Tag Archives: flakies

Swatch: Finger Paints’s Psychedelic Hue

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Welcome back, reader! Even though I’m swatching a lot of new stuff from The Indie Shop Atlanta, I still have some swatches in the slush pile waiting to be published, and this is one of them. This is Finger Paints’s Psychedelic Hue; I’m wearing one coat over Sally Hansen’s Grey Area (gray), Deborah Lippmann’s She Bop (pink), and Zoya’s Chantal (nude), as well as a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Psychedelic Hue is a clear-based flakie topper with green-to-blue shifting flakies. Application was good; the flakies distribute very easily over the nail when brushing it on. The product consistency is on the thin side, but the flakies suspend very well. Drying times were good, and the polish dries smooth to the touch. I used top coat for extra shine.

I adore flakie top coats. This one’s pretty basic as far as flakie toppers go; of course, this one’s been around a while and they’ve come a good way since then. I wanted to show this one over a few different colors, and unfortunately, the bright natural sunshine kind of washed it out over the lighter colors. With the lighter shades, the individual flakies aren’t as defined, but the shine and iridescence are still visible. Over the darker color, it looks fantastic; everything is nicely defined and exciting. The following photos were taken in the shade, attempting to show off the color better over the lighter colors.

I believe Psychedelic Hue was discontinued by Finger Paints; other Finger Paints polishes are available at Sally Beauty Supply.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch: Baroness X’s In a Galaxy Purr, Purr Away

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Hello, reader! Today’s swatch is one I’m excited about. As you know, I bought the Cats in Space box from Baroness X, and I was a huge fan of everything in it. This is my third of four swatches from the box, and I hope you love this one as much as I do. This is In a Galaxy Purr, Purr Away; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

In a Galaxy Purr, Purr Away is a deep blue polish with a purple to gold shifting shimmer and iridescent flakies. Application was great with this polish; the product consistency was super easy to work with. The shimmer and flakies both distribute very well. The polish dries quickly; I used top coat for extra shine.

I love this polish. I mean, it’s hard not to love every polish in this box, and though they’re all complex and dimensional, this one stands on its own. The base color is very rich and opaque while still letting through the shimmer and flakie goodness. There’s so much going on!

As of this writing, In a Galaxy Purr, Purr Away is still available in the Baroness X shop, as are other polishes, wax scents, and bath and body goodies.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch: Baroness X’s Meowky Way

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Hi! It’s been a while since I got a swatch posted, so I’m posting one today. It’s been a lazy couple of weeks. Remember the Cats in Space box Baroness X was selling for Black Friday? That was such a good box! I was more excited by the extras in it, but the polishes weren’t bad either. I swatched the polishes months ago and am just getting around to posting about it. The first one up is Meowky Way; I’m wearing three coats alone on some nails, and two coats over Marc Jacobs Beauty’s Shocking on others.

I took these photos on a shady day, so they’re not as defined as they could have been.

Meowky Way is a clear-based flakie topper with silver and pink-to-green shifting iridescent flakies, as well as a smattering of holo pigment. The consistency of this polish is perfect; it’s easy to apply and use, and the flakies go on evenly and smoothly. It works excellently as a topper, but looks amazing alone with multiple coats; it’s sheer, but the coverage is still pretty good.

As I mentioned, every polish in this box was amazing. I tend to forget about Baroness X as a brand, which is an absolute shame since they make some truly unforgettable polishes. They’re a brand I really need to shop with more often, especially if they keep making boxes as good as Cats in Space.

As of this writing, Meowky Way is still for sale in the Baroness X shop, as are other polishes, bath goodies, and wax scents.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Saturday: Bliss Polish’s Secret Groves

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Happy Saturday! I’ve got one more Bliss Polish swatch for you! This is the second polish of an exclusive trio sold at The Indie Shop Atlanta. Last week’s Bliss, Fairy Castles, was the first one, and unfortunately, the third was sold out by the time I got there. This is the best of the three, though. This is Secret Groves. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

My nail is so long! It’s getting harder to get my thumb into this position.

Secret Groves is a deep green jelly with iridescent flakies. Application was great with this polish; the formula is very smooth and easy to work with. Coverage on the first coat is a little streaky, but it evens out very well. I had a good opacity at two coats. The polish dries with a smooth semi-glossy finish.

