Hi kids! Today I tried out a new nail art technique that I just discovered--it gives your mani a watercolor look using a stamper! I saw the tutorial at Chit Chat Nails, so go check out her post for the details!
I started with a white base and added the watercolor with ILNP A Twist of Lemon, ILNP Sniffany, Essie Vibrant Vibes, Essie First Timer and Essie Chillato. I did three applications on each nail for more depth. It's a very peaceful blend of colors!
Afterwards I decided to do a subtle accent nail by stamping on a flower design from MoYou Pro 08 using Bundle Monster Angelic White. I'm getting a lot of zen from this mani!
Heya gang! Yesterday was my and Mr. ALIQUID's second anniversary--it definitely doesn't feel like two years already! We celebrated with some big steaks at a nice restaurant (OK, I ate about a third of my steak and took the rest home). And of course I wanted to do a nice mani for the occasion!
The other day I watched this tutorial about how to make stamping "decals" without actually having to let them dry and peel them up. This kind of blew my mind (I'm probably the last person to discover this technique, right?). So I decided to try it out, and it actually works! Stamping decals without bubbles and wrinkles, hooray!!
I started with a base of Zoya Song and added a coat of Out the Door. While that was drying, I used the peacock feather stamp from MoYou Pro 03 with Julep Harley and colored in the spots with Zoya Ziv and Ivanka. I let the stamp dry on the stamper for a minute or so, then stamped it directly onto the nail. I guess the topcoat grabs the stamp even after it's mostly dry!
Today I decided to retry the watercolor gradient method that I learned from Nailasaurus (my first attempt is here). This time I was thinking about "April showers bring May flowers" for the color scheme and picked four teal/green colors: Revlon Trendy, Zoya Wednesday, Illamasqua Nomad and Essie Mojito Madness. I also mixed the polishes together to get more colors in the gradient. What do you think?
I really like the painterly look you can get from this method, and it's almost impossible to mess up!
Happy St. Patrick's Day! I just realized I'm not wearing any green today...oops. I am 1/8 Irish, but I'm also 1/8 English, and I think those two cancel each other out. Oh well, I don't need an excuse to wear a green mani!
I started out with two coats of OPI Goldeneye, added quick-dry topcoat, and let that dry. Then I stuck down chevron decals (actually French tip guides, but I'm a rebel), painted two coats of Revlon Rain Forest on top, and immediately removed the decals. Simple!
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Happy Sunday! Today I just have a quick pic of what I'm wearing right now! We went to visit my in-laws for a few days this weekend, so I decided to wear a Zoya PixieDust because they tend to last longer on me. I picked Chita, which is a classic PixieDust in dark green. Love it!
Zoya Chita. Two coats.
During our visit, we went to a restaurant in NYC that does a family-style prime rib dinner, and it was AMAZING. Here is our waiter helpfully posing with our giant hunk-o-meat:
I also finally picked up Helmer #2, so I once again have room for my whole collection (for now)! Quite an eventful weekend!
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Happy New Year everyone!! 2014 sure went by quickly, didn't it?
We got back from our long trip yesterday after driving 5.5 hours through the big storm that was all over the eastern U.S. Now it's time to get back to life (and start eating better again!), but first I'll show you some more manis I wore over the holidays, and a couple other photos!
This was what I wore on Christmas: Happy Hands Metal Heart.
Then for my 10-year high school reunion, I wore Powder Perfect Maneater with an accent of Indigo Bananas Moonlight:
You can't see it in the sun, but Maneater actually has a lot of blue-green iridescent glitter, so I took another pic that shows it better:
Finally, I have a few photos from our visit to the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. I used to go there for field trips all the time, but I hadn't been back in many years. As you might guess, the museum mainly focuses on the history of technology, especially cars, trains and planes, but they have a lot of other exhibits too, such as the chair Abraham Lincoln was shot in. It's definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.
Here's the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile:
Rosa Parks' bus:
FDR's presidential limo (they also have JFK's limo, which was actually used by other presidents after JFK was assassinated in it. Kinda morbid, don't you think?):
One of their special exhibits was a Lego display with some models of Detroit skyscrapers:
I'll be back soon with a roundup of some of my favorite manis from 2014!
Good evening ladies and gents! Today I turned 29. That means after today I've officially stopped aging forever (right???).
