Manicure Monday: Neutrals and Glitter

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week’s Manicure Monday is a masterpiece. No really, I am way too excited about how this turned out. I had my doubts about pairing these two polishes, but they look so fantastic together that I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner. We’re looking at Sally Hansen’s Natural Sienna and Digital Nails’s Xiao Mei Mei. I have on two coats of each, topped by two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Natural Sienna is a shimmery, chocolatey brown that I like a lot more than I thought I would. I always skip over browns and neutrals because they’re not bold enough for me. I grabbed this one out of a sale bin thinking “Meh, why not”, and I like it a lot. The formula is thin but covers well. My only complaint here is the brush; it’s one of those wide brushes that’s almost as wide as my whole nail, and I tend to make a mess with those. Otherwise, this one is totally worth the two dollars I paid for it.

Digital Nails’s Xiao Mei Mei kind of steals the show here. Xiao Mei Mei is a nude crelly with orange, pink, and brown glitters. As you can see, it’s very sheer; my nail line is visible if you’re looking for it. I don’t even care about that. What I love about this is its simplicity; there’s just enough color to support the glitter, and it never detracts from it. Bonus: the nude would be my perfect nude if it didn’t have any glitter in it. It blends perfectly with my natural nail color.

My favorite thing, though, is how well these colors pair. The neutrals, the deep colors, the glitters, they all complement each other so well. Totally gorgeous.

I didn’t see Natural Sienna on Sally Hansen’s website, so it may be discontinued. However, Digital Nails has Xiao Mei Mei in stock, so grab it while you can.

Swatch Saturday: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Morning Light

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Okay, I’ve been really excited about this for a while now. I’m going to start swatching all my Blue Eyed Girl Lacquers! I should probably just rename Swatch Saturday to BEGL Saturday because I’m probably going to spend the rest of this year’s Saturdays on them. My first BEGL swatch, one of the first ones I ever bought, is a shade called Morning Light. I’m wearing three coats of it here with three coats of Seche Vite top coat. All photos were taken indoors with natural outdoor light. Also, given the relationship between bloggers and indie polish brands, I should note that I was not compensated for this post. I purchased this polish myself, and even if I hadn’t, that would not affect my opinions in any way. That said, let’s go!

As you can see, Morning Light is a very sheer pink with a red to green shifting shimmer. There’s a big variety of glitter in here: red stars, aqua butterflies, red squares, purple, gold, and holo hexes, and more. Worn on its own, Morning Light is soft and natural. When layered, you only see the shimmer and glitter. While I haven’t experimented much with layering, I expect it would look good over anything.

Here you’ll see it worn over Essie’s Fiji and The New Black’s Black. This is one quick coat of Morning Light over two coats of color. Note the green shimmer; it’s much more pronounced over the black than over the pink. However, over the pink, the glitters are more visible and more prominent.

This polish came to me at a time when I was new to indies and everything was exciting. I bought this for one reason: butterfly glitter. How awesome is that? I know butterfly glitter is everywhere now, but for me, this was big. It completely changed the way I thought about nail polish, and what nail polish could be. Unfortunately, Morning Light is discontinued. Sorry! If you liked this, you should check out the Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer store and grab the BEGL Winter Collection before it’s gone. Also, let me leave you with one last photo of my BEGL collection. Yeah, when I said it might take me all year, I wasn’t exaggerating.

Plus like five more.

Swatch Saturday: Black Bird’s Only You

Posted on January 18, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Here’s a polish I’ve wanted to review for a long time. This is a polish I got in a Reddit gift exchange exclusively for makeup and nail polish. My gifter was in Germany, and she sent me a a lot of good German cosmetics. Now I’ve developed a taste for it and I can’t get it in America. Surely this is what hell is like. It’s probably no surprise that I’ve wanted to review this one for a long time. Here it is, finally, in three coats, topped with three coats of Seche Vite.

Black Bird’s Only You is a cool blue creme. I think it’s what Neptune would have looked like if it had just a bit more pigment. The formula is a little on the thin side, but still easy to use and apply. The color goes on evenly and covers well; I used three coats, but I could have gotten away with two. It has a shiny finish when dry, but I’m worried about the wear. This may just have to do with my nails not being long enough to wrap the tips, but I didn’t expect to see worn-down tips this soon after putting it on. Maybe it’s top coat shrinkage. I don’t know. I’m kind of embarrassed to post them like this, but not embarrassed enough to redo them.

Verdict: If you can get your hands on it, I suggest you try it out. I really want more from this brand. The formula is lovely, the coverage is nice, and I adore this bottle design. If you’re German and you like me, please help me get a few more bottles.

Also, for funsies, here it is with accent nails. The glitter is a Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer one-off prototype with white shapes and blue to purple shift. Oh mama.

Manicure Monday: Kickass Glitter Accents and Blue

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

Today’s manicure is one of my favorites. I haven’t had a favorite in a really long time now.

