Beauty Blog Coalition Valentine's Day Sweepstakes!

The ladies of the Beauty Blog Coalition are having another opportunity for you to walk away with $450 (USD in the form of a pre-paid Visa Card)! Starting today and going until midnight of February 15, 2013, this is open internationally to all those age 18+. Please wait for the Rafflecopter to load in full. (Terms and Conditions are found at the bottom of the Rafflecopter.)



Participating Bloggers
Aquaheart's Obsessions    http://www.aquaheart.net/
Beauty and Fashion Tech    http://beautyandfashiontech.com
BeautyTidbits    http://beautytidbits.com
Blushing Basics    http://www.blushingbasics.com
Blushing Noir    http://www.blushingnoir.com
Cosmetics Aficionado    http://www.cosmeticsaficionado.com/
Emily Hudspeth, hair design and makeup artist    http://blog.emilyhudspeth.com/
FutureDerm    http://www.futurederm.com
Glamorous Mama    http://www.glamorousmama.com
Lawless Lacquer    www.lawlesslacquer.com
Love For Lacquer    http://www.loveforlacquer.com
Madame B Fatale    http://www.madamebfatale.com
Midnight Manicures    http://www.midnightmanicures.com/
MinaSlater.com - Fabulous Awesomeness    http://www.minaslater.com
Moxie Reviews    http://www.moxiereviews.com
My Beauty Bunny    www.mybeautybunny.com
My Highest Self    http://myhighestselfblog.com/
Peek & Ponder    http://www.peekandponder.com
Phyrra    http://www.phyrra.net
Polarbelle    http://www.polarbelle.com
polish insomniac    www.polishinsomniac.net
PolishGalore    http://www.polishgalore.com
Portrait of Mai    www.portraitofmai.com
Prime Beauty    www.primebeautyblog.net
The Crow and the Powderpuff    www.thecrowandthepowderpuff.com
TheFabZilla    http://www.thefabzilla.com/



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Valentine's Day Style Essentials from Target

Valentine's Day is coming up fast, and Target has some great ideas on how you can be looking red-hot for this lovely holiday!


From what to wear to what to gift, planning the perfect Valentine’s Day begins at Target. Celebrating the special day in style is easy with on-trend, affordable offerings for the whole family – all under $30!

Fashionable home goods, feminine jewelry, statement bags, glamorous makeup and other gorgeous essentials create the ideal look for any Valentine’s Day occasion.


Night with friends: 1. Merona Crossbody Bag in Pink ($26.99), 2. NP Set Day-to-Night Liners ($15.00 each), 3. Circular Lace Earrings in Gold ($7.99), 4. Converse One Star Sleeveless Britney Top ($24.99), 5. Mossimo Ponte Pencil Skirt in Deep Berry ($19.99), 6. Threshold Ceramic Frames ($9.99 each), 7. Bodycology XOXO Collection ($3.99 each)

Romantic dinner: 8. Mossimo Black Envelope Clutch in Black and White ($24.99), 9. Mossimo Ponte Peplum Sleeveless Dress ($27.99), 10. Threshold Berry Vases ($14.99-$19.99), 11. Multi Strand Necklace in Pearl and Aqua ($16.99) and Multi Stone Bracelet in Ivory and Aqua ($12.99), 12. Pixi Tinted Brilliance Balm in Rosy Red ($16.00),
13. Umberto Beverly Hills Volume Boosting Foam ($8.99)

Family night at home: 14. Xhilaration Junior’s Knit Tee and Short Sleep Set ($12.99), 15. Pixi Nail Colour in Amazing Amethyst ($8.00), 16. Red Pintuck Pillow ($24.99), 17. Mossimo Black Scarf in Black and White Diamond Print ($14.99), 18. Threshold Scallop Dinnerwear ($2.99) and Threshold Small Tumbler ($2.49)

NCLA and Glamour Mag

Got this awesome release in my email - super happy for NCLA!  Their wraps have been making the rounds in Hollywood, and here's just another example!  Do you get/read Glamour magazine?




Designers’ Resort 2013 Prints Featured on Limited Edition NCLA Nail Wraps
To be Sold Exclusively at Barneys Co-op and shopncla.com

NEW YORK, NY – Glamour has unveiled its latest designer collaboration for Fashion Gives Back—a project that gives designers the chance to create special bags, shoes, or tees to support causes they care about every year. This year’s charitable product is the new must-have accessory—eye catching nails: Glamour paired four designers—all known for their distinctive patterns—with nail gurus NCLA to create runway-inspired nail wraps. Signature prints featured in the Resort 2013 collections of 10 Crosby Derek Lam, Bibhu Mohapatra, L’Wren Scott and Peter Som, are transformed into limited-edition nail decals exclusively for Glamour. The nail art and original looksthat served as the inspiration from the designers’ collections are featured Glamour’s January issue, which hits newsstands nationwide on December 11.