The highlight of my day is the chocolate cake, still upcoming, but of course I did a fun mani as well. I used a brand new polish that I bought myself as an early birthday present: OPI My Dogsled is a Hybrid. It's a pretty light teal that I think is different from anything else in my collection. I decided to do a sideways ruffian, because I've just started seeing the design everywhere and it's really classy!
The sideways ruffian is very easy if you want to try it. First you polish your nails with your base color and let it dry completely. Then stick down a French tip guide along the curve you want for the ruffian (use tweezers to make it easier). Paint the side of your nail with color #2 (in this case Zoya Ziv) and immediately remove the tip guide. Done!
Can you believe it...one year ago today I opened my Etsy shop and started selling ALIQUID Lacquer! That means today is my anniversary...no, my FANTASTIVERSARY!! There is going to be so much fun stuff happening in the next week and a half, so keep reading!
First off, I want to say thanks to everyone who has bought my polish. It's been amazing to see people get excited about something I made! That really hasn't happened much before in my life, since I've always been a "thinker" rather than a "doer". And a giant thank-you to the awesome bloggers I've gotten to work with over the past year!
I've learned a lot owning a business, but one unexpected thing that I realized is how each person has their own way of using nail polish. I was genuinely surprised at first that a polish that is opaque in two coats for me might need three coats for someone else, or that someone added thinner to a polish that I thought was the perfect consistency. I've really had to look at my polishes with an objective eye, which can be difficult when dealing with something that is so personal. But I think that has made me a better indie!
Anyway, on to the fun stuff! Anniversaries are the perfect time to reflect on the past year and make resolutions for the coming year. I thought about my struggles as a new indie brand and created three polishes to remind me of the qualities I'd like to foster in myself!
Artsy: A coral crelly with various shades of turquoise, yellow, purple and grey matte hexes.
It can be tough sometimes to stay creative when inventing new polish shades. In the next year, I want to broaden my horizons and approach polish making from a fresh perspective!
Dogged: A brown scattered holographic polish with coppery red flecks and a blue sheen.
Being a new indie can be discouraging, especially if you compare yourself to older, more successful brands. In the next year, I will keep believing in my own talents!
Gregarious: A lime green jelly filled with holographic and iridescent green, yellow and gold glitter in multiple shapes and sizes, plus magenta flecks.
Running any business requires one skill I'm not great at: talking to people! I have had to leave my comfort zone many times this year. In the next year, I promise to stay open and approachable to customers and the nail community at large!
I also have a delicious new lip balm scent: champagne frosting! I seriously love this one, you guys.
Fantastiversary Events!
So there will be tons of stuff happening now through Cyber Monday (Dec. 1)! Most importantly, lots of sales!!
the Fantastiversary trio is 30% off through Dec. 1
every day there will be a different saleat the shop--check back each day!
there will be an even BIGGER Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale!
you can enter my nail art contest on Instagram to win a $50 gift certificate!
And oh yes, here's a giveaway for you right now!!
Giveaway Rules
This giveaway is for one set of the Fantastiversary trio, and it's open internationally!
You must provide your email address to enter. All other entries are optional.
One of the entries asks you to fill out a customer survey. You can do this even if you haven't bought anything from ALIQUID Lacquer. At the end of the survey, you'll get a password to enter into the Rafflecopter for verification.
Giveaway ends Dec. 1 at 11:59 PM EST.
Winner will be notified by email and must respond within 48 hours, or a new winner will be chosen.
The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.
Happy weekend!! Is it cold where you are? This week it finally started feeling wintery here in Boston, and I had to break out my big puffy coat for the first time. It always makes me a little sad, because I really hate cold weather.
Anyway! I decided to swatch one of the polishes I used in my stamping decal mani from this week. It's my only Scofflaw polish, and I got it in a Secret Santa swap. Wraith Pinned to the Mist is a pale mint/seafoam with gold, copper and blue flecks. It is so beautiful and delicate!
And yes, my nails are short again...I ripped one while rummaging through my laundry basket. Go figure.
Scofflaw Wraith Pinned to the Mist. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
It's fairly sheer, so I probably could have used one more coat. The formula was great, on the thicker side but very easy to use. I loooove polishes with subtle flecks like this, and I think this particular shade is perfect for the upcoming season!
Scofflaw only restocks rarely, but you might be able to get this one through one of their stockists.
The product in this post was given to me as a gift. All opinions are my own.
