Nail'd & Polish'd

And the winner is...

2012-01-20T09:11:00.000-08:00

Nicole from Nail Polish Wars! You are winner of the Holo 2012 giveaway! I have sent you an email. Thank you to everyone who entered and welcome to all of the new followers.
Thanks~Cindy

Zoya~True Part 2

2012-01-18T13:09:00.000-08:00

Today I have they other half of Zoya's Spring 2012 collection, True. Zoya polishes and lot of other great Zoya products can be found here. Also, don't forget to enter my Holo 2012 giveaway!

If the first three polishes were a little tame for you, these three are little more spicy!

Skylar is a muted sky blue with silver micro glitter.

Tru is a grape purple with golden and magenta micro glitter.

Lotus is a dusty purple with pink micro glitter.

So, what do you think, is True as must have collection, must have a few, or a pass? I love this collection and is a must have for me. You never know when you need a good neutral and True has several. Thanks for looking!

*These polishes were sent me for an honest review*

Zoya~True Part 1

2012-01-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

True is Zoya's Spring 2012 collection of 6 beautiful and classic shades. I always love the 'early' Spring collections. They are usually light and pretty and a major contrast from all the glitz and glamour of the Holiday collections we have be wearing. True is just that-a delicate mix of polishes that range from creamy beige to gorgeous purple. This collection has a color (or 6) for everyone. Today I have the first 3 of this collection. These and a bazillion other gorgeous polishes can be found here for $8 each. Make sure you follow Zoya on Twitter and Facebook too. They have these fairies who are very good to their followers and you never know what mischief they are up to :)

Cho is a creamy pale yellow and I mean pale. The coverage and finish on all of these was amazing. Not streaky or chalky at all.

Farah is a creamy light beige or latte color.

And then there is Bevin. What an amazing color! Bevin is a light sage green creme. Gorgeous!!!

True is a beautiful collection of polishes that would make your fingers very pretty and happy.

*These polishes were sent to me for an honest review*

OPI~Muppets

2012-01-13T10:05:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday the 13th! I had all these huge plans for posting all of the great holiday/winter collections I have and December came and went too fast for me. So, I know these are late, but they are definitely worth a second (or 50th) look and if you haven't picked any of these up yet, maybe I will inspire you :)

Also, don't forget to enter my Holo 2012 Giveaway!

OPI's holiday collection, The Muppets is an amazing collection of glitter, red, and neutral polishes. The Muppets have a special place in my heart, not only because I grew up with them, but my youngest told me a couple of years ago, that he wanted to be Kermit when he grows up.

Rainbow Connection is a amazing display of multi-colored and multi-shaped glitter.

Divine Swine is a magenta glitter with silver hex scattered throughout.

Fresh Frog of Bel Air is a Kermit green glitter that also has a silver hex scattered throughout.

Gettin' Miss Piggy With It is a great red glitter and it too has the large silver hex.

Pepe's Purple Passion is a gorgeous plum base with glitter.

The next 4 are from the Muppettes, the mini 4 pack.

Designer...de Better is a light gold metallic with gold glitter.

Excuse Moi! is my favorite of this collection. I actually went out a bought a few for full size bottles, just in case. It is a pretty pink mauve glitter with larger pink, silver & light blue glitter.

Warm & Fozzie is a brown-copper metallic with gold & copper glitter.

Wocka! Wocka! is a pretty red with a pink iridescent wash.

Holo 2012!

2012-01-12T19:54:00.000-08:00

This Giveaway is now CLOSED! Thanks for entering!

Happy 2012! I hope everyone had a great December and are having a great new year! I have decided to start Nail'd & Polish'd, 2012, out with a giveaway. A holo giveaway! I have 3 hard to find, brand new China Glaze holographic beauties to give away to one very lucky winner. L8R G8R, FYI, and Wireless Holographic Top Coat. I have been holding on to these for a few months after scoring them at a local beauty supply and it is time to pass them along to one of my fellow polish lovers.

There isn't a whole lot I can say to describe these polishes, except they are amazing! China Glaze knows how to do holographic and with any luck, they will do it again someday.
L8R G8R is a lime green holo.

FYI is a taupe holo.

Wireless Holographic Top Coat is just that, a holo top coat with endless holographic possibilities.

I am going to make this giveaway nice and easy.
Here are the rules:
1. You must be a follower! Please follow through Google Friend Connect-this is the only way I know how to see that you are following me.

2. Leave one comment on this post with your name and email address.
3. This giveaway is opened to all followers of Nail'd & Polish'd, even International followers!

4. The giveaway is open now (1/12/2012) and ends on Thursday, January 19, 2012 at 9pm, PST. The lucky winner will be posted Friday, January 20, 2012! The winner will be chosen through random.org. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email, otherwise I will select another winner.

Good luck!

And the Soulstice Winner Is...

2011-11-18T20:43:00.000-08:00

I am sorry I didn't announce this yesterday, but my husband had surgery (finally) on his broken ankle today. Between traveling 100 miles for the surgery last night and parent-teacher conferences at my kids school, it just didn't happen. Anyways, we have a winner!

Sarah at Starlight Radiance you won the 5 piece, Fall 2011 Collection by Soulstice! I have sent an email and if for some reason, I don't hear from Sarah, I will pick another winner.

Thank you to everyone who took the time to enter and welcome to the new followers! You guys are the best!
~Cindy

Soulstice Nail Colour & Giveaway!

2011-11-09T13:10:00.000-08:00

This contest is now closed! Thank you to those who entered.

Today I have something exciting for you guys. A new (to me) brand and a giveaway! Soulstice is a vegan and cruelty free brand. They offer spa quality products & toxin free nail colours. They have 35 colors of polish to choose from that are 3-free, vegan and cruelty free. I was sent 2 polishes to review and I really like them! The colors are beautiful and the application was great. You can find Soulstice Nail Colour on the Soulstice website for $8 each.

Provence is a nice lavender creme. This went on smooth and easy, not chalky at all.

Monterey is a blue creme that is a little on the jelly finish side. Love this one!

~sunlight~

~inside with a flash~

Giveaway Time!
Soulstice is giving one of my lucky followers their new 5 piece Fall 2011 collection!

Here are all the rules & details:

*This giveaway starts now (11/9/11) and ends Wednesday, 11/16/11 at 11:59pm PST.
*You must be a Nail'd & Polish'd follower. Please follow through GoogleFriend Connect. (one entry)
*Like the Soulstice Spa Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/soulsticespanailcolour (one entry)
*Sign up for the Soulstice Spa Newsletter here (one entry)
*Please leave one comment below with your email address, which entries you did, and names you did them under
*You must be 18 and older
*Open to US & Canadian residents

I will choose the winner using random.org and announce it on Thursday, November 17, 2011. Good Luck!

OPI~Touring America

2011-11-03T12:09:00.000-07:00

OPI's Fall Collection is called Touring America. It is a 12 piece collection of a wide array of shimmers and cremes ranging from corals to greys to very dark shades. I found that most of this collection had a 'dustyness' to it. This collection isn't my favorite and overall, I was pretty disappointed in Touring America. I did pick up 3 of them and here they are.

Honk If You Love OPI is my favorite. It is dusty vamp creme! What a gorgeous shade of polish!

I Break For Manicures is a dusty eggplant creme. I really loved this one in the bottle, but when I applied it, it was too dusty or grey for me.

Get In The Espresso Lane is a dark brown creme that has just a slight hint of green to it.

I still would like to pick up Road House Blues from this collection, but it seems to go fast around here. I know this collection has been out a little while, do you like, love, or pass on OPI~Touring America?

China Glaze~Metro Collection

2011-10-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

The Fall 2011 collections have been out since summer and I figured it was about time I get these up! The Metro Collection by China Glaze is a 12 piece collection ranging from shimmers, to glitters, to cremes. I have 3 of the polishes from this collection, two glitters and a to die for creme!

Skyscraper is a blueberry base with silver glitter. In the bottle, this color pulls more purple, so I was a little surprised when I applied and it was blue.

Midtown Magic, how do I describe this one? Bare with me-It is a brown/burgundy base with gold, brown, & I think I see green micro glitter. I can't tell if this has a duo chrome to it or if it has a slight holographic to it. It is a really cool and trippy color. And it is gorgeous!

Concrete Catwalk is they grey creme I have been searching for! It's more of a blue-ish grey, but I just love it!

What do you all think about this collection? Is it a hit or a miss?

