300 Followers Winners (update)

Here I am, almost sitting at 400 followers, and I have a great idea for my next giveaway, but I'm not sure how great of an idea it is... I'm still working on it.


Anywho, I have a bit of an update for those who won my 300 Followers Giveaway.

• I've been told that both my Seche "Secrets to the French Manicure" set have already both received their prizes, YAY!
• One of the Seche Pack winners did not respond (ever) to my emails (I sent 3), so I drew a new winner.  Congrats to #6: Erika!  I'll be emailing you after I post this for your address.  At that point, I will send both addresses to Seche so you can get your prizes (this goes to the winner who DID respond).
• I will be mailing 4 out of the 5 winners' packages tomorrow via FedEx or UPS (haven't decided yet) so that I have a tracking number.  After I send it, I'll send you a confirmation email with your tracking number.
• Ivy, you're the lucky one here, I'm still waiting on the Zoya's that you bought through me - they are shipping from Zoya today and should be here by the end of the week.

Thank you again to everyone!

Claire's Mood Calm/Wild

I can't remember when I picked up this bottle of claire's Mood "Calm/Wild" polish but I did it after seeing it on various blogs, and thought it looked just awesome.  It's a glitter color changing polish that reacts to your body heat and doesn't work too well on nubbins, hah.


I actually wore this polish for 3 days, took it off, and then put it back on again to blog about it.  I really enjoyed this polish a lot!  The first time I used a base coat of Seche Retain (I couldn't find my Natural), but the second time I used Seche Natural, 3 coats of Calm/Wild, and because this was drying matte on me, I went with a top coat of Seche Vite.  Thankfully, the Seche Vite did not alter the color changing process.  Clean up was typical glitter like - either scrub with felt or just let the remover sit on the nail for a few minutes (yes, minutes) to remove the polish in one sweep.


The "cold" color is the purple - so basically if your hands were freezing, you'd only see the purple.  I ended up running my hands under cold water to get a picture of that for you.

However, normally, my hands specifically are pretty warm, and in general, the part of your nail that is attached  to your finger, is warm.  While photographing this polish in my 100 degree heat weather, you could REALLY see the "warm" color which was the pink.

However, while I was inside (hah, which is most of the day), you get a nice "french manicure" look with the cold and warm colors.

I also got 2 in some indirect sun - you can see the purple starts to fade to the pink a bit.

Overall, I was actually thrilled with this polish, which is quite different from the "pre-glued nails" review I did last time with Claire's.  The glitter was a silver microglitter that didn't distract from either the purple or pink color.  Actually, I was so pleased that I went back and bought 3 more from the same line but they are all matte/cremes.  More on those later.

I paid $5 for this bottle but they were having a big "buy 1, get 1 half off" sale.

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

China Glaze Stroll

China Glaze Stroll is apart of the Retro Diva collection and is listed as a "deep red with gold glitter."  It officially won out as being my HBO True Blood Ultimate Fan Experience color and I'm so glad it did.  This polish is amazing.  I seriously consider it being the older sister of Ruby Pumps.  I wore it for an entire 5 days before removing it - no tip wear, no chipping.  I did, however, do something odd in the night to get white marks/scratches in the polish but didn't realize it until AFTER I took these pictures, so I just had to do some photochopping with it.  Enjoy.


I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 3 thin coats of Stroll and a top coat of Seche Vite.  The polish was amazing in application - not thin or thick, no pooling in my cuticles, and no staining of the hands because I'm horrible sometimes and get polish on my skin.  Also, I buffed all the ridges out of my nails right before applying this, so my nails were super smooth for this polish.

Oh yum, look at that rich red base and the gold and red glitter!  Such a wonderful lovely color to wear.

Now in bright actual direct sun, this wasn't my favorite color, but it never is with glitters.  Glitters look best in the shade or indirect sun so you can truly see all the sparkle and bling.

Lovely.

I really was very happy with this color.  Shout out to the Truebies who asked to see my polish at Texas Roadhouse - y'all really made my night special.  I'm wanting to try on some more of the Retro Diva collection - I really did love that collection but never gave it much thought on colors since I bought them a little bit after its release and was wanting to go back to bright fun colors again.


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].

China Glaze Recycle

China Glaze Recycle is from the "ecollection" Collection and what I hoped to be my answer for a grey creme.  I've been wanting to find the perfect grey creme that wasn't too light but wasn't too dark.  I have a certain love affairs with greys.  I've been watching Color Splash on HGTV (and not just because of David Bromstad but he's a big reason), and I'm convinced that I want to paint my living room a blue grey very soon.  


