Manicure Monday: Multipass

Posted on November 3, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s the first Manicure Monday of November! I am so happy to be wearing these polishes today. I have on one coat of Digital Nails‘s Multipass over two coats of Essie’s After School Boy Blazer, topped with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat. Mul-ti-pass.

Sweater.

Multipass is a glitter topper based on Leeloo from The Fifth Element. It is described by Digital Nails as “a crazy clown car of color”, and was an attempt to “capture Leeloo’s essence in polish form”. The colors and shapes are evocative of her; blue glitters match her eyes, orange match her hair, white slices to match that weird flimsy bandage outfit she wears in that one scene. There are also some dark holo glitters and baby shimmers for added sparkle. If you ask me, this is spot-on. Digital Nails really nailed (intended) this one for sure. It couldn’t be closer to perfect.

Multipass was very easy to apply and dried quickly. I had no problems at all with glitters refusing to spread or thick, goopy base. It did eat up my top coat; I’ll definitely use something a bit thicker and glitter-friendly next time.

A quick word about my base polish: After School Boy Blazer is a deep blue-black creme. Application was easy, the polish dried quickly and with a high gloss. It’s very nice, but it was hard to clean off my cuticles. Maybe I deserve it for not being very careful with it. I chose this as the base because it’s the blue that interfered the least with the colorful glitters.

Direct sunlight.

Final word: I love this look. I am a huge, huge fan of Digital Nails’s glitter toppers, and I really think they hit this one out of the park.

Manicure Monday: On the 101

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Sorry for two late posts in a row; today relatives were in town. I didn’t finish this manicure until like seven o’clock today, and I just now have a chance to actually write about it. Today’s polish is one I love a lot, On the 101 from Wet ‘n Wild. I have on three coats with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro.

On the 101 is a black jelly with various sizes of metallic red glitter. Application wasn’t too bad; Wet ‘n Wild have their really wide brush, and I usually have huge problems with it; I get a ton of polish in the cuticle, where I need it the least. I didn’t really have that problem today, though. This went on pretty cleanly. The glitters are a little hard to get, so if you want to wear this alone as a glitter jelly, three coats is definitely necessary. Even with black undies, you still may want two coats just to ensure maximum glitter pretty. It also dries somewhat matte, so if you want high shine, you’ll need a top coat.

So this is one of my favorites. I can’t remember if it was late 2012 or early 2013, but I was living alone, and I was kind of using nail polish as a bribe to get myself to walk the half-mile to Dollar General to get cat food, ramen, cheap wine, and other broke girl necessities. Previously, the only nail polishes they had were many varieties of LA Colors. I’d already bought a ton of those, and wasn’t interested. In fact, on the day I found this, it seems like I wasn’t even interested in buying polish, I was just passing through the aisle and noticed the new Wet ‘n Wild display. This particular bottle was unlike anything I had at the time, and even though I’d seen indies like this, I’d never seen anything like it in a store. I had to have it. I don’t think I could have even spared the two dollars it cost me, but I had to have it. I bought it so long ago, but today’s the first time I ever used it.

It was late when I took these, so I wasn’t able to get sunlight shots of it. I bet this is huge in the sunshine though. It shines really nicely indoors.

Finally, let me apologize about the charm. Since I was using only one polish, I wanted to add something extra, but I don’t have any red acrylic bows, like I’d usually use. I had this cute silver bow, so I put it on with a tiny dab of super glue. I don’t know if I used too much, or if it’s a remnant from the last time I wore it, but there’s this dried white unsightly mess all around it. It definitely looks worse in the photos than it does in real life, I really had no idea it was there until I saw the photos. I’m really embarrassed.

Manicure Monday: Repurposed Top Coat with Resolute Glitter

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Manicure Monday! I had some fun with this week’s manicure. The holo polish I used this week wasn’t intended to be used as one, and I put a discontinued glitter topper over it. Here is Ulta’s Holographic “top coat” at three coats with Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Resolutions and Color Club’s clear coat.

