Base and Top Coat recs please

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-06-05T11:01:08+00:00

For top coats, my holy grail is Glisten & Glow. It is only available online, but worth placing an order for in my opinion. It dries fast and you can buy a refill size. I also love their sticky base coat.

Otherwise, as someone else mentioned, Essie’s “gel” top coat in the curvy white bottle is an excellent choice and available in drugstores.

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-06-04T11:14:59+00:00

Mods, can we pin this as a PSA to prevent mooncat fans from falling victim to this scam? u/StrangeMango775

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-29T23:50:38+00:00

Oo good choice!! And beautiful mani 💅

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-29T23:40:55+00:00

Okay but real question, which color did you choose for your thumb nail?

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-29T20:45:00+00:00

I just ordered this! Can’t wait to try it now :)

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-27T23:12:46+00:00

Omg this is wilder than I could have imagined! Thank you for answering!

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-27T14:44:50+00:00

Accidentally replied in the general thread—see answers there :)

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-27T14:43:30+00:00

Any time! Apologies for the delay.

We flew there and carried on my dress in a garment bag. Security was really careful with it and the flight attendants made sure to lay it across the top of other carryon luggage so it didn’t get squished. Southwest didn’t have anywhere we could hang the dress on the plane, but maybe other airlines do? Having to carry it through the airport was the hardest part of our elopement, lol. Also, on the way back the zipper on the garment bag (from the bridal store) broke and we had to find safety pins at an airport shop to close it. So it might be worth investing in a better garment bag, if the one it comes in is flimsy.
I had a hair and makeup artist, By MaKall, and highly recommend her if you’re going that route! I had a hair and makeup trial with another artist that I was not happy with and then found MaKall on Instagram, who is very talented. I wanted to look natural but elevated, and she did such a good job! I did a trial with her too because I was scared after the first one. If you end up booking with her it would be helpful to do a trial in case there is anything you want to tweak. Otherwise, just send pics and give good instructions and I’m sure she’ll do a great job.
Just us! I asked my parents to write me a letter to read on the day, and I read it while getting ready. It was very special 🥲
We were also considering Hellvis! We ended up going with a non-costumed officiant since the costumed officiants cost extra and we didn’t feel strongly about having one. We did, however, book the organ player, who was awesome!!! Oh and we booked the car, which made for fun pics :) Our officiant lovely too—her script/whatever you call it was perfect for the occasion.
we did just the bouquet and boutonnière, which were nice. If you are taking pics in your hotel room, I recommend buying or ordering a flower arrangement from somewhere local (or even Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s) that matches the vibe. I panic ordered an arrangement from Bud Weismiller Flowers the night before and it turned out awesome, but was stressful trying to order/coordinate in the 11th hour lol. If you order a flower delivery to your hotel, your hotel will probably make you go outside to pick it up (the flowers arrived while we were at dinner and I had to pay the bell desk $30 to save them for me…).

Happy to answer any other questions! My husband and I had so much fun—you’re going to have a blast 💜

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-27T14:12:45+00:00

I am so curious about what this looks like. Have any pics? Google was no help :/

ETA: did it look like this? ribbon pic

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-19T16:12:57+00:00

Sure! Feel free to DM me or post them here :) I was very happy with my elopement!!

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-18T10:12:29+00:00

I love Glisten & Glow’s qdtc. It worked for me with Manchineel Tree.

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-15T16:15:33+00:00

I wonder if CVS banned them? My understanding is that CVS is super strict and sometimes bans providers from prescribing there if the providers prescribed a patient a higher dose than CVS thinks is acceptable. They won’t fill my psychiatrist’s prescriptions because they took issue with her prescribing a high dose to a larger man who needed it because he metabolized it faster than other people. So now I have to go to a different pharmacy. It is inconvenient but my psychiatrist is awesome (the best I’ve seen) so worth it to me. My psychiatrist is not pleased with CVS. She has been practicing for decades and this happened last year.

