Swatch Sunday: Deborah Lippmann’s Happy Birthday

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Stacie Wacie

It’s time for another Swatch Saturday. For this edition, I’m wearing one dabbed coat of Deborah Lippmann’s Happy Birthday over two coats each of Disney Villains Cruella de Vil, Color Club’s Almost Famous, and Ciate’s Offshore, along with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro top coat.

Happy Birthday is a clear-based glitter topper with a rainbow mix of metallic glitters. The glitters didn’t spread well just brushing them on, but dabbing gave me much more coverage. There’s a ton of glitter on each nail, but you can still see the undies. The glitters are very shiny, and very much so with top coat. Drying times were very fast. I’m pretty happy with it.

I am still a huge fan of these rainbow glitter polishes. Remember when OPI had that Muppets collection with Rainbow Connection? Would you believe I don’t have it? Would you believe that I had gone to Ulta, picked it up, held it in my hands, and then PUT IT BACK because I “didn’t need it”? That was the biggest mistake of my life. Somewhat luckily, the rainbow glitter fad caught on, and every brand had their own version of it. Deborah Lippmann’s take on it is pretty nice. It’s a good consolation prize.

I got my mini bottle of Happy Birthday in a set with She-Bop. I don’t think this set is around anymore, but you can buy full sized bottles at Sephora, Ulta, and (I think) Nordstrom. The good news is, as I mentioned, every brand has their version of this polish now, so you don’t have to drop twenty dollars on this particular one.

Also, quick apology for my cuticles. Every undies polish I used for this mani stained the crap out of my cuticles, and I didn’t notice just how bad it was until I was processing photos. I do apologize. I’m quite embarrassed by them.

Swatch Sunday: Color Club’s Wing Fling

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

For this week’s Swatch Sunday, I’m wearing a brand I’m a little new to: Color Club! I scored a few collection sets in outlet stores, but I’ve worn all of two since then. I see this brand everywhere, so I’m excited to join the club. Pardon the pun. The beauty I’m wearing today is Wing Fling; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Ciate’s Speed Coat Pro.

None of the bottles in the set had name labels, so I had to improvise. Behold my terrible handwriting!

Wing Fling is a sheer and shimmery magenta. Some of the shimmers even shift from pink to orange, giving it just a hint of duochrome fun. Coverage is buildable; I got okay coverage by coat two and good coverage by three. Four might be necessary if you want full opacity. This polish did dry quickly, though, and though it dries with a nice gloss, a top coat is definitely required to bring out as much of the shimmers as is possible. It even looks a bit metallic/foil-like after top coat application. The lacquer consistency was thin, but left no streaks or holes in the coverage. Application was very easy.

I adore this color. It’s very deep and bright, but it’s not wildy bright or tawdry. I feel like this could be a polish for everyone; there’s just the right amount of sparkle, shine, and color to appeal to everyone and no more.

Wing Fling is part of the Take Wing collection from 2012, and is still available on Color Club’s website.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Self-Satisfied

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Swatch Saturday this week is glitter chaos! I’m wearing Self-Satisfied from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer, a smorgasbord of neon glitters. I’m wearing one dabbed coat over Eaton Terrace from Nails Inc., and Saltwater Taffy and Skylight from Cover Girl, topped with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

BEGL describes Self-Satisfied as a glitter topper “predominantly yellow and green neon glitters with pink, blue, orange, and purple neon glitters, baby blue holo moons, fuchsia dots, and silver holo butterflies”. I’m not sure it’s possible to count every size, color, and type of glitter in this bottle. Attempting to do so would probably result in some kind of head-clutching space madness.

Since I dabbed this polish on, I’m not sure how long it took to dry, but it seemed dry enough after a 15 minute drying period. The glitters spread evenly enough, but I will admit that I placed a few here and there, just to cover some bare spots. Application is pretty typical for a glitter topper like this, but the look you get is so unique and so worth it.

This isn’t the first time I’ve worn Self-Satisfied; I brought it on vacation with me a couple months ago. I took a picture of my nails with the Washington Monument. I’m wearing it over Julep’s Cody.

Self-Satisfied, and well as its insane pink counterpart, Watch the Walls, are on sale at the BEGL store for $6 each. I adore both of these polishes, and I definitely say they are worth grabbing.

I’m going to hijack the end of this post to say goodbye to an old friend. Last August, I bought a four ounce bottle of Seche Vite. Everyone thought I was crazy to buy so much at once, but I was living alone at the time, I couldn’t get to Sally Beauty whenever I wanted, and I got tired of having to buy a new bottle every few weeks. It was so worth the $15 I paid for it. Last Wednesday, I used the very last of that giant bottle. That giant bottle of Seche Vite has gotten me through nearly every manicure in the past year. Good night, sweet prince.

This is the day I got it. My polish is OPI’s Get Your Number.

My interim top coat is Color Club’s clear coat. I’m not sure if this is a full-fledged top coat, but it dries quickly and leaves a nice shine, and that’s enough for me. This is my first time using it, so I don’t know how well it’s going to wear, but we’ll find out. Either way, it’s fun using something new.

Manicure Monday: Double Reverse Green on Green Gradient

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

So for this Manicure Monday, I did some actual nail art instead of phoning it in with glitter. I always feel a little weird when I do a glitterless mani, like my nails are still naked somehow. This week, I did a double reverse gradient with Julep’s Payton and Color Club’s Twiggie. Payton is shown on the non-accent nails with two coats. All nails have a coat of Seche Vite top coat and Hard Candy’s Matte-ly in Love. Photos were taken indoors and outdoors.

