Aly Loves Lacquer

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

One of my absolute favorite looks is matte glitter. I just think it is so pretty and so unique. I was feeling a bit uninspired looking at my stash, so I decided to go with a nice matte glitter look.

It's been pretty cold here in St. Louis, so I thought I would do a manicure appropriate for cold weather. Jane, the lovely blogger from Nailside recently posted a tutorial for her cute cloud manicures. I had seen them finished but never knew just how easy it was to do one!

For this wintery manicure, I used Zoya Petra as a base. Petra is a gorgeous purple-infused taupey gray. Creamy formula and applied well in 2 coats. For the clouds I used two foils: Orly Sweet Peacock and Sally Hansen Celeb City. For such an easy mani, the look is very cool! 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.

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.

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!

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.

This is the final polish from Birds of a Feather, and I love it! I wasn't expecting much when I saw the promo photos, but Nite Owl is gorgeous. It's a nice taupe base filled with super pretty silver shimmer. The shimmer is obvious both indoors and out, and it adds a lot to this color. As much as everyone has een talking about Fowl Play, I think we need to take a second and spend some time on Nite Owl too. It's absolutely unique to my collection and the formula is to die for.

Here's another polish from Orly's recent Birds of a Feather Collection. Sea Gurl is a dark gray metallic polish with lots of shimmer. It's pretty and a bit different from most pewters. The shimmers seem to be multicolored up close, which adds some nice depth to the shade. For some reason, Sea Gurl gave me intense lobster hand syndrome. I had to go in and color correct the pictures because it made my fingers look *so* red. Ick.

Fowl Play has been getting a ton of buzz, and it deserves it. Orly did an amazing job with this one -- it's incredibly complex. Fowl Play has a dark purple jelly base, and is jam packed with flakies and glitter. It's a lot of pretty in one polish. After putting this one on, I just wanted to stare at my nails and drool over them all day. It's truly gorgeous both indoors and out, but in the sun it really shines.

Take a look! These pictures are two coats of Orly Fowl Play and 1 coat of Seche Vite on top.

So pretty! Trust me when I say you'll want to click these pictures to see them full size. Up close, Fowl Play is incredibly beautiful.


I couldn't pick just one picture to show you. This baby is so photogenic! Every angle shows a little different side of Fowl Play. The flakies, the blue glitter, the tiny microglitters... So much to love.

First off, I LOVE this name. I think it's so cute :) Actually, it might be lucky too. I wore it during the most recent Packer game and they won. I think that might have to be a new tradition! Orly Lucky Duck is a medium green crème. It's the only crème in the Birds of a Feather collection, and I think Orly did a great job with it.  Though the color isn't incredibly unique, the formula is just lovely! It was a very easy two coats until this polish looked perfect. As always, I'm wearing Seche Vite in the pictures.



So, what do you think of the collection so far? I know there have been pictures of these floating around all over the blogosphere, but they are so pretty I just had to share.


- Aly

P.S. I have so many pretty polishes queued up. After Birds of a Feather, I'll be reviewing my first Julep Maven shipment, then Revlon Royal Cloak and two Chanels. Plus, I've just swapped for GOSH Holographic! It's going to be a fun couple weeks :)

We finally had a day with some sunshine, so I was able to get some pictures of Orly Peachy Parrot for you! Peachy Parrot is a peach colored frost that was recently released in the Birds of a Feather collection by Orly. While it isn't my favorite color ever, it is still a nice polish.

In these pictures I am wearing two coats of Peachy Parrot and 1 coat of Seche Vite.

Hi everyone! I'm currently working my way through swatching all of the Orly Birds of a Feather collection. It was recently released for the Fall season, and has created quite a bit of buzz on NB and in the blogosphere. Lots of people have been looking forward to Fowl Play, and it *is* beautiful, but I think the other colors deserve some attention too.

Today I will be showing off Sweet Peacock, a vibrant blue foil. Sweet Peacock was super easy to apply. The polish was easy to control and very well pigmented. It took just two thin coats to achieve a gorgeous and vibrant look.


So bright! Orly Sweet Peacock just glows on the nail! I loved wearing this color. Remember you can always click on the pictures to get a better close up view.

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.

I had a request to see the new Orly polishes I bought at Sally Beauty, Frolic and Fresh. Frolic is a gorgeous one-coat purple crème. It is very vibrant and quite unique to my collection. Fresh is a bright green crème that takes two thicker coats to be completely opaque. I decided to wear these two together, so I did a fun polka dot mani.

I am wearing one coat of Orly Frolic on all nails but my ring finger. On my ring finger, I am wearing two coats of Orly Fresh. I did the polka dots with a dotting tool. I added one coat of Seche Vite on top, to even things out and aid in drying quickly.


I hope you like it! I was really in love with this mani, so much so that I have done the same pattern again with Orly Charged Up and Orly Lollipop. What do you think of these new summer colors?

- Aly

Orly is one of my favorite brands, but I don't have nearly enough of their polishes. Today in St. Louis, it's 74º and beautiful. I opted for a bright and cheery nail of the day.

Orly Orange Sorbet applied nicely, like most Orly polishes do. It's a gorgeous orange with golden shimmer that looks great in the sun.

All pictures are 3 coats for maximum opacity. Sorry about the less-than-great quality -- I took these with my phone since my camera isn't working properly today.