I got my second blog award!

Thank you Alyssa @ Frugal Polish for my second blog award, you are awesome :)

Here are the rules for accepting the award:

1. Nominate 15 fellow bloggers who are relatively new to blogging

2. Let them know that you have nominated them.
3. Share 7 random facts about yourself.
4. Thank the bloggers who have nominated you.
5. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your post

1.  Shelly's Sassy Nails - she does some absolutely awesome and yes, versatile nail art.
2.  Adventures in Polishland - I love her cloud nails she did most recently :)
3.  Never Naked Nails - she's been around for awhile, but I don't care.. her nail art is awesome so she's getting this!
4.  DIY Polish - some of her nail art just blows me away; very creative!
5.  Teen Polish Junkie - because I wish I could do what she does at her age... for that matter, I wish I could now LOL
6.  Polished Dezinez Addict - because I for one want to see more of her awesome nail art *hint* *hint* and if you haven't checked out her work area... well, you're in for a treat!
7.  Jessica's Nail Tales - I love seeing the Indies she's worked with and her string gradient is just awesome, not to mention her other manicures :)
8. Finger Painting Fingers - she's done some really cute manicures!
9. I'm getting a touch of a migraine, so I will post some more later as I can :)
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So, 7 random facts about me.. hmm...

1. I love organizing things. When I was little, I used to organize my Barbie dolls. When I got older, I started collecting baseball and football cards, just so I could organize them. It's kind of an obsession with me....
2. A couple of my favorite video games of all times: the Suikoden and Monster Rancher series.
3. My other nickname online is Metal Minky. My boyfriend started calling me a Minky years ago, in place of the word monkey. 
4. My Chinese zodiac sign is the Metal Monkey.
5. I was a weird kid, I studied astrology all on my own right around the preteen years. 
6. I'm Pisces (don't know why I have astrology on the brain...)
7. Beware, beware the Ides of March.... my birthday!

So there you have it! Thanks again to Alyssa, and thanks to all of my readers :)

June Haul Roundup

June 2: Copious purchase: total price $4.77

June 6: Deborah Lippmann Footloose, WIN!

June 14: Zoya Pinterest Trio: $6.95

June 16: Zoya 3 for $15 deal

June 17: Julep Maven Intro: 1 penny

total damage: $26.73
total estimated retail value: $112.99

I will now cease panicking and feeling like I've been over splurging and spending too much money.

Sample Mail

The only sample I've gotten recently is this one from bodycology. I got Wild Poppy Nourishing Body Cream with shea butter and vitamins E&C. The sample is .25 ounces, and it is still available. Wild Poppy is described as "Fresh scents of jasmine and rose transport you to a flower field on a spring day. Lift your spirits with this fresh and fun fragrance." I'm definitely looking forward to trying this out.. the fragrance sounds wonderful. I also got a 1 dollar off coupon which expires in October.

As I'm typing this up, my mail arrived with a new sample but no Julep, boohoo! I don't want to wait til Monday :(

So anyway, I did get the Clear Men Scalp Therapy sample in the mail. It looks like this one is also still available. Clear Men Scalp Therapy is a "Complete Care 2 in 1 Daily Anti-dandruff Shampoo + Conditioner." The sample is .28 fluid ounces and the product is made with "Ginseng, Tea Tree, and Mint." I also got a 1 dollar off coupon with this, which expires in August.

Love this mani! Goodbye, Christmas nails!

I was really hating my Try It On Tuesday manicure, so I decided to paint over them :D

Here's just a peak at what I've got on my nails now, and let me tell you: I love it!

Full blog post coming at a later date... and no, I'm not telling you what I'm wearing :b

Miracle Whip? No thank you!

As a kid, I pretty much grew up eating Miracle Whip as mayonnaise. Let me tell you, I love mayo. What I do not love these days, is Miracle Whip! I converted to Hellmann's mayo a few years ago and I am not looking back! I even converted my boyfriend, who was pretty insistent about Miracle Whip tasting better and being a required ingredient in chicken salad (not in mine!)

