Tried the Trend: Color Blocking February 22, 2012
Posted by Alli in Nail Art, Trends.Tags: Nail Art, Nail Polish
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Not only do I love nail polish, I also love fashion. It’s a natural extension of being a nail polish enthusiast. I’ve been enamored with coral since last summer, but I’ve recently been getting more into orange. With Spring on the horizon I’ve been rocking alot of coral and orange together and wanted to give it a go with nail polish. Overall, I do like the way this manicure turned out, though, I do not think it worked as well as color blocking with clothes. There’s nothing to break up the color in my manicure whereas with clothes you can add a belt or other accessory to tone down the bright colors.
For the color color I used OPI Big Hair…Big Nails and for the orange I used China Glaze Papaya Punch. I just did a simple half moon manicure (for a half moon manicure how to click here). Generally I do like the way it turned out though it is quite bright!
I want to give this a try with some more muted colors or jewel tones. Maybe I’m a tad bit crazy but I do love trying to translate fashion trends into nail polish!
Nail Art: Mardi Gras 2012 February 21, 2012
Posted by Alli in Nail Art.Tags: Nail Art, Nail Polish
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Mardi Gras generally speaking isn’t my thing. But that didn’t stop me from doing a Mardi Gras themed manicure for the occasion! I freehanded the entire thing so it’s not perfect by any means but it was easy and it was festive so it worked for me.
I used OPI Jade is the New Black and China Glaze Grape Pop for the main design along with LA Colors Art Deco in Yellow to create the stripe with a little OPI Gift Of Gold on top of the stripe. For the accent nails I used China Glaze Oxygen as the base color and created Mardi Gras beads on top.
Simple, easy and festive. Works for me!
Hope everyone has a fabulous Fat Tuesday 
Alli’s Favs: OPI Big Hair…Big Nails February 18, 2012
Posted by Alli in Alli's Favs, OPI.Tags: Nail Polish, OPI
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Admittedly OPI’s Spring 2011 Texas collection was not my favorite. I’m not a fan of Texas really, and the colors were not all that exciting. But finally after hearing Katie go on about how much she loved Too Hot Pink To Hold ‘Em I finally picked up this polish. After all…there is nothing I love more than nails and big hair!
OPI describes Big Hair…Big Nails as a rosy pageant peach. Well, ok…but I would describe it as a pink leaning coral. The color is absolutely gorgeous.
This is, of course, one of OPI’s “sorbet” finish polishes. That’s just a fancy word for a jelly. Due to this 3 coats is required to get an (almost) opaque color. The finish of this polish is incredibly shiny.
Why OPI Big Hair…Big Nails is a favorite: The color. And the name is a bonus. I spent all of last Spring and Summer being completely obsessed with everything coral. I have worn this polish so much yet I still love it. And really, who doesn’t love big hair!?
Two down, 87 to go!
Perfect Pair: OPI Sapphire in the Snow & Avon Violetta Sparkle February 16, 2012
Posted by Alli in Layering.Tags: Avon, Nail Polish, OPI
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When I first tried out Avon Violetta Sparkle I fell in love with the gorgeous gold flakey glitter but wasn’t overly thrilled with the formula. It was a tad on the thin side so I thought it might make a good top coat. I was right!
I used one coat of Violetta Sparkle over 2 coats of OPI Sapphire in the Snow. I really love the way it turned out. And this is definitely a better way to use Violetta Sparkle.
As always, there is a macro shot below the jump!
Julep Valentine’s Mystery Box (+ a giveaway!) February 15, 2012
Posted by Katie in Contest, Julep, Katie.Tags: giveaway, Julep, Maven, Nail Polish, Valentine's Mystery Box
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Like to Win? Keep Reading…
I’ve had a lot going on in life lately – so didn’t think much about Valentine’s day or really even remember I’d ordered the Julep Valentine’s Mystery box until yesterday. I came tonight after a very trying day to find it sitting on my doorstep – and I am floored with the amount of goodies I received!
The contents of the box include: 7 Nail Polishes: Anne, January, Gwyneth, Helena, Stella, Demi, and Shania. It also included a Fast Dry Top Coat, Cuticle Oil (which I received in my February Box), a trial size of the Age Defying Hand Brightener (I have a full size, so this will be perfect in my purse), Julep Reveal – a “nail growth revitalizing serum,” a Pout Popper lip gloss in Arousal, Nail Appliques, some glittery nail bling (I think..), and the Julep Top Coat for Hair. 
I’ve been meaning to swatch the Julep polishes and review some of the products I’ve gotten so far – but life gets in the way sometimes, they’re on the agenda – I promise!
Mostly, I wanted to post this so I could tell you about my giveaway! If you read my post about my January American Beauty box - you would have noticed my comment that they goofed on my February Box – so I ended up with 2 bottles of Oscar. I also already have Anne – so I’d like to share my extra bottles with you!
We like to keep things simple so as usual, this will be a “Like to Win” giveaway:
1. Like the Daily Varnish on Facebook
2. Like this post (will update the link once it posts to Facebook).
3. Because of the time crunch, this is going to be open to US Citizens only – don’t worry, the next giveaway will be international
4. This giveaway will run until Sunday February 19th at 7pm & I’ll announce the winner that night. I want to have enough time to make sure the winner gets their prize in time for The Oscars (Sunday February 26th!) . The winner will be announced on our Facebook Page & I’ll also send you a message on Facebook – you’ll have 24 hours to respond before I choose a new winner.
