Tape Mani Thursday!

Goooood evening lovelies!

I hope you are all having a great week. We're almost to the weekend and Christmas. My next post after this one will be on Christmas Eve! I'm so excited to spend time with family and open presents :)

Tonight, I have a really quick, really sparkly mani for you. I don't know if Tape Mani Thursday will become a thing but this manicure is a great starting point!

I recently joined the Julep Maven program and I love it. I did the free box offer and my style quiz showed that I was an "It Girl," which is fitting ;)

I loved it so much that did December's box, but in Boho Glam.

If you are unfamiliar with the Julep Maven program, I'll give you a little rundown.

For about $20 a month, you get up to three polishes, depending on your style profile. The boxes to choose from are It Girl, Boho Glam, Bombshell, Classic With A Twist, and Modern Beauty. If you don't like your style profile's box for the month, they give you an option to choose one of the other boxes, or you can skip the month entirely. Isn't that awesome?!

If you're interested in joining from just that description, you can join up here.

Now, onto the polishes!

 In the Boho Glam box, there were two polishes and a neutral eyeshadow palette. Plus, they threw in two twistband hair ties, which I love.

For this mani, I started with my usual Orly Nail Armor base coat and then three coats of Julep Misti

Misti is a dusty teal green. It reminds me of the Atlantic Ocean.

The formula was decent on this. Because of the shape of the Julep polish bottles, you really have to make sure that you wipe the brush off on the mouth of the bottle so you don't get too much on your brush. Other than that--three coats and you're good.

I topcoated this with Beauty Plus Salon top coat.

After that dried, I took my roll of striping tape and made X's on each finger and took a thin nail art brush with Julep Joelle to make sure that I got my points exact.

Joelle is just gorgeous. Holo microglitter and slightly larger silver glitters, suspended in a clear base. It just sparkles at any angle. It's a great glitter for the holidays!

I can't wait to see what Julep has in store for next month!

What you do think about this simple, sparkly mani?

Tell me about it!

xo, ali

Bundle Monster Strikes Again!

Hello, hello! Happy Tuesday! I hope you all had a great weekend and are getting ready for Christmas. We got dumped on by the dreaded lake effect snow, over the weekend, and it just doesn't seem to stop snowing! I'd like one morning where I don't have to clear my car off before work!

Tonight, I have a quick stamping mani that I put together last week.

I started with base coat and three coats of Color Club Lavendarling, from the Blossoming collection that came out in Spring 2012. 

Man, my pinky has other plans than to line up right!

Anyways.

Lavendarling is a dusty purple cream, almost a grape purple. The first two coats were riddled with streaks and bald spots but once I calmed down and slowed down, the third coat evened everything out. After top coating, I used Sephora by OPI Just A Little Dangerous and BM 408 from the 2013 Create Your Own plate collection.

SOPI Just A Little Dangerous is a gorgeous red-toned dark purple, shot through with purple shimmer.

I picked it up from Sephora when all of their in-house OPI polishes were on clearance to make way for the new Sephora X Polish line.

This polish stamped insanely well! Any bald spots in the stamp are from user error. I just can't say enough good things about this collection of stamping plates from Bundle Monster. The designs are so unique and etched to the perfect depth. I love how this pattern mimics a crazy glitter-bomb that have been put out by a lot of indie polish creators this year. Removal was much easier, too ;)

Did you pick up any polishes from Sephora's epic polish clearance? What's been your favorite polish-related release of the past year? I'd love to hear about it, in the comments!

Until next time!

xo, ali.

She's always buzzin just like neon, neon

Good evening, lovelies!

I have a super-duper quick post for you tonight. This was for the Facebook group, Adventures in Stamping. I recently joined the group and followed their theme of a jelly sandwich with stamping. 

For this mani, I did base coat followed by two coats of Wet N Wild Wild Shine Vengeful Bride, which was out around Halloween times. I picked it up for .99 with two other colors from the collection.

After top coating with my trusty Beauty Plus Salon quick-dry, I stamped using an H&M white polish and Bundle Monster plate 409 from the CYO 2013 collection. More top coat and another coat of Vengeful Bride and a final layer of top coat completed the mani. 

I loved how bright this was. Perfect to perk up these December days in Buffalo. Despite this being a neon, this is pretty color accurate but it does dry to a satin/matte finish so top coat is needed to give it a shiny finish.

