Tag Archives: studs

A Look Back at 2016

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Hello reader! Now that 2016 is behind us, I wanted to look back on some of my blog highlights and share my favorite nail art looks, and maybe share some of my 2017 blogging goals with you. I guess I could have waited to do this on my blog-versary in March, but it feels more appropriate to do it now.

January: Elevated Gradient

February: Neon Satisfaction

You’ll notice these photos are tiny. Why? Because in March, The Great wacie.com Server Crash of 2016 happened! My webhost had a hardware failure, and for whatever reason, several months of posts were lost and had to be pieced back together with images and text cached by Google. It was an extremely frustrating and embarrassing time for me.

March: Spring Hibiscus

I miss these long nails.

This is probably my favorite look of the year.

Third Anniversary Do-Over

I mentioned earlier that my blog’s anniversary is in March. For last year’s anniversary, I recreated the first-ever mani I posted on my blog. I don’t know yet what I’ll do for my fourth year, but it’ll probably be awesome.

April: Dusty Watermarble

May: Neon Splatter

I went to Hawaii in May. As a result, this is my least active month on the blog for the year.

June: Orange Jello Sandwich

My first Empties Roundup post was also in June.

July: Beyond

August: Ombre Hearts

September: Popples

October: Stripey Blue Frosting

This was a look I did to celebrate my birthday.

November: Ruby Opal

December: White Snow Blue Lava

So there’s my year! This was probably the busiest year for the blog, since I broadened my sujects quite a lot. I did tons of swatches and nail art, but I also ventured into product reviews and makeup talk. I don’t think this will ever become a full lifestyle or beauty blog, but I’m definitely having fun with it in this format. I’m kind of excited to see what it’ll evolve into in 2017. Here are a few beauty goals I have in mind, though.

1. Write more
I wrote 175 posts in 2016, averaging about 14 per month. It doesn’t sound like much to me, like I did way more work than that, especially when it started to feel stressful. That said, I’d like to do at least one more post every week.

1b. Write on my other blog more
I have a second blog that I want to start posting to more. It’s been so long since I’ve bothered with it that I don’t even remember the login credentials. I still want a place to talk about myself and my life, a place to seem like I have a life away from my nails.

2. Build a real skincare routine
I still feel insecure about my skin. I’m frustrated that I’m 31 and I still get acne. I want to take every preventative measure I can against wrinkles and anti-aging. I also want to try a 10-step Asian beauty routine. If you’re over 30 with oily skin and hormonal acne, I want your recommendations.

3. Stop competing
I know one of the big rules of blogging is not to compare your success with others’, but I feel so competitive about it. At the risk of sounding whiny, I always look at other bloggers who’ve been working on their blogs for about as long as I have, and watching their blogs grow faster than mine is kind of frustrating. I don’t want to feel like that anymore.

4. Do more real nail art
I love glitter toppers and I think I use at least one every week, but sometimes it feels lazy. I want to go back to the basics: watermarbling, gradients, dotting. I love my glitters, but it’s starting to feel like a cop-out.

I think that’s it! Anyway, I think 2017 is going to be an exciting year, and I’m looking forward to the good times, the challenges, and the time we spend together. Thanks for reading!

Manicure Monday: Highlander

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Happy Monday! I love wearing holos for Manicure Monday because I get the posts done so much earlier in the day. Wearing a holo is pretty awesome, too. The holo of the day is Digital Nails‘s Highlander; I’m wearing three coats with Seche Vite and a stud from Daily Charme. All photos were taken in direct sunlight.

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This is the first time I’ve used a Digital Nails holo, despite owning so many, and I really love it. Everything about it — the thin product consistency, the very sheer first coat, the gentle build to opacity, the smoothness of the holo flame — are not like any of the other holos I’ve used so far. I really worried at first, because the color is so deep in the bottle, yet it barely looked like anything on the nail. However, once I got outside, wow. The polish and my skin are about the same intensity, and in low lighting, it’s hard to see. Outside, though, the holo and the golden shimmer and the bronze color just light up.

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This is the reason I’ve come to like neutral holos. I never thought much of neutrals in the past because they weren’t bright and exciting colors, but as I dove into indie polish, I started finding neutrals that could be interesting. One of my favorite things ever is being blown away by something that’s unexpectedly awesome, and neutral holos do that. They take a typical SFW humdrum polish and make it amazing.