Good morning! Today I have what I consider to be a nail fail. I wanted to have another go at making stamping decals. Previously I had tried the method where you let the decal dry on the stamper, the disadvantage of course being that you can only make one at a time (unless you have multiple stampers, I guess). This time I made them on a plastic baggie, starting by putting down some splotches of topcoat and letting them dry, then stamping on top of that.
Here you can see the decals in progress (and one where I screwed up the stamping):
I used a stamp from Winstonia W111, which is a cool sort of art-deco pattern. I stamped with my go-to silver, Julep Harley. Then I decided to fill in the little arches with various shades of sparkly teal: Sally Hansen Jet Set Jade, Julep Valerie, Zoya Zuza and Scofflaw Wraith Pinned to the Mist (I really must swatch this one alone sometime).
So far, so good. The problem came when I went to put the decals on my nails. I just cannot figure out how to prevent them from getting all bubbly and lumpy! The result:
I put on a matte topcoat to try to obscure some of the imperfections, but they are still glaringly obvious to me. I can't help being a perfectionist, I guess.
If someone out there has mastered the art of stamping decals, please share your secrets!!
The products in this post were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.
Happy Thursday! Today I'm bringing you a lovely upcoming collection from indie brand Marbles for Polish! It's inspired by Legend of Zelda, which is a game series I somehow never got into as a kid (I was too busy with Mario, I think). But I probably would have liked it.
All four polishes are linear holos with a metallic sheen. Since the formula was the same for each, I'll talk about that first. I found the application to be exactly to my taste, even with the mini brush. Not runny, thick or draggy! You could get away with either two or three coats, depending on how heavy-handed you are (I used two for the swatches here). The holographic particles are very fine, so the holo isn't the most prominent, especially in low lighting. But in the sun you see a strong rainbow arc!
OK, on to the photos! The weather here has been almost uniformly gross for the past week, so I couldn't get outdoor shots. But I think you can get an idea of how strong the holo is, especially by looking at the bottles.
Marbles for Polish Courage. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Courage is a light green holo with a gold metallic sheen. I probably could have used one more coat here, but if you have short nails, two would be fine. I really really love this particular shade of green.
Marbles for Polish Power. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Power is a black (or very very dark grey) holo with a gold metallic sheen. It's not the most original color, true, but the formula is great. So if you're lacking a black holo, I think this would be a good choice.
Marbles for Polish Trinity. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Trinity is a gold holo with strong yellow tones. (It even seems a bit green to me, but that might be the holo.) Not the most flattering shade on me, but definitely a showstopper!
Marbles for Polish Wisdom. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Wisdom is a warm lavender (dare I say orchid??) holo with a purple metallic sheen. This is probably my favorite color of the bunch, because hey, purple! Girly but in-your-face at the same time.
A beautiful set of polishes, no? I'd say these would all make great foundation shades in your holo collection! Some of the colors are new for me actually!
The Marbles for Polish Legend of Zelda collection will be coming out on November 14th on Etsy. They will retail for $10 each for a 15 ml bottle!
The products in this post were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.
Happy Hump Day! October is almost over, can you believe it?? I hate how fast time goes by!
Well, you might have noticed that I haven't really gotten into the Halloween spirit as far as my nails go. Halloween just doesn't interest me now that I'm too old to get free candy. Plus, orange doesn't look very good on me. But I figured I should do at least a couple manis before the holiday passes.
Instead of orange, I decided to use a slime green color, which is equally creepy to me! I did a gradient with Essie Shake Your $$ Maker and Revlon Stiletto. When I was done, I decided it needed something more, so I did a little stamp with Winstonia plate W116 and Julep Harley (my go-to stamping silver). What do you think--is it ghastly enough?
I'll probably do one more Halloween mani, since I doubt this one will last until Friday (I'm going to be deep-cleaning our apartment for the next few days). See you then, boys and ghouls!
Hey all! I'm really happy to join in with He Picks My Polish for this month! In case you don't know how this works, you have a guy in your life pick three polishes from your stash, and you have to do a mani with them. You can't add any other polishes besides neutrals. It's fun and potentially hilarity-inducing. (Feel free to join in this month!)
If you've seen my previousinstallments, you know that my husband likes to pick colors that match his favorite fictional ladies. I was expecting a similar thing this time, but he surprised me by going a different route. The polishes he chose were L'Oreal L'Orange (orange, of course), Nails Inc. Bruton Mews (a dark green), and OPI You're So Vain-illa (off-white). After I gave up trying to guess, he informed me that the colors represented one of his favorite foods: orange chicken. (The green stands for broccoli.) Yes, he's a weird dude.
