Manicure Monday: Garnet Jelly Sandwich

Posted on April 7, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week’s Manicure Monday was so much fun! I know I’m going to hate taking this off in a couple of days. I rarely get to do jelly sandwiches, so I’m happy about having the chance, and doing something besides slapping glitter down on polish and calling it art. Today, I’m wearing two coats of OPI’s Which is Witch? between coats of Disney Villains Varnish Mother Gothel.

Mother Gothel is a deep burgundy, and when I got it, I had no idea it would make a jelly sandwich like this. I swatched it once and I put it away until I started playing with it, planning a future manicure with it. I don’t remember when or how I decided to see what it looked like over glitter, but after I saw it, I couldn’t not do it. To me, this is the perfect translucence for a jelly sandwich: you can still see the holo shine from the glitter, but not the glitter itself. This is a look I love a lot. On its own, Mother Gothel is very shiny, like it could do without a top coat shiny. With top coat, my nails just look like tiny little garnets.

OPI’s Which is Witch? is special to me because it’s one I had my friend in New York send me. She has a local salon that sells OPI for half the price Ulta does, and even after shipping, I still paid less than I would have at Ulta. Also, I don’t even think I knew what this one looked like when she bought it; I don’t remember asking for it, and I think it was comparable to something else I was looking for that they didn’t have. I love it, though; there are so many kinds of holographic silver glitter in it. A couple of the bar glitters didn’t want to play nice; you can probably still see a couple of them I couldn’t get off of my cuticles.

Regardless, I am amazed at how this turned out. Note to self: do this more often.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s The Scoobies

Posted on April 5, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Today’s Swatch Saturday is all about The Scoobies, a glitter topper from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. I’m wearing two coats of it over two coats of Essie’s Sand Tropez, I Am Strong, and Navigate Her.

The Scoobies contains a ton of glitter: various sizes and shapes of red, copper, silver, and black hexes, red squares, holographic silver moons, red hearts, black stars, and shiny, tiny pink/purple sparkles. There’s a lot of fun in this bottle. As you can see, it’s only about half full. I’ve enjoyed this one many times since I bought it. I love the eclectic mix of glitter, the texture created by the fine sparkles, and the edgy color combination. I’m sad that I’m already running so low on it; I knew I should have bought a backup bottle when it was on sale.

The Scoobies was part of BEGL’s Once More With Feeling collection, a set of polishes inspired by Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As the collection was mostly holos, I admit I didn’t grab too many of those colors. I kinda regret it now. As you might guess, this collection has been discontinued, and the last bottle of The Scoobies sold a month or so ago. Check the BEGL store anyway, you might see something you’ll like.

Wacie Wednesday: Bleeding Heart

Posted on February 19, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

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!

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.

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: 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

Manicure Monday: Red Crackle over Blue

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

There isn’t much to say about this manicure that I didn’t say the last time I used a crackle top coat. I got a very cool, very unpredictable, very 2009 manicure.

The red stained my cuticles.

I’ll say a word to Dianna, the blue base I used. Usually Julep polishes have varying degrees of quality, and I’m happy to report this is one of the better ones. It was nearly opaque in the first coat.

Julep’s Dianna, Nicole by OPI’s Red Texture

I used to think solid creme colors were boring. If it didn’t have shimmer or glitter, I wasn’t interested. I suppose less is more with them, and that’s a cliche that never quite found itself into my practical life advice files. There’s something about bold, shiny nails without anything to distract from the color. Maybe someday I’ll try it.

Manicure Monday: Red Jelly Sandwich

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

Did I ever tell you guys about how much I love red nails? I love red nails. I love glitter. I love the way this turned out.

My last attempt at a glitter sandwich was in March, and if you’re longtime reader, you’ll remember this nail fail that resembles Italian food. When I did that manicure, this was the one I wanted. Pretty much as soon as I discovered Wet ‘n Wild’s Everybody Loves Redmond was slightly translucent on the first coat, I knew I was going to have to do this. Of course, the coverage seems to build, so had I used a bit more, the glitter would have been totally covered. You can see this on the middle finger, somewhat; I’d uncovered some of the glitter during cleanup, and did a second coat on just that nail. As a result, the glitter is harder to see.

In direct sunlight, but still indoors.

Unfortunately, these labels don’t stand up to my haphazard storage method of having everything sitting around in a box. I have a couple bottles of these Wet ‘n Wild Fast Dry polishes, and all of the labels are completely rubbed off. Anyway, I like this color a lot. Indoors, it’s an orangey red, but outside in the sunlight, it’s very red, very bright. I’ll go ahead and admit I had pretty low expectations for this color, but I’m very impressed.

The glitter is Julep’s Paris. I got it in a mystery box sometime over the summer, but it’s exactly the kind of thing I would have chosen and purchased on my own. Even though there’s a ton of glitter in the bottle, it’s meant to be used as a top coat, to give a manicure the right amount of sparkle without being over the top. Of course, I don’t like things that aren’t over the top, so I went crazy with this glitter, adding three thick coats before putting down the last layer of red. As a result, the bottle is two-thirds empty now.

