Tag Archives: glitter crelly

Manicure Monday: Dreams of Mermaids

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Hello reader! I’m so excited for today’s post. I’m wearing a thermal polish! Dreams of Mermaids was a very early indie polish purchase, and today’s the day I’m giving it some love. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

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Dreams of Mermaids is a green-to-teal thermal polish with gold, blue, and green glitters, as well as a green shimmer throughout. Unfortunately, because it’s a very hot day in sunny Florida, I wasn’t able to capture the thermal effect well. In July, it doesn’t matter how long my nails are, the polish is always in the hot stage. Dunking my nails in ice water effects the change, but as soon as I pull it out, it goes right back to hot. This is why my cold stage and transition photos are so watery; I had to work fast. I do apologize.

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I’m actually surprised the thermal effect still happens at all; this is a three year old polish, after all. I bought it at the same time I bought Pretty Chameleon, another beautiful Pretty & Polished thermal. Not only does it still change, it still has a pretty dramatic change. Something I notice about old thermals is that even though the effect still happens, it doesn’t happen as quicky or as powerfully as it used to. This one still works like it’s brand new.

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In the sunlight, you can see exactly why this polish is called Dreams of Mermaids. The colors are definitely evocative of the ocean, and the shimmer really lights up out here! These photos were taken in direct sunlight.

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It looks like Dreams of Mermaids has been discontinued by Pretty & Polished; other P&P polishes — including thermals! — are for sale in their etsy shop and on their website.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Grandpa

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Happy Saturday! Today’s polish is Grandpa from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. I’m afraid I couldn’t do this polish any justice, because it is full of tiny magnificent flakies. I’m wearing three coats of Grandpa with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

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Grandpa is a white creme with pink and gold iridescent flakies. Application was easy, especially for a white polish; the first coat went on nicely without streaks or bald spots in the color, and was about halfway opaque. The second coat achieved perfect opacity. I hesitate to say “full opacity”, because even after the third coat, there was still slight squishiness left. However, it’s still opaque enough that the flakies aren’t readily apparent — in fact, I sometimes forgot they were there. It was only when the light hit them just right that they were noticeable. The polish dries quickly and with a smooth, semi-glossy finish; I added top coat for shine and extra flakie visibility.

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As I mentioned, because the flakies disappear so well into the creme, it was hard to get good photos of it. They’re much easier to see in person. In some of these photos, if you look where the glare is, that’s where you’ll see the flakies, but even then, they’re tough to spot. This reminds me of another BEGL polish, Purple Phlox, that had these teeny iridescent glitters blended in that often went undetected. They were like tiny little secrets on my nails.

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In direct sunlight is where I saw them best. The second photo in this set has the most flakie glow, I think. I love this polish, it’s the perfect base for nail art but with a tiny oft-hidden sparkle.

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Grandpa and other Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are available from their online shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES!

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Welcome back to Manicure Monday! Today, I’m wearing a favorite from my collection, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES! I’m wearing three coats with Seche Vite top coat and Essie’s Matte About You matte top coat.

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I love this polish so much; it’s so whimiscal and cute I could die. It’s one of my favorite indies, and it’s one of the cutest polishes I own. I like to think it might also be pretty hard-to-find, and that kind of excites me. It was the gift with purchase the first time BEGL’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer-inspired collection came out, and when it was re-released a couple years ago, it was replaced with a holo that was actually pretty stunning. It’s kind of sad to think it might never come back; as much as I love having HTF polishes, I feel bad that so many people missed out.

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I needed a new matte top coat, so I finally decided to try Essie’s. The last time I looked for this, I was buying my first matte top coat ever, and they were just becoming popular. I ended up with the Revlon one because it was the only one my Walgreen’s had. I’m still struggling to embrace the matte finish, but I really like how it looks with this polish. The glitters still shine despite not being glossy, and the milky blue crelly looks like porcelain. I actually do have a few matte looks planned in the coming weeks, and I feel weird that I’m looking forward to them.

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Sunlight photos! The pale blue got washed out in direct sunlight, looking more like a cool white in some photos. The glitters stand out very well though!

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Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES! has been discontinued by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer; other BEGL polishes are available from their online shop. My bow charm is from Claire’s.

This is also one of my most frequently used polishes, as you can see.

This is also one of my most frequently used polishes, as you can see.

This polish was a gift, but was not sent for review.

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: Whack With Poo Brain

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Happy Monday! I did a simple look with a fun polish this week. This is Whack With Poo Brain from Digital Nails; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite and the Infinity Loop Bow from Daily Charme.

