Tuesday, June 21, 2011

i am loopy. froot loopy!

Good morning!

I'm sure a lot of you have seen posts on this already, but here is mine.
My lovely friend Leslie had a nail art competition and she got 48 entries!!
I am in no way expecting to win, there are so many lovely entries, but I really do like mine! Haha.

I'm entry #6. Froot Loops!


I think my photos are adorable too :P

Interested in learning how I did this manicure? I went about it in a sort of strange way.


This is what I did first. I did the nails in random half-and-half patterns, and I sponged a lighter color on top of each one to give it that textured, Froot Loop look.
Purple:
China Glaze - Spontaneous
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Lacey Lilac
Pink:
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri - Presto Pink
Wet N Wild Wild Shine - Tickled Pink
Yellow:
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Mellow Yellow
Joe Fresh - Butter
Green:
China Glaze - Entourage
China Glaze - Re-Fresh Mint
Orange:
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Sun Kissed
China Glaze - Peachy Keen

Then I added hole reinforcements to each side, and painted over the while thing with white.
I cleaned up any messy parts, added Seche Vite, and it was done!

A bit of a silly manicure, but I like it all the same.

Check out all the entries, and vote for me if you like mine the best :)

Monday, June 20, 2011

it's hard to come up with titles for polka dot nail art

Hey guys, today I have a special post for you!
Me and a bunch of lovely ladies from Polish-aholics Anonymous have decided to start doing themed manicures on Mondays!

This week's theme was an easy one to get it all started - polka dots.


And here's what I came up with! Loosley based off this design by Tammy at Gettin' Girlie.
It is actually so simple but a ton of people complimented me on it and asked how I painted "such perfect circles."

Well my friends, it's just a dot on top of a dot. Really.


One dot.


Two dots!


Piece of cake!
This took me all of 5 minutes, haha.
I used a large dotting tool for the first dots and a medium one for the second dots, but you don't need dotting tools.
You can use just about anything with a round end on it - bobby pin, toothpick, the end of a paint brush, the end of an eyeliner tube, anything really. Experiment with different sized objects and gets lots of different sized dots!

If you want some dotting tools, though, they are super cheap on ebay. I reviewed the ones I have here.

This mani started with one coat of Wet N Wild Wild Shine Black Creme.


One coat black. I will never use another black again in my life. I have 4 bottles of this.
AND it is the best black for stamping. It works just as good as Konad black polish.

The dots were done with China Glaze Romantique polishes.
I showed you Harmony before, here.
And I used 2 other colors which my dad bought for me this month!


China Glaze - Adore.


China Glaze - Emotion.


The Romantique polishes are very good for stamping.


Romantique polishes can be unforgiving if you have ridges or peelies on your nails. Thankfully my nails are not problematic and these swatches are without base coat, but you may need to use a base coat with this sort of color, depending on your nail condition.

There you have it! My first themed Monday Mani. Hopefully I will have many more to show you.
I can't wait for next week!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

favorite polish results!

Hi guys! I have tallied up the results for everyone's favorite polish! There were 365 votes in total.
Some people said brands that I hadn't heard of and couldn't find on Google so I didn't include those.

1. Nfu-Oh - 61 (8 votes!)
2. Rebecca Likes Cupcakes (7 votes! I think people said this for brownie points! Haha!)
3. China Glaze - For Audrey (6 votes)

Five people voted for each of the following polishes:
Gosh – Holographic
Nubar – 2010
OPI – Black Shatter
OPI - DS Original
OPI – Teenage Dream

Four people each:
China Glaze – Ruby Pumps
Deborah Lippmann – Across the Universe
OPI – Lincoln Park After Dark
OPI – OPI Ink
OPI - Mermaids Tears
OPI – You Don’t Know Jacques!
Orly - Space Cadet

Three people each:
China Glaze – DV8
China Glaze – Dorothy Who?
China Glaze – LOL
China Glaze – OMG
Clarins – 230
Deborah Lippmann – Happy Birthday
Essie – Coat Azure
OPI – Absolutely Alice
OPI – My Private Jet
OPI – Russian Navy
OPI – Stranger Tides
OPI – What’s With The Cattitude?

Two people each:
Barry M – Pink Flamingo
China Glaze – 108 Degrees
China Glaze – Fairy Dust
China Glaze – Flip Flop Fantasy
China Glaze – Frostbite
China Glaze – Midnight Mission
China Glaze – TTYL
Deborah Lippmann – Glitter In The Air
Essence – Choose Me!
Essie – Mint Candy Apple
Essie – Turquoise and Caicos
Essie – Watermelon
Gosh – Gasoline
Joe Fresh – Twilight
Misa – Office Polish-tics
OPI – Aphrodite’s Pink Nightie
OPI – Austin-Tatious Turquoise
OPI – I’m Not Really A Waitress
OPI – Mad As A Hatter
OPI - Not Like The Movies
OPI – Suzi Says Feng Shui
Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure - Hidden Treasure
Wet N Wild Fast Dry – Hannah Pinktana

(Just for fun, I'll include all the one-vote polishes after the jump.)

