Manicure Monday: Orange and Nude Sparkly Starburst

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I feel like orange is a color that doesn’t get enough play. I only have a few orange pieces of clothing, and I only have a few bottles of orange polish, even though I have hundreds of bottles of polish. I guess it’s unpopular because it’s so bright and attracts a lot of attention, but that’s exactly why I like it.

This week, I made a starburst thing with orange polish over striping tape, nude, and holographic glitter. It was inspired by a stamp plate I have, with stripes fanning out over the nail. However, in all my test runs, I absolutely could not get the stamped design to cover my nail the way I wanted, so I tried it with the striping tape. I like this look, but I wish I’d used more pieces to make more lines, to make the color and glitter beneath slightly more noticeable.

Intentionally blurred to show off the glitter.

I worked with some great colors with week. The nude is Naked, from Urban Decay’s (now very rare) Naked nail set. I hated neutral nail colors before I got this set. Naked is such a subtle but gorgeous shade that I felt a little bad that I was going to cover up most of it. I added the Fairy Dust glitter on impulse; I thought a soft sparkle would make the nude lines stand out more. The orange is an Insta-Dri color called Heat Flash, and it’s fantastic. I got great coverage in one quick drying coat.

Urban Decay’s Naked, China Glaze’s Fairy Dust, Sally Hansen’s Heat Flash

I love this mani, but there are a few things I’ll do differently next time. First, I want to strike a higher contrast between the colors. I really want the starburst pattern to stand out, so I’ll use black over white or light blue over dark blue. Next, I’ll use more tape and add more lines. Maybe I’ll add rhinestones to the vertices to give it something extra. For now though, I’m pleased.

Manicure Monday: Yellow Lattice on Grey

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I ran out of Seche Vite this weekend trying to smooth down a heavy glitter manicure, and didn’t have enough of to finish this week’s mani. I had to resort to my backup, the el cheapo LA Colors top coat that takes ages to dry and can’t be applied until the lacquer itself is dry. When I woke up this morning, a couple of the nails on my right hand were dimpled and rough from being pressed into teddy bear fur, and I’d done them hours before I’d gone to bed. This stuff seriously takes until 2014 to dry.

This was my first time using striping tape to make thin, clean lines. Some of the nails came out really well. On some of them, I forgot the order in which I put down the tape pieces and smudged a few of the lines. The dots, thankfully, cover most of those. On the whole, it’s kind of a mess: there are more stripes on some nails than on others; none of them are consistent. That, and with the top coat problem, I’m kind of just counting the days until I take them off.

Julep’s Lexie, Orly’s Decoded, Sally Hansen’s Hard to Get (again)

Here are the colors I used this week. Lexie was a little hard to work with; even after two coats, I still had steaks and bald spots in places. Decoded is one of my favorites, though. It’s pretty much opaque in one coat, dark and mysterious. I’ll be sad when this one is empty.

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: 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.

Manicure Monday: Brown and Orange Tips on Yellow

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I don’t like these.

I had this yellow, and I didn’t really know what to do with it. I didn’t want to do another gradient right away, and I didn’t feel like trying dots or anything. My original plan was to use the French manicure guides, but I didn’t have enough after last week’s manicure, so I used tape.

Rhinestones! The ring finger is a heart shape, the thumb is a diamond.

I was kind of in a rush with this. I had people over this weekend, and they had car trouble and had to stay over an extra day, so I hurried to get them done. I made kind of a mess, and I made the mistake of using polishes that weren’t very opaque. I put thick coats of polish on, and it kind of migrated away from the tips and left me with some weird discolorations and stringy bits the tape lifted. The tape also pulled up some of the orange pieces, hence the rhinestones. Finally, I didn’t wait long enough to apply the top coat, so some smudging occurred. Basically, these nails are like the sad yellow markers from our childhoods that met the black marker a few too many times. They definitely looked better in my head, and could have turned out better if I had been able to take my time with them.

Bubbles and smudges and all kinds of sadness.

I love the color combination, though. It just came together very easily, and it wasn’t until yesterday when I saw this pillow in my living room that had been crocheted or knitted by someone’s grandmother using the same colors. I wonder if I was subconsciously influenced by it.

Bonder, Quick Canary, Orange Smoothie, Under Your Spell, Out the Door

This is the first time I ever used Wet ‘n Wild polishes, and they have this really wide brush that wasn’t suitable for detail work like this. I bet they get really nice coverage in different situations, but I don’t think I’ll use them again for this purpose. I put on a lot of top coat to smooth down the rhinestones, and it almost feels like Seche Vite again. I miss it.