I hope you have a wonderful day!
P.S. — If you’re on the fence but would like to try out the Julep Maven Program – You can try it for $1 click here , take the style quiz & enter the promo code: SHAREONFEB. There are a lot of mixed reviews – mine included – but on the whole I’ve been pretty pleased with the products I’ve received.
Alli’s Favs: butter LONDON Victoriana February 15, 2012
Posted by Alli in Alli's Favs, butter LONDON.Tags: butter LONDON, Nail Polish
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Favorite #1! This is the first post of my Alli’s Favs project.
Victoriana is from butter LONDON’s Fall 2010 collection that was a tribute to Alexander McQueen. butter LONDON describes this as a “textured twinkling vintage blue.” That is a fairly accurate description. Victoriana does have a bit of a metallic feel to it as well.
The formula is fabulous. I used only two coats and was perfectly happy with the results.
Make sure to check out the macro shot below the jump. The “shimmer” (I hate to call it shimmer because it’s not really shimmer…) in this polish is amazing!
Why butter LONDON Victoriana is a favorite: This was the first butter LONDON nail polish I ever purchased. I had been lemming butter LONDON polishes for ages but they weren’t sold anywhere in my area. Then one magical day I walked into Ulta and there was butter LONDON everywhere! I was so excited. Yes, this is a beautiful color, but the fact that it was my first butter LONDON polish is why it makes the cut.
One down, 88 to go!
Nail Art: Valentine’s Day! February 14, 2012
Posted by Alli in Nail Art.Tags: Nail Art, Nail Polish, Valentine's Day
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I had been debating for awhile what to do with my nails for Valentine’s Day this year. Last year I did some pseudo nail art but in the end I wore OPI Ali’s Big Break. I was considering just wearing some red polish this year when I ran across this post on Lauren Conrad’s beauty site. While both nail designs are adorable, I decided to give the second one a try. I really like the way it turned out.
For this look I used Orly Haute Red, wet n wild Dreamy Poppy and Color Club She’s sooo Glam. Dreamy Poppy and She’s sooo glam were perfect because they only required one coat over Haute Red.
I like that from afar this manicure looks cute even though you can’t quite make out the design.
The tutorial on Lauren’s website is excellent so I’m not going to go into how I did this. I will say it was very easy!
There are a couple more pictures below the jump
Perfect Pair: OPI I Don’t Give a Rotterdam! & China Glaze Pelican Gray February 13, 2012
Posted by Alli in Layering.Tags: China Glaze, Nail Polish, OPI
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While OPI I Don’t Give a Rotterdam! is a gorgeous color I was somewhat disappointed in the formula. It was quite thin. But then I realized that maybe I could not only use Rotterdam on its own but also as a top coat.
To test Rotterdam as a top coat I used 2 coats of China Glaze Pelican Gray as a base and topped it with just one coat of Rotterdam. I just LOVE the way it turned out! Just enough of the gray came through to make Rotterdam a bit more dusty.
It’s going to be fun to experiment with Rotterdam. I want to try it over a darker polish next.
Make sure to check out the macro shot below the jump!
Alli’s Favs: New Project! February 12, 2012
Posted by Alli in Alli's Favs.Tags: Nail Polish
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I mentioned in my post about my DIY nail polish rack that I wanted to reorganize the polishes that would be displayed. When I initially put up the rack in contained mostly OPI polishes. Not that I don’t like all of those polishes but I wanted to display polishes that I love for one reason or another. While I was doing this I realized I haven’t worn so many of what I consider my favorite polishes in so long which is absurd! To rectify this situation I decided I wanted to do a series of blog posts called “Alli’s Favs.” None of my favorites have been swatched in my lightbox so for the most part there aren’t even good swatches of these polishes on this blog!
I ended up with 2 rows of OPI, 1 row each of Essie and China Gaze and then the last 2 rows are a variety of brands. There are a total of 89 polishes being displayed that I consider to be favorites so this is going to be quite the undertaking. But I really do hope I stick to it!
OPI Red Lights Ahead…Where? February 11, 2012
Posted by Alli in OPI.Tags: Nail Polish, OPI
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I won’t lie…when I was in Amsterdam I definitely took a stroll through the red light district. It is arguably the most famous red light district in the world…I had to go see it! To say the least it was an interesting experience. So clearly I needed to get the nail polish from the OPI’s Holland collection named after the district. That logic completely makes sense, right?
Red Lights Ahead….Where? would have fit perfectly in my Warm Weather Reds post from last summer. OPI describes this polish as a “coral-packed red”. I suppose that is one way to put it. This is an orange leaning red that is borderline coral. It is quite the gorgeous color.
Application of this polish was amazing! I Don’t Give a Rotterdam from this collection was a bit on the thin side so I was a bit concerned, but to my surprise this polish is almost a one coater. The formula is fabulous. I used two coats despite being a habitual three coater.
Overall I do love this polish but it is not particularly unique. I have been coral crazy since I purchased butter LONDON Macbeth so I have quite a few in my collection to compare this too. I’ll try to do a comparison post in the near future.
