Tag Archives: glitter jelly

Swatch: Baroness X’s Space Cat

Posted on by

It’s swatch day! Here’s another polish from Baroness X‘s Cats in Space box. This is Space Cat, and it’s dreamy. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Space Cat is a magenta polish with sterling silver flakies and a shifting pink-to-green shimmer. Application was good; the first coat applies sheer and coverage builds with additional coats. The consistency is good; I had no issues with it. The polish dries with a glossy finish.

So, there’s a lot happening in this polish, and I love it. The base shade itself is a stunning berry. The silver flakies add a reflective quality to the polish. The shift, which is in green mode most of the time, just makes it glow. It’s so ethereal and I love it.

Space Cat and other Baroness X polishes and products are available on their website.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype CH 5.2

Posted on by

Welcome to another swatch post! I’m trying to get one out every day this week. I have so many you haven’t seen yet! This gorgeous beauty is a Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer prototype called CH 5.2; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

CH 5.2 is a kelly green jelly with gold-to-green shifting flakies. Application was easy, as it always is with BEGL polishes; the product consistency, despite being totally full of flakies, is buttery smooth and very easy to work with. It dries with a satin/matte finish; I added top coat for shine.

 

This is a fantastic polish, and I’m kind of sad it wasn’t available in a wide release as-is. The gold flash is a lot more intense in person, as is the shift. Also, it’s green, and I feel like BEGL greens are some of their best work. I definitely love this one.

Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are available in their online shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Saturday: Bliss Polish’s Secret Groves

Posted on by

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.

Swatch Sunday Doubleheader, Part Two: Blush Lacquers’s Blue a Fuse

Posted on by

Welcome back to Swatch Sunday! I have one more swatch for you this weekend. Remember earlier in the year, when The Color Box went blue? I got to buy one at the Indie Shop in Atlanta, and I’m so sad I can’t buy this box on the regular; every polish in the blue box was a masterpiece and I got to try a few new brands. Blush Lacquers is one of those brands. This is Blue a Fuse; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Blue a Fuse is a royal blue jelly with fine silver holo and matte black shard glitters. Actually, I’m unsure if this is technically a jelly; it gets really good coverage, I’m not seeing any visible nail lines or anything, but the glitters show through like it’s a jelly. Application was good; the consistency is on the thicker side, but is still smooth and easy to work with. It’s got that extra funk that some deep blue polishes tend to have. Probably the only downside is the shard glitters; this isn’t a problem a lot of the time, but if you’re not careful, you can get some that will stick up on the nail and are impossible to smooth out with top coat. The polish dries to a satin finish.

So, I like this. This is a pretty unique polish in my collection. The glitter mix is easy but exciting, and the color is a bold but popular choice. I am definitely looking into more Blush Lacquers, because this one is awesome.

Unfortunately, Blue a Fuse is no longer in stock, but other Blush Lacquers are available in their etsy shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Digital Nails’s Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Posted on by

Hello, reader! Today’s swatch is all about Non-Corporeal Babysitter from Digital Nails. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vive.

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Non-Corporeal Babysitter is a pink-tinted glitter topper with hot pink and white matte hexes and blue iridescent glitters. Even though it’s a topper, I chose to wear it alone at three coats because I wanted to see how opaque it would get. My bottle is old (from 2013!) and the product consistency is pretty thick; I know it’s meant to be thick since it’s loaded with glitter, but age may also be a factor. Long story short, I should have thinned it, because it was super thick at three coats and a little bit unmanageable. The polish tries quickly, though, and with a glossy finish. Top coat is necessary for smoothness because the glitter leaves texture.

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

I realize that by wearing it alone instead of layered over undies that I’m kind of doing it a disservice. I know it’s probably not meant to be worn this way, but I really just wanted to see what it looked like. Generally, I like the look. It’s a little messy, but I love the pink, I love the sheer quantity of glitter, and in general, it’s just fun. In the future, I think I’ll use it over a pink base.

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

For once, I think I prefer a polish in the studio rather than in the sunlight. Direct sunlight washed out a lot of the iridescent glitters, which are the best glitters in the polish. The bright-pinkness got washed out, too.

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Digital Nails's Non-Corporeal Babysitter

Non-Corporeal Babysitter isn’t in stock, but other Digital Nails polishes are availabe in their etsy shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Swatch Sunday: Different Dimension’s Da Ba Dee

Posted on by

Hello, reader! Welcome back to Swatch Sunday! I love today’s polish. It was one of my first-ever indies, and one of my first Different Dimension polishes (the other was Orion Nebula). Huge round glitters are still cool, right? This is Da Ba Dee; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vive.

Da Ba Dee is a blue jelly with a variety of silver and blue holo glitters, the most prominent of which are the big round ones. Application was easy; the product consistency is on the thick side due to the glitter, but it still brushed on well. The larger glitters came out evenly; I didn’t have to fish around for them much. The drying time was a little slow, but I suppose that’s due to the thickness. I used top coat to speed up the drying time, as well as add extra shine and smoothness.

