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Silly Lily J-E-L-L-O & A Giveaway!

Posted on 24 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Is there always room for Jello? I always find it strange when I meet people who say they don’t like Jello. I have loved Jello since I was a little kid mostly because it seemed like such a fun thing to eat. It’s colorful, squishy and candy-like…how can a kid not like it? I had quite a few mail surprises today–some expected and some not. Aren’t those unexpected packages the best? I don’t know about you, but I rip through those babies as if they were Ho Ho’s and I was craving chocolate. I have something super fun to share with you today: Silly Lily J-E-L-L-O! But before I show you this lovely top coat, let me show you what I wore underneath.

This is Sation Teacher’s Pet from their Class Of Sation Collection. The last time I went Sation hunting, I found this one at one of my local beauty supply stores so I snatched it up immediately because I really don’t have a delicate baby pink like this one. Unfortunately, the application was a little challenging because it was thick and went on really streaky. It was still a little streaky after the second coat, so I added some thinner to the bottle and applied a third thin coat to my nails. This seemed to fix the polish right up, but don’t ask me why I didn’t add thinner after the first coat. I guess I can attribute it to a brain fart.

And this is two coats of Silly Lily J-E-L-L-O. This polish is chock full of square matte glitters in rainbow colors in a clear base. I got a little too excited with the confetti-like look so I think that I applied a wee bit too much. I think it would look better with a thinner application. The possibilities are endless as to what base color you can use! For a polish so full of glitter, I was surprised that it wasn’t thick as glue. It was fairly easy to apply the glitter which I always appreciate.

I have an extra bottle of this cute polish and guess what? One of you can win it! Just enter using the rafflecopter widget below. As always, this giveaway is open internationally, but please make sure that you know if there are any customs restrictions in your country.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

You should check out all of Lily’s other polish creations at her Etsy shop here. You can also follow her on facebook for updates and discount codes. In fact, she currently has a promo code for 10% off to celebrate 500 sales! Just enter WOOHOO10 at checkout to get the discount which is valid until 1/31/13.

I hope that you have enjoyed this super fun polish as much as I’ve enjoyed wearing it. Thanks so much for stopping by, and I will talk to you soon!

Disclosure: The products featured in this post were purchased by me. Silly Lily J-E-L-L-O was purchased by me at a reduced rate for review and giveaway purposes. For more information, please see my disclosure policy tab here.

Giveaways

Posted on 14 January, 2013 by Cynthia

Hi Everyone!

A few of you mentioned to me that the post that I wrote launching my second giveaway did not go to your email. Hmmm…that’s really strange. So, I decided to try it again just to make sure there isn’t anything wrong with my wordpress account. I have two giveaways running right now:

Giveaway #1 – Sation Prize Pack and A Mini Bottle of Seche Vite.

Go enter here. This giveaway ends in a few days.

Giveaway #2 OPI Liquid Sand Minis

Go enter here.

I also have a super duper cool giveaway to share with you which is being run by one of my best blogger friends, Jessica from Once Upon A Polish.

You can go enter her giveaway here.

Good luck to everyone!

OPI Liquid Sand Get Your Number & Can’t Let Go

Posted on 14 January, 201314 January, 2013 by Cynthia

I was very weak today, my friends…very weak indeed. Since I’ve been so good about not spending money on non-necessities (namely NOT spending any money), I reverted back to my old polish hauling days. Granted, I didn’t buy 20+ polishes, but I did buy around 8 bottles which is pretty bad. You will be proud of me when I tell you that despite seeing a fully stocked display of the OPI Mariah Carey line, I only picked up two polishes. TWO! That is some serious self-restraint, and I am kind of proud of myself. Now, if only I hadn’t grabbed 6 other bottles from some nearby displays…but that’s another story.

The two OPI Liquid Sand polishes that I picked up are Get Your Number and Can’t Let Go. These were the two shades that immediately grabbed my attention so I settled on them instead of grabbing all four. I have to be honest–I wasn’t super excited when the pics of these textured polishes first started circulating. As much as I like glitter, I think that I prefer the smooth finish and look that only a creme polish can give me. Additionally, I don’t like the idea of rough nails that can get scratchy or can get caught on tights or delicate winter cashmere. Just thinking about that gives me the heebie jeebies. Let me show you some swatches before I go more into my thoughts on these Liquid Sand polishes.

OPI Get Your Number is a blue glitter lover’s wet dream. I’m serious. This polish is so incredibly bright and gorgeous that I could barely stand to take it off. The holographic particles really give it an extra kick–I just wish I could capture how lovely this polish twinkles!