Some time ago, Miracle Whip was giving away free samples, I said what the heck, free food, I'll try it. It sat in my fridge for weeks, mostly forgotten. Today I decided I better use it before it goes bad. One taste and I suddenly remember why I don't buy it anymore. It has this weird bitter, chemical taste I had forgotten about. Mostly, however, in my opinion it just isn't as good as Hellmann's mayo.

I'll be sticking with Hellmann's for now on, thank you but no thank you, Miracle Whip.

Technically, I'll be sticking with Hellmann's or Roundy's brand. I buy the Roundy's brand because it is cheaper than other mayos, but as far as I can tell it tastes identical to Hellmann's. Great buy! Since moving to Wisconsin, Roundy's has become my new favorite food brand. Their food really is just as good, if not better than other name brand items, but their price is always much lower. I don't buy it anymore because I make almost all of our pasta from scratch now, but in fact I've found Roundy's macaroni & cheese much better tasting than Kraft's blue box. So Roundy's, you get a big stamp of approval from me!

My first blog award :)

Narmai over at Made© by Me thought I deserve the Fabulous blogger award, thank you so much!

The rules for accepting the award:
Post the rules on your blog.
Name five of your most fabulous moments, either in real life or in the blogosphere.
Name five things you love.
Name five things you hate.
Pass the ribbon on to five other bloggers. (Leave them a comment to notify them of their win.)

5 most fabulous moments (in no particular order)
1. Winning my first giveaway was pretty awesome.. and it's lead my blog to be what it is now. If it weren't for that first giveaway, I would probably still just be writing about samples. I would also be shy of... let me think, 20 or so polishes.
2. Family vacation to Niagara Falls. I *love* water. I love being near it, watching it... my family took a vacation to Niagara Falls when I was... 13 I think. Ever since that day, I've known I had to live near water, and I currently do: I'm just a few miles from Lake Michigan, not that I get to visit it often :/
3. High school trip to Orlando, Florida. One of the best times of my life, hands down. I've never felt so good as I did during this trip.
4. The day my boyfriend & I moved out of his relatives house. FREEDOM!
5. I personally don't enjoy big events such as graduations, weddings, etc. They're too stressful for me and wreak havoc on my body. However, AFTER I graduated from college was pretty awesome :)

5 things I love
1. Pizza!
2. Animals, but especially cats.
3. Books (Terry Goodkind & Terry Pratchett are two of my most loved authors)
4. T-tapp!
5. My boyfriend aka the Troll even though he's not technically a *thing*

5 things I hate
1. Liars
2. Drug addicts
3. Sycophants
4. People who pretend to be sick or have something wrong with them just to get attention or money. I especially hate when people pretend to have "seizures" around me. I have epilepsy! Pretending to have a seizure just betrays your true nature, and I find it very insulting to myself and the rest of us who really do have epilepsy. As a sub note, people who think flickering the lights is amusing also pisses me off.
5. I also hate people who treat others like they're beneath them, or just plain out treat them poorly for whatever reason. For example: people who own yachts, mansions, whatever but then can't pay their employees what they're really worth or are too greedy to give them their due raise. Employers who won't let pregnant women sit down at work, at a job where they can sit down. Treating people differently just because they have a disability. These kinds of things. I'm not perfect, but I try to be honest, and to treat others how I want to be treated, I really do...

5 Bloggers
Man, this is tough! Only 5 bloggers? Some of these bloggers I consider friends, some continue to inspire me day by day... one thing in common: awesome blogs! Thank you ladies for your hard work, your creativity and your uniqueness :)

Chandra @ Happiness is A Dry Nail
Lena @ Lena Loves Nails
Tish @ Pretty Face, Happy Bank
Crystal @ Crystaliciousss
Jessica @ BeautyGnome

Thanks to everyone else out there in this digital world who may be reading this... If I could give you all an award, I would!

