The Polish Diva 100 FB Likes Giveaway - several awesome prizes yo!

Hey peeps! No swatches on this post, agh I've been so busy! Howeva, I must tell you about my blogger buddy Vicki, aka The Polish Diva. I had the chance to help her grow her page, so I took it! She wanted to have a giveaway once her page hit 100 FB likes, and I'm happy to say she's already went well past that. She worked her ass off pulling this thing together, so it would be awesome, not required, if you'd stop by her page or blog and give her a thank you :) Now time for some giveaway info yo. There are 6 US prizes, and even an international prize! Check it out...

The Polish Diva: 2 LA Colors Polishes- Blue Paradise and Pink Sizzle both of those are htf

 Next is my prize...my soon-to-be released The Devil Wears Polish, yay! I added a crelly trio - Get Your Pop Rocks Off, Girls Love To Blow...Bubbles, and Spin The Bottle

I also threw in a small bag of femo slices and a small vial of caviar beads

Get Nailed Here: Sally Hansen Nail Growth Miracle in Beautiful Berry, Absolute Magnetic in Marron and Sally Hansen Diamond Strength in Honeymoon Red

 Pinkey Nails:  Green Sinful Colors polish, Kleancolor polish in Blue Metallic, fimo, glitter scissors, and brown flocking powder

 Liquidus Nail Gloss: Mini nail polishes in Pink Agate and Smithsonite + a travel mani/pedi set 

Creations by Lynda:  Mini polish trio- Mint Orchid, Pink Ribbon, Light Of The Fae + one mini of cuticle oil in winner's choice of scent! Wooo, that cuticle oil is heavenly btw.

International Prize:

 

Polished Tickles and Beauty: $10 Voucher to Born Pretty Store *for international winners only* 

*Hey Peeps, you can leave you blog post comments here or on Vicki's blog The Polish Diva*
Now technicalities...the giveaway will end August 1, all winning entries will be verified. Winners will be emailed by their prize sponsor and have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen. We will all take care to wrap your prizes securely, but can't be held responsible for lost or damaged packages. And I think that about does it for technicalities. Good luck peeps!
 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Creations by Lynda Mint Orchid Swatchism!

Hey peeps! Sorry to my neglect poor blawg, but I doubt I've hurt anyone's feelings lol. My shiz came in early, so I had to play with it! Now that I'm behind on swatches, I figured I better pound this one out today. If you've missed my other Creations by Lynda review, I'll fill you in a bit. Her polishes are awesome, but that cuticle oil is friggin amazaballz! Whatever, I love it. I love it so much in fact, I had to order a bottle when the mini I won ran out. Plumeria is one of my favorite scents, but since it's summertime and I no longer drink the nectar of the gods, I figured it'd be nice to have the Pina Colada scented cuticle oil :) Glad I did that too, it smells yummy! But, along with my cuticle oil, Lynda also sent me one of her mini polishes, Mint Orchid, and a tealight candle in sugar cookie scent! Yay, looky!

Ordering from small businesses is becoming an addiction. The extra goodies and adorable packaging definitely make ya feel like a valued customer. And, I totally forgot Lynda sold candles. I love candles! Another thing for me to start blowing hubub's hard earned money on :) Enough chatter, let's get to Mint Orchid!

Crelly polish is one of the best things EVER in my personal opinion. I don't know that I'll ever get tired of them. Hope you guys like them too, I'll be listing several in my shop when time comes to open. But for now, let's check out Mint Orchid swatched...

It's so pretty :) Teal hex, square, and micro glitters in a white crelly base. There's also some light green hex and mint green squares, possibly more. Love the color theme, very fresh and minty looking. Reminds me of certs! That shot is in natural light, 3 coats of Mint Orchid with a thin coat of top coat. Why one thin coat? The next swatch demonstrates that beautifully...

I got so busy mixing up holos, I forgot I ran out of top coat. That closeup shot of awesomeness is Mint Orchid, 3 coats, NO top coat! Wooo I'm impressed! I'll need to purchase the full size version of this shiz when I start making some money back on all the polish making junk I bought last week. No joke, I started out small, I thought. But I still spent a few hundred dollars! Granted, about $50-$60 of that was used on my personal polish & nail care stuff ('cept for top coat obviously). So, I decided to do something I HATE doing...I put me self on a no-buy for a bit. I need to order more glitter, pigment, and I want to get another bottle of base because running out SUCKS. Other than that, I will try to behave myself and not splurge for the time being. But when I'm done the FS version of Mint Orchid will be mine. It has an excellent formula, and the glitters are small enough that no fishing is necessary even with those evil little mini bottles :) Dry time was good, and I'm uber impressed with how smooth the finish is without top coat. Now just because I really, REALLY love this stuff and I think everyone should try it...Let's show ya my cuticle oil, yay!

 No exaggeration, this stuff has worked wonders on my nails and cuticles. Since I'm awesome, I am placing a list of ingredients below. If you're not allergic to anything, I highly recommend you order a bottle to try out for yourself. I just gave up my secret for bangin' ass nails and cuticles. You're welcome.