OPI Can’t Let Go is a purple shade that looks a little murky as far as I’m concerned. While I am a huge purple lover, I wish this polish was a little brighter. I feel like the base color covers up the holo a bit which is a huge shame. Before this dried all the way, I kept thinking that this polish looked like leather–weird.

So what do I think about OPI Liquid Sand polishes? Uhm, I freaking love them! I thought about applying top coat to them, but I think that would detract from the unique beauty of these polishes. Both of these shades looked fine at two coats, but I decided to add a third thin coat for the swatches above. If you are thinking: “Three coats? Ain’t nobody got time for that!” hold up.

The Liquid Sand formula dries at lightning speed so you don’t have to worry about waiting for layers to dry. Do you want to know what’s the absolute best part? You won’t get carpal tunnel trying to remove these. When I saw the formula, I was getting ready to whip out my industrial sander to remove them, but they actually came off without much effort when I used pure acetone.

And now for you, my lovely readers, I picked up a set of Liquid Sand minis for a flash giveaway so go ahead and enter below using the rafflecopter widget. The only requirement is for you to be an email blog subscriber and all the other entries are completely optional. As usual, this giveaway is open internationally. Please know the customs regulations of your country before entering.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And while you are at it, go ahead and enter my other giveaway that is ending in a few days if you haven’t done so already. You can win a lovely 4 piece collection of Sation polishes along with a mini bottle of Seche Vite. You can enter here. So there you have it. I am eating my words about not being that excited about the Liquid Sand polishes. I don’t know if I’ll be picking up the other two since the colors didn’t appeal to me as much–uuhhh…who am I kidding? I’m sure they will be mine in the near future. Have you tried any other polishes from the Mariah Carey by OPI line yet? Thanks for visiting today, and I will talk to you soon.

Just Because Giveaway

Posted on 7 January, 2013 by Cynthia

I wasn’t planning on doing another giveaway for a while even though I had mentioned doing a giveaway for surpassing 500 followers on my blog/facebook /twitter. I was just feeling kinda blah since the job thing was weighing down on me, but since I got a job today AND I won a giveaway from Glam 2 Go, I seriously can’t help myself and want to share the polish love. This is just going to be a small giveaway, and I promise I will be doing a bigger one once I get through the first couple of months at my new job–those are always the hardest because you’re learning the ins and outs.

As most of you who follow my blog know, I am a totally nuts for Miss Professional Nail’s Sation polishes. They consistently put out creative and funny collections and I seriously can’t get enough of the cute names for their polishes. The super amazing people at Sation sent me some polishes last Christmas (how cool are they??) and I have decided to use a portion of them for future giveaways—starting with this one!

BYOBottle, Stirring Silver, Tardy Tart 3-Free Dom and a mini bottle of Seche Vite.

This giveaway is open worldwide–just make sure that you know if there are any customs restrictions in your country because I will not be responsible if your prize is confiscated. To enter, just use the trusty rafflecopter widget below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I want to thank all of you who sent positive thoughts and vibes my way. It meant the world to me!

Giveaway Time! – CLOSED

Posted on 4 December, 201222 December, 2012 by Cynthia

One year ago, I started this blog. My first blog post was on December 16, 2011; how many of you have read it? (Pssst…go read it here if you’re interested.) I can’t even begin to explain what this blog means to me and how grateful I am to all of you, my readers, who have stuck with me through this venture. Whether you regularly comment, send me encouraging messages or just read when you can–thank you! I’ve been debating about what I would like this blog to be in the future, and I still don’t really know. What I do know is that I am one fortunate gal to have met so many wonderful people thanks to this blog.

So in order to thank all of you for your continued support, I am holding my last giveaway of 2012!

Prize #1 A Set Of Mini OPI Skyfall Polishes

Prize #2: Seche Vite, China Glaze Channelesque and China Glaze Who’s Wearing What

(Quick note about these CG polishes. They are not 3-free in case that is a concern for you. These are old HTF and discontinued colors.)

Prize #3: Sation Seriously Slate, Hot 4 Teacher and Miss Emo Shun All

Prize #4: Nail Art Package

Prize #5: Jessica Cosmetics Spicy Dream Collection

(The amazing people over at Jessica Cosmetics just sent me a brand new set of their Spicy Dream Collection polishes to share with all of you. This is such an amazing collection that I previously reviewed here.)

