Blog 2 Year Birthday Giveaway Prizes Part One

Ok, remember how at the end of July I posted about a big giveaway I was doing with all of my favorite polishes?  Well, tonight and Friday, I will be showing you all of the prizes!  Tomorrow, I'll have a special post with the new Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Special Edition, Terrific Twos, with a comparison!  There will be twelve winners, and each winner will receive one of the 12 favorites plus my Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Special Edition Terrific Twos and a few other assorted goodies!  So, let's get started!  I think we'll start with the blues because, if you haven't been able to figure out, my favorite color is blue.  Oh, but first, here's a link to the giveaway.  Hop to it if you haven't entered yet!  Only a couple days left!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

[I purchased all but Maui Wowee myself.  Maui Wowee was given as an extra in my order from Indigo Bananas.]

This post will be picture heavy, so be prepared.  As always, click on the photos to enlarge them.  

Prize 1: Zoya Blu

Blu is a lovely gorgeous pastel blue cream.  Application is super easy and self leveling, which isn't always the case for me with Zoya cremes.  This is only three coats with one coat of topcoat.  Dry time was quick as well.  I did a proper review of it here.

Prize 2: Indigo Bananas Immortal Game

I've done a full review of Immortal game here, so I guess I just really wanted to show you guys some more pics of it.  You can never have too many photos of this beauty.

Prize 3: Indigo Bananas Maui Wowee

Maui Wowee is a lovely blue holographic with a teal to purple shift.  It's a little on the sheer side, but it's still opaque in three coats.  Application was super easy, and dry time was fairly quick.  It's also got a bit of a metallic finish, but none of that obscures the holo, which is super vibrant!

Prize 4: Girly Bits Blue-Eyed Beer Drinkin Music Lovin Lawyer

Yeah, this one has a pretty special place in my heart because the most amazing and awesomest Pam of Girly Bits made this for my blog's 1 year birthday!  This squishy blue jelly is packed with blue iridescent glitters that glow while on the nail.  Even though it's a jelly, you can reach full opacity in just three coats!  You could probably get away with just two, but I always add on an extra for my photographs.  As you will note, my bottle has a super special label that was designed by my friend, Austen.  That was a limited edition label, so the new bottles are in Pam's gorgeous printed bottles (whit hot hot hot white lettering!!).

Prize 5: Picture Polish Cosmos

Check out my full review here.  I just adore those irregularly shaped silver holo glitters.  I soooo wish I could find them for sale somewhere, because I would be putting that stuff in EVERYTHING.  

Prize 6: Lynnderella G. Whizard, Esq.

This limited edition polish has a clear base with silver and sky blue microglitters.  It dries with a textured finish, so I needed to use one coat of Gelous (still waiting for my new bottle of Glitter Glaze to make it's way across the earth!) and one coat of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top.  I did NOT need undies.  This polish is fully opaque in TWO COATS.  Yes, you read that right.  Two coats.  Is that not insane???  I used three to touch up any potential bald spots that would show up in my photos, though.

So, there are the blues!  What do you think?  Are you as excited as I am about this giveaway?  What's your favorite prize?  Stay tuned for more exciting prize photos later this week!!!

[I purchased all but Maui Wowee myself.  Maui Wowee was given as an extra in my order from Indigo Bananas.]

Golden Oldie Thursday (oops): Blue & Comparison Friday Blue Holo Glitters

Hello hello hello!  This week has been crazy insane!  Massive deadline today, which cut into my time pretty heavily.  Plus, I just refurnished my polish area!!!  It's not completely done yet, so I'll wait for a bit to show you guys a picture, but I am so beyond super excited with what it's going to look like when it's all said and done!  Ok, so since I'm behind, and I don't want to give up on a nail challenge for once, I'm posting my Golden Oldie Thursday tonight!  And since I have also moved Comparison Thursdays to Fridays for a little while, I've decided to add a comparison at the bottom of this post.  As such, I won't be doing a full review of my GOT Polish mani.  Ok, let's get started!

**All polishes purchased by me**

Golden Oldies Thursday

This week's challenge is just blue.  That's it.  Blue.  So simple, which is what I really like about this challenge.  I don't have to be super artistic to participate!  I chose to do a mani with OPI What's with the Cattitude topped with Lynnderella Deep Blue Seeing and accents of OPI The Flowers are Blue-ming!

All three applied evenly with three coats on WWTC and Blue-ming and one coat of DBS.  Dry time on the two base colors, though, was HORRENDOUS.  I mean, seriously.  I had to redo four different fingers at least THREE, yes, you read that right - THREE times...  That was not fun at 1:00 in the morning...

All nails needed an extra coat of topcoat, so this is shown with two coats of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top.  Having a quick dry topcoat definitely helped with the dry time, but waiting for the layers to dry before adding the next was torturous.  It really put a damper on how pretty this mani was for me.

Flowers and WWTC have both been discontinued, so you'll need to look at old salons, blog sales, or eBay to find them.  You can purchase Lynnderella Deep Blue Seeing at her online store.

Comparison Friday: Blue Holo Glitters

This is going to be a suuuuuper quick comparison where the pictures will do most of the talking.  Let's take a look at a few of my blue polishes with holo micro glitters.

