Thursday, May 30, 2013

Glitter Mix Boutique: Part 4

*All products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Glitter Mix Boutique. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Welcome to Part 4 of my review of the Glitter Mix Boutique's glitter mixes. This is the one I've been most excited to share. This is my favorite, favorite glitter mix of the glitters I received for this review.



You saw Rainbow Graffiti in Part 1 now see why I love it so much!


Rainbow Graffiti has every color of the rainbow in square and hex as well as what looks like every size of black and white, including bar glitter!


I love bar glitter, but sparingly! In my opinion, you just can't go hog wild with bar glitter or your nails start to look like you stuck grass to them or that they've started to grow hair. That's what's so great about this mix. The bar glitter is an accent not the main focus.


Held close to the light there's not much shine from this one so you know it's going to be a great layering glitter!


Sorry for all the bubbles. This picture was taken just after I finished mixing; it hadn't had time to settle yet.


One coat over bare nail and one coat over Wet n Wild I Need A Refresh-Mint. Can you see why I love this glitter so much?? Maybe it's just me, but I think this is the most perfect mix EVER!

This is a glitter topper that everyone needs! Don't have suspension base? That's okay. A lot of the shops on Etsy sell small sample sizes of suspension base. You can pick one up while you're there buying Rainbow Graffiti from Glitter Mix Boutique. Of course, you can also use regular store bought clear polish. It will not suspend the glitter; the glitter will sink to the bottom but turn it upside down for a few minutes before you want to use it and it'll work fine.

Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GlitterMixBoutique
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/youmixcosmetics
You Mix: http://www.shopyoumix.com/

*All products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Glitter Mix Boutique. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Crowdtap & Old Navy In-Store Beach Party

Hey everyone! I recently received the opportunity from Crowdtap to snag some new beach essentials from Old Navy!



The really awesome thing? It wasn't just for me! I could bring 3 friends!


The coupons were for one swimsuit, a pair of flip-flops, a beach bag, and a towel for each of us. All the things you need for a day at the beach!!

I took my mom, my sister, and my niece. We arrived at the store and after informing the manager we headed right for the swim section ... and found ourselves pretty disappointed. I had 'window shopped' ahead of time at OldNavy.com. I had picked out a few suits I wanted to try and could find none of them in store. There were three of their control max one-piece suits that my mom and I prefer and one of them only had two sizes left (a medium and an x-large). Checking the other one-piece suits, the non-control suits, found about 3-4 of them.

I grabbed two of the control suits and two of their regular one-piece suits. I also picked up one of their tankinis. Everyone else grabbed their favorites and we headed to the dressing room.


Trying on the swimsuits presented problems immediately. I'm 5'3, my mom and sister are slightly shorter than me. We found that we were slightly too short in the torso to fill out most of the suits. The bottoms were saggy in ... well, in the bottom. If pulled up the bra part was slightly too high.


However, I did find these two beauties!! They are both control max. The black and white one had soft padding in the bra and side boning to help it stay up (which is really a must if you want to wear it into the ocean). The all black one even has a padded bra and underwire! While I preferred the all black one, I picked the black and white one simply because it fit the best from top to bottom.


While my mom and niece refused to be on camera my sister was ham enough to make up for them. She walked the 'runway' of the try on room! This is the suit she decided on for herself.



We were also allowed to pick up some classic flip-flops, a beach towel, and a really awesome straw bag. I LOVE this bag and plan to use it all summer long - not just take it to the beach! I would have been happy if the coupon just covered the bag honestly, but to get everything else free as well was so generous of Old Navy and Crowdtap!

Our cashier, Andrew, was great! He had never seen coupons like ours, but was more than willing to read through them and help us. He was really nice, and I'm not just saying that because he was cute ... which is always a plus on a girl's shopping trip. ;)

Sadly, he explained that my swimsuit was on clearance that day and  the coupon only covered items that were full price. I quickly ran back and grabbed the all black suit from the try on pictures ... only to find out it was on clearance too. What was I going to do?? I hadn't tried on anything else that I had like. I did the only thing I could do in a situation like this. I went back and picked a cute one at random, making sure to check the price tag this time, hoping all the while that it would fit once I got it home.



