November Haul

How it the last day of November already? Didn't I just organize my polishes the other day to include my October polishes? I seriously don't know where this month went, but here it is. Almost December. I just have a few things to show you and I don't *think* I'm expecting any new polish in the mail today. I'll add them in later if I do get anything, as I am expecting a few goodies.. just not sure when!

First up are the new items I either won or purchased in October but didn't receive until November. Starting with my Konad nail art stamping kit! Christmas colored polish, perfect for this month! I will definitely be using this a lot soon.

On Halloween I won a surprise giveaway from Denny's Digits. Here are my prizes! 

Beads, Julep nail file, and 3 nail art tapes which I should be putting to use soon as well! The polishes are:
LA Colors Shock, Sinful Colors Cinderella, Claire's Cosmetics Candy Shop, Pure Ice Champagne and Revlon Whimsical.

Next are my Juleps... Julep provided me with Charlotte, Gayle and Renee for Epilepsy Awareness Month. I already owned Renee, so I gave the extra to my sister in law.

I had enough Jules last month to get a free box, so I got the It Girl box which included: Nora, Hailee, and the Matte Top Coat.

So... NOTHING to show you for November wins this month :(
Here's my solo purchase to show you... I have a few more on the way, as well as 1 prize. For now, this is the only November purchase in my hands.

LA Colors Sassy Sparkle which I bought for franken polish purposes and spent $1 on. Woo-hoo! Actually, I spent $15 dollars total on polish this month, just waiting *patiently* for my other pretties to get here.

Braided Christmas manicure

Today I'm going to show you the last two of the Tip Top Nails South Africa polishes I have for review this month. It's been fun trying out these polishes all month long, but I'm not really certain where the time has gone. November just seemed to fly away.

I was trying to decide what to do for my next manicure, and my mom had suggested that a braided Christmas manicure might be pretty. I had never done a braided manicure before, and my last two colors are rather Christmasy, so that's what I decided to do.

For this manicure I used Tip Top Nails Night Rider, Cha Cha Cha, and Get Reddy. I used Swatch and Learn's tutorial for the braided fishtail. I did a simple? gradient for the accent nail, but I kinda goofed it :P

 As you can see, Cha Cha Cha is a very pretty cyan color which is kind of weird for a Christmas manicure, but I think it works OK. In the dark light that I'm used to it looks more green. I really love Night Rider, and Get Reddy is such a beautiful, gorgeous red. Perfect metallic red polish for Christmas.  I started with one coat of Night Rider, and then used just one thick coat of each color for the braids. As you can see, Cha Cha Cha and Get Reddy each applied pretty well with just one thick coat.

I also have to say, this technique was easier than I expected, and it was neater than expected. It's definitely not perfect, but my manicure turned out much nicer than I thought it would. Mike actually asked if I had used tape, so apparently I impressed him :)

I'm also showing off a couple of decals I received to review.  I'm going to play with these some more in the next few weeks, as well as another set.  The decals I used today are from 3D Nail Seal Xmas Christmas Design Nail Seal-363 from KKCenterHK.


These decals were very easy to use.  I had no problems with them, except the teddy bear is a little large and so it didn't quite lay flat against my nail. Not a big deal. You can't tell from my picture, but there are lots of little pieces of glitter on these, and the shine pretty well matches Cha Cha Cha. I love happy accidents like that! I completely forgot that these are supposed to glow in the dark until I read the Web site, so I will have to try these out some more and hopefully get some glowing pictures to show you.

You can still use the code GETFANCY at checkout to get a 10% off discount when you shop at KKCenterHK.com! That code is valid through January 31, 2013.

Thank you to Tip Top Nails and KKCenterHK for providing me with these items to review. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Family Dollar Haul

I have a manicure post to share with you all later tonight, but first I wanted to share my Family Dollar mini haul with you.