Wet n' Wild~Cougar Attack & Ready to Pounce

2011-10-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

Halloween is in one short week and I thought I had better get the last of my fall collections up. So I spent most of my morning swatching the rest of my Fall 2011 polishes. There are so many exciting Holiday collections coming out and I can't wait to get my hands on all glittery goodness! But we do have a few more days left to enjoy the spooky decorations and candy.
Last week, I stopped into CVS and to my suprise, there was a FULL display of Wet n' Wilds On the Prowl Collection. I posted a couple weeks ago the 5 polishes I could find last month and you can find that post here. Since the display was full, I was able to pick up, or I should say, grab the last 2 polishes I needed to complete my set of On the Prowl. Cougar Attack and Ready to Pounce were each $1.99 and I really don't think there is a better polish out ther for the price.

Cougar Attack is a sheer brown base with tons of copper glitter.

Ready to Pounce is a dark purply shimmer. It is beautiful.

I read somewhere that Cougar Attack was a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Superstar. I had to check this out for myself and this is what I found:

Pretty darn close! Superstar has just a touch more glitter than Cougar Attack. But definitely close enough in my book! Check your CVS one more time if you missed out on this collection, they just might have a full display.

And the Best Nail Polish Strips/Appliques/Stickers Is...

2011-10-13T09:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry this is a few days later than I promised. I have been dealing with a pretty major parenting decision. My husband & I have decided to change our kids school. So, it's like the crazy few days before school all over again. My posting might be a little hit & miss the next week or so. But here is why you all are really here :)

Before I tell you my pick for best nail polish strips/appliques/stickers, I am going to re-cap the 4 brands.

Sally Hansen, Salon Effects
~Cost-$8.50-9.99
~Application-Went on easy and smooth
~Durability-Lasted all 3 days with hardly any wear

Nail Fraud
~Cost-$12.00+
~Application-Went on easy and smooth
~Durability-Tip wear on day 2 and by day 3, major wear and peeling

Broadway Nails, Nail Dress
~Cost-$5.50
~Application-Went on okay, minor sealing problems
~Durability-Didn't last at all. I took them off by day 2
I do want to let you know that Broadway Nails contacted me after reading my post and they suggest using a top coat over the strips to extend wear.

Incoco, Dry Nail Appliques
~Cost-$7.99-8.99
~Application-Went on easy and smooth
~Durability-Lasted all 3 days with hardly any wear

When testing all four brands, I tried to make sure that I didn't do anything out of the ordinary in my daily routine. I am a stay at home mom who does her own laundry, dishes, cooking and cleaning. Although it wasn't a scientific or controlled environment, all 4 brands got a fair example of my life :)

And without further adieu, my choice is... Incoco! This brand was the best for the price, held up beautifully, and went on like butter!

Incoco~Nail Appliques, Day 4 Comparison

2011-10-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

Today is my last day of my nail polish strips/appliques/stickers comparison. Tomorrow I will review all 4 brands and give you my choice for the best one. I first heard about Incoco a little over a year ago and thought it was an amazing idea. I actually reviewed this brand last year and you can read that post here. The Incoco kit in Bling Bling, came with 16 strips which are double ended, making it very easy to fund the right fit for each nail, a nail file, cuticle stick, polish remover cloth, and instructions. Incoco Appliques are a 3-in-1, meaning there is a base coat, color, and top coat in each strip. You can find Incoco Appliques on their website and I have seen them at Walgreens. The price range is $7.99-8.99.

Day 1-Application-These appliques went on super easy. I didn't have any problems at all. Bling Bling is a silver glitter with just a touch of iridescent glitter scattered through out.

Day 1

Day 3 and look how great they held up! You can't hardly see any wear. The only thing was a little amount of shrinkage on my thumbs, but nothing to complain about.

Day 3

I didn't plan on leaving these on for more than 3 days, but I got busy and left them on for 7 days! I took pictures on day 5 and thought you should see how well they held up. I didn't consider this in my final comparison which I hope to have for you tomorrow.

Day 5

These appliques definitely held up to my three day challenge and then some!

Broadway Nails~Nail Dress, Day 3 Comparison

2011-10-05T15:04:00.000-07:00

Broadway Nails by Kiss Nails recently came out with Nail Dress Stick-On Wraps. They have 5 different styles that are celebrity inspired and they retail for about $5.50. This kit is a foil leopard print. The kit comes with the wraps and a small nail file. There are 28 wraps in 14 sizes.

Day1-Application: The application was okay, no major problems. These wraps are thicker and have a paper-like feel and texture, so they didn't seal to the nail the way the other brands did. When I finished the edges with the included file, you can see the paper fibers that remained.

Day 2: These wraps didn't hold up at all. Within a few hours, they were pealing and not sticking. These pictures are from day 2 and I didn't even keep them on for day 3.

My final thoughts on these wraps is that they suck. Don't waist you money.

Nail Fraud, Day 2 Comparison

2011-10-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

Day 2 in my nail strips/appliques/stickers comparison is from Nail Fraud. Way, way, way back in November, 2010, Nail Fraud had a Twitter giveaway for Oprah's Favorite Things/Christmas Show and I won! When my Nail Fraud strips arrived, I was so excited because they were absolutely they cutes leopard pattern! The name of this design is Wild Thing. Nail Fraud is web-based company that you can find here and they have dozens of solids, crackle, and patterned strips. They even have pedi-strips! Their website was not working for me when I was typing this up, so the prices may be different from my notes, but the strips I have retail(retailed) for $12.

Day 1, Application. Nail Fraud strips come in 20 strips with 10 different sizes. I love that there are so many sizes to choose from. These went on super easy. They were thin and shiny.

Day 1

Day 3. Sadly, they didn't hold up all that well. For $12 plus shipping, I would expect to get at least 3 good days out of them and as you can see, I didn't.

Day 3

This really bums me out! Nail Fraud has the cutest designs and a generous amount of strips in each package, but they just didn't hold up for me at all.

Sally Hansen~Salon Effects, Day 1 Comparison

2011-10-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Nail strips/appliques/stickers or whatever else they go by, are quite popular and for the most part an awesome alternative to painting your nails. There are many different types and brands out on the market, and I decided to test a few of them out. Way, way back in April 2011, I started a test. I had four different brands of nail polish strips/appliques/stickers. I thought that I would test all four and post on what I found. I am going to post in each one individually and then on Friday, I will compare and let you know my choice for the best of the four. Luckily, I took very good notes and can't wait to hear what you guys think!

First up is Sally Hansen~Salon Effects in Booty Camp. These are so cute! Pink camo! In the box of Salon Effects are 16, individual strips in 8 different sizes, a cuticle stick and a mini file/buffer. I got these at Ulta and they were $9.99, but I saw them at my local Walmart for $8.50. These are pretty easy to find and if you have a coupon or find them on sale, they can be a bargain. The core line is 24 shades that include several adorable designs. Oh, and the Halloween ones, are a must! I did a full, three day test and here are my results for Sally Hansen~Salon Effects.

Day 1~Application. The Application went really well and it only took me a couple of nails before I got the hang of it. I only had to trim 2 of the nails to fit. Then I realized I could have turned the strip around and use the other end. One of the things I really liked about these strips was that they stretched just enough to be able to pull it down over the free edge and seal it down tight to your nail.

Day 1

I was amazed at how well these held up. I easily could have left these on for several days. The only thing I noticed was a slight shrinking of a few of the nails.

Day 3

I must say these are amazing and super cute! Well worth the money. Have you tried these yet?

Wet n' Wild~On The Prowl

2011-09-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

Halloween is just around the corner and I am so excited! I have 2 kids who know what they want to be and my little one can't decide. So I am going to get busy coming up with a werewolf and a zombie bride(I can't wait to do her make-up) costumes and wait until my youngest makes up his mind. I finally tracked down the Wet n' Wild~On the Prowl Halloween collection. This collection took it's sweet time to show up in my neck of the woods. When I did finally find it, I didn't find a full display. But I did get 5 of the 8 and I am still searching for a couple more. I found these polishes at CVS for $1.99 each. You need these polishes, so find them, wear them, love them. These are all 2 coats.

Correction Tape is a fun polish! Its a clear base with gold, fuchsia, & bright blue, medium hex and square glitter and a smaller black hex. This is a fun color that would also work for Mardi Gras too!

Tangled in my Web is a clear base with small black hex glitter. All by it's self, I don't really like it, but layered over other colors, it's really cool.

Behind Closed Doors is a sheer black base with medium red hex and tiny red glitter. I LOVE this one! I even like how trippy it looks. I tried to float the glitter on, but when I did that, it made the base look weird. I like it though.

