Happy Holidays Giveaway: Prize Two

Hello hello!  It's time to take a look at prize number two from my Happy Holidays Giveaway!  If you haven't entered yet, head on over here and fill out the rafflecopter form.  I have swatched all of the polishes from prize two except the snowman.  Here they are!

Let's start from right to left, shall we?  First up we have Color Club Berry & Bright, which is a beautiful red foil that applies amazingly.  Like I said yesterday, these Color Club polishes could all probably be one coaters.  I did two coats here for the photos.  

You can't really tell, but there is a super-micro-fine-crazysmall blue holographic shimmer sparsely dotted throughout this polish.  It's so complex!  It is scented as some sort of berry, but it isn't too strong.

Next up is Dollish Polish Be Sure to Drink Your Ovaltine.  BStDYO (mouthful much?!) is a green shimmer with fine green glitters.  This polish is very sheer, so you'll need at least three coats for full coverage.  It's a really pretty color, but nothing too unique.

Then, we have Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Santa Baby.  This polish is a white based polish with green shimmer, red, green, and iridescent hexes in various sizes, and white hearts.  The winner's bottle will be much nicer than the bottle I made for myself, which is pictured below.  It will still have the same glitter, just in a ratio that isn't quite so glitter bomb.  As it stands now, this polish is a hungry one that required a thick top coat.

Green shimmer - click on this one to enlarge it.

Here's a closeup so you can see the glitter mix and the iridescent hexes a little better.

Lastly, we have Dollish Polish You'll Shoot Yer Eye Out, Kid!, which is a clear based polish with white and iridescent hexes and huge white snowflake glitters.  The consistency on this guy is a little on the goopy side.  I haven't thinned it yet, but I'm sure it would be much easier to work with once thinned a little.  The snowflakes are a pain to get out of the bottle.  I stored mine upside down while I was working on the rest of my mani, and that didn't really help very much.  I resorted to fishing them out with my brush.  They're a bit heavy, so you need patience for this polish.

Here's a closeup of the iridescent glitters.  It really does look frosty and snowy.  Despite the application issues, I really like this polish! 

Oh, and a note on the snowmen prizes.  The white is a pearly iridescent white with purple and pink flashes.  The red is a red glitter a la China Glaze Ruby Pumps.  I only bought just enough for the giveaway since I had other comparable polishes, so I don't have any for myself to swatch.  Sorry!!

You can purchase Dollish Polish here, here, and here.  You can purchase this particular Color Club and the snowman at Sally's Beauty Supply.

Oh, and I was able to do my snowflake nails last night!  I'll probably have them on the blog closer to Christmas.  One hand looks Christmas and the other could pass for Hanukkah (I may add something to make it more Hanukkah like tonight).  They turned out pretty cute, even though my drawing skills leave a lot to be desired.  As a teaser, I used 13 polishes, including three that are in the giveaway!  Yes, you read that right.  13...  Hah!

What's your favorite polish with massive glitter shapes that are a pain in the butt to get out of the bottle?

Happy Holidays Giveaway: Prize One

Welcome, new readers!  Just so you know, you can Follow my blog with Bloglovin now as well as with GFC! Glad to have you aboard!  Tonight, I'm going to show you swatches of the polishes from the first prize of the Happy Holidays giveaway (click the linky link to get to the Rafflecopter for entry).  I only had 1 snowman, so I didn't get to swatch it, but I was able to swatch the rest, though.  Here is prize pack one.

First up is Girly Bits Eggnogaholic.  Pam from Girly Bits was so super sweet because she gave me full sizes to give away to you guys when I only ordered minis!  Isn't that awesome!?!  Eggnogaholic is from Pam's winter/holiday line.  It is a cream based polish with two different sizes of gold hexes.  I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this polish because I'm not usually into golds or creams, but this may be my favorite holiday polish in the giveaway.  It's a jelly, so you'll need to really build it up for full coverage.  This is four coats by itself.

The glitters spread evenly and came out of the bottle with ease.  The first two coats were a bit streaky, but that could be easily remedied by adding more coats or wearing it over some undies.