What do you think? I'd love to hear what you have to say!

xo, ali.

Santa!!

Hello! Here I am, a week later. I have a good reason for my absence, last week-my sister and I went to see our favorite and hometown hockey team-the Buffalo Sabres-play the New York Rangers. It was a loss, as have been the majority of our games this season, but we had a great time. I'll share some pictures at the end of this post.

Now, for the real reason you're here--the polish. Tonight, I have a beauty for you ladies. I received this from my Hobby Polish Bloggers Secret Santa swap. Hobby Polish Bloggers is a great facebook group that is run by Stephanie from Imperfectly Painted (which is one of the first blogs I started reading, and is FABULOUS). She was an angel and organized a secret Santa swap for all of us. My gifter was the talented Erika from Icy Nails and she hooked me up. Check it out:

We've got a Christmas cat card, some yummyyy dark chocolates, OPI Make Him Mine, Alcatraz...Rocks!, Silent Stars Go By, and Swimsuit...Nailed It! We've also got some adoraaaable Rudolph socks and some awesome Clinique, Bumble and Bumble, Laura Mercier, OPI, and Clean samples in an adorable makeup bag.

I can't even begin to say how excited I was opening this last night. And to have my own bottle of Swimsuit...Nailed It!, well, that's so awesome!

The first polish I chose to break in was OPI Liquid Sand Make Him Mine. 

This is two coats, under artificial light.

Make Him Mine is a beautiful rose gold shimmer with larger silver hex glitters. My fingertips look like they've been gilded in rose gold and it's so SPARKLY. I honestly must have stopped what I was doing 20 times today to look at how sparkly my nails are. I absolutely love this color!! It will be a 2013 favorite for sure.

some rare Buffalo-in-December sunlight.

and my first try at a macro so you can see all the liquid sand goodness.

What have been your favorites, lately. Anything you've been dying over?

I'll be back later this week with an interesting stamping manicure that I tried a week ago and I'm interested to hear your thoughts. Plus, my first Ipsy Glam Bag is going to be arriving soon! I'll review that, as well.

Before I go, I'll share a couple of pictures from the Sabres game, last Thursday.

The Sabres have photographers taking pictures of fans as they come into the arena. This is me and my sister in our Sabres finery.

And, Sabretooth, our mascot, was nice enough to pose for a picture with me :)

This is from my Instagram. You can follow me there; my username is ali_golightly!

xo, ali

Mmm...Sangria!

Good Tuesday evening!

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and were able to spend quality time with loved ones and get some great deals! I was able to accomplish all of that and only managed to end up with 3 bottles of nail polish for myself (on Friday, that is)!

Tonight, I have a GORGEOUS color for you, at a great price.

Lets get to it!

(with flash)

This is CoverGirl Outlast Glosstinis in Sangria.

(natural light-overcast)

(natural light-overcast)

Let's talk about this beautiful polish. I applied this at night-two easy coats over Orly Nail Armor, topped with one coat Beauty Plus Salon top coat and then the next day, one coat of NYC Grand Central Station. GCS is a HG (holy grail) topcoat for a lot of bloggers so I thought I'd try it out. The verdict is not in yet.

Anyways, Sangria is the perfect name for this polish because the color evokes balmy summer nights sipping the namesake drink on a patio with some of your girlfriends. It's a juicy reddish-pink with slight orange undertones, and it's shot through with a pearly shimmer. And it is SHINY! 

I may need a back up of this one. It wore for four days with minor tipwear and a few teeny chips. I wanted to take it off and put it right back on, which is a rarity! I can't believe I passed this over when the Glosstinis first came out over the summer.

I purchased my bottle at Ulta for $3.49 but these can be found at most big box stores like Target, Walmart, and KMart, as well as grocery stores (Wegmans or Tops if you're in the Buffalo, NY neck of the woods).

What has been a sleeper hit for you? What polishes are you lovin on lately?

I'm out of here because:

(source)

It's Tuesday and Supernatural is on.

Where are my Supernatural fangirls?!

xo, ali

Tuesday Blues

Hi lovelies!

Here I am again--hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine was a bit quiet with just a walk through a nature preserve, volunteering, and a lazy, Supernatural-filled Sunday. It's one of my favorite shows :)

I just have a quick post for you tonight, as we in Buffalo brave our first "Winter Storm Warning."