One thing I want to note is that when I took these photos, they really don’t do the polish any justice. You see, these flakies are golden in bright direct sunlight. Like, bright glaring golden. It was beautiful, and I’m so bummed the camera didn’t capture it. In fact, I was thinking I should take an indoor set of photos for accuracy. Looks like we’re good on that front. I love this polish, though. I felt super stylish when I was wearing it.

Secret Groves was an Indie Shop Atlanta exclusive. Other Bliss Polishes are available from their website.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Inky Opal

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Hello! I feel like today’s mani is a special occasion because I’m using Essie’s Shine of the Times. Remember when this was the polish every nail addict needed but couldn’t find? I remember checking every drugstore in town when I heard it existed, and then I had to resort to buying one on Amazon. About a year after that, I did find two in the wild, hidden away in a Walgreens sale bin. It was the greatest day. For this look, I used Shine of the Times over Julep’s Char.

Char is the best undies for shine of the Times. It’s dark enough for the fiery flakies to look their best, but has just a hint of color. I love Shine of the Times over black, but it’s kind of basic. I love substituting a dark gray, blue, green, or plum for black. It feels a little more sophisticated. Plus, when it’s over dark blue, it kind of looks like unicorn pee.

I don’t think there’s a polish that Shine of the Times couldn’t make better, though. Honestly, I chose Char at random. I was totally prepared to layer it over any creme I plucked from the drawer, but now I can’t imagine a better combination.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any sunlight shots of this thanks to the impending winter storm, or for those of us in Florida, rain. I think I captured the shift pretty well, though, and my flakies came out sharp. I never get studio photos this good.

Shine of the Times, as you may know, was discontinued by Essie. Char may also be discontinued; it’s out of stock on julep.com.

I bought these polishes myself.

Birthday Mani Digest 2016

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Welcome back, reader! As you know, I took a bit of time off these past couple weeks to celebrate my birthday. It was only supposed to be one, but the arrival of Hurricane Matthew led to everything being postponed. That madness is now over, and now I’d like to show you what my nails were up to during the downtime. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen most of these lovelies already. I promise I will not be mentioning my birthday again until next October.

Birthday Mani #1: Pink Frosting With Sprinkles
Essie’s Good Morning Hope with Lynnderella‘s Icing Glass Garland

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The first birthday mani was a fun warm-up with an untried Lynnderella topper. I had a lot of fun wearing this; Icing Glass Garland was a lot more interesting in real life, however. There is a lot of iridescence and color-changiness. It doesn’t look like much over Good Morning Hope, but it still made for a fun and dainty look.

Birthday Mani #2: Cupcakes
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Eleanor, China Glaze’s White on White, LA Girl’s Black, Orly’s Water Lily, P2’s French Kiss, Ciate’s Pillow Fight

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I always do cupcakes to celebrate my birthday, and this year’s mani was actually done in the middle of the hurricane. Even though the hurricane was an unwelcome birthday event (thanks, universe), we still had a good time. A lot of our friends live in evacuation zones and came to stay with us when the call came to evacuate, so we still had a party and ate food and played board games. It was not the worst experience.

Birthday Mani #3: Hello Dalek
Digital Nails‘s Hello Dalek

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This was last week’s Manicure Monday post, but I’m including it for continuity. Monday was my actual birthday, and it was a ton of fun to wear a party on my nails as well. When your birthday is on the worst day of the week, you have to party any way you can.

Birthday Mani #4: Glitter Frosting
Digital Nails’s Pandorica, Model City Polish‘s Sheena is a Punk Rocker, Wacie Nail Company’s Your Daring Escape, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Walk Through the Tulips
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This look includes the polish I made myself for my birthday! Your Daring Escape is a silvery-white holo with holographic glitter and pearl pink and metallic silver flakies. I wanted a holo-meets-glitter-gradient look, but as the sun never came out that day, a lot of the beauty got lost.

Birthday Mani #5: Stripey Blue Frosting
Literary Lacquers‘s Bluestocking Romance, Hard Candy’s Sky, China Glaze’s Mosaic Madness

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This was the mani I got the most compliments on for sure. I’d always wanted to do this moving stripes design, and this was the day I felt like dealing with the striping tape. It came out so much better than I expected it would, though I’m a little disappointed it smeared a little with the top coat. I’d totally do it again.

