Manicure Monday: Purple and Radioactive

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Happy Monday, Reader! I’m so glad to be back, and your reception to the new posts has been absolutely wonderful. It’s almost like I never took a break! For this week’s Manicure Monday, I’m wearing Digital Nails‘s Curie-oser and Curiouser over Sinful Colors’s Verbena.

Curie-oser and Curiouser is, of course, a polish made in honor of Marie Curie, the scientist most known for her pioneering research on radioactivity. The polish name is an Alice in Wonderland reference. This is truly a Digital Nails polish. The white and black glitters are the most obvious and true-to-life in these photos, but the finer glitters, the fuchsia and aqua, definitely look bigger in the photos. It’s not a wild indie glitter mix, but it’s very pretty and has quite a lot of dimension thanks to the finer glitters.

Verbena is the perfect companion to the glitter topper. I really agonized over what purple polish to pair with the glitter, and had my regular reminder that no matter how much polish I have, I’m never going to have every single one I need. Luckily, I found Verbena at the bottom of the stash drawer; my friend had given me a bag of polish she didn’t want, I just tucked it away, and rediscovered it while I was putting this manicure together. These two colors couldn’t go better together, and I’m so happy I found it, and grateful to my friend for giving it to me.

One more word about Curie-oser and Curiouser: it glows in the dark. I mean, if you’re going to make a polish for Marie Curie, you’re basically required to glow in the dark. I’m wearing two coats of it here, so there’s a very strong glow. I can’t wait to go to bed an annoy my boyfriend with my nails!

Verbena looks like it might have been discontinued by Sinful Colors. Digital Nails is currently on a break.

I bought these polishes myself. One with money, and one with friendship.

Swatch Sunday: Bliss Polish’s VIP in Atlanta

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Swatch Sunday!! This is a polish I’m very excited about. It’s my first-ever Bliss Polish, and it’s the first of the VIP exclusive polishes I got when I attended The Indie Shop Atlanta in March. TIS was so long ago; it was shortly after that when my lens died, and I only got to review one of my scores before going on hiatus. I had this fantasy that I was going to swatch everything I bought and get a lot of hits for VIP swatches, but alas. This is VIP in Atlanta; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Full disclosure: I thought this polish was called Up in Atlanta for months. I mean, Atlanta is up from Florida, after all.

VIP in Atlanta is a cool pinkish-taupe holo. Application was good; the consistency is silky and easy to work with, but I think I’d like it if it was just a tad thicker. I had no problems with it at all. Coverage builds very gently with complete opacity in two coats. The polish dries to a glossy holo finish.

I am so excited about this polish and I feel so guilty writing about it today because I wish it wasn’t an LE so everyone could have it. I love nude polishes when my nails are this length, because it makes them look even longer and more elegant. The holo is bonus.

VIP in Atlanta was a VIP-exclusive shade for The Indie Shop Atlanta. Other Bliss Polishes can be found on their website.

I bought the VIP ticket that netted me this polish.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype W14 7.0

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Welcome back to Swatch Saturday! Man, I’m excited to say that again. Swatching is what I missed the most during my hiatus. I’ve missed the excuse to go through my stash and try on polishes. I’d originally planned to bring you this swatch in March, but as you know, things happen. Anyway, this is a Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer prototype called W14 7.0; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

There’s just a little bit of ugly bottle syndrome, it’s still good

Protoype W14 7.0 is a gray creme with a faint smattering of blue-to-purple shifting shimmer. Application was very nice; the polish has a smooth consistency and was lovely to work with. Coverage was also good, with only two coats necessary for complete opacity, or even just one if you like to apply thicker coats. The downside to the polish, and likely the reason this isn’t the final formula, is that the creme is too opaque for the shimmer and hides it. You can just barely see it in these photos. The polish dries to a smooth, shiny finish.

I’ve got to say, gray has been one of the most fashionable colors for polish, and I’m so grateful. I’ve been into gray as a go-to for a while now; black goes with everything but is often too severe, and whites and nudes get dirty and sometimes don’t have enough impact. Gray falls perfectly in the middle, goes with everything, and is very stylish. I love it.