With orange and green, I at first naturally thought of doing a pumpkin design, but changed my mind and went for a floral pattern. It turned out kinda vintage-couch, don't you think? It still looks very fall-like to me.
Hey there! Hope you had a great weekend! (Have you entered my giveaway yet?)
Today I wanted to do some sort of nail art, since I've gotten out of the habit recently. I realized that 1) I hadn't used my bottle of A England Dragon yet (a travesty!) and 2) I hadn't done a gradient in a long time. So I decided to do a triple gradient with all A England polishes.
The top color is Beauty Never Fails, the middle is Dragon, and the tips are Princess Sabra (which I swatched here). I think these polishes go perfectly together because they all have tones of gold and green, but they're different enough to make a nice gradient!
My only regret with Dragon is that the pretty orange shimmer you see in the bottle didn't really show up strongly on the nail. It is still amazing though!
Good morning everyone! A few weeks ago I won the entire OPI Coca-Cola collection in a giveaway, and I was excited to use some of them in a mani! I think a lot of the colors in this collection go really well together.
I did and quick and dirty cloud mani using OPI Get Cherried Away, My Signature is "DC" and Green on the Runway.
I'm kind of in love with all three of these polishes. Get Cherried Away is a gorgeous warm purple, Green on the Runway has a cool green-to-reddish-brown color shift, and My Signature is "DC" is super blingy. It would probably be good for stamping!
Do you have any polishes from this collection? I'm excited to use the glitter polishes sometime soon too!
The products in this post were sent to me for review. All opinions are my own.
Hope you're having a lovely week so far! Today I have a brand-new makeup kit to show you. It's a limited edition One Direction set called Up All Night! I have to confess that I can't name a single song by One Direction, so I had my husband sing me one (he keeps up on pop culture much better than I do). Anyway, I'm sure there are a ton of One Direction fans out there who are dying to hear about this kit!
The set comes in a tin with a plastic sleeve, which you have to remove every time you open the box--slightly annoying.
Here's the inside of the tin. You can see all the products are in there pretty securely.
Let's look at all the makeup you get in here!
Nail Polish: Na Na Na
Makeup by One Direction Na Na Na. Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.
Na Na Na is a teal/green shimmer. As usual my camera is making it look more blue than it actually is. In real life it's a pretty mermaid green. The formula was pretty sheer for my taste; even at three coats there is still visible nail line. Other than that I had no problems.
Eye Products
From left: Stand Up, More Than This, Gotta Be You, Save You Tonight, Another World, Up All Night
Stand Up eye and body crayon: This is a fat denim blue crayon that can be used as eyeshadow, liner or for body art (along with the included stencils). In my opinion the crayon is a little too fat for eyeliner, but hey, I'm old. The pigmentation seemed good; the arm swatch lasted through 24 hours and a shower.
More Than This: A peachy pink eyeshadow with slight shimmer. It was hard to tell how pigmented this was because it matches my skintone almost perfectly.
Gotta Be You: A taupe-grey shimmer. This one barely showed up on my eyelid when I tried it.
Save You Tonight: This one is my favorite shadow in the palette. It's a shimmery light turquoise. I found that this one went on my eye nicely, but tended to fade when I blended.
Another World: A sparkly royal blue. This one had MAJOR fallout problems. The bits of sparkle basically don't cling to skin (even with primer), so as soon as I blended the shadow it lost all its color.
Up All Night: Blue glitter in a clear base. I didn't try this on my eye, but I'm skeptical about how well it would stay on.
Little Black Dress mascara: Forgot to take a picture of this one! It's a pretty decent mascara. Not the most amazing one I've ever worn. More on the wet side than the crumbly side.
Lip Products
I Should Have Kissed You: A bubblegum pink creme lipstick. Good pigmentation, but on the dry side; after a little while I got creasing. Seems to be long-lasting. I thought the stick was a little too wide, as I had some trouble staying in the lines.
Taken: A hot magenta lip gloss with tiny glitters. This one glows orange under UV light, although unfortunately I couldn't test that! Formula seemed typical for a lip gloss, not too sticky. The glitters are really hard to remove!