Next, let's take a look at a polish I made called All I Want for Christmas...  AIWfC is a clear based polish with micro iridescent and red matte glitters and fine green and white matte glitters.  This builds up well in two coats, but would work well over undies.

You can see the iridescent shimmers much better in person, but this macro shot shows them a little.  Click on the pic to make it larger.

The next polish we'll take a look at is Lynnderella Happy Holodaze!  Happy Holodaze is a clear based polish with hexes, squares, and bars in green, red, silver, and gold.  This is one coat over Ozotic 517, which is a pale green linear holo, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On on the accent nail.  I applied it using the dab method.

Happy Holodaze does have some squares with reflective curling.  I promise you, though, that all of the polishes laid flat on my nails.  If that's something you don't like, then you'd probably want to pass on this prize pack.

Last, but certainly not least, is Color Club Ho Ho Holly, which is a green foil with a bold gold shimmer.  This is the scented version from Sally's, so it smells a little like a Christmas tree.  The application on all of the Winter Affair Color Club polishes was fantastic.  Most only really need one coat, but I used two for the photos.  Be careful, though, of getting any on your cuticles as it will stain a little.  However, this polish is easy to apply and doesn't flood your cuticles unless you're going fast or not paying attention.

What do you think of prize one?  You can purchase Girly Bits here, here, here, here, and here.  You can purchase Lynnderella here.  I purchased the snowman and Color Club at Sally's Beauty Supply.  My polishes are made with 3 free materials, and I don't test on animals.  All polishes made by me are limited in nature, may have batch variations, and are not for sale.  

I'm off to do some snowflake nails, per popular request!  Wish me luck at free-handing...  It's definitely not my forte.

Happy Holidays Giveaway!!!!

Well, I've been teasing it all week, and it's finally here!!!  Happy Hanukkah, merry Christmas, happy Kwanzaa, happy Festivus for the Restofus, merry End of the World (??eeep!!), and just generally happy holidays, everyone!!!!  Without further ado, here are your prizes!!

Each prize has five polishes plus a few other awesome things that I love that will be a surprise for you guys.  I will say that one item in each prize pack will be something from Sunny at 365 Days of Color.  If you've been reading my Facebook posts, you'll probably figure it out, so don't spoil it for the rest, please!  Each prize will have two full sized polishes, two minis, and 1 mini polish made by yours truly.  Let's break it down.

Prize One

Sally Girl Red Snowman, Girly Bits Eggnogaholic, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer All I Want for Christmas..., Lynnderella Happy Holodaze!, and Color Club Ho-Ho-Holly

Prize Two

Sally Girl White Snowman, Dollish Polish You'll Shoot Yer Eye Out, Kid!, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Santa Baby, Dollish Polish Be Sure to Drink Your Ovaltine, and Color Club Berry & Bright

Prize Three

SoFlaJo Yule Tidings, Girly Bits Long Winter's Nap, Color Club Snow Flakes, Orly Miss Conduct, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer the Man Who Makes the Toys

Prize Four

Sally Girl White Snowman, Girly Bits Eight Crazy Nights, Blue-Eyed Girl Lacquer Skating in the Snow, OPI Paris Couture for Sure, and Color Club Gift of Sparkle

This week, I will show you swatches of each of the polishes in this giveaway minus the snowmen, as I ran out of time. This giveaway will run from tonight until next Sunday to leave time for shipping in time for arrival by Christmas/Kwanzaa/Festivus (sorry I'm missing Hanukkah...  I took too long to place my orders.)  Due to shipping delays at the USPS, this contest is open to US residents only.  If you live abroad and have someone you trust who lives in the US that will ship to you, that's fine with me!  Just make sure you let me know where to send it if you win.

Make sure you fill out the entire form so I can check your entries more easily!  I will verify every entry, so please make it a little easier on me by filling out the entire form.  Anything I can't verify will be booted.  If posting to Facebook, make sure your post is public!  Click on the time stamp under your post, and copy / paste the link into the box where prompted.  Comments on this blog post will not be counted toward the Reader of the Month giveaway.