Try it on Tuesday: Zoya Carly & Holly

For those of you who missed my post last week, this is my second week participating in Try it on Tuesday. This week I decided to try out two of my Zoya polishes, so this week it was Holly and Carly. Pardon the messy photos.. it's always one thing or another isn't it? Today, my nails didn't want to dry and the polish remover didn't want to work :/

Carly is described by Zoya as "Very rich, bold, red-toned dark purple with iridescent red and silver metallic shimmer and a dense foil finish. The bold color and sparkling foil finish make Carly like gift wrap for your nails."

Holly is described as "A rich holly green with subtle yellow tones in a luminous metallic finish.? Great for giving the nails a flash of rich gem-toned color."

I  bought Carly as part of Zoya's special buy 3 for $15. Holly I got last month using my Zoya Share the Love credit. I've been wanting Carly for awhile, so naturally I jumped on the special as soon as I saw it. Holly I bought because I've been wanting a nice green color for holiday manicures. With a name like Holly, how can you beat that for a Christmas manicure?

I love these colors and they look gorgeous in person, but the weather must be humid today as they definitely didn't dry correctly. I already have a few dents and smudges where the polish didn't dry in time.

For the accents, I used Sally Hanson's Lavender Marquis. It's a gorgeous color all by itself (this one I have used previously) but I wish I wouldn't have added the accents this time.. I need practice with my dotting tool, that's for certain but I think solid colors are just more my style. Oh well :)

Lavender Marquis is part of the Diamond Strength collection and it is gorgeous by itself; I'll have to swatch it one of these days. I probably received it as a Christmas present years and years ago, I don't remember when exactly.

(sorry for the blurry photos! I wanted to show you how these look in the sun but all the photos turned out blurry.)

So what do you think? I'm not sure about this manicure yet... I'm hoping it grows on me!

Updated Try it on Tuesday Manicure & Review

Did you know today is National Pink Day? I don't know why or what all that entails but apparently it is and I just happen to be wearing some pink on my nails... so there ya go. In case you missed my Try it on Tuesday post, I did my first Ombre using a few of my new polishes and you can read all about it here.

So now that I've been wearing this manicure for a few days, here's a short review of the polishes:

Sally Hansen Red Hot is a gorgeous red which oddly enough looks almost purple in certain light. It's definitely not the red I thought it would be but it is very pretty. It went on pretty smoothly with just one coat, also. Out of all of the polishes, this one seems to be one of the polishes enduring the best; I only have a few small chips so far. I'm surprised by this, as it seems my other Sally Hansen polishes chip easily; I would also expect the more expensive polishes to chip less. Money doesn't always equal quality, obviously.

Julep Mandy is probably the nicest, easiest polish I've ever applied; it was just about perfect with just one coat. If all polish were this easy to work with, I'd be happy! However, it also seems to be one of the polishes chipping the worst.

Now for the Zoyas:
Arizona and Kimber are also among those which chipped the least. Myrta, on the other hand, chipped the worst out of all of the polishes. Arizona is the most sheer of the polishes. With 2 coats, it was still streaky so it definitely could have used at least one more coat. Orange isn't really my color, so for me Arizona is just OK. Myrta, on the other hand, is gorgeous! It's so much more metallic than I expected. In certain light it just shines literally like a piece of metal. It really is a beautiful polish. Kimber is pretty but I'm actually not as impressed with it as I thought I would be. Actually, I wish Kimber had more shine and sparkle like Myrta. Still a pretty polish in it's own right though.

I really can't pick any one favorite out of these five, but I will definitely be doing more Ombre nails. I love this style and I love looking down at my nails and seeing a different look with each nail. Pretty awesome.

So, after looking at solid nails for a few days I got bored and added a golden rose top coat flakie by CoverGirl called Pink Twinkle. Unfortunately flakies don't photograph well, but here's a few pictures anyway! Enjoy :)

Buckeye recipe

Some of the other bloggers and I got on the discussion of cookies. I've been planning on making Buckeye bark so I thought I'd share my recipe with you. Buckeyes are one of my family's traditional Christmas candies. I'm from Ohio, the Buckeye state, so I don't know if this is mostly an Ohio thing or what. Since I've been eating my family's buckeyes pretty much my entire life, I have to say first off: the kind you buy in the store are just not the same! I much prefer our recipe! The ones in the store tend to be a creamy candy. These are not. My boyfriend was once addicted to Reese's peanut butter cups. After eating my buckeyes, he's a convert!

