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!