Birthday Giveaway!

***GIVEAWAY CLOSED***

Thanks everyone for your well wishes on my birthday last week!

I mentioned that I was going to have a Birthday Giveaway in my last post; this is my current mani using one of the polishes** that's part of the giveaway.



Orly La Playa, topped Nicole by OPI Top of My World (part of giveaway); stamped using Nicole by OPI Give me the Moon using fauxnad Big SdP I. (Feel free to click on any image to see layering better.)

Here's mani in progress...two coats of Orly La Playa.


Topped with one coat Nicole by OPI Top Of My World.


Then stamped with Nicole by OPI Give Me The Moon. I was away for the weekend and didn't have my usual go-to silver stamping polish with me. So I went into town to see what I could use for a silver stamping polish and seen another Bieb's polish, Nicole by OPI Give Me The Moon, that I thought would work so picked it up. I was pleasantly surprised at the results...it stamped pretty decently and had a nice glow-y finish to it, versus the plain metallic of my regular silver stamping polish, Nicole by OPI Positive Energy. The image is from Big SdP I, one of the new plates I got last week.



Just to show a little bit more of the versatility of Nicole by OPI Top Of My World, I put one coat of Icing Frost Yourself on my right hand (please overlook the poor polish application and cleanup!). Kinda cool to see the silver sparkle along with the dark and light blue from Top of My World.



Now the giveaway details!

First of all, a huge thank you to anyone who is already following my little blog already! I started blogging a little over a year ago, just to keep track of my stamping mani's one by one. Not too long after, there were 100 followers, then 300. Around the time of my last giveaway ending, my little blog had around 500 followers; give or take a few. Some followers dropped off here and there in between but over 100followers starting following after my last giveaway; it was fantastic to see followers following just because they wanted to see whats on my nails on any given day! After it was too late to do a giveaway for my one year blogeversary which passed before I realized it, I decided that my next giveaway would be tied into my birthday mani...and here it is!

I've decided to do things a little different this giveaway and have a poll or ballot of sorts versus just leaving a comment as my giveaways have been in the past. This way you can decide how you want your votes to count for whatever prize versus arbitrarily getting x prize when your name is drawn as in my past giveaways.

Please note that this giveaway will be open until Sunday, October 1, 2011; and is open internationally. Once all the results have been tallied, they will be drawn at random, emails will be sent to those who had their name drawn and they will have 48 hours to reply. Should a reply not be received, another name will be drawn for the prize.

The rest of the info is in the form below; hopefully I've covered everything!

Here's the polishes in the giveaway:

Prize #1: Three Nicole by OPI's, left to right: Coral Denominator, Top of My World, Canadian Star.


Top of My World is very cool for layering as hopefully you can see in the pix. I did a mani using Coral Denominator a while back here. These Bieber Nicole by OPI's are *suppose* to be Canadian exclusive, but I've read that the mini of them are in Walmart stores in US. Can't say for sure that they are or not, but none the less, they sure are pretty!

Edit: I've recently used Nicole by OPI Canadian Star in a mani; you can check it out here.

Edit: I've again used Nicole by OPI Top of My World here.

Prize #2: Three Icing Polishes, left to right: Rock Star from Mars, Tiger's Blood and Epic Winning.


These are those *Charlie Sheen* polishes from a few months ago; I did a mani here using Epic Winning.

Prize #3: Three LA Girls Glitter Addict polishes; left to right: Uninhibited, Animate and Explosion.



I've yet to do a mani with these but based upon mani's and swatches I've seen on the blogesphere, these LA Girls Glitter Addict polishes are some very cool glitter! These were my 3 faves from the collex (the black glitter is amazing....IMHO!! I can't believe I haven't layered with it yet...so many polishes, too little time I guess!)

Update: I've done a mani here using Uninhibited.

Prize #4: Three Oops! Jealous, left to right: T08, T13, T06.





T08 is in a taupe-like base, T13 is in a pink/rose base, T06 is in an aqua marine base. I may have to update this once I've done swatches, but this is what my untrained eye sees!

Prize #5: Three Oops! Jealous, left to right: No. T07, T16, T01.


T07 is in a royal blue base; T16 in gold base, T01 is in black or grey base. (I've never swatched these even so may have to update this once I do, but this is what my uneducated eye sees!)

I don't know if you can see this from the pix, but these Oops! Jealous polishes are holographic bar glitters in various base colours....got these at a local beauty supply place and thought very cool. I don't know too much about these, but I'm surmising they aren't BF3-free as they are very smelly...cool, but smelly!

Here's everything all together.