This holographic top coat from Ulta originally came in a Nail FX set with three other top coats: there was a matte top coat, a UV-sensitive, a smoky top coat (which is a thin black jelly topper) and this holographic top coat. I bought this kit specifically for this holographic top coat, and I expected it would be something like a Spectraflair top coat. It’s definitely not suited to be a top coat. It is impossible to apply a thin and even coat over any polish. Thin coats are streaky and draggy, and even coverage requires at least two coats, and by then you’ve covered up whatever polish you were trying to improve. I gave up and decided to use three coats for full coverage. It looks pretty great this way. You’d never know it was meant to be a topper unless you specifically bought it for that purpose.

On the plus side, Holographic Top Coat does dry quickly. Application really took three coats, though. I was aiming for two, but even after two coats, I still had streaks and bald spots. Luckily, the third coat evened everything out. It would be a shame if it was still patchy, then it would be useless as both a top coat and a polish.

Resolutions is a glitter topper with mainly black hex and star glitters, but also contains blue shimmer and varieties of blue, pink, green and yellow glitter shapes. It’s a really fun look, especially with the silver polish; the look is cool, steely, and a little chaotic. Unfortunately, this guy is discontinued.

Final word: I’m surprised at how well I was able to take a crappy top coat and make a gorgeous manicure with it.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Sell Souls for ISOs (OBO)

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I got some Halloween costume catalogs in the mail this week, so it’s officially not too early to post this manicure. We’re still looking at long overdue swatches from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Halloween 2013 collection. This polish is called Sell Souls for ISOs (OBO); I’m wearing one generous coat of it over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray and Essie’s Fashion Playground.

Sell Souls for ISOs (OBO) is a clear glitter topper with orange shimmer, orange and black glitters, white skull-and-crossbones, and holo orange pumpkins. The skull and pumpkin shaped glitters were new at the time, and that was enough to sell me on this polish (or any polish, really). The description doesn’t really do it justice; you can look at the bottle and see a myriad of different shapes, sizes, and finishes of glitter. It’s a well-rounded mix. The skulls and pumpkin glitters are scarce, I fished for a pumpkin glitter for like fifteen minutes and the only one I got was the one on my thumb. They’re rare on purpose, so that they can easily be avoided, in case you happen not to like them, or happen to be wearing the polish in September.

Application was easy, but because I swirled the polish around so much fishing for glitter, I ended up with a lot of bubbles. The drying time was pretty good for a polish like this; I really blobbed it on and it was dry in five minutes. The consistency was a bit thick, and got thicker as I used it, but that’s to be expected from a polish like this, and is easily remedied.

Outdoors, this polish is amazing. The metallic orange glitters really shine (hee) in direct natural light.

Now for a little lesson on lacquerista vernacular (because sometimes my mom reads this): “ISO” stands for “in search of”, and is used on message boards and such to express a strong desire to own a certain polish. These are often small batch polishes that aren’t widely available or have been discontinued by the maker. A desperate lacquerista might resort to some pretty drastic measures to own it, hence the name of this polish. We all have a polish we’d sell our souls to own. Mine is Lobster Roll from Enchanted Polish. You don’t know the horrible things I’d do for it.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Discontinued Limited Edition

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

All right, I know it’s just barely September, and I know it won’t be Halloween for quite some time, and yet I’m wearing Halloween polish. As I’m going down the Polish List, I’ll be running into some seasonal confusion. It’s going to happen. It’s only going to be weird if we let it be.

This beauty is called Discontinued Limited Edition, and was part of Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Nail Polish Frights collection from last fall. As you can guess, this polish was a discontinued limited edition, which is truly horrific. I’m wearing three coats of Discontinued Limited Edition with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

Discontinued Limited Edition is a black linear holo with orange shimmer. It’s gorgeous, right? We all know black holos are amazing and perfect, but this one has a little extra, this bit of orange peeking out from the center of the linear rainbow. It’s not always obvious, and it doesn’t appear in all lighting conditions, but it’s glorious when it does. It’s just enough to make it subtly but unmistakably Halloweeny.

I found the consistency to be a bit thick, but this means it was opaque in two coats, and was still quite easy to work with. It dried quickly. It dries with a bit of a shine, and the holo effect was still pretty strong without the topcoat, but the topcoat really brings out the orange shimmer.

I only took outdoor photos today. Holo photos in the studio never turn out well, so I decided to not to bore you with them. It’s been mostly cloudy all day, but there was one somewhat-sunny patch in the backyard, so I went for it. It served me well, but I really want to see that orange shimmer in direct sunlight.

