Guest Post: PMP Pop Up

Hello my lovelies! I bring you exciting news. One of my bestest friends in the whole wide world, Charlie, of Pocket Money Polishes, is a rising star in the UK polish world ... and she's coming to the US. Or rather, her polish is!!

Yes, PMP Glitter Babies will be here soon!!! Stephanie, the brains and muscle behind PMP USA, is here to tell you more.

Born in the USA

Hi Everyone! 

Ashley from Spellbound Nails has given me a great opportunity to introduce myself and what my brand is all about!

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Stephanie Milne. I am from New Jersey. And yes, I have the attitude that comes along with it.  Yes, the Jersey Shore is real. Yes, most girls are orange. We know how to rock a poof and most importantly your born knowing exactly how to "fist pump". And "gorillas" don't just live at the zoo! 

I have my Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Rider University and have my Masters of Business Administration from Florida Institute of Technology. So, you're probably thinking "How in the heck did I get involved with an UK Indie nail polish company?"  Well, it's easy! A very close friend of mine, Charlie Smith, created Pocket Money Polishes. Her business is rapidly growing and has asked me to help her grow the PMP empire.   We have gotten a high response in the UK that we thought it was a good idea to bring PMP to America. This is where I come in! 

Pocket Money Polishes is proud to present Pocket Money Polishes USA! We are an extension of PMP. All of our products are handmade to order with love. Our mission at PMP and PMP USA is to bring our consumers a high quality, unique, one-of-a-kind glitter nail polish at a lower cost than the mainstream brands. Our collection offers a wide variety of colors and shapes to spice up your everyday nail look.

Brown Eyed Girl

In addition to our uniqueness, all of our nail polishes, also known as, Glitter Babies are 3 free, meaning they contain no toluene, formaldehyde, or DBP. They are also cruelty free!   Who doesn't like trying to be green and save the animals? WIN! 

As a PMP ambassador, I will be opening our pop up store for three days only! Our store will open September 13-15 and our supply is very limited. Our purpose of this pop-up store is to see the response we would get if we made PMP USA permanent. Wouldn't that be awesome?! Ummm ... Yes!

Some of the Glitter Babies we are offering at our pop-up store include: Ice Ice Baby, I Want Candy, Brown Eyed Girl, Boogie, Fever, and Starry Starry Night. Charlie has even created an exclusive Glitter Baby just for us called Born in the USA!! We announce a new Glitter Baby to our line each week until the opening of our pop-up store. Please check us out on Facebook for more information.  You can follow us on twitter @pocketmoneyusa or email us: glitterbabiesusa@gmail.com.

On our Facebook page we offer photos of all of our Glitter Babies, reviews from people all over the world including a review from Los Angeles' hottest blogger Melissa Ann and information regarding our store.

School's Out

Each Glitter Baby will be sold for $6.50 each with a standard shipping rate of $3.50. Also, if you spend $30 get FREE shipping!  We are currently holding a contest, for every 100 followers, I will select a random follower to receive a FREE Glitter Baby! Tell your friends about PMP USA! Remember we offer 3 free and cruelty free handmade one-of-a-kind glitter nail polish. Tell your friends to like our page. You might even get a freebie out of it!

To contact PMP USA like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @pocketmoneyusa or email is: glitterbabiesusa@gmail.com

Have a Polished Up day!! 

Grin & Bear It GIVEAWAY

Welcome to the Grin & Bear It Giveaway.
Please read the rules fully and completely before entering!
The Prize
Recently, some staticky glitter had three polishes from a recent batch of Grin & Bear It turn out too blue. Instead of throwing these polishes out I've decided to host a giveaway for them. Grin & Bear It is from my recent Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland inspired collection, Down the Rabbit Hole, and was inspired by the Cheshire Cat. As stated, these polishes are not an exact match to those being sold in my Etsy Shop. The difference isn't all that noticeable unless you put them both side by side, but it would have felt dishonest selling them as Grin & Bear It.

