Happy HAUL-idays Giveaway

Happy HAUL-idays GIVEAWAY!

Happy Friday!

 I am thinking I might brave the crowds later this afternoon, but for now I am cozying up with a coffee and a good book!

All of the bloggers below have come together to give back to our readers.

The prize is a $100 Giftcard to Sephora OR Ulta! 

Winners Choice!!

A BIG Thank you to Emily at The Lacquerologist for putting this giveaway together!

Show some love to the awesome bloggers below and enter using the Rafflecopter widget!

Good Luck! <3

Adventures in Polishland

BeautyGnome

BeautyPopStop

Cosmetic Sanctuary

Glisten and Glow

Love for Lacquer

mandie's manicures

manicurator

Nail A College Drop Out
Pointless Cafe

Polished Cousins
Possibly Polished

Princess Polish

Samarium's Swatches

Set In Lacquer

Taneja's Bride

The Lacquerologist

The Nail Network

work/play/polish

XO, Noelle

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Happy Thanksgiving Giveaway - No More Nail Biting!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Lets celebrate the start of the holiday shopping season with a giveaway!
I want to take a minute to give a premise for this giveaway and first, it is my birthday month, who needs more reason than that to celebrate amiright?
But this year is also the 5 year anniversary of when I stopped biting my nails. Nail polish and some pretty flower nail stickers were what really helped me over come that bad habit.
So myself, some other fun bloggers and indie polish makers have come together to bring you an awesome giveaway.

Completely themed around Nail Art!!

Each bloggers prize consists of some type of nail art item or tool and each Indie maker is offering a great assortment of glitter and duo chromed polishes and even polishes for water marbling!! 

<3

Read the rules and good luck!
No cheating--We're all friends here, right?

Fine Print: 

Must be 18 or older to enter (unless you have parental permission!).
US Only.
(Sorry my friends! If you have someone in the US willing to accept your prize and forward on to you, enter away!). Be honest as we will verify entries and disqualify cheaters! This giveaway will be posted on blogs and Facebook pages and twitter, ect., but is in no way associated/ sponsored with/by Facebook or any blog platforms or other social media accounts.

Now on to the good stuff! Here is what you can win!

Possibly Polished Nail Art Starter Kit

My prize is a Nail Art Starter Kit and it includes:

Color Show Polka Dot glitter topper, Broadway Nail Art Stickers, an Essence Dotting Tool, a SH Butterfly Nail File, 2 rolls of Striping Tape, an Orly High Shine mini top coat and an Art Club Striping Polish!

A Girl Obsessed

AGO's prize is Bipolar Bear, a lovely duo chrome polish!

Lacquer: The Best Medicine

Lacquer: The Best Medicine's prize includes a Nail Candy stick, 1 roll of striping tape and 2 sheets of cute nail stickers!

Carpe Noctem Cosmetics

Carpe Noctem is offering one (1) Full Size polish, winners choice AND one (1) of her GlitterSlayer Topcoats.

My Boyfriend Hates Makeup

Mystery Prize Pack!

Wikid Nails

Wikid Nails has a really cool prize! 

She has a Water Marbling Kit (center photo) that includes: 

2 dropper bottles (7.5ml) filled with Wintertime Teal and Intergalactic Blue that are perfect for Water Marbling (left photo)! No spill!

She is also including a brush that is acetone resistant for clean up and an awesome glitter topper called Kiss me Beneath the Mistletoe! (right photo)

That Gal Jenna

Jenna is including Zoya Lana, American Apparel Peacock, a package of striping tape, some super cute and fancy nail stickers and a package of cute smiley faces for nail art!

Thanks everyone for the awesome prizes!

Enter using the Rafflecopter Widget below! Good Luck Everyone!

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Indie Review: Carpe Noctem Holiday 2013 Collection

*Press Sample

*3/Cruelty Free

*Carpe Noctem Cosmetics

This weekend went by much too fast! I have been sick with a stupid cold and I have such a headache that I haven't felt like doing much of anything this weekend. :( So to cheer us all up I have Carpe Noctem Cosmetics Holiday 2013 collection to show you tonight!

This collection is made up of 6 polishes in total, ranging from holos, glittery goodness and a sheer duo chrome topper!