I also want to take this time to share some birthday manis of years past. I realized at some point that I’ve been doing the annual cupcake mani for five years now; the annual cupcake mani predates wacie.com, even. I love doing little retrospectives like this; if I’ve learned anything from this, it’s that my cupcake painting skills have gotten only marginally better.

2012
Colors Unknown, but probably all Sinful Colors

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Look at this. I almost don’t even want to share this, but we all have to start somewhere, right? I do remember waiting practically all day for the dots to dry, and they still smudged when I put the top down. Not only was this before wacie.com came to be, but I think it was also before the days of quick-dry top coat. Those dark, dark days.

2013
Sally Hansen’s Mint Sprint, OPI’s Eurso Euro, P2’s French Kiss, Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES!

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These look more like mashed potatoes than cupcakes. This was my first birthday post on the blog. Going back and reading the post, about it, I completely forgot all that stuff happened! I do remember doing this mani in Boyfriend’s tiny Atlanta living space, trying not to bother him and his roommate with nail polish smell. I got acetone on his desk and ruined the varnish. I still feel bad about that.

2014
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Dawn Breaks and If You’re a Seascape, Indigo Bananas‘s Moonlight (Clair de Lune), P2’s French Kiss, American Apparel’s Neon Pink, Essie’s Fiji, Ciate’s Candy Floss

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That P2 polish finds its way into every birthday mani, doesn’t it? I loved this look a lot. I totally wore it to a fancy restaurant. Here’s the post!

2015
Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Ocean Warmed by the Sun, Digital Nails’s Purple Reign, Nails Inc.’s Pudding Lane, Hot Topic’s Light Blue, Estee Lauder’s Black Plum

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This is last year’s mani, and the mani that celebrates the big 3-0. This was also one of the last photos I took on my phone before Drunk Me left it on top of the car and broke the camera forever. Good times!

Again, a huge thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday; I cherish all of you! Thank you so much for tolerating all of the birthday posts.

Pretty sure I bought all these polishes myself.

Manicure Tuesday: Plum Opal

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Hello, reader! I had an awesome Fourth of July weekend, and that’s why I’m posting a mani in the middle of the week. I hope yours was just as good! I like this mani, so even if it is late, I’m excited to share it. I’m using one of the Chanels I treated myself to for my birthday and a gorgeous flakie topper! This is Chanel’s Provocation and Finger Paints’s Symmetrical Symphony mattefied with Essie’s Matte About You matte top coat.

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I loved the Finger Paints flakie collection from the other year. I was actually pretty lucky and scored most of them from the Sally Beauty Supply sale bin. It was the most exciting thing. I love this one because the colors contrast; some flakies glow golden, others glow blue-violet, and they bring out the best in each other. I had to mattify them for the full effect. The colors are very strong. I used two coats to get this much coverage.

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As beautiful as the flakies are, though, I’m the most excited about wearing Provocation. Deep plum polish always makes me feel glamorous, but having it be a Chanel polish really ups the glamour factor. There’s still a part of me that feels guilty for buying these, especially since there’s no real difference between mid-end and high-end polish. I just remember seeing Chanel’s Vamp in so many magazines as a young teen that I knew one day I’d have to own a Chanel polish. I might have a little buyer’s remorse, but I feel posh as hell with this polish on.

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In the sunlight, you can really see the opal effect the flakies have. It’s really mesmerizing! The matte coat makes it possible to see all the colors at once, and the colors are really vivid outdoors. Provocation looks red for some reason. These photos were taken in direct sunlight outdoors.

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Chanel polishes are available wherever Chanel cosmetics are sold; mine is from Nordstrom. Finger Paints is sold at Sally Beauty Supply.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Oy, Stupid Face

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Happy Saturday! Last week, we finished up Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s What Wouldn’t I Do collection, and we’re entering the second phase of the enormous Doctor Who collection! Good times! This week’s polish is Oy, Stupid Face; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

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Oy, Stupid Face is a bright pink crelly with flakies. Application was good; while most of the flakies were fine particles that laid flat on the nail, the larger ones were very coarse and did sometimes stick up. You can see this in some of the photos, and it’s my only real complaint with this polish. The crelly has really nice opacity, and really only needed two coats. It dries quickly and with a satin finish.