I got a few new products today, as well as a couple of new ones:

• Family Dollar Baby Oil ($2.50) - my mom recently recommended using baby oil while shaving, and I've been looking for a replacement for shaving cream so I'm going to give this a try
• Family Dollar Nail Polish Remover 100% Acetone ($1.50) - can't live without this!
• Family Dollar Hair Remover Lotion ($2.00) - works better than Nair and it's cheaper
• Family Dollar Ear Wax Removal Kit ($3.00) - I used this once today and I could hear it working, but apparently my ears weren't as waxy as I thought so I really didn't need to use this... save it for when I do!
• LA Colors 5 Color Metallic Eyeshadow: Ammunition (.90) - on sale! umm, not sure how much it usually cost. Grey eyeshadows are some of my favorites to work with and oddly enough I didn't actually have any so I had to get this palette when I saw it in their sale bin. Silly me, I didn't even realize it was metallic colors until I got home. :D
• LA Colors Shimmering Loose Eyeshadow in Black Pearl ($1.00) - this is gorgeous and it's a good thing because I bought it to use for my first Franken polish!
• LA Colors Sassy Sparkle ($1.00) - I used this for frankening, also. It looks really pretty, full of iridescent glitter. Apparently this is a limited edition polish, I had no clue.

 Here's what my new eyeshadows look like!

The almost white and medium grey are much rosier than I realized. They're still really pretty but not quite what I had in mind. The dark grey in the Ammunition pack is much more dull than I expected, so I'm really happy I bought the Shimmering Loose eyeshadow as well. I'm definitely going to have fun playing with these this weekend!

Weekly giveaway announcement

Hi guys,

I got an e-mail letting me know TRIB3 won't be holding any giveaways for the next 2 weeks. Bummer! They're trying to get squared away making sure all of us bloggers receive our samples but better yet, they're concentrating on making sure winners receive their prizes :) They're looking for new brands, too!

So, two more weeks and hopefully I'll have another awesome giveaway to share with you!

A Snowy Day with the Glue Method

If you follow the nail polish blogging world at all, you'll already know that a couple of months ago, everyone seemed to be talking about this method of applying glue to your nails as a basecoat before applying glitter polish. With one thing and another, I finally got around to trying this out for myself, and I really put it to the test: I used one of the hardest to remove glitter polishes I own, Custom Nail Art Blue Diamonds.

I wasn't happy just doing a single glitter manicure, so I applied 1 coat of Sally Hansen White Tip and then did a jelly sandwich using Sinful Colors Hottie and of course Blue Diamonds. Here's how it turned out.

First of all, I gotta say this combination of polishes is GORGEOUS. So far, the glue method worked pretty well. I think this would be a really great way to do a manicure if you just want to test things out, try out different combinations of polishes, etc. or if you just want to do a manicure for one night (assuming you're staying dry!)

As you can see, my nails are a little clumpy at this point, but that's only because I have like 10 layers of polish on. I think I'm definitely going to try this method again, since I can only use nail polish remover on my nails once a week.

This definitely isn't something you want to try if you're looking for a permanent manicure, but it is something to try at least once just to play around with. My only complaint is the dry time on the glue! Mine took forever to dry, so I took a blow dryer to it.

It's been about 2 days and this manicure is still on 6 of my nails; 1 I peeled off in the shower just within an hour of painting my nails... I suspect it wasn't dry enough and so it started peeling off on its own. 1 fell off while doing the dishes. The other 2 I peeled off after having my hands wet. So they definitely stick pretty well, overall.

The cool thing about this is, if you peel them off your nail while wet, the glue underneath is sometimes still a little sticky. I attached mine to a piece of paper so I can use that as a reference since I don't own any nail wheels at the moment.

Here you can see where I peeled my manicure off of my one nail. As you can see, the manicure underneath is for the most part in tact. It just had a wee little bit of the glued manicure on the tip. This did lift my Thanksgiving manicure off of my nails a little bit, but for the most part it was OK.

I've read some concerns about the glue possibly damaging your nails with this method. I used plain old regular Elmer's glue which is nontoxic. Also, because I applied it over an old manicure, the glue really didn't touch the surface of my nails at all so my nails are fine. I think I would recommend using at least a base coat if you're going to do this, regardless, just in case :)

Weekly Giveaway Winner!

Hi everyone! Thanks again for participating in our drawing with Georgie Beauty.
This week, Jeanne Jewett will be receiving a gift set of Winks by Georgie L'Avant-Gardiste Lash Compact and a second set of Winks! Be sure to tune in later this week to check out the next cool drawing :)
Congratulations, Jeanne Jewett!

My Life Today: Pardon Me While I Rant.... Plus Pictures!

Hi guys, I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I am one of those people who don't much enjoy holidays, at least not these days. I'm pretty notorious for being in a ton of pain on holidays, but despite my solid wall of pain, I was usually able to enjoy the holidays when I was living back home. Now that my boyfriend and I live together, 600+ miles from my family, the holidays pretty much just depress me. I think it's partly cabin fever, and SAD but it really is mostly that the holidays just remind me of what I'm missing out on in life. Seeing all of those awesome Black Friday deals wasn't helping either, and I finally caved in and bought my first Above the Curve polish. So anyway, I'm kind of happy this Thanksgiving weekend is finally over.