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I feel a little bad covering it up with a stud. The stud is basically the size of my whole nail and it’s covering a seriously pretty polish, but I was kind of burned out on the bows. I really need to invest in some new ones! Maybe some gold ones for polishes like this. I feel weird mixing silver with gold.

Highlander is currently not in stock, but other Digital Nails polishes are available in their etsy shop. My pyramid stud is from Daily Charme.

I bought these products myself.

Manicure Monday: Latte

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Happy Monday, reader! I’m excited to be wearing a holo today; I’m excited to have an excuse to leave my office and take advantage of the sunshine. The polish I used today is Model City‘s Latte; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

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Latte is a polish from Model City’s 2014 fall collection, a collection of holos based on coffee drink favorites. I loved this set; it was autumnal and neutral but still had enough holo to warrant spending time outside. Of course, in Florida, autumn is just extended summer, and it feels weird drinking pumpkin spice lattes out of the red cups when it’s still 80 degrees out. We have to do them in frap form.

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This polish is my favorite from the set, I believe. It’s so versatile. It would pair with anything, it would be a suitable base for any glitter, and would work into any nail art look you could imagine. Wearing it alone today was actually a tough choice; I had to stop myself from digging through my stash to find a polish to wear with it. I’m really glad I wore it alone, beacuse it’s such an elegant and clean look. It makes me feel pretty! Also grown up.

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My photos don’t really do this polish justice. The holo effect got a little washed out in the harsh sunlight. The polish itself is pretty pigmented and the holo takes a back seat to the color, but there’s more to it than is visible here.

Latte is currently not in stock by Model City Polish; other MCPs are available in their etsy shop. My star studs were found in an outlet store.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Lemon Lolly

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Happy Monday! I’m excited to be wearing a textured polish this week. I know everyone else has moved on from them, but I still think they’re cool. This is Lemon Lolly from Nicole by OPI; I’m wearing three coats alone.

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Lemon Lolly brings a bit of brightness to my Monday. As of this writing, Tropical Storm Colin is on its way to my house, and as such, it’s been gray, stormy, and foreboding. It’s the perfect day for yellow! I am a fan (to a point) of inclement weather, so it’s kind of fun to listen to it. If you’re reading this from Florida, stay safe!

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I wear textured polishes so infrequently that I haven’t had time to get sick of them, and honestly, I don’t know if I ever could. I mean, I know it is kind of gimmicky, but this one is just so golden, so sparkly, and so cheerful. I don’t think I could wear this polish and be in a bad mood. It’s a look that could only come from a textured polish.

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On a somewhat unrelated note, I used to have the perfect clutch. It was bright yellow, leatherette, and studded with silver spike studs. I went through a yellow phase a few years ago and it was absolutely perfect for me then. My cat peed on it and ruined it. Today I got nostalgic for it, and that’s why I used the spike studs on my accent nail. I miss that bag so much, and this is my dumb little homage to it.

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Lemon Lolly has been discontinued by Nicole by OPI; other NOPIs are available in stores nationwide. I got mine at Target. My spike studs are from Daily Charme.

I bought these products myself.

Manicure Monday: Orange Crush

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Happy Monday! Orange is the word of the day here. This mani is all about big color and flakies. For this look, I used Sally Hansen’s Heat Flash, Digital Nails‘s Crush Leaves Not Dreams, and Seche Vite top coat.

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Heat Flash is a fantastic polish, though mine is aged and had to be thinned quite a lot prior to today’s use. Despite that, the opacity and color intensity are still as great as ever. This is a bottle I’ve been enjoying for many years now; it’s one of the best oranges I have in my collection. My only gripe is with the double-wide brush; I’ve never been able to use it without making a mess of my fingers.

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I didn’t want to cover such a bold and fun color, only accentuate it, so I wanted to go with a flakie topper. It took a long time to find the right one, and I’m not sure if Crush Leaves Not Dreams was the right choice, but I kind of like how it came out anyway. Crush Leaves Not Dreams is a slightly-shimmered clear-based topper with these magical rose-to-gold-to-green flakies. I don’t know how else to describe them — other than voodoo — because they’re unlike any flakie I’ve ever encountered. They’re chunky and more substantial than the iridescent flakies we love, but not to the same degree UCC flakies are. These are just so unique and magnificent. The shift occurs easily and looks great over this orange base. I added studs for extra accents, just because I can’t stand it when all the nails look exactly the same.

