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 Wednesday: Slop Bucket

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

My post today requires a bit of a backstory. When I first started experimenting with making my own polish, I ran out of bottles pretty quickly, and in an effort to save money, I decided to try to reuse some; I took my failed prototypes, poured them into an empty lacquer base bottle, and cleaned the polish bottles out with acetone. Unfortunately, the amount of work and acetone this required did not make it worth the time, and so I just ordered new bottles. Today, as I was walking into my workshop, I saw the bottle I’d poured all the polish into. I shook it up and watched it settle. There were so many kinds of glitter in it, so many pigments and dyes. I poured some of it into a polish bottle and put it on, and I got something weirdly wearable. I submit to you Slop Bucket, shown here at three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

I don’t even know how to describe this polish. What do you even call this color? Shimmery brownish mauve? There are shimmers with hints of green, blue, gold, silver. I can’t even name all of the glitters, but I’m willing to bet every color, shape, and size of glitter I’ve ever used is in here. The lime green glitters outnumber the rest, I’d say, because I used those a lot in my first prototypes. There are flowers and hearts, but I didn’t get a lot of those; you can see the only heart I got on my pinky nail. I got a flower on my thumb, but it got buried under the additional coats.

Is it weird that I like this? All things considered, I think this is really pretty. None of the glitters match, and they weren’t intended to go together. The base turned creamy and brown. Theoretically, this should be the ugliest nail polish in the world, and somehow, it isn’t.

When I took my studio photos, it was storming, so I didn’t think I’d get to see what this looks like in the sunshine, but now the sun is out and the sun is shining like the storm never happened. Thanks, fickle Florida weather! This is crazy shimmery in the sunlight. There’s so much shimmer it’s hard to see what’s going on on the rest of the nail. It’s still weirdly, strangely pretty to me.

Well, that was fun. I’m definitely going to keep this bottle around. I’m also inspired to dump out the rest of my fail bottles and make a sequel.

Summer of Untrieds Day 13: China Glaze

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Day 13 of the Summer Untrieds Challenge calls for China Glaze, so here I am trying the first China Glaze on my list: Running in Circles. Running in Circles is an awesome shamrock green jelly with fine metallic glitters. I’m wearing three coats of it here with one coat of top coat. Note: this post is late because of World Cup finals and excessive drinking.

So I didn’t expect Running in Circles to be such a thin jelly, but it is; my nail line is just barely visible, even after three coats. The tips were the hardest part to cover; I thought they looked great until I took photos and they looked a little bald. Despite that, each coat went on easily and evenly. The glitter spreads really well. I like this polish a lot, but it’s a little too Christmassy for July.

So I took these pictures when it was dark outside, so there weren’t any great sunlight photos of them. You’ll have to take my word on how awesome this looks outdoors. It’s so full of glitter and sparkle, it’s amazing.

Running in Circles was part of China Glaze’s Cirque du Soleil collection from last year, and has a blue counterpart called Water You Waiting For, which I also have. I cannot wait to do a gradient with those.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Green

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Swatch Saturday is a little late today due to World Cup and oversleeping. I’m almost done swatching all of the American Apparel polishes I bought while I was on vacation, and this is my penultimate neon polish. This is Neon Green at three coats; two nails have two coats of white polish under them. All of them are topped with one coat of Seche Vite. Note: I put this on in a hurry, and so it’s not my best work. There are some dings in the polish; those are entirely my fault.

Neon Green is awesome. Seriously. It is crazy bright, probably visible from space. Compared to the other neon polishes, this one was a little thinner than the others, but it’s not too bad at the third coat. It looks really nice at three coats, and the color really pops. Neons are the best!

I put white polish on my ring and pinky nails, as I have with every other neon review so far. I’m not sure how obvious the difference is with this one. The ones with white undies aren’t all that much brighter than the ones without. It’s almost not even worth doing.

I took a couple photos outside, even though it’s gray and stormy outside. The color looks amazing outside, but in the photos it’s not much of a change.

I’ve been looking forward to next week’s swatch for a long time now. I can’t wait to show it to you guys.

Summer of Untrieds Day 11: Summer

Posted on July 11, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Day 11 of the Summer Untrieds Challenge is simply titled “Summer”, so I scanned through the Polish List, looking for something that spoke to me. After a couple of rounds, I found Super Temp and thought it was perfect. After all, what says summer like the temperatures in Florida in July? I’m pretty sure Super Temp is actually a Doctor Who reference, but I’m going to overlook that for now. Anyway, here is Super Temp from Digital Nails at three coats and one coat of top coat.

Super Temp is described by Digital Nails as “a brighter-than-most-can-handle orange coral jelly-crelly, with loads and loads of golden microflakes”. The consistency was a little thick but still easy to work with; I’m going to chalk that up to all the gold flakies in here. There’s a ton of them, and they shine beautifully in the light. The opacity is just right, too; even though it’s meant to be a thick jelly, my first coat was nearly opaque. This is seriously really fun to wear.

I knew I needed this when I first saw it. I don’t own a ton of orange polishes, and I’m always on the lookout for more, especially when they’re as bright and insane as this one. It makes my fingers look tanner, too. It’s a summery color for sure! I’m just sorry I couldn’t get an outdoor sunshine photo of this, it would have been crazy. Actually, if I’d wanted to be accurate about Florida’s summer, I would have used something gray and blah, because it has rained every day this week.