**Please note that all the polishes in the giveaway are new and were bought specifically for this giveaway. Any swatches I've done are with my own bottles of polish.

Here's the ballot form. (Please note that all information shared is confidential and will be used for no purpose other than for the giveaway. I know from my last giveaway, there was some hesitant to give out email addresses but please be assured I'm the only one who will see the information.)

**form removed; giveaway closed!**
I'll try to do some more mani's in the upcoming weeks featuring the polishes in the giveaway so you get a feel for those you like the most! I don't want to link any one's blog or post any pix unauthorized so if you aren't familiar with any of them, feel free to google the polishes for more pix!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday (to Me)!! Plus New Plate Previews!!!!

Another year has passed; 29.....again...! Or based on my mani, 18! This is my HB mani.



Very girly, girl teenage-type of mani...probably more suited to my DD but oh well. I feel 18 at heart...except I wish I had the energy of an 18 year old!

Here's mani in progress. I thought I'd try my first (I think!) ombre mani.



Starting at thumb, left to right: OPI Mod About You, OPI Pink-ing of You, Zoya Jolene, OPI Don't Know...Beets Me, and OPI Your a Pisa Work. All are two coats except Pink-ing of You, which was three.

Then stamped using Konad special polish in black. Used IP's SdP D-08, SdP C-12, SdP B-20, SdP C-18, SdP C-06 and Konad m71.


Then added a few random dots in the colours used as the base coat, and a few black using Konad black special polish. (These special polishes work great for dotting as they are really pigmented but they do dry fairly fast so you have to be quick!).



And my new plates arrived! Let's just say I'm more excited about getting new image plates than the fact that today is my birthday!!! They arrived a couple days ago, just in time to be considered a present. At least, that's the story I told my husband, and I'm sticking to it! And thanks dear, for the 3 new fall Chanels...Peridot (very birthday appropriate!), Graphite and Quartz, ahem!



Anyway, as soon as I got my new SdP IP's, I did a bit of swatching...here's some pix if you want to have a look! You may wish to click to enlarge to see more of the details. I cannot wait to do some stamping with these!








What birthday would be complete without presents? My next post will announce my latest giveaway!

Thanks for looking!

Sparkly Stars!

This is another one of my layering experiments-Nina Ultra Pro Ruby Fire topped with Nicole by OPI Spark My Mistletoe.



Stamped using Nicole by OPI Positive Energy, using Big SdP B.


Here's mani in progress. Two coats of Nina Ultra Pro Ruby Fire.


Topped with one coat of Nicole by OPI Spark my Mistletoe.



Then stamped.



Just before I took it off, I put on a coat of Essie matte polish on it; I really liked the look of this and may have worn it for a day except I had some tip wear that was starting to really bug me :(



Thanks for looking!

Oh and before I forget, Shirley is looking for some image plate design suggestions for upcoming plates (I guess?); if there's designs you want to see, leave your comments here. I know there's a bunch of images/designs on stamping plates I'd like to see and have left quite a few suggestions...she's probably tired of hearing from me by now!

I also want to stress (because lately I've been use these SdP plates A LOT), that I'm not affiliated with Shirley in any way; I've paid for all the image plates you see on this blog...I just happen to think they are some of the coolest designs out there right now so can't help reaching for them again and again when I do my nail designs! Also, I've been kinda lazy in my stamping (really, its a no time issue versus being lazy!) so been using a lot of full image designs and these SdP plates have lots of variety and are quick to stamp a design on to be honest!!

Zoya Midori; Layered and Stamped!

Zoya Midori, topped with Chanel Illusion D'or, stamped with Konad White special polish.

Here's mani in progress; two coats of Zoya Midori.

Topped with one coat of Chanel Illusion D'or. I remember when this came out and layering with it was all over the net. Don't see much of it now, I guess because so there's so many other cool layering options...and so much creativity in the blogesphere!

Then stamped using Konad special polish in white.

Added a few dots in Konad pastel yellow.

This pix shows the stamping a little better.


I really like that this stamp shows the layering combo and the polish doesn't get lost in the stamping as sometimes happens. Its always a challenge for me to come up with a stamp that lets the polish still shine through. Feel free to click to enlarge.

I also want to say a huge "thank you" to everyone for checking out my little blog and it hitting another follower milestone-600 over the weekend! Thanks so much!

Thanks for looking!

Let's Do It in 3D

My posts are always a little wordy so this post, I decided that the pictures can do (most of) the talking!



This is China Glaze Let's Do it In 3D, stamped with Konad black special polish, dotted with CND Sweet. Image plate is Big SdP F.

