Aly Loves Lacquer

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!

Last Tuesday, I celebrated my 20th birthday! Of course, I had to do a special birthday manicure :) Last year, I did freehand ice cream cones. This year, I decided to go with birthday cupcakes!

Here's a huge picture of them!

I worked hard on these and used lots and lots of different polishes. To see exactly what I used, keep reading!

Today's look is a super bright, in-your-face, blingy manicure. I did this a couple days ago for a sorority event, because I wanted something fun on my nails to brighten up my black dress. This is definitely the kind of manicure that commands attention!

I am wearing 2 coats of Mattése Elite Rei Momo, which I recently reviewed. After that was dry, I put a line of Seche Vite down the center of my nails, one at a time. Then I placed clear rhinestones from Born Pretty in a straight line. Of course, I topped it all off with a nice even coat of Seche Vite.

Mattése Elite Rei Momo is actually blindingly bright in real life! I think my camera had trouble capturing it, so it pulls a bit red in these shots. Imagine it closer to bottle color and searing your eyeballs! 



This look is pretty loud and crazy, but I think the rhinestones are so gorgeous. As far as gaudy nails go, these are pretty classy IMO. I really enjoyed wearing rhinestones like this! I used a lot of rhinestones for this mani, but luckily they are very cheap! I think I paid about $3.50 for a whole wheel full of them.

What do you think of this look?

- Aly

Some people seem to hate on Valentine's Day, but not me! I love all things pink and sparkly, plus I think it is a nice excuse to go on a date. And chocolate is always good!

For this Valentine's Day, I chose to do a very girly skittle manicure. Take a look first, and I'll list the polishes used after the jump.

Today the Green Bay Packers are gearing up to play the Giants. Hopefully we will come out on top and continue on in the playoffs. I want a repeat of last year's Superbowl!

For this mani, I used Essie Going Incognito as the base. It applied easily in 2 coats. Then I added 1 coat of Essie As Gold as It Gets, a gold flakie that came out with the Essie Luxeffects Collection. Finally, I used Born Pretty plate m64 for the white stamping. My stamping polish was Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White.

Woohoo! I am half way done with the 30 Day Challenge! It seems like I started forever ago, but I am still glad I tried it out. It's definitely made me try some things I normally wouldn't.

For today's challenge, I started with a base of Orly Au Champagne, which was just recently released for the holidays. Can I just say that Au Champagne is beautiful?! It's a super shimmery white that dries to a satin finish. I just think it is gorgeous and very classy. I was sad to stamp over it. Still, the challenge must go on! So I stamped a delicate floral pattern from Born Pretty plate m61 with Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Grey Area, which has a lot of brown in it to be called grey... I'd classify it more as a taupe. To top it off, I added one coat of Sally Girl So Disco, a pretty duochrome glitter in a clear base.

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!

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.

Happy Friday, everyone! This morning I worked out and I am seriously pooped out. So this will be a quick post so I can sneak in a nap before I am off to work.

I recently picked up Absolutely Shore, a pastel green polish from Essie's recent Braziliant collection. This lacquer is the lightest of greens which manages to be a nice soft color without being stark. Essie Absolutely Shore applied beautifully, especially considering it's a pastel. It looked very streaky with one coat, but everything smoothed out nicely with the second coat.

After letting Absolutely Shore dry, I decided to stamp with a Born Pretty plate and Orly Fresh, a bright green crème. The Born Pretty plates are easy to use and great quality! The design I picked is a nice paisley found on plate m64. The numbers are exactly the same as Konad plates, so if you don't have access to one brand it's easy to find the same design somewhere else.

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.