Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Wanna Fall In Love Tonight

Posted on October 29, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Swatch Saturday is here again! We had so many special manis this month that I almost didn’t have time to swatch. Almost. The lovely BEGL I’m wearing this Saturday is Wanna Fall in Love Tonight; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Gelous.

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Wanna Fall in Love Tonight is a purple polish with an allover golden shimmer. Application was good; the color is well-pigmented and glides on easily, achieving opacity in two coats. The product consistency was very nice as well, being thin enough to manipulate without being floody or streaky. The one issue is that one may end up with brushstrokes in the shimmer if one isn’t careful. The polish dries with a matte finish; I used top coat for shine.

Indie polish is all about shimmers right now, and I feel like BEGL was ahead of the curve with polishes like this. I love constrasting colors, and having purple and gold in one polish is seriously exciting. It’s a minimalist kind of polish; it says all it needs to while saying very little.

This polish seriously glows in the sun. The golden shimmer really comes alive and just warms up the whole look. It’s very nice. These photos were taken in direct sunlight.

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Wanna Fall in Love Tonight has been discontinued by Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer; other BEGL polishes are available in their online shop.

I bought this polish myself.

Birthday Mani Digest 2016

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

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

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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

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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

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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

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

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

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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!

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

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

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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.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Noticing Face

Posted on September 3, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Welcome back to Swatch Saturday! Today’s swatch is a gorgeous glitter jelly from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. This is Noticing Face, and it’s one of my favorites from their massive Doctor Who collection. Yes, I’m still working through it! I’m wearing three coats of Noticing Face with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Noticing Face is a deep purple jelly with fine gold and purple holographic glitters. Application was easy; the product consistency was very nice to work with. The jelly isn’t streaky or too thin, but is still thin enough to let the glitter show through. My first coat was nearly full-coverage, which, how often does that happen for you with a jelly? The second coat evened everything out. The fine glitters dry with a slightly gritty feel, and the jelly had a slight satin finish when dry. I used top coat for extra shine and smoothness.

This could be the most perfect glitter jelly I’ve ever used. The color is deep and still squishy, and the glitters add sparkle without overwhelming the polish. The gold glitters in particular are my favorite, adding a complementary element that’s still luxe and natural. It’s gorgeous.

My outdoor photos don’t do it any justice, but of course, when I took these photos, there was a hurricane outside and it wasn’t very sunny. These photos were taken in mostly cloudly, somewhat hurricaney conditions.

Noticing Face and other BEGL polishes are available in their online shop, though at the time of this writing, they are taking a break.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Ombre Hearts

Posted on August 29, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Happy Monday, reader! A lot of polishes found their way into this week’s Manicure Monday post! For this first-time ombre, I used Essie’s Go Ginza and Devil’s Advocate (thumb and pinky, respectively), Ciaté’s Pillow Fight (index), Julep’s Charlotte (middle), Chanel’s Provocation (ring), and Revlon’s Hearts of Gold FX. I also used Seche Vite and Essie’s Matte About You matte top coat.

So after last week’s break, I actually broke the same nail again and just gave up and cut them all down. I forgot how hard it is to have short nails! I mean, obviously it’s not like having long nails, but there’s a challenge in there. I can’t scratch my back as easily, for example. It’s also harder to paint them, because the edge is so near the fingertip, I can’t wrap the edges as well. They’re already worn on some nails. It’s sad; this mani is going to be chipped to hell by tomorrow.

At first, I was just going to use Charlotte as the base on all five nails, but I decided that was boring. I’d never done an ombre like this before and dug around in the bins for purple cremes. You would not believe the time I spent looking for four more purple cremes. Turns out, these are like the only five I had! How is it possible that I can have 1,400+ bottles of polish but practically no purple cremes? I actually did have a few more but most of them were similar shades and didn’t make a difference. I don’t like how some of the purples are warm and some are cool, but the glitter looks good over all of them at least.

Hearts of Gold FX is such a fun topper. I love glitter toppers and I love shaped glitters. I love finding mainstream polishes with shaped glitters. I’ve worn it on the blog before, so this time I used the matte top coat to make it extra different. I love the way it looks mattefied! The glitter looks different over every nail, but I think I might like it best over the lighter shades, where the glitter blends in a bit more. In the sunlight, even though it’s mattefied, it’s still blinding.

Essie and Revlon are sold in stores nationwide; mine likely came from Walgreens. My Chanel is from Nordstrom. Julep polishes are sold on their website and other stores. Ciaté is sold at Sephora.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Siren’s Quarter-Life Crisis

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Happy Saturday! My swatch today is of a super-small-batch gift-with-purchase from a Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer holiday sale. Only 15 bottles of this were made, and I have one! This is Siren’s Quarter-Life Crisis; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Siren’s Quarter-Life Crisis is a clear-based microglitter polish with shades of periwinkle, lavender, and teal holographic glitters. Application was good; the first coat has just a smattering of glitter, but coverage builds with additional coats. The polish has a lot of glitter in it, but doesn’t affect product consistency; it’s still very easy to apply. It dries quickly and with a slightly-textured glitter finish; I used top coat for smoothness and shine.