You can see in the picture above (sorry, my original tester bottle has been sitting unshaken for a while) that the prize polishes have a lot more of the dark blue hex glitter than the original Grin & Bear It. That doesn't mean this polish isn't completely usable or that it won't make a wonderful addition to your collection. :)

The Rules
See the Rafflecopter Terms and Conditions for full rules. A rundown: giveaway starts 12:00 am EST April 15th and ends 12:00 am EST April 19th. All entries must be submitted using the Rafflecopter app; attempts to enter using the comments (except those asked for by the Rafflecopter app), or some other way, will not be counted. There will be 3 winners; each winner will win ONE full-sized bottle of Grin & Bear It (shown above). Giveaway is open to US residents only as I can't ship nail polish international. Winners will be chosen at random by Rafflecopter. A winning email will be sent to each winner's submitted email address, and winners will have 24 hours to reply before a new winner is chosen.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Down The Rabbit Hole Collection - COMING SOON

Travel 'Down The Rabbit Hole' with my new Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland inspired collection. This collection is scheduled for release in my Etsy Shop next week.

Since this collection was inspired by the Tim Burton movie Alice in Wonderland things may not look exactly like you expect. When I released a few sneak peeks of these polishes on my Facebook Page there were a few unexpected surprises.

Promotional Photo

Impossible Things is a frosty Alice-blue polish. Be like Alice and imagine six impossible things before breakfast with this polish. Opaque in three coats, Impossible Things works great alone or as a base for the glitters of this collection.

Promotional Photo

Madness is Catching contains nine glitters in a clear base. It is a chaotic mix that just seems to work, not unlike the Mad Hatter himself.

Promotional Photo

Grin & Bear It is likely the most unexpected of the collection. The Cheshire Cat of Tim Burton is a far cry from the purple striped cat of the original Alice in Wonderland. Grin & Bear It is a deep and mysterious, slightly creepy mix of black, gunmetal, teal, and turquoise glitter.

Promotional Photo

Off With Their Heads is an enthralling polish of red, black, and white. Filled with enough red and black hearts to keep the Queen of Hearts herself happy.

Promotional Photo

Frosty Elegance is the hidden beauty of this collection in my opinion. A frosty, sheer white base holds a sprinkling of lightly holographic gold micro-glitter. This is a polish that is perfect for any occasion, giving your nails a frosty finish and adds a little sparkle to any outfit.

If you want to share the release of this collection you can link to this post, my Etsy Shop, or just use the image below. Whatever you use, I would really be honored if you'd share it in some small way. :)

What do you think of Down The Rabbit Hole?? Do you have a favorite? I would love to know.

*The St. Patrick's Day Duo will be retired with the release of this collection. I will also be taking the Candy Coated Collection down for a bit of reworking. They will be re-released at a later date, but they will likely be a little bit different.

6 New Polishes with Swatches

Hello everyone! I'm really excited about this post. I will be releasing SIX new polishes to my Etsy Shop tomorrow.

To make this really exciting: all orders placed this weekend will be put into a drawing. Winners of the drawing will be given randomly drawn prizes. Prizes could be free full sized polishes, 5% to 50% off your next order, and much, much more. Winners may even win the right to work with me to create a custom polish!! Valid orders are those placed from the moment the polishes post on Friday to 9am Monday morning. Why 9am? Getting out of bed is when I consider my weekend over!

Lollipop Guild is a bright and fun mix of rainbow glitter. Shown here over Sally Hansen Pink Blink. I almost wouldn't have believed this was Pink Blink if I hadn't consulted my notes. Lollipop Guild makes Pink Blink look very coral colored. :)

Marie is one of two polishes my niece chose the glitter for. It's a light and elegant polish filled with teal blue, light pink, and light purple glitter with a heap of holographic glitter to give it some bling. Shown over CQ Pearls.

Napalm Bomb is one fiery girl. A bomb in more ways than one. With a mix of flame colored glitters this is one huge glitter bomb. Shown over China Glaze Stone Cold. Doesn't look so cold now, does it??

Tangerine Tango is the other polish thought up by my niece. I might just have to hire that girl because she has a real knack for choosing just the right glitter to create something gorgeous. Or maybe I'm just biased, lol.