Prize #6: Essence Break Through, Chic Reloaded, Fame Fatal and Grey To Be Here

(These polishes were kindly provided by the awesome people at Essence.)

To enter, just use the handy dandy Rafflecopter widget below. This giveaway is open worldwide, but please make sure that you know the customs regulations of your country before entering. The only mandatory entry is to be an e-mail blog subscriber and to leave a comment. Everything else is optional.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I hope you all continue to enjoy my blog as much as I enjoy writing it and here is to a wonderful 2013 for us all!

Cynthia

Swagbucks Saturdays: I Signed Up–Now What?

Posted on 24 November, 2012 by Cynthia

So you’ve signed up for Swagbucks and you don’t know exactly what to do next. Let me tell you a little bit about how I started out and have amassed a few hundred dollars worth of gift cards. But, before I get into that, let me remind you of my $25 amazon gift card giveaway which ends this week. All you need to do in order to qualify is join Swagbucks under my referral link here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Once you have joined, you can earn more entries as well so make sure that you check out my original giveaway post here.

The main article I wanted to share with you is this great resource that was created by other Swaggers to help people who are just starting out. So head on over to the Swagging 101 website and read up on all the different things that you can do to earn Swagbucks. It makes me so happy to hear about all the Swagging that some of you are doing–can’t wait to hear about all the great prizes you earn!

And again, don’t forget to sign up for Swagbucks under my referral link if you want a chance to win the $25 Amazon Gift Card. 😉

A Giveaway For My Swagbucks Peeps!

Posted on 10 November, 201211 November, 2012 by Cynthia

EDIT 11/11/12: Since I got a few questions via email about this, I apologize that I wasn’t more clear about this in my post. This giveaway is only open to those who signed up or will sign up for Swagbucks via my referral link.

I had previously mentioned that I would be having a giveaway for those of you who decided to give Swagbucks a try. Well, here it is! I am holding a giveaway for a $25 Amazon.com gift card. So what do you need to do in order to enter the giveaway? You just have to sign up under my referral link here. That’s it! That will give you one entry. If you want more entries, this is what you can do:

Follow my blog
Follow me on twitter
Follow my facebook page

And lastly–for every 20SB you earn through the search the web & win tool, you will earn an extra entry. Please note that you should NOT be using the search engine tool JUST to win Swagbucks. You should be using it for legitimate searches–just like you search in Google. It is all pretty random and wins can be as little as 7SB to as much as 50SB…I’ve gotten 50SB from a search win before so I know it happens. I will add these extra entries manually at the end of the month. I will be counting from November 1st so if you’ve been active since the beginning of the month, you probably already have an extra entry or two.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

If you are new to Swagbucks, you may be wondering what I’m talking about when I mention the search the web & win tool. Basically, Swagbucks also has a search engine function. When you’re searching something and you get a win, it looks something like this:

So if you haven’t joined Swagbucks yet, sign up here. If you have any questions as to whether you are signed up under my referral link, you can always ask me since I do get that information. I’ll be doing another post about more ways that you can earn Swagbucks! I would really like to hear from those of you who have signed up and how things are going. I can tell that at least a handful of you are really working it!!

Giveaway Reminder!

Posted on 28 October, 2012 by Cynthia

Hello my lovely polish addicts. I just wanted to remind all of you to enter my latest giveaway if you haven’t done so yet. Up for grabs are three awesome polish sets from my favorite brands:

Prize #1 Jessica Pumpkin Delight, Jessica Cinnamon Kiss & OPI On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Prize #2 Sation Oh My Oceania!, Sation Rock-a-Guy Blue & Sation Power To The Purple

Prize #3 essence Fame Fatal, essence Gorgeous Bling Bling & essence Chic Reloaded

All polishes are brand new and purchased by me. This giveaway is open worldwide.

Yes, this giveaway is open worldwide so don’t forget to share it with your friends. There is only a week left to enter so good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

Posted on 21 October, 201224 October, 2012 by Cynthia

“Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.” – Pablo Neruda

That quotation comes from one of my favorite poems by the great Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda. It roughly translates to “Love is so short and forgetting is so long.” It is part of his work, Twenty Love Poems And A Song Of Despair which fed my soul through much heartache. A breakup can be such a traumatic event and today I am going to tell you about the breakup of a 13 year old relationship. Yes, you read correctly: 13 years!! Today I decided that my love affair with Sephora has come to an end. Why, you ask? Let me tell you…