Buckeyes
(actually considered a candy, not a cookie)

crush 2 packages of graham crackers
1 cup margarine
1 1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 box powdered sugar (4 cups)
1 1/2 to 2 packages chocolate chips, melted

mix together all ingredients except melted chocolate. roll mixture into small balls and
dip each ball into melted chocolate, then place them onto wax paper to dry. They should look
very much like buckeyes when finished. These freeze great!

I somehow seem to have zero pictures of buckeyes. No idea how that happened, but I guess as I'm making buckeye bark I'll make a few actual buckeyes as well and add in a photo later.

I've never made buckeye bark; this is how my sister does it:

combine all ingredients except chocolate. melt the chocolate, then combine it with the mix. pour onto waxed or parchment paper and cool.

(its later LOL) since I wrote this I decided to go ahead and make the buckeyes & bark right away so here's some photos.

 Since its fairly warm out, I just stored these in the fridge and freezer to set up. Yum!

Sample Mail! Mary Kay samples & Target Beauty Bag Summer 2012

 I woke up today, checked the mail and did a little dance! Not only did I get a catalog containing Mary Kay samples but I got my Summer Target Beauty Bag! Yippeee!!!

First up, here are the Mary Kay samples: On a card, I received three samples of their New Mary Kay Mineral Eye Color in the colors Lime, Gold Coast and Truffle. I haven't tried them out on my eyes yet, just on my hand, but the shadows each are very pretty and very shimmering. Very pretty! Retail for these is $6.50

I apologize; I couldn't get a very good photo of the colors on my hand but they are very close to how they look on the sample. Gold Coast is a very pretty yellow, lime is a very pretty bright green and truffle is a nice, rich brown. Again, I cannot get over how much these 3 sparkle. If you enlarge the photo, you should be able to see a glimpse of the sparkles in these. I think I would definitely buy a couple of this product line if I had the money. I can't wait to try these out on my eyes!

Here's my beauty bag & goodies!

The bag itself I feel is just OK but what's inside of it is great! I liked the Spring bag much better (I'm talking about the bag here, not the contents!). The summer bag is just a little bit bigger than the spring one, so that's nice! To me, the feel of the summer bag is a bit weird. It's a coarse texture which I'm having issues moving past at the moment.

I know some of the other ladies have only received the Tre Semme Split Remedy shampoo and not the conditioner; same here! After my review of this product, however, that's OK with me. I had hoped to get both so I could do a more extensive review, but that's just how it goes. The sample is 1 fluid ounce; pretty good size for a sample!

I also received a 1.0 fluid ounce sample of Neutrogena's Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch Sunblock with a SPF of 70. I probably won't be using this much since I live at night and rarely see the sun, but I think it was a fantastic idea to include a sunblock in the summer bag. Very thoughtful!

I haven't paid attention to what other bloggers have gotten in their bags, but I got the Revlon ColorBurst Lip Butter sample in Peach Parfait. I'm not sure if a peach color will be a good color for me, so it will be interesting to try. Just opening the sample and looking at the color it actually looks more like a  very nice mid tone pink so I'm not sure where they got the name from. Although I guess it does look more peach on digital. Here's a picture of my sample. I'm definitely interested to know if we all got the same color samples or not. Sorry the photo is a little blurry, don't seem to be getting good photos tonight :/

I also got samples of Garnier Fructis Color Shield Fortifying shampoo & conditioner (10 mL each) and  Aveeno Living Color color preserving shampoo & conditioner for medium-thick hair (9 mL each). I've never tried Aveeno so I'm looking forward to trying it out. My boyfriend has been wanting to dye my hair again - waste of money in my opinion because it never lasts long - so it will be good to try these out and see if they help keep the color in my hair longer or not.

I also got some Target coupons which I cannot use. I'll be posting on Facebook about them if anyone wants them.