W14 7.0 is a one-off and I have the only bottle. Other Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are available in their BigCartel shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Pink Dreams and Real Talk

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Hello there. After six months without new content, wacie.com has returned! I have to admit, it’s a little strange to go through this process again. I don’t quite remember how WordPress works. I don’t quite remember how I used to go about taking the photographs. I got a little less meticulous with nail care since I stopped blogging and I don’t quite remember how to avoid ugly cuticles. I hope you’ll bear with me while I readjust to all this.

I burned my finger making crepes. It’s healing up!

Look how empty this bottle is. I’ve only used this polish like twice.

So, for the first time in six months, here’s Manicure Monday. I’m wearing Lynnderella‘s A Whiter Shade of Maybe over Julep’s Audrey with two coats of Seche Vite. Photos were taken indoors and in direct natural sunlight.

I have missed sharing my nails with you, reader. I still painted my nails a few times a week while I was on my break, but I stuck to some pretty basic looks like this one: one shade, one glitter, very little nail art. I didn’t do a whole lot of nail art to begin with, but I’ve missed it and can’t wait to delve back into it.

I know this combination is a little weird. I wanted dainty, and I got it, but the glitter is sort of invisible here. There are faint pink glitters that blend right into the base color, but the shimmers stand out where they normally might not have. I’m pleased with it. After wearing dark colors for a few weeks straight, it’s a great palate cleanser, too.

So I want to talk a little about the blog and where it might be headed. Before my lens failed in March, I was putting a lot of time into the blog, posting three or four times a week. I was working so hard because I wanted to compete. I wanted to see if I could make it as a full-time blogger. This break gave me a long time to think about why I was blogging, who I was doing it for, did I still find it fulfilling or not. I still plan to blog, but on a much more casual level. I want to try just exploring my nail polish stash and maybe try a personal blog concept again instead. I’ve also had time to reevaluate other parts of my life, and I suppose we’ll just see where blogging falls in with my new goals.

Audrey is out of stock on Julep’s website. A Whiter Shade of Maybe is for sale on Lynnderella.com.

I bought these polishes myself. Real talk is totally real.

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.

Guest Post: Boom Shaka Lacquer

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Editor’s Note: Big thanks to Karel and Boom Shaka Lacquer for writing this post! Please do stop by Boom Shaka Lacquer and show some love.

Nothing to Disclose

Hello there!  I’m popping by today with a guest post since Stacie is currently facing the “Great Camera Lens Disaster of 2017.”  I’m Karel and I am the head writer and nail polish addict at Boom Shaka Lacquer.  I’m so happy to be here today and I’m going to share with you one of my favorite brands of all time!

Today I’m going to review a polish from Digital Nails!  Now, Digital Nails was actually my first Indie Polish brand that I ever bought.  Five years later and I’m still a loyal customer.  Today we’re going to look at Ultimate Ginger:

Digital Nails – Ultimate Ginger

Firstly, let me say, this was an original version of this polish.  One glitter in this polish became unavailable so Raph of Digital Nails substituted another glitter and renamed the polish so while this particular version is not available a newer version called Penultimate Ginger (which to my eye is virtually indistinguishable between it and the original) is still available.

Digital Nails – Ultimate Ginger

Ultimate (and Penultimate) Ginger is a crelly-based glitter polish.  It is almost a jelly but it has a very slight bit of creme in the base so I would call it a crelly.  The crelly base is a sheer but buildable turquoise and it is jam-packed with glittery goodness.  There are white and yellow satin glitters, orange and emerald green metallic glitter, and itsy bitsy teensie aqua holographic glitters.  It is a veritable cornucopia of glitter.

Plus, this polish is based on one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes of all time, Vincent and the Doctor.  So this polish gets me right in the feels every time I see it.  I love when two of my passions come together, in this case Doctor Who and Nail Polish!

Digital Nails – Ultimate Ginger

Application on this is lovely.  It is a sheer polish so it does take three coats but they were easy peasy coats.  I did not need to fish for glitter or worry that I wasn’t going to get a nice combination on the nail.  It was not topcoat hungry so I was able to achieve a nice smooth finish with just a layer of my normal quick-dry topcoat.

Digital Nails – Ultimate Ginger (macro)

I hope that you enjoyed this post and I sincerely hope that Stacie will be back with you soon!  If you’d like to check out more of my posts you’re more than welcome to visit me at my blog and social media.  You can also get Penultimate Ginger and other polishes from Digital Nails’ shop!  I’ll include all the stalker links you could ever want below!

