Aly Loves Lacquer

Hi!

After wearing OPI Isn't That Precious?, a classic sheer pink, I wanted to spice up my mani with some glitter. Enter Pahlish Glittoris, a gorgeous clear-based glitter with pink and red glitter in all shapes and sizes. Glittoris is one of my favorite indie polishes to date. I love the scattered disco glitter and the beautiful girly look it creates. To make the gradient smoother, I dabbed a bit of Essie Splash of Grenadine under Pahlish Glittoris.

As you can see, OPI Isn't That Precious? pulls very neutral on me. I still think it is a beautiful classic polish though. The jelly finish and the light pink look very professional. But of course, I am not one to wear "classic" shades for very long! I really love the finished look of Isn't That Precious? and Pahlish Glittoris combined. Plus, I am a sucker for the name; it's just so ridiculous.

How do you like to spruce up a days-old mani?

- Aly

Hello!

Today I have a couple photos of a beautiful OPI polish called Let Me Entertain You. This gorgeous shade was released in the Burlesque Collection, which is one of my favorite OPI collections of all time! Let Me Entertain You is a perfect shade of fuchsia with really pretty fleck-like micro glitter. The fuchsia base almost looks like a jelly, but it applies with a bit more opacity than I expected.

This is 2 coats followed by Seche Vite. Pictures were taken in sunlight.

Hi, all! I hope you're having a great start to the weekend.

Hi again!

This summer, I spent the last week dusty hunting. I drove from salon to salon, checking out the polishes and hoping I'd come across something I wanted. Well, I got lucky! I found some gorgeous shades, and this is one of them. OPI DS Magic is a stunner.

OPI DS Magic is a blue glass fleck polish. But it's so much more than that! It is a saturated, bright shade of blue. And the flecks add so much dimension. And it is so shiny. And I am so in love.

Take a look at 2 coats, and try not to drool.


PERFECTION. There is nothing else to say about it.

- Aly

P.S. I tried using bigger pictures for this post. Are they too large? Do you prefer smaller ones? Let me know!

Here is another classic blue polish. Dating a Royal is one of my most favorite OPI's. It is a medium royal blue jelly crème that applies wonderfully in 2 coats. I really like the color because it is bright without being too attention-grabbing. Like a neutral blue, if there is such a thing!

I added a bling accent nail with Kleancolor Afternoon Picnic. Kleancolor makes some amazing (and cheap!) glitters, and this is one of them. Afternoon Picnic has a super sheer gray base and TONS of glitter. Multiple sizes of hex glitters, and lots of different colors. I see silver, pink, blue, gold, green, and orange! I kind of dabbed it on, as opposed to your traditional painting motion of nail polish application. What you see is 2 "coats" of the glitter over 2 coats of OPI Dating a Royal.

I am so in love with Afternoon Picnic. The glitter is stunning! So many different shapes and colors of hexes! I will say that Kleancolor polishes take a while to dry on me. Because this glitter has some larger hexes, I added 2 coats of Seche Vite to help with drying and to make it smoother.

- Aly

Hi there! Sorry for the slow posts on my end. I have been busy! However, I have lots of blues planned for April, as it is Autism Awareness Month. Before that though, I am going to post some of the manicures I have in my nail folder.

This is 2 coats of OPI Don't Know...Beets Me! and 1 coat of Finger Paints Twisted. I mattefied the whole look with Orly Matte Top, but I had some serious drying problems and it dented like 3 hours later :(

Wow, I have been a lazy blogger! Sorry for the lack of posts. I have been busy with all my real life responsibilities, but now I am back. And with a vengeance!

Good evening! Today I needed a bit of brightness on my nails. Luckily, I found OPI Fiercely Fiona in a clearance bin recently. It was marked down to $2.00! Fiercely Fiona was released with the Shrek Collection by OPI in 2010.

Fiercely Fiona is a bright yellow crème with a good amount of green in the base. As you might know, yellows tend to be a huge pain to apply. This polish's application wasn't terrible, but it wasn't exactly perfect either. It started out incredibly streaky, but I was able to build it to opacity. Fiercely Fiona needed 3 careful coats to reach opacity.

I had wavered back and forth for a couple years on this one, but I am glad that I picked it up in the end. That said, I am glad I did not pay full price for it. A streaky polish just isn't worth $8.00. Fiercely Fiona is very unique though, and it makes my hands look tan. I'm glad that I own it.

- Aly

Hey everyone! Now I'm officially 2/3 of the way through the 30 Day Challenge. Feels good :) This challenge is more difficult and time consuming than I had expected, but I am still glad to have taken it on.

I know a lot of bloggers were dreading the Water Marble challenge, but I LOVE doing water marbles. Sure, they aren't the quickest or easiest, but they are fun and I love how they look in the end. Some people worry that it is a waste of polish, but when you have as many as I do, you don't really mind that ;)

For today's marble, I used OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, OPI Don't Know...Beets Me!, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, and China Glaze First Mate. First, I put down a coat of underwear, though I can't remember what white I used. Then I marbled in my trusty marbling cup, and this is what I came up with!

Today's challenge is Half Moons. I've always thought this was an elegant look, but I hadn't tried it out for myself until today. To be completely honest, this was harder than I expected! I tried using paper reinforcement stickers as little guides, but it just wasn't working. Since I am right-handed, I always do my left hand first as practice. Trust me, you do NOT even want to know how ugly my left hand turned out. :P Luckily for you, I always photograph my right hand. I guess that is a little backwards, since that means I am always showing you the painting and freehand skills of my non-dominant hand... Oh, well. I'm in the habit now and it seems silly to switch. By the time I got to my right hand, I decided to just freehand the half moons. They could be better, but I still like the look just how it turned out.

