Wednesday, April 4, 2012
NerdLacquer, NerdLacquer. NerdLacquer. Why must you make me so broke? NerdLacquer is custom-blended nail polish inspired by sci-fi favorites and other geekery.  Last month, I jumped into the NerdLacquer frenzy and surfaced (a month later) with two drop-dead-gorgeous bottles of Argentum and Carbon Allotrope. Can I put an emphasis on GORGEOUS? Both of these polishes made my jaw drop in different ways.
CARBON ALLOTROPE is a clear base with medium silver hex glitter, small silver glitter, and silver and white micro-glitter. No dyes, no micas, no tints. The silver-sand color comes from two sizes of POWDERED. DIAMOND. This polish is part of the Special Edition Duo. 

Oh, I'm sorry. What was that last part? Did you say POWDERED DIAMOND?! 

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The allotropes of carbon are the different molecular configurations (allotropes) that pure carbon can take. Like, diamonds.

Carbon Allotrope took about four coats for opacity. Very smooth application. I had no problems with it. One coat of Seche Vite made the top coat smooth to the touch. This would probably look brilliant over a solid nude-colored polish. I just didn't have time to do that but I think it looks pretty amazing standing alone, if I do say so myself.

Out of all the pictures, this one is probably the closest in color accuracy. Maybe a little bit darker in person. It's a sand-colored sparkly. Also, for whatever reason, none of the little hexes wanted to come out and play :( I shook and shook and shook the bottle and they all wanted to chill inside. Maybe next time.

Hey. Wait a second. I know what Carbon Allotrope reminds me of:

Britney Spear's 2000 VMA performance outfit!

NOTE: "Since diamond powder is obviously very abrasive, you'll want to use the soak-off method for removal (saturate a cotton pad in remover, hold/ tape/ foil onto nails for 4-5 minutes and it'll slide right off). Occasional use won't do any damage, of course, but using a few times a week and then RUBBING to remove might scratch up your nails." I swear by this foil method!  


ARGENTUM has multiple sizes of square and hexagonal silver glitter in a glistening foil-spiked base.  Sparkles like pure metal in moonlight. [Ag, 47, 107.8682, transition metal]. This polish is part of the Alchemist Collection.

I swear this thing looks like a disco ball in a bottle. 


Three coats for full coverage. VERY smooth application. One coat of Seche Vite again, did the trick and made it extremely smooth to the touch. Although this did mess with my eyes. This polish is so sparkly, after the first coat, I couldn't even tell where I painted and which needed a second coat. It's sheer, but under the light, it looks opaque. Tricky, Argentum, very tricky.

It's almost foil-y like.


Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle! Argentum, in simple terms, is silver! Get it? :)

Slightly blurred shot to see how shimmery this polish really is. Excuse my crooked middle nail. It grows in like that and I was too excited to wait, okay!? :P Don't judge.

Unfortunately, NerdLacquer's Etsy shop is on vacation, although you can sign up to get an e-mail notification when the shop is taken out of vacation mode. Harlow & Co. and NinjaPolish carry NerdLacquer, but they too are sold out. You can also sign up on both sites for e-mail notifications when the polish will be back in stock. Price ranges from $10 (like Argentum) to $16 (like Carbon Allotrope).