I am alive - Promise.

Image Courtesy of ellageepolish 

It's been a heck of a month. I had surgery (again) late last month and recovery hasn't been fun... or happened. I still have an open hole in my stomach because the incision just won't heal. It's kinda neat - like a black hole or something. (Serious note: The doctor knows and said it's just taking time to heal.)

I also went all over the place this month. My favorites? Watching my dear BeautyJudy get married in New Jersey.

And then the ATXNailGirls meet up in Austin, Texas (photo at the top of this post). 

Then I got strep throat. Hah.

But now I'm preparing for the holidays which of course starts Thursday with Thanksgiving. Then I have my first wedding anniversary, my 30th birthday (holy crap), Christmas and New Years!

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, POLISHGALORE TURNS FOUR! What? Yep! I have lots of stuff to giveaway so I'm excited.  You should be too. Stay tuned!

Thanks a Latte Giveaway!

Nothing To Disclose
While I wait for the winner of the Hobby Polish Blogger to respond to her winner's email, I'd like to bring you yet another fantastic giveaway! This one is being hosted by Cosmetish but I'm super excited to be a part of it.  This giveaway is open internationally and ends on Friday 22 November 2013 at 11:59 PM.

Please wait for the Rafflecopter widget to load in full before you start filling it out. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Nailed Kit - Halloween

Press Sample
While I was at iFabbo's #iFabboSFcon, I had this lovely woman come up to me and ask me about my nails, then show me hers. She had on a skittle of different decorations and colors that made me say "What are you wearing!"  Then she handed me the above envelope with a smile on her face and told me that all the information is inside.

Okay so it wasn't totally as clandestine as that, but it was pretty close to that. She was from Nailed Kit, a company that provides nail art kits that are simple for the beginner (hello, me) but can be used for advanced nail pros too!  The company has 4 different categories of kits - Birthday, Bachelorette, Baby Shower and Girls Night which are based on the decals that in the kit. Pick a category, pick a design and then the rest is auto-generated by the Designer. Each Nailed Kit includes the solid base decals, the design you've selected, rhinestones, a nail file and a shaping stick (orange stick).

Inside my Halloween Kit which HOLY COW, GOES AWAY TOMORROW SO GO NOW IF YOU'RE INTERESTED, was the Spooky Spiders design (USD $12.00) which came with a yellow base decals.

Back to the kit. I love the packaging.

I told you yesterday how much I love branding. Super easy here - it's all written out in steps.

Step 1 - Start It!

Their website says that these are real nail polish strips but they are definitely soft and pliable like nail polish stickers. It reminds me of the NCLA decals vs say the China Glaze nail polish appliques. You do have to be careful during the filing or you will tear the strip (did that one on my pinkie, right off the bat).

Step 2 - Personalize It!

This was my first experience with water decals. I immediately didn't pay attention to instruction 1 and cut my decal too far away from the actual printed image. I used tweezers to drop my decal in the water and remove it, and then when I tried to transfer it to my nail, it was all over my cuticles. I decided to take it off, trim it, put it back in the water for a second and then reapply. It worked but don't do it that way.  I decided to put another water decal over a bare nail and trimmed it properly first. It worked better. I sealed both with essence gel-look top coat.

Step 3 - Bling It Out!

The kit includes a sheet of multicolored rhinestones that are attached in a chain but you can break it apart easily. I added a single rhinestone over the nail polish decal and then a row of rhinestones to my bare nail and sealed both essence gel-look topcoat.

So Nailed Kit - not only can you buy the kits when you wish but they also offer a Monthly Club for $14 a month (currently in a waitlist). They are also available on social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest. 

Overall, great for a look, great for a night out, not something that I would buy on a regular basis but that's mostly because I'm still terrible with the solid base decals. Until I master that, I have very little business trying this out. But I definitely think it's a great stocking stuffer kit for the upcoming holidays and I really hope they have some holiday themed kits coming up soon.