Jungle Fever is a dusty apple green shimmer. Not sure if the name, Jungle Fever, is Halloween-ish, but the color sure is. It was a little sheer, but 3 coats would take care of that.

Buy Me a Drink is a beautiful smokey berry shimmer. It has a slight light from with in glow that we haven't seen in a while. Such a gorgeous shade!

I am going to layer the glitters over different colors to show you the versatility of them. This is a really great collection and if you can find it, get it! I still need Cougar Attack & Ready to Pounce :)

Maybelline~Fall 2011, Scene on the Runway

2011-09-29T16:43:00.000-07:00

Making it's Nail'd & Polish'd debut is Maybelline. I can't believe I have never swatched a Maybelline polish before, but better late than never I suppose. Today I have two limited edition polishes from the Scene on the Runway Collection. I recently found a display at Kmart and grabbed these two. Cool Couture and Notorious Navy are very pretty colors. The formula, however, wasn't all that great. I couldn't get the polish to go on very smooth and the brush was a little funky for me. But they are very pretty.

Cool Couture is a grey base with a teal shimmer to it. The color of this polish made me forget about the application issues. Look at this beauty!

Notorious Navy is a steel navy blue shimmer. Very pretty and flattering.

So did I just get a bad couple of bottles, or have you guys had application issues too?

China Glaze~Haunting Collection

2011-09-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

Well, it's getting to be that time of year again-Halloween! I have the first Halloween themed collection that I have been able to find. For some reason all the stores around me are taking their time getting all the Halloween goodies out and on the shelves. China Glaze never really fails in the Halloween collections. Year after year they release great colors and this year is no different. I have heard a few mixed reviews on the is collection, but I think it's beautiful and eerie, just how Halloween should be! The Haunting Collection is 6 polishes, Ghoulish Glow & Black Mesh (Crackle) are re-promotes.

It's Alive is a dense dark lime green glitter. This is 2 coats, but I really could have used just one.

Haunting is a black creme base with silver glitter.

Near Dark is a dark, almost black, murky moss green. I really like this color. I think it's just gorgeous.

Crimson is a beautiful vampy blackened berry creme. You know I love this color!

China Glaze~Haunting Collection is in out. I saw it yesterday at Sally's. Grab it while you can! Thanks for looking!

OPI~Pink Shatter~Pink of Hearts 2011

2011-09-14T09:35:00.000-07:00

OPI has released a limited edition pink, yes I said pink, shatter! Pink of Hearts 2011 will be available in September and October in support of Breast Cancer Awareness month. I found mine a few weeks ago at a local beauty supply, so that tells me that they should start popping up in salons and at other OPI retailers any day now.
I layered it over China Glaze~OMG! (index), Wet n' Wild~White (middle), China Glaze~Good Witch? (ring), & American Apparel~Hassid (pinky)

This pink is a 'light' shimmer and it has a slight irredescent cast to it. I think it leans toward the peachy-pink side. Except over the Hassid-hello amazing! I LOVE this shatter over black polish. On a side note, this OPI shatter doesn't play nice wth China Glaze. I didn't get that great of a shatter effect over the OMG! or the Good Witch?. Who cares, look at it over the black!

Liebster Blog Award & Top 10 Award

2011-09-12T22:14:00.000-07:00

I was tagged a while ago by Lizzy from The Nature of Beauty blog for the Liebster Blog Award & the Top 10 Cosmetics List Award. Lizzy is just a doll and her blog is mostly about make-up, but she has a little something for everyone. So go check her out! Thanks Lizzy, these were fun to do!

1. Would you rather lose all of your mascaras, eyeliners, lipsticks and lipglosses or lose all of your palettes and eyeshadows? I would say palettes & eyeshadows. You can use eyeliners as shadows and I have every color of the rainbow

2. Would you rather chop off all your hair or never be able to cut it again? Chop it off! In fact, I am doing just that on Wednesday.

3. Would you rather have a coral cheek or a pink cheek? Hmmm, I guess coral
4. If you had $1000 to spend, would you rather buy clothes or makeup? Clothes
5. Would you rather apply lipstick as eyeliner or eyeliner as lipstick? Since I have done this many times, eyeliner as lipstick. In the early and mid '90's, if you wanted a dark lip, we would use navy eyeliner and red lipstick over it. Voila dark burgundy!
6. Would you rather only shop at MAC or Sephora? I'm a MAC girl.
7. Would you rather use only one eyeshadow color or one lip color the rest of your life? One eyeshadow.
8. Would you rather wear winter clothes in the summer or summer clothes in the winter? I hate being hot, so summer clothes in the winter. You can always warm up with a blanket.
9. Would you rather have dark nails or bright nails all year round? Finally and easy one, DARK!
10. Would you rather only be able to wear your hair in a pony tail or a messy bun? Messy bun
11. Would you rather never be able to paint your nails again or never use lipgloss? Never use lipgloss
12. Would you rather shave your eyebrows and have none at all? Have none. You can always draw them on. Shaving would probably give you stubble.
13. Would you rather live without makeup or nail polish? I LOVE my nail polish, but I love my makeup just a little bit more.

Not that these blogs need my help at pimping them out, but seriously, you have to follow these ladies! What a breath of fresh air each one of these blogs is. Beautiful nails, stunning polish, and quality blogs.

Tag:

"Top 10 Cosmetics" List

**Rules of the Top 10 Award**
1. Thank the person who tagged you and link to their blog.
2. Put the Top 10 Award logo on your blog.
3. List your Top 10 cosmetics.
4. Choose 10 bloggers to tag, link to their blogs, and let them know.

My Top 10

1. MAC Paint Pot in Painterly

2. MAC Plush Lash Black mascara

3. Urban Decay Liquid Liner in Roach

4. Sunscreen

5. MAC Eyeshadow in Vanilla

6. Lip balm or some lip moisturizing product

7. Moisturizer with glycolic

8. MAC Liner in Photogravure

9. NARS Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Bahama-I love this color and this fat pencil. It is the perfect pink brown

10. A good face primer. I switch from MAC Prep+Prime to Bare Minerals Prime Time

In addition to the blogs above, I tag anyone who would like to do this! Thanks again for the tag Lizzie!

Zoya~Sunshine

2011-09-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today I have 2 polishes from Zoya's Shinshine portion of the summer 2011 collection. This is the sparkly half of the collection.

Kimmy is a blood orange shimmer with a dusting of gold sparkles.

Tanzy is a tangerine orange with orange and gold sparkles.

You can find these on the Zoya website and I have seen them at Ulta too!

Zoya~Summertime

2011-09-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

Happy September! Wasn't is just May? With summer winding down, I thought I had better swatch the Summer Collection from Zoya that has been sitting under my desk for months. Summertime and Sunshine are the two collections that Zoya launched a few months back. Summertime is a set of 6 beautiful creams and in Sunshine, are the 6 sparklies. Today I have a few Summertime polishs to show you.

Breezi is a beautiful bright mid-tone, blue creme.

Kieko is a warm purple cream. Wouldn't this be pretty with a duo chrome finish? I think so.

Sookie, well I bought Sookie for the name. It is a red creme and I really don't need another red creme. But, I love True Blood!

It thought this was a pretty collection, nothing too spectacular or that I haven't seen before. These are available at www.zoya.com and they retail for $8. Thanks for looking!

My San Francisco Weekend

2011-08-30T16:56:00.000-07:00

I have something I have never done for you guys today...I have spa review. I didn't seek this out, it sort of fell in my lap and I just feel really compelled to tell you about the manicure & pedicure I had this past weekend. On Saturday, my husband and I set out for San Francisco. We both LOVE that city and he surprised me with a manicure and pedicure at the spa in the hotel we stayed at. tru is an upscale spa in the Hilton in the Financial District. They charge hefty prices for their services and most reviews are very favorable to them. Initially my husband booked me for just a pedicure and then changed it to a manicure and pedicure. All they had was a 1 hour appointment available, so he went for the Blush Hour, a mani/pedi in an hour. The spa itself was very clean and modern. The manicurist was really sweet and had everything ready to go when she brought me back for my service. I chose 2 Essie polishes, Wicked for my fingers and Really Red for my toes. The service itself was really nice. Although I would have preferred the manicure first, so that my nails would have had 30 extra drying minutes, but she already had the pedicure bath ready to go. When she painted my nails, I noticed the top coat bottle. It was a square bottle that I kind of recognized, but I couldn't see the label. Next was the manicure and it was just as nice. Then before I new it, she has whipped out a bottle of OPI Bondex and gave each one of my nails a quick coat. Bondex is a product you use to dehydrate the nail before applying acrylic. It is a mild acid that puts teeny tiny pits in your nail so that the acrylic will adhere to it. Nail polish remover or alcohol on a cotton ball would have worked just fine to remove the lotion and oil residue left from the service. Bondex was over the top, in my opinion. She painted my nails and then pulled out the same square shaped bottle of top coat, this time I saw the label- Rimmel. Rimmel? I am paying $70 for you to use Rimmel top coat?!! I had a bottle of Seche Vite up in my room! Well, needless to say, the Bondex didn't help, because my nails bubbled worse than I have ever seen. Not to mention her clean up! Man, I was so bummed! My husband went out of his way to surprise me with this and my nails looked like crap and somehow, 6 hours later I still managed to get sheet marks in a couple of the nails. As far as I am concerned, tru blew it and I won't have my nails done there ever again. Here they are, my overpriced, major bubbled nails...

