Wacie Wednesday: Bridal Bouquet

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s the first-ever Wacie Wednesday! This is the part of the week where, if I have a new product to share, you’ll get to see it. Yeah, I told you I was serious about making my own polish. This first entry is a little rough, since I’m still missing things like branding, labelling, and a way for you to actually buy it. I’ll get on that soon, I promise. In the meantime, have a look at the very first Wacie Nail Company polish, Bridal Bouquet. It’s awesome, but don’t take my word for it.

Bridal Bouquet is a glitter toppper in a clear base; it contains pink flowers, green shreds, and iridescent hexes. I’m wearing one coat over The New Black’s Black, Essie’s Fiji and Navigate Her. It dries quickly and is easily smoothed down by top coat. I don’t really know what to say about it, other than it’s awesome and I love it. I can’t stop staring at it. The green-to-gold iridescent glitters really stand out on the black polish, and the flowers look great over the green. The light pink flowers blend in a little, but I think that’s okay. I think it still evokes the image of its namesake: soft petals, soft colors, fragrance and beauty. I think I started a nail company just to make this polish.

It’s really exciting to be one step closer, you know? I had the time of my life making this, and I hope I’ll be able to keep doing it for a long while. It would be amazing to have a career where I get to sit in a room with glitter and sparkles and just create things. I almost don’t even care if I make my investment back, just the satisfaction of doing it was, to me, worth the money.

I did a test to see what it looked like over blue. The verdict: awesome! From left to right: Sinful Colors’s Midnight Blue, Essie’s After School Boy Blazer, Julep’s Bess, Color Club’s Chelsea Girl, China Glaze’s For Audrey, Essie’s Turquoise & Caicos, and Bridal Bouquet worn alone.

Yeah, this is the best thing I ever did. If you’re interested in buying a bottle, or just interested in reviewing it, I’ll get the store and press form ready soon. I am absolutely dying to share this with everyone.

Swatch Saturday: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Morning Light

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Okay, I’ve been really excited about this for a while now. I’m going to start swatching all my Blue Eyed Girl Lacquers! I should probably just rename Swatch Saturday to BEGL Saturday because I’m probably going to spend the rest of this year’s Saturdays on them. My first BEGL swatch, one of the first ones I ever bought, is a shade called Morning Light. I’m wearing three coats of it here with three coats of Seche Vite top coat. All photos were taken indoors with natural outdoor light. Also, given the relationship between bloggers and indie polish brands, I should note that I was not compensated for this post. I purchased this polish myself, and even if I hadn’t, that would not affect my opinions in any way. That said, let’s go!

As you can see, Morning Light is a very sheer pink with a red to green shifting shimmer. There’s a big variety of glitter in here: red stars, aqua butterflies, red squares, purple, gold, and holo hexes, and more. Worn on its own, Morning Light is soft and natural. When layered, you only see the shimmer and glitter. While I haven’t experimented much with layering, I expect it would look good over anything.

Here you’ll see it worn over Essie’s Fiji and The New Black’s Black. This is one quick coat of Morning Light over two coats of color. Note the green shimmer; it’s much more pronounced over the black than over the pink. However, over the pink, the glitters are more visible and more prominent.

This polish came to me at a time when I was new to indies and everything was exciting. I bought this for one reason: butterfly glitter. How awesome is that? I know butterfly glitter is everywhere now, but for me, this was big. It completely changed the way I thought about nail polish, and what nail polish could be. Unfortunately, Morning Light is discontinued. Sorry! If you liked this, you should check out the Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer store and grab the BEGL Winter Collection before it’s gone. Also, let me leave you with one last photo of my BEGL collection. Yeah, when I said it might take me all year, I wasn’t exaggerating.

Plus like five more.

Manicure Monday: Dainty Glitter Crackle

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’m always afraid of manicures like this. They never turn out the way I want them. Those light, girlish pinks are never opaque enough, and in my experience, crackle polishes won’t crackle if you look at them sideways. Thankfully, this one turned out quite well.

I have no clue what that string is hanging off my nail. I swear it wasn’t there when I took the photos.

