Summer of Untrieds Day 29: Rainbow Honey (Not)

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Day 29 of the Summer of Untrieds Challenge calls for Rainbow Honey, but unfortunately, I don’t have any Rainbow Honey polishes. I know, I’m totally missing out. I would die for their Summer of 199X collection. To fulfill the requirement for the challenge, I chose both a polish and a brand I’ve never tried before. This is Beige Shimmer from Clarins, and I found this in a thrift store for a dollar. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Beige Shimmer is a sheer pale yellow creme. It has a very thin consistency; it’s not at all viscous, and it doesn’t cling to the bottle like polish normally does. Take a look at the bottle shots, you can definitely get a feel for how thin it is. It sloshes around in the bottle like water. Naturally, a polish like this can never achieve opacity, so I didn’t try. I knew what I was getting.

I pride myself on being able to pull off any color; there isn’t much that doesn’t look good on me. This, though, I don’t think it’s working for me. I don’t know if adding a white tip and making it a French would have improved it any, or if it’s just way too yellow for my skin tone, but I’m not quite feeling this.

At least I only paid a dollar for it.

Wacie Wednesday: Slop Bucket

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

My post today requires a bit of a backstory. When I first started experimenting with making my own polish, I ran out of bottles pretty quickly, and in an effort to save money, I decided to try to reuse some; I took my failed prototypes, poured them into an empty lacquer base bottle, and cleaned the polish bottles out with acetone. Unfortunately, the amount of work and acetone this required did not make it worth the time, and so I just ordered new bottles. Today, as I was walking into my workshop, I saw the bottle I’d poured all the polish into. I shook it up and watched it settle. There were so many kinds of glitter in it, so many pigments and dyes. I poured some of it into a polish bottle and put it on, and I got something weirdly wearable. I submit to you Slop Bucket, shown here at three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

I don’t even know how to describe this polish. What do you even call this color? Shimmery brownish mauve? There are shimmers with hints of green, blue, gold, silver. I can’t even name all of the glitters, but I’m willing to bet every color, shape, and size of glitter I’ve ever used is in here. The lime green glitters outnumber the rest, I’d say, because I used those a lot in my first prototypes. There are flowers and hearts, but I didn’t get a lot of those; you can see the only heart I got on my pinky nail. I got a flower on my thumb, but it got buried under the additional coats.

Is it weird that I like this? All things considered, I think this is really pretty. None of the glitters match, and they weren’t intended to go together. The base turned creamy and brown. Theoretically, this should be the ugliest nail polish in the world, and somehow, it isn’t.

When I took my studio photos, it was storming, so I didn’t think I’d get to see what this looks like in the sunshine, but now the sun is out and the sun is shining like the storm never happened. Thanks, fickle Florida weather! This is crazy shimmery in the sunlight. There’s so much shimmer it’s hard to see what’s going on on the rest of the nail. It’s still weirdly, strangely pretty to me.

Well, that was fun. I’m definitely going to keep this bottle around. I’m also inspired to dump out the rest of my fail bottles and make a sequel.

Manicure Monday: Minimalism with Color

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I really love this week’s Manicure Monday. I paired these two together on a whim, not really knowing if they went together or not. This is one dabbed coat of Literary Lacquers‘s My Secret Garden over three coats of Revlon’s Barely Blush, topped with one coat of Seche Vite.

As you can see, Barely Blush is a polish I’ve had for a long, long time. I’ve raved about Revlon’s Sweet Nothings collection before, and how easy they are to wear; even though they can be layered over anything and still look amazing, I’ve only ever worn them alone. I love the pearly, subtle shimmer over bare nails so much. Barely Blush is a sheer nude with a pink-to-purple shift and tiny iridescent glitters. I love it. I can’t get over it.

My Secret Garden from Literary Lacquers is a clear glitter topper with pink, lavender, blue, yellow and green matte hexes with iridescent sparkles. I was afraid the glitter would overpower the softness of the base color, and that the base color wouldn’t be a strong enough foundation for it. I’m so glad I was wrong. The bright glitters definitely stand out, but I don’t think it takes too much away from the rest of the manicure. It also looks very nice over Barely Blush: the twinkly glitters in My Secret Garden and the pink pearl shimmer in Barely Blush lift each other up quite well. It’s like a marriage made in polish heaven.

Outdoors, sunlight

I’m also going to say this counts for the Summer of Untrieds Challenge, since this is the first time I’ve used My Secret Garden, and it’s the first time I’ve featured Literary Lacquers on the blog. Everybody wins.

