the Never-Ending Pile Challenge: Textured

Hey! Happy Monday! I just have a quick post for y'all tonight. Of course, it's another installment to the Never-Ending Pile Challenge and today's theme is textured. I have quite a few textured polishes. I love how they look like the inside of geodes. I just never think to wear them! Tonight, I paired two of L'Oreal's textured polishes from their Gold Dust collection.

On my pointer and pinky fingers are three coats of Hidden Gems. For my double accent nail, I used three coats of Too Dimensional?

And some macro shots for good measure.

Overall, I really like these polishes but I favor Too Dimensional? over Hidden Gems, right now. While I love the darkened teal of Hidden Gems, I wish the purple flash you can see in the bottle shot would have translated better on the nail. I've seen Hidden Gems swatched on a few different blogs and that seems to be the general consensus.

Too Dimensional? is a beautiful dusty lavender and that gold shimmer makes it look so expensive. I'll definitely be wearing it as a full mani, soon!

What have been some of your favorite textured polishes since they've come out?

Be sure to check out the other sparkly ladies and their textured tips!

xo, ali

The Never-Ending Pile Challenge: Vampy

Happy Monday! I've got another swatch for the Never-Ending Pile Challenge! I really like this challenge! It's making me think outside the box and stick to a regular posting schedule. Plus, I'm trying to make sure I have manis prepared for upcoming challenges.

Tonight, I've got an old polish that I inherited from my mom when she cleaned out her stash after moving.

This is Avon Speed Dry Presto Plum (I think). Three coats with top coat. It's a pretty brown-toned plum. While there is nothing really special about this color, it's a great go-to for a grown up, sophisticated, work appropriate mani. I would definitely suggest a color like this for a job interview.

Be sure to check out the other untrieds from tonight's prompt, below!!

xo, ali

The Never-Ending Pile Challenge: As Many As You Can

Hi! Just a quick post for you guys tonight, from my parents' couch in Charlotte. I'm having a great time here; the weather has been perfect!

The theme for May 2nd was As Many As You Can and I figured there is no better way to get in a ton of untrieds than by doing a Waterfall mani, as made famous by Sammy from the Nailasaurus. You can find her easy-to-follow tutorial here.

I used Revlon Gray Suede for my base. It is nude polish with subtle silver shimmer running through it. It's great alone, as a palate cleanser, and quite work appropriate.

To create the waterfall mani, I used China Glaze Immortal as the gray, Revlon Brilliant Strength Beguile for the dark blue, and Color Club Catwalk Queen for the vampy purple. All three of these colors are shimmery beauties that are better suited for late November, rather than early May, but I still love how this turned out. I felt sophisticated, rocking this nail art at work. 

I don't think it turned out too bad for my first try at a waterfall. They are pretty straight-forward to do but take a little practice to get used to the brushstroke. 

What do you think?

Be sure to check out what the other Pirates used for this theme. I know some got as many as 15 or 20 untrieds in!

xo, ali

The Never-Ending Pile Challenge: Least Expensive

Hey! It's Wednesday...we're halfway through the week. Except, today is my Friday. Tomorrow, I head out with my sister and her boyfriend to Charlotte for my older sister's wedding! It's going to be a great weekend; I can't wait to see my parents. But, don't worry. I have manis for the next few prompts while I'm out of town.

Today's theme is Least Expensive and I'm showing you a polish that I only shelled out 99 pennies for.

This is Sally Girl IQ in three coats. It's a steely, silvery blue. And it's got a great blue shimmer to it that really shows up in the middle picture. You do have to be kind of careful with application because it can get kind of brushstrokey.

Sally Girl polishes are a great deal. You can try out trendy shades and finishes for only a few bones (depending on how much you buy). I picked up two other ones with this beauty that I have yet to bust out. And I got them last summer. Shame on me!

That's all for me...I have to finish packing -_-

Be sure to check out what the other ladies dug out of their untrieds tonight!

xo, ali

The Never-Ending Pile Challenge: Boutique

Bonjour!As you know, I am participating in the Glittah Pirates' Never-Ending Pile Challenge. It may be sporadic participation because I don't have as many untrieds as the other lovely ladies in the group, but I am participating!

For the mani I'm about to show you, I managed to knock out two untrieds. Yesterday's theme was "Boutique" and it could be interpreted many different ways. I chose to interpret it with two polishes that I picked up at Charlotte Russe, a couple years ago. Charlotte Russe is a boutique to me, because they specialize in selling to a specific demographic. Check it out!

I used three coats of Charlotte Russe Light Pink and used a quick-dry top coat. Then i applied Washi tape on a diagonal and painted Charlotte Russe Neon Purple. I did one finger at a time and took the tape off right after I painted to give me a clean line. One the accent nails, I used 4 clear studs from a Bundle Monster wheel. Easy-peasy.

That's all from me tonight. Be sure to check out what the other pirates did for their Boutique polishes, below!

xo, ali

The Never-Ending Pile Challenge:A Random Untried

Friday! Friday night is one of my favorite nights, but not because I go out and get crazy. Don't get me wrong-I do that, from time to time, but I love Friday nights because I get to chill out, maybe stay up a little bit past my bedtime, and go to sleep knowing that both my alarms are silenced....ahhhhh!

Tonight, I have another contribution to the Never-Ending Pile Challenge. It was created by Missy and the rest of the girls over at The Glittah Pirates, which is an awesome group on Facebook that I recently joined. If you want to join in the fun, just click the link and request to join :)

The theme today is "A Random Untried" and I chose Nicole by OPI Roughles in On What Grounds? I received this in my March Ipsy bag and I was really excited to try it. Let's see what I thought.

I top coated my index finger to see what it would look like.

Macro-index with top coat, middle with no top coat.

On What Grounds? is a matte aqua sprinkled with blue and brown. These sprinkles give it the finish of a robin's egg. There is no glitter to this polish so it does dry flat but the different colors mixed in give it some depth. However, I didn't like this as much as I thought I would. I applied this last night and this morning, when I was blow-drying my hair, my index finger got caught and a piece chipped off :( 

I'm disappointed because I loved the Gumdrops collection that NOPI came out with a while ago. My Cherry Amour is one of my favorite textured polishes. Sigh. Oh well, can't win 'em all! Maybe I'll give this another shot down the line.

Make sure you check out what the other rad girlies are showing off for their random untrieds today!

Have a great weekend!!

xo, ali

The Never-Ending Pile Challenge!

Happy Wednesday! Tonight, I'm participating in a new challenge devised by Missy, the mastermind behind Gnarly Gnails, which is one of my favorite blogs. It's called:

I'm late to this party and missed the first prompt but I'm jumping in with tonight's prompt-pastel!

I chose to use China Glaze's Keep Calm, Paint On from the Spring 2013 Avant Garden collection (yes, again). Let's check it out!

The bottle shot shows off  the pearly sheen that this dusty mint green has running through it.

This is three coats, because after two, it was still streaky and a bit patchy. This wore really well on me with only minor tip wear and chipping after about two days.

I'm already thinking of the polishes that I can use for the next prompts!!

xo, ali