Manicure Monday: Blue and Silver Half-Moon Dream Nails

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I have really mundane dreams. They’re always about washing dishes, picking up dry cleaning, standing in line at the bank. Even in my dreams, I can’t escape the banalities of everyday life. Some night a few weeks ago, I had a dream about painting my nails, and I gave myself the best manicure ever. Upon waking, I decided that I was going to do it for real. Here’s how it turned out.

It’s not really my style, but I’m very happy with it. The silver is much shinier than I anticipated, but I like it anyway. There are tons of imperfections, but I’m not going to bore you with those details. I’m so pleased with it that I don’t even care.

Bonder, Haze, Hard to Get, Celeb City, Out the Door

One thing about this manicure: it took me ages to find the right blue. Eventually, I settled on a color called Haze by Sula. I’ve ever seen this polish anywhere but Ulta, and its formula is much like the stuff we used as children, the stuff that came in garish colors and peeled right off. I used it as a base color in another manicure and had good results, so I tried it again. This time, though, I used the French manicure guide strips to get my half-moon shapes, and it hadn’t occurred to me taping and peel-off polish wouldn’t work well together until after I’d nearly pulled a few of them off. Luckily, everything went according to plan.

Did I mention that I’m pleased with these? I’m very pleased with these.

Manicure Monday: Neon Pink and Flaky Glitter

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I’ve been doing a lot of so-so manicures lately. None were so bad I had to take them off right after, but I was never really pleased with them. None of them had that sparkle, that appeal, whatever it is that makes me stop what I’m doing to look down at them. I don’t know whether it’s the flaky glitter or the neon pink, but I love these nails a lot.

I started with a base coat and two coats of white polish, then two coats of the pink color. I don’t even know how many coats of the flakies I put on, I was talking to someone on Skype and I got distracted. This is the first time I’ve used flaky glitter, even though I’ve been buying it obsessively since I discovered Revlon’s Moon Candy. This pink color, a nameless Claire’s polish I’ve had for like five years now, is still easy to work with. It’s so bright that I probably could have skipped the white polish I put on under it. I was also unsure if the flaky glitter would give me the warm gold tones I wanted. I’d say I got that, and more.

Of course, no matter if I’m happy with the manicure or not, I always think it’s better than it turns out in photos. I don’t notice the white coat sticking out on the bottom, the nick in the polish on the index finger, the little piece of top coat I missed in cleanup. After I take the pictures, I can’t unsee them. I guess it’s like looking at bikini pictures of yourself; no matter how happy you are with yourself or how good your self-body image is, they always take you down a peg.

From left to right: Orly Bonder, Hard to Get, Nameless Claire’s polish, Luxe & Lush, Seche Vite

Here’s what I worked with this week. The Seche Vite bottle was half full last week, now it’s maybe a quarter full. It’s really thick and comes off in strings with I pull the brush away from the bottle. Even though this happens, I’ll probably buy it again, as well as the thinner that goes with it. Just this weekend though, I bought a bottle of Out the Door, and tried it out on one nail. I hope I’ll like it as much or even more than Seche Vite. Even if I don’t like it as much, I only paid $6 for it.

Manicure Monday: Green and Yellow Color Blocking

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Stacie Wacie

I have an inner perfectionist, believe it or not. It never cares about anything important; it’s never concerned with how clean my house is. My inner perfectionist is kind of a slob. No, my inner perfectionist only notices the flaws in trivial things, things that no one else will ever notice. My manicures are one of those things. I know that a manicure can look great without being totally perfect. My inner perfectionist does not. My inner perfectionist hates this manicure.

Right hand, because it's a little different. Left hand on the top, right hand on the bottom.

I got the idea from this Chalkboard Nails tutorial. I needed an idea that would allow me to use warm, bright colors, but wasn’t too complex or time-consuming. I added to it, rotating the design instead of alternating the colors. In theory, it’s a fantastic idea. In practice, with sloppy taping and thick, goopy polish, I just made a mess. I started with the white base, which took three coats until it was finally opaque, and then I added the yellow, then the green, which is old and thick and tough to work with. I think my bottle of Seche Vite is starting to thicken up as well, because I kept getting really thick, uneven coats of it. Between the green color and the topcoat, they’re a little bumpy in places.

What I used: Orly Bonder, Hard to Get, Daisy, Lickety-Split Lime, Seche Vite

I keep telling myself it’s not that bad, but I can’t stop hoping they’ll chip off soon so I can redo them (which means they’ll stay on all week).

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