The light pink I used this week is Wet ‘n Wild’s Sugar Coat. After three coats, I still had a visible nail line, but it was very shiny and pretty regardless. The crackle, China Glaze’s Luminous Lavender, is more subtle than I expected. It wasn’t the glitterbomb the bottle makes it look like. It dries matte is somewhat gritty, so it takes a good top coat to bring out the shine in the glitter. Overall, I like this look. These soft, dainty manicures always make me feel different, like less really is more. I feel like I’ve gone on that tirade before in another post. I’m not a less is more sort of person, but manicures like these make me feel like it’s true, like it’s not so bad being feminine and sweet, like I could be that person in the future. Whether I actually want to be that person remains to be seen. Also, you can even really tell I nicked the polish off my middle finger nail while I was chopping vegetables for dinner last night.

I tried something different this week: using a brush instead of the pointed cotton swabs to clean up my cuticles. After buying four packs of them and blowing through them in two weeks, I decided that investing in a good brush was really a more efficient and less wasteful solution. I settled on an angled eyebrow brush from Nyx. It was thin, flat, and would give me just the right amount of space between my polish and my cuticle. The brush didn’t make it past the first cleanup phase. I like to clean up after every step, and so I was cleaning up the three coats of pink before I put on the crackle when it started shedding. Fibers were coming out in the acetone, on my polish, all over the place. I ended up making an emergency trip to Walgreens to find the pointed cotton swabs, only they were out. I bought an eyeliner brush that’s a little thicker than the one I had, but it got the job done, for now. I’ll probably have to go to the art supplies store to grab a paintbrush that can handle the acetone.

Wet ‘n Wild’s Sugar Coat, China Glaze’s Luminous Lavender

Manicure Monday: Matte Pink Glitter

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

New year, new glitter! Here’s my first manicure of 2014. I’ve decided to try out a matte coat over glitter, and I’m not sure how much I like the result, but here it is.

A Cut Above is a fantastic glitter topper made up of various sizes of pink glitter. It applies evenly with the brush, which means I didn’t have to flood my cuticles and waste a lot of polish to get this look. It went on very easily. When I put the matte top coat on, I felt like I was taking something away from it, but maybe I got something in return. The glitter still shines, but has a softer quality. It’s pretty and it’s interesting, but I’m not sure if I’ll do it again. I want my glitter to shine.

Also, I seem to have this problem with matte topcoats; the tips wear down more easily. Do you see those exposed tips? I just did these, and somewhere between applying the topcoat and taking the photos, the tips are worn down. That’s embarrassing. I feel dirty posting them, they’re so bad. Maybe it’s just this topcoat, but every time I use it, I have the same problem. I hate it.

Sally Hansen’s Black Out, Essie’s A Cut Above

I’ll mention this on the side: About a year ago, when I was living alone, I needed acetone. The store nearest me, which was about a half mile away, was perpetually out of acetone, so I sucked it up and went the extra mile (literally) to Walgreens. Meanwhile, I had some Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, and I didn’t yet own any Essie polishes, so I knew I’d leave with a few of those, too. It took me ages to find the acetone; it ended up being on some hidden aisle endcap outside of the cosmetics department. As I walked around looking for it, I’d found tons of other things to buy, and I spent literally every cent I had on my wallet. I felt a little guilty (and a little relieved I didn’t have to put things back), but I did what I went to do. I bought acetone (at least I didn’t forget that) and I got my first Essies. Also, I walked three miles just to buy them, which says quite a lot about my dedication and/or insanity.

The haul from that fateful day.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Pink

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I love neons! I’m almost through the American Apparel haul from October; I have one left and a couple others until get into my extensive Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer stash. I think I’m reaching a point where I’m more excited about swatching my unused polishes than doing any kind of nail art.

My first swatch of the year is American Apparel’s Neon Pink. I don’t have anything to add to that. It’s neon, it’s pink, it’s bold and obvious. It’s definitely my kind of polish. You’re seeing it here with three coats and three coats of Seche Vite top coat. All the photos were taken indoors with natural outdoor light.