Other than that, I had a fabulous weekend in San Francisco!

The view from our room.

The sea lions at Pier 39. I thought this was so funny Sea-Esta- with sea lions taking a siesta (yes I am a dork)

Looking back at San Francisco.

Hard To Find Friday

2011-08-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday and welcome to my new idea to change things up a bit here on Nail'd & Polish'd. Have you ever seen the the letters HTF? Well, in the nail polish world they stand for Hard To Find. I thought I would start a once-in-awhile Friday post called Hard To Find Friday and share all my nail polish treasures. This won't be a weekly thing since I don't have that many. But hopefully I can get some of my fellow bloggers to help me out. I thought this might be a good resource in case you are ever out shopping and come across a HTF. First up my small China Glaze OMG collection!

In 2008 China Glaze released one their most coveted collections called the OMG! collection. 12 stunning holos with cute little names like QT, L8R G8R, & OMG. China Glaze can do holographic colors. Don't let the Tronica collection fool you, take a look at these.

~OMG~

~FYI~

~TTYL~

~2NITE~

~L8R G8R~

Gorgeous! These are avaiable on Ebay, for refty price tags. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Orly Mineral FX 2011

2011-08-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

Orly is making its move rather swiftly up my favorite polish brands list. Last year their FX Collection had polish lovers searching all over town for the much loved Space Cadet and Galaxy Girl. This Fall's FX collection is just a beautiful and sparkly! I found a display at Sally's the other day and picked up 2 of the 6. I read somewhere that November was the launch month, so I don't know why they were out or if your Sally's will have them yet. But it is worth a phone call or a quick trip in to see-they will sell out fast.

Emberstone is a bright orange with orange and gold sparkle and I mean sparkle!

~outside~

~inside with a flash~

Rock Solid is my favorite of these two. It is a gunmetal grey glitter with little iridescent sparkles scattered through out. This is amazing!

This picture does not do it justice. There is much more sparkle with the real eye. The bottle is more accurate of what you will see on your nails.

Have these beauties made their way into you Sally's yet?

OPI~Pirates of the Caribbean

2011-08-20T16:37:00.000-07:00

Today I have 3 pretty colors and a the silver shatter from the OPI~Pirates of the Caribbean collection that came out not too long ago. I picked up the polishes a while ago and I have been waiting for some store anywhere to get the silver shatter in and finally I found it a few weeks ago. The polish went on very nice as most OPI's do and the shatter looks so cool! I love the silver shatter.

Mermaid's Tears, also know as my favorite, is a beautiful mint green creme.

Steady as She Rose is a pretty light pinkish lilac creme.

Skull & Glossbone is a putty or light beige creme. I really like this color too and I think it's a perfect neutral.

With Silver Shatter.

I'm back!

2011-08-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

I'm back, did you miss me? Or I guess I should say did you miss my nails? Anyways, what a fabulous blog vacation I have had. My kids and I spent many days at the lake, going to outdoor concerts, swimming, visiting with friends & family, and we even threw a camping trip in there too. The picture is of Rollins Lake in Colfax, CA. It is actually the view from outside the bathroom where we camped. I know that some people don't consider that camping, but that is as primitive as this girly girl gets :) This week marked the end of my kids summer vacation as school started on Wednesday.

One of the things I did do on my "blogation" was a little soul searching about Nail'd & Polish'd. This last year was not what I had hoped it would be for my blog and I have been very discouraged for about the last 6-9 months. I have felt a tremendous amount of pressure to be one of the first bloggers with this or that collection. Pressure to not only post daily, but to post entire collections in 1-2 days. I got resentful of fellow bloggers who where able to devote more hours to their blog than I was. And the amount of caddyness, pushiness, and down right meanness going on with other bloggers was just getting to be too much. These are NOT the reasons I started blogging and they are definitely not the reasons why I want to continue blogging. I have decided that in order to have a great blog, the blogger doesn't have to practically kill herself trying to obtain the newest polish collection or the latest and greatest product. One doesn't have to have give away after give away in order to recruit new followers. And most importantly, this is not High School and I am not going to support bloggers that take part in this behavior. So, I have cleaned up my blog roll, the people I follow on twitter, and I am starting fresh! I am really excited to get back into a blogging routine and share my love and addiction of nail polish. Stay tuned...

Vacation

2011-08-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I just wanted to do a quick post and let you all know that Nail'd & Polish'd is going to be on vacation for a few weeks. I have family visiting for the next 2 weeks and as soon as they leave, my kids start school. So I am stretched super thin right now. But I will be back and as promised, I will have my 2 year birthday give away!

~Cindy

Happy Birthday Nail'd & Polish'd

2011-07-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

Today is the second birthday or blog-aversary of Nail'd & Polish'd. I want to say thank you to everyone who takes the time to read my posts, leave a comment, and support this blog. As with tradition, I will be having a give-away and look for that next week. I have some great goodies, but I want to pick up a few more. But for tonight, I thank you and I look forward to year #3!

Cheer!

~Cindy

Something Personal: My Journey with a Drug Addict

2011-07-23T22:58:00.000-07:00

July 23, 2011

Dear friends,

I have always tried to keep this blog about nail polish and product reviews. But every once in a while, I will see or hear something non-beauty related, that I think is important to share. Today is one of those days. If you are looking for a post on polish, today's post isn't for you. If you have a loved one with an addiction, then I hope this post helps in some way.

Amy Winehouse passed away today and some of the things I was reading on Twitter not only broke my heart, but made me sick. My very best friend is a recovering addict and I have known him for over 11 years. He has been clean for the last 6 years. In May of 2000, I met a man who was charming, funny, good looking, tall, and loved great music. Perfect, right? Not really. I was quickly introduced to the world of addiction. Drug addicts are cunning, sneaky, and manipulative. All they want to be is numb from their pain and they will do what ever they have to do to get there. They will lie, steal, and run through you life like a train wreck. At the same time, co-dependents are addicted to their addiction. Apparently I am a co-dependent. I struggle with that 'label' constantly. I don't like being labeled as anything, much less a co-dependent. I thought co-dependents were weak. I wasn't weak, I stopped being his friend every other day. I didn't have a past of befriending addicts-I didn't go looking to save someone. I quickly learned that and addict is the ONLY one that can save themselves. But looking back, I had an excuse and justification for all of his actions. If I had a dollar for every time I heard, "this is the last time" or "I am going to stop in the morning", I would be rich.

My friend's addiction didn't start when I met him. He had been using drugs since he was 10. When he was 15, he was introduced to heroin and it quickly became his drug of choice. He overdosed on heroin 3 times during our friendship, twice I found him. The last time I found him was a total fluke. I would get these feelings that something was up or wrong and usually they were dead on. That day was no different. I just knew something was wrong. I went to where he was staying and sure enough, there he was-again! I really didn't think he was going to make it this time. I went to the hospital to see if he was still alive, gave them my phone number and left. I was done. I simply didn't have it in me to nurse him back to health and stand by his side while he got clean, only to be disappointed once again. Unfortunately (or fortunately for him) he called me and I went to the hospital. And, I gave him one more chance. That was April 23, 2005, six years three months ago, exactly.

Why did I stay? I don't know. I just don't know and I wish I had some profound answer, but I don't. I am a firm believer in the Universe and it putting people in your life for a reason. Some people would say I was week, insecure, or just plain stupid for sticking around. While others would say I was compassionate, a true friend, brave, & patient for sticking around. You opinion is your opinion and at the end of the day things worked out for me. Today he is a husband, a loving father, an amazing best friend, a hard worker, clean. Oh and his wife, well, she is pretty awesome too ;)

There is so much more to this journey, but I don't feel like writing a novel today. These re a few things I have learned over the years.

