This is a reminder that The Great Sephora Giveaway is ending Saturday. Really, it ends midnight the 31st but midnight makes it September 1st, right? Either way, this is just a reminder to get your entries in before it ends.
I also want to thank all those who have already entered. Over 2500 entries? Nearly 300 GFC followers, 225 on Tumblr, and 29 Hellocotton as I'm typing this?? Plus all those who follow invisibly? You all have made this an amazing giveaway, and I couldn't possibly love you more!! ♥ I hope you all find something about my blog that will keep you following me. :)
Wow, is it time for another post already? I was going to use yesterday to get my pictures all nicely resized and watermarked and, if I had some extra time, get a few posts typed up for auto-posting ... yeah, that didn't happen. Lol! I spent the past two days doing extreme cleaning. I don't know about you but cleaning makes me hungry and there's nothing better than a nice refreshing watermelon!
This design was originally done by The Polish Well. I fell in complete and total love with this idea after seeing her nails posted on Beautylish. I debated doing them on my own nails since she had already done such an amazing job on them ... but you should know by now that I have no impulse control. I couldn't resist.
I knew immediately that I wanted to use Funky Fingers' neon Kingston for the flesh of the watermelon. For the skin, I decided to go slightly more realistic by using China Glaze Holly-Day as a base and dabbing on a light speckling of Sally Hansen Green with Envy. I also used this color to draw the squiggles onto the watermelon.
I wish I had had a watermelon on hand (no pun intended) so I could have pictures of this mani next to a real watermelon. My family were amazed at how real they looked when we went shopping while I was wearing this mani.
I'M BAAACK!!! Well, I've been back for a week but I needed time to mourn the loss of the beach. I missed it horribly this week. Gasp, I didn't even want to do my nails this week! However, that's over with, and I'm ready to get back into my usual posting schedule. I have a few nail designs saved up for you but I want to share my beach nails in this post. The design for this post was inspired by Neon Rays by Chloe's Nails. I thought they were the perfect nails to arrive at the beach with. And these nails are amazingly easy to do. The hardest part was actually cutting the tape since I don't own any striping tape.
I'm not sure where the idea came from, I remember reading it on a blog somewhere, but the easiest way to cut the tape is to take a strip of the tape and place it on a sheet of wax paper. That way the tape doesn't stick to your scissors and you can get nearly perfect 'beams' every time. Simply peel them off once your base polishes are dry and create the beam pattern. I used the fairly standard beam pattern but you could turn the beams around, do different beam patterns on different nails or even do something else like zigzags.
Speaking of the base polishes, you gals should know by now that I always use two (or more) coats of white to make the neons pop. This time I used two coats of China Glaze White on White. The neon polishes are China Glaze Sun Worshiper, Color Club Yell-Oh! (which looks slightly green to me and these pictures agree), and Funky Fingers Kingston. I didn't do or use anything special to get the polishes lined up on my nails. I tried using a nail art brush but they were simply too small to work with so I used the polish brush and carefully painted stripes on either side of my nail and finished with a stripe down the middle. These colors took two coats and I was extra careful with the final coat to touch up any mistakes I made with the first. It may sound daunting and there is a moment of panic before you begin (how could such a large brush make three lines without overlapping horribly?) but it's really not once you start! Trust me! You will want to be careful with the wider brushes such as some of the Sally Hansen brushes and the Wet n Wild Pro brushes. If you just have to use one of these brushes try tipping the brush in it's side. That will give you a slimmer brush to work with.
Let your base polishes dry. You can add a top coat before taping for extra protection against chips and bleed through and also to give a smoother finish if you like. After your polishes are dry simply tape your pattern. Make sure the tape lays flat and remember to fold the ends of the tape over your nail tips and work it into the creases of your fingers. Coat your nail (and the tips of your nail between the tape) in your top polish. I chose black but again it doesn't have to be black. Once you have your top polish on immediately remove your tape. I use a pair of tweezers to grasp the tape (less messy and a smaller chance of smudging already completed nails) and get best results when I pull the tape slowly and smoothly back over my nail from the tip ... much like waxing in slow motion. :)
Hello (and goodbye) girlies. I leave early tomorrow morning for a lovely week-long beach vacation, so this is my last blog post until I get back. I'm hoping to stay in contact through my Facebook page though so check there if you need me or just want to see beach pictures. :)
First off, painting your nails outside? Not as great as it sounds. Even less so on a hot day. The heat of the day and the cool breeze I enjoyed so much played havoc with this polish. It started drying on the brush after just one swipe onto my nail and bubbled like crazy! I was so disappointed because this is such an amazing color. I wanted to keep it on for at least another day or two, but I just couldn't stand the bubbles.
But enough ranting! This is the last polish I own (besides the glitter and I have something special planned for that) from the China Glaze On Safari collection. It's probably my second favorite color, after Exotic Encounters. It looks fairly plain at first being a soft grey creme with a very light silver shimmer. However, upon closer inspection it has a slight leaning towards green in certain lights. As for the shimmer ... well, have a closer look.
These are an up close look at this silver shimmer in direct sunlight. In shade it's a fairly nondescript silver shimmer, but it comes alive in sunlight.
This isn't my best tribal design. I ran out of original ideas after the first two or three polishes of this collection, but I do love how the red of Adventure Red-y looks against the soft shimmery grey of Elephant Walk. It's a striking combination.
