GIVEAWAY! One Year Anniversary!

Hey everyone!

I'm hosting a small giveaway to celebrate my one year anniversary, which is November 7th!  I certainly have grown quite a bit in a year.  I've met some wonderful people, improved my photography skills and have stopped biting my nails... I think permanently, because I don't have the urge anymore.   So far, I am not bored; none in the least.  I am still excited to read other bloggers' posts and I am constantly amazed at the talent and creativity out there.  So what I'm trying to say is, that you can still count on me to continue to post nail and nail polish related content through 2013.

I've amassed 92 wonderful followers in a year and this is my first giveaway.  Seeing as I don't have many followers and about 300 hits a day, there's a better chance than most,  that if you enter this giveaway, you'll win.

Rules First:

This giveaway is open internationally, but I can not ship to Mexico, Central America, South America, Russia, the Middle East and Africa.  I know... I'm very sorry, (insurance reasons).

Requirements:

You must be a GFC follower, or follow via Bloglovin.

You must leave a link in the comments section to a nail related blog post or you tube video that you have found helpful.  It can be a how-to, nail and hand care, product review, etc.  Please also include what the post or video is about.

Dates:
Starts now.  Ends November 12, 2013, eastern standard time, midnight.  I will announce the winner on Tuesday morning.

Prize:

OPI DS Magic, OPI DS Opulence, Badger Shea Butter Cuticle Care Balm (USDA organic!), 2 Revlon Crystal Files.

Good LUCK!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Halloween Night! China Glaze - Ghoulish Glow

Yep, yep... everyone is out trick or treatin and I'm at home posting..... a Halloween mani from hell.

Does this look scary?  No... oh, okay.

Happy Halloween!!!

Here is three coats of Ghoulish glow all by itself.  It is translucent, kind of foggy looking.



And in the DARK!  The more coats you put on the higher the glow intensity.

Then I added some nail wraps.  These were a total bitch to put on right!  I'm not doing this again.

You can go ahead and tell me - "Ummm, Jenni, this looks like a five year old did your nails.."
Go ahead.  I won't be offended.  I might get defensive, but I won't be offended.  Plus my hands look terribly dry!  I'm cringing!

Horrible, horrible, horrible.  It took me an hour and half to apply these wraps and there was no way this was going to be wrinkle free.  The cashier at Sally's warned me that they were horrible.  She advised me not to go all the way to the edge because of peeling issues.  Well they started peeling at the cuticles instead.  On top of it, after apply Seche Vite, the entire nail wrap just start to pucker.  Testament to the Seche Vite shrinkage theory.

Here they are in the dark!  Neat, huh?

I painted black tips to hide all the wrinkling at the tips, which worked out okay.
But they still look bad to my standards.

In the dark again.

See the puckering from Seche? 
Black tips are Sinful Colors Black on Black.... an excellent black to own, I might add.

Here are my nails without the bottle so you can see how they really glow.

Well that's it for now!  I hope everyone is having a nice time tonight. 

Thanks for all the caring comments in previous post.  My hubby, animals and I survived the storm.  All of us are intact, no damage to anything or anyone.  I am content indoors with electricity and heat!  There are many things to be grateful for right?

Go Pink Wednesday - Candeo Colors - Melonball

The last pink Wednesday!

This is going to be a short post... This is one coat of melonball sandwiched between two coats of Orly's Rose Colored Glasses. 

Have a looksie.

I am so grateful to have been able to participate in Go Pink Wednesday.  It was fun sharing with all of you wonderful ladies!

Happy Halloween!

I have a Halloween mani I may try to post later today.  We shall see.  Yea for electricity and heat!

Funky French with Bare Bones and Brownstone

Hey there!

I don't know if I'll be around the next couple of days.  Hurricane Sandy is suppose to make landfall tomorrow morning and I'll probably be out of power, thus no Internet....   so God help us!  The grocery stores have been ransacked and there was crowd at Lowes madly grabbing at the generators.  There were three large stacks (36 generators) and I looked at them, walked away, got some outlet covers. (I'm painting a spare bedroom.) When I came back, my husband says.. "Look! One whole stack is gone already!!!"

So I said, "Do you want to get one?"  (They were $649).

He answered, "What's the wattage output?"  What kind of answer is that?  Silly goose!

"Beats me?"  I said back to him.... I think he started panicking because the crowd was, then he started to frantically read the side of the boxes.  I can see how the panic is contagious.  I started hoarding canned ravioli at the grocery store, just because other people were hoarding food too.  I put a few back.