When Emily dreamed up this beauty she must have been in my head. I had been wishing for an icy blue holo and Winter Solstice was the perfect one!

Opaque in 2 coats, shown here with 1 coat of NYC topcoat, this had a great, yet subtle linear holo. Formula wise, it went on smooth and I didn't experience any dragging as you might with some holos. 

Next up I used the lovely Silent Night as a glitter topper over Winter Solstice. Silent Night packed with holo hexes in several sizes and stars in a blue jelly base! I normally don't like stars, but these were small enough that they fit perfectly on my nails and laid flat.

You might be able to build this up with several coats, but there will be VNL. Even so, I think it is a great topper over a pretty winter blue!

Here I have Christmas Morning. I am not sure I have found a white/silver holo that compliments my skin as nicely as this one! I love the soft look of this holo. My camera did not want to capture the linear shift, but you can see it a bit on my ring finger. It was much more holo in person. I used 2 coats, with 1 coat of NYC top coat. 3 coats or if layered it could be a stronger silver/white shade.

MidWinter Storm is a sheer blue topper. I layered 2 coats above over OPI My Vampire is Buff. This topper was interesting because it had bits of flakes mixed in! This made it dry a little chunky looking, but with 1 coat of NYC topcoat, it smoothed right out. Despite the flaky pieces, it still layered smoothly!

Here I layered 1 coat over a shade of pink. I like the way this really changed the look of the pink and gave it a nice blue duochromey shift!

Here we have Oh Little Town of Bethlehem. So I swatched this over a coat of Color Show Bold Gold. Seeing this swatch now I sort of with I didn't because for some reason, this shade really hates my skin tone. I suggest you refer to Emily's Etsy for true-to-life shades of this, since my mom really LOVED this one and said it will be absolutely perfect for New Years. Agreed!

This is a dark gold/bronze topper, that could be opaque on its own in 2-3 coats. It is packed with gold holo hexes and stars in a gold shimmer/jelly base.

Last but not least is my absolute favorite, Of Yule and Hearth. I think this one would probably have better complimented Emily's fall collection, but I love this so much I am actually wearing it right now as part of my first Thanksgiving themed manicure.

I layered 1 coat over Essie The Lace is On, on my accent nail, I layered 3 coats alone. 1 coat of NYC topcoat over all.

Of Yule and Hearth is an amazing mash up on fine burnt orange holo glitters. You can see the wicked holo sparkle in the first photo! The photo above was taken in the shade to show the true color of the glitter topper. I love love love this one and I bet it is gorgeous over several different colors!

You can find Carpe Noctem Cosmetics on

Facebook | Etsy

My top picks are Winter Solstice, Silent Night and Of Yule and Hearth.

This collection is currently available for preorder but WAIT! There's more!

These will officially go on sale on November 27th and Emily will be having some fabulous Black Friday sales, so I suggest you head over to her Facebook to check them out!

<3

**Disclosure: The product(s) in this post were provided to me by their manufacturer for my unbiased review. I covered the cost of shipping the samples. Please see my Disclaimer page for more info**

Indie Review: Wikid Nails Diablo

*Purchased by me

*3 & Cruelty Free

*Wikid Nails

Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite holidays. I like food. And pie.

But, my birthday also falls within a day or 2 of Thanksgiving. Once, in 2009, it was even on Thanksgiving!

So for my favorite holiday, I have been searching scouring this machine that is the internet, for the perfect Thanksgiving glitter.

I found it at Wikid Nails on Etsy in the form of Diablo.
Stay tuned until the end of the post for a coupon code!!

Lets see her in all her beautiful glitterness!

Here I layered 1 coat of her over one of my favorite Fall shades, Revlon Stormy Nights. 

1 coat of Out the Door topcoat was used. My accent nail is a stamped BM leave pattern.

Diablo is made up of bright red and orange hold glitters, as well as yellow, red and orange matte glitter in hex and square shapes! Such an awesome combo! Also, can you believe that I got such good glitter payoff in just one coat?! Believe it!

Next, I watched it over Sally Hansen's Haute Chocolate. This photo was taken outside in direct sunlight to show the sparkle!

I loved how smooth this formula went on and the glitter payoff was awesome. I did NO fishing!

I used the glob and spread method :)

Last but certainly not least, I swatched Diablo over a beautiful Essie pink Bass Fiddle 

Edit: I layered this over Julep Veronica! 