Thanks for your cooperation, everyone!  Good luck and happy holidays!!!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Oops!

Firstly, thank you, everyone, for the well wishes.  I'm feeling much better today.  Still exhausted, but not achey anymore.  I always manage to come down with small little funks with a low fever and a general run-down feeling.  They only last a few days, so I think the worst is over.  Hopefully it's nothing more serious!  Secondly, I ran out of comparison swatches...  I have tons of stuff to compare, but I just flaked and forgot to swatch them.  Oops!  I'll make sure to photograph a few comparison swatches this weekend so I won't get caught with my pants down again.

Let's take a look at Zoya Twila.  Twila is a clear based polish with silver and blue bar glitters.  Some people have complained that the glitters in their Twila bottle have either faded or that the bottle has more silver than blue.  My bottle, though, had the perfect mixture of both colors.

The bar glitters are on the thicker end of the spectrum.  The polish dried gritty with the bars sticking up a bit in places.  It's nothing that an extra coat of top coat couldn't fix, though.  This is three coats, and, as you can see, it's pretty much opaque.  I think it could also work well layered.

The silver bars aren't holographic, but they do shimmer in the light.

I'm not a huge fan of bar glitters, so this polish wasn't really for me.  It applied well, and the glitters spread evenly without any manipulation.  If you love bar glitters, you should definitely check it out.  You can buy Twila where Zoya's are sold.

In other news, did anyone get anything at the last Dollish Polish restock?  I snagged the mystery shade We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat and Space, the Final Frontier.  I also ended up picking up a few of the Color Club Halo Hues from that deal I posted on Facebook.  I'm pretty excited, too, because I got an extra Harp on It for a special friend.  I cannot wait to gift it to her!!!!!  (Originally, I bought it to hold onto for later, but I think I like the idea of springing it on an unsuspecting victim better, lol!)  I have a few more polishes and other gifts that need to be delivered for the giveaway, which I'm hoping will get here soon.  I may have to show you guys pictures of what I have now, and then update the pictures as more prizes trickle in.  Would you prefer that, or would you rather I wait until I have entire prizes gathered?  Lastly, I only have a little bit of Burt's Bees Lemon Cuticle Cream left.  It's devastating.  I ordered some balms from 365 Days of Color, but I'm afraid they won't get here in time for me to seamlessly replace my empty BB canister.  I suppose I'll have to use oil in the meantime.  Although, I do have some really tasty smelling oil from Northern Star Lacquer!  

Are you waiting on any nail mail?

Puuuuuurple!

I asked you guys what I color I should paint my nails today, and you guys said purple purple purple! While I am painting my nails purple (actually as I type this), I have another purple mani to show you guys tonight. Let's take a look at Hare Medusa Luminosa over my purple SOG mani.

Here's the purple gel I made for myself. I don't have any purple gels, so I mixed some up! It turned out really really well. Unfortunately, I dumped most of it on my cream carpet mid-manicure, so I didn't get the application right... It didn't last long on my nails, which sucks. I will say, though, that whoever first discovered using Windex to clean up polish spills on carpets is a GENIUS! Anyway, here's what I wore as undies for several of my purple manicures a few weeks ago.

Next, I topped it with Hare Medusa Luminosa. ML is a purple jelly based polish packed with tons of blue iridescent hexes and purple shimmer. It applied really well, but dried a little gritty, which was easily corrected with two coats of my top coat. 

It just glows!!! I seriously love this polish. 

Here's a macro shot. 

My camera wasn't really capturing the beauty of this polish, but I was able to get a decent one with my phone in the sunshine. Excuse the grainy quality of the photo. I haven't really figured out how to take decent pictures with my phone yet, lol. 

You can purchase Hare on Nikole's Etsy store or at Llarowe. Follow Hare Polish on Facebook for shop updates and news on new collections.

What's your favorite purple polish?