I feel really fortunate to have this polish. These small-release BEGL polishes go fast, and this one is from 2014, before they got really popular. Look at the label, I have #11 out of 15; I nearly missed it! These are my favorite polishes to own: the ones that would be highly sought-after if more people knew they existed.

This glitter takes off in the sunlight. It got a little washed out, but the shine and sparkle is legendary. There’s a red shimmer that’s not as apparent indoors. There’s so much going on! I love BEGL microglitters, always and forever.

Siren’s Quarter-Life Crisis is no longer available; other Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquers are sold in their online shop.

This polish was a gift with purchase. It was not sent for review.

Manicure Monday: Vision Intuition

Posted on August 8, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Happy Monday! Manicure Monday is here! I’m excited to be using a SpaRitual polish for the first time today, as well as a Lynnderella polish that’s been calling my name for a while now. For this look, I used three coats of SpaRitual’s Intuition and one brushed coat of Lynnderella’s Moonstone Magic.

I have to admit, I don’t really know anything about SpaRitual. I’ve seen a few polishes around in communities, so I knew about the brand, but I’d never seen it in stores until I found some in a TJ Maxx in upstate New York. I got a set with two bottles and a clutch for like ten dollars. I had to buy it! I hate to say it, but I expected a little more from the formula; the first coat of Intuition was worringly thin, and while coverage improved dramatically with extra coats, it’s still not fully opaque. The shifting shimmer is nice at least. It’s still a pretty polish.

I went through a phase where I was all about the white glitters in shimmery bases. I’m still not over it. I think half of my Lynderella collection is white glitters. They’re just so pretty! I have so many and yet none of them are the same, they all have some unique must-have quality. I chose Moonstone Magic for this look for its shifting base; it’s not quite the same shimmer as the one in Intuition, but I think they work together. It’s a little milky-looking over the purple, but it’s still dreamy and iridescent. Truth be told, though, I almost reached for Beautiful Dreams again. It was a hard choice!

The following photos were taken in direct sunlight. In harsh light like this, you can see how thin Intuition still looks after three coats. It’s pretty disappointing. The tiny silver stars in Moonstone Magic kill me.

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Intuition isn’t in stock on the SpaRitual website; other polishes are available there. Moonstone Magic might be discontinued by Lynnderella; other Lynnderellas are available on their new site and on eBay.

I bought these polishes myself.

National Lipstick Day 2016

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Did you guys know today is National Lipstick Day? I only just found out this morning, but I knew I had to write about it. I love any excuse to dig a lipstick out! For National Lipstick Day 2016, I’m wearing Revlon’s Crushed Velvet Lip Creme in Push-Up Plum. Before I go on any further, I should tell you this is like an eight year old lipstick. I promise I smelled it and looked it over for mold and grossness before I used it. Also, I chose this one by just digging into the lipstick drawer and pulling something out.

This is a lipstick I’ve had languishing in my vanity drawer basically since the day I bought it. I got it on sale after Revlon had discontinued the line and Walgreens was clearing it out. I snapped it up along with a few others. I don’t know why it is I’ve never really worn them. I’ve always loved plum lipsticks, but I’ve just never felt like wearing this. In fact, I nearly put it back a few times, justifying it with “oh, this doesn’t go with what I have on” or “oh, maybe I should go for something more seasonal”. I decided that no, today’s the day. I’m giving this lipstick the love I should have given it eight years ago.

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The texture of the lipstick itself is really creamy and smooth, and while it’s easy to apply, it’s not easy to apply well. There’s some patchiness, and it settles into lines pretty easily. However, from a distance, it’s hard to tell. That close-up photo looks a little scarier than it is. Also, one thing that annoys me about this lipstick, is that the outside of the bullet has this fine silver shimmer over it, but the inside doesn’t. It’s such a letdown!

So there it is, National Lipstick Day 2016! What are you wearing to celebrate?

Other products I used in this look:
Face:
Dr. Jart+ Premium Beauty Balm SPF 45
Revlon Photoready powder in Translucent
Benefit Dallas bronzer
Benefit High Beam highlighter
Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Browl Gel

Eyes:
Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin
Urban Decay eyeshadows Foxy, Snakebite, and Blackout, found in the Naked 2 palette
Urban Decay 24/7 Eyeliner in Zero
Maybelline Great Lash waterproof mascara

Dress: Modcloth

As this is a very old lipstick, it’s no longer for sale. Other Revlon lipsticks are sold in stores nationwide.

I bought all these products myself.

Swatch Sunday: Seche’s Collage Overlay

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Swatch Sunday again! Today’s swatch is Seche’s Collage Overlay! This is a serious glitter topper. I’m wearing one brushed coat over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray, Essie’s Fiji, and Ciaté’s Sugar Plum, as well as one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Collage Overlay is a clear-based glitter topper with holographic pink bar and hex glitters in various sizes, as well as large white hexes. Application was tricky with this; there’s so much glitter and it tends to clump together, making it a challenge to get even coverage. The bar glitters are pretty long in this polish and can be difficult to work with as well. You can see them sticking off the edges of the nail and into the cuticle. On the plus side, it does dry quickly with some chunky glitter texture. I used top coat for shine and smoothness.