~you can't fix someone who doesn't want to be fixed & you can't fix them anyways

~you can't wish, hope, or pray an addict better

~detox/rehab is just the beginning of a life of recovery

~the addict must be willing and want to change

~you, as the friend, family member, loved one, need to heal too. Find what works for you

Thank you for taking the time to read this and my wish is that one person reads it and learns she/he is not alone. I don't feel comfortable with posting resources, but if you would like some help I can do that privately through email. Plus, not every program works for everybody and I don't want to point anyone in the the wrong direction. If you really have no idea where to start looking or would like to chat privately, please email me (polishdcindy@live.com) and we can to it there.

I will close with two of my favorite quotes.

"Hearts understand in ways minds cannot"~ Lois Wilson

"When the world says, 'Give up', Hope whispers, 'Try one more time'"~Unknown

Essie~Resort 2011

2011-07-14T10:31:00.000-07:00

Today I have 2 polishes from the 2011 Resort Colletion from Essie. This is a collection of 4 colors that are okay. They aren't anything great and that is why I only have 2 :)

Da Bush is a muted sage green creem.

Fair Game is a blue grey shimmer, almost a frost.

And the Winner Is...

2011-07-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

Congratulations, SweetShenanigans! You won the Summer Give Away! I have sent you an email and you have 48 hour to respond, otherwise I will select a new winner. Thank you to everyone who entered and welcome to the new followers! Nail'd & Polish'd 2 year blog-aversary is coming up at the end of the month and you know what that means-more goodies to give away!

Patriotic Manicure

2011-07-05T21:26:00.000-07:00

Happy day after the 4th of July! Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend. I did a red, white, & blue paint job on Sunday and thought I would share. I am not the person who does her nails for this holiday and infact, usually the only holiday I really get into is Halloween, so this is really out of the box for me. I used Zoya~Sookie for the red & Nubar~Navy Blue for the blue. The white is China Glaze Crackle in Lightning Bolt. Then I added a coat of China Glaze~Pixie Dust, & toppped it with a top coat. Before you look at the pictures, I just want to remind you to enter my Summer Give Away! Check it out and enter here.

I have to be honest, this is so not me! I think it looks pretty good and maybe if it were a different set of colors I would have liked it better. My kids loved it and Some times, that is enough!

Something to Look Forwaed To

2011-06-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

Do you need a little something to look forward to? Well, took no further! I was sent the following press releases and photos today and It's going to be a awesome next few months! In the upcoming months, Deborah Lippmann is launching several stunning polishes! Cremes, shimmers, and of course glitter! Enjoy and get your wish lists updated.

"WARM UP WITH DEBORAH LIPPMANN’S FALL 2011 SHADES

I have worked directly with some of the world’s top fashion designers on everything from ad campaigns to fashion shows. When I set out to select nail looks for the fall 2011 collections, I noticed a common theme among all of my collaborators: warmth. The clothes featured vivid, lush earth tones—think lush greens, rich reds and intense golds.

I wanted to capture a similar heat and earthiness in the accompanying polishes, but with an added punch. BILLIONAIRE, a moody hunter green, BRICK HOUSE, a shimmering rust, and SINGLE LADIES, a flirtatious red, all have warm undertones, which give them a beautiful intensity, but also have a jewel-like quality so they really make nails pop.

SHADE DESCRIPTIONS

Billionaire: moody hunter green (creme)

Brick House: shimmering rust (shimmer)

Single Ladies: flirtatious red (creme)

SHOW WORTHY
Deborah Lippmann’s new shade, STORMY WEATHER, is a collaboration with fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez.

Usually Narciso requests a nude nail to complement his minimalist designs, but for fall 2011 around he wanted something bolder—a color with strength and edge to offset both his collection and the softness of the hair and makeup. For the perfect custom finish, I mixed (and mixed) a new shade by hand in just 24 hours. The final product: an edgy granite that emanated power and intensity. The models who walked the show (and who rarely, if ever, comment on the nail color) gushed over the shade. And so STORMY WEATHER was born an edgy granite (crème) for a strong fall statement.

Just in time for the holiday season,

Deborah Lippmann Gets the Party started
Nothing says ‘Party’ like the magnetic sparkle of glitter. So for the biggest party season of the year, I’ve created shades that truly dazzle. Get This Party Started, a set of three glitters, was inspired by the overwhelming demand for my best selling Happy Birthday, a glittery party in a bottle. The set includes Happy Birthday, along with two new variations of the sparkling shade: Forget You and Candy Shop. They’re both packed with the same unique hexagon-shaped glitter that gives Happy Birthday its magnificent glint, only Forget You has a sheer black base and Candy Shop a bubblegum pink.

I love how festive all three look and feel, whether wrapped a round a champagne glass or peeping out of a glamorous pump. But what I truly love the most: how a few coats of any shade instantly transform you into the life of the party.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: a party in a bottle (glitter)

FORGET YOU: party all night (glitter)

CANDY SHOP: bubblegum pink (glitter)

XOXO,

Deborah"

Amazing, right? This is all of the information I have on the new polishes. I have seen a few other pictures of other polishes, but I haven't received any infomation on those yet. When I do, I will let you know!

Summer Give Away!

2011-06-29T13:10:00.000-07:00

THIS GIVE AWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Since summer is finally here, I thought I would have a small give away to celebrate the warm weather and sunshine! One lucky winner will win a mini set of the Zoya Mod Matte Collection and a Zoya Color Cube. I reviewed the Mod Matte collection yesterday and you can take a look at the post here and the Color Cube is something I picked up back at Christmas time when they had these cute little matching polish and Hot Lips lip gloss sets. The Mod Matte set is the mini, .25 oz bottles of Phoebe, Lolly, & Mitzi and the Color Cube is a full size Hot Lips in Starlet and a mini, .25 oz bottle of Evangeline polish. Both the lip gloss and polish are a pretty, sparkle raspberry color with a hint of gold to it.

Here are the rules:

1. You must be a follower! Please follow through Google Friend Connect-this is the only way I know how to see that you are following me.

2. Leave one comment on this post with your name and email address. This counts for 1 entry.

3. For extra entries, you can do one or all of the following things:
~Blog about this giveaway - 1 extra entry
~Add me to your blogroll - 1 extra entry
~Follow me on Twitter, @PolishdCindy, and re-tweet my contest-1 extra entry
~Follow the Nail'd & Polish'd Facebook page-1 extra entry

**Please leave a comment with links and which ones you did**

4. This giveayway is opened to all followers of Nail'd & Polish'd, even International followers!

5. The giveaway is open now (6/29/2011) and ends on Wednesday, July 6, 2011 at 9pm, PST. The lucky winner will be posted Thursday, July 7, 2011! The winner will be chosen through random.org. You will have 48 hours to respond to my email, otherwise I will select another winner.

If you have any questions, please email me at polishdcindy@live.com

Zoya~Mod Mattes

2011-06-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

Zoya recently came out with a really cool set of matte polishes. Eventhough I think that 'matte' has ran its course, I really like these polishes Phoebe, Lolly, & Mitzi are bright, fresh, and perfect for summer. The application was okay, not great. I am not a big fan of matte polishes and I have a hard time getting them to go on smooth. I had good luck and bad luck with these. Some nails are good, and some are lumpy.

Phoebe is my favorite of the three. It is a gorgeous bright Caribbean blue with a slight shimmer to it.

Lolly is a beautiful bright hot pink.

Mitzi is a lime green that I love. However this shade of green does not love me.

What do you think? Do you like the Zoya Mod Mattes? If you do, you might want to check back tomorrow for a chance to win your own matte trio.

Deborah Lippmann~Glitter in the Air

2011-06-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

Hello my new favorite color! Deborah Lippmann was inspired to create Glitter in the Air by P!nk's performance of her song Glitter in the Air, on the 2010 Grammys. That performance was so beautiful and amazing, just like this polish. I have been staring at this polish on my nails for four days now and been trying to think of what I wanted to say about it. I still can't quite descibe it, except to say that it is beautiful.

Glitter in the Air is a milky pale sheer blue creme base with pink and light blue larger hex glitter, pieces of small pink and silver glitter with a hint of tiny blue shimmer. I used 3 coats and topped it with Deborah Lippmann Addicted to Speed top coat. Perfection!

I got my Glitter in the Air at Nordstom, but you can also find it at http://www.deborahlippmann.com/.