Summer of Untrieds Day Four: Red, White, and Blue

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

When I saw the order of the day today, I knew exactly what polish I had to use. 1776 by Different Dimension is a patriotic-as-hell glitter topper with red, white, and blue stars, white bars, red dots, and tiny white glitters throughout. I bought this on sale last year, and it’s my first-ever Different Dimension polish, so I’m excited to be using it today. I feel like I cheated a bit on the challenge today, because I’m seeing a lot of intricate and ornate nail art pieces for this day of the challenge, and I just put glitter over yesterday’s creme polish. This is two coats of 1776 over three coats of Butter London’s Bumster, with one coat of Seche Vite.

I did a pretty poor job applying this. I put it on in a hurry and didn’t expect the star glitters to be so tough to get out. I managed to get one star on my left hand, but it looks great there, so it’s got that going for it. Next time, I will definitely turn this bottle over and let the glitters redistribute themselves a bit better.

It looks crazy awesome over Bumster, too. I loved Bumster on its own, and I felt a little bad painting over it, but I think these polishes compliment each other well. I love glitter over nudes, it’s such a simple look.

I thought I did a pretty good job cleaning up my cuticles, and then I went into the sun and took some photos. Nope!

Now that I’ve done this, it’s time to dive into July 4th festivities.

Summer of Untrieds Day 3: Creme

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

So this month, I’m doing something a little different. I’m doing the Summer Untrieds Challenge, a month-long challenge devised by Julie at Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl; the idea is that, every day, you use a polish you’ve never tried before. There’s a handy set of rules, and even though I don’t plan to stop my scheduled Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday manicures, I don’t see the harm in doing the rest of the polishes on the days I don’t have anything set. Technically, all the polishes I plan to use are untried, so I say that still counts. I’m picking up late on Day 3, but Day 1 was OPI and I had an OPI mani on Monday, so I say that counts too. Anyway, I’m kicking off at Day 3. The order of the day is a creme polish, so I went down the polish list and landed on my first untried creme: Butter London’s Bumster. This is three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

So I like Bumster. I have actually no idea what color this is: peanut butter? butterscotch? khaki? I have no idea, but I freaking love it. Every time I use a neutral polish in a manicure, I always feel bad that I have to paint over it. My nails always look so long and healthy and awesome in nude polish; I think I’ve said this before, but nude polish is like mascara for nails. I’m so glad I get to wear this for a while and not have to worry about painting right over it and spoiling the color.

This is the first Butter London I’ve featured on the blog. This is one of the five-dollar jobbies I found at Nordstrom Rack that one time. This is a really nice formula; even the first coat went on evenly and streak-free. There were absolutely no surprises here, and I love it.

As a result of the challenge, there will be a new post on this blog every single day. I’ve never been one to change my nail color every single day, so that’s new for me. I think it’ll be a good thing, though. I always put off my chores because I’m too attached to my new manicure. Maybe I’ll finally get some dishes done.

Manicure Tuesday: Harvest Glitter on Brown

Posted on April 15, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’m back! I had an unexpected hiatus last week; I underestimated my workload and didn’t have time to take photos of my nails. I did do a puzzle piece manicure that was in theme with my job, but I didn’t have the time to take proper photos of it. My thrice-a-week blogging schedule will resume this week. Due to exhaustion, this week’s manicure post is a little late. For Mani Tuesday, I’m wearing Pretty & Polished’s Hows About a Roll in the Hay over Julep’s Vera.

Vera isn’t such a bad polish, really. I have on three coats here, but I could have gotten away with two. The formula is typical of Julep polish: thin but easy to use, quick-drying and shiny. I just can’t get past it being the same color as chocolate milk. I actually forgot chocolate milk was a thing until I had to work early one morning, my friend had some in the fridge, and I had flashbacks about grade school cafeteria lunches the whole rest of the day. Now I can’t get past this polish being Yoo-Hoo brown.

I had really high hopes for Hows About a Roll in the Hay from Pretty & Polished. I ordered it as soon as I laid eyes on it and couldn’t wait to get it. I own many of the P&P thermal polishes and a few of their glitters; I’ve been very happy with them. In this one, the glitter sinks, leaving a quarter-inch layer of lacquer all around the top of the bottle. My first application attempt left me with a thick layer of polish with maybe two pieces of glitter. I had to leave the bottle turned upside-down for 15 minutes before I got a good glitter distribution. This is probably not a problem; there’s actually a ton of glitter in this bottle, and it’s probably perfectly reasonable for it to settle and sink a bit. I’ve never had this happen with any of my P&Ps, so that’s why I feel a bit annoyed by it.

Despite the trivial issues I have with the polishes, I’m happy with the look I got. I like the autumnal warmth of the color combination. It also reminds me of breakfast foods. And grandma couches.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype BVS9.2

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This Swatch Saturday is a nice change of pace. I don’t own many holos, so I’m a little excited that one ended up in the rotation. Everybody knows I love glitter like nothing else, but it’s a little refreshing to use something that’s glassy smooth and wasn’t difficult to clean up. Today, we’re looking at another Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer prototype called BVS9.2. I’m wearing two coats of it and two coats of Seche Vite.