Well, we didn't get one.  I hope we don't regret it, but I can live without electricity for a day or two and the environment might feel a little relief if some of us can actually stop burning some fossil fuels for a day.  I really start to get concerned when the water gets shut off.  The last time that happened was 2003, with Hurricane Isabelle.  Well we have two, 50 gallon rain barrels so we can at least flush the toilets.

Anyhow, I leave you with this funky french to have a gander at.

There's Bare Bones, my most visited swatch.

Bottle shot of Brownstone.

Revlon's Bare Bones is my number one, most visited post of all time, which amazes me.  It is a nice color and all but the formula is not the best.  It's from the colorstay collection which I have come to conclusion that the extra cost is not justified.  I don't think it lasts longer than regular polish and they take forever to dry.  Plus they don't work very well with my China Glaze top coat.  I had some bubbling issues (after applying top coat) and the paint started to run all over the place too (also, after I applied top coat).  I forgot I should have used the Revlon quick dry top coat instead.  Oh well...

Brownstone is from last year's China Glaze Metro collection.  Don't be a smart ass and ask me uptown or downtown because I don't think that matters. haha  Anyways, its a nice rusty brown and the formula on that is superb.  My bottle has been sitting around for over a year and I didn't have to shake it, it still looks new.  Where as bare bones,on the other hand, the pigments were separating and it needed a good shaking and inversion for a couple of hours before I decided I could paint with it.

Soooo, if your in the Mid-Atlantic or Northeastern U.S.,  (Shout out in the comments section!)  I will be hunkering down to ride out the storm with you.

Otherwise, I'll see you after the storm passes and the sun comes back out!

Orly - Mermaid Tale

Happy Friday!

Today's post is going to be picture heavy because I had such a hard time capturing the allure of Mermaid Tale, a glitter from Orly's Flash Glam Fx Collection.  Mermaid Tale has green holographic hex glitters mixed with green micro glitter. It really sparkles and flashes aqua, yellow and orange in real life.  I decided to layer one coat over Kiko 374.  Either my skin looks gross or the glitters look flat...  Take a look.

Indirect sunlight.

Lots of aqua flashes.

Yellow shows up on the middle finger.

Pinky finger is clear in this photo.

My skin looks gross but here is a nice shot at the bottle.

I've had this bottle since June and am now just getting to it!  Too many bottles, such little time! I think this would look really pretty over a light blue polish....hmmmm for spring!  Or over a red for Christmas!

Thoughts?

Kiko - 374 - Dark Brown Shimmer

Hey guys!

Today I'm going to show you a wonderful nail polish from Kiko, a brand we can't get here in the U.S. The lovely M over at Criminal Nails and I had an awesome swapping experience. Apparently the prices of OPI and China Glaze are out of control in Europe, and I'm always drooling at swatches of Catrice, P2, Anny and Kiko, so I think we are grateful to have become swapping buddies!

Here is Kiko, number 374, a dark blackened brown shimmer.  Gorgeous color and gorgeous formula to match.  If you can be consistent at painting each nail with a thick coat, this could be a one coater.... but I'm not, so this is two coats.  You can't tell, but my pinky and ring fingers are one coat.  Kiko is made in France, by the way; it's nice to see something not made in China for once, not that I expected it to be.... anyhow.

Below is what M chose for me, she has really good taste.  Kiko 374, 363, 362, 300.

Before you leave today, I urge you to go and check out Criminal Nails!  M is brutally honest and her designs are bold.  By day, she's a lawyer, and in her off time, I think she's kind of a misfit. I have a feeling if she lived in America she would drive a Mustang and have a Harley in the garage. She makes it a point not to be an advertising machine for nail polish manufacturers and showcases her style and shares her ideas.  I can truly appreciate that and find it refreshing.

Well, that's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Go Pink Wednesday - Zoya - Alegra

Hey there!

It's time to honor Breast Cancer Awareness again!  I'm wearing a special, sparkly, fuchsia, metallic foil polish; Alegra from Zoya.  Below is two coats.

Alegra totally reminded me of Ahoy... but my memory is obviously foggy.  As you can see below they are totally different.

A very good place to learn about breast cancer is from the American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/index?ssSourceSiteId=null 

All of the information provided there is from experts in the field, up to date and peer reviewed.
Muy importante!

Well that's it for now!  Add your post below!