Birthday Countdown Giveaway! — Now Closed

Posted on October 3, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

You may not know this, but my birthday is coming up. To celebrate, I’m holding my first-ever giveaway! One lucky winner will receive two brand new full-sized Ciaté paint pots: one in Candy Floss and one in Pillow Fight. The giveaway opens today and will run until next Friday, which is also my birthday. Here’s a closer look at the prizes:

Candy Floss is a sweet candy pink creme. I’m wearing it at three coats here.

Pillow Fight is a dusky, dreamy lilac creme. This is also shown at three coats.

Here’s the link to the giveaway! Good luck!

Extra stuff you should know: The prize bottles are brand new, unused, and have never been opened. The swatches were done with identical bottles from my own collection. The prizes are provided only by me and not by other sponsor, thus no benefits or money were received. I will ship to an international winner. Giveaway opens on Friday, October 3 at 12 AM EDT and runs until Friday, October 11 at 12 AM EDT.

Wacie Wednesday: Stoica

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week’s Wacie Wednesday is a shimmery silver scattered holo called Stoica. Unfortunately, because it’s overcast outside (thanks, October), we won’t get to see just how holo it is. I kind of think that’s okay, because it’s nice anyway. This is three coats of Stoica with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

I made Stoica when I was bored in the glitter workshop. I wanted a silvery holo, but I had very little holo material left. Seriously, it was like the dredgs of the bottle, and I had a hard time getting it all out. I put mixing balls and some lacquer base in there, hoping it would mix in and pour out. It was actually crazy enough to work. I poured that into a bottle, mixed in some silvery-white pigment, and then I was done. It wasn’t what I wanted exactly, but I’m pleased with it.

Naturally, even though I managed to get it out, there’s not a lot of holo in this polish. There’s enough to see an effect, and it’s very faint. The color here is coming entirely from pigment. It’s a pretty tame polish, actually; save the little bit of holo, it would just be a silver polish. It’s one of those polishes that comes off as classic, but a bit dull, then the holo pops out and it’s something special.

I just have to prove that there is, in fact, holo stuffs in this polish. One photo was taken in the studio with the built-in camera flash, and the other was taken in my office with my cell phone. I promise it’s there.

I have four more Wacie Nail Co. one-offs I’m going to show on the blog. Then maybe something exciting will happen. Maybe.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Death by Restock

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s the last of the 2013 Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Halloween polishes! I always feel a little inadequate when I’m reviewing BEGLs, because I am literally a year too late on these; the 2014 collection is being reviewed by real nail bloggers and the polishes are absolutely gorgeous. This one is too, though! Death by Restock is the final polish from the Nail Polish Frights collection. I’m wearing three coats alone with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

BEGL describes Death by Restock as a “red jelly base with red, burgundy, and black glitters and black and candy red holo skulls”. The skull glitters are rare, as I only got one and it’s on my right hand. The other glitters are plentiful, though, and spread evenly across the nail. The first coat was very sheer, and looked like watermelon, thanks to the black glitters. The next coats build up to a deep bloody red, and the black glitters look much less obvious and harsh. It’s a look that takes a classic color and adds even more drama and depth.

I don’t think I even need to comment on the consistency and application, because it’s always perfect with BEGL: the consistency is just right, it dries quickly, the glitter applies well, and it’s easy to clean up and wear. It dries a little on the satin side, so top coat is necessary to get that sexy jelly shine. It doesn’t get much better than this.

I think this could be my favorite from the whole four-piece collection. I mean, they are all super-gorgeous in their own way, but I think this one appeals to me the most. I love red polish, jellies, and glitter, so this is basically the wacie.com dream polish.

Let’s take a minute to talk about the idea of death by restock: BEGL has released two major collections back-to-back: Far From the Sun came out this summer, and the Ladies of Doctor Who came out this past weekend. Also, a special polish is out to commemorate the second birthday of Wishes of a Blue-Eyed Girl. On Tuesday, I ordered everything, which set me back more than I care to admit. My boyfriend is probably going to break up with me when he finds out. It’s worth it.

Wacie Wednesday: Frostberry

Posted on September 24, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’ve only got a few more Wacie Nail Company prototypes left! I’ve decided also that, after I swatch these, I’m going to hold off on showing any more WNC polishes on the blog for a while, at least until I have a shop open and a collection out and something to show for it. Also, there are other polishes I want to swatch; I’ll be swatching BEGLs every Saturday until I die at this rate, so I think a midweek swatch would be better than swatching a bunch of one-offs I made for myself, at least until they grow out of the one-off stage and become full-fledged polishes.

