Summer of Untrieds Post-Mortem

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

The Summer of Untrieds Challenge is now over, and I thought I’d present some final numbers and statistics to show how it turned out.

10511120_472096172893834_1234102441710794280_n

from Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl

The objective of the challenge was to use at least one untried polish per day that fit the theme, which means that, at minimum, one would use 31 previously untried or unused polishes. I did not adhere to the challenge guidlines every single day; 17 out of the 31 manicures I did this month were done for the challenge. The others were previously scheduled regular posts. However, even on the days I didn’t follow the challenge, I still used one untried per day. I used 34 untried polishes total.

The following stats include all the manicures done in July:

Wacie Nail Company was the brand I used most often, and that’s because I have those posts scheduled each week. American Apparel and Ciate tied with four, and China Glaze had three.

Purple was the most frequently used color with six manicures. Green saw five, Silver and gray had four, red and pink each had three.

Some other numbers:
Glitter played a part in eight July manicures.
Four polishes were neons. Three were holos. Only one was crackle.
Dinner was late due to the challege about 50% of the time. Boyfriend was annoyed with me 100% of the time.
I would do this challenge again.

A big thanks, again, to Julie at Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl. I had so much fun trying out all these amazing polishes, some of which I forgot I even had. Thank you so much for creating this challenge; I hope you do another for fall!

Summer of Untrieds Day 31: Metallic

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s the final day of the Summer of Untrieds Challenge! I cannot believe I’ve actually painted my nails for 31 straight days. On this final day, the theme du jour is metallic, and I went with Essie’s No Place Like Chrome. I’m wearing three coats without top coat.

No Place Like Chrome is a metallic silver polish that dries to a matte mirror-like finish. From the first coat, it goes on smooth and opaque, but sometimes it seems to pull away from itself, leaving holes in the coverage. This is easily remedied by a second coat. Other issues with application include bumps, brush strokes, and visible ridges or nail imperfections. It’s totally possible that these problems are in my application and not part of the polish itself. Despite everything, though, I really love of the look of this. I feel a little like a robot.

I fell in love with the Essie Mirror Metallics line quite some time ago, when I wore Penny Talk for the first time. I went out and bought them all after that. So far, though, these are the only two I’ve worn.

I didn’t really need to take pictures of this in the sun, because you can already see how shiny it is. Just look at it, though. Look. Shiny.

And there you have it: 31 days of untried polishes. Here’s a quick shout-out to Julie at Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl for devising this insanely fun, weirdly useful challenge, and awesome job to everyone who took part. For more photos of the challenge, check Instagram hashtags #summerofuntrieds and #julyuntriedschallenge. There’s a nerdy stats post coming up, so stay tuned!

Summer of Untrieds Day 29: Rainbow Honey (Not)

Posted on July 29, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Day 29 of the Summer of Untrieds Challenge calls for Rainbow Honey, but unfortunately, I don’t have any Rainbow Honey polishes. I know, I’m totally missing out. I would die for their Summer of 199X collection. To fulfill the requirement for the challenge, I chose both a polish and a brand I’ve never tried before. This is Beige Shimmer from Clarins, and I found this in a thrift store for a dollar. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Beige Shimmer is a sheer pale yellow creme. It has a very thin consistency; it’s not at all viscous, and it doesn’t cling to the bottle like polish normally does. Take a look at the bottle shots, you can definitely get a feel for how thin it is. It sloshes around in the bottle like water. Naturally, a polish like this can never achieve opacity, so I didn’t try. I knew what I was getting.

I pride myself on being able to pull off any color; there isn’t much that doesn’t look good on me. This, though, I don’t think it’s working for me. I don’t know if adding a white tip and making it a French would have improved it any, or if it’s just way too yellow for my skin tone, but I’m not quite feeling this.

At least I only paid a dollar for it.

Summer of Untrieds Day 27: Matte

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

We’re nearing the end of the Summer of Untrieds! Today’s theme is matte, so I went with Ciate’s Chalkboard Paint from the Chalkboard Manicure set. I’m wearing three coats of it with no top coat.

Chalkboard Paint is a matte black creme. I had some issues applying it; in some places, it cracked, showing my bare nail underneath, like a crackle polish. Check out my thumb nail, that’s where it’s the most apparent. It’s also unforgiving; I tried to cover the cracks, but they just show through the second coat. However, it does dry very matte. It has no shine whatsoever, so it has that going for it, which is nice.

The Chalkboard Manicure set also come with four chalk pens for nail art, so I got them out and doodled out a rough vintage roses design. Really rough.

Summer of Untrieds Day 25: Zoya

Posted on July 25, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Zoya is the name of the game for the challenge today, so I’m wearing my first-ever Zoya, Odilia. I got this in a swap from someone who didn’t like it. Here it is at three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Odilia (spelled Odeilia on the Zoya site for some reason) is a reddish-copper shimmer. It’s a soft color reminiscent of autumn leaves, pumpkin spice, etc. It’s a softer red than I like to wear, but it’s quite pretty in its own right. I’m neutral to this polish. I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it either. I can see why my friend wanted to get rid of it.

Application with this polish was smooth and easy; I had no problems whatever with it. It’s a bit on the sheer side, and so my tips didn’t get covered well. I don’t know whether to blame the polish or myself for that. Apart from that, I got really nice coverage with it. It was very nice to work with.

Outdoors, full sun

There are six more days of this challenge. I can’t wait!