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When Whack With Poo Brain was released, it was one of a special edition polish duo. Poo Brain and its sister polish, Ellagee’s Chronic Badass. The duo was created to raise awareness for fibromyalgia and other chronic illnesses. May 12 is actually Fibromyalgia Awareness Day, and I’ve been planning to wear this polish for like a year, so that’s kind of lucky.

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I love this polish because it’s just quirky enough. The milky purple crelly is a beautiful color, and the glitter just adds personality. Of course, in true Digital Nails fasion, this polish was inspired in part by Adventure Time and its whimsical silliness, and I feel like that really comes through in the glitter. It’s not an ostentatious mix; the colors are basic, the iridescence gives it a little sparkle, and the circle and square shapes make it fun. It’s cute. That’s really the best word. Cute.

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Outdoor photo time! You can see the dimension in the crelly pretty well out here, as well as some of the iridescent glitters.

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Whack With Poo Brain was a limited edition and is no longer for sale. Other Digital Nails polishes are available in their etsy shop. The infinity loop bow and other charms are sold at Daily Charme.

I bought these products myself.

Swatch Sunday: Polish Addict Nail Color’s Fireflies

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Welcome to this week’s Swatch Sunday! Today’s swatch is a fun one; I’m using an older polish from a new-to-me brand. This is Fireflies from Polish Addict Nail Color; I got it in a destash mystery box, and the only thing I could find out about it on Google was that it came out in 2013. I’m wearing three coats of Fireflies with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

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Fireflies is a pastel yellow crelly with pale yellow hexes, orange bars, pink and purple butterflies, and blue shred glitters. Application was okay; the pale yellow is very streaky on the first coat, almost nonexistent, and did leave some streaks by the third coat. Though the glitters are on the larger side, they were easy to retrieve from the bottle. I did have the glitters pile up in some places. The product consistency was good, though on the thinner side. The polish dries with a glossy finish. The larger glitters, especially those that piled up, did leave a bit of texture, even after top coat was applied.

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I’m not really familiar with PANC, even though I’ve seen them around the indie polish internet quite a lot. This is my very first one, and I’m not even its original owner. Despite that, it’s always fun to revisit older polishes and see how far the maker — and indie polish in general — has come. That said, I’m kind of torn on how I feel about this polish. The nostalgia factor is certainly fun, the concept and colors are fun, but I feel like the overall look is a little lacking. I would really love to see a reformulation of this polish in today’s indie style.

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In the sun, this polish looks about the same. There’s no shimmers or anything in this polish, there’s nothing really that comes to life in direct sunlight.

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Fireflies is probably discontinued by Polish Addict Nail Color; other PANC polishes are sold in their online shop.

I bought this polish myself via mystery box.

Swatch Sunday: Peita’s Polish’s Serenity

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Welcome back, reader! I meant to have this post up hours ago, but due to some unforseen events regarding my web host, it’s going up now. The polish I have for this Sunday’s swatch is a fun one: it’s from a new-to-me brand, it’s from Australia, and it’s a charity polish! Serenity from Peita’s Polish is a polish exclusive to the Lighthouse of Hope box that benefits I Need a Lighthouse, a depression and suicide prevention awareness network. I’m wearing three coats of Serenity with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

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Serenity is a sky blue crelly with turquoise holographic glitters in various sizes and a slight green shimmer. Application was very easy; the product consistency is very smooth, even with all the glitter in it. The glitter and polish spread evenly over the nail, leaving no streaks, spots, or excess polish in the cuticle. It dries quickly and with a semi-glossy finish. It also dries with a smooth texture, which surprised me a bit, since there’s a bit of glitter in it. I added top coat anyway for extra shine and smoothness.

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The Lighthouse of Hope product listing states Serenity was based on the cool sparkling waters of Australian beaches, as the ocean can be a relaxing, serene place for people. I think they did pretty well with that imagery. The crelly here is the polish, and not merely the vehicle for the glitter; it’s very sheer, and subdues the glitter from previous coats without completely covering it. The glitter twinkles in the same way the sun glints off the water. It’s very pretty.

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The following photos were taken in direct sunlight outdoors. The blue crelly seems cooler, and you can see the under-glitters better.