And for you viewing pleasure, the peformance that inspired the polish, Glitter in the Air~

Deborah Lippmann~I Know Wht Boys Like

2011-06-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

I Know What Boys Want is one of the new Deborah Lippmann polishes from her Spring/Summer collection. You can find this great color and many more at http://www.deborahlippmann.com/, Nordstrom, Barney's, & Neiman Marcus It is a gorgeous purple/blue or dark periwinkle creme that went on amazingly. It looks different in different lights, so here are a couple of pictures of I Know What Boys Like.

Sunshine

Shade

Every time I see the name of this polish, I can't help but think nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. It is also the name of an 80's song by the Waitresses. In case you have never heard of it, or have no idea what I am talking about, here is I Know What Boys Like by the Witresses.

**This polish was sent to me for review**

OPI~Serena Grand Slam Rally Pretty

2011-06-07T17:20:00.000-07:00

OPI and Serena Williams have teamed up again to bring us some great duo packs of polish. I spotted this at the beauty supply today and had to share.

Rally Pretty Pink has a pink base with a heavy gold sparkle.

Red Shatter is just that. Red polish that shatters after a few seconds on the nail. you never really know what you are going to get with this Shatter effect, and I am not much of a fan. I was really excited to see the red and I think over a white or black, it will be beautiful.

BB Couture~Glampyre

2011-05-25T17:11:00.000-07:00

Overall Beauty is a great online shop that has all kinds of wonderful goodies. All the good stuff we love, mineral cosmetics, bath and beauty products, and one of my favorite nail polish brands, BB Couture. The fabulous Kim from Overall Beauty sent me this really amazing new BB Couture polish called Glampyre. Ruby Ruin, the lead singer of the Goth band Saints of Ruin helped create it. It is also the name of their new CD that comes out in June. Glampyre is a golden brown-mossy green shimmer that is gorgeous!

Saints Of Ruin~Glampyre

A Little Break due to a Break

2011-05-09T20:23:00.000-07:00

Just a quick little post to let you all know that I haven't disappeared. I am just on a little break due to a break. My husband broke his ankle a little over a week ago and I have been busy playing nurse maid, lol. And it happens to be that time of year when my kids go in 3 seperate directions with school, sports, and birthdays! So, basically I am spread super thin right now and just can't post as much as I'd like. As soon as things settle down a bit, I'll be back to posting regularly. Thanks for supporting Nail'd & Polish'd!

Dr.'s Remedy

2011-04-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

First off, I want to welcome the new followers that I have aquired in the last week or so. Thank you for checking out what I have to say about my favorite subject. I hope you like what you read and see!

Dr.'s Remedy is a new line of polish that is "enriched with naturally occuring antifungal ingredients like tea tree oil, garlic bulb extract, vitamins C and E, and wheat protien". Tea tree is my favorite antifungal trick. I use it for all sorts of things. Dab it on a blemish, use it to clean stretched ear piercings, I use it after waxing, if you have a fungus on a nail, treat it with tea tree. I love tea tree! Dr.'s Remedy is the first-ever nail polish approved by the American Podiatric Medical Assoc. You can find Dr.'s Remedy on their website or by calling 1-877-323-NAIL. These polished are $17 each. Each of these polishes went on nicely and I didn't have any issues with them.

Heather Grey is a putty grey creme.

Ruby Red is a beautiful red shimmer.

Dark Brown is just that, a dark brown creme. This color is my favorite of the 3. I am always on the hunt for a color that doesn't exisit and here is my dark chocolate brown! It's dark, but till looks brown even indoors.

Deborah Lippmann's New Spring & Summer 2011 Shades

2011-04-27T19:29:00.000-07:00

If I were stranded on an island and I could only have one line of polish, hands down it would be Deborah Lippmann. Notice I said line of polish rather than one bottle of polish-I can't imagine life with only one bottle of polish, lol. Anyways, I was sent this press release for the new Spring Summer polishes by Deborah Lippmann and they are gorgeous!

"Girls Just Want To Have Fun – A smooth, vintage coral that everyone can wear because it’s bold yet velvety – a sort of carefree, creamy coral."

"I Know What Boys Like – A creamy periwinkle that credits to both the 80’s and my clients. Several of my clients have asked for interesting blues. This one is a blend of blue and purple with a creamy finish, which gives it a slightly retro look that is so playful and hip."

"Yellow Brick Road, a sheer mellow yellow with a jelly finish. The proof that it wears beautifully on all skin tones: it complements me and Lady GaGa, who wore it first for her “Born This Way” performance at the 2011 Grammy Awards."

"Lara’s Theme was created with supermodel Lara Stone is Deborah Lippmann’s newest

celebrity collaboration. It’s a dare to wear shade of hot-hot orange."

As always, you can find these beauties at http://www.deborahlippman.com/, Nordstrom, Barney's New York, & Neiman Marcus.

Which one or four will you be picking up?

Essie~Nice is Nice & Coat Azure

2011-04-26T15:01:00.000-07:00

Spring 2011 is in full force and the polish collections are gorgeous! French Affair by Essie is a beautiful collection of soft, classy colors that do not disappoint. There are 6 colors in French Affair and today, I have two to share with you. Nice is Nice and Coat Azure are perfect for Spring and would make great addititions to everyones polish collections.

Nice is Nice is a soft pale lilac creme. It went on smooth and covered completely with the second coat.

(sorry about the fuzz in the polish on my first nail-didn't notice it when I was swatching)

Coat Azure, how beautiful is this one? A bright blue with just a touch of shimmer. Beautiful!

The other 4 colors are neutrals and a pale pink. All six are well worth the hunt :)

Stylish Blogger Award

2011-04-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

I am so behind on this! A few months ago, the amazingly talented Tracey from Ginger Kitty Designs, gave me this award. Thank you! If you haven't checked out her blog, you really must and especially her etsy shop!

So these are the rules to the award:

1. Thank and link back to the person who awarded you this award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself.
3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers.
4. Contact these bloggers and tell them about the award

Here are my 7 things:
1. I hate talking on the phone, it's nearly a phobia

2. I am addicted to General Hospital. I have watched it since I was little (too little for soap operas, but it didn't kill me, haha)

3. I met my husband in a bar-and they said it wouldn't last :)
4. I live in the house I grew up in
5. I have the funniest six year old son you will ever meet
6. It grosses me out when men wear sandals and/or flip flops
7. A good friend of mine owns the bar that the Fangtasia scenes from True Blood are filmed at.

I don't have 15 blogs, but I have 11 that I think are really fantastic. Some of these are just starting out and others have been around for a bit, but I really feel each of these are deserving of this award.
1. Nightly Nails This one is extra special, I love, love, love this blogger, xoxo
2. For Me It Works...
3. Bad Luck Baby
4. Kitten Nails
5. Libby's Pink Vanity
6. Them Pretty Colors
7. PolishSis
8. Gotham Polish
9. Rachel Marie's Nails
10. Liquid Jelly
11. Once Bitten

Born Pretty, E-Tailer

2011-04-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

Today I have an online shop to share with you. Born Pretty is a great place to find all sorts af nail related items, including stamping plates and crackle polish! I recently received a package from Born Pretty and here is what I got: Kelier Crack Polish in black, 12 stamping plate and a stamper/scraper set. Shipping was pretty quick. Born Pretty is in China and I received my package about 10 or so days after I ordered. The last time ordered from China is was a month! Plus, they offer free shipping! Yes, free shipping!
The great people at Born Pretty are offering the first 50 followers of Nail'd & Polish'd to place an order, a free stamping plate! M71 is the plate and it is the Hello Kitty plate! I love Hello Kitty and I was really excited when they said the could give it to you for free! M71 also has 8 other images, including a four leaf clover and a cat. Enter the code Naildpolish10k31 at check out for your free M71 stamping plate! But hurry, it's oly for the first 50 people who order using this code.

The Kelier Crack Polish is different than the crackle or shatter polishes that have recently came out. When I first put it on, I thought maybe I got a bad bottle, but it cracked! I actually think I like this cracking polish better. It is easier to work with and is has a shiny finish. The cracks aren't a big, but it still looks really cool!

Here are the 12 plates I received. It's a little hard to photograph metal plates and not get the photographer in them too :)

Don't forget to use the code Naildpolish10k31 for your free M71/Hello Kitty plate!

**These products were sent to me for review**

Want to see my new ring?