Summer of Untrieds Day 24: Holographic

Posted on July 24, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Holographic polish is today’s Summer of Untrieds theme, and I’m visiting one of my first holo polishes, China Glaze’s Cosmic Dust. This might even be my first-ever, I’m not sure. After putting it on, though, I regret not buying more than this one. I’m wearing three coats of Cosmic Dust with one coat of Seche Vite.

Cosmic Dust is an intriguing color. The holo rainbow effect is pretty strong, even indoors. In the studio it’s a bit faint, but in my office and other parts of the house, it’s quite obvious. When it’s not, Cosmic Dust is a futuristic steel gray. It’s always sleek and smooth.

In the sunshine, though, oh mama. This is blinding! I just stood outside and admired my nails for a good five minutes before I took any pictures. I kept hearing how disappointing these China Glaze holos were, so I wasn’t expecting much from this. I am completely blown away. This could be the best holo I’ve ever worn yet.

I have to take this off tomorrow. I don’t want to.

Summer of Untrieds Day 22: Teal

Posted on July 22, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This is the 22nd day in a row I’ve worn a polish I’ve never tried. I still can’t believe I was crazy enough to do this. I’ve never changed my nail color this often, and I’m not sure yet if I like it. Anyway, this 22nd day has a teal theme, so I’m wearing a teal I’ve had for a long time, Marine Blue from Claire’s. I bought this as a birthday gift for my sister that I ended up keeping for myself because I’m an awful, awful person. I am wearing three coats of Marine Blue with one coat of Seche Vite.

So I’ve been dealing with a lot of chameleon polishes lately, it seems, because I’ve had a recent string of polishes that seem to change color when I take photos of them (alternate theory: I suck at my camera). In reality, Marine Blue is a dark, rich peacock blue-green, but in every photo I took, it’s much lighter, much bluer. I am so frustrated that I can’t capture how beautiful it really is. It’s such a deep, enigmatic, dramatic color, and it totally does not look like it here.

Aside from that problem, I rather like wearing it. Marine Blue was easy to put on; it dries quickly, but with a matte finish. This may not be a problem for you, but I don’t like the matte finish right off; I tend to associate it with cheap or low-quality polish. Thankfully, Seche Vite can make even the cheapest polish look incredible. I have to give the topcoat most of the credit for making this look so fantastic.

Outdoors, full sun

I don’t like to post cell-quality photos here, but I will, because my phone actually took a photo where the color is actually pretty close to what it’s really like. It’s greener here than in the others, though it’s still a bit too light. It’s still a lovely color regardless of how you look at it, I suppose.

Indoors (CFL lighting), cell phone

Summer of Untrieds Day 20: Multichrome/Shifter

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Day 20 of the Summer of Untrieds calls for multichromes and shifters, and I decided to use Yes, Master from Digital Nails. It’s a magical dark teal duochrome that goes all the way from green to pink. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Yes, Master is easy to apply, though the consistency is a little thick, probably due to all the shimmer and fine little sparkles in it. It does dry quickly though, which is definitely a plus. Cleanup is easy, too; usually polishes with teeny little sprinkle glitters are a pain to clean up with a brush. Overall, this is a really well made polish as well as beautiful.

Man, this is gorgeous! That shine, that shimmer, all those colors… It’s magnificent. That’s all I’ve got. Just… man.

Summer of Untrieds Day 18: Green

Posted on July 18, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Day 18 of the Summer of Untrieds Challenge is green. I chose to wear Butter London’s Swinger, a full coverage green glitter polish. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

It was really hard to focus on all those tiny glitters.

Swinger is loaded down with fine metallic green glitters. From what I can tell, there’s a fine olive green and larger kelly green hexes, as well as maybe some others. I really love polishes like this because there’s always so much dimension in the glitter. This was easy to put on; the glitter spreads evenly across the nail in one go, but there’s so much of it that it’s not suitable to use as a glitter topper. You’re free to try it, but you’ll have a very dense coat of glitter, which is why I think it works best as a full-coverage polish.

This looks incredible in sunlight, too. You can see the diversity of the glitters here, and how the look changes from a kelly green to an olive. This is just an amazing polish. I absolutely love it.

I love that I’m accidentally on a green polish kick, too. Greens are some of my favorites. They never fail to be beautiful.

Summer of Untrieds Day 17: Elevation Polish

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

The Summer of Untrieds Challenge is halfway over! Today’s entry is Elevation Polish, so I’m wearing my first-ever Elevation Polish: Epidote. It’s a gorgeous grassy green holo that everyone should own. Seriously. I’m wearing three coats of it with one coat of Seche Vite.

Once upon a time, I saw Epidote featured on Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl, and I knew, one day, I had to have it. I have such a thing for these yellow-green polishes. I want them all. I finally got it a few months ago, and I’ve been looking forward to wearing it. I’m so glad I finally had the chance.

Epidote applies evenly and without difficulty. The holographic effect looks fantastic in most lighting conditions, in others it just looks like a silver shimmer. The color varies in the photos; in the studio, it’s very green; outdoors it’s more true to its actual army green. Speaking of outdoors, I’m going to stop writing and just let you look at the pretties.

How beautiful is this? It actually took me a long time to get these outdoors photos. It was sunny the entire time I was polishing my nails, and when I went outside to take photos, it was overcast for about an hour. It was annoying. I almost had to resort to using the flash on my camera.

So I like Epidote. Like really really. I like Elevation Polish, too! I can’t wait to get more from them.

Wacie.com

Home of Wacie Nail Company

Tag Archives: Summer of Untrieds