Before I started, I couldn’t decide whether to use a white foundation coat, or to use it on its own to demonstrate the true color and consistency of the polish. I did both. Can you tell which is which? You probably can, because I suck at cleaning up my cuticles, and you can see the white edge peeking out on my index and ring fingers. I’m surprised to see there’s not much of a difference between the two. The first two coats without the white freaked me out a little, because they were so different. Without the white, I was afraid of having two vastly different colors on my hands, and one with a visible nail line. When I put on the third coat, it was opaque and neon and perfect. Only in some lighting conditions I can see the difference, and even then, it’s very subtle. Without the white, the pink is sweeter and juicier; with it, it has just a teensy bit more pop.

I’m impressed with the quality of this polish. I got great coverage and great color payoff. I’m starting to regret not buying the other neon shades they had.

Manicure Monday: Bronze Glitter Gradient

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

It’s like I dipped my nails in shiny chocolate. It’s not chocolate, though. It’s glitter!

As you can see, I used two polishes this week. Wet ‘n Wild’s 2% Milk is a very pale, very sheer pink. The first coat was so sheer that it was nearly invisible. The second coat was less so, but was still very transparent and natural-looking. I’ve never gotten the point of these sheer pinks that don’t cover anything. I guess they’re useful for French manicures, but I never got the point of those either. Orly’s So Go-Diva is a bronze glitter suspended in a clear base, and I had some trouble with this one. Before I started working with it, there was this layer of clear polish hovering over the glitter, and so when I pulled the brush out, I’d have maybe five pieces of glitter on an otherwise bare nail. I got this look by applying it with an eyeshadow sponge; the sponge soaked up the extra lacquer and still let me place the glitter where I wanted it.

I could have done a better job with the gradient, probably. Since 2% Milk was so sheer, I felt I needed a thick layer of glitter to cover the nail line, and so that’s why it goes down so far. I tried to exercise some control, I honestly did. This is actually the second attempt at this manicure today; my gradient work was awesome, but I tried a jelly sandwich thing with the pink, but I ended up hating it and took it off. I’m not especially happy with this gradient, but I like it enough to keep it on. However, it has crossed my mind to just sponge the glitter onto the whole nail and keep the sheer pink out of it.

This is a good festive manicure, I think. I never do themed or holiday nails, but I love when they happen by accident.

Wet ‘n Wild’s 2% Milk, Orly’s So Go-Diva

You’ll see that layer of clear is gone from the Orly bottle. Out of curiosity, I tested it to see if the glitter spreads any better, and it does. I think I’m just going to pour out that extra bit of lacquer from every bottle from now on.

Manicure Monday: Blue Glitter on Pink

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

These post-birthday nails are so shiny, I couldn’t get a decent picture of them. It’s rainy and overcast today, and what little light I could get from outside reflected off of the glitter and made things complicated. Even in person, they look like this. It’s impossible to see the glitter, only the shine. After ten tries with similar results, I gave up. This was the best I could do.

Seriously, this was the only almost-good one.

I tried a few new things this week. I bought a new base coat like three weeks ago, and the indie seller I bought it from took an eternity to ship it, so I broke down and grabbed this OPI one. I actually really like it. It dries very quickly and cuts my mani time down significantly. I’m really impressed with it. The pink from this week, Love Rocks, is perfectly opaque after two coats. I’m always excited to use Essie polishes because I have so few of them, so I really love the blue metallic glitter from Stroke of Brilliance. It made my photography a nightmare, but it gives me an effect I couldn’t get from anything else.

Sally Hansen’s Love Rocks, Essie’s Stroke of Brilliance

I didn’t think I would like this mani so much. I had the pink, I needed a blue, and Stroke of Brilliance was the first one I grabbed from the blue section, so I used it. (Someday maybe I’ll write about my haphazard polish sorting and zero-effort mani planning). I’m actually really pleased with it.

Manicure Monday On the Road: Birthday Cupcakes

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

It’s my birthday week, so I’m visiting my boyfriend in Atlanta for the week. Unfortunately, this means I have one photo of my manicure, taken with an iPad. Unfortunately, it means I had to type this blog entry on an iPad as well.

They look kinda melted.

I used a lot of colors in this manicure, as you can see. Here’s a list:

Green: Sally Hansen’s Mint Sprint
Blue: OPI’s Eurso Euro
Pink: P2’s French Kiss
White: Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get
Accent nails: Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES!