Darwin

LynBDesigns Darwin is a navy based polish with small silver holo glitters.  This one is the outlier of the group since it is much darker and the glitter particles are larger in this than in the others.  Application was easy, and this is three coats with one coat of Peita's Polish Glitter Glaze.  You can purchase LynBDesigns polishes at her Etsy store.

Cosmos

Picture Polish Cosmos is one of my all time favorite polishes ever.  Ever ever.  It's pretty much a one coater, but I used two here for the photos with one coat of Peita's Polish Glitter Glaze.  I needed to do absolutely no cleanup, which is a giant win in my book.  The base is darker but not as dark as Darwin.  The holo particles are more like irregularly shaped / flakies rather than micro glitters, which gives it beautiful depth.  I purchased my Picture Polish at Llarowe.

Got Your Number

OPI Got Your Number is a part of their Liquid Sand line, which means it's a textured polish!  I really like OPI textures because they have a really pretty sparkle and shimmer to them, and GYN is no exception.  Unlike most of their textured polishes, though, there are larger silver holo glitters.  The base color is the same as Blue-ming, but clearly it's not a dupe because it is textured.  Most of the photos show GYN in its natural textured state without a topcoat.  However, I do have a macro and a comparison swatch below of GYN with a coat of Peita's Glitter Glaze.  I purchased my set of mini Mariah Carey Liquid Sands at Ulta.

The Flowers are Blue-ming!

OPI's The Flowers are Blue-ming! is a royal blue based polish with tiny holo glitters.  Application was easy, but as I mentioned above, dry time was crazy long.  This is three coats with two coats of KBShimmer's Clearly on Top.  Since this is a pretty packed glitter, removal was a massive pain.  Unfortunately, I don't have the exact dupe from the Nicole by OPI line to compare, but it is apparently exactly the same.  Blue-ming was an Ulta exclusive in 2012, but you can still find it around blog sales. 

Absolutely Alice

While this polish looks like it has a similar base color, it is actually a clear based polish packed with blue and gold micro glitters.  They aren't really holo, but I wanted to show you guys how it compared against Blue-ming anway since the base color looks the same.  Dry time was quick, but removal was difficult.  This is three coats with one coat of Peita's Polish Glitter Glaze, but it could definitely be worn with just two.  This polish came out a few years ago, so I was only able to find AA at a salon while dusty hunting.

So, as you can see, I don't really have any exact duplicates in today's comparison.  They're all very pretty blue glitters, though, so I'm definitely cool keeping all of them!  These are a bit too light to compare to Essie's Starry Starry Night, which is why I don't have it in this comparison.  However, I do have a bunch of alleged dupes for SSN, so I'll show you those soon.

**All polishes purchased by me**

A glitter gradient!

Wow, I've got a lot of things I'm working on that will, hopefully, translate into awesome things for you guys!  I cannot wait to spill the beans, but I must figure out all the details first.  Hehehe, I'm not gunna lie, I'm liking these teasers, y'all.  Hah!  Anyway, tonight, I'm going to show you guys a glitter gradient I did earlier this year over my Comparison Thursday Starry Starry Night comparison with Cosmos.  Love her or hate her, it doesn't matter to me because I like to stay out of the politics, but I do love this polish - Lynnderella When the Moon was a Star.

*I was not financially compensated for this post.  All items in this review were purchased by me for my own use.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.  For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy in the tab above.*

Color: Clear base with blue and holo blue hexes and holo silver stars and moons.

Finish: Glitter Top Coat – glitter in a clear base to be worn as a top coat.

Bottle / Brush: Rectangle bottle – ribbed cap that is a little hard on the hands to open if you have sensitive skin.  The wand is the standard length, but the brush is a little too thin to pick up large / shaped glitter without fishing.  The brush's width is also an issue for spreading.  It doesn't fan out and pretty much requires you to dab polishes that are densely packed with glitter.

Opacity: Glitter topcoat – not designed for full opacity.  Although, WtMwaS is sooooo densely packed with glitter, that you could probably do a crazy glitter overload with a couple layers.  Remember to either use the foil method or a glue base if you go that route to help with removal.

Glitter Application: Medium – requires the dab method, but spreads evenly.  Here, I used the dab method with the brush on my tips instead of using a sponge like I normally do for gradients.

Consistency: Thick – thick or it can be clumpy, but is easily remedied with some polish thinner.

Overall Ease of Application: Medium – applies well with minimal dragging or balding.  Spreads well with the dab method.

Stampability: Not designed for stamping.

Dry Time: Medium – dry to the touch with minimal smudging in 3-8 minutes.

Overall Thoughts: I think this glitter topper was a perfect mate to my Galaxy Nails in a Bottle duo.  It helped finish the galaxy look with the added stars and moons.  They were easy to get out of the bottle, but I do recommend flipping it upside down before using it for a few minutes to make sure you get as many as you want.  I haven't worn this polish over my whole nail yet, but that's something I plan to do soon.  As for now, it worked great with this gradient.  Removal was a pain, as per usual with glitter bombs, but I used my trusty felt pad soaked in acetone trick, and it came off decently easy.  Ain't nobody got time for the foil method.

(Source)

You can purchase Lynnderella polishes from their store here.  Follow the fan run Love Lynnderella Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for news, updates, and giveaways!

What's your favorite galaxy in a bottle polish?

*I was not financially compensated for this post.  All items in this review were purchased by me for my own use.  The opinions are completely my own based on my experience.  For more information, please see my Disclosure Policy in the tab above.*