ALIQUID year in review!

Happy New Year's Eve! (And Happy New Year to any Eastern Hemisphereites reading!) 2013 has been a momentous year for me in many ways--I got married to my wonderful husband, we moved to Boston, and I started my own indie polish line! And, of course, I started this blog. I'm proud of myself for keeping up the hard work of polishing, photographing and posting for nine months now.

I thought I'd celebrate my accomplishment by going back and picking out my personal favorite ALIQUID posts from 2013. There are a lot, so I broke them down into categories. Please enjoy looking back with me!

Swatches

Here are my favorite polishes that I swatched this year, in chronological order. Not surprisingly, they're mostly either multichrome or holographic!

Indigo Bananas Anansi: My very first post on the blog, I still think it's gorgeous! A glass fleck that shifts from dark green to purple.

Orly Sparkling Garbage: This green jelly with tons of holo glitter was my favorite release from Orly this year!

Emily de Molly Cosmic Forces: It seemed like the whole Internet was lusting after (and then duping) this Australian indie. Really glad I managed to get my hands on it! A purple jelly with purple and holo glitter.

Ninja Polish Divinity: A truly divine purple base with awesome orange>brown>green shifting shimmer.

China Glaze It's a Trap-eze!: China Glaze really achieved an indie-like vibe with this white base with rainbow glitter.

I Love Nail Polish Mutagen: The ILNP Ultra Chromes wowed everyone with their extreme colorshifting abilities and great formula. Mutagen shifts from silver through green, blue, purple, red and orange!

I Love Nail Polish Indie Go: A perfect shade of indigo with linear holographic shimmer and blue sparks, this is close to my ideal polish!

Nail Art

My nail art skills really improved over the past year. Here are the ones I'm most proud of (and the ones that got me the most compliments!).

Interlocking Dots

 The Rusty Skunk (click for the epic story!)

 Dotted Skittles Tips

 Green Colorblock

Teal Waterfall

Cave Art

Rainy Gradient Dots

 Christmas Tree

Recipes

Here are some recipes I've gone back to over and over. They're all easy!

Curried couscous: This recipe is very versatile because you can switch up the grain used, as well as the mix-ins.

Martha Stewart's "crack 'n' cheese": Literally the best mac and cheese ever.

Cinnamon craisin cookies: Sweet, spicy and tart. Another recipe that's easy to play with.

No-knead bread: A nearly foolproof bread recipe.

Meatballs and tomato sauce: Recipe courtesy of my sister, it's hearty and completely satisfying.

Language posts

I've really slacked off on writing about language, so I'll make sure to do it more often in 2014! Here are a couple of my favorites.

Haphazard Hypercorrection: The case of the disappearing h, plus Romans making fun of each other.

Regular Mice: Why is it "Of Mice and Men", not "Of Mouses and Mans"?

Thai Tones: A post on some of the amazing things humans can do with voice pitch.

I can't wait to see what's in store for ALIQUID in 2014! Have fun and stay safe tonight! Trudy and I will be back next year (i.e. tomorrow)!

Pics from Christmas vacation

Hi folks! I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas yesterday! I got some nice presents (like a picture frame with some beautiful prints from our wedding) and ate way too much food.

My sister let me do her holiday nails--Essie Good as Gold with Essie Blanc polka dots. I didn't have my dotting tools, so I just used a bobby pin:

I miss my puppy Trudy, but meanwhile I get to play with my parents' dogs. Here's Sydney, the alpha dog of the pack:

And this is Max, who is much more gentle and laid back:

Can you tell neither of them like getting their picture taken?

Take it easy everyone! Stay warm!

Today's mani: Quick and dirty holiday nails

Merry Christmas Eve! I've been enjoying my vacation so far, visiting with various relatives and eating lots of food, and tonight I'm looking forward to presents and Christmas cookies! (We even got my Jewish husband to help put ornaments on the tree!) I didn't really bring any nail polish on our trip, but of course I ended up buying some new stuff the other day...just can't help myself. I thought the two polishes I picked would be good for a general Christmas/New Years mani.

These polishes are both from the Sally Hansen Satin Glam collection, which must be new because I'd never seen it before. They're matte with lots of sparkle. I used Go Gold and added a freehand stripe of Silk Onyx over about 1/3 of each nail. They were both opaque in one coat!

My freehand skills aren't perfect (and you should see my other hand!) but I really like the matte finish on these polishes--I think they're really classy.

I hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful Christmas...and to those who don't celebrate, go eat some Chinese food for me!

Today's mani: Rudolph and friends

Good afternoon everyone! Today is my last post before we leave for our holiday vacation. I won't be able to paint my nails very much while we're away, but I'll try to post as often as I can! It's probably a good thing I won't be doing my nails a lot, since my skin is sooo dry from this weather (as you'll see soon enough...)!

Today I did some freehand nail art, and my left hand is making its first appearance since the beginning of November! My poor middle fingernail is still a little stubby. :-P Please ignore my gross dry skin!

The background color is Sally Hansen Blue Me Away. I did the reindeer heads with Sephora by OPI Leotard Optional (I used the polish brush for the heads and a nail art brush for the ears). The antlers and noses (except Rudolph's) are Revlon Stormy Night. Rudolph's nose is Revlon Red Carpet.

