Valentine's Day Blog Hop Giveaway

I'm interrupting my 14 Days of Valentine's posts to have a fun giveaway! So first I'm having my OWN giveaway (open internationally!) and then below that you will find THIRTY SEVENhe more bloggers giving away prizes... and THEN if you enter into all those giveaways, you can enter into our BIG $400 Giveaway! Whew.

So let's talk about my giveaway. This morning, I showed you a great polish from ILNP. Well, it was only natural that I wanted to give away a $25 gift card to ILNP.com! Heck yeah! The only mandatory entry is to put in your preferred email address (in case you win!) and then you can earn extra entries by following the other prompts.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Now for the Blog Hop!

For this super-awesome Valentine's-themed blog hop, 38 fabulous bloggers have teamed up to give away some epic prizes, all beauty-related, of course! If you've been wanting to splurge on some fun items for yourself...you're in the right place!



Here’s How it Works: Each of the blogs participating are giving away their own prize on their blog. Yes, you heard that right — this blog hop has 38 separate giveaways that you have a chance to win! So after you’ve entered my giveaway, make sure you hop to all the other blogs (linked below) for more beauty products that you could win! 

GRAND PRIZE GIVEAWAY: Because we like to spice it up a bit, we didn't stop at 38 giveaways...we wanted to make it a nice, round 40 with an epic grand prize that you could win! So, if you go around the blog hop and enter all the giveaways, you’re eligible to enter to win a $400 eGiftcard to Sephora or Ulta (winners choice!). If you live in a country that Sephora or Ulta doesn’t ship to, no worries! You’ll be given the money via PayPal to use at whatever beauty store you have nearby! 

International Readers: There are some blogs who do not have their giveaway open worldwide, but you can still enter to win the grand prize giveaway! Here's how that will work -- for all the blogs in this hop that do not have their giveaway open worldwide, all you have to do is check out their giveaway, complete the ONE required entry, and leave them a comment on their giveaway post letting them know you’re international but still did the required entry so that you can have a chance to win the grand prize! Then click the link below that will take you directly to where you can fill out the form to enter the grand prize giveaway.

You got all that? Any questions, just ask below! Let’s get into this hop!

In the event that you get an ERROR message when clicking on any of the links below, try clicking on the HOME page of that blog. Or come back later and try again. There are often hiccups that happen in the beginning of a pre-scheduled blog hop such as this. Thank you for your patience!


ILNP Cherry Luxe

Nothing To Disclose

I am absolutely obsessed with the indie line ILNP or "I Love Nail Polish". Barbra, the creator, has really pushed the limits on being unique, consistent, branded and just awesome. When she had to make the move from her original logo in round bottles to the new ILNP in square bottles, I didn't even mind THAT much because I love the brand. Today, in keeping with my 14 Days of Valentine's, I have ILNP Cherry Luxe from the Holiday 2015 collection. This is a really interesting red. So I have daylight light bulbs in my house and in my light box, but all I can really see in this photo is a cheery cherry red with some silver flakies. Sounds cool. This is from their "Ultra Metallics" line.

I used a base coat of Duri Rejuvacote, 2 coats of polish, and finished with Glisten & Glow H K Girl top coat. The polish dries smooth even though it looks like it would be gritty glitter - it's not. This is what I'm talking about when I say that ILNP is pushing the limits. 


This is from my light box. It almost reminds me of a candy cane - the red with silver metallic flakes. I love it and can definitely see myself wearing it around a lot.

BUT THEN as I was about to take it off, I saw a flash of holo. YES HOLO! So I ran outside and sure enough, there is holographic magic in this bottle.


So much goodness that my camera couldn't handle it. This photo was taken with my daylight light bulb desk lamp. You could have knocked me down with a feather. I'm so happy with this polish! The photos never do ILNP justice... as I was looking back on the website, there aren't many photos that really push the holo goodness - it's all about the metallic flakes. 

You can purchase ILNP on their website. For more on ILNP, be sure to following their various social media platforms: Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.

