Aly Loves Lacquer

And the blogger rises from the dead!

Hello, everybody! Ready for a gorgeous holographic polish? As you know, I love a good holographic lacquer, and this is no exception. Avon set out to make a full holo collection, and they did it in style. All of the Avon Cosmic Collection polishes feature a lovely scattered holographic effect.

Because purple is my favorite color, I had to try out Aurora first. Avon Aurora is a medium red-leaning purple with a scattered holographic effect. It applied pretty easily, but I did experience slight dragging on the second coat. I recommend being patient between coats. Otherwise, Aurora is just perfect. I think this is a super flattering shade of purple, too!




Hope you like my "comeback" post! Expect another beautiful Avon holo very soon :) And I am still planning to show off my European haul in just a few days.

Thanks for sticking around,

Aly

Hi, guys!

Today I have a really cool review for you of some gorgeous glitter sequins from Born Pretty. This type of sequin was brought to my attention by Sammy at The Nailasaurus. She has many gorgeous manicures using these glitter sequins, which she calls glequins. According to Born Pretty, these are Item 3103 12 Colors Nail Art Shiny Glitter Powder Sheets Tips Tool. What a name!

For this look, I used Illamasqua Lament as a base and did an accent nail using the glequins from Born Pretty. I picked a lime green color because it really pops with the pinky coral base. I hand applied each sequin using a dotting tool. In order to get the glequins to stick to the dotting tool, I put a tiny bit of top coat on it to make it tacky. This technique takes practice but it looks so cute!

Hi, guys! So, I am over a week late on this. I guess that's what real life will do to you. But here I am!

I chose to go kind of simple for the "G" challenge, because I have been incredibly busy lately. So, I settled on "G" is for glitter. My favorite color is purple, even though I don't often wear it on my nails. My base color is Charged Up by Orly, which my DBF bought me as a gift :) I love how each polish has its own little story. It took 3 thin coats to be opaque.

The glitter is China Glaze Marry a Millionaire. I think the name of this polish is so funny, but it is fitting for such a decadent shade. Purple is the color of royalty, you know ;) I'm wearing one coat of Marry a Millionaire over Orly Charged Up.

- Aly

Hi, guys! Time for another weekly ABC Challenge post!

Today we have the letter "E." My creativity was not at its greatest, so I settled on using all Essence products to create a manicure. I only own 2 polishes by Essence, and I used both in this polka dot mani. My base color is Oh My Glitter!, a really pretty warm light purple with lots of shimmery flecks, but strangely no glitter. Odd. For the polka dots, I used Essence No More Drama, a very delicate lavender crème.

I am back again with my weekly ABC Challenge post! This week we have the letter "C," so I decided to try out a trend I have been eyeing for a while now: caviar nails. Now, I know a certain brand with pretty little bows has caused a big uproar in the nail community due to their treatment of the caviar name. Despite all the drama, I was still interested in the look itself.

The brand I used for this caviar manicure is Nail Rock and the color is called Neptune. I purchased this set at Walgreens, but you can also get it from ebay here. The set had one nail polish and a pot of micro beads. It was really easy, but I definitely do not recommend this manicure as a long term look. It would be great for a date night or a night out dancing, though!

Guess what?! I turned 20 years old on Tuesday! I did do a very cute cupcake mani, but I still have to edit photos and post them for you all. Prepare yourselves -- it's pretty adorable! :)

In the meantime, I have a gorgeous crème for you. China Glaze was generous enough to send some polishes for review from their new On Safari collection. This one is called Purr-Fect Plum, and it really is perfect! At first, I worried that the berry shade might be a little boring. It isn't!

The color is deep but easily wearable, and the formula is spot on. Two easy, smooth coats of China Glaze Purr-Fect Plum was all I needed. I am not even wearing topcoat in these pictures -- Purr-Fect Plum is just that shiny! This polish just looks classy and gorgeous.

Somehow, China Glaze took your typical berry shade and turned it into a beautiful, deep crème that really shines. I am impressed by Purr-Fect Plum, and I didn't expect to be. Frankly, I love it.

- Aly

A few months ago, BB Couture for Men generously sent me the full Sinfully Polished collection. And with class, exams, and moving back home for the summer, I managed to take forever in swatching these polishes. For that, I apologize -- because these colors are gorgeous!

BB Couture always releases a men's and women's version of their collection. I received the men's half, and it is beautiful. I mean seriously... beautiful. It consists of 7 colors, each named after one of the 7 deadly sins. I have 6 of them for you today: Desire, Selfish, Egotistical, Lazy Bum, Enraged, and Jealously. The best part of these is that they are very unique colors, and the formula is like butter.

I was feeling a little creative the other day, just staring at my Crown Jewels glitters and trying to think of something original to do with them. Eventually, I decided I would layer all 5 of them on top of each other!

I think I should have put Diamant on last, since the silver glitters are hidden by the other 4 colors. But nonetheless, I really like this look. It's really fun and bright and crazy, even without a base color. I did 1 coat of each Crown Jewels glitter topper. These photos are without topcoat, so you can see how smoothly these dry! As always, click the picture to get a closer look :)

I hope all my American readers had a great 4th of July! I know that my family did, but today I am back to blogging business.

Today I have one of my first ever ManGlaze polishes. ManGlaze makes super duper matte polish in tons of different shades. Cabrón is a very sexy, very vampy matte polish with really lovely shimmer in it. Lots of mattes are a total mess to apply, but ManGlaze Cabrón went on easily in 2 coats. It is very opaque and very fast drying as well.

So, this monster of a post has taken me quite awhile. There are 14 colors in the Salon Perfect line. Since it is a new line, I wanted to be sure to wear each one so I could report back on wear time. With apologies for the delay, please enjoy all the pictures of these lovely new polishes! Pictures first, and reviews at the end!