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So let’s talk about the Lighthouse of Hope box. Available from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer, this box contains eight exclusive polishes from eight different indie makers. I’ve already swatched another polish from this collection, Grows Hope from Alter Ego. The box costs $80, but $60 of that goes to I Need a Lighthouse, a favorite charity of Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. It’s easy to balk at the cost, but in this case, it’s actually a very worthy splurge. See the BEGL store listing for box details, the I Need a Lighthouse website for information about the organization, and the BEGL maker’s blog to learn why the box exists in the first place. The box is still available in limited quantities.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Walk Through the Tulips

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It’s the first Manicure Monday of the year! We’re doing it up right today by wearing a very special polish, a custom polish made for me by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. This isn’t the first time it’s been on the blog, but I’m always excited to wear it. This is Walk Through the Tulips; I’m wearing two coats with one coat of Seche Vite and one coat of Ciate’s Mattenificent matte top coat.

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I did a proper swatch of Walk Through the Tulips way back in 2014, so if you want to know some of the particulars about the polish, take a look at that post. Not much has changed since then; I still cherish this polish because it reminds me of why I love indie polish and how much fun it can be to work with the person making my polish to ensure I get exactly what I want. That, and it’s still freaking pretty.

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This time around, I used only two coats instead of three, and I used a matte top coat to make it a little different from the swatch. I like it at two coats; it’s just shy of opaque. I can still see nail lines, but just barely. The glitter isn’t as dense as I would have liked, but it gives a cool speckled effect. The matte coat gives it a unique finish. I am having a ton of fun wearing this, and I’m not looking forward to taking it off.

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Walk Through the Tulips was custom-made for me by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer; BEGL does not currently accept commissions for customs, but their full line of polishes is available from their online shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Sundown

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Happy Monday, reader! This is the last Manicure Monday of 2015. I cannot believe another year has gone by and I’m still blogging. The wacie.com anniversary, as well as the anniversary of Wacie Nail Company, are coming up, and I have some really fun things planned, like new polishes! For now though, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. For this final post of 2015, I’m wearing Pretty & Polished‘s Sundown; this is three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

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Sundown, as you can see, is an orange-to-yellow thermal creme polish with glitters in orange, yellow, and pink. The polish coverage is on the opaque side, so glitters from previous coats don’t show up so well in the finished look. That’s especially true for the orange/cold stage; since the yellow/warm stage is much paler, and the darker glitters do actually show through a little. The transition occurs easily. Application was okay; the creme went on beautifully, but the glitters were few and took some manipulating to get them just right. The polish dries with a satin finish.

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I bought this polish in 2015, and I’m actually surprised it still transitions. I’m thrilled with it, really. A lot of the thermals I’ve had that long — even a few I bought more recently — have stopped altogether. I was really unsure of what to expect from it. It’s beautiful, though, isn’t it? It’s so strangely appropriate for this post, and in so many ways: obviously the name is appropriate, since the sun is setting on such an exciting year. Today’s high was 83 degrees, and so the colors are unseasonally seasonal. It’s not a NYE glitterbomb, but it’s a really cool polish to see me through the end of the year.

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Sundown is no longer made by Pretty & Polished, but you can find other polishes (thermals!) on both their etsy store and their official website.

I bought this polish myself.

 

Swatch Sunday: Anna Gorelova by Dance Legend’s Кот Баю

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Hello reader! We’re looking at yet another polish from a destash sale. I’m really excited about this one; I’ve seen Dance Legend polishes everywhere, and I finally have one! This is a polish from the Anna Gorelova by Dance Legend collaboration; it’s called Кот Баю (Kot Bajun) and I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

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Kot Bajun is a sheer nude with fine holographic silver glitter. Application was easy; the product consistency was on the thinner side, but still held onto the brush and applied evenly. As you can see, after three coats, there’s no such thing as full opacity when wearing it alone. The glitter shines nicely through the sheer polish; it distributes well and lays flat on the nail, leaving no texture behind. It dries quickly and with a smooth satin finish. I added top coat for extra shine.

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I admit, I had to do some homework on this polish. There’s no shade name on the bottom on the bottle, only a number. The destash shop I bought it from called it Кот Баю, which also turns up in a Google search. It also turns out that this polish shares a name with an animal from a Russian folk legend; Kot Bajun is apparently a giant cat that lives in the forests of Siberia. I couldn’t find much about it in English. I just love the international appeal of this, though. I’m a huge fan of  products from other countries; my kitchen pantry is a mishmash of international foods, but I only have a few polishes that aren’t from the United States.

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I love this polish. It’s another soft neutral that’s both sparkly and work-appropriate. It’s weird how many of these I’ve been wearing lately. The glitter is a lot like the same stuff that’s in Fairy Dust; it’s the same single-serve portion of sparkle, even with three coats. This would definitely pair well with a white tip or over a nude base.

Кот Баю seems to be discontinued. Check Dance Legend’s site for international stockist info.

I bought this polish myself.