All last week I was in a bad mood and for whatever reason, I was especially angry about all of the stores being open on Thanksgiving. As I was sitting all alone in my house during the last hours of Thanksgiving, it finally dawned on me why I was so angry; yes, I think it's crap that these places stay open on Thanksgiving and so the employees have to work, and then don't have as much time to spend with their families. But you know what? What about the families of the people who GO shopping on Thanksgiving? That's less time we have to spend with our families, just because someone wants to save a few extra bucks. I know. Mike, his sister and her husband all went people watching on Thanksgiving, and while they weren't actually shopping for anything, I refused to go because I didn't want to have anything to do with the stores being open on Thanksgiving. Thus I was left home alone feeling angry all over again. Great way to spend Thanksgiving. So yes, I'm angry at the stores for being open on Thanksgiving, but ya know what? Sometimes my own principles are just a royal pain in the ass and cause me nothing but pain and frustration.

So that was how I spent the last few hours of my Thanksgiving evening, being angry and frustrated and lonely, and of course depressed. Eventually Mike & his family came back to our house, and they even brought their daughter with them, so we eventually had a good time, even though like I said... solid wall of pain the entire time. So, I suppose that was my own fault for handling the situation as I did.. you live and learn I suppose.

But hey, I'm *finally* getting a new Christmas Indie polish from a friend whose polish I've been wanting to try out for a long time, yippee! :D

Now that THAT is out of my system, I do have a whole bunch of pictures to share with you... but first, silly me.. I forgot I have 1 more thing to rant about :P

I don't know about you all, but I've been feeling VERY disconnected from the nail blogging community lately and it's really making me sad. There are people I used to talk with almost daily, and now we rarely talk. I know that's partly my fault, and I know a lot of them are just busy, I get that. But Facebook, you suck! Seriously, I subscribe to so many different blogs and each day I see so few posts on Facebook and as of late it seems I'm seeing fewer and fewer posts. So of course, I know it's not just me... I know a lot of you aren't seeing my posts, either, and that really makes me sad. I miss you all. I'm grateful for those of you I do interact with (THANK YOU SAMANTHA!) but I hate that Facebook has left us all so disconnected. It's not just Facebook, either. I do almost all of my blog reading from Bloglovin... so if I'm not following you via Bloglovin I'm probably not seeing many if any of your posts. Recently though, even Bloglovin hasn't been sending me my daily subscription feed email. Obviously, I can always go to Bloglovin and look through all of the blogs that way, but honestly I don't always have time to do so... the emails are just so much more convenient for me.

So I don't really know what to do about it, I guess I'm just wondering if I'm alone in this? Feeling so disconnected from everyone, I mean. I wish I didn't have this brain injury & damage, I would create a social networking place just for us nail bloggers :P (anyone else up to the challenge? :D)

edit: it looks like I'm getting my first Barielle polish. Have you seen their deal? free shipping and you get a free top coat with any order! I picked Elle's Spell because now is definitely the perfect time for a new red flakie :)

OK.. now for some pictures!

I got started with my Christmas decorations this past week, so here's some Christmas decor spam for you! Since we have little extra money, I usually just make decorations from things around the house, and each year I make a few more new decorations.

I don't wear jewelry often, but I thought Thanksgiving was the perfect time to wear some of the bracelets I won from Sabina Supernova.

I was showing off my nail polish to Josh and Amanda, Mike's sister & brotherinlaw, and they were curious about my crackles so I tried out my crackles from Tip Top Nails South Africa again. I also tried out Julep's matte top coat on my pinky. You probably can't really tell how matte it is because the crackles themselves are already so matte to begin with, but I could definitely tell the difference between the Julep and my Seche Vite.

I also got started on my Christmas baking... I started off with Monster cookies! These are basically a mixture of butter, sugars, eggs, oats, peanut butter, corn syrup, M&Ms and chocolate chips. For the most part, mine fell apart on me this time. Some batches are just like that, although the past few times I've made cookies they just haven't turned out right.. I think it's because my oven is goofy.

We finally got a wee bit of snow yesterday.. just a dusting, but it's the most we've had this year and it's more than what we typically get this time of year.