My Verdict: The eyeshadow palette was a disappointment, but everything else seems to be of decent quality. While the nail polish is sheer, it could be pretty over a base color. The colors in general definitely skew toward a younger crowd, not surprisingly!
The three Makeup by One Direction kits will be available at the following stores in the US:
Macy's - now available!
Stage Stores - August 25th
Dillards - August 25th
Beauty Brands - August 25th
Lord and Taylor - August 25th
Hi all! Tomorrow hubby and I are off on vacation for a couple weeks. First we're visiting his family and seeing my favorite band, Barenaked Ladies! Ahhh can't wait! Then we're going to my family in Michigan and taking a little trip up north. We're going to some of the places that inspired my polish collection, which will be awesome.
Since we're driving, I'm going to be able to bring some polish with me, so I'll try to post my manis as usual. I'll also post a lot of vacation pics on Instagram! So you guys hopefully won't miss me too much.
I decided to cut my nails down to nubs just so I won't have to worry about them breaking on our trip. I dunno how you folks with nubby nails manage! I can't wrap my tips properly! Also my fingertips hurt when I type...I guess they're not used to being pushed on!
I knew I would need a fun mani to cheer up my tiny little nails. What's more summery than watermelon nails??
I started with Zoya Kate, which is the perfect watermelon-colored jelly in my opinion. The seeds are Revlon Stiletto, and the rind is Maybelline Porcelain Party and OPI You Are So Outta Lime!
I love watermelon manis, but I'm actually not that big of a melon fan in real life. Cantaloupe is especially gross!
Happy weekend! This is my last Neverending Pile Challenge post for now. This has been a great challenge for me, just because I finally shortened my untrieds list (temporarily at least)! I'll have to keep making an effort to wear untrieds from now on!
This prompt is dupes: match an untried with a tried. Well, the polishes I picked looked pretty similar in the bottle, but turned out to be completely different on the nail. So these aren't really dupes at all, but they're pretty so I'm going to show them to you! I have OPI AmazON...AmazOFF on my index and ring finger, and Julep Lena on the others. They're both gorgeous teals with a little bit of shimmer.
As usual, my camera can't photograph teals, so this picture has been color-corrected. That's why it looks slightly weird.
I love both these shades, but I think the formula on the Julep was better (it's a one-coater!). Both of these will stain your cuticles, so be careful!
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Hey folks! It's time once again for the Neverending Pile Challenge! Actually, despite its name, the first round of the challenge does end in two weeks, and I think I'll bow out at that point. Doing so many challenges per week really clogs up my blogging schedule and I haven't done much nail art lately. But wow, have I tried a whole lot of untried polishes!
Today's theme is neon, perfect for summer! I'm not a huge neon nut because I have such pale skin that neon doesn't always look great on me. I definitely prefer cooler neons rather than pinks and yellows. So today I'm wearing China Glaze In the Lime Light (Neon), a neon green with aqua shimmer. I don't know what the story is behind the parenthetical in the name--I'm guessing there is/was also a non-neon version of this polish?
Anyway! As you can probably tell, my camera panicked a little bit with this polish! It's actually a bit darker than it appears here.
China Glaze In the Lime Light (Neon). Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.
I love this shade of green, but sadly the formula was no bueno. It was very sheer and streaky--even at three coats you can still see my nail line a bit. I also had some problems with bald spots. I suppose it could have been worse though. Like most neons, this polish dries matte, but I like it glossy better because it brings out the shimmer.
The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.
Happy Friday! I have another pretty swatch for you today from an indie I've been admiring for a long time. For today's Neverending Pile prompt, green, I wore The Lady Varnishes Lothlorien. I mean, Galadriel is one of my favorite characters from The Lord of the Rings, so I basically HAD to buy this polish, right?
(Apologies for the lobster hands!)
The Lady Varnishes Lothlorien. Three coats with no topcoat.
Lothlorien is a minty/seafoamy green matte polish with silver and gold microglitter and green shimmer. This color is exactly up my alley--very dreamy and magical, just like the elves! As you can see, it's fairly sheer, as my nail lines are still visible under three coats. The formula was thick but manageable, but not 100% self-leveling. The polish dried slightly gritty due to the tiny particles in it. Dry time was nice and fast, always great for a matte.
I wore this polish with a topcoat too, and I think I actually prefer it this way because it lets the shimmer really pop!
The Lady Varnishes Lothlorien. Three coats with Out the Door topcoat.
