CSN Giveaway #2

CSN has selected me as a CSN Preferred Blogger (wee!) so I have another $40 gift certificate to giveaway.  Again, this is open to only US and Canadian readers (sorry friends!).


Since I bought the house, I've been debating what to do, room by room.  My first big room to tackle is the dining room, and I'm still deciding on paint colors before I go for decorations.  Now, David Bromstad (whom I LOVE) from HGTV's 1st Design Star and now the host of Color Splash, would probably disagree with me, especially since decorations is where you spend your money - paint is relatively cheap.


I just recently placed my first order with CSN using the gift certificate that I won from Niki from Polish on Digital Paper and purchased a lovely canvas print of the beach that I'm thinking of hanging in my bathroom.  It should be here in about a week, so I'll let you know how I liked it.  ^_^


Fill me out!  This time, I am requiring that users put their Google Friend Connect ID.  You must be a follower to join this giveaway.  The giveaway starts today: 22 August and ends 30 August at midnight GMT.

This giveaway is now closed

Barielle Style in Argyle

Oh, is it fall yet?  Since I started blogging, I've noticed myself looking at women's hands and feet for their nail polish and one thing I've noticed is that I'm a little tired of pink.  That being said, I have TONS of pink polish, but that's another story.  Barielle has just released their Fall 2010 Collection titled "Style in Argyle", an autumn apparel-inspired polish.  Now while I don't actually own any argyle, I do like the way it looks.

The collection includes the following colors:

Cashmere or Loose Me is a soft brown with copper pearl

Tight Knit is a purple brown creme

Aura Angora is a royal gold creme

Unraveled Rust is a burnt rust creme

Wool You Marry Me?  is a plum brown creme and

Cowl of the Wild is a mushroom taupe creme.

Taupe is HOT this fall, I would definitely recommend that one.  Aura Angora was a surprise to me - a royal gold?  It's a break from the bright neon yellows we saw this summer, but I'm wondering if it will be "warm" enough for fall.

Barielle is big 3 free and something I hadn't noticed before on their releases, it is pregnancy safe.  Not that I'm pregnant (or planning on getting that way until my son is like... 10 haha), but it's good to know which companies can state that.  ^_^

Barielle [official website] retails for $8/bottle.

Urban Decay Book Of Shadows III: Urban Decay Hearts NYC

Aside from nail polish, I'm absolutely in love with eye shadow, more specifically, Urban Decay [official website].  On top of owning 12 of their pigments, a Stardust (Retrograde), a Deluxe (Sting), and all 3 tints of Urban Decay Primer Potion (Original, Sin and Eden), I also have 5 of their boxes -  Eyeshadow Ammo Shadow Box, Deluxe Shadow Box, Sustainable Shadow Box, Book of Shadows II and yes, I own the NAKED palette too.  I've been following them both on Facebook and Twitter and have some exciting news about their new Book of Shadows III: Urban Decay Hearts NYC.


First the actual press release:
On Saturday, August 28th, from 1-9pm, Urban Decay’s Eric Jimenez, Worldwide Retail Sales Director & International Make-Up Artist, is introducing Book of Shadows Vol. III, at Sephora’s infamous Times Square locale (1500 Broadway, #304, New York, NY 10036). A tribute to NYC, for a one day, sneak-peek event, only 1,000 pieces of the limited-edition Book of Shadows Vol. III will be available for purchase exclusively at this store, on a first come first served basis.  Eric and his team of ‘A-List’ artists are offering makeovers as well as sharing tips and tricks created specifically for the NYC non-stop, glam-and-go lifestyle. Get ready to camp out!  The coveted palette doesn’t even launch on UrbanDecay.com until after Labor Day, and will not be available in-store at Macy’s, Sephora, and Ulta, until October 1st!  The first 200 die-hard Urban Decay fans will receive a limited-edition Urban Decay t-shirt with their consultation.  Tell your boss you are taking a ‘face’ day!  Secure your place in line to get Urban Decay’s Book of Shadows Vol. III before anyone else in the world!
When:       Saturday, August 28th
                1 – 9PM 
Where:      Sephora Times Square
                1500 Broadway, #304
                New York, NY 10036

I'm not near New York and I already saw it would cost me $226 for a flight there (which heck is ALMOST worth it, haha) but maybe one of my readers will be lucky enough to go and be there!


