Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype PDW1

I’ve been looking forward to swatching this ever since I got it. This is a prototype from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer called PDW1. I got it cheap because the glitter sinks to the bottom. It was challenging to work with, but I’m very happy with my application. Also, I’m using my DSLR for nail pictures for the first time, so that’s fun, too.

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PDW1 is a black jelly with fine silver glitter, silver hearts and stars, big red dots, and purple hearts. I’m wearing three coats of it here. As I mentioned, this one has a sinking glitter problem, so I left the bottle upside down for about an hour, and scraped the bottom with an orange stick to make sure I got it all off. Even then, I really had to dig for the shape glitters. The fine glitter distributes well. The first coat was so sheer that I started to worry; after three coats, the glitter from the first coat is barely visible, especially the purple and red shapes. I wasn’t sure about it until I put the top coat on; the top coat made everything come together.

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I nicknamed this prototype COSMOLUST. I’m not sure why. Every black polish I name has something to do with space and/or sex. I think this is the polish that started the trend.

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One unrelated thing: I don’t like mini bottles. This bottle is half-full now, and I’ve only used it once. I’m only going to get one more mani out of it. I’m kind of afraid I’ll never use it again because I won’t want to use it up. It’s also challenging to pose with them, but that’s not as important.

Manicure Monday: Get Carried Away

For Manicure Monday this week, I’m wearing China Glaze’s Get Carried Away, a black jelly with silver and copper hexes, black bar glitter, and very fine black hexes. I’m wearing three coats of it here, no undies, under two coats of Seche Vite.

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I had high hopes for this polish in the beginning. When I first saw it, I’d likened it to a goth older sister of It’s a Trap-eze!, and I had to have it. After three coats, it looks exactly like it does in the bottle; I got a full, even coverage with good glitter distribution. However, cuticle cleanup was awful. You can see I have a lot of jagged lines and pointy bits. I went over my cuticle with the brush and just got the fine black glitter all over me. The bar glitter didn’t play nice; it extended over the tips of my nails like eyelashes and I couldn’t get them off, so I ended up trimming them with my cuticle nippers. Same with the large hexes; when I couldn’t get them off, I cut them down. They’re not as smooth as they could be, but I did well enough.

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Protip: Don’t do three coats of this. You’ll hate yourself. You’ll get the same effect by using black undies and one coat of Get Carried Away. It’s not worth it.

Swatch Saturday: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Weary Traveler

For the real Swatch Saturday, I’m wearing Weary Traveler, the last stop on the round-bottle discontinued BEGL trolley. Either this one or Eleanor were the first BEGLs I ever wore, so those are my favorites from this batch. I’m wearing three coats of it with two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

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Weary Traveler is a black jelly with pink shimmer, teal holo hexes, and crescent moons in green and holographic silver. Like I said before, this was one of my first experiences with the BEGL brand, and with indie polishes in general. It’s definitely my first polish with moon-shaped glitter, which was probably the reason I bought it to start with. This is a winning combination for me: deep colors, tons of glitter, tons of shine. It can’t be beat.

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It’s been fun going through all these old polishes. I have so many now that I wonder if I’ll ever get to revisit them. I guess this is the downside to having so many untrieds; I’ll try them, put them away, and then what? I may never use them again. I’ve been seeing a lot of blog sales and destashes lately, and I always think “Who the crap would want to sell off their pretties?” I’m starting to understand.

Swatch Thursday?: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Eleanor

I don’t normally post on Thursdays, but yesterday’s uggos didn’t stay on for very long, so I decided to swatch a BEGL favorite, Eleanor. Eleanor is a black jelly packed with pink, blue, purple, and aqua glitters. I’m wearing three coats with two coats of Seche Vite.

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Eleanor is just gorgeous. It’s everything I could want in a jelly: it’s shiny, it’s squishy, it’s loaded down with beautiful glitters. I just don’t know what else I can say. It’s beautiful and I love it.

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Like the other BEGLs I’ve shared so far, Eleanor is also, unfortunately, discontinued. I’m so backed up on my BEGL collection that everything I’m reviewing is discontinued. I’m almost out of the round-bottle BEGLs, at least.

Wacie Wednesday: Deli-Style

While Wacie Wednesday is usually reserved for promoting new Wacie Nail Company products, I’ve decided to share a nail fail this week instead. Deli-Style is a product I promise to never unleash on the public. Except for right now.

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Deli-Style is a yellow jelly with fine iridescent glitter and metallic gold dots. It’s the failed result of an attempt at a beer-inspired polish. I was trying to make something that captured the fizzy, wheaty appearance of hefeweizen. Instead I got something that looks like it was meant to be squirted onto a sandwich.

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It’s actually not that bad in some lighting. In my office, it looks a bit more like a lemon yellow than a mustard relish. I was actually thinking of renaming it until I went into the studio and saw them under the softbox. It’s still as gross as ever. If there’s anyone who would actually want this polish for themselves, I’d happily make it for you, but I’d also be concerned.

Manicure Monday: It’s a Trap-eze!

For this week’s Mani Monday, I’m wearing one of my most loved polishes, China Glaze’s It’s a Trap-eze!. A nail friend peer-pressured me into buying it, and I have not regretted it once. This is the first time I’ve ever worn it on its own; you may remember it from this bad mani I did almost a year ago. This is a gorgeous polish in the bottle, but I was totally unprepared for how it came out on my nails.

