It Came From Beyond the Vault...

Happy Monday! I just have a quick post for you tonight, as I am getting ready for my older sister's wedding on Saturday. I'm bringing you a manicure from the vault tonight with some simple tape art.

Flash

Indirect Natural Light

Sunlight

This is three coats of Zoya Layla-an eye-searing neon pink creme. It dries to a satin-matte finish so you will need top coat to shine it up. This went on really easy and there were very few streaks. I used that third coat just to even everything out. When it was dry, I taped off the lower portion of my nails and used OPI's Love. Angel. Music. Baby. from the Gwen Stefani collection. That also dries to a satin-matte finish but I liked the contrast between finishes, so I left it as is.

What do you think? I can definitely see myself recreating this for summer!

xo, ali

GOT Challenge: Green

Hello, and happy Thursday! We're almost to the weekend and I can't wait!

It's Thursday so you know that it means Golden Oldie Thursday. This week's theme was green. Green and I have always had a weird relationship. I've never had a lot of greens in my stash. It just wasn't a color that I thought of when I thought nail polish. Then I started giving it a try and I've built up a nice catalogue of greens.

Tonight, I'll be sharing with you China Glaze I'm With The Lifeguard from their Summer 2012 Neons collection. This collection was amazing. They weren't just straight, matte neons. Most of them had a vein of shimmer running through them, perfectly.

Let's take a look!

 Three coats with top coat. Flash photo.

Indirect light

Indirect light.

I'm With the Lifeguard is a neon lime green with shimmer throughout. It does dry down to a matte/satin finish, but that's because it's a neon. Topcoat will shine this bad boy right up.

This is in your face green and definitely not for the faint of heart.  That's why it's perfect for me ;)

Are there colors you've shied away from in the past? Everyone's got at least one!

Oh, and be sure to check out what the other ladies have dreamt up for this week's challenge!

xo, ali

The Crumpet's GOT challenge!

Good evening!

Tonight, I have a post that I'm really excited about. I'm participating in The Crumpet's Golden Oldie Challenge.

Basically the rules for this challenge are that the polish has to be at least a year old.

Easy-peasy.

Debbie is an amazing nail blogger. She always has great swatches, great stamping, and great nail art. I love reading her blog and I check it every day to see what she's posted.

This is the first challenge that I've decided to particpate in. I like that it's once a week and that it will force me to use some of my older polishes.

Today's prompt is Pink! Pink is one of my favorite colors and I know that I have tons and tons of different pinks in my stash but there was one that I really wanted to showcase tonight. And that's my first Essie polish!

For today's mani, I did three coats of Essie Pink Parka and an accent of two coats Color Club Harp On It.

Pink Parka came out as part of the Fall 2009 collection. I picked it up as part of a Halloween costume, last minute. I was a "scene kid."

It's a neon so there are some usuals that come along with it--streaky and dries matte. It took three coats to even it out and it's topped with NYC Grand Central Station to give it some shine.

I'm really looking forward to participating in this challenge and seeing what all the other talented ladies will come up with!

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.