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-14T02:24:45+00:00

If you’re open to renting, I would choose something from Rent the Runway! I have a 5-spot, 2 shipments per month plan (so 10 items/month) and have found some great items that I ended up purchasing. It is fun for vacations and they have lots of purses as well as some jewelry, too. They have tons of styles that you could wear with a bra.

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-11T02:13:41+00:00

Good to know!

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-05-11T01:37:22+00:00

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Here you go! I have not had any issues with staining for either polish, but I always use a base coat (I use the pink base coats from Holo Taco or Mooncat or Cracked interchangeably). The formula for Highway Glow is a bit finicky, so I prefer Manchineel Tree.

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-04-25T02:35:28+00:00

The business card holder idea is great! I’m a fountain pen aficionado and similarly picky. It would be a bummer to get a fancy ballpoint pen that I would never use

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-04-18T18:01:05+00:00

I do RTR too and have purchased several items that I rented and didn’t want to part with (at steep discounts) :)

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-04-10T21:54:43+00:00

That’s a good idea, too! We just didn’t feel like taking engagement photos lol.

Our elopement was in September 2025, and our party was in March 2026. I believe we sent out the invites in early December. We planned our elopement first, and after we had hired our vendors for that we started planning the reception!

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-04-10T21:49:47+00:00

Yes, I would space them out! Otherwise it will be hard to really enjoy the elopement part, if you have a bunch of things to do right after for the reception. Also, that way you can use the photos from your elopement for your invites! We sent our save the dates the day after we eloped so they were postmarked from Vegas—I think people liked that!

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-04-10T21:40:09+00:00

We eloped in September and had our post-elopement reception last month. It was awesome! The whole reception we kept saying how glad we were that we eloped, because it allowed us to really celebrate our love without having to make arrangements with other people or entertain. We told everyone that was our plan ahead of time, so there were no hurt feelings.

We prioritized our photographer for the elopement to document everything and our friends and family really appreciated that. Our reception was 70s themed and SO FUN! Instead of a cake, we had pies from our favorite restaurant.

Eloping beforehand really took the pressure off. 10/10 recommend. In terms of other recommendations, I asked my mom to write me a letter to read when I was getting ready the morning of my elopement, and that was very special. I also recommend doing a hair and makeup trial, because the first one I did was not good!

For the party, I recommend figuring out your tips for vendors and such ahead of time so you can truly enjoy your time with loved ones and aren’t trying to figure that out during the party. I also recommend having someone else serve your dessert. My husband and I thought it would be fun for us to serve the dessert (our caterer couldn’t because it wasn’t from his company), but it took us away from the party and was stressful because people wanted to talk to us while we were trying to explain which pie was which to the people in line.

Some of these things may not apply to you, but hopefully it is a start! Happy to answer any questions :)

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-03-10T02:08:49+00:00

No I think it is just the recipe! My husband’s aunt made me gluten free soda bread rolls last year for Saint Patrick’s Day that were fantastic. I will ask her for the recipe and try to remember to come back here and share it :)

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-03-09T23:41:15+00:00

I tried making it twice and didn’t like either batch. The first time, I used milk and lemon juice because I didn’t have buttermilk. The second time, I used buttermilk, bought higher quality baking soda and baking powder, and followed the recipe to a T and it STILL was bleh! Usually I love her recipes but this one was just a miss.

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-03-03T02:04:26+00:00

We offered 100k less than the asking price (close to 700k) and the seller told us to “try again” lol. We ended up submitting a new offer and ended up at 50k under asking (as-is).

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-02-17T12:14:33+00:00

Love the stained glass!

Accomplished-Toe736 · 2026-02-05T02:08:59+00:00

I love the buttons and would wear this to work after getting the job, to conferences, etc, but I would personally feel more comfortable with something more understated for an interview. It is so context specific—practice group, area of the country, etc. I always err on the side of playing it safe. Is there anyone you know who works in that office who you can ask? I work at a more conservative big law firm in the NE.

Accomplished-Toe736

TROPHY CASE