Manicure Monday on Tuesday: Celestial Gradient

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

So it’s been a while since I did a manicure like this; I haven’t been into nail art much lately, just doing the accent-nails-with-glitter-is-easy mani. I swatched Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Weary Traveller a couple months ago and wanted to wear it in a new way, so I did a glitter gradient thing with it. The colors in my gradient are Sally Hansen’s Black Out and Essie’s Urban Jungle, with Weary Traveller sponged onto the tips.

I wasn’t sure how to do this at first; I definitely wanted a look that would show the jelly properties of Weary Traveller, so I thought the best way to do that would be with a nude and black gradient. The first time I tried this, I couldn’t get the jelly sheer enough to show the nude without streaks. I kind of wish that had worked out. I also didn’t get a fantastic gradient since my nails are so short.

I used Color Club’s clear coat again this week. So far, it wears well, but it doesn’t smooth glitter out very easily. I don’t want to use more than one coat on a mani like this, since there are already so many layers. I’m also afraid of shrinkage.

I should really start doing nail art again. I forgot how cool gradients look.

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.

Summer of Untrieds Day 27: Matte

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

We’re nearing the end of the Summer of Untrieds! Today’s theme is matte, so I went with Ciate’s Chalkboard Paint from the Chalkboard Manicure set. I’m wearing three coats of it with no top coat.

Chalkboard Paint is a matte black creme. I had some issues applying it; in some places, it cracked, showing my bare nail underneath, like a crackle polish. Check out my thumb nail, that’s where it’s the most apparent. It’s also unforgiving; I tried to cover the cracks, but they just show through the second coat. However, it does dry very matte. It has no shine whatsoever, so it has that going for it, which is nice.

The Chalkboard Manicure set also come with four chalk pens for nail art, so I got them out and doodled out a rough vintage roses design. Really rough.

Manicure Monday: Monochrome with Accents

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Manicure Monday! Today I’m wearing Lost Soul from LA Colors, and my accent polish is L’Oreal’s The Sparklicious. I have on three coats of Lost Soul, one sponged coat of The Sparklicious on my accent nails, and one coat of Seche Vite.

Lost Soul is a cool gray polish with a faint silver shimmer. I’m always a little afraid of these LA Colors polishes; the quality is hit or miss. I’m happy to say this one is pretty good. The consistency is thin, but even; this actually looked pretty nice at one coat. That said, I still went for three coats, because I wanted it to be very opaque to support the glitter.

The Sparklicious is a clear glitter topper with holo silver bars with black and holo silver hexes. The glitter didn’t brush on well, and left behind a lot of clear lacquer. I don’t like to dab glitter on with a brush, so I brushed it onto a sponge and applied it that way. It’s not very even, but that’s not noticeable at first. The black and silver glitters complement the gray polish well.

I was hoping the baby shimmer in Lost Soul would be more apparent in the sunshine; it is just barely visible, but still more visible in the sun than in the studio. Those holo glitters just blow up, though.

The one thing I don’t like: when I apply the glitter this way, no amount of top coat can ever smooth it down. There’s still a lot of texture there. I’m okay with some texture, but having it on only a couple nails is kind of annoying.

Wacie Wednesday: Eclectic

Posted on July 2, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For this Wacie Wednesday, I’m sharing with you my first attempt at a colorful white crelly. This is Eclectic, so named for the variety of glitter, at three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Eclectic is a white crelly with pink hexes and bars, lime green hexes and diamonds, black shreds, gray hexes, and iridescent hexes. There’s a ton of glitter in here, and as such, the formula is quite thick, even after adding a fair amount of thinner. I like this combination of glitter; the pink and green give a soft look, the black shreds give it some edge, and the iridescent glitter gives it just a touch of sparkle. Even after all that, though, it feels like it’s missing something. Maybe the colors should be brighter, or maybe I should just leave out the crelly and go for a glitter topper. I’m not sure yet. This one is by no means finished.

Here are some photos taken in the sunlight. It looks a bit more lively here than in the studio.

I also went through many names, too, before settling on Eclectic: Conflict, Quartz, Pastel Badass. I like the look of this one, but I feel like it needs more work, and maybe a better name.

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