Aly Loves Lacquer

It is Wednesday, so it's time for another nice pink from Forever 21. This is another one of the Rose polishes they currently have out, and I picked it up with Forever 21 Lavender Rose, which I showed you all last Wednesday. This one is called Magenta Rose, and it's a magenta jelly filled with really pretty holo glitters. Since the jelly base is rather sheer, it took 3 coats for opacity. I love a jelly finish though, and with all the glitters -- It was definitely worth it.

This is 3 coats Forever 21 Magenta Rose with one coat Seche Vite.

Today we have another pretty Essie polish, Ballet Slippers. I got this from a blog sale, and I really like it. Ballet Slippers is a sheer, milky white. It seems to have a very, very slight pink hue to it. Essie does a great job with milky colors, like their famous Marshmallow. I wore Ballet Slippers to work and felt like it looked very ladylike. 
I really liked this. It reminds me of a hyped up version of Orly Robo Romance. Which way do you prefer?

- Aly

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 saw a preview of Essie's upcoming Fall 2011 collection and knew I had to pass it on. The collection is called Brand New Bag, and all the polishes have cute names that refer to different purses. I think it is a nice idea, and it makes the polishes feel really luxe.

Before I announce the winner, I just want to say thank you to each and every person who follows this blog and who entered the giveaway. It's crazy to think that I have over 100 more followers than I did when this giveaway opened. I love writing this blog and it means so much that you all like it :)

Here is the stack of entries! I spent a few hours validating them all, and wrote every entry down on index cards. Here is the big stack of cards.


I shuffled all of them super well and picked one out...



I emailed Liz already. She has 48 hours to respond, or I will pick a second winner. Congratulations, Liz! Liz also runs a great blog called Liquid Jelly; go check it out!

Also, that July 4th water marble will be coming up with better pictures soon :) Thanks again for following and showing interest in my blog, everyone.

- Aly

The giveaway closes JUNE 25th, which is tomorrow. Please get your entries in ASAP. I am giving away $OPI nail pads, plus some beautiful polishes. Golden Rose Care + Strong Red Glitter, OPI Simply Smash-ing, MAC Studded Matte, and China Glaze GR8.

Please see the original giveaway page to enter!

Good luck! :)

- Aly

Edit 6/25/11: THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.

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

 Now here are the pictures I took indoors. It is crazy how holographic He's Going in Circles is even when inside. It was just as stunning in real life.





Sorry that was so picture-heavy! I really couldn't choose just a couple. It seems like a different facet of the polish shows up in every picture I take. This is quickly going straight into my top 20. China Glaze He's Going in Circles is absolutely lovely.

What's your favorite Kaleidoscope polish?

- Aly

Sally Hansen makes some beautiful blues! Remember Pacific Blue that I swatched before? Here is another gorgeous blue crème, called Blue Me Away! It went on beautifully and was way more pigmented than I expected. It went on in two easy coats.

First I'm going to show you my final product, then we'll backtrack and look at Blue Me Away! on its own. So here is Sally Hansen Blue Me Away! with a coat of OPI Last Friday Night and OPI Silver Shatter on top of that, followed by Seche Vite of course.

This glitter polish, Wet N Wild Party of Five Glitters is part of their fastdry line. It is considered a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Happy Birthday. Since the Lippmann is so expensive, I went for this one instead. There isn't much to say about application; it was just fine. I used two coats for a more dense glittery look.

Here are 2 coats Wet N Wild Party of Five Glitters over OPI William Tell Me About OPI, and Seche Vite on top.

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

Happy pink Wednesday! This week I'll be showing you Essie Van D'Go. It was released with the Essie Art of Spring Collection 2010. Van D'Go is a nice crème peachy pink. It has a definite touch of orange in the formula, but comes off mostly pink. The application wasn't the greatest, with the first coat being incredibly streaky. However, it built up beautifully in 3 coats.

This is 3 coats Essie Van D'Go and 1 coat Seche Vite.

Skull & Glossbones was released with OPI's summer Pirates of the Caribbean collection. I only picked up two colors: Skull & Glossbones and Planks a Lot. I am still looking for Mermaid Tears though! OPI Skull & Glossbones is a grey crème with good coverage. It has a definite green tinge to it. I really like the color, and it's very unique to my collection because of that greenish tint. Very cool color.

This is 2 coats OPI Skull & Glossbones and 1 coat Seche Vite.

Here is another polish following the scented trend. We have had Color Club's Wicked Sweet, these Revlon Scented ones, and even Crayola released their own take on the trend. I will be swatching all 5 Crayola Scented colors soon, but for now let's take a look at Revlon Not So Blueberry.

Not So Blueberry is a really unique color to my collection. It is a nice lavender purple base color, with lots of blue and pinkish shimmer. In the bottle it looks like a duochrome, but on the nail that doesn't translate much. Still, I think it is really pretty! Plus, it smells good :) I liked the scent a lot; it was a light, fruity scent that didn't bother me at all. Although I am sure I looked a little weird smelling my nails in public... :)

This is 2 coats Revlon Not So Blueberry, and NO top coat. The top coat could interfere with the scent. EDIT: I've gotten some comments from girls who said topcoat won't ruin the scent. I just didn't know if it would, so I didn't take the risk. Feel free to SV it :)