Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype PCFS 1.0

Happy new year, readers! My first mani of the year is a Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer prototype. I’m wearing one coat of PCFS 1.0 over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray, Julep’s Martha, and Essie’s Mint Candy Apple, as well as a coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

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PCFS 1.0 is a clear glitter topper with glitters in matte white, royal blue, pink, and holographic turquoise. Shapes include pink hearts, holographic turquoise stars and shreds, white rectangles and dots. There are also some iridescent glitters. Most of the glitters spread out evenly; rectangles and shreds came out easily, but the hearts and stars eluded me. Regardless, I still got a fun look and good glitter coverage. Drying times were fast. Application was easy. This was a pretty nice polish to use and wear.

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Because this is a prototype with a prototypey name, I gave it a nickname: RETROLOVE. I don’t know why it’s all caps, but it is. These colors together just scream Miami Vice to me.

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As this is a prototype, it’s a one-of-a-kind polish and there aren’t anymore in existence. Sorry! The BEGL shop will reopen on the ninth of January, with a new winter collection launching on the 12th.

Manicure Monday: Springtime in December

On this Manicure Monday, my manicure is all the things a December mani should not be. Not that I care. Pastels in December are totally cool. It’s warm somewhere. For this spring-forward mani, I’m wearing three coats of Sally Hansen’s No Hard Feelings, two coats of Formula X for Sephora’s Demolition, one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat, and one coat of Hard Candy’s Mattely in Love matte top coat.

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No Hard Feelings is a lavender creme polish. It sounds boring, but it’s actually pretty nice. The formula is very nice; it dries in about five minutes, reaches opacity in two coats, and dries with a glossy finish. It’s a lovely color, and I felt a little bad dulling it with the matte top coat.

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Demolition is the first Formula X for Sephora polish on the blog. It was also the first Formula X I ever bought; it caught my eye immediately because I thought it was an indie polish. No foolin! I don’t see many mass market glitter toppers like this, especially with hexes this big. Demolition has large hexes in pink and blue, and smaller ones in pink, green, and blue, and even finer ones in the same colors. It’s such a cool look. Of course, with glitter this large, there’s a bit of texture, even after adding top coat, especially since the bigger glitters stuck together and piled up on itself. It still looks awesome.

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So in all, not bad. I am still not a fan of matte polish, but I think with the satin glitters, it’s okay. At least it’s colorful.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Resolutions

It’s Swatch Saturday again! Today, I’m bringing you the second part of Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s new year’s duo. Released early this year, 2014 and Resolutions were released alongside their winter collection. We saw 2014 last week, so today we’re looking at Resolutions. I’m wearing one light coat of Resolutions over Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get, Julep’s Martha, and China Glaze’s Pelican Gray, as well as one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

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Resolutions is a glitter topper with primarily black and blue dots and hexes, as well as icy blue shimmer. There are a few colorful surprises: lime green diamonds, white blocks, black stars, purples, yellows, corals. I put on a very light coat, and I didn’t get a lot of the big colorful glitters. They’re kind of hard to fish out, and tend to hang out at the bottom of the bottle. A second coat would definitely have helped me out, and probably would have helped me get those big pink dots and hexes. Those are my favorites.

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As always, this is a dream to wear and apply. I could have used a little more glitter on the brush, but that’s not too much of a worry. The base dries fast, and surprisingly, the glitter is flat and smooth on the nail, which rarely happens with polishes like this. Even the big glitters are glassy smooth. It’s nice.

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Unfortunately, this is long discontinued, but a few of my favoritest BEGL glitter toppers are actually on sale in the BEGL store. If you liked this one, I think you’ll love those.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s 2014

For today’s Swatch Saturday, I’m wearing a polish made to commemorate the new year. Here I am, wearing it in November. This is Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s 2014, shown at three coats with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

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2014shift

2014 is a blurple polish with a blue-to-purple shift and iridescent glitters. The shift here is very strong, and pops out just about everywhere. The glitters are scarce, and are probably unnecessary with all the shimmer and shift. I like them in there, but I can take or leave them. 2014 dries with a satin finish, and with a very quick drying time. Consistency was ideal and application was very easy.