BVS9.2 is a cool taupe holo with some green shimmer. It goes on easily and beautifully, and dries quickly. I love wearing it. I don’t have a lot to say about this one, but I have tons of photos. Just let the rainbows do the talking. The following set of photos were taken indoors with softbox lighting.

It finally stopped being gray and cold and disgusting outside, so I took a set of photos in natural sunlight as well. As you can see, the holo effect is much stronger outside. It’s a rainbow explosion!

Honestly, I don’t know why I don’t have more holos. The effect can be absolutely stunning, and it’s an effect that can’t be achieved through glitter alone. I hope I’ll be wearing more in the future.

Because it’s a gorgeous spring day, here’s a picture of some of the flowers I was standing under while I was taking these outdoor shots. They were too pretty not to photograph.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Custom Gin and Tonic

Posted on March 15, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’m sharing with you today one of the most unique polishes in my collection. At some point, perhaps intoxicated, I thought that a nail polish mimicking the crisp, bubbly appearance of gin and tonic would be a really cool thing to have. I thought about making it myself, but it would be many months before I started blending my own polishes, so I commissioned a custom polish from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. I don’t think it could have come out any better. I’m wearing two coats of Gin and Tonic over L’oreal’s Broadway Boogie and The New Black’s Black, as well as two coats of Seche Vite.

Gin and Tonic is a glitter topper with loads of iridescent glitter, white dots in large and small sizes, and green crescent moons. The combination really does evoke the effervesence of the cocktail. I forget whose idea the moons as limes was, but it was totally genius.

I’ve worn this before over nudes, but I wanted to try over black this time, just to see what it looked like. I’m not liking it as much. The iridescent glitters look awesome on the black, but the moon limes get lost. Besides, the iridescents aren’t really the point anyway. They’re meant to add a little something extra to the nail without totally taking it over. I guess this means it’s not as versatile as it could be, but it suits my purpose and my tastes well enough. The only problem with it is that it makes me wish I was drinking a gin and tonic.

Manicure Monday: Neutrals and Glitter

Posted on March 10, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week’s Manicure Monday is a masterpiece. No really, I am way too excited about how this turned out. I had my doubts about pairing these two polishes, but they look so fantastic together that I can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner. We’re looking at Sally Hansen’s Natural Sienna and Digital Nails’s Xiao Mei Mei. I have on two coats of each, topped by two coats of Seche Vite top coat.

Natural Sienna is a shimmery, chocolatey brown that I like a lot more than I thought I would. I always skip over browns and neutrals because they’re not bold enough for me. I grabbed this one out of a sale bin thinking “Meh, why not”, and I like it a lot. The formula is thin but covers well. My only complaint here is the brush; it’s one of those wide brushes that’s almost as wide as my whole nail, and I tend to make a mess with those. Otherwise, this one is totally worth the two dollars I paid for it.

Digital Nails’s Xiao Mei Mei kind of steals the show here. Xiao Mei Mei is a nude crelly with orange, pink, and brown glitters. As you can see, it’s very sheer; my nail line is visible if you’re looking for it. I don’t even care about that. What I love about this is its simplicity; there’s just enough color to support the glitter, and it never detracts from it. Bonus: the nude would be my perfect nude if it didn’t have any glitter in it. It blends perfectly with my natural nail color.

My favorite thing, though, is how well these colors pair. The neutrals, the deep colors, the glitters, they all complement each other so well. Totally gorgeous.

I didn’t see Natural Sienna on Sally Hansen’s website, so it may be discontinued. However, Digital Nails has Xiao Mei Mei in stock, so grab it while you can.

Manicure Monday: Scattered Glitter Over Khaki

Posted on February 10, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week’s manicure is a gorgeous one. I have on Julep’s Kennedy and China Glaze’s Scattered and Tattered. Note to self: do more glitter and nude pairings.

Kennedy is a khaki creme. The last time I used it, I compared it to unblended foundation. There’s just not a lot to say about this one. It’s far too yellow to be a nude, at least not on me; I’m sure this is a perfect nude for someone. The formula is standard Julep fare; the first coat was thin and streaky, but the second evened everything out. I think I still had a slightly visible nail line, but the glitter covers it well. Overall, despite the odd choice khaki is for a nail color, I like it. Before I put the glitter over it, my nails look lengthened and smooth. It’s like nail mascara.

The real star here is Scattered and Tattered. This is a clear base full of black and red hexes and slices. I’m wearing one coat here, and you can see that it applies well and the glitter spreads evenly. I love these China Glaze glitters so much that I bought as many as my boyfriend would let me. I think there’s only one I’m missing, and once I figure out which one it is, I’m going to grab it. I just really love this look. It’s part pop art, part graffiti, part granite countertop. I definitely want to do this again.

Julep’s Kennedy and China Glaze’s Scattered and Tattered

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