The most popular brands?
OPI - 95
China Glaze - 59
Essie - 26
Zoya - 16
Deborah Lippmann - 12
Nfu-Oh - 11
Orly - 11
Sally Hansen - 10

I wonder if this is interesting to anyone but me!

500 follower giveaway winner!

Good morning guys!

Before I announce the winner I just want to say a big thank you to all of you for entering. I can't believe I'm only 9 followers away from 900. And I've only been doing this for 5 months! It's really crazy.
Thank you everyone!
I guess it's time to start planning my 1000 followers giveaway! Haha.

Now, in this giveaway I had 451 individual people enter, plus 190 facebook fans who all got an entry. Including all the second, third, and fourth entries that some people got, there was a total of 1203 entries! That's a lot!

Now for the fun part.

The lucky winner is.....


HeartNAT!
I remember when I was making my sheet with all the names I thought "666, that's gonna be unlucky!"
And then 665 was the winner. Haha!
Natalie aka heartNAT also has a blog that you should check out. I hope to see her post about her winnings someday in the future ;)
(But it will be somewhat delayed because of the current postal strike in Canada. It looks like I'll be able to send it out as early as Friday, hopefully.)

I've already contacted Natalie and she has responded!

Thanks everyone for entering!
Later today I'm going to post the results of the question I asked in my form - What's your favorite nail polish?
It interests me to see what people have said so hopefully it interests you too!

Oh, and I have a tip for your own giveaways.
About halfway through this giveaway I saw a MUCH better idea for adding in second/third/etc entries. Instead of typing them all up as I did above, you add them into the spreadsheet you get on Google Docs.
Like so:
(click to enlarge)

You type the entries that person has into the next free cell. Of course this only works if you've used a form.
I started doing this around entry 700 and it went soooooo much faster than typing them all out.
I got this idea from Polish Infatuated. When she announced her giveaway winner she showed a part of her spreadsheet and I saw that and said "EUREKA!"

Saturday, June 18, 2011

giveaway closed! + what's in your purse? + awards!

Good evening! My giveaway is now closed. I will announce the lucky winner in the morning! :)

Recently I have been tagged with 2 awards and the "what's in your purse?" tag, so I figured I would do them all at once.

Sarah from Samarium's Swatches tagged me for What's In Your Purse!


Dump your purse, answer the questions, and tag 5 bloggers to find out what's in their purse!


~Where did you get your purse, and how long have you had it?
My purse is from Icing! I got it for Christmas in 2009. It is holding up really well, as you can see.
~What are 3 must-haves in your purse? (Not including keys and wallet)
Blistex, pills, cuticle cream/moisturizer.
~What is something you should have in your purse right now, but don't?
Umm... I don't know! That's a weird question. I think I have everything I need.
~What is the thing you have the most of in your purse right now?
Random receipts and notes.

I pretty much only use my purse for going back and forth to work, so most of the stuff in it is geared towards work! I took photos of everything in it.


Yarn and crochet hooks for working on my blanket at work, and my awesome wallet. I did nails inspired by my wallet ages ago, which you can see here.


This is what you find in the front pocket. There were 3 polishes wrapped up in a bag in one - 2 for Traci and 1 that I cannot show because it is a surprise for someone! :)
My headphones were also in that pocket. (Aren't they cute? I wrapped them with thread like a friendship bracelet.)
In the other pocket rests my Nintendo DS and my work keys.


Here we have my cellphone, a bottle of Advil and a bottle of Modulon which is one of the many pills I have to take every day. I have to bring it to work because I have to take one before each meal.
2 highlighters and a pen that I need to bring to work on Monday, as well as my keys with my Sally's pro tag and my adorable Hello Kitty keycap that I got from Claire's.


Floss, and the only cosmetics I use. Cover Girl pressed powder, blistex, Colossal mascara, Annabelle Kohl eyeliner, Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream and a Burt's Bees moisturizer bottle which is actually filled with a Mary Kay lotion right now.


A few bandaids because I tend to have accidents at work, a bunch of receipts, movie tickets, my Nofx ticket from Tuesday night, a bunch of customs forms from swaps, and a pink heart post-it note that someone left on my kiosk that says "You are beautiful." I kept it because it's a nice pick-me-up! Haha!


