300 Followers Giveaway! [Information]

First off, thank you all for reading and supporting Polish Galore.  This started as just my fun little side project, and I feel blessed that people actually take interest in reading my blog!  What better way to celebrate than with a giveaway!  Now, this giveaway is going to be separated into three posts.


This post is just the information post saying, hey, I'm having a giveaway!  Please do NOT sign up on this post (in the comments section) because your entry will NOT BE COUNTED.


Thank you again so much for your love and support!

Claire's Pre-Glued Nails

I went to a Claire's in what I'd consider an upscale shopping center about 3 hours away from me a few weeks ago, and found these.  I absolutely hate the idea of putting glue on my nails, but these "pre-glued" nails caught my eye.  The cashier said they had JUST come in, so I grabbed two packages (it was buy one, get one half off) and was waiting for nubbins to try this out.  The package of 24 nails cost $5.00 US, which was pretty awesome considering that a manicure of fake nails can be up to $30 around here.

This seemed like a simple design - a white tip French with pink and blue stamped flowers and a blue shimmer top coat over it.

First complaint.  You can see my nails underneath.  I went ahead and pointed out the painfully obvious to you with arrows.  Granted, it probably wouldn't be seen by the average person, but it annoyed me to no end.


Well, not even 10 minutes in having these nails, and I decided (not so smartly) to run my hands through my hair.  I nearly died as my nails got STUCK in my hair - the hair wrapped UNDER the nails at the cuticles and got stuck in the glue on several of them.  I wanted to die. 


At this point I wanted to rip every single one of them off, but I decided to wait and sleep on it so I could get some sun pictures.

Left Hand - This is after around 12 hours of wear (or so).  As you can see in the light, my original nails are showing, which again, irritating to me!

Right Hand - More annoying - do you see that the glue almost made a "bubble" on my middle finger?  My pointer finger cuticle is all messed up from when I had a wart removed as a kid, so that wasn't fun.  But also check out the ring finger.  I originally put that nail on my pointer finger before realizing it was WAY too big, so I tried to peel it off and put it on the ring finger.  Instead I got all those weird gross bubbles.

CHECK OUT THAT LIFT.  No wonder my hair got caught under there.  OW.

I mean seriously, this was just plain painful.

It even lifted from the sides of my nail.  The "pre-glued nails" don't have glue all the way out to the edges, so the result is that the nail is lifted on the sides.  The insert says to slightly "buff" your nails with a file to maximize adhesion, but no way was I scoring my nails with a file.


Removal wasn't too fun either.  I totally misread the instructions - you're supposed to soak your hands in warm water for 10-15 minutes and peel the nails off from the side.  Instead, I put my hands under hot water for 15 SECONDS and peeled these suckers off.  I was left with some glue because of it, but my Zoya Remove+ got rid of any excess glue.


Verdict?  If you're in a super rush for a photo shoot, totally use these.  If you're planning on keeping them more than an hour, no freaking way.  I don't feel like it was a TOTAL waste of $5, but it was close.


Claire's is available world wide or online [official website].

Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure

On my recent trip to Victoria, I decided to stop by a Walgreens to see if just MAYBE they had the new Sally Hansen's.  OH YEAH THEY DID!  In fact, the display was completely untouched.  They retailed for $7.49 a piece but since they were having a 'buy one, get one half off" sale, I only paid $3.75 for one of them.  Wee!  (That's going in my 300 Followers Giveaway!)


I love this stuff.  It's a flakie - which is such a rare brand of polish finish.  It's been related to "mermaid scales" because of the way it flakes on the nail (not literally flaking off, but it has flakes of color).  Now the best part about this polish is that depending on your base, you can see a variety of different colors in the flakes.


For this first manicure, I wore it over my last NOTD: China Glaze Seduce Me.

As you can see, the flakes are seeing as more of a yellow and a gold against the red base of Seduce Me.

You can almost see a greenish yellow on my pointer finger.

Almost a little more green there!


Then on Thursday, I put on CND Blackjack (1 coat) and a layer of Hidden Treasure.  Please excuse the horrible quality - this was on my iPhone.

As you can see, in the shade, Hidden Treasure was more orange, but in the sun you could see green.  I actually wore this manicure for 4.5 straight days (pretty much a record) and only got a little bit of yellow staining on my nails (I had a coat of Seche Natural for base, 1 coat of CND Blackjack, 1 coat of Hidden Treasure and 1 coat of Seche Vite), so success!  I've never had so many people compliment my manicure, EVER.  I love it.  LOVE it.


Sally Hansen [official website] can be found at several stores including CVS/pharmacy [official website] and Walgreens [official website].

China Glaze Seduce Me

During Sally's Beauty Supply "Buy 2, Get 1 Free" promotion, I walked in to see what "core" colors of China Glaze didn't I have, and want.  This color was one that caught my eye.  I found out tonight that Seduce Me is actually from China Glaze's Roses and Berries collection but I'm not sure when it came out.  It's listed on their website under the "MUST HAVE" collections.  I saw on the web that it was also a part of the Patent Leather in the City collection but I'm not sure the accuracy in that.  One website calls it a hi-gloss creme, but I'm calling it a jelly based on the waterlike smoothness that it had when dried.  It was almost a raspberry red, with a bit of purple tones in it.


I used a base coat of Seche Natural, followed by 2 coats of Seduce Me, and topped with a coat of Seche Vite.  The formula on this polish was very nice - not thick, not thin, no pooling in the cuticles either.  I do have super sad news.  On Friday, I was judging a local talent show at the high school I used to work at.  I literally walked into the auditorium and broke a nail pulling out my judge's chair.  I was so ticked off.  I had a glass file in my purse so I had to tear off the nail and file it down to nubbin territory (the break was that low), and sit there the rest of the show, silently fuming.  I got home, cut off all my nails, held back the tears, then remembered how easy it is to type with nubbins.  I just wish I had more nail to showcase polish with!

Still having some intense Texas sun days, which is great for polish!  As you can see, this is just a nice smooth color.

In the shade, you can see a bit more of the jelly watery smooth goodness of this polish - I was definitely happy with my buy.  Well now that I'm back to nubbins, I'm going to try and push out more swatches.  I have lots of polish here to go through and best of all, I'M HAVING A GIVEAWAY VERY SOON!  Part of it is sponsored even, so I'm actually having TWO giveaways - one for international readers only, and one for USA readers only.  I'm really excited about this one, so happy days!  Yay!

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

Barielle High Steppin'

Got this in my email, it's share time!

For summer 2010, boogie down with new disco-inspired nail polishes in the High Steppin’ collection from Shades by Barielle.  Six metallic hues and Barielle’s signature healthy “3-free” formulation make hands and feet dance with style.

Flashing back to the 70’s, get groovy with Electric Boogie—an inky metallic blue with teal glitter; shake it up with Belly Dance—a nude taupe with shimmer; party until dawn with Night Moves—a sparkling metallic silver; turn it around with Passion Pirouette—a grape metallic purple; sway to the style with Slow Motion—a light metallic lavender and let loose with Freestyle—a cool metallic mint with silver glitter.

Celebrity Manicurist Elle says, “When creating this collection, we wanted to pump up the volume on nail hues.  Inspired by bright summer whites, we injected some high-voltage color into any look from bikini to boardwalk.”

Formulated to provide nails with safe, healthy and long-lasting glossy color coverage, Shades by Barielle is free of formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl-phthalate. Women can also safely use Barielle products throughout pregnancy.

Key Features: Contains no formaldehyde, toluene and dibutyl-phthalate.