One more thing: you’ll notice the bottom of my bottle is faded white. I actually have a few bottles doing this, and I don’t know what causes it. The polish in the bottle is fine, but the stuff on the bottom is a completely different color. What gives?

Summer of Untrieds Day 10: Purple

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

The Summer of Untrieds Challenge requires me to wear purple today, so I went with Ciate’s Pillow Fight, a dusky, dreamy lilac creme. I’m wearing three coats of it with one coat of Seche Vite top coat. All photos were taken in the studio today.

This Ciate experience went a little better than my last; Hopscotch was never fully opaque, even after three coats. Pillow Fight is nice, though. It applied well and dried pretty quickly. My brush had a loose hair in it though, which looks like it came off on my pinky nail. Lame.

I’m not sure how much I like the color, though; I don’t feel like I’m pulling it off well. It’s so soft and really pretty in the bottle, but it doesn’t look like much on me, at least not on its own. I bet it would look awesome in a gradient or with some glitter.

On a side note, it feels like this month is moving so slowly because I’ve been painting my nails and posting every single day. I actually like it a little. The first half of this year went by so quickly and quietly, and that kind of unnerves me.

Wacie Wednesday: Wintergreen

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

This week’s Wacie Wednesday is all about Wintergreen, a sheer white with a strong pearly green flash. I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

I kind of really love how this turned out. This is actually its second formulation; the first one was much more opaque, but thicker and more difficult to work with. I poured a lot of it out (like half) and replaced it with clear lacquer base, and now it’s beautiful.

The green flash changes depending on the angle; it’s not very obvious here.

I’m wearing three coats here, just because I always put on three coats for swatches, but I actually really liked this at one coat. I wish I’d taken photos of it then; it was sheer enough to see my nail line beneath, but the green flash was still very prominent. It was a very cool look just on its own. With three coats though, it’s still a little sheer, but the white is more apparent.

It’s also not very apparent in sunshine.

I’m also rethinking the name a little. At the time (about a day ago) it seemed perfect, but wearing a polish called Wintergreen in the middle of July is a little weird.

Summer of Untrieds Day 8: Glitter With Colored Base

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

The polish I chose for the challenge today is another recent acquisition from my vacation; I bought this and a few others from the Times Square Sephora. This is Candy Shop from Deborah Lippmann; I’m wearing three coats with one coat of Seche Vite.

Candy Shop is a pink crelly with a rainbow of glitter, very similar to China Glaze’s It’s a Trapeze. I love these glitter crellies; they are always so cute and sparkly without being too flashy. What I don’t love is trying to clean my cuticles up with these; I never get clean, sharp edges.

Even though it was overcast, I took a couple outdoor shots anyway, and they turned out pretty well. There’s a nice shine from the glitter, and you can really see the dimension in the layers.

Despite the mess, this polish is fun and cute. I almost feel bad that I won’t be wearing it for very long. Good thing it’s going to be impossible to take off tomorrow.

Summer of Untrieds Day Six: Orange

Posted on July 6, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

Day Six of the Summer Untrieds Challenge is orange, and my first untried orange on the polish list is Ciate’s Hopscotch, so here we are. I have a ton of untried Ciate polishes from their advent calendars and various nail art kits, so I’m excited to finally use one. I’m wearing three coats of Hopscotch with one coat of Seche Vite.

This one varies a bit in different lighting conditions. In my office, it looks pretty orange, but in the studio, it’s a tomato red. I liked the formula and consistency of the polish, it applies evenly and easily. It dries with a very shiny finish, almost shiny enough to go without a top coat. My one complaint is that it’s still sheer enough after three coats that my nail line is still visible; this is something that’s not too obvious in photos. It’s not a bad thing, really; I’d hoped for more opacity.

You can see the visible nail lines here.

I love orange polish, and this is one I definitely want to revisit in the future.

Swatch Saturday: American Apparel’s Neon Yellow

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Stacie Wacie

I’m taking a brief break from the Summer of Untrieds Challenge to bring you the regularly scheduled Swatch Saturday. I’m still working through my American Apparel neons haul, and I’m still having a ton of fun with them; I like each one better than the last. This week, I’m wearing three coats of Neon Yellow. My pinky and ring nails have white polish beneath the neon. All nails are topped with one coat of Seche Vite. Photos were taken indoors and outdoors.

So this polish is a little different from the others I’ve worn so far. This one has the most discernable difference between the nails with the white undies and the ones that don’t. This difference is especially visible in my outdoor shots; on the index and middle nails, it’s duller, more greenish, and more transparent than the other two. It’s like lemon and lime. While the white undies makes a difference, though, I’m not sure which I like better. The white foundation gives the color some solidity, but I like the color of the foundation-less nails.

This is the best neon yellow I’ve used so far. All the ones I’ve tried before have been really thin and streaky and basically require three coats over white polish. This one has a great formula and covers well, even though I think it’s a little thinner than the other neons from this line. Despite that, you still get a great look. If you buy any neon yellow polish this summer, make it this one. Seriously, I can’t stop staring at these. They’re so loud!

This photo is the one that, I think, shows the best difference between the white undies and no undies.

I really love these neons a lot. I’m a little sad I only have two more to go.

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