100 Followers Giveaway! [Winner]

Thank you to the 112 wonderful readers that all signed up for my 100 Followers Giveaway!  To make it simple and easy, you were each assigned a number by the way you comments (first person was #1, etc).

Then I went to my rusty trusty Random Numberizer located at http://ma.tt/tools/random-number/ and asked for a number between 1 and 112 and I got this:

YAY #91 aka Nelsby http://www.blogger.com/profile/06346386862521059219

I've sent you an email from krystal[at]polishgalore.com  so I can get your mailing information.

If for some reason, I haven't received a reply by next Tuesday at midnight:01 GMT, I will redraw for another winner.

Thanks again and I'll be holding my 150+ followers giveaway next!

China Glaze Heli-Yum

I was pretty excited to try this color in the Up And Away 2010 Spring Collection - China Glaze Heli-Yum.  China Glaze describes this color as "raspberry", so I'm interested in swatching it next to both Raspberry Festival from the Summer Days 2009 Summer Collection, and Sneaker Head from the Kicks Collection (also released in 2009).  But first, let's look at Heli-Yum!

This is another one coater!  I used a base coat of Seche Natural, one coat of Heli-Yum, and then one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

In the sun:

And in the shade:

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.

Zoya Remove+ vs Seche Erase

If you're like me, you have what happens when it's time to remove polish.  The smell, the cold feeling of acetone on your fingers, scrubbing forever with glitters...


I mentioned before in my nail care post that I use Zoya Remove+ almost exclusively now.  I do use studio 35 beauty polish remover to clean up the edges of my manicure using an ordinary paint brush, and I have a few other jars and bottles of drugstore polish remover around too.


Then I heard about Seche Erase which sounded a lot like Zoya Remove+ all the way down to the slight lavender floral smell.  Problem was I couldn't find Seche Erase anywhere.  No salons or stores carried it and I didn't find it on most of my normal etailers.


Cue TransDesign [official website] again.  Now, here's the issue.  One 8 fl oz bottle of Zoya Remove+ sells for $9.99 on Zoya's website (also the same price in the salon that I frequent).  Seche Erase was only available in 1 fl oz bottles for $1.28 on TransDesign, so I bought 6 of them.  They are relatively the same price though, when you add it up.  The bottles are also quite different.  Zoya Remove+ features the "big flipper" top which has a plunger that when pushed, pools remover into the slightly curved top through 3 holes.  I normally only need one plunge to clean several fingers.  Seche Erase is in a squeeze bottle that you have to manually squeeze onto your removal pad of choice (I use cheap felt found in craft stores, cut into squares).


Application removal wise, I really found both to be the same - both removed the polish quickly, effectively, and had the same good smell, not like normal polish removers.  The ingredients appears to be alike as well except Seche Erase has some oils involved to help with the harshness that is nail polish remover.


Zoya Remove+
* 2-propanone
* Water
* Glycerine
* Fragrance
* D&C Violet #2


Seche Erase
* Acetone
* Water
* Lavadula Angustifolia (Lavender) extract
* Eucalyptus Globulus Leaf Oil
* Melaleuca Altermifolia (Tea Tree) Leaf Oil
* Butylene Glycol
* Benzophenone-1
* Violet 2


Now I must be honest, while typing this out, my eyes bugged out a bit at the Melaleuca.  When my family first moved back to Texas from Oregon, my Dad's friend was selling Melaleuca products and my Dad, being a good friend, bought a little of EVERYTHING.  We had Melaleuca juice, Melaleuca lotions, and the one that killed me, Melaleuca laundry detergent.  My Mom washed all our clothes in it, and we all broke out into this horrible itchy terrible rash.  The only thing that had changed was the laundry detergent, so we threw out all the Melaleuca products and haven't looked back since.  However, Melaleuca Altermifoilia appears to be quite different because I've used Tea Tree shampoo for years without any side effects - in fact it's produced to do the opposite - relax the skin, not irritate it.  I also didn't notice any irritation with the Seche Erase, and as a test, spread it on my palms and back of my hands to see if a rash developed.  Thankfully, nothing happened but wet palms and hands.


I'm going to keep using these both alternatively, especially with a glitter - that's my true test.  Finally, I leave you with a comparison shot of the two bottles side by side.

Seche Natural Matte Finish Nail Treatment

Seche Vite has quickly become one of my favorite products.  Their base coat which I use exclusively now, dries fast, lasts, and more importantly does not allow bleed through with polishes.  Their top coat is amazing - very fast drying, shiny, and long lasting.  I have read of other bloggers having problems with Seche Vite top coat shrinking and "peeling up" on them, but thankfully I've never had that happen.  I did have one bottle of top coat get thick on me, but once I used some Seche Vite Restore (which was given to me from the company), the top coat worked just fine again.


I do follow Seche Vite on Twitter [official Twitter page] and back in early January, they tweeted about their newest product Seche Natural Matte Finish Nail Treatment.  My ears perked up.  According to the box, "Seche Natural strengthens weak nails with wheat protein and calcium.  Ideal for a natural looking matte finish when worn alone or may be applied under polish as a nourishing base coat."


I began a wild goose chasing trying to find of any store in my local area that had even HEARD of this product, but no one had, but I found it on TransDesign [official website] for $4.20 - not bad.  Thankfully, I was blessed with strong nails - no peeling or splitting here, but I figure this can't hurt.  I want to wear it on days that I don't have polish on, or maybe alternate between Natural and Seche Vite's Crystal Base Coat for awhile.

To be honest, I didn't notice that much of a matte finish over my natural nails - this is one coat.  Maybe with longer nails, you'll be able to tell the difference.

Essie Glamour Do

Essie has joined Twitter [official Twitter page] and so I figured no time like the present to swatch the only Essie in my collection Essie Glamour Do.  This was a promotion from Glamour [official website] magazine's 70th anniversary and the first 5,000 people to go to Glamour's website back in March 2009 and enter their information, won a bottle.  I don't know what number I was, but I was in the 5,000!


Free is free, and this was one tiny bottle, at only 0.16 fluid ounces compared to others which are normally around 0.5 fluid ounces.  Even the China Glaze Matte Magic was 0.325 fluid ounces.  Here's my bottle next to a bottle of Seche Vite top coat.

Glamour Do is a very sheer, very light pink.  It took me 5 coats to get this level of opacity, and as you can see, I smeared my pointer finger.  By the time I was done taking pictures, I smeared my ring ringer too, hah.  Overall it's a pretty color, but I'd probably use it either as a layer color over white, or just as a quick sheer for the day.

Essie can be purchased on their website [official website] or etailers like Head2ToeBeauty [official website] or TransDesign [official website]