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Even though the pointy flakies were kind of annoying, they absolutely glow in this polish, and I’m glad they’re there. The fine sparkles are beautiful as well, but the bigger ones have this deep iridescence that shines up through the layers. It’s crazy gorgeous.

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The iridescence is especially evident in the sunshine. The finer flakies look best out here as well. These photos were taken in direct sunlight.

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The color looks a bit off in this one. My camera really struggles with bright pinks and oranges in the sunlight.

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Oy, Stupid Face has been discontinued by BEGL; other Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are available in their online shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Orange Crush

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Happy Monday! Orange is the word of the day here. This mani is all about big color and flakies. For this look, I used Sally Hansen’s Heat Flash, Digital Nails‘s Crush Leaves Not Dreams, and Seche Vite top coat.

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Heat Flash is a fantastic polish, though mine is aged and had to be thinned quite a lot prior to today’s use. Despite that, the opacity and color intensity are still as great as ever. This is a bottle I’ve been enjoying for many years now; it’s one of the best oranges I have in my collection. My only gripe is with the double-wide brush; I’ve never been able to use it without making a mess of my fingers.

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I didn’t want to cover such a bold and fun color, only accentuate it, so I wanted to go with a flakie topper. It took a long time to find the right one, and I’m not sure if Crush Leaves Not Dreams was the right choice, but I kind of like how it came out anyway. Crush Leaves Not Dreams is a slightly-shimmered clear-based topper with these magical rose-to-gold-to-green flakies. I don’t know how else to describe them — other than voodoo — because they’re unlike any flakie I’ve ever encountered. They’re chunky and more substantial than the iridescent flakies we love, but not to the same degree UCC flakies are. These are just so unique and magnificent. The shift occurs easily and looks great over this orange base. I added studs for extra accents, just because I can’t stand it when all the nails look exactly the same.

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Here are some sunlight photos! Crush Leaves Not Dreams looks amazing outdoors. Usually my camera freaks out over orange polishes in the sun, but I think these turned out well. The blue/purple shimmer gets overwhelmed, but the flakies look great.

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Sally Hansen seem to have discontinued Heat Flash and the Insta-Dri line; other Sally Hansen products are sold in stores nationwide. Crush Leaves Not Dreams was a small-batch polish and is sold out; other Digital Nails polishes are available in their etsy shop.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Sunday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s One Gray-t Year

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Hello, reader! I’ve just gotten back from the spontaneous trip my boyfriend and I took this weekend to celebrate the holiday. If you’re American, I hope you had a fantastic July 4th, and if you’re not, I hope you’re enjoying your weekend. Because I was out of town, I only have one weekend swatch for you. This is One Gray-t Year from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

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One Gray-t Year is a deep gray creme with an assortment of rainbow flakies. The formula consistency is just right and was super-smooth to apply. The flakies are easily distributed as well. I had full opacity in two coats. My bottle did suffer some settling, but the color isn’t affected at all. Drying times were fast, and this polish dries with a matte finish. I used top coat to bring out the color in the flakies and add shine and protection.

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One Gray-t Year was made to commemorate the first anniversary of Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer in 2014. It was a limited edition polish released with the first Fan Favorites collection. I’ve been a BEGL fan for a long time, even before the maker started selling polish to the public, so to be able to celebrate this milestone with her, albeit more than a year late, is really exciting. I love this polish; the contrast between the striking base color and the soft pastel flakies is gorgeous. It also wears like iron. I usually do my Swatch Saturday manicure on Wednesday; it’s now Sunday, I still have this polish on, and it’s barely showing any signs of wear. The tips are a little worn, but the color and shine are still going strong. It’s rare that I get this much mileage out of any one manicure. I’m really impressed.

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Here are some vacation photos! We spent Friday and Saturday in the Titusville, FL/Cape Canaveral area. I’m very interested in space travel and exploration, and Kennedy Space Center is somewhere I’ve always wanted to go. It was the greatest! I got to drink a beer in the Rocket Garden.

If you follow me on Instagram, you saw this photo already. On the way home, we stopped a kitschy little wildlife park in Christmas, FL called Jungle Adventures. I never get tired of seeing alligators.

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One Gray-t Year was a limited edition and is no longer for sale, but other Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are available in their shop.

I bought this polish myself.