Aly Loves Lacquer

Happy Wednesday everyone! Now that I think of it, I haven't done Pink Wednesday in quite some time. I will have to get back on track once I finish with the 30 Day Challenge. Today was called "Inspired by a Color," which I found a little confusing. So, I decided to just go with a color that is absolutely gorgeous! That's inspirational enough in my book :)

Here I have 2 coats of Julep Helena, with 1 coat Julep Fast Dry Top Coat.

I am such a huge fan of the Maven program. I think everyone should give it a try! You know I am telling the truth because I don't even have a referral link yet :P Honestly, it's such a great deal for such beautiful, high quality products. Let me know if you try it out!

- 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 the galaxy manicure. I was nervous that I wouldn't be able to make a nice looking manicure, because this look comes off as incredibly challenging. Still, in the spirit of the 30 Day Challenge, I was encouraged to give it a try. To those who are going to try this out: be warned! It is beautiful but it is rather time consuming. In the end though, this gorgeous look is 100% worth it.

For this manicure, I used 10 different polishes: NARS Zulu, Essie Going Incognito, Zoya Mitzi, Orly Spark, OPI Planks a Lot, China Glaze First Mate, Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, Sally Hansen DVD, Orly Space Cadet, and China Glaze White on White. The description of how I did this is a bit complicated. Basically, there was a lot of sponging involved! For the spiral on my ring finger, I used the very tip of the sponge so I could aim a bit better. If you want a tutorial, let me know and I'll get to work on one. In the meantime, take a look :)

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.

It's Glitter day! Luckily, the polish companies have been inundating the market with tons of glitter this holiday season. I am a big glitter lover, so that's a welcome development as far as I am concerned :)

China Glaze Snow Globe was a re-release that was recently promoted with their newest holiday collection, Let It Snow. Snow Globe is a clear base filled with two sizes of dense iridescent hex glitters. It is absolutely beautiful in the bottle, and I couldn't wait to get it on my nails. In these pictures, I am wearing it over L.A. Girl Disco in Hustle, a bright purple crème that glows under blacklight.

I've never done a tribal print manicure on myself before, so I was a bit worried about taking on today's challenge. With some patience, a dotting tool, and a steady hand, I was able to do a pretty good job of it though! I wanted to do a darker colored tribal print, so I went with gunmetal, black and red.

For the base, I used China Glaze Awaken, a deep gunmetal chrome polish. For the details, I used Sinful Colors Black on Black and Essie Size Matters. Black on Black is amazingly opaque -- it's amazing how sometimes drugstore polish is the best! Essie did a great job with Size Matters as well. It's very shiny and opaque, plus the name makes me giggle. I did a different design on each finger, just kind of making it up as I went along. Take a look!

Alright, I am getting back on schedule with my 30 Day Challenge! Today I am starting back where I left off, at Day 14. The challenge of the day is flowers, and I decided to try some freehand art for it.

My base color is Barielle Tight Knit, a really lovely rosy brown crème. I freehanded the flower petals using a dotting tool and two different pinks. The lighter pink is Essie Lily Pond, and the darker one is Zoya Jolene. First, I tried just dotting the centers with Orly Spark, a nice light yellow. Then I decided I wanted a little more bling, so I added yellow rhinestones in the middle of the flowers instead.

Today we have animal print, which is one of my favorite manicures to do. I think animal print always looks chic and adorable. This time I chose to use two of my favorite Zoyas: Dove and Petra. Both of these lacquers wear amazingly on me, plus the colors are lovely.

I wore 2 coats of Zoya Dove as a base, and stamped with Zoya Petra and Born Pretty plate m78.

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!

Hi there! Today I am being initiated into my sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, so I don't have much time to talk since I have to go get ready! I am very excited :)



Short and sweet! How do you like this combination? I like the colors but wish I would have had more patience and waited before applying topcoat. It smudged what could have been a very clean mani.

Have a great day everyone!

- Aly

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!

This will be a quick little post as I still have homework to do tonight :( However, I will have to briefly gush a bit about how lovely Sally Hansen Bronze Ablaze is! I borrowed it from my lovely blogger friend Zara from Never Unpolished, who happens to live in the same dorm as me here at SLU. 

Today's challenge theme is Black and White. I decided to do a stamped manicure using my favorite basic black and white polishes: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White and Sinful Colors Black on Black. Both of these polishes are super opaque and fast drying. For those on a search for the perfect black crème, take Black on Black for a test drive!

Here I painted my nails with 2 thin coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White and then stamped with Sinful Colors Black on Black using Born Pretty plate m78.

So, today's color is Violet. I am a huge fan of purple. In fact, it's my favorite color. So I had a lot to choose from. I picked Cult Nails Vicious since it's rather new and I haven't swatched it for you yet. Vicious is a beautiful dark purple crème polish. It covers fantastically in 2 coats, and the shade of purple works well with my skin tone. It also dries very shiny, even without topcoat. Of course, I hate waiting for polish to dry so I used Seche Vite as usual.

Remember to take a look at some of my fellow bloggers' takes on the challenge at  Never Unpolished, Nails and Noms, The Nailasaurus and Ash-Lilly's Lacquer Lust!

It's day 5 already! This one is Color Club Otherworldly, which was released with the Starry Temptress Collection this summer. This collection consists of all neon glitters, but the glitter has a very unique look to it. The glitter doesn't sit on top of the polish, so it isn't sparkly. It's different, but I like it anyway.

Otherworldly covers well in 2 coats. Once I added Seche Vite, it really looked super shiny and gorgeous in the sun.

Remember to take a look at some of my fellow bloggers' takes on the challenge at  Never Unpolished, Nails and Noms, The Nailasaurus and Ash-Lilly's Lacquer Lust!

Whew, that is quite the lengthy title! Both of these polishes are some of my absolute favorites. Finger Paints Scenery Greenery was given to me as a gift from DBF for my birthday, so it has some sentimental value. He is the sweetest guy ever; he went into Sally's by himself and picked out colors for me and even used my Sally's card. So adorable :)

Scenery Greenery is also special because it's a great color with awesome coverage. It takes just one careful coat to look lovely. NYX Girls Enchanted Forest is a nice glitter but it can be hard to apply. It takes some effort but it's worth it in the end.

It's Day 3 of the 30 Day Challenge already! I have a feeling this whole thing is going to fly by pretty quickly. Now yellow is another color I only have a few of in my stash. It's a pretty color, but most yellows don't do much for my skin tone. I think yellow looks beautiful on dark skin, but on mine I think it often makes me look sallow.

However, Kleancolor Holo Yellow looks alright. Kleancolor has a whole bunch of these Holo polishes, and I have them all! They are really pretty base colors filled with holographic glitters. I was really worried that Holo Yellow would be crazy sheer, but it was incredibly opaque! It only took 2 coats to look lovely. I was quite happily surprised.


All in all, I like this polish. I am not completely sure yet if I will end up keeping it. Like I said, I don't wear a lot of yellow. Then again, it might be good for nail art purposes. What do you think?

Remember to take a look at some of my fellow bloggers' takes on the challenge at  Never Unpolished, Nails and Noms, The Nailasaurus and Ash-Lilly's Lacquer Lust!

- Aly

It's Day 2 and that means it's time for orange. I don't have much orange at all, so I decided to pick the first one that came to mind. This is Orly Orange Sorbet, which is a nice jelly orange with golden shimmer. I decided to stamp some butterflies from Bundle Monster 78 with Wet N Wild Sunny Side Up.

Orange Sorbet needed 3 coats to be opaque. Sunny Side Up was pretty hard to see in the pictures, but in real life it was much more visible.

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.