No Lack Of Lacquer

NerdLacquer I Think You Call Me…Sexy
17/02/12

This might well be my favourite NerdLacquer polish so far! The colour is an absolutely perfect match to the TARDIS, as well as being a beautiful blue in its own right. There’s a small amount of holo glitter in the mix, which mostly seems to flash pink and red in daylight and when lit by a computer monitor it’s very distinctly green. Otherwise, it’s all blue and silver, and very beautiful. I could hardly take my eyes off it! The base is slightly jelly-ish, so I used three coats to make sure it was fully opaque, but if you use thicker coats two will do the job nicely.

NerdLacquer Exterminate
15/02/12

NerdLacquer has become incredibly popular since the last time I swatched some of their colours! And no one’s happier about it than I am, because it means no end of nerdy nails for the foreseeable future (even if there can be some delay in getting to buy bottles thanks to that popularity).

Exterminate is packed with chunky glitter of all sizes - enough to give an amazing three-dimensional effect - in a bronze-brown base, while also remaining incredibly smooth. I used two coats. The only downside I can see is that for some reason, this particular varnish is somewhat slower drying than usual, and this ended up giving me minor tipwear overnight. Apply it well in advance of doing anything like sleeping and you shouldn’t have any problems.

Mavala Minsk
NerdLacquer Argentum
15/01/12

Minsk makes a lovely base colour for Argentum. The silver glitter really pops against the darker grey base! I only used one coat of Argentum here, because I wasn’t in the mood for hardcore glitter removal, but I was really pleased with the coverage I got and, frankly, the beauty of the results. In bright sunlight, the holo effect was very obvious, even though you can’t see it in the photos. My new resolution is to layer my NerdLacquer polishes more often - the results could surprise you!

Rimmel London Ethereal
NerdLacquer Entirely Unlike Tea
9/01/12

I suspect Ethereal is supposed to be sheer, since I had to use four coats to get (mostly) full opacity. Oh well! It’s quite a nice pink nonetheless, and the formula was fairly good. It didn’t dry anywhere near as quickly as it’s supposed to, even on the first coat.

I then put a single coat of Entirely Unlike Tea over the top to see if a pink base would bring out the pink duochrome a little bit more than when EUT is worn alone. It does, very slightly, but I think I need to find a better pink to layer it over in future due to the drying time and lack of opacity from Ethereal.

NerdLacquer Aurum
6/01/12

This is a party polish and no mistake. As a general rule, I don’t tend to like golds, but I’m making an exception for Aurum. It’s quite simple as NerdLacquer varnishes go - with only gold and holographic glitters - but it works very, very well. It looks deceptively simple at first but actually has a great deal of depth, particularly in the sun. That’s when the holo particles really come to life. I didn’t get a great picture of that, though I’d rather encourage you to pick up a bottle and see for yourself in person! Three coats here gave good opacity and tons of glitter, and it’d also be good layered over your favourite gold varnish.

NerdLacquer Entirely Unlike Tea
20/12/11

I. Love. This. Varnish.

It’s lacking the larger hexagons that are ubiquitous to most NerdLacquer polishes, which makes it incredibly smooth and easy to apply. The glitter is also very subtly coloured, as you’d expect from a neutral. As far as I can tell, the only colours are silver and a scattering of holo, which barely shows up unless you’re looking very carefully for it. What I wasn’t expecting from Entirely Unlike Tea was the faintly shimmery pink duochrome. It’s barely there and difficult to photograph, but it takes this varnish to a whole new level of interesting.

Again, I needed three coats for decent coverage. I definitely want to try layering this over a pink to see if I can bring out the duochrome a little bit more.

NerdLacquer All Of Time And Space
18/12/11

For containing all of everything in the universe and beyond, this is a pretty sheer polish. I used three coats - one more than I normally need with NerdLacquer - and there’s still quite a bit of visible nail line under certain lights. I do absolutely love the colours, though. The base is a frosty mint green, with plenty of pink and silver glitter in all sizes scattered evenly throughout. I didn’t find myself having to rearrange the larger hexagons with the brush at all, much to my delight. That’ll definitely make it easier to layer over other colours, which is probably how I’ll end up using it in the future. It’s just not quite opaque enough for my tastes by itself, but I’m definitely not going to let that stop me.

NerdLacquer Don’t Blink
16/12/11

Now, you all know how I feel about greys (and if you’re new, just read back a little). So I was quite surprised by the fact that I didn’t like this colour at first. Oh, it grew on me, but when I first had it on, I was quite tempted to just take it straight off again. And by the next morning, I found myself rather liking it.

It’s obviously inspired by the creepy Weeping Angels from Doctor Who, and the colours (grey, black, white/silver) are clearly supposed to evoke the stone the statues are made from. Unfortunately, this is the first NerdLacquer glitter that also evokes the feeling of stone. It’s gritty and even putting on two layers of top coat couldn’t completely get rid of that feeling. That said, at least it fit the theme of the varnish, so I’m not too bothered by it.

And, of course, it’s worth noting that since NerdLacquer polishes are hand-blended, it’s quite possible that I was just unlucky enough to get a bottle that wasn’t quite right, formula-wise. None of the others I’ve tried have been like this, so I’m willing to bet it’s a one-off.

NerdLacquer Cold & Calculating
14/12/11

Cold & Calculating is doing that thing that purples sometimes do in photos for me; that is to say, it’s pretending to be blue. There’s a small amount of blue glitter in the mix that I can see, but other than that, it’s all silver and purple. As I’m coming to expect from NerdLacquer, this was awesomely opaque in two coats and pretty smooth with a top coat. I also like how glossy the base colour is in addition to the glitter. The usual glitter nightmare removal applies, but if you’re willing to put in the extra time to take it off again, it’s worth it.

This swatch goes out to friedcheesemogu, who asked to see it. I take requests!