Anyway! I was really in a purple mood when I did this mani, so I chose OPI Pamplona Purple as the base. Pamplona Purple is a very red purple crème released in the Spain Collection, and it is one of my favorite go-to colors. For the second color, I chose Orly Rococo A-Go-Go, which was just released in the Mineral FX Collection.

Sorry for dropping off the face of the earth! I have been completely swamped with schoolwork, and, as much as I would like to paint my nails every day, real life always comes first. So I finally got back on track with my blogging today! Sorry again for the long lack of posts :(

So Day 12 is stripes. I decided to use one of my favorite stamping plates, Born Pretty m65. For some reasons, crèmes just weren't calling to me. Instead, I used a nice glass fleck and stamped with a metallic. The glass fleck I used as a base is NOPI You're S-teal the One, which my dad gave me in a care package. Thanks, Dad :) It was a little sheer so I layered one coat of You're S-teal the One over China Glaze First Mate. I stamped with OPI Star-ring the Rockettes.

In real life, You're S-teal the One has some lovely blue-purple duochrome properties, but that just would not show up on camera! Still, I think that this combination is a bit strange...but I like it!

So, I am already 1/3 of the way through the 30 Day Challenge. Time has flown by! Today's theme is Gradient, and since I am a sucker for a nice glitter gradient, that is what I wanted to show you all. I was super busy today and almost forgot to post, so I am giving you my Day 10 nails only 20 minutes before it is technically Day 11. Oops :)

For this gradient, I used multiple polish types and brands. I started with a base of blue and slowly added different silver glitters. Then I topped it with Seche Vite to smooth it out. Take a look!

When I saw today's theme was rainbow, I thought right away that it would be a great time to try some freehand nail art. I decided to do a cute little rainbow coming from a cloud. For this freehand art, I used a dotting tool and several nail polish colors. It took quite some time to do, but the outcome was definitely worth it! I think these nails just look so happy and bright!

Good evening everyone! I had a busy day and tried to hastily paint my nails pink, but it turned out horribly due to my rushing. Instead, I'll show you OPI Play 'Til Midnight, which is a sister to both OPI Ink and OPI Russian Navy. Play 'Til Midnight is a beautiful deep blue crème filled with blue, purple, and pink shimmer particles. The particles really show up in the sunlight, but the polish always looks blue no matter what the lighting. That's a big plus for me. I love vampy colors, but I don't like when they look black if they aren't supposed to.

Application was easy as pie! It was a nice two-coater; the polish just flowed right onto the nail. I topped it off with Seche Vite for the pictures.

OPI The "It" Color is part of the Brights collection, and I bought it from a recent blogsale. I had been curious about this particular yellow crème for a while, and I am glad to have finally picked it up. The "It" Color is a very pigmented yellow crème. It had the typical application issues of a yellow, but looks beautiful and streak-free after three coats. This is the type of color that really looks nice on tanner skin, and I think I will only be wearing it during the summer.

These pictures show 3 coats of OPI The "It" Color and 1 coat Seche Vite.


I used to really hate yellow nail polish, but OPI The "It" Color is so pretty! It also seemed to make my hands look even tanner than they actually are, which is always a plus.

What's your favorite yellow?

- Aly

P.S. I just made my first ever NARS purchases :)

It's Wednesday again, and this week I have one of my favorite polishes for you: OPI DS Reserve. I purchased this one from transdesign on a whim, and I am really happy I picked it up. DS Reserve is a soft pink polish with a weak scattered holographic effect. Though this polish isn't a linear holo, I love the way the holo particles look. It looks like there are mini diamonds in the polish.

Application was great, typical of OPI DS formulas. It also wore really well. I know some may consider this color to be a little boring or grandmotherly, but I think the sparkles really add to the color itself. It is work appropriate, but with a nice twist.

These pictures are 2 coats OPI DS Reserve.

What do you think? I like how the sparkles really add a lot to an otherwise very dupable color. OPI DS Reserve is definitely one of my favorite DS polishes. Which one is your favorite?

- Aly

It is almost Fourth of July, but I can't post tomorrow as I will be celebrating up North at my cabin. I wish all my American readers a lovely long weekend! So here we have one of my favorite water marble designs I have done so far. I used OPI Dutch Tulips for the red, OPI Dating a Royal for the blue, and China Glaze White on White.

The other day I stopped by my local Walgreens to see if they had the new Sinful Colors Adventure Island collection. Sadly, they didn't :( But! I kept on perusing the beauty section and spotted a lovely new Essie display. I picked up Chinchilly, Sew Psyched, and Trophy Wife. I had been lemming Chinchilly for a long time, so I painted it on right away. Then I added purple tips with Scotch tape and OPI Pamplona Purple.

This is 2 coats Essie Chinchilly with OPI Pamplona Purple tips, with SV on top.

I received this polish as a gift along with NYX Girls Bella. Forever 1989 is a pretty orange crème with a really nice shine to it. It took only 2 coats to look beautiful. I really enjoyed wearing this color. Not all oranges look good on my skin tone, but NYX Girls Forever 1989 works well with it.

This is 2 coats NYX Girls Forever 1989 and 1 coat Seche Vite.



I also recently purchased OPI Movin' Out, which is a gorgeous multichrome. It looks the best over black, but I wanted to try it over NYX Girls Forever 1989 too.


It looks like a sunrise on my nails! I really liked this pairing. Movin' Out added really nice multichrome shimmer to NYX Girls Forever 1989. You can see the pinky purple color on my pinkie finger, and more golden shimmer on my index. In real life, this was really pretty.

- Aly