Dipstick got its name because it reminded one of my Facebook followers of the candy. I don't think they call it Dipstick anymore (did they ever or was that just the nickname we all gave it?), but it's what we called it when I was a kid. I loved this candy and thought naming a polish after it was pretty awesome! For those who don't remember the candy: you get a candy stick and some ultra sweet flavored powder that was lightly colored ... sometimes it was white and would change color when wet; I think this was my favorite kind! You were meant to lick the stick and then dip it into the powder which would then turn really brightly colored and was likely to dye your tongue said color for a few hours; using the dip stick as a tool to eat the powder and then finish by eating the stick. Shown over China Glaze First Mate.

Carnival Lights was another named by a follower on my Facebook Page. If you consider yourself awesome at coming up with polish names I would love to have you around my Page!! I'm pretty horrible at naming polishes. I'll have a few zingers here and there but usually my names are kind of ... ho-hum. For this polish I debated heavily over Carnival Lights and City Lights, but felt it more resembled the bright lights of a carnival lit up in the dark. Shown over Petites Night. This polish can also be worn alone in 2-4 coats depending on how thick your coats. I average 3 coats for full coverage, but could definitely see wearing 2 if I was in a hurry.

I placed an order through Amazon hoping to get a fan nail wheel in time for this release but wasn't warned about it coming from an international seller until my expected arrival date made my jaw drop so I'm having to improvise until the wheel arrives. Double-sided tape on mini bottles just doesn't have the same flair as a nail wheel. :(

This is 1, 2, and 3 coats of Carnival Lights respectively. As you can see three coats gets full coverage for me.

Share the news of this release in someway (FB, Twitter, blogpost, etc) this weekend and include a link in the comments of your order, and I will enter you into the drawing twice!!!

Lush Lacquer - Neon Lights

Hello everyone!! I am so psyched to show you the polish I wore all weekend. I was part of a group who recently won their choice of polish from Lush Lacquer's new Neon Collection. I knew immediately which one I would choose. I can't seem to resist neon glitter in a creamy white base.

And oooOO is Neon Lights made of creamy hotness! Seriously, the milky white base is so creamy and dreamy, and the neon glitter scattered throughout just makes it all the better. The glitter is awesomely chunky; I found my first coat was a bit streaky where the brush dragged some of the bigger glitters, but a small and simple side to side swish with your brushstrokes instead of a straight cuticle to tip drag does wonders! And as you can see, the second coat makes everything perfect even without the side to side motion. This is two coats of Neon Lights with two coats of Seche Vite.

The glitter in this so, soooo much brighter. I tried everything I could to get these pictures true to color, but nothing worked. :( Check out Crystal's Crazy Combos to really see the amazingness of this glitter and to see the other awesome neon polishes in this collection.

To purchase these polishes for yourself see the Lush Lacquer Etsy Shop. Each polish is $9. You can also find Lush Lacquer on Facebook.

*This polish was won in a giveaway. I was not asked to do a post on this polish, and all opinions are my own.

10% Off + a Chance at Free Polish

Hey everyone! I decided to do a last minute St. Patrick's Day deal with the chance at a free bottle of polish.

Use the code POTOGOLD and get 10% off your order in my Etsy Shop. This code will be valid from now until 11:59 EST Sunday March 17th. This code is good on any order; there is no minimum purchase.

To sweeten the deal: one lucky (randomly chosen) customer will find a free, full-sized bottle of polish from an upcoming collection included in their package.

Shimmer Polish Swatches and Review

Hello everyone! I am so excited to show off these Shimmer Polish swatches. If you haven't found Shimmer Polish yet I say, "go, go now!" Or wait and see my swatches first so you're just as excited as I am!

Here are the polishes that came in my package. Aren't they lovely?? Yeah, I thought so too. You'll be able to tell by the amount of pictures I took. I'll save you all the loading time and put the rest of this post behind a cut. Continue through to the post because you do not want to miss these polishes!!

Z is for ...

And so ends the ABC Challenge. I am terribly sad to see this challenge over. I almost want to start all over again because there are so many letters that I had multiple nail art ideas for. Take Z for example. There's zebras, zombies, and zigzags and the one I went with: 

Z is for ... Zippers

I did this design completely backwards. I was working on swatching Shimmer Polish (swatches coming next week) when I was hit with the idea of zippers opening up to reveal Mary in all it's glittery glory.