All four versions of the limited-edition nail wrap kits will be sold exclusively at select Barneys Co-op stores and shopncla.com starting December 4. Easy to apply at home, each $16 kit contains enough wraps for three to four manicures. Five dollars of every kit sold goes to Girls Who Code, a nonprofit that helps young women pursue careers in technology and engineering.

About Glamour
Glamour magazine and glamour.com reach more than 17 million readers each month. Glamour was the first women’s magazine on the iPad and has launched popular special editions, apps and books—including two New York Times best-sellers—and received a record number of National Magazine Awards, including Magazine of the Year, honoring print and digitalexcellence.

About NCLA
Los Angeles based NCLA launched in 2011 with a collection ofbright bold easy-to-apply runway and street style inspired nail wraps. A line of vibrant long-lasting 5-free cruelty-free made in LA nail lacquers soon followed. NCLA has been releasing new collections of eye-popping solid, metallic, and glitter shades and fashion forward nail wraps each season since.  Nail Wraps + Nail Lacquer retail for $16.00 USD and are available worldwide in over 200 fine retailers including: Harvey Nichols, Kitson, Nordstrom, and ShopNCLA.com. They wish they all could be California girls. Now they can be with NCLA.

About Girls Who Code
Launched in Spring 2012, Girls Who Code is working to educate, inspire, and equip high school girls with the skills and resources to pursue careers in engineering and technology and become more engaged and empowered citizens. Together with leading educators, engineers, and entrepreneurs, Girls Who Code has developed a new model for computer science education, pairing intensive instruction in robotics, web design, and mobile development with high-touch mentorship led by the industry's top female developers and entrepreneurs. In its inaugural program, Girls Who Code empowered young women from New York City and will launch programs in cities across the country in 2013.



Pretty Serious Christmas Without Snow

I still haven't taken the Pretty Serious plunge (mostly because I'm working on cleaning out my stash as it is) but I have to say, she is bringing out some awfully cute collections!  Australia is on my list of places to visit before I die, and I think it would be kind of neat to go during the winter. Granted, it's not like I'm not used to Christmas without snow... All images courtesy of Pretty Serious.

Christmas without snow? What a preposterous notion! For the rest of the world, maybe. But down here in Australia, we love to crack out the beer and boardshorts and soak up the sun at this very special time of year. We wanted to capture the spirit of an Aussie Christmas with our very first seasonal collection consisting of six amazing new nail shades to help you celebrate Christmas the Aussie way!

BLUE GUMS ON BOXING DAY
This rich green shines with a mesmerizing blue shimmer! Perfect for those post Christmas celebrations!

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS
Shining stars sparkle in the velvet sky. This inky blue jelly with silver micro glitter is a nightscape on your nails!

PARTY BY THE POOL
Splash about in this gorgeous peacock jelly, swimming with flecks of green and blue!

SANTA'S SUNBURN
It seems that Santa's Sunburn is the best type of sunburn! This jolly red foil sparkles with tiny flecks of silver.

SEASONAL SUNSET 
Seasonal Sunset's rusty jelly base is packed to bursting with bright golden and copper microglitter particles and the result is simply breathtaking. It's a Christmas sunset on your nails!

TWINKLING LIGHTS
Like stars that sparkle in the sky, or Christmas lights twinkling in the night, Twinkling Lights will add something special to every manicure!

And to make things even cooler, our Christmas polishes will come in cute Christmas themed red holographic boxes with new artwork by our one and only Leigh Young! The perfect stocking stuffer! You won't even need to wrap them!

RRP is $9.95, with a 10% discount for buying all six shades! Pretty Serious Cosmetics also ships worldwide. Check out our site for more details.

Bottle volume is 11ml/0.37 fl.oz. Pretty Serious Cosmetics is 100% Vegan and Cruelty Free.

NCLA Rock Solid

NCLA is one of those brands that while I love it to death, these caps are going to be the death of me.  It's a false square cap that is supposed to be able to be removed to show a smaller round cap, but sometimes I can't get the square cap off and then my bottles don't line up perfectly, and THEN I RAGE. So if anyone knows how to get the fake square caps off without breaking anything, please do let me know in the comments.

Today I'm showcasing the finale of the Going Out in LA 2012 collection with Rock Solid. This is a fancy little grey that has a gritty glitter in it.  Talk about some extra texture! I used a base of Poshe, 2 coats of polish and a top of Cult Nails Wicked Fast.

I'm still hunting for my perfect grey, and this kind of comes close! The gritty glitter is definitely unique to any of my other greys, but if you don't want the sandpaper feeling, I suggest you add more thin coats of top coat.

In the shade, not much different - the glitter shows a bit more in the bottle, but I'm thinking of changing how I take pictures and show more nail than anything else. I'm working on revamping my self, you could say.

And finally in indirect light. The grittiness didn't bother me as much as I thought it would, but I did catch it lightly on things. The formula was nice and smooth (yes, smooth!) with no patchiness and quite opaque. I think this would be better suited to my nubbins that I have now than on longer nails.  Cleanup was normal - just a bit more scrubbing to get off the grit.

NCLA [Website] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Tumblr] is available on the website for $16.00 a bottle and in a variety of stores.

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