2011-04-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

Today I have something a little different for you guys. I have a ring! A fellow blogger of mine not only has a nail blog, but she also makes and sells jewelry! Kristin from The Manicured Monkey and Beading Monkeys sent me this super cute beaded ring! Kristin's goal is "to make fun creative pieces that are affordable". She has also given all you guys a gift-FREE SHIPPING! Go over to her Etsy shop, find something you like and enter code "polished0411". This code is good through April 30, 2011. Happy shopping and thank you Kristen for this adorable ring!

This ring has a unique assortment of all sorts of beads. The beads are mostly made of crystal, glass, acrylic, and hematine. There are little suprise beads through out the ring. There is a star, a rose, a butterfly, and maybe even something I haven't noticed yet. The band is stanless steel and adjustable. This is a good sized ring, which I love.

(sorry about the naked nails & wrinkly hands, lol)

Don't forget to check out both Kristen's blog and Etsy shop and enter polished0411 at check out for FREE shipping!

China Glaze~Anchors Away

2011-04-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

The Anchors Away collection from China Glaze was one of the most talked about collections last summer and fall. Everyday for months people where talking about it on twitter and other blogs. I was so excited for the collection to come out and when it finally did, I had the hardest time finding it! It seemed like it was launched one day and gone the next. Neither one of my Sally's even got it in. However, I was lucky enough to find two polishes from this collection.

Sea Spray is a pale grey-baby blue micro shimmer or semi-pearl.

First Mate is a gorgeous dusty dark blue creme. I was really happy that I found this one.

How lucky where you guys in your Anchors Away hunt?

OPI~Texas Collection

2011-04-07T12:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday! I have a few polishes from OPI's Texas Collection to share with y'all :) These all have the sorbet finish. (That's fancy talk for jelly finish) These three colors are bright and cheery and make me smile. This all are 2 coats of polish with NO top coat.

Y'all Come Back Ya Hear is a bright, tangerine orange creme. Probably the most sheer of these three, but I just love the finish! So shinny!

Too Pink To Hold Em is a raspberry pink creme. Perfect for Spring toes!

Don't Mess With OPI is a light jade green creme and it is stunning! You know me and greens, but this one is a keeper! Love it!

China Glaze~ High Def & Gamer Glam

2011-03-28T12:54:00.000-07:00

Happy last Monday of March 2011! Hope everyone had a great weekend. Mine was alright. I got some really bad new on Friday. My good friend was hit Thursday night by a drunk driver. He was on his motorcycle and hurt really bad. So I am a bit of an emotional mess. But he has a lot of people who love him and are praying and sending good thoughts and energy to him. So, my tip for the day is be careful out there and please don't drink & drive.

Today I have 2 China Glaze polishes for you. These are from their Tronica Collection that recently came out. I know a lot of people are having a hard time finding this collection. You can try checking at Sally's. My Sally's doesn't have them, but I have heard they are out there. I found mine at Cosmoprof.

High Def is a medium blue holographic polish. The holographic finish is more subtle than I hoped for, but it's beautiful!

Gamer Glam is a gorgeous purple holo.

Milani~Glitter!

2011-03-22T09:25:00.000-07:00

Milani glitters are super hot and even a challenge to find. I lucked out a while back and picked these bedazzlers up at CVS.

Gems is from the Milani Jewel FX collection and it is awesome! It is a mulit color and multi sized glitter fiesta. This is two coats.

Silver Dazzle is from Milani's One Coat Glitter Collection. It is a dark grey glitter. I love this color! I only picked this one up and I am so sad because my CVS has not replenished their Milani stock. I reall want the purple, blue & red glitters! You can NEVER have too many glitter polishes, right?

How has your luck been with these?

OPI~Katy Perry Collection

2011-03-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

OPI and Katy Perry teamed up to create a really great collection of four polishes and a shatter finish. The shatter or crackle effect is all the rage right now and OPI's is wonderful. This collection has sparkle, shimmer, and duochrome! You can find these at your favorite OPI retailer.

The One That Got Away is a beautiful magenta base with magenta sparkles.

The One That Got Away with Black Shatter

Teenage Dream is a sweet sheer pink base full of tiny pink glitter and larger iridescent glitter.

Teenage Dream with Black Shatter.

Last Friday Night is a bright sheer blue base with tiny blue glitter and larger iredescent glitter.

Last Friday Night with Black Shatter.

Not Like the Movies is a silver shimmer base with a light purple/green duochrome. I was hoping this color would be a little darker. It's actually pretty sheer. But it is pretty.

Not Like the Movies with Black Shatter.

Tha Black Shatter takes a nail or two to figure out, but once you get the hang of it, it's really pretty easy to use. I do recommend a top coat. If you want the mate look, try a thin coat of a regular top coat and then ttry a matte top coat over it. What do you think?

Zoya~Intimate

2011-03-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! How is everyone feeling this day after St. Patrick's Day? First of all, I want to apologize for the lack of posts. I have fallen into that dreaded 'bloggers rut' and I'm happy to say have climbed my way out of it. So, hopefully, with this post, I will be back on track!

Today I have the Zoya Intimate collection. Usually, I will buy a few polishes from a collection, unless it is a small one that won't break my bank. But, I knew from the very first Zoya promo or teaser picture of this collection, that I had to have all six. This collection reminds me of early spring, when everything is just starting to get their colors back. It is a collection of the prettiest, ethereal colors I have every seen. Zoya polishes can be purchased here and check them out on twitter and facebook too-rumor has it there is a promo coming up!

Dove is a pale grey creme.

Marley is a pale lavender with pearly shimmer to it.

Gemma. What can I say about the amazing Gemma that hasn't already been said? It is a sage green with lavendar shimmer that gives it a subtle duochrome effect. If you do not have this color, you simply must-no collection is complete without Gemma.

Caitlin is a grey-lavender creme. I looks more grey in real life than it photographed. But, it is a great color too!

Jules is a golden beige with lots of multi-colored shimmer.

Danni is a light grape purple with light gold shimmer.

So, what do you think? Great colors or not so great colors?

Email account problems

2011-03-03T17:07:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone,
I need to let you all know that my polishdcindy email account may have been hacked into. Please don't open anything that has been sent to you today (3/3/11), as I personally have not sent any emails out. Hopefully I have fixed the situation. Sorry!

Deborah Lippmann, Three for Three!

2011-02-21T13:22:00.000-08:00

Deborah Lippmann has done it again, not once but three times! Every year I love watching the awards shows and the color of the stars nails is becoming just as important as how or what they are wearing. Deborah Lippmann is always right there with the perfecr color for the perfect dress. Let's start with The Golden Globes.

Anne Hathaway looked amazing in this pink Armani Prive gown. The gown had gorgeous iridescent sequins and Swarovski crystals. The nail polish she wore was Deborah Lippmann's~I Dreamed of You. I Dreamed of You is a beautiful sheer mutted pink with an opalescent cast to it. It was topped off with Deborah Lippmann's Addicted to Speed top coat.

I was lucky enough to be sent I Dreamed of You and the Addicted to Speed top coat. I am a huge Deborah Lippmann fan, and this polish was just as I expected-perfect.

Next came the SAG awards and once again, beautiful nails to go with beautiful gowns. Jennifer Lawrence wore an amazing hot pink Oscar De La Renta gown with a black bow/belt. The polish that she wore was Hit Me With Your Best Shot. I love this color! It is a stunning gun metal grey with just a pop of shimmer.

You can check out my Hit Me With Your Best Shot post here.

Lastly, for now, The Grammys. As I am sure you have seen this Lady Gaga picture and read here and there about the most anticipated color of the year, I bring Yellow Brick Road.

Yellow Brick Road was chose to complement Lady Gaga's yellow outfit she wore during her Grammy performance. This color is so cool! I can not wait to see it in person and I think it is going to be the hottest color this Spring and Summer. This beauty will be available April 15th at http://www.deborahlippmann.com/.

Well, there is one more awards show left, this Sunday's Oscars is the Big Daddy and I can't wait until Sunday to see what Deborah Lippmann has for us to enjoy!

Sinful Colors~Valentine's Day Collection

2011-02-11T12:00:00.000-08:00

With Valentine's Day just around the corner, I thought you might like to see some of the new Sinful Colors Valentine's Day collection. This collection is 6 beautiful shades of pink. I was sent 3 to share with you guys. You can find Sinful Colors at your favorite drug store for only $1.99!

Beautiful Girl is a light peachy pink creme. I thought for sure this was going to be paste-y, but it isn't. It almost has a jelly look to it.

Glass Pink is a sheer baby pink sparkle.

Scandal is a great light coral cream. I would call it a jelly also. Super pretty!

