Valentine's 2013

Last week I wore two different designs during the week for Valentine's Day.  The first design was my first attempt at using striping tape and the second design was straight out of my good ol' comfort zone...plaid stamping.

For the first design, I started with a coat of Milani's one coat glitter in Red Sparkle.  Once that dried, I taped off 4 lines at random on most of my nails with striping tape.  Then, one nail at a time, I painted on one coat of Finger Paints Black Expressionism and immediately peeled off the striping tape to reveal the red glitter beneath.  On my ring finger, I stamped a hearts design from Bundle Monster plate BM-317 using Konad Special Polish in black.  Then I finished all the nails off with a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

The only thing I don't really like about the Milani one coat glitters is that when they dry, there always seems to be a few dull looking spots that top coat doesn't even seem to help.  I still loved the look but I kept thinking it might have turned out better if I had used Nubar Fire Sparkle like I did for Valentine's Day last year.

For the second design, I started with two coats of OPI Mod About You.  The plaid design is from Konad m60, stamped first with Konad Special Polish in black, then again with Konad white.  I was planing to stamp a single heart on each tip, but I could see the black lines showing through the first heart I stamped.  So I quickly scrapped that idea and grabbed the first red polish at hand, China Glaze Red Satin, and my dotting tools.  I used the largest dotting tool to dot one heart on each nail.  Then I re-dotted over the hearts using China Glaze Ring in the Red to add some glitter and also because Red Satin was a bit jelly and not quite opaque enough by itself.

I loved both of these designs but of course, big shocker, I loved the plaid more!

Giveaway Winners!

The blogiversay giveaway ended last night at midnight and the three winners were picked this afternoon.  All three were contacted by email and I've heard back from all three.  Congratulations to Jodi, Mary and Mateja!  Jodi B. has won the Color Club Halo Hues, Mary D. has won the nail polish assortment and Mateja N. has won the eGift Cards from BornPrettyStore.com.  Thanks so much to everyone who entered!

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Love Stinks

No, this isn't an anti-Valentine's Day post. Well, for the more part it's not...ha ha.  But Love Stinks is an anti-Valentine's Day polish from Amy's Nail Boutique on Etsy.  If you haven't checked out Amy's polishes yet, you must.  Like now.  Did you go yet?  I'm serious.  Stop reading my blog and go already!  Ok, you're back?  Good.  So, I don't buy a ton of indie polish, but Amy's shop is usually at the top of my list.  I was in a Facebook group with Amy when she first opened her shop on Etsy about a year ago and she's been making some really awesome polishes ever since opening up.  I can't say I'm really much of a "hearts" type person (said the girl who has two more Valentine's Day designs to post about), but when Amy first released this one with black hearts in it, I had to resist the urge to buy every single bottle.

Love Stinks is a clear base glitter polish containing shards in black and berry pink/fuchsia, different sizes of holo hex glitters in both silver and gold, and of course my favorite part, black glitter hearts!

There's so many colors I want to try to layer this over, but when I first was playing around with swatches, I thought it looked really great over L'Oreal Amazon's Flash.  Although to be honest with you, the pictures don't do it justice.  This might be a combo I need to redo if I ever get around to buying a new camera.  The pictures are good, but I loved this so much more in real life.

I've got another one of Amy's polishes coming up but first I'll be posting two Valentine's Day designs I wore this past week.  Nothing like posting Valentine manis after the holiday!  Oh well, better late than never I guess.  :)

One Year Blogiversary Giveaway!

That's right!  One year ago today I took the plunge and published my first blog post here at All This Polish.  I just want to thank those of you that have been reading, following and commenting for the past year.  I know I don't post as often as some bloggers...I'm not always consistent and you probably thought I went AWOL for a few months there, but hopefully you've enjoyed the posts I have made so far!

I just recently bought myself a set of the new 2013 Color Club Halo Hues set and they are gorgeous!  I thought they would make a pretty good giveaway prize for my one year blogiversary, so I ordered up a second set and the polishes arrived a few days ago.  I know there are quite a few people who have already bought themselves a set, so I decided to add a second prize so that those of you who may already have the Halo Hues set can enter to win something else.  And since I'm only really comfortable trying to ship polishes within the US, I'm adding some gift certificates to Born Pretty Store as a third option, available as a prize only to those located outside of the United States.  Hey there International readers!

The Halo Hues set consists of 6 polishes (from left to right): Beyond, Cosmic Fate, Kismet, Over The Moon, Miss Bliss and Eternal Beauty.  Again, you must be a U.S. resident to be eligible to win this prize.

The Nail Polish Assortment consists of two a-england polishes: She Walks In Beauty and Lancelot; three Revlon polishes: Whimsical, Girly and Heavenly; a bottle of L.A. Girl Glitter Addict Celebrate, and a bottle of my favorite base coat, Orly Bonder.  As with the Color Club polishes, you must be a U.S. resident to be eligible to win this prize.

Finally, for my International readers, I'm offering the chance to win a $30 USD worth of eGift Certificates to Born Pretty Store. They have a ton of nail art supplies and other goodies, low prices and they have worldwide free shipping with no minimums!  I will have a review of some nail art loose glitter from their shop that you should expect to see posted sometime later this month.  But the gift certificates, as well as the other prizes, was bought and paid for with my own money.  Only non-U.S. residents will be eligible for the Born Pretty Store eGift Cards.

So, that's about it.  A huge "Thanks!' one more time to everyone who has been reading along for the past year.  Fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter.  The giveaway starts right now and ends next week, Friday February 15th.  Winners will be contacted within 24 hours of the end of the giveaway and then have 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be chosen.  Being my first giveaway, hopefully I didn't screw this up too badly, so please bear with me!  Quick reminder one more time: U.S. residents only eligible for polish prizes; non-U.S. residents only eligible for Born Pretty Store eGift Cards!

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