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Here are some sunlight photos! Crush Leaves Not Dreams looks amazing outdoors. Usually my camera freaks out over orange polishes in the sun, but I think these turned out well. The blue/purple shimmer gets overwhelmed, but the flakies look great.

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Sally Hansen seem to have discontinued Heat Flash and the Insta-Dri line; other Sally Hansen products are sold in stores nationwide. Crush Leaves Not Dreams was a small-batch polish and is sold out; other Digital Nails polishes are available in their etsy shop.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Glitter Secret

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Happy Monday! This week I did some time-intensive nail art — by my standards at least — and I love it. For this look, I used Butter London’s West End Wonderland with American Apparel’s Moon. I wish I did nail art like this every week!

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The idea for this mani was to have a negative-space mani with a secret glow-in-the-dark effect. I loved the idea of just having a fun polish paired with “naked” nails, and then having the “negative” parts of the design glow. Obviously, if you look closely, you can tell they’re not totally naked, because Moon has this grainy look in it, but that’s only if you look up close. From a perfectly reasonable distance you wouldn’t be able to tell at all.

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This is one of the more intricate designs I’ve ever done, because I rarely do anything with more than two steps. First, I put down a coat of Moon. Next, I did a gradient with Moon and West End Wonderland. I left my thumb and pinky with just the initial gradient. When that was dry, I put strips of striping tape over the gradient in a criss-cross pattern, then sponged West End Wonderland over the entire nail. I finished with Seche Vite top coat. On the accent nail, the one with the studs, I used two coats of Moon and skipped right to the all-over sponging of West End Wonderland. I think it turned out pretty well!

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The only thing I would do differently — I do plan to do this again — is to use a polish with greater contast. It’s a little hard to see the negative space because it’s so similar to the glitter polish. I may also consider just using striping tape for greater contrast in the dark, because I did fail to take that into account. You can see in the glow photos where the lines are, but I think it would be cooler if the contrast was higher.

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Moon has an amazingly strong glow. If you look closely, you can see the titles of the books on my bookshelf.

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Moon has been discontinued by American Apparel. West End Wonderland and other Butter London polishes are available at sephora and Ulta. I got mine in a swap, lucky me! I don’t know where the studs came from.

One of these polishes were purchased by myself. The other was received in a trade.

Manicure Monday: Neon Satisfaction

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Manicure Monday is here again! I kind of can’t believe how fun my manicure is today. It’s adorable and obnoxious, but I think it’s a great combo, if I may say so. For this look, I used American Apparel’s Neon Violet with Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Self-Satisfied, along with Seche Vite top coat and Ciaté’s Mattenificent matte top coat.

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So I’ve swatched a bunch of American Apparel neon polishes, and I have to say, they’re some of the best I’ve ever used. They have great coverage and they don’t require a white base for their neon-ness. The only downside is that they’re not always 3-free; this one contains formaldehyde. It’s a great polish, though. I love the color, brightness, and product formula. When I picked this for Manicure Monday, I knew I needed something equally as fun and bright to balance it out.

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Self-Satisfied is one of my most-used glitter toppers. I’ve used it in three different manicures now and it’s about half-empty. It looks fantastic over everything, though I love it best over bright colors, especially orange. I love to pair complementary colors, so I knew this would be best for the Neon Violet. Not all of the colors in the glitter work well over the base; it’s hard to see the red hearts and dark pink hexes, but I still like the match. I really love the way this turned out.

