Aly Loves Lacquer

I am back from France and starting up on the Mish Mash Challenge! Prepare for an upcoming post of my haul from all around Europe: France, Italy, Latvia... I went a little polish crazy.

For this week's metallic challenge, I was inspired by one of my favorite current trends: chevron. I've been seeing those preppy zigzags all over the place, and I love the look! To put a special spin on it, I hand-painted the chevron strips in little lines. Believe it or not, all it took was a toothpick and about 15 minutes. Easy peasy and so cute!

The base color is SinfulShine Picante, a really pretty coral-orange with subtle shimmer. It took 2 coats to reach proper opacity. Then I striped with a toothpick and Layla Mirror Metallic Metal Chrome. I love Layla Metal Chrome because it truly is mirror-like! It's so shiny and silvery and just fits the very definition of "metallic."

I am really excited about today's post! Some other lovely bloggers and I are taking part in an ABC Challenge. Each Wednesday, we will be posting a new manicure. Each week, we will move one letter further through the alphabet. I missed last week's letter, which was "A," but I am all ready for "B!"

This lovely polish is another from Lancôme's holiday offering. Bubbly Gold is similar in finish to Ginger Swing, but the color is more golden. To my eye, this shade has a bit of a copper cast to it. Again, beautiful color with a really easy application! This is 2 coats.

Hi there!

Today I have a new-to-me brand: Lancôme. I have always heard of Lancôme and thought of it as a nice, high end cosmetics brand, but this is the first time I have tried one of their products. Lancôme's polish line is called Vernis in Love and after trying this polish I can say I am quite in love :)
This polish is called Ginger Swing and it was released in the recent Holiday 2012 collection. Ginger Swing is a cool toned gold metallic polish. I'd say the color is somewhere in the champagne range. The finish is rather unique, with some larger metallic particles that add a pretty depth to the lacquer. I rarely wear gold, but this is cool toned and unique enough that I really like it.

Hi, all! I hope you're having a great start to the weekend.

Tomorrow (well, technically today) I don't have any class! We have a bit of a break for a special mass of some sort, but I am using my break to shop and sleep in! I figured tonight would be perfect for a late-night blog session. 

Hey, guys and gals! Sorry for the delay in posts -- I am nearing final exams at college so it has been pretty busy!

When I first went to apply Essie Beach Bum Blu, I had some buyer's remorse looking at it in the bottle. I was a bit worried that it would be a frosty mess. However, Beach Bum Blu ended up being a great surprise! The aqua blue color is gorgeous and the finish is metallic, NOT frosty. Thank the nail polish gods!

As you're reading this, I am getting my tan on in Puerto Rico! This is my first attempt at using scheduled posts, so fingers crossed that it works!

Today's post is the final polish I received in my January Maven box. Megan is a bright metallic teal. The first coat went on extremely sheer, and I admit I was worried about opacity. But at 2 coats, Megan was completely opaque and super shiny.

I had a lot of trouble making Megan show up color accurate on my pictures. I edited them to get the color as close as I could, but it made my skin look funny. Sorry about that >.<

After a great Green Bay Packer win yesterday, I decided to show you another of my favorite Packer colors: GOLD! I don't own much yellow or gold nail polish, so I was hesitant about Champagne Bubbles. The lovely people at China Glaze sent it for review though, and I am glad they did. It's a beautiful color I might not have tried on my own!

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!

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. 

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.

This is a mystery color that I borrowed from my friend Tiffany. We couldn't find any names on the bottle besides WE253. It's a turquoise-leaning blue metallic polish. The wear wasn't that great; I had tip wear after one day. But, I didn't wear top coat at all. This lacquer was very pretty on the nail.


Please excuse the wear -- this picture was taken after a day of paintballing. Normally I stay away from metallic and frosty polishes because I hate brushstrokes, but this one turned out alright. The main thing about it I didn't like was that it had a lingering bad scent. It definitely did not smell B3F, even after it dried.

- Aly