I also tried out the glue method this weekend... but I think I'm going to save that for another post :)

So that pretty much wraps up my week... I have a TON of reviews to share with you within the next few weeks, and of course there will probably be another weekly giveaway. The Christmas polish posts seem to be slowing down in my news feed, but I do have at least 1 or 2 more posts planned to share with you!

Have a good week :)

Giveaway reminder

Check out my giveaway for a chance to win a Winks by Georgie L'Avant-Gardiste Lash Compact and a second set of lashes.

"Like" if you love the way long lashes make your eyes pop! :)
http://bit.ly/Uz0S95

Weekly Giveaway

My weekly giveaway is live!

Love long lashes?

Awesome drawing with Georgie Beauty (the all natural cruelty-free faux lash company!)
Enter for a chance to receive their Winks by Georgie L'Avant-Gardiste Lash Compact and a second set of lashes. They are featured in both Nordstorms and Niemann Marcus!
http://bit.ly/Uz0S95

The contest will begin Thursday at 2:00 p.m. PST and ends on Sunday night at 5:00 p.m. PST. 

Congratulations go out to this week's winner, Jeanne Jewett!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans! I hope you all have a nice day and hopefully you're able to spend it with your families. I don't know what we're doing yet, but at least I know I'll be with my boyfriend no matter what we're doing. Today I'm very thankful to have him by my side. I really miss my family back in Ohio, but I'm also thankful to have had such a loving family to begin my life with. Above all else though, I'm thankful for the roof over our heads, and the food in our bellies. Of course, I'm also very thankful I have such awesome followers and friends in the nail blogging community!

This week I'm trying out another Tip Top Nails polish, and this one is called Frenzee. I'm going to hold off on doing a full review of it, but I do want to share my manicure with you all! I decided to break out my fan brush for this one. I used Frenzee, Maybelline Downtown Brown, Ulta Underneath It All and finished with Kleancolor Peaceful Heart.

I absolutely love how this manicure turned out. Unfortunately my camera wouldn't let me capture the full metallic shine of this manicure, but I can tell you it is gorgeous.. it reminds me a bit of hand worked copper. I think it's also a great manicure for this time of year because it also reminds me of chocolate syrup mixed in ice cream :D

I do believe all of these were taken at night with the flash.

(Please ignore the mess on my figures in this photo... I didn't notice until later that while I did clean up, some of the polish left a tint on my fingers :P)

This next one was taken during the day, in the shade.

This last photo was taken under indirect sunlight.

So that's my simple Thanksgiving manicure! This was my first time using the fan brush for a manicure and I have to say I love it. I think I'm going to do another fan brush manicure next week... only for a different holiday ;)

Thanks for reading & I hope you all have a lovely day.

Cook'n Black Friday Special

I wanted to let you all know about this awesome special from Cook'n. Right now, they are offering Cook'n (normally $80) for only $20; that's 75% off!! This would make a great Christmas present for someone special.

They have a couple of other awesome specials going on right now, so check out their site!

Here's my review if you missed it, in case you want to hear more about what I think of this awesome software.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Winter Polishes Part 8

OK so I'm way behind on the Winter Polishes posts. I just haven't felt like dealing with it as of late (in part because Blogger messes up now everytime I try to add pictures, save, close the post, then go back to it later... so I can't just type up part of it here and there like I used to be able to do, stupid Blogger.) Soooo... lot's to show you!

A whole bunch of bloggers have been busy swatching the Jindie Nails Santa Claw Collection, including Pointless Cafe, Holographic Hussy, Polish Monster and Glitter Puke.

Pointless Cafe also showed us some of the new polishes from Wet n' Wild. I didn't even know they had new polishes until I saw this post. She also shared Dandy Nails Winter Collection with us, and I do like Chilled Down, as well as some of the new Pure Ice polishes in the Velours collection. She was also lucky enough to swatch some of the Above the Curve polishes... I think a couple of these are among my favorites for the season!

Work Play Polish swatched the new Essie polishes for us.

While Jilltastic Nail Design was busy showing us the new polishes from Darling Diva Polish.

Jazz at Glitter Infatuation showed off one of the new Sinful Colors polishes, which I still can't find in my local stores.

Polish Etc. swatched some lovely Christmas polishes from Pretty and Polished, as did Polish Monster. Colores de Carol showed us some of her swatches, and even held a giveaway but boo I didn't win :( Tall Girl in Heels, Chalkboard Nails and Samarium's Swatches also swatched some of these pretty polishes.