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The only real downer to this manicure is the matte top coat. I’ve used Ciaté’s Mattenificent matte coat a couple times now, and I don’t know if it’s user error or not, but it kind of sucks. I mean, it does a great job being matte; look at how velvety the color is. What’s not cool, though, is how it splits. It makes these lines like crackle polish. Also, for some unknown reason, it created these white marks on my nails. Look at my pinky nail. Where did those come from? There was no white polish used in this manicure, so why there are there white spots? I actually had white brush strokes on my thumb. Here’s the kicker: the super glue I used to secure the studs left a bit of shine, so I put down another coat of Mattenificent; the white spots and lines went away. Seriously? They didn’t all go away, obviously, but the unsightly white brush strokes on my thumb are gone, as well as some other marks on other fingers. I am just so confused. At least the mani looks fine, that’s what counts! Here are some outdoor photos, taken in direct sunlight:

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American Apparel doesn’t seem to sell nail polish anymore, at least not on their website, because I couldn’t find it there. Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer has discontinued Self-Satisfied; other BEGL polishes are available in their shop. Ciaté is available at Sephora. My bow charm is from Claire’s, and I forget where my studs are from. Sorry.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Prototype BVS 9.2

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Happy Monday, reader! Manicure Monday this week is a simple one, because I just didn’t want to cover this polish up with anything. This is Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Prototype BVS 9.2; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

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Prototype BVS 9.2 is a cool taupe linear holo with green flash. I’ve swatched this polish before, but as that post is two years old, it’s good to revisit it. This was one of my very first holo polishes, and wearing it again gives me a really special feeling. Sometimes I get distracted and daunted by the loads of new polishes I have, and the older ones get left behind and forgotten. It’s a shame, because even though this polish suffers a bit from ugly bottle syndrome, it’s still as pretty as the day I got it.

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This is a really soft look, neutral enough to be professional, but still sparkly enough to satisfy a glitter fiend like myself. I added the studs because I wanted something extra, but nothing that would interfere with the delicateness of the polish. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

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Prototype BVs 9.2 was a one-off prototype; there are no others. Other Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer polishes are available from their online shop, though they are temporarily closed.

I bought this polish myself.

Manicure Monday: Studded Luxury

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Welcome back, reader! It’s Monday again, and I have another mani. I’m pretty fond of this one; it looks like I put some actual effort into it. I mean, I did; it took me a long time to glue these studs on. I’m wearing two coats of Color Club’s Pucci-licious, two coats of Deborah Lippmann’s Boom Boom Pow, and one coat of Rica‘s Glossy Glam top coat.

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I always end up putting purple and yellow together. I am quite the fan of complementary color combinations, but purple and yellow might be my favorite one. Purple is such a bold and stately color, and adding gold to it just makes it even more luxurious and even more beautiful. I can’t tell you how I pleased I am with myself and my manicure right now.

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Pucci-licious is fantastically creamy, so I knew it could stand up on its own. Boom Boom Pow, however, wasn’t the glitter beast I anticipated, so I put on a second coat and added the studs. I think the studs really make this look; it ties in the gold on the accent nails, which was kind of incongruous to the rest of the mani. The studs add much-needed balance and squares off the look. Get it, because the studs are square.

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I got my Pucci-licious from an outlet store. The Deborah Lippmann is from Sephora. The studs are by The New Black, which I purchased from Ulta.

I bought these polishes myself.

Manicure Monday: Teal Glitter Gradient

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I started this Manicure Monday with no real plan. I had a glitter and a bright base color, but I didn’t really know what to do. I thought at first I would use some nail vinyls to create a pattern, but I screwed it up. I tried stamping and blew that, too. I didn’t want to do a gradient because I always do those, but here we are. I used Sinful Colors’s Nail Junkie (how appropriate) and Essie’s Naughty Nautical, as well as two coats of Digital Nails‘s Ain’t Nobody Got Time for That top coat.

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Naughty Nautical is a teal polish with fine rainbow shimmer. Nail Junkie is a thin teal jelly with many colors of fine iridescent glitters. I paired them together thinking I would just wear Naughty Nautical as a base for Nail Junkie, but I thought that was boring and forced myself to do some nail art. It’s not as intricate and ambitious as I wanted it to be, but I like the look I got. I acheived it by putting down two coats of Nail Junkie, then doing the gradient. It looks like the glitter is sponged over the teal polish, but that’s not the case. I also considered painting another coat of glitter over the gradient, but I decided that what I had was enough. You can also see the nail with the stud has no gradient; it’s only the base color and glitter.

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I’m pretty happy with it. It’s been a while since I’ve done anything nail-arty and fun. I really want to do more of that instead of just painting glitter over a base. Also, I’m really embarrassed by how dry my hands look in these photos. I put lotion on before I took them, I swear.

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You can get these polishes wherever Essie and Sinful Colors are sold. Mine are from Walgreens.

I bought this polishes myself.