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So let me tell you about this shift. Good lord, this shift. When I say it’s strong, I mean it’s strong, like a stiff drink strong. I can’t stop looking at my nails because they’re a different color every time I look at them. Sometimes they’re emitting this icy blue shimmer, sometimes it’s a vibrant violet. I never know which I’m going to get, but I know it’s always going to be gorgeous.

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2014 was released on its own, but also had a companion polish called Resolutions that we’ll see next week.Unfortunately, both are discontinued. Keep your eyes peeled in blog sales, though; this isn’t one you want to let slip by again. If you liked 2014, you might like a currently-available BEGL called Just Admiring Your Skills, Sweetie. It’s more purple than blue, but it also has an unbelievable shift. You should grab that one, too.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Electric Icicle

It’s another wintry delight this Swatch Saturday! Today we’re looking at the second half of the winter duo Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer released last year. We saw and loved Untrodden Snow; let’s have a look at Electric Icicle. I’m wearing two coats of Electric Icicle over Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get, Essie’s Marathin, and Julep’s Dianna, as well as one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro.

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Electric Icicle is a clear glitter topper made with “bright blue holo hexes, rainbow iridecent hexes and squares, silver holo hexes and tiny diamonds, and blue holo stars”. I wore two coats because the all the good shape glitters were hanging around toward the bottom of the bottle, and my first coat was a bit thin on the glitter. Application was pretty easy apart from that; the glitters spread well and didn’t clump. The base dried quickly. I had no problems with it.

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I gotta say, this might be the best winter glitter topper I have. I’ve got a few that have icy blue glitters with silver, and even though they’re very pretty and they shine a great deal, they don’t have a whole lot of color. Electric Icicle is the best of both worlds. The metallic and holo textures of the glitters — especially the silvers — give the look some iciness, but the blue and iridescent glitters give it a lot of color as well. This is a mix that is all about winter, but doesn’t let winter bring it down. It’s amazing.

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I nearly swatched this on the pink and blue I used on Wednesday, Mint Candy Apple from Essie and Martha from Julep. They’re really soft but bright colors that make the perfect base for any glitter topper. I was afraid that it would look like the same mani two days in a row, so I went with Marathin from Essie and Dianna from Julep. I chose Dianna because I wanted the blues to be kind of homogeneous, and since Dianna is a dusty color, obviously a dusty rose would complement it. I almost feel like I should have chosen gray over white, but the glitter looks so perfect over white that I’m glad I didn’t.

Wacie Wednesday: Wintrella

The last Wacie Nail Co. (for now) prototype I’ll be showing you is Wintrella, a glitter topper made up of silver and blue holo glitters. I’m wearing one coat of Wintrella over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray, Essie’s Mint Candy Apple, and Julep’s Martha. I’m also wearing one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

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Wintrella has a lot of glitter in it. There’s very fine holo silver dust, tiny hexes, slightly bigger but still somewhat tiny squares, big silver hexes, bigger silver hexes, silver dots, blue dots, and silver hearts, but I couldn’t manage to get those out of the bottle. Again, they just sat in the bottle, mocking me. I couldn’t get too many of the dots, either, but at least I can prove they were in there.

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Maybe I’m glad I didn’t get so many. The smaller glitters give a minimal look that’s already quite pretty. The big glitters look out of place. Maybe they’re not right for this mix.

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Overall, I think it’s nice. I definitely want to take it back to the drawing board, but I think I’m onto something.

Wacie Nail Company news: I hope to have something in the store before the month ends. I have a couple of limited editions in the works, as well as a New Year’s Eve-themed collection next month. I’m so excited to be working on it, and I hope you’ll like it a lot.

Manicure Monday: Multipass

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.

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Sweater.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Direct sunlight.

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.