So I really wanted to love this look. I really loved it the first time I used it; I paired it with a hot pink jelly for a sandwich, and it made a really great look. I love the glitters in this mix; I love how it’s holo glitter, but it’s not much like any holo glitter I’ve ever seen. The color is unique. I love the white hexes as a monotony breaker. I just wished it brushed on a bit better. It’s a mess.

I took some photos outside, and let me tell you, this is blinding in direct sunlight. Look how washed out these sunlight photos are. This will give you some indication of how shiny it is. It was kind of painful to look at.

Collage Overlay might have been discontinued by Seche. Other Seche products are available in stores nationwide; I got mine from Sally Beauty Supply.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Tuesday: Plum Opal

Posted on July 5, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Hello, reader! I had an awesome Fourth of July weekend, and that’s why I’m posting a mani in the middle of the week. I hope yours was just as good! I like this mani, so even if it is late, I’m excited to share it. I’m using one of the Chanels I treated myself to for my birthday and a gorgeous flakie topper! This is Chanel’s Provocation and Finger Paints’s Symmetrical Symphony mattefied with Essie’s Matte About You matte top coat.

I loved the Finger Paints flakie collection from the other year. I was actually pretty lucky and scored most of them from the Sally Beauty Supply sale bin. It was the most exciting thing. I love this one because the colors contrast; some flakies glow golden, others glow blue-violet, and they bring out the best in each other. I had to mattify them for the full effect. The colors are very strong. I used two coats to get this much coverage.

As beautiful as the flakies are, though, I’m the most excited about wearing Provocation. Deep plum polish always makes me feel glamorous, but having it be a Chanel polish really ups the glamour factor. There’s still a part of me that feels guilty for buying these, especially since there’s no real difference between mid-end and high-end polish. I just remember seeing Chanel’s Vamp in so many magazines as a young teen that I knew one day I’d have to own a Chanel polish. I might have a little buyer’s remorse, but I feel posh as hell with this polish on.

In the sunlight, you can really see the opal effect the flakies have. It’s really mesmerizing! The matte coat makes it possible to see all the colors at once, and the colors are really vivid outdoors. Provocation looks red for some reason. These photos were taken in direct sunlight outdoors.

Chanel polishes are available wherever Chanel cosmetics are sold; mine is from Nordstrom. Finger Paints is sold at Sally Beauty Supply.

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Sunday: Revlon’s Sweet Revenge

Posted on June 19, 2016 by Stacie Wacie

Happy Sunday! Today’s post is a little different from the usual Swatch Sunday business, because we’ve got a twofer as the polish this week. Revlon’s French Mix set comes with two colors and encourages you to do some nail art with them. This set is called Sweet Revenge. In the photos below, I’m wearing three coats of each polish with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

Before I talk about the polishes, I want to talk about the packaging, because it directly affects the quality of the polish. While this double-ended polish brush seems really stylish and convenient, I’ve had nothing but problems with them. The brush caps break and stops fitting inside the brush cap, or the polish itself dries out. Either way, the polishes end up becoming unusable. When I took this one out to use it, the brush to the purple polish was broken, and the pink polish was totally dried out. If you have any of these polishes and you hate the packaging as much as I do, you may be pleased to know that the brushes and caps from mini polish bottles from TKB Trading are the same size and will fit very well. This is how I was able to separate mine and save the polish inside.

The pink in this set, as I mentioned, was totally dried out, but I saved it with polish thinner. Because of this, and because I had to use so much, I can’t speak for the consistency of this polish, or what it was like before I had to thin it out. When I applied it, it was on the thinner side, and required all three coats for full opacity.

The purple polish is very opaque, and achieved full opacity by the second coat. The pink shimmer, though fine, appears best in lower light; the studio lights washed it out a bit. The purple polish was the best suited for nail art because of its opacity. Both polishes dried quickly with glossy finishes.

I did a quick skittle mani just to see how well each one works for actual nail art. The pink, though it does work for some things, isn’t thick enough to fully cover the purple, which is opaque enough to cover anything. I’ll definitely be using the pink as the base color from now on. Photos were taken in both the studio and outdoors in direct sunlight.

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Sweet Revenge, the French Mix series, and the double-ended brushes in general seem to be discontinued by Revlon, because I don’t see them on their website (good). Other Revlon products are available nationwide.

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Tag Archives: purple

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Wanna Fall In Love Tonight

I bought this polish myself.

Birthday Mani Digest 2016

Pretty sure I bought all these polishes myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Noticing Face

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Ombre Hearts

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Siren’s Quarter-Life Crisis

This polish was a gift with purchase. It was not sent for review.

Manicure Monday: Vision Intuition

I bought these polishes myself.

National Lipstick Day 2016

I bought all these products myself.

Swatch Sunday: Seche’s Collage Overlay

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Tuesday: Plum Opal

I bought these polishes myself.

Swatch Sunday: Revlon’s Sweet Revenge

I bought this product myself.