So the colors I chose this week go well together, but were still somewhat incongruous. Payton is a gorgeous kelly green creme that went on sheer with the first coat; the second coat even it out, but it was still deliciously shiny, a finish I’d expect from a jelly. Twiggie was a much more solid creme, and was opaque on its first coat. Together, Twiggie is the foundation of the gradient, and I didn’t get the opacity I expected from Payton, and the resulting gradient left me a little underwhelmed. Payton was so sheer that it didn’t cover over Twiggie as well as I thought it would. I will say this, though: I hated putting the matte coat over Payton. It was so shiny and so beautiful on its own that I felt like I was sucking the life of it by mattifying it. I really felt like I did this polish a disservice.

If you’re wondering how to do the double reverse gradient, it’s way simpler than it looks. Here’s the tutorial:

1. After you lay down your base colors, do a gradient the same way you usually do. For what it’s worth, I like to use eyeshadow sponge applicators instead of makeup wedges; for me, it’s more precise and makes less of a mess.

2. After your first gradient is dry, put down your striping tape as desired.

3. Do your second gradient, reversing the colors from the first gradient.

4. Peel off the tape, apply your top coat, and you’re done!

Outdoors, full sun

This really looked better in my head. I expected a stronger difference between the colors, but the sheerness of Payton didn’t make that possible. I also feel like I’m missing something; maybe I should have done a coat of Fairy Dust or something under Payton, just to add a little extra sparkle. On the plus side, and this was completely unintentional, it reminds me of a soccer field. I have been so caught up in watching the World Cup matches that I’ve been unable to think of much else. Despite the issues I’ve had with the polish compatibility, I love how this turned out.

PS: I have Payton on my toes as well. I love it. It’s like every toe is cosplaying as the toe from The Big Lebowski.

Manicure Monday: Whirled Away Over Yellow

Posted on February 3, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week, I’m finally arriving to the black and white glitter topper party. Also, I forgot how much I love yellow polish. This is also my first Color Club mani, so that’s exciting too, I guess.

Color Club’s Almost Famous is part of their Poptastic collection, which according to the packaging, are all colors that POP. This one certainly does pop. I really love this one. It went on smoothly and easily and turned opaque in two coats. I’m pretty impressed by the quality. I’ll go ahead and mention I got the whole Poptastic set and the Take Wing set for $8 each at Bealls Outlet. Yeah, it was awesome.

When I saw China Glaze’s Whirled Away, I knew I had to have it. At that point, I’d turned to nail polish to ward off the loneliness of having my boyfriend living in another state, and a certain enabler showed me this one. It was so unlike anything else I’d seen or owned; I fell hard for it and spent my dinner money on it. I regret nothing.

Color Club’s Almost Famous and China Glaze’s Whirled Away. Also that’s Hard Candy’s matte top coat on the end.

This is a look I like. I had a little application problem with Whirled Away; it picked up some of the yellow, and while it didn’t smudge the color, some of the black glitter has a weird greenish wash over it. This is probably most evident on my thumb. Apart from that, I like the chaos of the glitter over the bright color. Also, the matte coat was an afterthought; I figured that since the glitter was matte, it couldn’t hurt. I’m always afraid I’m going to ruin the mani with a matte finish. I’ve also switched from the Revlon matte to Hard Candy’s matte, and it’s the first Hard Candy product I’ve ever used. Lots of weird firsts this week.

Wacie Wednesday: Bridal Bouquet

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s the first-ever Wacie Wednesday! This is the part of the week where, if I have a new product to share, you’ll get to see it. Yeah, I told you I was serious about making my own polish. This first entry is a little rough, since I’m still missing things like branding, labelling, and a way for you to actually buy it. I’ll get on that soon, I promise. In the meantime, have a look at the very first Wacie Nail Company polish, Bridal Bouquet. It’s awesome, but don’t take my word for it.

Bridal Bouquet is a glitter toppper in a clear base; it contains pink flowers, green shreds, and iridescent hexes. I’m wearing one coat over The New Black’s Black, Essie’s Fiji and Navigate Her. It dries quickly and is easily smoothed down by top coat. I don’t really know what to say about it, other than it’s awesome and I love it. I can’t stop staring at it. The green-to-gold iridescent glitters really stand out on the black polish, and the flowers look great over the green. The light pink flowers blend in a little, but I think that’s okay. I think it still evokes the image of its namesake: soft petals, soft colors, fragrance and beauty. I think I started a nail company just to make this polish.

It’s really exciting to be one step closer, you know? I had the time of my life making this, and I hope I’ll be able to keep doing it for a long while. It would be amazing to have a career where I get to sit in a room with glitter and sparkles and just create things. I almost don’t even care if I make my investment back, just the satisfaction of doing it was, to me, worth the money.

I did a test to see what it looked like over blue. The verdict: awesome! From left to right: Sinful Colors’s Midnight Blue, Essie’s After School Boy Blazer, Julep’s Bess, Color Club’s Chelsea Girl, China Glaze’s For Audrey, Essie’s Turquoise & Caicos, and Bridal Bouquet worn alone.

Yeah, this is the best thing I ever did. If you’re interested in buying a bottle, or just interested in reviewing it, I’ll get the store and press form ready soon. I am absolutely dying to share this with everyone.

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