I loved how perfectly the pink complimented all of the glitter colors. Layering this over the 2 dark shades previously made it really Fall and Thanksgiving appropriate, but after seeing it over the pink, I can definitely see myself wearing this again for Valentines Day or in the spring and summer!!

So heres the deets!

You should definitely head to check out Cheryl's shop and Facebook!

Facebook | Etsy

Full size bottles are $7.50 each plus S&H.

She also so kindly offering a coupon code to my followers! You definitely don't want to miss out on having this glitter for the holiday!

COUPON CODE: 

WHS2013 for 25% off! Yes, 25%! Such a great coupon code AND it is good until the end of the year (12/31/13)! 

:)

Thanksgiving Tutorial

It's time for another Tutorial!! With Thanksgiving only a week away I decided to recreate a manicure a friend posted on her Facebook after I showed you my halloween tutorial using JUST a Sharpie Marker!

That turned out to be pretty darn popular, so I am bringing you another tutorial using Sharpie markers.

LEAVES!

They are perfect for Fall and are definitely a lovely accent on your nails for Thanksgiving.

Lets get started!

I encourage you to try this even if you are nervous because Sharpie Markers are totally erasable on nail polish!!

I also have another Fall Tutorial HERE that is easy peasy!

First, I started by painting my nails 2 coats of a solid color. I chose OPI Vampsterdam. Any dark shade that compliments gold and bronze will do!

I have found that you don't always need to add a topcoat to make the Sharpie erasable. With a little elbow grease it will usually disappear.

Make sure you let the polish dry COMPLETELY!

(if you don't, you won't be able to rub off mistakes!)

:Patience, young grasshopper:

I used a 3 pack of Sharpies that I purchased at Target. It came with silver (not pictured) and bronze and gold colors. These will work perfect!

Using the Bronze Sharpie marker, I made a jagged outline at the top corner of my nail. This is the beginnings of a leaf!!

I then colored the leaf in. 

Remember: Sharpie is erasable! 

The metallic sharpies might need a little more muscle than a regular black sharpie, so I find that licking a finger and rubbing away or wetting a rag and wiping away works best!

Using the Gold Sharpie I created the outline for my second leaf in the bottom right hand corner of my nail. I made this one a little more spread out sideways.

Then I colored this leaf in too! They don't start to look like leaves until you add the veins!

Using a fine, black Sharpie I drew veins outward on my first leaf and across my second leaf.

You can create more leaves on your other nails or just leave the leaves on one nail!

Make sure to add a top coat to seal in your design!

I decided to make some other leaves. I did a couple different types on my other fingers. On my middle and pinky fingers, I created little leaves, while the leaves I showed you on my ring finger were slightly more complex. Experiment with different patterns!

Will you try this? What nail art tutorial would you like to see for Winter/Christmas?

Happy Tuesday!

Fall Funky with Orly

This weekend I went to my little cousins 9th birthday party-sleepover and gave a bunch of the little girls cute manicures! I went last year to her party and all the girls just loved getting their nails done, so I was so excited to go back again this year! Last year the zebra print accent nail was popular, this year it was too, but I mixed it up with some cheetah print! And I did Galaxy Nails on 2 girls. They loved it!

After I left for the evening, I was told as the girls were getting ready for bed, one of them pretended to use their phone to book a nail appointment with me!

Awwwww!

<3

I just discovered the beauty that is Orly Fowl Play and I don't have anything bad to say about it!

I am missing summer shades, so I paired this one with a funky lime green water marbled accent nail.

Orly Fowl Play is a deep purple jelly, filled with blue glitter and flakies that flash a burnt orange.

I used 2 coats to reach opacity.

For my accent I used Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Green with Envy and OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the water marble. I used an Art Club striper to add some black dots.

I think this satisfied my need for some summery bright nails with a lime green accent nail with a deep purple. Plus, I cannot resist green and purple together! I fall for it every time <3

Back to the grind tomorrow!

Tips on Tuesday: Keeping it Trendy!

Time for another Tips on Tuesday! 

Tonight I have a mani using trendy colors for the season: 

GREY! 

or gray, whichever you prefer.