This is where it gets sort of weird. A Sudoku book that my mom just got me for work (not weird,) a packet of Splenda, a safety pin, this little rubber bow thing that I found on my kiosk one morning (it's cute so I kept it) and probably the weirdest - a knife in a travel toothbrush holder! I eat a lot of fruit at work so I keep a knife in my purse for cutting it up. Haha. I don't kill people at work with it, I promise.

Before I go to work I also add a lot of food to my purse - a banana, an apple, grapes or strawberries, and a sandwich or chicken fajita. And a bottle of water or Crystal Lite.

Well, that is everything. I bet it was boring :P
I tag everyone who hasn't done it already! It was kinda funny explaining all the dumb stuff in my purse.

Next up, I was tagged by Lydz from Sekhmet's Purple Castle with the Top 10 award!


That was really sweet of you, Lydz. :)
I can't pick 10 bloggers to tag - I love all the blogs I follow!
You are also supposed to list your top 10 favorite cosmetics. I don't think I OWN 10 different cosmetics besides nail polish. I won't include polish in this list.
I really don't wear a lot of makeup - I just use eyeliner and mascara for my eyes, and I actually get a lot of compliments on my makeup. It's strange. I guess it looks more complicated than it is. Maybe sometime I'll show you guys my daily makeup, if anyone is interested. Anyway, here is my top 10 cosmetics (or however many I can think of. (I'm including pictures from google because I am extremely bored.)


1) Maybelline Volum' Express The Colossal Mascara. This is my absolute favorite mascara, and I tried like 5 before I settled on this one.




2) Annabelle Kohl Eyeliner in black. Cheap eyeliner, works awesome. Smudges nice.


3) Blistex Mint lipbalm. Self-explanatory.


4) Cover Girl Pressed Powder. I don't even really use this very often anymore...


5) Biotherm Forget It Instant Concealer. This is an expensive concealer, I think I paid like 18 bucks for it. It is liquid concealer, and I bought it because I got super anemic when I was sick (I had to have 2 blood transfusions and 1.5 years of IV iron infusions) and I had terrible dark circles under my eyes. I looked terminal (and for a while I thought I was.) So I bought this to make it look like I wasn't terminal. And it actually works awesome.


6) Burt's Bees Lemon Butter Cuticle Cream. That counts, right? I'm sure you all know what that is for :P


7) Marcelle Essentials Hypoallergenic Moisture Cream. Awesome facial moisturizer.


8) Marcelle Essentials Makeup Remover Cloths. Does that count? Haha. These work awesome for getting mascara off.


9) Marcelle Hydra-C Facial Exfoliating Gel. This is a gentle scrub and doesn't contain salicylic acid like most do, so it doesn't irritate my skin.

I literally cannot think of anything else that I own that I could call a favorite. I only made it to 9 by grasping at straws.
OH!



10) Pantene Red Expressions Shampoo and Conditioner. Best. Shampoo and conditioner. Ever. (For red hair.) This actually should be #1 on my list! It keeps my hair red for soooooo long, and makes it feel so awesome. But the bitches at Pantene discontinued it shortly after I discovered it. I managed to find like 3 bottles of each on clearance after it was discontinued, and found 2 more shampoos recently for $1. I have half a bottle of conditioner left and 2.5 of shampoo and that really sucks. I never want to use anything else.
They still make Brunette and Blonde expressions. Why, Pantene, why?!
(My hair hasn't been red for the last month, but I am going back to red tomorrow. I've been using Aussie shampoo and conditioner this month and my hair feels like sh*t. I luvvv u Pantene, neva leavin u again.)


That entertained me. I hope you guys enjoyed it!
Again, I tag everyone who wants to do it!!

Lastly, I got an email this morning from a blogger I didn't know until now - Lady Pink from Red Hair and Black Nail Polish.
She tagged me with the Sunshine award.



Thank you! For this award you don't have to do anything besides tag 10 bloggers in return. 
Instead of tagging 10 bloggers or tagging everyone - I'm going to tag 3 special ones who I think deserve some views.


First of all, I'm going to tag my friend Nina! Her blog is Twinkle Tips. She does some super cute nail art and I think you should check her out. Nina and I have become friends through this blog and actually hang out in person, haha! Blogging is good to me in many ways.

The next two bloggers I'm going to tag are two lovely ladies who sent me sweet emails asking me to check out their blog. (If you're reading this and you want me to check out your blog, feel free to email me! I don't bite! And I always respond unless your email gets lost in my junk folder.)
The first is Tin Roof Nails and the second is Nailed To The Wall. 

Check those girls out if you get a chance! I know it is hard getting your blog out there at first, so I like to help out when I can.


That, my friends, was a long post.
(And the spacing is really crappy - I hate when blogger won't obey my spacing!)