Hello girlies! Another post, another day closer to my vacation. This just leaves one more post (Friday's post which will be set for auto-post) until I get back. I may post a few beach pictures to my Facebook page if anyone is interested.
This is Jungle Queen from the China Glaze On Safari collection. I love purple nail polish so it really goes without saying that I love this color. It looks stunning in the sun, doesn't it?
It left me a bit wanting indoors. The color is still pretty, a greyish purple, but it lost all it's brightness and shimmer. It was ... dull. With this in mind, I just had to do something to brighten it up.
After painting my fingernails, I moved onto painting my toenails with the standard summer neon - Sun Worshiper. Well, some of that awesome neon orange speckled onto Jungle Queen. It was certainly eye-catching and just wouldn't come off. I had an idea. I thought was barmy at first and tried to resist the urge.
However, the urge to do Jungle Queen's tribal design in Sun Worshiper proved to be too strong. There was no resisting, and I'm really glad I didn't because this looks amazing in my opinion. It adds just the right touch of summer to this fall color.
Wow! This is my 100th post according to Blogger ... and it is so late! I'm really sorry about that but vacation is coming at a fast clip and I spent all weekend doing some last minute shopping. More on that later. For now, onto the post!
This is Kalahari Kiss, another from China Glaze's On Safari collection. I really didn't expect to like this as much as I did. I really didn't expect to like this collection as much as I do! When I first picked up Kalahari Kiss I thought it might pass as a twin of Revlon's Bare Bones but it is far from the shade of Bare Bones.
Kalahari Kiss goes on a khaki color. It's a really weird shade that I thought would completely clash with my skin tone but was actually really complimentary.
Kalahari Kiss makes a great leopard base, especially when using Desert Sun from the same collection and an unnamed black.
I'm disappointed that I didn't do all the nails leopard print. After having to carefully use a Q-Tip and some nail polish remover to take off the first (really horrible) design there was no removing this one unless I wanted to start all over. The last thing I wanted to do was start all over.
For those wondering about my vacation, I'll be leaving early Saturday morning and won't get back until Sunday the following week. What that means is that this week's posts will likely be my last for a few weeks. I was horrified last year to come back with my nails a ragged mess. I'm honestly expecting no less this year. Nails just don't take well to hours and days submerged in sea water ... any water really. If anyone knows of things I can do (besides staying away from the water) that will keep my nails from being completely destroyed I would love to hear them before I leave!!
Hello again girlies and welcome to my new followers. This is another On Safari swatch. We're coming to the end of the polishes I own from this collection. I'm sad to see them go, but I'm also looking forward to doing some nail art that isn't tribal. I'm running out of unique tribal designs. :)
This is Adventure Red-y. I'm not usually one for red, but I love this color! I don't know what it is about Adventure Red-y that is so different from all the other reds I've tried but there's just something so unique that makes it amazingly eye-catching.
I had no problems getting full coverage with just two coats. It also went on smoothly with no bubbles or pulling up. I did have problems with drying time but I give credit for that to the heat and humidity around here.
I love this design and it looks so great in these pictures. However, in person it was impossible to see unless you were nose to my fingers.
The black design darkened this pretty red to something that I just couldn't be happy with ... no matter how much I loved the design.
Still, this is one of the only reds I will use on my nails so that has to say something. If you haven't picked it up yet I definitely recommend doing so. :)
Hello my lovely followers both old and new. I am so happy to say I just hit over 100 followers here on the blog and over 200 on my Tumblr. You gals are so amazing, and I am so very thankful to each and every one of you! You keep me posting week after week. I'm hoping this giveaway will show you just how thankful I truly am.
The Great Sephora Giveaway will have two prizes and two winners! The first winner will receive a $50 Sephora gift card. Yes, you read that right! $50 to spend at your local Sephora or on Sephora.com.
The second winner will receive a $10 Sephora gift card. Okay, so it's not $50, but look on the bright side. That's $10 that doesn't come out of your pocket!
I purchased these gift cards through Swagbucks by taking various surveys, completing offers, and other such tasks. If you decide to sign up for Swagbucks for yourself you can use the code SBISONTHEGO during your sign up for an additional 60 swagbucks on top of the normal 30 you get just for signing up. This will give you a great start with 90 swagbucks. This code is only valid until Friday, August 3rd at 11:59 pm P.T. so sign up quick!
::NEED TO KNOW::
This giveaway is open internationally, however Swagbucks says Canadian residents can only use these cards in Sephora stores. I repeat, these gift cards are not valid for purchases on Sephora.com to Canadian residents. I recommend my other international followers to check with your local Sephora if you have any doubts you can use these gift cards. Just because I say it's open internationally doesn't mean your Sephora can't still refuse to take them. Still, did I mention these gift cards don't expire? Free money with no expiration date?? Cool, right?
This giveaway will run from Wednesday, August 1st to Saturday, September 1st. Winners will be announced shortly after, once I have had a chance to go through the entries.
Last but not least, I will send out winning emails to two lucky followers shortly after giveaway ends. Winners have 24 hours to reply before I choose a new winner. These gift cards are e-gift cards so they will be sent to your email after I receive confirmation. However, if the winners prefer I can also print and mail them.
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