Aly Loves Lacquer

Hello!

Today I have a really pretty blue manicure for you. While shopping here in France, I found a Marionnaud cosmetics store. I felt like I was in foreign polish heaven. I picked up two GOSH polishes from the sale section: Gasoline and Blue Monday.

I decided to layer GOSH Blue Monday over SinfulShine Most Sinful. I used one coat of both polishes. GOSH Blue Monday has tons of pretty glass flecks, plus its base cooled down Most Sinful a little bit. I think this combination is very lovely and so so blue.

Hello!

Today I have a couple photos of a beautiful OPI polish called Let Me Entertain You. This gorgeous shade was released in the Burlesque Collection, which is one of my favorite OPI collections of all time! Let Me Entertain You is a perfect shade of fuchsia with really pretty fleck-like micro glitter. The fuchsia base almost looks like a jelly, but it applies with a bit more opacity than I expected.

This is 2 coats followed by Seche Vite. Pictures were taken in sunlight.

Hi again!

This summer, I spent the last week dusty hunting. I drove from salon to salon, checking out the polishes and hoping I'd come across something I wanted. Well, I got lucky! I found some gorgeous shades, and this is one of them. OPI DS Magic is a stunner.

OPI DS Magic is a blue glass fleck polish. But it's so much more than that! It is a saturated, bright shade of blue. And the flecks add so much dimension. And it is so shiny. And I am so in love.

Take a look at 2 coats, and try not to drool.


PERFECTION. There is nothing else to say about it.

- Aly

P.S. I tried using bigger pictures for this post. Are they too large? Do you prefer smaller ones? Let me know!

Hi there!

Recently, I realized that even though purple is my favorite color, I don't have much purple nail polish. So lately I have trying to rectify that! This polish is one I picked up recently, after having heard all about it on MUA.

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! Can you believe a whole year has flown by so quickly? I know I had a pretty good year, all things considered, and I hope yours was just as great!

To celebrate the New Year, I'm wearing a perfectly named polish: China Glaze Blue Year's Eve. China Glaze does a glass fleck like nobody's business, and this is a prime example. Blue Year's Eve is a blue glass fleck polish, very festive but it could easily be worn during the summer as well. In the bottle, it shows a slight purple duochrome. It was there on the nails too, at more extreme angles, but I just couldn't capture it on film!

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.

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!

Here is another reader request: China Glaze Watermelon Rind. This was released in the Summer Days Collection of 2009, along with the famous Strawberry Fields and Grape Juice. All of the polishes in Summer Days have a beautiful glass fleck finish, which China Glaze does incredibly well. Watermelon Rind is a deep green glass fleck polish with some blue in the formula.

This is 2 coats China Glaze Watermelon Rind and 1 coat Seche Vite.

I hope everyone in the US is having a great 4th of July weekend. I have a water marble I will be showing you soon, but for now let's take a look at China Glaze 108 Degrees. This polish came out in this summer's Island Escape collection. It is a beautiful bright glass fleck. I stamped it with a Bundle Monster plate design, but I can't find the plate right now so I am not sure which number it was. 

I know the stamping isn't perfect, but in real life I never look at my nails up close like that. It looked great and I got some nice compliments on the mani. Sorry for the short post -- I am going out golfing with my family for 4th of July.

Have a great weekend!

- Aly