Let it Snow!: Christmas/Holidays

Happy Thursday, it's challenge mani day!  This week's theme is Christmas/Holidays.  Nice and simple and fun.  Which is good the week before Christmas.  I have been so busy baking and wrapping and taking care of kids I haven't really had time to do my nails.  So easy was definitely on the menu for today.  And what is easier than a holiday base coat and a nice stamp?  Nothing!  LOL

Here is my Christmas/Holiday mani

Base Coat:  Rejuvacote

Base Colors:  Sinful Colors Hot Hot Heat (1 coat) and Essie Good as Gold (1 coat)

Stamping Plate:  Cheeky CH16

Stamping Polish:  Sinful Colors Hot Hot Heat and Essie Good as Gold

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

I am gonna keep this short and end my post here, I have dinner I need to make :)

   

 Don't forget to check out the other ladies doing the challenge with me

BadAss Polish: Dusk {Review}

I have another review for you today :)  This is another polish from the core line of BadAss Polish.  Dusk is a beautiful glitter polish.  It's a clear base packed with mostly blue glitters and tiny gold glitters mixed in there for some some added dimension.  This polish is gorgeous in the bottle!

When choosing what color to layer over, I knew blue was a must.  But I wanted to add another as an accent.  Purple won that battle after a few swatches on a piece of paper.

I went with Sinful Colors Midnight Blue and Let's Talk as my underwear, a nice deep blue and dark purple.  I wish I could capture the purple's true color on camera.  The blue is spot on.  Looks great, right?  The accent is actually about twice as dark as in the photo.  So the contrast in real life is much more than you see here in the photo.  But you can still get a good idea how how cool Dusk looks over purple.

I used just one coat of Dusk for this mani.  That was all I needed.  This one is a little on the thicker side, so I would recommend you either add a bit of thinner or do as I did and just do one thick coat on each nail.  If you go too thin, you are gonna get some dragging as the polish dries and you are still trying to spread on more glitter.  Ask me how I know that LOL.  So get it on there, spread fast and move on to the next.

Just looking at my nails I am reminded of OPI Absolutely Alice.  I cannot for sure say that this Midnight Blue/Dusk combo is a dupe, but it sure looks like it from the bottle.  I will have to do a comparison post.  Wouldn't it be cool if this combo made the dupe list?  We shall see!

As always, check out BadAss Polish on Facebook and check out the SHOP to make your purchases.  Amy is really great and I enjoy working with her and her husband.

Amy is kind enough to send me the next polish in their football line, The Vikes, so stay tuned for that one!

Let it Snow!: Ugly Christmas Sweater

Thursday is the typical day of the week that we share our challenge mani's from the Let it Snow! Challenge.  I am gonna try real hard to keep on that schedule.

This weeks theme is Ugly Christmas Sweater, should be pretty easy, right?  Except I didn't want to have an ugly manicure.  I do wear my mani's for a few days before I change it.  Unless I have had some horrible chipping.  

In general, all Christmas sweaters are ugly to me.  No offense if you wear them.  They are just not for me.  Coming up with a design was kind of hard.  There are so many possibilities!  Lots of super ugly sweaters and some not so bad.  I went with a not so bad design.  Remember, I am wearing this for a few days.  

I have been on a red kick so that is where we start.  I chose Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby as my base, I know, been using that one a lot lately, but it's right there in front of me :)  And to make my ugly sweater a cute mani, I added some snowflakes :)

I used my Konad M59 plate and Konad Special Polish in White.  There are 2 snowflake designs on this plate, so I randomly placed them on my nails.

I topped with a coat of Seche Vite and voila!  A cute Ugly Christmas Sweater mani.  My nails are so smooth and shiny, I can't stop rubbing them.  What do you think?

Here is a recap of the products I used:

Base Coat: Rejuvacote

Base Color:  Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby

Stamping Plate:  Konad M59

Stamping Polish:  Konad Special White

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

There you have it, my Ugly Christmas Sweater mani.  Please check out the other girls doing this challenge with me :)

BadAss Polish: Bling! {Review}

Good morning!  I have another review for you from BadAss Polish.  This is a core line polish named Bling!  And boy does it!  Bling! is a clear base packed with silver & gold medium hex glitters and tons of silver & gold micro glitters. Since this one isn't a themed polish, I went with a holiday feel on this one.  And I have to tell you, I put this on end of last week, and I am still wearing it today.  No chipping and minor tip wear.  I think credit for my long lasting manicure goes to Bling!  