Boom Shaka Lacquer:

Website – Facebook – Instagram

Digital Nails:

Store – Facebook – Instagram

Manicure Monday: Feather Weather

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Happy Monday, reader! It’s the official first day of spring, and it’s time for spring manicures. Probably nobody was thinking brown for spring, but it’s what I’m rocking. For a change of pace, I got some feathers out, and there’s something about birds and spring, right? For this look, I used Model City Polish‘s Dark Roast, feathers from a Ciaté nail art kit, and Digital Nails‘s Spectraflair holo top coat for an extra holo finish. All photos were taken in direct sunlight outdoors.

Dark Roast is a great holo. It’s a rich brown, but the holo is pretty strong, and there are these tiny gold shimmers in it. It dries shiny. I felt kinda bad putting the feathers over it, like it was too pretty to cover up. The feathers were kind of a pain, and as you can see, it looks a little messy, but I’m rolling with it. I used the holo top coat over the feathers just to pull it all together, and I think it came out all right.

I heard a sad rumor that Model City Polish closed down, and though I haven’t seen anything official, I do see that their etsy shop is on hiatus. That really bums me out. Model City was one of the first-ever indies I bought from, they gave me my first press samples, and everything they made was quality. It’s sad to see them go. I feel like a bad fan because I’ve just heard about it.

I don’t know where to get Ciaté’s nail art kits anymore. Digital Nails’s Spectraflair top coat is sold in their etsy shop.

I bought these products myself.

Swatch Sunday: Baroness X’s Sakura Skies

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Hey reader! I’m so excited about today’s swatch. This is the first of my Indie Shop Atlanta purchases to make it to the blog, and it’s from a new-to-me brand. It also just came out and I don’t usually wear things so soon after release. This is Sakura Skies from Baroness X, one of the collaboration polishes in the most recent installment of The Color Box. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vive top coat.

Sakura Skies is a cornflower blue polish with flakies that shift from bright pink to gold. Application was easy; product consistency is a little thick due to all the flakies in the polish, but it wasn’t an issue. The flakies’ default setting is pink, and that’s the color I see on the nail most often; the gold pops up when directly facing the light source. The polish dries with a matte finish; I used top coat for shine.

If you’re unfamiliar with The Color Box, the box comes with five polishes that are all the same color family, which in this case is blue. Each polish is a collaboration between the polish maker and a blogger. The Sakura Skies concept came from xoxo, Jen. Jen and Baroness X made a great team, this is definitely my favorite polish in the box.

Outdoors, this polish is something else. The following photos were taken outside in direct sunlight. The shift is a little harder to get — it totally depends on the time of day — but it looks fantastic regardless.

Unfortunately, I just missed the pre-order cutoff for this box. The Color Box is a quarterly event; join the Facebook group to learn more about the box and to be able to vote on the color of future boxes. Watch the Baroness X website for overpour bottles of Sakura Skies and other products.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype JS 1.2

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Hello, reader! Now that the Indie Shop stuff is out of the way, we’re back to our regularly-scheduled weekend swatches. Today’s swatch is not an Indie Shop polish, but you will be seeing those in coming weeks. No, this is a Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer prototype! This is JS 1.2, and I’m wearing it at three coats with one coat of Seche Vive top coat.

Prototype JS 1.2 is a white crelly with a colorful mix of glitters. Application was easy; the product consistency was just right, and the glitters brushed on evenly. It doesn’t look like it in photos, however. The white base is pretty opaque and obscures a lot of the glitters, so that classic translucent crelly look isn’t quite there. The polish dried with a glossy finish and was smooth to the touch. I used top coat for extra smoothness and shine.

I don’t think I will ever get tired of crellies like this. I know I say this every time I wear one, but seriously, I still remember when these were the new hotness and every maker had tons of them. Makers are doing these gorgeous shifters and shimmers now, but the glitter crelly will always be my fave.

I probably didn’t need to take sunlight photos of this polish, it basically looks the same in both situations. The following photos were taken outdoors.

Prototype JS 1.2 was a one-off and I’ve got the only bottle. Other Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are sold in their online shop, though at publication time, they are taking a break.

I bought this polish myself.

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.