Tonight, I'm going to show you a quick mani I did a few weeks ago, using a polish borrowed from my best friend.

OPI Swimsuit...Nailed It!

A gorgeous metallic foil blue. Nearly a one-coater. It absolutely glows from within and removal was great with barely any staining! Swimsuit...Nailed It! Is from the Miss Universe that came out in 2011. It included Miss Congeniality, It's My Year, and Crown Me Already!

As if this needed anymore shine, I decided to add some bling to it.

I used rhinestones from a Bundle Monster wheel, stuck them on with OPI topcoat and coated the whole thing in Beauty Plus Salon top coat. The rhinestones lasted longer than the polish. It was chipping within a few days. I'm trying to get my nails in fighting condition and it's going pretty well but I'm still having wear time issues.

What do you think? What were your picks from the 2011 Miss Universe collection? 

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!! Thankful for anyone that reads my little corner of the internet :)

xo, ali

Quick NOTD

Well, well, well! It's me, keeping my end of the bargain and keeping to my posting schedule.

I don't have much for you lovely people but I do have something that I'm quite proud of. I rarely do nail art. That's mostly because I get frustrated if it doesn't work out or I'm too tired, etc. A couple Saturdays ago, I was feeling ambitious and had the perfect polishes to go together. I also had a great tutorial from Globe & Nail in the back of my mind that I wanted to try. I love Emma's blog. She does such great nail art and has gorgeous swatches. The tutorial looked pretty easy and I don't bust out my striping tape nearly enough. Here's my final result!

For this manicure, I used:

Two coats Orly Nail Armor (base coat)

Two coats H&M Come Along With Me (base color)

One thick coat elf Sea Escape (accent color)

One coat Beauty Plus Salon (topcoat)

Come Along with Me is a really pretty, creamy teal with sparse teal shimmer that you really have to suss out. It went on really easy with no application problems that I can recall.

Then i laid down a square of scotch tape, at an angle,to create the half moon and a piece of striping tape down the middle. Next, I painted a thick coat of Sea Escape, which is from the Ursula portion of the elf Disney Villains nail polish cube. Sea escape is a black jelly-esque polish with teal, grean, and blue sparkles. I painted each finger, one at a time, and pulled the tapes up as soon as I painted. Top coat, and done!

The only thing I can really see wrong with this is that my lines could have been a little cleaner. Other than that, I was really happy with this. I got a lot of compliments on it when I went for my volunteer session at the satellite cat adoption center for the Erie County SPCA.

I get to hang out with these cool cats:

Corncob (top) and Paige (bottom)

My life is hard ;)

That's all for me...I'm off to watch some hockey (go Sabres!) and Parks and Rec.

[source]

Hmmm, maybe that's an idea for some nail art?

However, I, unlike April, happen to love Ann Perkins.

over and out!

xo, ali

PS-don't forget to follow me, via bloglovin'! Just click the bloglovin' banner to the right, above my pretty picture :)

A new way to follow Dancing Phalanges

Good morning, lovely people!!

Just a quick post to let you know that there is a new way to follow my little piece of the blogosphere.

All you need to do is click here.
You can also click the Bloglovin' button over on the right sidebar.

I have one follower (Hi, Kerry!), and she needs some friends, so make sure you follow me and keep her company! :)

Have a great day!!

xo, ali

Well I mathin' suck.

Sorry, guys. 

Listen, I really want to get this blog off the ground but a few aspects of life got in the way.

Namely, family and health. I have an autoimmune thyroid disease and it mucks about with my energy levels. Some days I can go, go, go but most of the time, it's all I can do to go to work, go to the gym, come home, and paint my nails. 

With family-my older sister is getting married in May and my younger sister and I are co-maids of honor. And we are organizing a bridal shower with the two other bridesmaids. The shower is four days before Christmas. We are insane, basically. Also, my older brother was up for his last visit to Buffalo. Why his last visit? Because my parents, who have lived in Buffalo a very long time, are moving to Charlotte after my dad retires in January.

Yup. It's no wonder I want to spend the majority of my time in bed or hanging with a cat or two.

I'm trying. 

Today, though, I have four polishes for you. Four awesome polishes. They're not indies or laced with diamonds. But they are 

ADVENTURE TIME.

