoyed with me 100% of the time.
I would do this challenge again.

A big thanks, again, to Julie at Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl. I had so much fun trying out all these amazing polishes, some of which I forgot I even had. Thank you so much for creating this challenge; I hope you do another for fall!

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