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It’s a Trap-eze! is a white jelly loaded down with metallic rainbow glitters. I’m wearing three coats of it here, but I could have gotten away with two. As it dries, the glitter makes it textured and gritty; I put down three coats of Seche Vite, and it’s still a little bumpy. Also, cleanup was a bit of a pain; I didn’t get my cuticles as clean as I wanted them, but I’m lucky to have done this well.

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This polish is just unbelievable. Look at that glitter! I am completely hypnotized by it. Whenever I happen to look down at my hands, I end up staring. Also, it’s always amazing how the macro setting on my camera picks up the individual shapes of the glitters. Man. It’s unbelievable.

Swatch Saturday: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer’s First Frost

Today’s swatch is yet another Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer, but it’s one I love a lot. First Frost is a white jelly/crelly with tons of blue, silver, and gunmetal gray glitters. I’m wearing three coats of it with three coats of top coat.

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I really do adore this polish. There are so many beautiful glitters, but it’s such a soft look. Given the translucence of the jelly, this almost looks kind of pink on me (it’s more evident in person, I think), but it’s totally not. It’s my nail. While I work from home and have a skewed idea of what’s work-appropriate, I’d say this one is. It’s pretty and glittery, but it can’t be seen from the other side of the room. The name is also evocative of gray skies and light, fluffy snowfalls, the wintry smell of the air and the crush of frozen ground underneath one’s boots; these are things that, as a Floridian, I know absolutely nothing about.

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These were really hard to clean up, and as you can see, I did a horrible job. I tried getting the fine glitters away from my cuticle, but I ended up just making my cuticles dry and sad. I’m kind of embarrassed to post them like this, but the polish looks so awesome I almost don’t even care.

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Sadly, First Frost has been discontinued, but there are some similar white crellies in the BEGL store. One of them is a discontinued limited edition that’s on sale, you may want to get on that before it’s gone.

Swatch Saturday: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Team Zissou

My swatch this weekend is one of my favorite Blue Eyed Girl Lacquers, the limited edition Team Zissou! I’ve been really excited about this one since I bought it half a year ago. I’m wearing three coats (no undies) of it here with three coats of Seche Vite.

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Team Zissou, inspired by Wes Anderson’s film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (incidentally, this is one of my favorite movies), is a milky sheer white base with a faint shimmer, red, white and blue hexes and squares, and blue hearts. When I discovered BEGL, I think I’d seen the movie like a week before, and I was still kind of high on it. I don’t think I even saw a swatch of it; I saw the name and “blue hearts” and I was sold.

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I usually like polishes with a bit more glitter, and over the top looks in general, but I think there’s something to be said for this polish’s simplicity. With the absence of a boatload of glitter, the few that are there stand out. The hearts are the star of the show, and the small hexes and squares complement them. It’s a really nice look.

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I’m so glad I finally got the chance to wear this. I hate myself for not putting it on sooner.

Wacie Wednesday: Bleeding Heart

It’s Wacie Wednesday! I got a bunch of new glitters and another bottle of lacquer base, so I finished up some prototypes I was working on last week. I’m really excited about these. Let’s do it!

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Bleeding Heart is a deep red jelly laden with iridescent and holo glitter hearts. I’m wearing three coats with no undies, and three coats of Seche Vite. As shiny as it looks here, it’s even shinier in person. The glitter shines through beautifully, the jelly is squishy and clear. The hearts blend in more than I thought they would, but they add to the look without overpowering it. I’m in love with this polish. I don’t think I can do any better than this.

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I’m getting ever closer to an actual Wacie Nail Company launch. I have a few more prototypes I’ll be sharing with you in the coming weeks; I’m aiming for eight finished polishes as an initial product line. I’m still looking to labelling ideas and a means of producing things in batches, and then I’ll be ready to go. I’m really excited.

Manicure Monday: Turquoise Hologram

This week’s Manicure Monday is an oldie, but a goodie. I admit I hated this polish when I bought it last decade, but now I’m in a place where I can appreciate it. This is three coats of Turquoise Hologram from Claire’s.

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Turquoise Hologram is a light blue jelly with fine holographic glitter. When I bought it, I was just looking for a nice blue polish that would match this light blue eyeliner I was into. I liked the glitter in this one, so I grabbed it, and when I put it on, I thought it was horrible. It took six coats to achieve total opacity and I couldn’t stand it. I put it away and never used it again until now, now that I know what jellies are.

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I think I might still have hated it on longer nails. Because they’re not very long, you don’t see much of a nail line, because I barely have one. I must have smudged it with top coat on the index finger because of that bald spot, and the Seche Vite must have shrunk the edges. I’m not very happy with this manicure in particular, but there is hope for this polish after all.

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It’s kind of satisfying using one of the oldest polishes I own. It was probably 2008 when I bought this one, seeing it was about that time I stopped biting my nails and put some effort into nail care. I’d been painting my nails since before then, but growing up, we always had family bottles; my mom, sisters and I all shared one collection. I left home in 2005, but didn’t really bother with my nails much, since I was still a raging nailbiter. I had a handful of polishes for myself then, and maybe a hundred when my boyfriend moved out in 2012. Now I’m hoarding it. I don’t know how I survived with only a hundred bottles of nail polish.