I think it turned out pretty great considering I had to draw everything around that small V of Mary you see. To learn how to do a traditional zipper nail and not my backwards version you should definitely check out this picture tutorial found on Beautylish.

Will any of you be joining me for the Inspired by Time Periods Challenge??

I'm Having Mixed Feelings

Hello everyone!! Today's post is a very simple Valentine's Day mani since I've been hard at work on the really awesome nail art coming tomorrow and Thursday.

I started with a saran wrap mani using Sally Hansen Pink Blink and New York Color Sidewalkers. I admit deciding to change my original idea of stripes to a saran wrap mani wasn't the best choice; I'm not perfect! Still, topping it all with Mixed Feelings was the right choice. And I guess with a name like Mixed Feelings the pink and grey kind of fits.

Mixed Feelings is an unreleased Valentine's Day polish of mine. If there's enough interest I may decide to release it later on though so definitely let me know if you want it. It's perfect for Valentine's Day, but would make a good every day polish. Also, don't forget to check out my Etsy shop next week for new polishes!!

The Candy Coated Collection is on Etsy

My Blogs to Love Friday post is coming later today, but I realized I never did a full post on my Candy Coated Collection. A one-stop place to see the polishes and swatches so you don't have to search out the previous swatch posts. Those swatch posts will likely hold a bit more info but if you're simply looking for the swatches and not the info behind the polish this is the place. :)

The entire Candy Coated Collection is now available in my Etsy shop. 

There are five polishes in this collection: Lollipop Princess, Plum out of Chocolate, Peppermint Pinwheels, Glitter Me Gumdrops, and Frosting Coated Sprinkles.

Lollipop Princess over Revlon Enchanting and LA Colors Black

Lollipop Princess over Revlon Enchanting and LA Colors Black with a coat of NYC Matte Me Crazy

Plum out of Chocolate over OPI Tickle My France-y

Peppermint Pinwheels over Sally Hansen Pink Blink

Glitter Me Gumdrops over Wet n Wild Candy-licious

Frosting Coated Sprinkles over naked nails

Frosting Coated Sprinkles over LA Colors White

Do you have a favorite?

I would be really grateful if you shared this post or favorited my shop or your favorite polish on Etsy. ♥

Maple Syrup from the Daily Lacquer

I'm really sorry for such a late night post guys, but I am so behind on picture editing. Still, I just couldn't put this post off another day. I entered into a Facebook flash giveaway from the Daily Lacquer last week totally not expecting anything, but I won! As one of three winners, I got to choose one bottle of Daily Lacquer's nail polish. Beyond exciting!! I decided to take a chance and ask for Maple Syrup from what was the then upcoming Buddy the Elf Collection. This collection is now out and selling like wildfire along with her Sailor Moon inspired The Lovely Moon Collection and The Holo-Day Lovelies Collection. She totally deserves some major kudos!

I can't compete with the awesomeness of Daily Lacquer's bottle photos, but I gave it a shot. I love these bottles. They are just the perfect fit-in-your-hand bottles, and they look pretty too! Made even prettier by that cute glued on bow. What's better than such a personal touch to every bottle?? You just don't get that from big name brands.

My first use of this beautiful brown/bronze/gold glitter was over China Glaze Holly-Day. This combination is such a rustic Christmas combo.

My next choice was brown. I used Sally Hansen Chocolate Creme. It went on a lot darker with two coats than it looked in the bottle. In the bottle it was a gorgeous chocolatey brown. On my nail it turned black.

However, this color change was a good thing. It shows just what a chameleon Maple Syrup truly is, because it didn't get lost in such a dark color! It actually spiced it up. In my opinion, this glitter can go over anything and look amazing.

Did I mention this is my first Indie polish? I'm happy to say all the hype is well deserved. Maple Syrup went on smoothly. It wasn't thick or gooey and had no overpowering polish scent like a lot of big name brands. The glitter applied really easily. I didn't need to dig at all for the larger glitters. And using two coats of glue before my base coat made removing the glitter a snap ... or rather a peel. :)