My fifth-to-last Wacie Nail Co. polish is called Frostberry, a shimmery rose jelly. It’s shown here at three coats with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

Frostberry was a bit of a happy accident. I wanted a shimmery red jelly, but the mica I used was too white and it turned the polish pink. It’s still translucent; at three coats, there’s good color and coverage, but the nail line is still visible. I thought about adding some glitter to a couple nails like I did last week, just to show the jelly effect, but I thought the shimmer would overpower it. I’m kinda cool with it being translucent. The look is sheer, shimmery, and glassy. It’s unlike anything else in my collection.

Unfortunately, because it’s cold and overcast outside, I won’t get to see what this looks like outdoors. I bet it’s beautiful, though. Jellies outdoors are always crazy pretty.

Yeah, I like this a lot. This is the coolest thing I’ve made in a while.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Cart Jacked by Witches

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s another discontinued Halloween polish for Swatch Saturday this week! This is the third of four polishes in the Nail Polish Frights collection from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer. This is Cart Jacked by Witches, and I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

Cart Jacked by Witches is a purple jelly with various shapes of purple, green, and black glitters. Supposedly there are black holo pumpkin glitters in here, but I didn’t find any. This polish is loaded down with glitter, and so the consistency is quite thick. It could do with some thinner. Despite the thickness, however, it dried quickly. I love BEGL glitter toppers for this reason; there’s never an issue with drying times, no matter how much I glob on.

I like this polish a lot. It doesn’t look much like a Halloween polish, and is versatile enough for year-round wear. Of course, during this time of the year, the purple and green combo is reminiscent of Halloween, but in March, it would just be a polish with a creative color scheme. It may also double as your Mardi Gras polish. If we ignore its holiday theme, it’s a really unique and attractive polish. I like it a lot.

For those who have never shopped online from small businesses, to be cart-jacked is to have an item in your shopping cart be purchased by someone else. It can happen during restocks, when a seller has a limited supply of something. Imagine this: you’ve waited all week for this seller to restock a polish you’ve been dying for. You set four alarms on your phone so you don’t miss it. You sit down and prepare yourself, calming your mind so that your fingers can be quick. The shop opens, you have the polish in your cart, you’re already fantasizing about wearing it, and suddenly, as you check out, there’s a notice that says your item is sold out. You, my dear, have been cart-jacked.

Only one more Halloween BEGL left! After that, we move into Christmas. Like in retail stores, Christmas on this blog is coming much too early.

Wacie Wednesday: Pinprick

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’ve been looking forward to swatching this for a while. I got creative some night in the Wacie Nail Co. lab, and by creative, I mean I wanted to make a ton of new polishes, but had very few materials to work with. This is one of the beauties that came from that session. Pinprick, as I’ve come to call it, is a blood red jelly. I’m wearing three coats of it alone on my thumb, index, and pinky fingers; on my middle and ring fingers, I have a glitter sandwich with Pinprick and OPI’s In True Stefani Fashion. All nails are topped with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

Pinprick is a jelly, but it’s nearly opaque in three coats. I’m really surprised by the coverage I got, I expected a more visible nail line, and I didn’t expect it to come out so dark. It’s practically black in the bottle, but is very bright over the glitter. If I hadn’t done the jelly sandwich nails, you wouldn’t be able to tell it’s a jelly at all. Pinprick does dry with a matte finish, so top coat is definitely necessary to get this gorgeous shine.

Let’s talk about the glitter sandwich nails for a minute. This is the real reason I made this polish. I always say there’s nothing like a red nail to feel glamorous and sexy, but the glitter here makes it even better. The glitters in In True Stefani Fashion are pretty fine, and took a lot of effort cleaning up. I think I spent my whole day trying to get it all off. It was so worth it. I feel like a million sexy bucks right now. Glitter sandwiches are the best.

In the sunshine? Oh man. You can really see the jellyness in direct sunlight, and it looks awesome. There’s still no visible nail line, but the color is still really squishy.

I’ve got a few more reds in the pipeline like this. They’ve got a lot to live up to, though. I don’t think it can get any better than this.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Sell Souls for ISOs (OBO)

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I got some Halloween costume catalogs in the mail this week, so it’s officially not too early to post this manicure. We’re still looking at long overdue swatches from Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Halloween 2013 collection. This polish is called Sell Souls for ISOs (OBO); I’m wearing one generous coat of it over China Glaze’s Pelican Gray and Essie’s Fashion Playground.

Sell Souls for ISOs (OBO) is a clear glitter topper with orange shimmer, orange and black glitters, white skull-and-crossbones, and holo orange pumpkins. The skull and pumpkin shaped glitters were new at the time, and that was enough to sell me on this polish (or any polish, really). The description doesn’t really do it justice; you can look at the bottle and see a myriad of different shapes, sizes, and finishes of glitter. It’s a well-rounded mix. The skulls and pumpkin glitters are scarce, I fished for a pumpkin glitter for like fifteen minutes and the only one I got was the one on my thumb. They’re rare on purpose, so that they can easily be avoided, in case you happen not to like them, or happen to be wearing the polish in September.