Overall, I'm pretty happy! I was hoping to get a full lipstick and not just a sample, but that's OK :)

Blaze SolarActive Polish

Have you guys seen this nail polish from SolarActive called Blaze? It changes colors in UV light, and it looks really awesome! I would really love to try out this polish; I love some of the colors but I just love how it changes colors with the light. I know I've seen other brands which do this as well, but I've never owned any. I saw this in Prevention magazine today and just had to look it up, and of course had to share :)

So I'm wondering if any of you have tried this brand? Is it as neat as it looks? Is it worth the $12 or so it costs?

Sample Mail: Ovaltine

If you haven't done so already, you can head on over to Ovaltine's Facebook page and request some samples. I got mine in the mail a couple of days ago. I've never had Ovaltine before so I'm looking forward to trying it out... I try to only eat snack type stuff on the weekends, so a review will have to wait.

Here's what I got.

I got 2 Rich Chocolate samples. Perfect, I can try 1 in cold milk and 1 in hot! I also got a $1.00 off coupon which expires in January. I'm intrigued by the notion of their being 12 vitamins & minerals in this, but also upon inspection of the ingredients, it contains beet juice. That sounds weird to me for a chocolate drink! I'm definitely looking forward to trying these out, as chocolate drinks are some of my favorites :)

Try It On Tuesday Blog List

 If you enjoyed my blog post yesterday, here's a list of everyone who participated in Try it on Tuesday! Of course, this is going to be a weekly event, so if you missed out this week you can definitely participate next Tuesday :) thanks to Jillian @ Jilltastic Nail Design for organizing all of this!

Try it On Tuesday Blog List

Beauty Gnome
DIY Polish
365 Days of Color
College Polished
Munchy's Nails
Manicurator
Beyond Beauty Lounge
Tall Girl In Heels With Pretty Painted Nails
Princess Polish
Peace Love Lacquer
Shenailigans
Kyoti's Nails
Polished by Maddie
Shelly's Sassy Nails
Nail Polish Anon
Mixed Mama
Pinked Polish
Nails By Ms. Lizard
Polished Paradise
Enchanted Nails and Fluffy Dog Tails
Two Lacquered Girls
Enchanting Cosmetics
Frugal Polish
Polish Monster
Love & Lacquer
Spicey'z Nails
Sparkle and Shine Nails
Sincerely Obsessed with Polish
Polish and Such
Something Polish Like
Fancy Schmancy Nails

Try It On Tuesday - Photo Intense Warning!

Jilltastic Nail Design and some other bloggers came up with the awesome idea of trying out a polish we've never used before on Tuesdays, and she's calling it Try It On Tuesday. This is perfect since I usually do my nails on a Monday or Tuesday :)

I've gotten so many new polishes lately that I couldn't just pick one so I went with five :D
I've gotten a lot of reds and oranges, so I decided to do my first Ombre or gradient for this first event.

Here are the polishes I used:

Zoya Arizona
Zoya Myrta
Julep Mandy
Zoya Kimber
Sally Hansen Red Hot

On to the pictures! I will review each of these at a later date. Please excuse my messy nails... I'm not feeling too well today. :(

(in this photo, my pointer finger looks a little smudged; it's not - my nail itself is a little chipped so while the polish painted on smoothly the difference in the density of my nail gives the illusion the polish smudged. Just wanted to make that clear! )

So those were all my left hand; on my right hand I flip flopped the colors. Don't ask why, I just like to do this :) Good idea, too because I got different lighting effects with each hand!

What do you think? I think I should have switched out Arizona with another shade, but I think this turned out pretty well for my first Ombre and considering this is the first time I've used any of these shades so I didn't really know what to expect.

Guess I know what I'll be reviewing this week now, huh? ;)

edit: I just realized these could be my "success nails" as I either got all of these polishes for free or dirt cheap, haha!

sheesh I keep remembering to add things (can you tell I have a headache? haha) I was wearing 1 coat of Sally Hansen's Teflon Tuff top coat in all photos.