600 Facebook Likes, Whaaaaa?!

Thank you, everyone, for the push to 600 Facebook likes!  I'm so pleased to have you along for the ride.  Poke around and get a feel for the atmosphere here.  If you see something you like that you want to see more of, let me know!  If you don't see something that you'd like to see, let me know!  I try really hard to do a little bit of everything when it comes to nails, but I love to hear suggestions on what you'd like to see or what I can improve upon.

Well, since I promised a winner once I hit 600 Facebook likes, here we go!!!!  Congratulations Melody G.!!  You have one the jelly sandwich ingredients below!  I have pm'd you from my personal account, so please message me with your address within the next 48 hours.  Otherwise, I'll have to pick a new name, and we don't want that!  Thank you, everyone, for coming along for this journey.  I am truly humbled by your support!

I'm feeling a tad under the weather, so I'm just going to spam you with some pics.  Here are Elevation Marble Caves and Lynnderella Love Potion No. 99 over a purple gel I mixed myself.  The application on both was great.  They didn't last long, though, as I put them on over an intermediary base coat of glue.  I say intermediary because I typically use the glue between my SOGs and my regular nail polish.  It doesn't last very long with that method, though, so it's only really useful for swatching or for frequent polish changes.  Take a look and let me know what you think!

Lynns are available on her store here.  Elevations are available here.

Do you have any recommendations for things you'd like to see featured on the blog or things you like and want to see more of?

Game Day Mani - SEC Championship Edition

Well, the game this weekend was a huge disappointment.  We came so close to making it into the national championship.  Both teams played their hearts out, so I can't be too upset.  Although, I do think it's complete and utter bullshit that Florida is going to the Sugar Bowl and we're going to Capital One.  Ridiculous.  Anyway, I'll stop complaining now.  I'm sure a bunch of you don't even care about college football, so sorry!  :)  Although, football has inspired my more creative nail art attempts.  This weekend I wore a water marble with a jelly sandwich accent nail for the game.

The polishes I used for the water marble were China Glaze Liquid Leather, Elevation Matsuda, and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On.  For the jelly sandwich, I used Matsuda and Lynnderella Shape Shifter.

I've only done a handful of water marbles in my life, and they have all turned out pretty poorly.  I originally wanted to use some holographic polishes, but they didn't hold together once dropped into the water.  I changed it up and used my cremes instead.

It actually worked out really well!  It took me a little longer than a normal mani with nail art would take, but I think it's totally worth it.  The hubby, who doesn't really care about my manis, really liked the water marble, too.

For my accent nail, I chose Matsuda, which is a gorgeous red jelly with a slight shimmer.  I've had Lynnderella Shape Shifter for a little while, but I haven't really known how to wear it.  Shape Shifter is so densely packed with silver holographic glitters of all sorts of shapes and sizes.  I don't normally like to wear super chunky glitters on their own, so I settled on doing a jelly sandwich.

I feel like the jelly sandwich really subdued the in-your-faceness of Shape Shifter.  It's a gorgeous polish, but just too dense for me.  I think this was a perfect compromise.  I can still get the gorgeous shimmer and shapes of Shape Shifter without the overly saturated look on my nail.

I was so surprised by this mani.  I only had three or four bubbles and one smudge.  Otherwise, the rest of my nails look pretty close to perfect for me!  I'm getting better at this technique, so you may start seeing more of them to come.  I'm thinking of doing a peppermint swirl one for Christmas, so definitely keep an eye out for that!  China Glaze and Sally Hansen are available at beauty supply stores, drug stores, and grocery stores.  Elevation Matsuda can be found on Lulu's store here.  Follow her blog for updates and news.  Lynnderella can be purchased from her eBay store here, and you can also sign up for newsletters at her store page.

Oh, and one last bit for discussion...  If we hit 600 Facebook followers before I announce my holiday giveaway this Saturday, I will hold another "easy" giveaway with the jelly sandwich makin's I've posted about before.  Essentially, each Facebook follower will get 1 entry.  I will take that list, randomize it, and choose a winner from random.org.  No entry or crazy hoops to jump through required (that's for this weekend, rofl!).  If we can't hit it before this weekend, that's cool, too.  I'll just postpone that particular prize for another few months, lol.  

What's your favorite water marble combination?