Application was easy, but because I swirled the polish around so much fishing for glitter, I ended up with a lot of bubbles. The drying time was pretty good for a polish like this; I really blobbed it on and it was dry in five minutes. The consistency was a bit thick, and got thicker as I used it, but that’s to be expected from a polish like this, and is easily remedied.

Outdoors, this polish is amazing. The metallic orange glitters really shine (hee) in direct natural light.

Now for a little lesson on lacquerista vernacular (because sometimes my mom reads this): “ISO” stands for “in search of”, and is used on message boards and such to express a strong desire to own a certain polish. These are often small batch polishes that aren’t widely available or have been discontinued by the maker. A desperate lacquerista might resort to some pretty drastic measures to own it, hence the name of this polish. We all have a polish we’d sell our souls to own. Mine is Lobster Roll from Enchanted Polish. You don’t know the horrible things I’d do for it.

Wacie Wednesday: Decadence

Posted on September 10, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

It’s Wacie Wednesday, and this week I’m wearing a sister polish to Opulence, the gold and silver glitterbomb I wore a week or two ago. This is Decadence, a full coverage glitter with fine red, silver, and turquoise holo glitters. I’m wearing three coats of Decadence with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

I call this a sister polish to Opulence because it was made with the same intent, to learn how different glitters work and compliment each other. I also love the trend of full coverage microglitter polishes among indie makers, and I wanted to try to replicate that look in my own way. I also have some pretty limited glitter selections, and that’s why I’ve used such an odd color combination. I basically mixed every glitter of this size and shape into a bottle. I’d do it again.

Decadence goes on a bit thick, naturally, because there’s so much glitter in it. It does dry quickly, though, and with a fine gritty texture. It’s still textured with one coat of top coat, but it’s a bit smoother than without it. I also probably could have gotten away with two coats, because these glitters cover pretty well.

Outdoors, this is stunning. Sunlight is, for a lot of manicures, the ultimate complement to this polish. Everything is so glittery and shiny and blinding. It’s gorgeous.

Not looking forward to taking it off, though.

Swatch Saturday: Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer’s Discontinued Limited Edition

Posted on September 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

All right, I know it’s just barely September, and I know it won’t be Halloween for quite some time, and yet I’m wearing Halloween polish. As I’m going down the Polish List, I’ll be running into some seasonal confusion. It’s going to happen. It’s only going to be weird if we let it be.

This beauty is called Discontinued Limited Edition, and was part of Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer‘s Nail Polish Frights collection from last fall. As you can guess, this polish was a discontinued limited edition, which is truly horrific. I’m wearing three coats of Discontinued Limited Edition with one coat of Color Club’s clear coat.

Discontinued Limited Edition is a black linear holo with orange shimmer. It’s gorgeous, right? We all know black holos are amazing and perfect, but this one has a little extra, this bit of orange peeking out from the center of the linear rainbow. It’s not always obvious, and it doesn’t appear in all lighting conditions, but it’s glorious when it does. It’s just enough to make it subtly but unmistakably Halloweeny.

I found the consistency to be a bit thick, but this means it was opaque in two coats, and was still quite easy to work with. It dried quickly. It dries with a bit of a shine, and the holo effect was still pretty strong without the topcoat, but the topcoat really brings out the orange shimmer.

I only took outdoor photos today. Holo photos in the studio never turn out well, so I decided to not to bore you with them. It’s been mostly cloudy all day, but there was one somewhat-sunny patch in the backyard, so I went for it. It served me well, but I really want to see that orange shimmer in direct sunlight.

Wacie Wednesday: Sweetleaf

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Sweetleaf is the Wacie Nail Company polish of the week. This shimmery green polish contains superfine gold holo glitter, giving a bold color a subtle sparkle. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Color Club clear. All photos were taken indoors.

Sweetleaf, most of the other polishes I’ve made and worn on the blog, were experiments in polish making. In this case, I wanted to see how well the glitter and pigments would blend together. Next time, I’ll thin it out a little; I could still work with it, but it’s much too thick. Also, brush strokes show up on some nails, and that annoys me. It dried matte and with very little texture.

The glitter doesn’t shine as much in the studio, but it looks amazing in the sunlight. Unfortunately, while I was waiting for my camera battery to charge, the sun went down and I totally missed out on outdoor photos. I don’t like how early it’s getting dark now. I tried a photo with flash; the glitters are somewhat shinier, but the flash mostly obscures any details on the nail. It’s a terrible photo, but I love how the color looks. I’m pretty sure it’s just the pinkness in my skin complementing it.

Final word: This is a gorgeous color to end the summer with. I know it’s still technically summer for a couple more weeks, but I miss it already.

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