I also received promo pictures from Urban Decay of this awesome book.

Some of the colors are re-releases but overall, I'm pretty happy with the selection.  Also included are the 24/7 Eyeliner pencils in Zero (black) and Ransom (purple) which sadly (?) I already own both in a full size and also a mini Urban Decay Primer Potion (a must, in my book) in the original color.  Did you hear that Urban Decay is FINALLY changing the bottle size from the genie to something else?  I'm still waiting on that release.


I'm looking forward to picking this up but I'm going to wait a little while I think.  I'm not sure how pre-orders work for this product, but if I get more information, I will let you know.

Deborah Lippmann Preview and Haul

So Monday and Tuesday I got to drive out of town to cities that actually have malls.  I was giddy.  I also did what any self-respecting person who just bought a house does... I bought a lot of makeup and nail polish.


On top of getting the new Urban Decay NAKED palette, and the Kat Von D True Romance palette and one of her discontinued lip glosses, a Sephora lipgloss on sale, Givenchy Pop Gloss Crystal as well as 4 new MAC pigments, I got a TON of nail polish.

• Claire's Mood Polish "Flirty/Shy"
• Claire's Mood Polish "Bored/Excited"
• Claire's Mood Polish "Silly/Awesome"
• Claire's Matte Top Coat
• Claire's Hollywood
• Claire's Starstruck
• Chanel "Paradoxal"
• OPI (Sephora) "Club Scene Queen"
• OPI (Sephora) "Just A Little Dangerous"
• OPI (Sephora) "And Then He Said"
• OPI (Sephora) "Sparkle Me Silver Top Coat"
• 2 bottles of Color Club "Revvvolution" (And I swear one looks more holographic grey and the other looks less holographic black)
• Color Club "Ruby Slippers"
• OPI Natural Nail Base Coat
• OPI Top Coat
• OPI "Ink"
• OPI "My Private Jet" (red/brown flash holo)
• OPI "My Private Jet" (teal flash holo)
• China Glaze "Tease"
• China Glaze "OMG" (back up bottle)
• Sephora la French manicure (all in French, it was on sale)
• Deborah Lippmann "Happy Birthday"
• Deborah Lippman "Bad Romance"
• Deborah Lippman "Across the Universe"
• Deborah Lippman "Ruby Red Slippers"

Now my math isn't exact but I paid about $7 a bottle for each one if I averaged it out.  Obviously my Lippmanns and Chanel were more in the $20 range, but I was still happy overall.


Well, I did have one problem.


This was my first time in a Nordstrom.  It was VERY hot (about 104 degrees) outside and my son was ready for a nap.  I was tired myself as well, so I wanted to get in, buy my stuff, and get out.  First I looked around but then a saleslady (Chelly, in case she's reading) stopped me and asked if I needed help.  Oh yeah, I did.  She took me to an end counter that had the Lippmanns and she was able to spot Happy Birthday right away and had a bottle of Ruby Red Slippers in a drawer.  However, I was out of luck for Bad Romance and Across the Universe, which I wasn't surprised.  What DID surprise me is that she told me that she could order them online and I could come pick them up.  I explained that I lived 150 miles away so she told me "No problem, we can ship them for free."  Like I'm going to say no to that.  So she placed the order for me, I paid, and I was out the door.  This was Tuesday afternoon.


Due to all the real life situations I'm dealing with (PS: Dad got out of the hospital yesterday but now my Mom has torn a muscle in her rotator cup), I haven't had a chance to check anything out that I bought.  Then, this afternoon (Thursday), I received a box from Nordstrom.  Believe it or not, it was my polish.  Okay, let me just rave about this for another moment... I was able to get 2 HTF Lippmanns, shipped to my home in a whole 2 day turn around.  Yeah, I'm in awe and love right now.