Mani in progress, started with two coats of Let's Do it in 3D. Normally, I would use the Nfu-oh Aqua base coat or matte polish for the base, but my nails were already prepped with Instant Artificials but I had no problem with application; it still sent on smooth as silk.

A few different pix as some show more holo then others; these were all in artificial light.

Stamped.

Decided to add a few dots to this one to brighten it/jazz it up a little.

This mani was really cool looking but the pictures just do not do it justice. The holo is more obvious if you click on the pix to enlarge.

I was really into this edgy look and could easily see myself wearing the grey/black combo during fall and winter; would really compliment a lot of my winter wardrobe.

The pix below was taken the next day in sunlight.

Thanks for looking!

nails inc. has arrived in Canada!

As soon as I read that Sephora at the Eaton's Centre would be carrying nails inc. in August, I contacted them right away for a release date; they said starting August 8th. Well, its a good thing I called before I headed downtown because they didn't actually go on the shelf until August 9th...I called them at 10 am to confirm and was there picking out my colours by 11! I had the whole display to myself to pick from as the display was full except just one lone polish that was missing. Here's one of them.



nails inc. Westminster, stamped with Nicole by OPI Positive Energy.

Here's mani in progress. Westminster by itself. This is one coat! I probably should have done a second coat just to even out the application a bit, but I knew I'd be stamping and top coating it several times so left it at one.



Then stamped using Nicole by OPI Positive Energy; image plate Big SdP F.



Then to jazz it up a bit, a little holo sparkle.



Lastly, a few random dots using CND Plumville.



Sephora at Eaton's Centre in Toronto is one of only a few Sephora's in Canada that will be exclusively carrying them. (I called Sephora at Sherway Gardens and Square One to see if they got them; they confirmed that nails inc. would be carried exclusively at Eaton's Centre). There's also several Sephora locations in USA that they will be carried too....and a lot of UK gals already have had access to these great polishes so you probably already have them!



Here's the nails inc. release of the locations that will have them as well as the colours they are carrying if you want to see if there's a location near you. FYI, they had four of the sparkle effects in stock as well as crackle. They retailed in Toronto for $11.50 (some polishes where higher with the rhinestone tops and they did have a few trio sets); they are 10 ml's in size. I swatched four polishes when I was trying to figure out which one I wanted to do my mani in and they all appeared to be one coaters so that's good news when the size is a little smaller!

Thanks for looking!

PS: Anyone in GTA looking for the fall Sally Hansen's (Pumpkin Spice), I seen them yesterday at Rexall/PharmaPlus so they too have now arrived in Canada!! And Peridot and the other fall Chanels are also at Murale in Toronto...so if you were waiting for them to arrive, check out your local Chanel counter!

Vacation Nails-Part Six!

This is the last of my vacation nails....while I could post lots more pictures of both mani's and vacation stuff, I'm sure there's little fun for those checking out my blog in seeing "Vacation Nails-Part Seventy-Seven" lol! I fully appreciate that what I find interesting may not appeal to others.....plus I have other mani's I've already done in between these that I want to post. In addition, I've picked up the China Glaze Metro collex, did a haul of nails inc at Sephora at Eaton's Centre the day they debuted that I thought I'd share as nails inc is now available at select Sephora's in US and Canada now...plus some other exciting posts I want to share soon too! So while I have lots of inspiration from my holiday's, plus am actually going away again in a week and am sure I'll get more ideas, this will be the end of the extra shots of scenery versus my boring ol' nails!

Here's the last mani.



Who would have thought there'd be a chipmunk stamping image! I found this while going thru my image plates. I think some of these images will be cool for some fall nails too...which will be around the corner in no time!

Mani in progress. Started with two coats of China Glaze Cyberspace. While the holo may not be terribly visible, if you click on the pix, it is more obvious in some of them.



Stamping using plates T41, fauxnad F and B02.



A variety of Konad special polishes were used which where gold black pearl, deep jungle, apple green, yellow, red and chocolate.



Added a few dots to Chippy (that's what we call all the chipmunks we see)!



Then added a few random leaves around some of the images in the same colours used. This last pix was taken the next morning in the sun in an attempt to see if more holo would be obvious in Cyberspace.....but unfortuantely, the holo in the Tronica collex was very subtle....OMG collex it is not!



And here's Chippy!






To be honest, I'm not even sure they are the same chipmunk as there were lots scurrying around and I took pix over several days!

I've had a lot of fun trying to come up with mani's using the pix of my holidays as inspiration! It was actually a good opportunity to check out all my image plates again. I've come up with more inspiration of other mani's for the future which will be posted as they come to fruition.

Thanks for looking!