Here is my mani, then I will share what I used for underwear:

I chose Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby and Essie Good as Gold for my base colors.  It's December, it's all about the holidays right now and I wanted to have a fun sparkly holiday mani.  

I used one coat of Bling! and it was perfect.  

When I paint my nails, I wrap my tips after each coat, starting with my base coat.  Helps my mani last much longer.  Usually after about 2 days there is tip wear, which is fine, but I think Bling! really helped seal in the coats.  Like I said, I have had this on for a few days, minor tip wear.  That means there is still some polish on the tips :)  Of course no chipping.  

I am quit happy with this polish and I don't have anything like it in my stash.  Lots of people have silver and holo glitter top coats.  Having this silver/gold glitter is a fun addition.  

I hope you will check out BadAss Polish on Facebook and their SHOP

I have one more polish coming up for review.  It's a good one so stay tuned :)

Birthday Giveaway!! Plus Birthday Club Fun

It's my birthday, it's my birthday, it's my birthday!!  Ok, it was actually yesterday, but I don't post on the weekend :/  I had a great weekend with family and sad it's over.  But, it's good news for you.  I have been planning a birthday giveaway for a while.  I have been picking up polishes here and there just for this occasion :)  Are you ready?  There are going to be 3 winners, each receiving a fun polish filled prize. 

 I am going to start with the rules first:

1.  You must be a US resident

2.  Must be at least 18 years old

That 's it.  Lots to worry about huh?

Now, my disclaimer:

I will be shipping the polishes in a small flat rate box.  Since this giveaway isn't ending until Christmas Eve, and there is always the chance of a winner not responding to an e mail, it may not be until the first of the year until you receive your prize.

Once a package is dropped off at the PO, I will e mail you a tracking number and will consider my end of the giveaway to have been fulfilled.  I am not responsible for a package once it is dropped off.

Please, please, please be truthful with your entries.  There are not a lot of crazy requirements.  I am going to verify each winning entry.  It would make it much easier on me if you were honest with your entries.

Thanks!!

Oh, speaking of birthdays, I am in a birthday club through a FB group. You may have heard of them.  In case you haven't, it's a group of 12 girls, and each girl has their birthday month.  During her month the other 11 girls purchase fun polish and other misc fun birthday things and send them to the birthday girl.  We started my group back in April, so I have been waiting a while for my turn to come around.  It's very exciting!!

And since it's my birthday month, I wanna share what I receive from my birthday buddies, starting today.  So  after you enter the giveaway, keep scrolling and see what I got so far :)

Bet you wanna know what you are entering to win huh?  Alrighty, here are the prizes:

Prize #1

The Spiderman Collection from OPI (mini set)

Sinful Colors Pearl Harbor

Nabi Magnet in Lilac

Wet N Wild Gray's Anatomy

Essie Shine of the Times

Color Club Worth the Risque

Set of glitter

Prize #2

Wet N Wild Party of Five Glitters

China Glaze Vertical Rush

Sally Hansen HD LCD

Orly Fowl Play

Sinful Colors Cinderell

Out the Door Top Coat (mini)

Set of glitters

Prize #3

Kleancolor Chunky Holo Black

OPI DS Radiance

Color Club Art of Seduction

10 Professional Birthday Suit

Revlon Whimsical

Out the Door Top Coat (mini)

Set of glitters

ok, enter enter enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway And now, a couple of birthday gifts I have received so far from birthday club

Lots of pretties so far.  Thanks for sharing my birthday with me.  It was a great one, hope you enter and get something you love!

XOXO Mandy

BadAss Polish: Go Pack Go! {Review}

Happy Friday, it's another review day :)  I have the 2nd football inspired polish from BadAss Polish, Go Pack Go!  This one is inspired by the Green Bay Packers :)  I did a review of America's Team where I went into detail about the packaging, check it out HERE, it's worth a peek.  I will wait till you come back.

Ok, back? Good!  Now, lets get on to Go Pack Go!  In keeping with the colors of the Packers, this polish is packed full of green glitters with some large gold hex glitters. Perfect!!  Sneak peek of the bottle? Sure!

Isn't it lovely?  This is a must have if you or your other half is a Packers fan.  

Alrighty, so, since this is a themed polish, I kept with the theme and did a green and yellow base.

I went with Sinful Colors San Francisco and China Glaze Happy Go Lucky.  2 perfect colors if you ask me!

