Honest Babes

I was lucky enough to get a small order in the last time NerdLacquer's etsy shop was open. I opted for a backup of Warrior Ethos from the Where No Lacquer Has Gone Before trio, plus Gorramit from the Serenity trio and All of Time and Space from the Mad Man with a Box trio.

Here's a side view that shows more of the glitter:

This bottle of Warrior Ethos isn't like my first one. There's always a chance of not receiving the exact same polish when you're reordering from an independent company. They don't do thousands of bottles of the exact same color like OPI does. What you do get is something unique that few people have. The glitter is predominatly black and copper like what you see in the first picture, but the other glitter colors were picked up well in this next picture:

You can sign up on the shop's page to be notified when NerdLacquer's back to selling polish. You really have to act fast once the store's open, so start researching what you think you might want well in advance!

For absolutely no apparent reason, I decided to layer China Glaze's Crackle Glaze in Oxidized Aqua (1047) on top of NerdLacquer's Cold & Calculating. I had heard of problems with Oxidized Aqua not crackling well, but I didn't have that problem.

I did a thick coat on my middle and pinkie fingers and a thin coat on my index and ring fingers. The thin coats did crackle more, while the thick coats had marginally larger cracks.

While I really like the purple base of Cold & Calculating under the icy, shimmery dark light blue of Oxidized Aqua, C&C looks best by itself. Big duh, right? Sometimes you should just leave well enough alone. The China Glaze came from Ulta and Cold & Calculating is available at NerdLacquer's store if you're quick enough to snag it when her store's open.

When I wear Cold & Calculating, the regular silver glitter is what I notice first, then the silver hex glitter. Since C&C is a two-coater, you can cover up the hex glitter with your second coat. Sometimes I cover that glitter pretty well, and sometimes it looks like it's just under the surface of the polish. Like purple sand slowly blowing off a silver spaceship long crashed and buried on some remote planet.  These lightbox pictures show the glitter pretty well, though on the nail, I find that the overall tone is darker and slightly more blue.

These pictures are from the second time I had C&C on. It looked even better the first time- super awesome glitter placement- but I finally had to take it off after over a week of wear because it had just chipped too much. (Someone was picking at it. *whistles innocently*) But seriously- that was some crazy good wear.Four pictures...

**CAUTION: NERD(LACQUER) ALERT** I am going to be geeking out for the Trek-esque polishes because they bring back such good memories. A great color of polish is wonderful, but it's even better when it evokes a feeling or memory. That's what I think at any rate.

My first choice of NerdLacquer to swatch was Warrior Ethos because I must admit that I prefer the Klingons over the Vulcans (Purely Logical) and the Romulans (Cold & Calculating.) Three coats by itself was perfect opacity. If I hold my finger up to the light, I can see my nail tip, but otherwise it looks opaque. I love the different colors and sizes of glitter in Warrior Ethos- everything just works for me. I think this is a great unconventional holiday red and I've been surprised by how well it's worn for me.

A lot of pictures... for serious!

I had avoided signing up for Etsy because I knew what a time suck it would be. Cute, clever one-of-a-kind handmade items like jewelry or stationary? Totally up my alley. If you had told me a month ago that I'd be buying nail polish on there, I would have scoffed at you. But one night last week, I followed a link to someone's Flickr. She had pictures... of Star Trek-themed nail polish. Within 24 hours, I had not only signed up for Etsy and wasted hours browsing, but I had also bought the Trek polish set and another polish to go with it. If you're selling something that references Star Trek ("The Next Generation" in particular), I am certainly going to take notice and then potentially hand you all of my monies. Which was the case here. 

NerdLacquer sells a variety of geeky polish influenced by awesome things like Doctor Who, Star Wars, the actual universe and Monty Python. (Love that!) I opted for the Trek trio as well as Don't Panic. While Amanda's pictures are excellent, these polishes exceeded my expectations when I opened the box and unwrapped them.

I've been having trouble with my Nikon, so I finally reset the settings a few nights ago (perhaps in anticipation of getting these polishes) and hoped for the best when I took pictures the day I received my NerdLacquer package. I found a patch of late afternoon sunlight and tried to work quickly.

Today I tackled the lightbox. These pictures may be a bit big, so I apologize if you have to scroll to see everything:

My first choice to swatch was Warrior Ethos, so I will have swatches up soon (and I really mean it this time!) I noticed that NerdLacquer's next set might be "Firefly"-themed. Will there be a color called Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal? A girl can hope! And after you buy NerdLaquer, just try to not make up polish names referencing your favorite shows and movies. Based on my experience with Warrior Ethos and Amanda, my overall impression of NerdLacquer can be expressed in macro form as: