Color Club Holiday Giveaway

Hey there, Dear Reader!

I was just doing a last check of email for the night, and a press release from Color Club just rolled in.  It seems they're participating in a giveaway that Amethyst Jeans is doing.  Here's the info about the prizes and how to enter:

Enter to win on of 20 holiday totes given away over the next five weeks! 

You and your BFF will each receive an Amethyst Jeans tote filled with a pair of Amethyst Jeans, shimmery lip glosses and a holiday set nail polish set from Color Club and a shampoo and conditioner set from Totally Texty!  

Contest runs from November 29th through December 31st, 2010. Go to http://www.facebook.com/amethystjeans to enter! Happy Holidays!

Color Club & Amethyst Jeans Giveaway: Click for Full Size

This time, I'm really done for the night (with 4 minutes left in the day, I feel safe saying that).  Until next time, love and nail polish to yu!  

Konad Decals, a Coupon Code, and a Giveaway

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I've been so busy showing you swatches of new collections in the last few days that other good stuff has been piling up. I'll show you manicures first, since that's what we're here for, and after the pictures tell you about the things where you save money and win things.

Last week I gave you the update that WSC had the full line of the Glam Rhinestone Stickers that I'd shown you the two packets of which Jessica had sent me as an extra to try out (those were the nail jewelry ones), and I told you I'd planned to load up on them (they're $3, so it wasn't some huge financial analysis to decide that). Well, I clicked the 3D Stickers & Bead Tattoos tab to get to them, and there was more cool stuff, all super cheap. I loaded up on the rhinestone decals, and have two of those for you today, the 3D stickers, and got just a few each of the bead tattoos and hologram stickers. I was reluctant on the bead and hologram decals because I wasn't sure exactly what the bead tattoos were (but for $3 I was willing to find out), and the hologram stickers looked like decals of patterns that are Konad stamps, but I was interested enough to spring for the $2 to find out more, and I have a hologram decal manicure for you today as well.

The one I did right away when they arrived (after spending about fifteen minutes leafing through the packets) is a base of two coats of SpaRitual Ice Ice Baby with the fake pink pearl decals. I pretty much did a little sampler of the decals in the packet, I was so fired up about them.

Konad Rhinestone Glam Decals in Pink Pearl & Rhinestones

Konad Rhinestone Glam Decals in Pink Pearl & Rhinestones over SpaRitual Ice Ice Baby Nail Polish

The next ones I tried were the hologram decals, using some Konad patterns I'm fond of. I thought they'd look good over a black shimmer nail polish, so I used two coats of Nubar Black Chrome. The picture completely downplays the hologram effect - once it came into focus, the reflections came off as silver. The hologram effect is markedly stronger, but the picture gives you a sense of it.

Konad Hologram Decals

Konad Hologram Decals over Nubar Black Chrome Nail Polish, Two Coats

Last is today's Nails of the Day. I used Rhinestone Glam Decals in one of the fake white pearl and rhinestones packets (I have one more white pearl & rhinestone packet that's different). At first I was thinking of using a pale pink shimmer base, kind of the inverse of the one I shows you above, but then decided they'd be cooler on Zoya Robyn, the blue creme from Flash.

Konad Rhinestone Glam Decals in White Pearl & Rhinestones

Konad Rhinestone Glam Decals in White Pearl & Rhinestones over Zoya Robyn Nail Polish

For all of these, I applied the decals about ten minutes after finishing the base color with Diamont, then sealed them with another coats of Diamont.

It ends up that the bead tattoos, which I have yet to try but will in coming days, are actually tiny seed beads on decals - I've never seen anything like them. One of my close friends makes elaborate beaded jewelry (think Grateful Dead parking lot wares fifteen years ago), and the beads are maybe a third to half the size of the smallest I've seen her use. They're really cool, and you don't have to wrap them up to your elbow like in Konad's promo pics. I got butterflies, hearts, and tip decals of those.

Those are the Konad decals, so let's move on to things where you get things for free!

First, the coupon code... Yen from Victoria's Nail Supply (VNS) is offering you a free Color Club 0-60 Speedy Topcoat with any purchase (I believe the site minimum is $15, but I've never ordered anywhere near just $15, so I'm not sure) with code NPhile042010. It's a great way to try it out and see if it works for you - free is a good price! VNS is a great etailer - all the basics, plus a TON of Art Club nail art stuff, which I went crazy ordering this week, as well as a bunch of HTF's, especially OPI. I can't say anything but good things about Yen's customer service, and I've been a customer there for about a year and a half now, have had help from her, but never a single problem. I'll add a "Codes" tab to the top of the page in a bit so you don't have to find this post later to get the code.

Second, the giveaway... That's from Jessica at WowSoCool. She's been awesome, working to get back the Konad discount codes that Konad USA put the kabosh on recently, and she even helped me by proofing and giving input on a letter I wrote to Konad USA myself trying to get the codes back. There's been no response from Konad USA yet, so since she can't give all of you a discount code, she wanted to give one of you a $50 gift certificate for her store. I'm running the contest here because Jessica specifically wanted to give something to my readers. At full price, $50 would be 7 plates, lots of polishes, or an absolute boatload of the decals I showed you.

I'll run the giveaway like always, and have verified that the usual way is okay with Jessica: it's open to readers worldwide, one entry per person, and I'll take entries for two weeks. The one variation from usual is about your email: it'll still just be used if you're the winner, but since I'm just hosting the giveaway for WowSoCool, I'll pass your email address on to her if you're the winner and she'll get your prize to you. No email addresses will be used in any other way. Here's the entry form, and I'll include it at the end of every post until it's over.

That's the update for now, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Orly Foil FX Collection & Iron Butterfly Giveaway

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Orly sent me the Foil FX Collection to show you, so here I have it. Well, two thirds of it... They left out one color, a gold called Luxe, when they sent it. They also sent one of the Metal Chic shades, Iron Butterfly, which I don't believe I showed to you. I have it already, so I thought we'd do a random drawing for it. I'll tell you about that at the end.

The Foil FX Collection consists of three super foily metallics, Luxe (gold), Rage (rose gold, very cool!), and Shine (silver). The press release tells me they're intended to give a Minx look. I leave it up to you to decide whether they achieve that.

Each of the two shades I tried required three coats, but I did very, very thin coats. They did not leave brush strokes and have a great metallic finish - I think they really look like metal nails. They were easy to control and applied quite well.

Here is the silver, Shine.

Orly Foil FX Collection: Orly Shine Nail Polish, Three Coats

And the rose gold, the very unique Rage.

Orly Foil FX Collection: Orly Rage Nail Polish, Three Coats

I'm impressed with these, and will be buying the gold when they're released in March.

On to the Iron Butterfly Giveaway... As I mentioned, Orly supplied me with a spare Iron Butterfly from the Metal Chic Collection, and I have a picture of it from while I was away. It's a shimmery, metallic matte black - very cool.

This is Iron Butterfly.

Orly Metal Chic Collection: Orly Iron Butterfly Nail Polish, Two Coats

That's the prize, and here are the rules: one entry per person. That's it. It's open to all readers worldwide, I'll be taking entries for two weeks, and you don't have to enter your full name on the form. The only use of your email address will be to notify you if you win. Pretty simple!

So that's all for today, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

YSL Extreme Purple Nail Polish #40

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning, I have a polish to show you that I've been waiting to use for several weeks. What I've been waiting for is confirmation that I was sent the right color - YSL polishes are labelled on the box, not the bottle, and I questioned if this was the right bottle in the box. This morning, I was able to find one of those "swatches" that's a cartoon-y image of a smeared drop that confirmed it's the right color. Since I couldn't easily find other images online, I thought I'd show you this one today.

So, Yves Saint Laurent Extreme Purple... Sounds right up my alley, no? I bought it after I'd moved here, to the middle of a cornfield, where there are no Nordstroms to go look at things in person first. I do not miss living in River North on the whole, but when I think of having three Ultas within two miles, a Nordies, a Sephora, and a Chanel boutique all within one mile, I admit there's a little pang of longing! Anyhow, I ordered it, it arrived, and I discovered I had a deep brownish blood red creme nail polish.

For a moment, let's move on the the positives of this one, so this isn't a big complaintfest. It has a great shine. Name set aside, it is a lovely color. I'm trying to think of more... The overcap on the bottle is pretty? I'm really trying!!!

As for the application, I applied it over my usual base of Nu Nails. Last Fall, I believe it was, I developed a crush on YSL with their Fall and Winter releases - great colors and application. The application of Extreme Purple was not difficult, it went on well, but it took four (yes, four) coats to be opaque and even. After two, I was a little bent out of shape, yet still willing to put up with a third, but when I'd applied the third and still had uneven and bald patches on several nails, that was ridiculous. For a high end, mucho $$$ polish, I expect it to be good in two coats. That was part of my rave about the Chanels this week - good in one, the second coat was optional to make them look like vinyl. Also, since four coats is so much nail polish, I had to wait a couple minutes before applying coats three and four (and waiting is like punishment to me), and since it's early I don't have my glasses or contacts. I'm near sighted, so I can see my nails and my computer monitor just fine, but I couldn't see the clock across the room, so I sat there in nail polish purgatory for what seemed like an eternity!

One other oddity I noticed in application immediately was that the nail polish had a very strange smell. I have an unusually acute sense of smell - I can immediately tell with a pretty high degree of accuracy when polish is Big Three Free as soon as I open it, and smell is also how I tell when my nail polish has completely cured, like well enough to go wash my hair. This one was off enough to make me read the ingredients. It is three free, it just has an strong chemical smell to it.

My last complaint, which is evidenced in the pictures, is about expensive and somewhat deceptive packaging. A standard nail polish bottle is 15 ml, or 0.5 oz. This one is 10 ml, or 0.33 oz, only 2/3 the volume of a regular one, for a significantly higher price than most polishes (these are up there in the Rescue Beauty Lounge & Chanel range, although those are both only 0.4 oz). However, look at the size of the bottle! Now, my hands are smaller than average, but I have a hard time taking a picture with YSL bottles. Perhaps if less went into the gargantuan bottles, they could afford to give us the remaining 1/3 bottle of polish.

Wow, when I was thinking all of that earlier, it seemed like a lot less ranting! I also thought I had more positives, and have been trying to think of more, but good color and shine are still the only two I can think of. I guess I'm still a little bent out of shape - I wanted and Extreme Purple that was an extreme purple, and in the formula that I had a crush on last year!

Here is the finished manicure, four coats with a base and topped with SpaRitual Tout de Suite (I'm saving the Diamont I have for Konad bases, since I'm low), under artificial light.

Yves Saint Laurent Extreme Purple #40 Nail Polish, Four Coats

Even though this post is already long (I'm still working on the caffeine that will make me edit myself!), I'm going to repost all of the details of the WowSoCool giveaway. If you've read it already, please just skip to your goodbye. My assumption is that not everyone reads every post, so I'm going to repost the details every few posts or so, in order to make it clear to everyone. Regulars, thank you for being patient with that!

Here goes:

For two weeks (12 more days), I'll be taking entries, one per person, for a giveaway that WowSoCool is sponsoring to thank you for your business (everyone, worldwide). There will be two winners, one wins a Gold Deluxe Kit (that's a link to the page - it's a few down for the full description, the $94.99 one, or the full description's on a tab on the entry form). Here's a tiny picture of it if you just want an idea - it's a bunch of plates, polishes, stamper, and scraper...

The second winner gets a $50 gift certificate to WSC.

It's very simply a Thank You gift. I don't get anything here, I'm just hosting the entry form so you can have it. I've used the service for this random drawing form many times now, and your email won't get used for anything other than to let you know you've won, and in this case, I will pass it on to WowSoCool for the owner to get in touch with you for shipping info. I will not collect your mailing address at all myself if you're the winner, since I won't be mailing you anything. Basically, I'll pass the whole thing over to WSC once a winner is drawn, and the lady there will mail out your prizes.

The last details are that your name will show up on the list of entries as you enter it, but there is no need to enter your full name (you can take care of that later if you win), and the biggie is that this is open to everybody, all readers worldwide. So if you're reading this and have not entered, have at it! If you still have a question, please ask it in the Comments below, as I'm sure someone else is wondering the same thing.

So that's the tale of YSL Extreme Purple, which is neither extreme nor purple, and of the WowSoCool Konad Giveaway. The upside to the YSL is that I now have a nice Fall mani even if it wasn't what I'd hoped for, so it worked out fine.

Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Chanel Imperial

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Yesterday afternoon I ran my errands, then did a nice manicure. I thought I'd try out Chanel Imperial, and it turned at that what Chanel Dragon is to red, Chanel Imperial is to brown. It was opaque and even in one coat, and I did a second just to make it look like vinyl.

This is two coats with a top coat, by the setting sun.

Chanel Imperial Nail Polish, Two Coats

Also, I had some questions in the comments yesterday and by email about the Wow So Cool giveaway because I wasn't as clear about the details as I should have been in my post about them. I was just all fired up...

For two weeks, I'll be taking entries, one per person, for a giveaway that WowSoCool is sponsoring to thank you for your business (everyone, worldwide). There will be two winners, one wins a Gold Deluxe Kit (that's a link to the page - it's a few down for the full description, the $94.99 one, or the full description's on a tab on the entry form). Here's a tiny picture of it if you just want an idea - it's a bunch of plates, polishes, stamper, and scraper...

The second winner gets a $50 gift certificate to WSC.

It's very simply a Thank You gift. I don't get anything here, I'm just hosting the entry form so you can have it. I've used the service for this random drawing form many times now, and your email won't get used for anything other than to let you know you've won, and in this case, I will pass it on to WowSoCool for the owner to get in touch with you for shipping info. I will not collect your mailing address at all myself if you're the winner, since I won't be mailing you anything. Basically, I'll pass the whole thing over to WSC once a winner is drawn, and the lady there will mail out your prizes.

The last details are that your name will show up on the list of entries as you enter it, but there is no need to enter your full name (you can take care of that later if you win), and the biggie is that this is open to everybody, all readers worldwide. So if you're reading this and have not entered, have at it!

I think I covered everything this time! If you still have a question, please ask it in the Comments below, as I'm sure someone else is wondering the same thing. I am especially "not blessed," as my dear ol' Irish grandmother used to say, at two things: details like this and typing. In the time it takes me to type one part out, I forget some of the details, so please do feel free to ask if I forgot something.

Here is your entry form...

I think that's everything! Until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Claire's Magic Nail Polish: Our Next Drawing!

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!


I was just out and about, and discovered that I have a Claire's nearby.  I didn't think I did!  I peeked inside in hopes of spying a Claire's Magic nail polish, and I did one better - I spotted two!  I picked up the extra for you, Dear Reader, so we're having our next giveaway.  It runs through next Thursday at this time (one week), is open to all readers worldwide, and I think this time I managed to set it up so your names don't show after you enter.  The first one to enter will be the guinea pig for that, but you don't need to enter your full name anyhow, and your email address will only be used to notify you that you've won.


So what is this Claire's Magic I'm all fired up about?  Well, it's Magic!  I applied three coats, the third just for good measure, and it went on really smoothly and evenly.  The first coat looks like it'll be transparent, but then the second coat fills it out, and the third for good measure gave it real depth.  I read the ingredients, and I think it has phthalates, but I'm only human!  I'm wearing it anyhow.  Here it is, in sunlight on my balcony.

Isn't it great?  I'd only seen wintertime, no-sunlight pics of it and fell in love with it, but it's even better than I'd hoped.  Here's the entry form for your bottle of it.

That's all for today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

Lacquered Up with Pink Hearts

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I decided to do an early Valentine's Day mani.  I wanted to use Maybelline's Sweet Valentine, the polish with pink glitter and pink hearts that I recently showed you.  I chose Essie's Lacquered Up as the bright, true red to use as a base, and was pleased to find that with shorter nails, Lacquered Up is a two-coater.  I finished the Essie with a coat of Seche Vite, then waited 5-10 minuted to apply the hearts.

This is where the real work began - fishing those little hearts out of the fresh bottle of Sweet Valentine was no easy task, but I did it!  I then sealed the hearts down with another coat of Sweet Valentine, which also added more glitter, then added another coat of Seche Vite for shine.  If I have another break today, it's certainly not for lack of nail polish!  Here's what the end result looks like.

 

 

It's happy, it's cheery, it's Valentine's Day!  The down side to being in the midst of a divorce for Valentine's Day is that I don't get any presents, but the upside is that I get to have the joy of living alone, and I don't have to pick out any presents for anyone else either.  This year, I'll take that deal, and celebrate Valentine's Day with the rest of you until the 14th!

As a matter of fact, let's start celebrating now with a little present for you.  I just paused while I was writing this to create a new contest, another random drawing.  This one is for a new bottle of Essie's Cindy-rella, which was an Ulta exclusive a few years back.  I live near The Ulta That Time Forgot, and they still had it, so I got one for you.  Here's a picture of the bottle, and the pretty black label that lets us know it's full of chemically goodness.

I'll be taking entries for a week so that the winner will get it in time for Valentine's Day.  The drawing is open to all readers, your name will show as you enter it (so no need to enter your full name), and your email address will only be used to notify you that you've won.

That's all for now, Dear Reader!  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

OPI Black Tie Optional - One for Me, One for You!

Hello again, Dear Reader!

I'm back with a little update because now I have a present for you!  It's OPI's Black Tie Optional, a lovely hard to find polish that's dupey to Chanel's Cobra.  I'll be giving away your bottle by means of a random drawing, which you can enter below (one per customer, please!).  I'll be taking entries for one week from all readers worldwide, your name will show on a visible list as you enter it (so no need to enter your full name), and your email address will only be used to notify you that you've won.

Here are some pictures of the wonderful BTO...

 

 

Excellent, isn't it?  And OPI discontinued it - what were they thinking???

That's all for now, Dear Reader.  I'm going to go out for a little walk so I stop climbing the walls...  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!