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News: Wacie Nail Co. for Depression Awareness

This is so exciting, guys! There is now a Wacie Nail Company polish you can actually buy. Yes! Julie, the owner of Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl and Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer, is holding a huge charity auction, with dozens of rare, hard to find, and one of a kind polishes up for grabs. One of these is the first-ever Wacie Nail Company polish to actually leave my house. Blue Skies Ahead is a silver linear holo with rainbow flakies that turns blue in sunlight and glows in the dark. Yeah, it does all that! I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

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Indoors, this polish is already really pretty. In the studio, the holo effect isn’t too obvious, but the rainbow flakies shine nicely. Then, when you go outside, this happens:

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Did you see that? I had to make a gif, just to prove that it actually happens. It’s a subtle change, but it does change. Then, when you’re in the dark, this happens:

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Crazy, right? It’s amazing! This polish glows really brightly in the dark, and glows blue rather than yellow or green. It only takes a few seconds to charge it up, and it glows for a very long time.

There is only one bottle of Blue Skies Ahead available, at it’s up for auction. All of the proceeds of this auction benefit I Need A LightHouse, an organization that raises awareness of depression and suicide prevention education. This is a cause that means a great deal to me, and I really hope you’ll help Julie and me raise lots of money for it. You can find Blue Skies Ahead and the rest of the auction here. Thank you so much.

Wacie Wednesday: Millefleur

Today’s Wacie Wednesday post is super exciting, because my brand new Wacie Nail Co. labels are making their debut on the blog! I am really excited about these, because labels were the last big hurdle to get over before I could finally open my shop. Now that I have them, Wacie Nail Company is super close to opening. We’re only five months behind schedule! To celebrate, we’re going to look at a new Wacie Nail Co. polish called Millefleur. I’m wearing one coat over Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get and Essie’s Mint Candy Apple and Navigate Her.

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This bottle of Millefleur was kind of a dud. The name suggests it’s only flower glitter in this bottle, and the swatch suggests that as well. It’s not true, though. Besides the holo red hexes, there are holo red hearts. There are pink glass dots in addition to the pink slices, hexes, and dots; those are also nowhere to be seen on my nail. I don’t know what the deal is with that. The flowers came out easily, but everything else was at the bottom, I guess.

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There’s a lot I could have done to improve this polish. Thinning it would be the best for it, I think; the consistency was too thick and dry time was rather long. It would probably help the elusive glitters distribute a bit more evenly. I’ll definitely keep these things in mind when I’m reformulating it. Maybe some color variety would help too; I do admit that I just dumped every pink and red glitter I had into one bottle. It could definitely do with some iridescent glitters, or maybe some Spectraflair. As it is, it’s rather one-dimensional, but that’s an easy fix.

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I’m really excited about where Wacie Nail Co. is and where it’s going. Big things are coming up, so watch this space for the big news. For real this time!

Manicure Monday: My Other Car is a TARDIS

Manicure Monday is really fun today! I’m wearing one of my first-ever indies, My Other Car is a TARDIS from Digital Nails. On some nails, I sandwiched some TARDIS-blue dried flowers between coats. I’m wearing three coats alone with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

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My Other Car is a TARDIS is described by Digital Nails as a “rich blue jelly base with royal blue hex glitter, deep ocean blue micro glitter, and holographic deep and oceanic blue small hex glitters.” The consistency is a bit on the thin side, and it could flood your cuticles if you’re not careful. I flooded one of mine, but it cleaned up easily. Other than that, application was easy. There’s not a lot of glitter in this one, but I think that’s intentional; I think this polish is more about the jelly anyway. I’m totally fine with that.

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The flowers were a last minute addition. Usually I like to add a nail charm to polishes that already have a lot going on, but I didn’t have any acrylic ones that were the right color, and I’d used my only silver ones last week. I looked through my rhinestones and fimo slices, and none of them were right. I had one of Ciate’s flower mani kits, and I forget what color it initially came with, but I knew the blue flowers were just right. I cut them in half and put them at the edges, but I wish I’d put on some whole ones. I was really afraid I’d run out if I used too many, but I had a bunch left over anyway.

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The jelly is perfect. It’s translucent, but the color isn’t watered down at all. You can see all the way through it. Even after three coats, you can see all the way through them. You can see the glitter, the flowers, the visible nail line. And since the glitters are the same color as the base, you don’t see much of them, only the shine they produce. It’s especially obvious in the sunlight. It’s beautiful. I haven’t yet tried it with a dark base, but I bet it would be awesome over the dark blue I swatched last night. I almost left it on to paint over it.

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My friend says my nails look like frozen raindrops. That’s cool too, I guess.

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