Several days before I left, I packed everything I would need for this manicure. I put all five polishes into a bag with my dotting tool, pointed cotton swabs and acetone, striping tape, tweezers, and whatever else I would need to successfully complete this mani. When I started, I ended up peeling off my old mani, which took off a bit of my natural nail, but it also meant I didn’t disturb my boyfriend’s six housemates with bad acetone smell. Also, since it was a mani with rhinestones, it also meant I didn’t have to go through the kitchen hunting for foil or anything like that. So I’d already started on a bad foot. Then when it was time to start the dotting, the dotting tool wasn’t in my bag. I went through it twice, I looked in other bags several times, and it was nowhere to be found. I ended up making all my dots with the end of an unwound paper clip. It definitely shows. While this isn’t some of my best handpainting, it’s not my worst, either. Actually, it may be my best. I’m awful at handpainting.

So, the polishes. Eurso Euro had a really weird smell, somewhat different from the usual OPI smell. Now that I think about it, I have a dark blue P2 crackle with the same weird smell. Do these dark blue pigments just smell differently, or what? It had really nice coverage, and was easy to work with, but that smell. I can’t get past it. The mint green Sally Hansen is an Insta-Dri, so of course it was opaque in one coat and ready to go right away. I didn’t use the P2 for much, other than the cherry on the top of the cupcake, but it’s probably just as nice to work with.

I think the glitter crelly, Floppy. Hoppy. BUNNIES!, kind of stole the show here. Yes, that’s butterfly glitter you see there, as well as stars in a couple different colors, squares, and hexes. It’s a limited edition polish from Blue Eyed Girl Lacquer, and you only get it by ordering the whole Buffy the Vampire Slayer-inspired collection. Holos aren’t really my style, so they felt bad for me and gave it to me anyway. It’s an excellent polish, and I kind of dislike how exclusive it is, because it’s the best one in the collection, in my opinion. If you want in on this or any of their other polishes (you do), here’s the link to the BEGL store.

I really hate typing on an iPad, so I guess I’ll end it here. See you guys when I get back from vacation!

Manicure Monday: Pink and Brown Flakie Gradient Thing

Posted on July 22, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

This wasn’t the manicure I had planned when I started. I wanted a water marble with this pink and a pastel yellow, Julep’s Blake. I used two coats of it, and got one hand marbled, and then completely ran out of the yellow. It was about half full from the last water marble I did, and the Julep bottles are so small that I’ll go through half a bottle without realizing it. I’m a little miffed I only got two manicures from that one bottle. So there I was, one hand finished, one not, no other pastel yellow polish to use instead. I tried a neon yellow, and it just turned everything orange. I gave up and started over. I dug around in my bag for hours, looking for something I hadn’t used yet. I saw the Moon Candy in there and said “Hey, why not?”.

I liked the brown and pink gradient on its own, and at first, I was hesitant to add the flakie glitter. It reminded me of this ridiculous ice cream my boyfriend ate when he lived here that was chocolate and cherry and even had these heart-shaped chocolates with cherry filling. It’s excellent break-up ice cream. Anyway, so I was thinking about that, and I almost used heart glitter instead of the flakies, but I’m glad I didn’t. I like the way it came out. Also, something completely new to me is using both kinds of gradients together. I’d either do a color gradient or a glitter gradient, but never both at the same time. I like the dimension I get from doing both.

Sinful Colors’ Soul Mate, Revlon Moon Candy in Universe

On an unrelated note, this manicure survived mowing the lawn right after being finished. I thought I’d chip at least one, for sure, but nothing happened. I have failed twice at mowing my own lawn, first because the mower ran out of gas and I didn’t realize it, and the second time because it started breathing smoke. At least my manicure is intact.

Even nice nails make dirty hands look good.

Manicure Monday: French Pink and White Gradient

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

So this is my idea of a professional manicure. I’m going on a business trip to Boston, and I wanted a manicure that was office-friendly without giving up glitter. Here I am, having my cake and eating it too.

It looked different in my head, but I’m pretty happy with the result. From a distance, it looks like the traditional French manicure, and the glitter is hardly noticeable. I tried to be professional while still being myself, but I may have done better than I thought.

Another angle for glitter.

I still can’t get over how long my nails are.

Julep’s Emmanuelle, Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get, Sinful Colors’ Pearl Harbor

That Julep polish was full when I started.

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