[source]

Yassssss....ADVENTURE TIME (caps lock necessary)

I was so excited to find these on clearance at Hot Topic. I was even more excited when I found out that all clearance was BOGO and I was able to get all four polishes offered for about $6.

Ready? Let's go!

[source]

Bubblegum Princess is up first.

BP is everything a princess should be--kind, smart, and pretty.

Bubblegum Princess is a blue-toned pink crelly (creme-jelly hybrid). This is three coats and no top coat, plus a huge ding in my ring finger. Oops.

I love pretty pink this is...that's the best word I can think to describe it. Just...pretty. Much like the princess, herself.

Oh, my glob, you guys. Next is:

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Lumpy Space Princess. I can sum her up in one word-sassy. She's a princess and she knows it.

This shows how pink-toned the polish is.

I love this. Again-three coats, no top coat. Crelly finish. Shiny. Almost a neon lavender. Smooth application, no streaks or bald spots. And I didn't ding my fingers on this one, either!

Then, we have the boys. 

First

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Jake, the dog. He has the tendency to creep my sister out because his limbs are so...flexible. 

He's a smooth talker, but faithful to his viola-playing lady, Lady Rainicorn.

Again, three coats, no top coat. Crelly finish.

Jake is a mustard yellow. Putting this one on, I was definitely making some sort of face. I'm not a yellow girl at all and I thought my nails looked like I dipped them in mustard. I'll definitely keep this in mind for some nail artz in the future.

And, last, but certainly not least, we have Jake's partner in crime...

[source]

Finn is the one responsible for all of this nonsense. The land is in his imagination. And damn, is it awesome. He harbors a crush on Bubblegum Princess. Along with that, he's adventurous (duh, name of the show) and daring.

Three coats, no top coat

This one was suuuuuuuper hard to capture true to color. It's a bright blue crelly. It's not as saturated as Nails Inc. Baker Street or Sinful Colors Endless Blue but it's bright. Clearly, my iPhone 4S camera could not handle this jelly (hah!)

On the whole, this little collection was a nice little find. I'd love to see more Adventure Time polishes released for other characters like Bmo, Marceline, Ice King, and Tree Trunks. They could have a lot of fun with different finishes for those four.

I'm trying to get on a semi-regular schedule for posting to turn this into something that people can say, "oh, Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday/what-have-you. Dancing Phalanges post!"

I have some other swatches and NOTDs that just need some minor editing and they'll be ready to go--little posts, but at least it's something, right?

So, what would your dream Adventure Time collex look like? What characters would it include?

okay, guys. That will do it for me.

Thanks for reading!

xo, ali.

Dancing Phalanges! Dancing Phalanges!

I know it's been damn near two weeks since I updated and I'm so sorry. I don't have excuses. I just have a polish and a mani that I'm REALLY excited about.
If you're a Bones fan, you know where my blog title comes from. If not, here:

Bones is definitely my favorite show so I was THRILLED when I saw that  Girly Bits' Fall Sesaon Premiere Collection included three polishes inspired by Bones.  I was even more excited when one of those polishes was called Dancing Phalanges!! Pam describes Dancing Phalanges as a "raspberry pink glass fleck shimmer." And it's gorgeous. I'm sorry, but my pictures do not do it justice. Let's take a look!

As soon as I got this in the mail, I put it on. And so did my sister. I could not stop staring at it. I don't even know how to put into words how pretty this is. Juicy, bright, pink. It's perfect. This is my first indie polish and I couldn't be happier with it. This is three coats as it does start out quite sheer. It builds up opacity very nicely and this wore well, also. I had this on for at least three days before I broke down and removed it.

I also had gotten in the new Bundle Monster Create Your Own stamping plates so I added a little something extra.

I stamped using BM-416 and Wet N Wild Black Creme.

This is gorgeous. Girly Bits' polishes are absolutely gorgeous! But don't take my word for it. You can purchase them from her website. Pam offers not only pretty polishes but frankening supplies and nail care. Full size (15 mL) retails for 11.50 and she's offering free shipping in the US and Canada, right now. You can't go wrong!!

What do you think? Do you have a favorite Girly Bits polish? I'd love to hear from you!

See you soon!

--ali

Revlon Elusive

Hey lovelies!
Let's hear it for internet/Photobucket issues!

I'm back, a week later with a new fall polish for you that I found last weekend. Let's take a peek!