This is what I came home with. I'm not too terribly pleased with the stripes, but striped suits in different styles were all they had in full priced one-piece suits.



I don't know. I think it might just be the one that fit the best of all those I tried on. The bottom isn't saggy, the top isn't too high, and everything else sits comfortably. I do wish it was a control max, especially with the stripes, but that's mostly just to make myself feel comfortable and confident in all situations (like sitting down). But I feel no shame wearing this. And getting it free? Well that just makes it all the better!

So, many thanks to Crowdtap and Old Navy for upgrading my beach style!!!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Spellbound Nails NEW RELEASES

Hello everyone! Another exciting post announcing the release of some new polishes to my Etsy Shop. I don't have swatches for all of them yet but scroll down to see what I have to offer. :)

First, I would like to start off with the fact that I now ship to Canada! I'm sure you know that shipping to Canada is costly but I have tried to keep it as low as I possibly can!

I am also offering 1 full size bottle or 2 mini bottles with every purchase of 5 full size bottles. If you buy 5 polishes, let me know in the 'notes to seller' section what you would like and your polish choice/choices.


With this release I have also started giving the option to buy mini bottles of my polishes!! There are listings for 1-5 mini bottles.



Candy Floss is neon pink hex glitter and neon blue bar glitter that overlap to turn this polish purple in the bottle. I've also added some color shifting iridescent glitter to give it some add glitz.



Orange You Lovely is just entrancing in person! A blend of bright orange and color shifting iridescent glitter are eye catching and enthralling.



Pittsburgh Pride is for all my sports fans out there. I originally created this as part of my gift to my mom on Mother's Day. She is a huge Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Penguins fan, and she tells me this glitter will work great for Pittsburgh Pirates fans as well.

I will also be taking requests for other team color polishes. If you have one you'd like me to mix up please send me a message through Etsy.



All of Time and Space is my tribute to the recent season finale and the upcoming 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who. This is a slightly sheer blue polish with silver holographic stars, moons, and micro-glitter. This polish looks best when layered over black or dark blue.



Fuchsia-ristic is one of two holo polishes in this release.



 Grape Fizz reminds me of a grape slushie or grape soda with pink and blue bubbles fizzing inside.




Jaded for Green is the other holo polish in this release. It is a gorgeous jade green.


Sugar 'n Spice is everything nice in a bottle. It has light pink, fuchsia, and turquoise dot glitter as well as fuchsia and holographic blue micr-glitters all contained in a white base.




 And last but not least is Pretty in Punk. Filled with neon pink glitter in large and small hex and lots of small black glitter to fill in the rest.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Last Day to Enter the Giveaway on My Facebook Page!!!!

If you haven't found it already, I am having a giveaway on my Facebook Page. The giveaway is open worldwide. It's a simple like, share, comment giveaway. This link will take you right to giveaway. If you enter, make sure your Facebook shares are marked public — you can't win if I can't see your share!


The prize is a nail polish ring shown above made by April of Simply Born Crafty with my nail polish Napalm Bomb.

You can also buy this ring from April here.

Glitter Mix Boutique: Part 3

*All products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Glitter Mix Boutique. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

And the review of Glitter Mix Boutique glitter mixes continues on in Part 3. This one focuses on Pink Lemonade.


You saw it in Part 1 now take a closer look below.


A mix of square and hex in pastel and hot pink, yellow, and frosty white.


I really love the mix of sizes. When mixing up my own polishes I always try to fill in the gaps the larger glitter leaves with smaller glitter. It just makes a more well rounded polish, so Pink Lemonade is perfect!! No additions needed!


What you may not know is that holding glitter close to the light will give you an idea of how it will look once you put it on your nail and add top coat!


Once added to the base in a mini Pink Lemonade is soooo hard to photograph. The pastel pink and the frosty white turn slightly transparent in base and the hot pink and yellow turn so bright! It overwhelmed my camera slightly, but it's gorgeous, right?


Even better is seeing it in use. One coat over bare nail and one coat over Sally Hansen Blew Me Away! with no top coat. I could definitely see this mixed into a jelly or maybe a crelly. Probably something light, maybe even something shimmery, that would let the colors of Pink Lemonade shine through.

As always, you can buy Glitter Mix Boutique's glitter mixes through their Etsy Shop. You can also buy their original glitters through You Mix. Or follow them on Facebook for updates.

Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GlitterMixBoutique
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/youmixcosmetics
You Mix: http://www.shopyoumix.com/

*All products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Glitter Mix Boutique. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Monday, May 13, 2013

Glitter Mix Boutique: Part 2

*All products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Glitter Mix Boutique. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Welcome to Part 2 of my review of the Glitter Mix Boutique glitter mixes. See Part 1 here. I'm going to jump right in so brace yourselves for some awesomeness!



You saw this picture in the introduction post. This is Rainbow Matte



Take a closer look. Rainbow Matte is exactly what it says, .025 square glitter in all the colors of the rainbow.



I cringed at scattering precious glitter everywhere, but I wanted you to see it a little differently. Glitter always looks different when it's not packed together. I really love rainbow glitter. It's like the best of everything. You don't have to choose just one color because they're all there. That the glitter is square just makes it more interesting!



Really close, both to the camera and to the light. You can see that Rainbow Matte shines brightly even though it's matte. Matte glitter doesn't mean dull; it just means it doesn't reflect light in the same sparkly way as other glitter!



I couldn't resist putting it into a mini bottle and having some fun with it! It looks even more awesome in suspension base.



On the left is one coat over bare nail. On the right is one coat over CQ Pearls. Probably not the best undie to choose, but I wanted something shiny and slightly shimmery that would not compete with the rainbow.

Not only is the Rainbow Matte glitter mix great alone, but think of all the things you could add! After seeing Rainbow Graffiti (see Part 1) I'm rather fond of black and white with rainbow. You could even add it to a jelly base for the ultimate jelly sandwich in a bottle!! The sky is the limit with this one, so I definitely recommend heading over to Glitter Mix Boutique and picking up a package for yourself ... but maybe wait until you see my other posts because you're going to want them all!!

Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GlitterMixBoutique
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/youmixcosmetics
You Mix: http://www.shopyoumix.com/



*All products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Glitter Mix Boutique. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Glitter Mix Boutique: Part 1

*All products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Glitter Mix Boutique. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I am ecstatic to share this post with you today. It is Part 1 of a review for the Glitter Mix Boutique. Glitter Mix Boutique is part of You Mix, owned and operated by husband and wife team: Dustin and Amber. Nearly every polish you see me make has at least one glitter from You Mix! Literally, You Mix helped me start Spellbound Nails. So I just had to help out when Amber contacted me for an honest review of their new glitter mixes. In this post I will simply introduce you to the glitter I received; there will be in-depth reviews of them in my upcoming posts.


I was stunned to see not just glitter mixes but 4 packs of teal and two of red holo!



I can never have enough teal in my glitter collection so seeing 2 packs of hex and 2 packs of square was awesome!



I don't think I've seen a more beautiful red! And if you saw the new releases to my shop you'll have seen these holo glitters in use. They were the 'strawberries' in Strawberry Mousse. :)



Now on to the whole point of this post: the MIXES! I was really excited opening this package to see which ones I received. I couldn't be happier!



First up is Rainbow Matte. It is all square glitter in .025. I'm reminded of the squares of a Candy Land board. It's so bright and fun!



Next is Pink Lemonade. This one is a mix of squares and hexes in yellow, hot pink, light pink and I think I'm seeing some frosty white in there too. Besides the beautiful mix of color, I think the best part is the variety of sizes! It's such an interesting mix.



I'm sure everyone has their favorite and this is mine! Rainbow Graffiti is stunning in my opinion. It's such a simple mix of rainbow and black and white, but they really look amazing together! There are hex and square from big to small and some black and white bar glitters too.



Last but not least is Edgy in Pastel. I posted a few preview pics over on my Facebook Page and this was definitely a favorite. Light pastels still manage to shine in a sea of black. It's so unexpected, and I have no idea how it works, but it does!!!

Be sure to check out their new Etsy Shop, Glitter Mix Boutique, for more gorgeous glitter mixes. You can also find them on Facebook and their original glitter site You Mix.

Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/GlitterMixBoutique
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/youmixcosmetics
You Mix: http://www.shopyoumix.com/

*All products were sent to me for testing and review, completely complimentary, from Glitter Mix Boutique. All thoughts and opinions are my own.