Let's Go Buf-falo!

Happy 2015, Phalange fans! I took an extended, unintentional hiatus to recharge my blogging batteries and enjoy the holiday season with my sister and my boyfriend. I received tons of new polishes that I can't wait to share with you guys, starting with tonight!

My sister and I went to a Buffalo Sabres game, last week and my lovely boyfriend gave me Gridlock Lacquer The Aud in my stocking. The Aud, short for Memorial Auditorium, was the original arena where the Sabres played. It also hosted concerts and I went to many showings of Disney on Ice with my family, when I was a kid. It was closed in 1997 and the First Niagara Center opened, not too far from the Aud. Demolition was completed on the Aud a couple years ago and a brand new open-air ice rink opened in it's place, with center ice of the rink over the location of center ice at the Aud. I decided that this game was the perfect place to use Gridlock Lacquer the Aud to add some extra sparkle. I also got to test out a new toy that the boyfriend gave me for Christmas.


Check it out!

To get this party started, I used NYX Ridge Filling basecoat. I used two coats of Sinful Colors Endless Blue and three coats of Sinful Colors Let's Meet! on my ring finger and topped my ring finger with two coats of Gridlock Lacquer The Aud. I topcoated and I was ready to roll.

And the new toy I got from Jeff was a clip-on macro lens for my iPhone 5c!! I was so excited!

 Gridlock Lacquer-The Aud (shade)

Gridlock Lacquer-The Aud (sunlight)

Just look at that!! This glitter has everything-different sizes of royal blue holographic glitters, and round, square AND hex holo glitters in different sizes. And it went on so easy! Just a little bit of dabbing and I got this great coverage. It just sparkled and shone. I'm in love. I can't wait to try more of Gridlock Lacquer's glitters under the macro lens. 

I've got some other things lined up for this space, so stay tuned. Now that I have this lens, I really feel like blogging and taking pictures and putting time into my  nails again.

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