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

I ♥ Nail Polish Update

I really hadn't heard of the brand I ♥ Nail Polish, also written as I Love Nail Polish or ILNP, before this year but boy, have they quickly become one of my favorite brands.

For starters, founder Barbra is very specific about branding. When you purchase from I ♥ Nail Polish, your box is branded, the tissue paper is branded, and each bottle shade is very professionally labeled. It's the little things that make me really enjoy a company - the attention to detail is exquisite.

Next let's talk about the founder. I got to meet her this summer at the Ninja Polish blogger dinner in Vegas and she is the sweetest woman ever. She was very humble and kind and that's something else that really sticks out for me. If you've been following her social media, specifically the I ♥ Nail Polish Facebook Page, she will share manicures that she enjoys - even when her brand is no where in the photo. It's no question to me why her brand has been so successful (over 182,000 fans on Facebook alone!).

Now I own quite a bit of I ♥ Nail Polish that I bought straight from her website and then she did it to me with the Ultra Chromes (especially Birefringence, which is my new love). Now she's completely outdone herself by adding holographic goodness to the mix, bringing back 2 retired shades AND introducing 10 more shades that will be available for pre-order on November 1st. Let's look at the lovelies, shall we? (All images courtesy of I ♥ Nail Polish)

Absolute Zero

AC Slater (originally retired)

Admire Me

Birefringence H (now with holographic goodness!)

Bottle Service

Contraband

Cygnus Loop H (now with holographic goodness!)

Exodus

Grapealicious (originally retired)

Indie Go

Molly

Mutagen H (now with holographic goodness!)

My Little Glacier H (now with holographic goodness!)

Pt 78

Purgatory

Sweet Serenade

Washing Ashore

But wait, there's even more! If you pre-order on November 1st, each polish will be $1.00 off the official release price. EVEN BETTER THAN THAT if you pre-order at least 3 pre-order polishes in a single order, you will receive a limited edition, not-for-sale holographic polish totally FREE!

And there's even more. If you sign up for the I ♥ Nail Polish newsletter here, 5 lucky winners will win the complete set of 16 polishes announced on November 8th.  Already bought them? Well you will get a total refund of your order if you win and you don't have to pay for shipping AND YES this is open internationally! (PolishGalore is not affiliated with this giveaway in any way, shape or form.)

I'm exhausted. So much amazing goodness in one posting.  For more on the I ♥ Nail Polish brand, be sure to following their various social media platforms: Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

Gelish MINI Trends

I stopped in Sally's this past weekend and was intrigued to see this new collection of Gelish MINI polishes for $15.95 each. I had to reach out for more information because we all know how knowledgeable some employees can be.

This new collection is called Trends and it's a seasonally-inspired grouping of the most sought after colors and textures for layering on top of other Gelish colors or wearing alone. Sixteen brand new colors, people!

No more talking, LOOK AT THESE. (Images courtesy of Gelish)

All That Glitters Is Gold

Gold glitter

Candy Shop

Green & blue glitter

Let Me Top You Off

Purple, red & blue glitter

Too Tough to Be Sweet

Magenta glitter

Girls' Night Out

Chunky silver glitter

Concrete Couture

Black & silver glitter

Rough Around The Edges

Iridescent holographic flakes

Am I Making You Gelish?

Silver holographic glitter

A Pinch of Pepper

White & black dots

Feel Me On Your Fingertips

Purple glitter

Lots of Dots

Fine multi-colored dots

Sweet 16

Pink glitter

Life of The Party

Red glitter

#PartyGirlProblems

Blue, pink & silver glitter

Getting Gritty With It

Blue, pink and turquoise glitter

Are You Feeling It?

Turquoise, blue & green glitter

-dies- I seriously had to stop myself from just buying them all. My must haves are Are You Feeling It?, Rough Around the Edges, Am I Making You Gelish? and A Pinch of Pepper. Don't even pretend like you know I'm not obsessed with black and white glitter.  LOVE.

Bonus: Did you know Gelish MINI has their own website now?