I love this polish. There’s so much in it. There’s not a lot of variety in the glitter, but that means there’s nothing unnecessary in it, too. It’s blue and silver and that’s all it needs to be. The blue jelly is deep, but not so deep it obscures the darker colors. This polish is a winner.

The jelly looks lighter in the sunlight, and you can see every bit of glitter. The following photos were taken in direct sunlight outdoors.

Da Ba Dee isn’t in stock on the Different Dimension website, but there you can find other beauties.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Golden Red

Posted on by

Happy Monday! Reader, you may not be surprised to see I’ve done another red and gold mani. As much as I love that particular combo, it’s starting to feel like a rut. However, since my base polish was both red and gold, I just rolled with it. I started with three coats of Digital Nails‘s Let Zygons Be Zygons, then did a watermarble with a mystery Orly gold and clear.

The gold is so shiny that the watermarble is pretty difficult to see. You can see the marbled lines if you look closely, but from far away, it’s a mess. I suppose the solution is just don’t choose such a blingy polish, because this totally looked better in my head. I thought about mattifying it, but I didn’t think it would help, because it’s just that shiny. I wish I could tell you what the name of it is, because you kind of need it.

Let Zygons Be Zygons is such an awesome polish. I loved the idea of a red jelly with golden flakies, but what I didn’t know until today is that there’s just a hint of Spectraflair in it. It’s gorgeous! It looks kind of basic, but I really love it on my nails. There’s a lot going on in it. I just hope I don’t regret putting it on my toes also.

I took this one facing one of the lights directly. You can see the marble a little better here.

The next set of photos was taken in direct sunlight. Out here, you can see the tiny holo very well. In the macros, you can see that the Orly gold is made pretty much exclusively of gold flecks. This mani didn’t turn out the way I imagined it, but I’m glad I went for it.

This one’s in the shade.

Let Zygons Be Zygons isn’t in stock, but other Digital Nails polishes are available in their etsy shop. You probably know where to find Orly.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Together Dead and Lonely

Posted on by

Hello, reader! It’s the last swatch of the year! I’m almost a little sad about that. wacie.com has grown tremendously in 2016, and I’ve tried some new things and I’m so happy that we’ve come so far together. I actually plan to do a 2016 retrospective, so I won’t get too far into the sappy stuff just yet. Let’s look at a swatch! Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Together Dead and Lonely is the polish of the day; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Together Dead and Lonely is a black jelly polish with fine silver and red holographic microglitters. Application was easy; since the polish is a jelly, you can expect a little bit of streaking on the first coat, but it was pretty good compared to other, less pigmented black jellies I’ve used. The streaks, if any, are evened out by the second coat. Consistency was on the thicker side, but worked for me pretty well. The polish dries with a satin finish and some slight glitter texture, so top coat is necessary for smoothness and shine.

This polish is a cousin to Noticing Face and Bound to the City Life, a strong-colored jelly with microglitter that is just amazing. I love the red in this mix; it adds color and sets a mood, so to speak: it’s vampy, it’s melancholy, it’s even a little grunge. Let me remind you that it comes from a Valentine’s Day collection. I love it!

Here are some sunlight photos! The glitters are pretty well-defined out here. In the studio, you can see them, but there aren’t so many; you can see all of it in the sunlight.

Together Dead and Lonely and other BEGL polishes are available in their online shop.

Happy new year!

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Ruby Opal

Posted on by

Happy Monday! I’m kind of happy to be back into my regular routine. Today’s look features a polish of my own called Dynamica; it’s a red crelly with a wee bit of scattered holo goodness. I swatched it in my Wacie Wednesday series ages ago, and lamented then that I didn’t use it in a sandwich mani with some glitter. Well, today is that day. The glitter I paired it with is Lynnderella‘s Red Opal. All photos were taken in direct sunlight.

img_72392

img_72432

I used two coats of Red Opal as my base. Red Opal is so packed with glitter and has such a rich red base that it could be worn at two coats on its own. There are so many kinds of glitter in here, holo, metallic, and iridescent, that it has a lovely dimensional appearance. I used one coat of Dynamica over Red Opal; Dynamica is a warmer red and changes things up a bit, and adds that hint of holo sparkle.

img_72502

img_72562

This late afternoon sun is not the best for holo shots, but it’ll have to do. It was dark and overcast all morning and afternoon, and then just now, this was the little bit of sun out, and really, I was glad to get it. It still looks pretty cool.

img_72592

img_72662

img_72702

Red Opal might be discontinued; other Lynnderella polishes are sold on lynnderella.com. Dynamica isn’t for sale yet, but may be in the future. I’ll let you know.

Red Opal was purchased myself.
Dynamica was made by me.

Birthday Mani Digest 2016

Posted on by

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

img_5668i

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

img_56872i

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

img_57352i

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
img_57562

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

img_57912

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

ir92y

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!

photo

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

IMG_02002

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

12145279_905705656183566_853061513_n

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.