I still remember the first time I saw the black and white signage for Sephora on the Champs-Elysées. I was a 20 year old student who had never left the confines of my cozy Southern California existence for an extended international experience. I instantly fell in love with Sephora. I loved everything about it. I especially loved how I was free to peruse without feeling like the salespeople were giving me the evil eye. Yes, everything you’ve heard about “customer service” in Paris is true. When my year abroad was up, I was sad to leave Sephora behind since I didn’t know if we had one anywhere near me back home. Soon after, I started a job that allowed me to travel a lot internationally so I never forgot Sephora and visited every time I was in France. Eventually I started ordering from them online and then a store opened up near me…I was in heaven. Since then, I have been an extremely loyal customer and always tell friends and family about the amazing products and service…until today. Over the last year, I have seen the perks and customer service decline and decline, the worst offenders being those responsible for the moderation of the Sephora Facebook page.

If you’ve never visited the Sephora Facebook page, consider yourself lucky as it is usually quite a mess. If you ever post anything that isn’t completely praising them, they will usually either delete or filter out your comment so no one else can see it. It doesn’t matter how politely you state your issue, feedback or question—if it’s not praise, chances are that it might get censored. This recently became very personal when a friend of mine was BANNED from their Facebook page for asking for help when no one was really making an effort to solve her problems in private message conversations, emails and phone calls. Not only did they pretty much continue to ignore her request for help in solving her customer service problems, but they also made her feel like she didn’t matter. That is not cool with me at all.

In the last year, I have noticed a steep decline in perks for VIB’s as well. VIB (Very Important BeautyInsider) is a level you reach in their BeautyInsider program once you spend $350 in one calendar year which means that you spend a decent amount of money at Sephora. Anyone who is a VIB can tell you that we spend enough money at Sephora to become VIB’s a few times over each year. This year, they created quite a stir by NOT offering their Friends & Family Sale discount to the public. Before you say that we shouldn’t feel entitled to a discount, I feel that if they had communicated this properly to their customers, many of us would have purchased directly from all the other brands that recently had their Friends & Family Sales that were open to EVERYONE. Many of us waited because we wanted to purchase from Sephora and instead we are now being given the boot. Let me make this clear: I don’t think Sephora owes us any kind of perk, but it is obvious that offering perks benefits them in the end. If you are a VIB, there will be a 20% off sale in November, but that is a whole separate thing from the F&F sale, and most people won’t be able to take advantage of it anyway. And don’t get me started on the joke that was the spin to win game…

Am I saying I will never again shop at Sephora? No. I am saying that because of their hit or miss customer service, the ridiculous handling of their Facebook page and the lack of communication with their loyal customers, I won’t be recommending Sephora to others nor will I purchase anything from them that I can easily get somewhere else. I’m sad that it had to come to this, but it’s time for me to find another main squeeze that will truly appreciate my business.

So, in order to commemorate a love affair gone wrong, I am having a Sephora breakup giveaway. Up for grabs are three sets of some of my favorite nail polishes:

Prize #1 Jessica Pumpkin Delight, Jessica Cinnamon Kiss & OPI On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

Prize #2 Sation Oh My Oceania!, Sation Rock-a-Guy Blue & Sation Power To The Purple

Prize #3 essence Fame Fatal, essence Gorgeous Bling Bling & essence Chic Reloaded

All polishes are brand new and purchased by me. This giveaway is open worldwide.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Again, I am not telling you to never shop at Sephora again. What I am saying is that Sephora no longer holds a place of esteem for me. These are my personal feelings stemming from what I have seen from the company lately. I have had many pleasant experiences with Sephora over the years so it is truly disheartening to see their customer service and overall attitude circle the drain. Feel free to leave comments below–whether you agree or disagree. I won’t be censoring comments. 😉

When there are so many choices out there for us, you would think that a company like Sephora would make customer service and satisfaction a top priority, but I guess we—the customers—aren’t as important as we thought we were. Thank you, Sephora, for the wonderful years. Too bad it had to end this way.

September Birthday Giveaway #3

Posted on 24 September, 201216 October, 2012 by Cynthia

EDIT: GIVEAWAY IS OVER. SEE WINNERS HERE.

I JUST decided to make this giveaway go live. I’ve noticed that a lot of people are having a hard time finding these polishes so I hope someone who REALLY wants them can win them. Up for grabs is a full set of the Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers nail polishes for Halloween 2012.

In order to enter, just use the handy dandy Rafflecopter widget here:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Once again, this giveaway is open worldwide, but with the same caveat: please make sure that you know the customs regulations of your country before entering. I will not be responsible if you win and your prize is confiscated by customs.

Good luck!