My reindeer look a little doofy (kinda like pigs with antlers actually!) but I still think they're cute. :-D

Anyone else getting really excited for Christmas?? My only regret is that Trudy will be in a kennel in another state instead of celebrating with us. I'll have to get her a nice present...

Swatch: Formula X for Sephora - Thunder

The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Yesterday the hubby and I went out to see the new Hobbit movie (we both enjoyed it, despite some glaringly obvious CGI), and while we were out I stopped by Sephora to check out their new brand of polishes. There were tons of great colors and I had a tough time narrowing it down to one, so I made my husband pick. (So you can blame him if you don't like my swatch!)

Formula X for Sephora Thunder is a glitter topper, which I don't normally go for, but I'm a sucker for matte glitter. Plus, I thought this polish had a wintery kind of vibe. It has blue, pink, white and yellow-green hexes of various sizes in a clear base. Here I've layered it over Wet 'n' Wild On a Trip.

Formula X for Sephora Thunder. One coat over Wet 'n' Wild On a Trip, with Out the Door topcoat.

I think this polish would be perfect if it didn't have the largest hexes. They tended to clump together, which is why I got three on one nail and none on the rest. Plus I think their size is incongruous with the rest of the glitter. Other than that, I really love the color combo, and the glitter was easy to distribute evenly (I had to dab just a little). The texture isn't terribly bumpy, unless you get one of the huge hexes on a curvy part of the nail. I definitely recommend a topcoat in any case.

(I'll also mention that the chunky bottle cap is removable, with a much more manageable cap underneath.)

Thunder is part of a line of glitter topcoats called Xplosives, and is available in Sephora stores or at sephora.com for $12.50 (12 ml).

The product in this post was purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Swatch: Nicka K Classic Taupe (and my first Ipsy Glam Bag!)

The products in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Yesterday I got my first Ipsy Glam Bag in the mail! Ipsy is a personalized monthly subscription service for makeup and body products. I had been signed up for Birchbox earlier this year, but I quit after about five months because I kept getting products I didn't want (so many dry shampoos!!). Plus a lot of the sample sizes were really tiny. I was happy to open my Ipsy bag today and find five FULL SIZED products, including a nail polish! How did they know??

I received Nicka K Classic Taupe. I'd never heard of this brand before, but I ended up liking the polish a lot! (Plus the bottle is adorable!) Although I'm not sure this is actually taupe--it seems too dark to me, but then again I sometimes get my color terms wrong! The color reminds me of milk chocolate. At first I thought it was a dupe of Revlon Stormy Night, but it's actually a bit warmer.

Nicka K Classic Taupe. Two coats with Out the Door topcoat.

The formula on Classic Taupe was buttery and easy to use, and didn't flood my cuticles. I liked that the brush was a little wider than average, since I needed fewer strokes to coat the nail. Dry time was average.

Here's a shot of all the contents of my Ipsy Glam Bag! Everything came packed in a cute makeup bag.

(Nyx lipstick, Pop Beauty eyeshadow palette, Be a Bombshell The One Stick, Mirabella eye blender brush)

I really like this set because I can actually see myself using all of it at some point. I don't wear eye and lip makeup that often, since I'm usually at home all day, but I'm hoping to get a real live job soon, so basic stuff like this will come in handy!

Ipsy costs $10 per month, and you can earn free credits by doing things like uploading pictures of you wearing products from the Glam Bag. The only downside I've found so far is that I had to be on a waiting list for several weeks before I got my first bag.

If you'd like to sign up for Ipsy, please consider using my referral link here; I get points if people sign up through me!

Also, you can buy Classic Taupe for $4.99 (15 ml) at nicka.com!

The products in this post were purchased by me. All opinions are my own.

Just a Little Something Giveaway!

Hey folks! I teamed up with a few nail buddies for another holiday polish giveaway! You can earn a chance to win a bottle of ALIQUID Lacquer plus a lip balm! Check out all the prizes:

Prize Pack 1 (The Sparkling Hoard)

 

OPI Skip the Gift Wrap, OPI Last Minute Shopper, Finger Paints Colorful Collage, Indigo Bananas Peppermint Cuticle Balm

Ships to: US only

Prize Pack 2 (ALIQUID Lacquer / ALIQUID)

 

ALIQUID Lacquer Quiet Night In and ALIQUID Lacquer vanilla-scented lip balm

Ships to: US and international (except UK)

Prize Pack 3 (Painted Sabotage)

 

Painted Sabotage Ice Flowers, Painted Sabotage Holiday Cheer, Painted Sabotage Gettin' Eggy With It

Ships to: US and international

Prize Pack 4 (Royal Milk Tea)

 

Finger Paints Sparkle in the Sky, OPI Peace & Love & OPI, Finger Paints Winter Chill

Ships to: US

OK, here are the rules:

1. Must be 18 or older.
2. Open to US and international entries.
3. You MUST answer the question regarding your country of residence so that prize packs can be assigned properly!
4. Winning entries will be verified.  If your entry is not found to be valid, you will be disqualified.
5. Giveaway will run from now until 12am Eastern on December 24, 2013.  Winners will be notified via e-mail and must respond by December 30, 2013.

Good luck everyone!!

 

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