I wanted to do a cool grey ombre…but I discovered I don't own a good sequence of grey shades, so I improvised and used white and one of the NEW Julie G Textured polishes!

I started off with 2 coats of Zoya Raven on my thumb and transitioned into OPI Lucerne-Tainly Look Marvelous, Orly Mirror Mirror, OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Julie G textured Silver Bells.

This is the first Ombre I have ever done and I think it turned out pretty good. I am not sure if I can rock different colors on each nail to work though!

Do you think Ombre manicures are acceptable for the office? Are you rocking the trendy greys for Fall/Winter?

Remembering Veteran's Day

I wasn't going to show you a Veteran's Day mani but I decided that it is important to remember our heroes. Especially after hearing someone at my Kickboxing class on Friday describe today as a "fake" holiday. I have a lot to say about that, but I won't bore you with a tangent! ;)

My very best friend is currently serving and I have had various friends and family serving. Once upon a Time, I also had an (ex)-boyfriend serve overseas, so the military, their services and the family/friends they leave behind, are close to my heart.

For this mani I incorporated a camo pattern with an accent nail of poppy flowers. 

Polishes used: Accent nail: base of a white OPI, OPI OPI Red and an OPI green that I can't recall the name of right now. For the camo print I used a base of Revlon Spanish Moss (army green), Revlon Bare Bones (a beige), Julep Kendra (dark green) and Zoya Raven (black).

Make sure to Thank a Veteran Today! <3

Essie Fall 2013 Collection

I am starting to see all the Winter Collections cropping up in my local Ulta and drugstores, but I don't want to chase the Fall weather into Winter weather just yet! Tonight I have 4 of the 6 Essie Fall 2013 polishes, with some fun nail art!

First us is Vested Interest. This is a nice deep, dusty teal. I love this one and have worn is a couple times since I bought it.

It went on great! Swatch shown is 2 coats, plus 1 coat of NYC top coat.

Next up is Cashmere Bathrobe, a slate grey, with a subtle shimmer. The name is perfect I think! It definitely makes me think of bathrobes! I wish the shimmer in Essie polishes was a bit more pronounced, as the shimmer in this one was barely there!

Grey is such a trendy color right now and this one is a really nice shade!

This one also went one great! Swatch shown is 2 coats plus 1 coat of NYC topcoat.

Out of the bunch I purchased, For the Twill of It, was my least favorite. I had high hopes for it when it was in the bottle, because the duo chrome shift was really awesome! This was sort of a "beetle" type duo chrome with shifts from greens, to purple and grey hues. I wanted it to be more purple!

There was a lot of green shift. Overall, it was a cool polish BUT what I didn't like about it - is that it chipped SO easily! Within ONE day I was seeing major chippage! Bummer!

Now this one, The Lace is On, was my absolute favorite!! I swear it glowed from within. This color was just such a vibrant fuchsia, I could hardly stand it! I have worn this one a couple times and I had it done on my toes too!

Swatch is shown here as 2 coats with 1 coat of NYC topcoat.

Last but not least, since The Lace is On and Vested Interest were my 2 favorites, I ended out wearing them together in this funky interlocking dotticure. This looks a million times more complicated than it really is. I loved these together!

What do you think? Did you pick up any of the Fall 2013 polishes? 

Hello Kitty Nail Art

Hello Hello! Well, that was the last of the Halloween festivities! Bring on the holiday shopping!

I headed into Providence this weekend for a night out with some friends and I couldn't believe how many kids were still running around in their costumes. I thought for sure the weekend after Halloween wouldn't be a big Halloween party weekend, but I was wrong. It was fun seeing everyones costumes though!

As the last of the Halloween spirit disappears, I am going to share some photos of the mani I wore to go with my costume!

I was Hello Kitty for Halloween. 

Here I am in my costume with my cutesy nephew, Charlie!

I used Confetti Dance Party Pink on index and middle finger. On my ring finger, I used 2 coats of Carpe Noctem Under the Cover of Light and on my thumb and pinky, I used Razzle Dazzler from the Sally Hansen Gem Crush collection.

I ever so carefully painted Hello Kitty's lovely face onto my index finger using a toothpick and a very small dotting tool. I used an Art Club striper in black and SH Mellow Yellow for her nose and OPI Party in my Cabana for her bow.

I love how this turned out!

Is everyone ready for November?