Safflower Seed Oil, Fractionated Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Grapeseed Oil , Sesame Seed Oil , Olive Oil, Soybean Oil , Aloe Vera Leaf Extract , Jojoba Seed Oil , Vitamin E

(with the option of 4 different scented versions)

You might be pleased with the price of Creations by Lynda cuticle oil as well. You can pick up a 3.5ml roller bottle for $3, and a full size 15ml bottle (with brush cap) for only $5! Click here to do that yo. I opted for the small roller-bottle because I love those damn things. Now that I've ordered an empty 2.5oz bubble bottle for no other reason than I wanted to, I'm seriously thinking about just ordering a couple ounces of this stuff so I don't run out for a while. I'm so not kidding, I like it that much. Now I don't really think it's necessary to show another shot of the candle. It's obviously a creamy white tealight soy candle in an uber yummy sugar cookie scent. I haven't used it yet, I'm saving it. However, I did have to unwrap it and touch it with the tip of my finger. OMG, my finger smelled like sugar cookie for like 10 minutes! Score :) I recon I'll need to try out more of these on occasion too. Now for some linkage. Click here to visit the shop's home page. There's some awesome goodies for sale. You can also follow Creations by Lynda on Facebook by clicking here, and follow her other page The Nail Files by Lynda here for awesome sneak peeks of new creations and more. Sooo, may I ask, will you be trying out this heavenly cuticle oil? Oooh, and isn't Mint Orchid friggin sweet? Own any creations yourself yet? Leave me some comment love if you choose. Until next time peeps!

Another Awesome Indie...Creations by Lynda - Berry Glittered, Aurora Australis, and the soon-to-be-released cuiticle oil!

Heya Peeps. I'm stoked to be comin' at ya with another new-to-me indie post. I won a giveaway hosted and sponsored by The Nail Files by Lynda (blog FB page) aka Creations by Lynda (shop FB page). I'm really hoping I don't have to tell you her name is Lynda. She makes and sells some awesome polish, soaps, candles, cuticle oil, and more. She's a busy but talented chicky. I've linked to both of the FB pages so if you don't already like them, you should. Catch some sneak peeks of new releases & other cool stuff. Ok meow, let's get on with the review shall we? First up is Berry Glittered. It's a gorgeous polish but it hates my camera (or perhaps my camera just hates me), and it would be nice to have a little sunshine someday. I probably could've gotten some killer photos of Berry Glittered in the sunlight but I haven't seen it in 2 days. Lame. Anywho, here's an attempt at a macro to show detail...

There's tons of little shiny things packed off in that one little bottle. Check it out swatched...

The base is a super shimmery pink-purple, yeah berry is a good name for it. I love that color! There is tons of iridescent and silver glitter shreds, iridescent square glitters, pink stars, silver hearts, and there's probably more that I haven't mentioned but you get the idea. It really is kickass, but my camera doesn't pick up the iridescent shreds so the finish looks kinda lumpy in the photos. The swatch above and below are 2 coats Berry Glittered over OPI Ridge Filler, one coat of top coat. I left the glitters out and tried not to add tons of shreds but I didn't do so good on my ring & middle finger. Just take my word for it, this polish is prettier in person. Here's a closeup that shows the shreds a bit more...

 Regardless of my crummy swatch pics, let me show you Berry Glittered, glitter included...

That there shows ya what 4 coats of Berry Glittered looks like. I dabbed on the glitters for the most part. Btw, there was no glitter fishing at all involved with the application. It was actually more work trying to swatch it without the glitter :) The formula is an awesome consistency, dry time seems good. Just keep in mind, I couldn't capture the iridescent shreds & squares so the photos are kinda weird. If you're diggin' that awesome base color, Lynda told me that Fusion from her Tempus Fugit Trio is the same base as Berry Glittered. But, instead of shreds & glitters she added holo to it. I found an awesome review of the entire collection over at ColorSplash Nails, click here to check out Fusion & the other pretties. Next up is that sweet holo top coat, Aurora Australis. Love it...

I used the flash with that photo, obviously. It seems to be the easiest way for me to pick up holo without sunlight. Anywho, I haven't seen tons of red holos, and I realized China Glaze Merry Berry had yet to be swatched so...waalaa! Awesome sauce, although I think Merry Berry is too dark for this time of year, for me anyway. I did not use a top coat while swatching Aurora Australis, and used Seche Clear for my base coat. Just thought I'd throw that out there. Let's check out this holo masterpiece over some other colors, shall we?

 I got a little ingenious with my swatches as you see. I used Sinful Colors Cinderella as my base color. Perty, aint it? I could look at that all day. Seriously, that happens to me whenever I wear an awesome polish. I can't concentrate worth s#&t because pretty, shiny things distract me. Anywho, I decided to swatch Aurora Australis over one more color. Here it is over Sally Hansen Sonic Bloom from the Insta-Dri line...