Tall Girl in Heels also showed us some of the new 365 Days of Color line.

If you haven't seen the new Color Club Winter Affair Collection, Colores de Carol has some pretty swatches for you to see. Lacquer or Leave Her has more swatches of this collection as well.

Check out these beautiful swatches of  Elixir Lacquers Holiday Trio from Nail Polish Wars.

Set in Lacquer swatched some gorgeous, gorgeous polishes from a salon only brand called Venique, which I had never heard of before her post. If you're like me, and love dark colors, this collection is a must see!

I Dig Brown Nails showed off a couple of her December polishes which will be released in her line, Elevation Polish.

Leave it to Crystaliciousss to show us some more unique European polishes, this time a brand called Essentiel Antwerp.

The Polish Jinx swatched some of the new China Glaze holos for us, and maybe even found a dupe within some of her old China Glazes. Set in Lacquer showed us some of the new China Glaze Holiday Joy collection.

Hello Lacquer showed off some of the new Model City Polishes and I gotta say, I'm too busy looking at her super cute background to pay much attention to the polishes! :P

The Crumpet tried out the Crows Toes Christmas collection, and boy they look pretty.

Midnight Manicures showed us the new Barielle Fall/Winter 2012 polishes in their Times Square collection.

Of Life and Lacquer tried out the new Jessica Glamarama Collection.

Adventures in Polishland had an Indie Spotlight with the Santa Baby Holiday Collection from Different Dimension.

Oddly enough, I just realized I've barely seen any of the Feenix Polish Holiday Collection, but Taneja's Bride did swatch them.

Definitely check out these beautiful swatches from Cameo of Cameo's Colours Lacquers.

More Nail Polish showed off some Orly polishes which will become available in Australia in December. Here's her Loki's Lacquer Holiday collection swatches.

Now at last, here are some picture for you. Up first is polishes from Rainbow Polish.

Next are some swatches from Candii Polished

Check out these super cute bottles from Flash Your Tips.

Sally Hansen shared their new Limited Edition Holiday Salon Effects polish strips with us. I still haven't tried out my Salon Effects... these look really cute if they work well.

I got a peek at the new FingerPaints Holiday of Wonders collection at Sally Beauty Blog

I have a bunch of pictures to show you with Chaos and Crocodiles new polishes!

Check out these unique polishes, and more, on their Facebook page.


Look how cute these polishes from JENsations are!

Here's a look at the polishes from Lush Lacquer.

Beauty Crazed in Canada shared Yves Rocher's new makeup line, and there are a couple of polishes there!

XOXO Alexis Leigh had a giveaway where you could win the new colors from LVX. I'm really loving that blue but it looks like it may be a dupe for LA Splash Blowfish Blue.

The Lacquer Factor alerted us to the fact that OPI has new magnetic polishes out for the holidays.. I'm rather disappointed in these by the pictures. They look pretty flat. She also swatched the new Butter London polishes if you haven't seen them yet. Taneja's Bride also swatched the Butter Londons so check out her pretty swatches as well.

Here's some of the new polishes from Utopia's Polish.

If you love the movie Elf,  here's a collection for you: Buddy the Elf from Daily Lacquer.

If you love Floam, Ninja Polish has Festive Floam for you!

Lynnderella posted pictures of her new polishes which are being sold on eBay. The entire collection is currently at just under $300 which amounts to $20 a piece. I know there are still a lot of Lynnderella fans out there, but yikes that's a lot of money. I'm sure these babies will be snatched up eventually...

All That Glitters shared her new polishes and actually if you go to her Facebook page, she has a bunch more pictures up today.

I'm kind of blown away by these pictures of the new polishes from Maisie Shine; they are all just absolutely gorgeous!

I think I kind of need Wonderland...

Cosmetic Sanctuary swatched one of the new polishes from SoFlaJo's Party Time Collection.

Here are the Chrismas in the City Collection polishes from F4Polish!

I got an email from Birchbox which showed some exclusive etoile Winter in Central Park polishes which I just thought I should share with you. Nothing super special, but they are pretty colors.

 I got an email awhile ago about the new polishes from I Love Nail Polish.

So, that's just a handful of the new polishes I've seen over the past few weeks and to be perfectly honest, some of them are starting to look alike. Probably a sign I've been looking at these for too long :P

So, got any favorites from the collections this year?