Revlon-Elusive

OPI Nail Envy Matte 

3 coats Elusive

Beauty Plus Salon top coat

Elusive is a black jelly full of different sizes teal hex glitters and filled with a blue/purple iridescent shimmer. This would be a great base polish for a galaxy manicure. It applied easily and dries to a matte finish. Elusive required two coats of top coat to get a smooth and shiny finish.

I have a few more shots of this gorgeous polish for your viewing pleasure, showing both the shiny finish and the matte finish. 

Full sun, so you can see how sparkly it is.

Elusive is from Revlon's Evening Opulence collection by Gucci Westman. Check your endcaps at Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, Target, and Wal-Mart. I don't believe this is part of Revlon's core line.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments :)

Hope to chat soon!!

-ali

The First Nail Fail

Good evening, lovelies!
Sorry for the unexpected hiatus so soon after starting. I feel terrible but I somehow ran out of time or energy to update.
I have a really quick one for you tonight...the first documented nail fail. Usually any polish I buy without looking at swatches of first turn out to look great and I love them. That wasn't the case this time. See exhibit A.

Covergirl Outlast-Silver Lining

Artificial lighting

OPI Nail Envy Matte base coat

2 coats polish

No top coat

I didn't top coat this because I knew it was coming right off. I did not like how chalky it looked on me. I was really disappointed because I bought this based off the shimmer I saw in the bottle and it was gorgeous. It just did not translate onto the nail. 

Application was kind of a mess, too. The formula was kind of thick and went on patchy/streaky.

Due to the thickness of the polish, this may be good for stamping so I'll keep you ladies posted.

I don't have much experience with the Covergirl Outlast nail polish line because most of the colors are like ones I already have. I do have a few others that I will be sharing with you soon.

What has your experience been with the Outlast nail polishes?

Stay tuned, because I have a lot of ideas for the coming months!

--ali

Holos are a Girls Best Friend!

Happy Tuesday night, lovelies! I'm happy the day is over and I can relax with some TV. We're currently watching Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., New Girl, and the Mindy Project on Tuesday nights. New TV is one of the best things about fall!

Today, I have for you what I consider to be a staple stash polish (SSP?) and some holo-y goodness. The weather has been gorgeous here in Buffalo, with sunshine every day so I had to bust out a new Color Club holo that I just picked up this weekend.
Let's get down to business!

I started with a base of Color Club Pucci-Licious, which is from the 2010 Poptastic collection.

As you can see, Pucci-licious is a medium lavender creme. The first coat was streaky and patchy but a second coat evened out any problems. This was taken indoors, artificial lighting.

I am in love with this color and don't know what took me so long to pick it up. Everyone needs this in their stash.

I wanted to spice this up a little bit so I thought I'd add some stamping to it, in the form of Color Club Fashion Addict, from the 2009 Catwalk Queen collection. I used Konad plate M95. This is only the second time I've used a Konad plate--usually I use Shany plates--but they are amazing. The images transfer so well and come out so clear.

Indoor, fluorescent lighting

Full sunlight

This is a very distracting manicure. I keep looking at the holo in the sunlight. It's just absolutely gorgeous!

Let me know what you think in the comments. See you later!

--ali

Still Holding Onto Summer

Good evening, girlies! Welcome to the first post at Dancing Phalanges! I'm Ali and I'm a nail polish addict. I post nearly all of my manicures on Instagram (ali_golightly) and I thought I'd take the plunge and start this little blog. I hope you'll join me in my journey through nail polish!!

To start things off, I'm going to share with you my current mani. I'm not ready to let go of summer quite yet and I really don't believe in wearing certain colors in certain seasons so I'm still rockin' a neon.

This is Sinful Colors Bikini and I picked it up at Walgreens, from the Poolside Polish collection that was out over the summer, but it is a part of their core collection so you can still pick it up if you love it.

Sunlight

Shade

Flash.

Bikini is a bright pink, shot through with purple/blue shimmer. It absolutely glows in the sunlight. I cannot stop looking at it. It went on in three easy coats--no streaking, no bald spots or patchiness. I only used three coats to make it opaque. I could still see VNL (visible nail line) at some angles but you really have to look for it.

Sinful Colors retails for $1.99 and is available at drugstores and department stores such as Rite Aid, Walgreens, Target, and Wal-Mart.

Let me know what you think in the comments and I'll see you later this week with more nail polish goodness!

--ali