I topped with 1 coat of Go Pack Go! and a coat of Seche Vite.  I think it turned out great.

As with any glitter polish with large glitters, you might have to do a little fishing.  I didn't have to fish for the large yellow glitters, I just had to be careful not to swipe them off my nail as I was spreading out the polish.  So just beware you might have to "place" some of the large yellow glitters.

There you have it, a lovely green and yellow glitter polish based on the Green Bay Packers.  Of course, you don't have to layer over green and yellow.  It's green and gold, this will look cool over black, red for Christmas, blue, oooooh, and purple!  Lots of fun to be had with this one.  

Visit BadAss Polish on Facebook and check out the shop on Etsy.

I have 2 more polishes coming up, stay tuned.  They will be up next week.

Enjoy your Friday and have an awesome weekend :)

Let it Snow!: Inspired by a holiday movie, song or carol

Yay for Thursday, cause that means it's almost Friday!  It's challenge mani day, yay!  I am in a really good  mood this morning.  I got up early, took a shower, did my hair and makeup and then went to my son's school assembly where he was awarded student of the month.  I am one proud mama!  And, I feel all pretty cause I got fully dressed today.  Not an every day occurrence as a stay at home mom LOL

OK, this weeks Let it Snow! challenge is a mani inspired by a movie, song or carol.  I am not gonna lie, I don't watch Christmas movies, listen to Christmas music or have anything to do with caroling.  I am not a Grinch,  I love the holidays, I am just not into the movies and music.  I am weird, I know.  That being said, I chose to do my mani based on a cartoon I used to watch as a kid.  I can't remember the name, but it was about frosty the snowman.  All the kids trying to get him to the north pole so he doesn't melt, cute movie. 

So with out further ado, here is my snowman mani:

Base Coat:  Rejuvacote

Base Color: Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby

Glitter:  China Glaze Fairy Dust

Stamping Plate:  Bundle Monster BM 318

Stamping Polish:  Konad Special White

Snow:  Sinful Colors Snow Me White (applied with a sponge & dotting tool)

Top Coat:  Seche Vite

I hope you are have an awesome day, and don't forget to visit the other girls participating in the Let it Snow! challenge :)

BadAss Polish: America's Team {Review}

Hey everyone!  I have some exciting news.  I was sent a few polishes from a brand new Indie line for review.  How exciting is that?!?!

I have to say, so far, I love everything about this brand.  The packaging is awesome and something I have never seen before.  The bottles are cute and square with a nice label.  The polish is beautiful &glittery and we all know that is right up my alley!

I have 4 total polishes to review.  2 are football inspired polishes and 2 are part of the core line.  But first, I wanna show off how cool the packaging is for these babies.  

They are packed in cardboard tubes, genius!  No more bubble wrap or broken polishes from not so careful postal employees.  I took a few pics so you can see just what you get when you order from BadAss Polish

Here is the cardboard tube the polishes come in

When you open the tube, you will get a nice little note from Amy, the creator

Inside you will find your new polish wrapped in a piece of white felt.  Which helps to keep your polish safe in the tube as well as aid in glitter removal :)

And here you have a pic of what you get, nice packaging and a little thoughtful insert to help with glitter removal :)

And just in case you aren't sure how sturdy the packaging is, Amy uploaded a video of herself tossing the tube up the in air.

Check it out HERE

Today I am going to share with you America's Team.  It was inspired by the Dallas Cowboys.  It's a clear base packed with silver round glitter, micro glitter and blue star glitters.  What more do you need from a Cowboys inspired polish?

I decided to keep with the Cowboy's theme and used a blue and white base, although, this would look great over lots of colors.  Like red for 4th of July.....Just Say'n :)

I used Sinful Colors Midnight Blue and Snow Me White.  

Just one coat of America's Team was enough bling for me :)

Personally, I love this over white.  You have to fish a little for the stars, but that is pretty normal for large glitters.  If I did this exact mani again, I would only put the blue stars on my white nails.  But I think the next time I use this one, I am gonna do all my nails white :)

Soon I will have a review of Go Pack Go which is inspired by the Packers.  If you like what you see, head over to Facebook and Like BadAss Polish and check out her store on Etsy.

She is working on a new polish inspired by the Vikings, YAY!!  Purple glitters sounds good to me!!

I leave you with one last pic, because, well, I can!

Enjoy your Wednesday and see you tomorrow for another Let it Snow! Challenge mani :)