However, I wasn't in love when I opened my bottle of "Happy Birthday".  Or at least, I tried to open it.  The top was nearly glued on, and I noticed that some of the product was obviously missing.  Not a ton, but enough for me to say "This is NOT a full bottle."  I didn't notice it when I purchased the bottle, but after it sat upright in its package for 2 days, it settled into the bottle.  I finally pried to bottle open to find that there was lacquer all inside the top of the bottle and caked on the outside of the bottle.  I wasn't too happy.  I called the main Nordstrom line on my receipt and explained the situation to the CS rep who answered.  She then transferred me to Samantha (in case she's reading, HI!) who spent the next 30 minutes making me a happy woman.


First, she is sending me out a brand new bottle, but she did have to charge me for it.  This is a little new to me, but because I paid in cash, and in order for me to get my product sooner than later, we went this route.  I'm going to be printing a label from their website and packing up the polish to go back to their warehouse.  I didn't confirm, but I'm sure it's postage paid.  Then when the warehouse receives my damaged polish, they will credit back my debit card for the new polish.  Originally, they wanted to send me a gift card, but I wasn't too happy with that because again, this is only my first time shopping at this store and being so far away, I'm not going to get to go anytime soon.  Plus I'd rather have the cash back now.  Samantha was awesome to get it all worked out so that I'd get my cash back (well, on my debt card) instead of a gift card or having to go through tons of hoops.  Very happy about that.  She also told me I could call any time to place an order with her.  Interestingly enough, Chelly had told me the same thing and given me her business card.  I feel rather happy with that kind of customer service.  I work in the same field (just different product), and it's been nice to have a great experience back.


SO I wanted to get some quick swatching of my Lippmanns that I'm keeping before the sun went down.  I will be swatching in full but here's a down and dirty.
(1) Yes, they are as hard to photograph as everyone has said.
(2) The opacity is not fun.  This was 4 coats of each product.  No base coat, but I did use Seche Vite to top.
(3) The hexagon glitter wouldn't stay for me.  You'll see on Bad Romance that I got ONE PIECE of hexagon glitter.  Grr.


Now for these photographs.  It's Bad Romance, Ruby Red Slippers, Across the Universe

One piece of glitter.  Grr.

Like I said, full swatches to come - and of course "Happy Birthday" when I get it!  ^_^

China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint

I'm back!  Okay, not really.  My Dad is hopefully being released today but I won't be here.  Of course.  I have my own doctor appointments and then I'm going out of town so I can pick my Mom up from the airport on Tuesday.  I'm going to attempt to write a few more posts before leaving tomorrow, but I'm really loving this manicure!


China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint was apart of the Up & Away Spring 2010 collection, but it's just been sitting in my list of untrieds for, well, months.  Mint was a very popular color this spring/summer... I like it but I was never crazy about it.  Well that's because I've never tried it!


I used a base coat of Seche Natural, 2 coats of Re-Fresh Mint and a top coat of Seche Vite.  The formula was a little tricky.  I'm not sure if it's my unsteady hand from not polishing in over a week, or part of my new medicine (a side effect is trembling hands, not kidding), but the first coat was a bit streaky, pooled into my cuticles and the polish was weird.  I'm not very good at wiping polish.  I read one blogger (Temptalia I think?) who wipes the top plastic of the brush on the bottle's edge first so she doesn't get "runny polish" going down the brush.  I believe Scrangie mentioned in her blog that these polishes specifically had a problem of excess polish running down the brush - but either way, that's exactly what happened to me in the first coat.  I had to do extra wiping on the bottle neck in order to make sure not to have SURPRISE! POLISH DRIPS while polishing.  The second coat, I got wiser and was able to smooth out all the streaks, pooling and mistakes.  I still ran my nails with some polish remover using a small eyeliner paint brush to clean up before applying my Seche Vite.


This color is a very pretty mint green creme, almost pastel.  Sun picture, go!

Shade picture, go!

Interesting note, my hands nearly GLOWED in the shade like a neon does.  I first noticed that at church, which is always an appropriate place to stare at your nails, right?  ^_^  


Ooh also, I'm going Tuesday to get some crazy nail shopping out of the way.  I'm talking Lippmanns (for sure!), MAC, and if I'm lucky some awesome China Glaze dusties and some OPIs.  I'm super excited about this trip and just can't wait!

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].

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.