My two colors this week are Sephora by OPI’s Skinny Jeans and Digital Nails’s Wibbly Wobbly. I really love how it came out. I thought the nails without the glitter would be too plain, but the colors actually work really well and I don’t feel like the rest of my nails are too plain. This is a fantastic match. Something else I worried about was the glitter going on too thick and making the nails fat. That didn’t happen the way it did with this glitter. I brushed the glitter on instead of dabbing it, so maybe that made a difference. I could have just Wibbly Wobbly as a glitter topper, but I really wanted that multi-layered glitter look. I’m pleased as hell with how it turned out.

Sephora by OPI’s Skinny Jeans, Digital Nails’s Wibbly Wobbly

So, a little something about Wibbly Wobbly: I think it’s the polish that sold me on indies. I saw a Reddit post with Wibbly Wobbly over black, and I’d never seen anything like it before: all those different glitters, the huge dot glitters… I needed it. I went to buy it immediately after, but I reigned myself in somehow, even though there was like one bottle left and it seemed like destiny. I couldn’t bring myself to pay ten dollars plus shipping for a bottle of polish. When I got a prize for being a finalist in a game design contest, all that went out the window. Ultimately, it’s this polish that led to my delightful indie polish problem.

Manicure Monday On the Road: Birthday Cupcakes

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

It’s my birthday week, so I’m visiting my boyfriend in Atlanta for the week. Unfortunately, this means I have one photo of my manicure, taken with an iPad. Unfortunately, it means I had to type this blog entry on an iPad as well.

They look kinda melted.

I used a lot of colors in this manicure, as you can see. Here’s a list:

Green: Sally Hansen’s Mint Sprint
Blue: OPI’s Eurso Euro
Pink: P2’s French Kiss
White: Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get
Accent nails: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES!

Several days before I left, I packed everything I would need for this manicure. I put all five polishes into a bag with my dotting tool, pointed cotton swabs and acetone, striping tape, tweezers, and whatever else I would need to successfully complete this mani. When I started, I ended up peeling off my old mani, which took off a bit of my natural nail, but it also meant I didn’t disturb my boyfriend’s six housemates with bad acetone smell. Also, since it was a mani with rhinestones, it also meant I didn’t have to go through the kitchen hunting for foil or anything like that. So I’d already started on a bad foot. Then when it was time to start the dotting, the dotting tool wasn’t in my bag. I went through it twice, I looked in other bags several times, and it was nowhere to be found. I ended up making all my dots with the end of an unwound paper clip. It definitely shows. While this isn’t some of my best handpainting, it’s not my worst, either. Actually, it may be my best. I’m awful at handpainting.

So, the polishes. Eurso Euro had a really weird smell, somewhat different from the usual OPI smell. Now that I think about it, I have a dark blue P2 crackle with the same weird smell. Do these dark blue pigments just smell differently, or what? It had really nice coverage, and was easy to work with, but that smell. I can’t get past it. The mint green Sally Hansen is an Insta-Dri, so of course it was opaque in one coat and ready to go right away. I didn’t use the P2 for much, other than the cherry on the top of the cupcake, but it’s probably just as nice to work with.

I think the glitter crelly, Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES!, kind of stole the show here. Yes, that’s butterfly glitter you see there, as well as stars in a couple different colors, squares, and hexes. It’s a limited edition polish from Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer, and you only get it by ordering the whole Buffy the Vampire Slayer-inspired collection. Holos aren’t really my style, so they felt bad for me and gave it to me anyway. It’s an excellent polish, and I kind of dislike how exclusive it is, because it’s the best one in the collection, in my opinion. If you want in on this or any of their other polishes (you do), here’s the link to the BEGL store.

I really hate typing on an iPad, so I guess I’ll end it here. See you guys when I get back from vacation!

Manicure Monday: Black and Blue Glitter Mess

Posted on September 23, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

So I’m really excited about this week’s manicure. There are some things I would do differently, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Also, I’ll be wearing my first indie polish this week, and mostly I’m excited about that.

I really love my polishes this week. Outrageous is a soft taupe with a lot of metallic shimmer that goes on opaque in one coat. I’m pretty impressed with it, considering I paid a dollar for the bottle. I really loved it before I put the glitter on over it, and I might regret it a little. The real star here is the glitter anyway.

LA Colors’s Outrageous, Pretty & Polished’s Boy Bleu

Boy Bleu from Pretty & Polished is one of the first indie polishes I ever bought. It’s meant to be a full coverage glitter, giving a granite-like appearance. Here’s where I messed up. I thought that dabbing the glitter on instead of brushing it on would give me the most coverage, and I was a little heavy-handed in my application. My accent nails already had two coats of white polish before I added the glitter, just to make up for any bare spots that might have occurred. Thankfully, I didn’t need it, but because the coarse glitter made cleanup difficult, you can now see it around the cuticles. I’m not even sure why you can see it at the tips. Shrinkage, maybe? I don’t know, but there it is. So with the two coats of underwear, the two very thick coats of glitter, and three coats of Seche Vite, the accent nails are much thicker-looking than the others. It kind of bothers me, but it’s not that bad. I actually put so much on that I could shape and mold it with my fingers. Good thing I did, I would have had some strangely shaped nails.

Next time I’ll apply the glitter in thin coats and hope to build coverage that way, rather than trying to load it all on at once. I’ll still probably end up with fat nails again, but it won’t be so problematic.

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