JulieG Romeo


Welcome to Day 2 of the 14 Days of Valentine's! For Valentine's Day 2014, JulieG and Jesse's Girl paired up to make "The Perfect Pair." One JulieG nail polish was created to match a Jesse's Girl lipstick. While lipstick isn't really my jam, you know I had to get all the nail polishes. Today I have Romeo, a coral creme which was paired with Juliet, a coral lipstick. 

I used a base coat of Duri Rejuvacote, 2 coats of polish and finished with Glisten & Glow H K Girl top coat. The first coat of polish was a little on the thick-streaky and I got worried. Thankfully the second thin coat self leveled perfectly and I had little clean up to do.

Happy little coral polish. This is a little bland for me because I'm wanting to go all sparkly but I have to be semi-office appropriate right now. I may still end up using some kind of glitter over this next time I wear it just for a little happier time for my nails. As you can see, I had to nubbin again. I was getting the corners caught and tearing my nails and that's always a bad time for everyone.

Sadly, Romeo is currently out of stock and not listed on the website but you might find a back up somewhere online.

You can purchase JulieG in Rite Aid stores across the US or shop online at Jesse's Girl Cosmetics which ships worldwide!  JulieG sells for $3.99 for a 0.35 fl oz (10 mL) bottle.

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

Jessica Conch Shell

Press Sample

Happy February! I had this wild idea that I wanted to showcase 14 Days of Valentine's with a different red or pink nail polish each day. So I asked other bloggers what they thought and everyone thought it was an awesome idea and I thought "Hey, let's make it a group thing!" So now there are a bunch of us doing 14 Days of Valentine's - be sure to visit the other blogs listed in the InLinkz at the bottom of this posting. Each day, I will have a different red or pink polish showcased all the way up to Valentine's Day - a mix of indies and mainstreams that I picked at random. My only criteria was that I couldn't have blogged about it before. This way I could finally get into picking some other brands and polishes that I hadn't worn before.

Today, Day 1, I have Jessica Conch Shell. This is a pink creme, that I would call Barbie Pink, from the Coral Symphony collection that was released in Spring 2014. This is also when Jessica launched their new formula that was supposed to flow onto the nails without any streaks.

I used a base coat of Duri Rejuvacote, 2 coats of polish and finished with Glisten & Glow H K Girl top coat. The formula on this polish was pretty interesting. So first, I had total streakiness with the first coat. The brush on Jessica is round like China Glaze, so it's a learning curve for me to paint all sides of my nail without getting it into my cuticle. I finally gave up and just painted the whole nail and if some flooded, well that's what a clean up brush is for, right? 

The second coat I had to go a little heavy with to both self-level and and even out those streaks from the first coat. I'm not sure if this is a part of that new formula or if maybe my bottle needed to be shaken a little harder to mix back together. It has say on the shelf for 2 years! It also dried slightly matte but since I always top coat, that brought that shine back.


So as you can see I needed to clean up and probably needed to try a little harder on my ring finger. My nails are just barely peeking over my finger tip so it's time to either get them professionally shaped up or just nub them further with a file. I haven't decided based on time and effort. But back to the polish - it's pretty! Nothing extremely unique but a good staple to own.

Jessica is available on their website as well as select salons and spas for $8.40 for 14.8 ml/0.5 fl oz. join them on social media by liking on Facebook, following on Twitter, and following on Instagram.


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



Morgan Taylor Prettier In Pink

Press Sample

Who doesn't love berry pinks? Maybe some of you out there aren't a fan but I love me some berry pink. I decided to wear Prettier In Pink, a core color from Morgan Taylor, for my recent presentation at work and I just can't help but smile at this happy little color.

I used a base coat of Duri Rejuvacote, 2 coats of polish and finished with Glisten & Glow H K Girl top coat. The formula was pretty dang fantastic and I didn't have any issues with staining, pooling or dragging. In fact, I had very little clean up too!


Seriously? LOVE. This wanted to photograph more red but it's definitely in the berry family for me. It's also not a neon but just a happy little creme. Yay cremes!

Morgan Taylor [Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | YouTube] is available at CosmoProf for $8.50 a bottle. Online, non-professionals can purchase Morgan Taylor at Ulta Beauty

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