I'm diggin' that one too. I really wish I could get some sunlight photos, but that still rocks. Now on to the cuticle oil. I really love it. I suppose I'll add a bottle shot so you can see it...

As you can see it's nice & clear, good consistency too. It's not uber thick and it's not too thin, making it very easy to paint on, not messy & I don't have butter fingers after application. I've been using this on my swatch hand daily for about a week & a half now. I can already see a difference in my nails and cuticles. And the scent, Plumeria is one of my favorites. I guess the only disadvantage to using this stuff is it's hard to resist the urge to smell your fingers, which can earn you some strange looks if you get caught in the act. The oils is light, not greasy or sticky, and it absorbs quickly and easily. Lynda provided me with the list of ingredients, check 'em out:

Safflower Seed Oil, Fractionated Coconut Oil, Avocado Oil, Grapeseed Oil , Sesame Seed Oil , Olive Oil, Soybean Oil , Aloe Vera Leaf Extract , Jojoba Seed Oil , Vitamin E

(with the option of additional essential oils for scented versions like my awesome Plumeria)

Heavenly stuff. It beats the crap out of my Burt's Bees and Sally Hanson. I totally recommend picking up a bottle of this when it goes on sale. The official release date is set for May 10, and the price will be $4.75 for a full 15ml bottle. I'm sure I'll be purchasing some just as soon as this mini runs out. So, my opinion of the Creations by Lynda products I've tried...Her polish is awesome, Aurora Australis of course being my favorite. Obviously I'm diggin' the cuticle oil. Lynda has some gorgeous new releases, and is continually adding more unique pretties to the shop. Don't forget to like both of her Facebook pages for updates, sneak peeks, all that good stuff, links are in the opening paragraph. You can check out her shop, Creations by Lynda, here if you're wanting to buy some killer pretties. So...Whatcha think? Have you tried any Creations by Lynda yet? Want to? Going to? Leave me some comment love yo. Till next time peeps!

Nail Art Contest Submission - Check out my berry cute mani!

Hey hey Peeps! How goes it? I'm doing great, thanks for asking! I decided to enter another nail art contest. You know I suck at nail art but this time I actually managed to make something that wasn't just completely stupid looking! Yay! I shall give you all the details at the conclusion of my post so you can enter too. You don't have to be a pro, just have fun! Here's what I created for the competition...

I wont even try to lie to ya, I love this! Most likely the cutest nail art I've ever created. Don't laugh, it's not funny. I told ya I wasn't a pro! Anywhooser, the strawberry mani idea came after 2 failed attempts at a leopard print mani. Check it out, and feel free to laugh at this one...

I think it looks more like a giraffe than a leopard, wtf? Hmmm, maybe my blobs are too big? Agh, I'll get better with practice. I hope. It still ain't too bad for my first attempt, I guess? Oh well, back to the strawberry mani. For no other reason than the fact I want to, hows about I flash another berry shot...

 I used China Glaze Red Satin as the base, Sinful Colors Exotic green for the tops, and gold Salon Perfect nail art paint for the seeds. Why gold? Because I discovered I need to buy a new bottle of black polish, this one's almost empty and it's SUPER gooey. I had little black threads all over my fingers when I attempted the leopard print so I decided to NOT ruin my strawberry mani. I think I made a good choice, the gold seeds are cuter, AND since it was nail art paint it came with a super skinny brush. I should seriously invest in some nail art tools if I'm ever going to get any good at this crap. Anywho, not bad for being artistically challenged. The hardest part about nail art for me is trying to come up with something cute AND unique. And the fact that I'm a ghetto nail artist if there ever was one doesn't help. One of my most used tools in my artsy-fartsy nail fail creations is a damn toothpick. I did NOT use a toothpick for the strawberry mani however. LMAO, I actually just wiped off the gold art brush & used it to draw the green tops after I finished dabbing on my gold strawberry seeds :) So, it's doubtful I'll ever be featured in NailedIt Magazine or anything like that, but I did manage to create some nail art that wasn't totally retarded.

I recommend you enter Lynda's nail art competition btw. Like I said before, you don't have to be a pro- just have some fun! Check out The Nail Files by Lynda on Facebook here and check out her blog post here for all the dirty details. Oh, there's still a couple days left to enter her rafflecopter giveaway so click the giveaway tab at the top of her Facebook page to enter. You never know, might win some rare polish! As far as the nail art competition goes, there will be 3 winners, each get some awesome Creations by Lynda hand-mixed nail polish! That is the whole reason I entered, you know I'm obsessed with indies and Miss Lynda has created some super awesome pretties. Check out her shop page, Creations by Lynda on Facebook here to stay utd on new releases and other shop news. I should also add that besides her pretty polishes, Lynda also makes soy candles, hand-dipped incense, and handmade soaps! Check out her site Creations By Lynda by clicking here. So, whatcha think? Are you going to enter the nail art contest? Do you own any Creations By Lynda yet? Lemme know something in the comments. Till next time Peeps!