Manicure Monday: Glitter Shapes on Nude

Welcome back! I had swatches to show you this weekend, and I had this fantasy that I could write and promote two blog posts while also cleaning my house for my birthday party, attending my birthday party, and then cleaning up after my birthday party. I will be getting you the swatches this weekend, at least. If you missed my birthday manicure on Instagram, you should check it out. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, even if it’s a little more Christmas than I wanted it to be. Anyway, Monday’s here again, and here’s a new mani! This is Julep’s Alexandra, mattified, with a shiny dollop of Lynnderella‘s Golden Lining.

I don’t often like the look of matte nails. I like them on other people, of course, but I always feel like I’m sucking the life out of the polish when I mattify it. Alexandra, though, looks amazing mattified. The pale almond is great on its own, but it’s even more stylish with the matte finish.

Trying to capture the matte/shiny here, just got glare

I didn’t like Golden Lining mattified, so I used an extra bit of top coat over the — I don’t know what to call this shape. Ruffles? Dollops? Scoops? — to make the glitter sparkle. It’s still not as shiny as I hoped it would be, like the contrast between the matte creme and the shiny glitter isn’t as dramatic as I imagined it would be, but I still rather like it. Golden Lining is a beautiful polish and it pairs wonderfully with Alexandra. I’m probably going to use it again this weekend.

I can’t find Alexandra on the Julep site, so it might be discontinued. Golden Lining may also be discontinued, I don’t see it on the Lynnderella site. I also used Essie’s mattifying top coat and Seche Vite.

I bought all of these products myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype W14 7.0

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.