Despite promo pictures of Recycle looking more dark grey, I was pretty surprised to find that Recycle was more of a purple grey to me.  Now, I could be totally wrong, but this is just how I saw it.  I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 2 coats of Recycle and a top coat of Seche Vite.


Now, application on this was WEIRD.  I wiped my brush on the side of the bottle like normal, but that made the polish too thin on my brush and leave bald spots, so I decided to just dip the brush in, and paint my first coat slightly thicker than normal.  I did the same with the second coat and it seemed to work just fine, although I felt like I was putting on globs of polish.  It didn't pool into my cuticles though and with a coat of Seche Vite, I was good to go in my normal 3 minute dry time so I don't get it.  

Now, here in the sun, this polish does weird stuff.  It's MUCH darker (to me at least) on my nails than in the bottle.  What?!  Granted this made me happy because I was looking for something a little darker, and it didn't have as purple of a tint as I originally thought.

But I really liked it in the shade.  It appears super glossy because of the Seche Vite but this is definitely just a flat creme.  Overall while I am happy with the polish in general, I don't think I'm going to wear it as much as I hoped.  I do think it would be very pretty in nail art, so I'm willing to try it out again soon.


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].

Fashion Watch: China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini

I am a Katy Perry fan.  I liked her whole "I Kissed A Girl" phase, despite that it made me feel very dirty.  I liked "Hot and Cold".  I have the video of "Starstrukk" from 3OH!3 that Katy Pretty (as I like to call her) did a nice cameo and sang her heart out.  The one thing I can't stand about her, is her fiancée, but that's another story.

I haven't watched the MTV Movie Awards program yet.  I DVRed it but my son is in that wonderful age of three, where he's smart enough to know exactly what he's doing and saying, and can't be left alone for a moment.  He just recently found my China Glaze Stroll and painted all 10 of his fingers with it, and even used the bottle of Seche Vite to top it.  -deep breath-

Despite not watching the awards show yet, I did see this picture EVERYWHERE and then I got this press release today ^_^  Enjoy.  For my review of Yellow Polka Dot Bikini please click HERE

Dazzling in her Zuhair Murad mini dress and Rock & Republic grey platform heels, Katy Perry was definitely a stand out at the 2010 MTV Movie Awards. With so much sparkle, shimmer, sequins and shiny fabric going on, Katy nixed the accessories and instead went with a wild royal blue coif and neon yellow nails!

Katy Perry, who is known for her love of manicures and nails, went with her favorite celebrity manicurist Kimmie Kyees for this event. Kimmie, who is totally aware of the fact that Katy likes to stray as far away from the norm as possible, chose China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini as her first manicure color for the night. To make the neon yellow polish pop, Kimmie used a well-known manicurist trick by first applying a couple coats of China Glaze White on White underneath the Yellow Polka Dot Bikini. This insured that everyone was able to see Katy’s nails from a mile away! To achieve the desired nail length that Katy wanted, Kimmie also used ibd Natural Nail Tips. Kimmie says that she goes through so many of these nail tips that she can never have enough in her manicurist kit.

China Glaze colors may change from season to season, but our longwearing formula continues to provide consumers with the highest quality nail lacquers. Designed with the professional in mind, our 220-strand brush is great for ease of application. Best of all, our non-thickening formula provides perfectly even coverage.  China Glaze nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide. For more information, visit: www.chinaglaze.com .China Glaze is a division of American International Industries.

IBD is committed to supporting today's salon professional and promotes excellence in nail care by offering comprehensive education and training to nail artists. Our educational program is a hands-on training program that enlightens nail professionals with up-to-date techniques, explains the science behind the products and describes ways to build business and profits. Taught by a highly trained ibd educator, each attendee will experience the incredible benefits of using ibd products. No odor and no dust - nail professionals discover the future of nail care in IBD's light activated systems, for a healthier and safer salon environment.

About American International Industries

 For nearly 40 years, AII has been the leading manufacturer and worldwide distributor of innovative, quality beauty and skin care products for men and women.  Our product lines include Ardell, Andrea, Body Drench, Bye Bye Blemish, Checi, China Glaze, Clean + Easy, Clubman/Pinaud, Duo, European Secrets, EzFlow, Fright Night, Gena, GiGi, Gypsy Lash, IBD, Jeris-Lustray, No Tweeze/Micro Tweeze, 'N Rage, Prolinc, RAW, Seche, SuperNail, Surgi-Care, Waterworks,  Winning Nails, Woltra, Woody’s,  and Youthair.