Aly Loves Lacquer

Hello, everyone! I hope the holidays were good to you and I wish everyone a very happy 2014.

Today, I have two beautiful glitter topcoats from SinfulColors. One of their holiday offerings, the Holiday Tinsel Collection, is made up of many different bar glitter topcoats. Bar glitter seems to be a polarizing type of polish, but I personally love the effect it gives.

The first one I have to show you guys is called Cold As Ice. SinfulColors Cold As Ice is a clear base with stark white bar glitters. To me, it really looks snowy! I can see Cold As Ice looking great in winter nail art. Here I am wearing 1 coat of Cold As Ice over SinfulColors Rain Storm, a dusty blue creme with a beautiful application.

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

Hi again!

Here I am with another Layla post. I am just as excited about this one as the last one. Layla Ceramic Effect polishes are supposed to have a very smooth finish, and I found that to be the case with 54 Green Galaxy. Of course, I did top coat it for longevity's sake. Green Galaxy has a deep green jelly base and several sizes of bright emerald glitters. Here I am wearing two coats, and you can see it looks a bit uneven up close in the sun. I didn't notice it in person, though!

Hi there!

I have some exciting news! The Brazilian brand Impala has launched here in the United States! I, for one, am very happy to hear this news. The brand has some gorgeous shades that were previously only available to Americans through a select few stockists, but now we can all try them out! :)

The lovely people at Impala contacted me and sent me a few colors to review. My base is called Biquini Vermelho, Portuguese for "red bikini." I love this color! It's a beautiful red jelly that goes on very evenly. Biquini Vermelho definitely looks a lot more jelly-like in person. I then topped it with a dabbed-on coat of Impala Disco Ball, a clear base with holographic silver glitters.

Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours!

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.

Hey guys and gals! Today I have 3 beautiful summer shades by China Glaze for you. These were released as part of the Summer Neons collection, which you should still be able to find in beauty stores and online.

First, we have a lovely neon with shimmer called Hang-Ten Toes. Now, we have all seen hot pink neons done over and over again, but the strong shimmer in Hang-Ten Toes really makes it special. In fact, it kind of reminds of the shimmer that I love in China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise. Application on this was fine, but it did take 3 coats. Also, since it is a neon, it dries to a satiny matte finish. This swatch shows it with top coat, because that really brings out the gorgeous shimmah!

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

Recently, I realized that even though purple is my favorite color, I don't have much purple nail polish. So lately I have trying to rectify that! This polish is one I picked up recently, after having heard all about it on MUA.

I'm glad you all enjoyed seeing my newest hauls! I had a request to swatch the new Essies, so here is Play Date! This polish was just released as part of the Go Overboard collection.

Play Date is a beautiful shade of purple, and I love how it looks on. It has that lovely Essie jelly crème finish, easily opaque in just 2 coats and yet a bit squishy looking too. Play Date is bright and perfect for spring! It really makes my hands look nice and tan, especially after my vacation to Puerto Rico :D

I've been inspired by a lot of lovely ladies' takes on the 30 Day Challenge that has been floating around the blogosphere. Today, I found out my friend Zara from Never Unpolished, who actually lives in the same dorm as me, is starting it so I decided to tag along and give it a shot as well.

The first day's challenge is simply the color red, so I picked one from my untrieds: Essie Times Red Square. This is actually one my mom gave me before I left for school this fall, so thanks Mommy :)  As you might know, Essie seems to be the master of jelly crème polishes. Times Red Square follows that trend! I applied 3 thin coats and ended up with a bright and slightly squishy finish.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a bottle of Cult Nails Unicorn Puke! This was sold as a very limited edition release of only 275 bottles. I woke up early and headed to the website to order right away, and ended up with bottle number 202. Unicorn Puke is a purple tinted base filled with lots of beautiful flakies. Given that purple is my favorite color and I love flakies, Unicorn Puke was basically destined to make its way into my top 20 polishes.

I wanted to try Unicorn Puke on its own instead of layering it, and it took 3 coats to be opaque enough. True to Cult Nails formula, Unicorn Puke went on easily and didn't get clumpy or anything with 3 coats. I was also amazed that all the flakies were completely flat on the nails. The purple base ended up having a nice jelly finish which adds lots of depth to this lacquer. On top I added Seche Vite to dry it quickly.

I recently received my first Kleancolors ever, which I purchased from BeautyJoint.com . I had heard mixed reviews about their packaging, but mine was great! They are bubble wrap masters! Everything arrived in pristine condition, and they even included three extra polishes as a free gift. I'll be reviewing those along with everything else in time. For today, we have Born to the Purple, a magenta jelly with big purple hex glitter.

Application wasn't bad, but it wasn't super easy either. The polish is very gel-like in consistency and the coats were very thick. However, the glitter spread really well and I didn't have to struggle to get some on each nail. I did two coats for the following pictures, and added Seche Vite on top to help the thick polish dry.

It's Wednesday again, and time for another beautiful pink. This week I have Butter London Twee, a bright pink jelly with lots of silvery shimmer. The bottle is larger than most Butter London polishes and has special labeling on the front that indicates it is a jelly. Twee is my first ever Butter London lacquer, and I like it a lot. Since it is a jelly, it took a good 4 coats to be opaque. I absolutely LOVE jellies though, so I was fine with doing that. The finish is squishy just like every good jelly should be.

These pictures show 4 coats Butter London Twee, and 1 coat Seche Vite.



This color made me feel very girly. I love a nice jelly finish, and the shimmer really kicked it up a notch. I definitely will be investing in more Butter London polishes after trying out the lovely Twee.

- Aly

This is the second polish I have tried from the Cult Nails Inaugural Collection. Quench is a beautiful red jelly-crème. It covers well in two coats, but still has that squishy looking jelly finish. Cult Nails Quench is ladylike, but with a lot of sass too. I can see the old Hollywood stars wearing a color like this. Once again, application was a breeze. Two easy coats for beautiful even coverage. 

Here is a beautiful jelly green called Amaranth. I am IN LOVE with this color.  It is a vibrant green jelly. It took 3 coats for maximum opacity, and was well worth each one. One of my friends described it as "looking like candy," which I think was an apt description. The jelly finish looks great on Amaranth. This is one of my first true jellies, and I absolutely love it!

Here are 3 coats New York Summer Amaranth and 1 coat Seche Vite.

Isn't it beautiful? I absolutely can't get enough of this true jelly finish. New York Summer Amaranth was really cheap on transdesign too, so it was a real steal.

What are your favorite jellies?

- Aly