Wet ‘n Wild’s Everybody Loves Redmond, Julep’s Paris

Also, let me tell you some about the topcoat I used this week. I’ve been buying a lot of indie products lately. Indie polish is the latest scourge on my wallet. It’s so gloriously inventive and completely unlike anything I could ever find in a store that the extra money and shipping fees are totally worth it. After the topcoat issues I had the past couple weeks, I decided to try Digital Nails’ topcoat, since I was buying their awesome new color-changing polish anyway. I’m pleased to report that it’s awesome. It dries in about the same time as Seche Vite. I’m really impressed with it. Not that Digital Nails makes bad stuff, but I didn’t expect it to work so well. I’m wearing three coats here, and it gives me great shine and makes my nails rigid, which is something I look for in a topcoat. My nails are extremely soft and thin, and I rely on a hard topcoat to not only protect my color, but my whole nail. I would totally recommend it.

Oh Lord Jesus it’s a fire.

The only problem is, it was clear when I started. I don’t know if this is an issue with the topcoat itself or the fact that I used it on cheap red nail polish, but now it’s an odd pink. It doesn’t look like the tint affects it in any way, which is good, but I don’t want this to happen every time I use it and having some weird brown topcoat after a few weeks. I guess we’ll see.

Manicure Monday: Red and White Stamps

Posted on August 5, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I bought a stamping kit on my latest excursion to Sally; that was like a month ago, and I’ve just gotten around to trying it out.

The neutral base color is a color called Cashmere Crème. I got it in a thrift store probably a year ago. When I got it, the printing on the bottle was mostly intact; I have no idea what happened to it since then. I’m also not entirely sure what color this even is. It looks like a tan shimmer in the bottle, but on my nails, it looks more metallic, more silver. It’s confusing. It’s a good base color for this manicure, though.

It was kind of tough finding the right colors for the stamped designs. I’d set aside the dark red Mercury Rising to go with the Cashmere Crème before I even knew I was going to be doing this stamping design, and at first, I didn’t think it would be opaque enough to stamp with. I’m pretty pleased with how it came out. The white is Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get, my workhorse white color.

China Glaze Cashmere Creme, Sinful Colors Mercury Rising, Sally Hansen Hard to Get

Then I got the rhinestones out. I tried doing them just on my thumb and ring finger as accents, but then the rest of the nails looked plain, so I added a few here and there, alternating the colors on each finger. Then I got tired of seeing ones that didn’t have a rhinestone and I ended up with more than I planned, and some in odd places, like on the sides or at the very tips.

For a first try at stamping, I’m happy with it.

Manicure Monday: Red and Rose Duochrome

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

This might be kind of a departure from what I’ve been doing with my nails lately. It’s been a really long time since I had a solid color without any embellishments, and I’ll look at them and think “Hey, dots” or “I should try those decals” and then I tell myself to stop because they’re fine.

This is actually two colors, a semi-opaque red with a really tiny shimmer, and a rosy duochrome layered over it. At certain angles or lighting conditions, it shines pink, blue or lilac. On its own, it’s an odd color, but it is beautiful over this red.

You can see some of the other colors here. Kind of.

Having red nails always reminds me of being in Rhode Island with my mother and my grandparents. My mother’s cousin, I think it was, was a nail tech and gave us manicures at least once. Actually, now that I think back on it, this was one of my earliest experiences with nail art. At some point, she gave us a manicure set, one complete with polishes, tools, fillers and fortifiers. I remember most of the colors being sheer, pretty neutrals, except for a bold red. That’s the one I went for, and even though I remember thinking that red was old and busted (blue polish was the new hotness and that was all I cared about wearing), I loved the way it looked on me. It was noticeable, attention-getting, it spoke volumes from my small nails and short fingers. Ever since then, there’s always been something about red nails that I can’t get enough of.

Bonder, LA Colors Animated, Orly Synchro, Out the Door

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Manicure Monday: Red Gradient

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I spend a lot of time doing my nails. Basically, I set aside my entire Monday for it. It wasn’t so bad when I stuck to solid colors, I could be finished in an hour. In recent months, I’ve gotten into more intricate and time-consuming methods and techniques of nail art, so it can take all day to finish them, but when I do finally finish, I have a beautiful manicure and a fantastic sense of accomplishment.

This manicure was against me from the very beginning. In theory, it was a great idea. When I tested it on my mannequin hand, it looked fantastic. When I started, I had to fight it every step of the way. The dark red with glitter polish is very old and thick and refused to drop off the brush the way I wanted it to so I could sponge it on. By the time I finished, I’d actually emptied the bottle. When I added the matte top coat, I felt like I had sucked the life out of it. This morning, while I was in the shower, I picked at the cuticles a bit and took too much off, and when I tried to smooth it down with acetone, I just made it worse. On top of that, it’s raining this morning, so I didn’t have any natural light to help my photos. I also don’t know what that bump is on my middle nail. Even after all of that, though, I’m pretty happy with it. It didn’t turn out quite the way I wanted it, but I love the gradient. I keep staring at it.

Yes, my desk is ugly. Yes, that’s polish on my keyboard. Yes, that’s a burger sticker.

There’s the stuff I used. That Maybelline bottle is so old that all but the front sticker has come off, so I can’t tell you the name of the shade, not that you could probably buy it anymore. Also, I used to have a real problem with peeling the stickers off of bottles.

There’s another reason I’m writing this. Five years ago, I stopped biting my nails. When I was younger, I’d watch my mother paint her nails, and then I’d feel bad about my own nubby nails, so I’d stop biting. My nails would grow and be long and gorgeous until something stressed me out, and that was it, they were gone. I went through many such phases as a teenager. It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that I finally managed to stop for good, and now that I think about it, it’s probably because I was able to turn to alcohol during stressful times instead of just biting off all my nails. Save your nails, drink a beer? That’s really bad advice, don’t follow it.

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