What do you think? I think they are great pinks and you can not beat the price! Happy Valentine's Day!

*These polishes were sent to me for review*

OPI~DS

2011-01-28T11:10:00.000-08:00

Happy the last Friday of January! Today I have the two newest OPI DS polishes. I have to say that these two polishes didn't impress me all that much. They are definitley lacking the wow factor that the other DS polishes have.

Radiance is a very sparkly silver with a foil like finish.

Magic is a blue base with tons of tiny bright blue and magenta sparkles. The magenta sparkle gives it a pop that make this polish the most unique of the two. Unfortunately, the camera failed to pick up the magenta goodness.

Essie~Winter 2010/2011

2011-01-27T09:44:00.000-08:00

With all the buzz about Spring Collections popping up here and there, I thought I'd better get this amazing Winter Collection up for you to check out. Essie's Winter 2010/2011 is made up of 6 beautiful creme polishes. I have 4 to share with you. I found these pretties at Ulta.

Hot Coco is just that. It is the color of a warm cup of hot chocolate.

Smokin' Hot is a beautiful dusty grey-lavender-mushroom creme. It is a bit darker on the nail than in this picture.

Masquerade Belle is a great dark warm red creme.

Luxedo is the favorite amoung this collection for me. It is a black-purple jelly! Absolutely gorgeous!

Zoya~Intimate

2011-01-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

Zoya's Intimate Collection is so beautiful and delicate. I usually go for the deep, dark, polish colors, but I have been seeing sneak peeks of tis collection for a few weeks and the colors are just gorgeous. They will be available January 15, 2011, for $7.00 a bottle on the Zoya website. I am getting every single one! Until then, I leave you with the press release and pictures!

"Spring 2011 Nail Color (available 01/15/2011)

Intimate
a color romance
Temptations, whispers, dreams, secrets, illusions, liaisons, trysts... lingerie... kisses.

Zoya Nail Polish presents six new, elegant, full coverage yet revealing, metallics
and creams for Spring 2011 to rendezvous with.

Zoya Intimate Collection

Marley (ZP542) - lavender pink with a whisper of metallic
Dove (ZP541) - delicate, pale gray cream
Caitlin (ZP540) - misty, moody gray violet cream
Dannii (ZP537) - sparkling, enchanted orchid metallic
Jules (ZP538) - soft, glimmering gold kiss metallic
Gemma (ZP544) - mysterious green/purple duotone metallic

Zoya is the new color of fashion... The Zoya Intimate collection was
designed to recreate the custom looks developed for and inspired
by the runways of New York Fashion Week - Spring 2011.

Ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers by Zoya are free of harmful
industrial chemicals like toluene, camphor, formaldehyde,
formaldehyde resin, dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are known
to cause cancer and birth defects.

Find Zoya Intimate as well as over 300 other ultra high-fashion
Zoya shades at www.zoya.com. As always, each and every
Zoya color is made for women so we name them after women."

Intimate by Zoya - available January 15, 2011
Sug. Retail $7.00 per 0.5 fl. oz. bottle (US)
http://www.zoya.com "

Personalized Cosmetic Bag

2011-01-13T11:24:00.000-08:00

I have something really cool to show you guys today. Simply Bags is a a great e-tailer of personalized bags. They have everything from cosmetic bags to diaper bags to lunch bags to beach bags. I was sent a personalized cosmetic bag! How cute is this?

It actually is a set of 3 bags, with the embroidery only on the large bag. It is a heavy white cotton, with a black damask print and a fuchsia liner. For the personalization on this cosmetic bag, you have your choice of 3 colors of thread (Kiwi, Red, or Fuchsia). Simply Bags has a great selection of bags to choose from and I love that you can add a personal touch to your bag with your name or monogram! These bag feel really sturdy and I am a happy to say that the large bag fits 5 large MAC palettes! Please go check Simply Bags out, they have some really great bags and I can't wait to order a beach bag! http://www.simply-bags.com/

Milani-Random Blues

2011-01-10T12:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday. Today is officially the coldest day ever! It was 29 degrees this morning. Now, I know that it gets colder in other places, but I live in California-isn't it always sunny and warm? :)
Anyways, today I have 2 blue Milani's to show you. I picked these up months ago at CVS and thought I better get them swatched-so here they are.

Dude Blue is a neon blue. It's a really pretty bright blue creme. It actually is a bit darker in person, than how it photographed.

Midnight Satin is a must have for anyone who loves deep, dark, blue polish. It is a stunning lit from with-in blue! I had my doubts when I first started. It applied very sheer and watery on the first coat, but the second coat transformed it into this:

Gorgeousness!

Coming soon...Anchors Away by China Glaze

2011-01-07T22:28:00.000-08:00

China Glaze has a some gorgeous collections coming out in the next month or so. Anchors Away is one of those collections. I have been seeing sneak peeks of these polishes since late summer, so I am ready to see these beautiful polishes in person!

This is the information I received this week from PR:

"China Glaze Introduces 12 New Glitters And Crèmes For Spring 2011

Los Angeles, CA – (October 2010): Sail away this spring in 12 nautically-inspired colors from China Glaze. These bold and confident brights are reminiscent of a carefree natural getaway, with soft ethereal hues that inspire leisurely thoughts of sand and sea. Colors in this collection include:

· Life Preserver: Highly pigmented and luxurious poppy crème.
· Hey Sailor: Vibrant crème red.
· Ahoy!: Delightfully intense pink that flashes with reflective glass speck.
· First Mate: Sophisticated and rich navy crème.
· Starboard: Hip and playful green crème.
· Lighthouse: Multi-dimensional, bright yellow glass speck.
· White Cap: Whimsical and sparkling multi-dimensional white.
· Pelican Gray: High shine, cool toned grey crème.
· Sea Spray: Calming pale blue crème.
· Below Deck: A flirty mix of taupe and violet.
· Sunset Sail: Delightful peachy pink high shine crème.
· Knotty: Micro-particle beige shimmer.

This spring, take a relaxing trip to the shore and sail away with China Glaze. Stop and smell the sea breeze!

The China Glaze Anchors Away collection will be available in two 6 piece acetates, a 12 piece display, a 36 piece rack, and as open stock colors.

China Glaze is free of DBP, toluene, and added formaldehyde.

China Glaze nail lacquers are available through salons and professional beauty supply stores nationwide. For more information, visit: www.chinaglaze.com or follow China Glaze on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ChinaGlaze"

What do you think? Which ones are you going to get?

Glitter Gal

2010-12-28T11:24:00.000-08:00

Hello nail polish lovers! Have you recovered from Christmas? I haven't! My house is a wreck and the weather is awful. But I had a wonderful Christmas and the kids are happy. A little while back, I won a contest that the super sweet Kellie from Also Known As... had. It was for 2 Glitter Gal 3-D Holographic polishes! Glitter Gal is a brand that I have had on my 'Must Have' list for a while, so I was so excited when I found out I won! I got to pick any 2 holographic polishes that I wanted and I chose Red & Black (big suprise, right?) These polishes are stunning! Click on the photos to see the holo in all it's awesomeness :)

Red is more of a bright red with a beautiful holo shimmer.

Black is amazing! I really don't think it gets any better than this, black with holo shimmer.

Glitter Gal is an Austrailian company and you can find these and a bunch of other gorgeous polishes here.

Wet n' Wild Holiday Polish

2010-12-22T10:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday, December 22, 2010! I have been struggling to get this post up for almost a week now and life keeps getting in the way. Sorry if I have been a lousy blogger lately and to the person who said it gets easier when your kids get older, you are wrong, very wrong!

I do have some very pretty polish to show you though. Wet n' Wild came out with these cute little mini sets of sparkly polish paired up with a Megalast top coat. I have 4 of them for you.

Dancer is silver and irredescent glitter in a clear base.

Donner is a gold shimmer with specks of silver and irredescent micro glitter and little strips of glitter.

Blitzen is my favorite of these four. It is a champagne shimmer with tiny gold and larger red glitter.

Prancer is a really great too. Its a clear base with little and bigger hex red glitter. I have seen this layered over black polish and is is gorgeous.

Most of these are better used for layering, but I do like them alone as well. I found these pretties at Walgrens, on sale for .99! Happy Shopping!

And the winner is...

2010-12-08T21:11:00.000-08:00

...omgnoodles! Sorry for not posting this sooner! Blogger and I have been at odds the last 24 hours or so. Thank you to Deboroah Lippmann's PR for sending me an extra bottle of this amazing polish and thank you to for entering the giveaway, the sweet birthday wishes, and for supporting my blog! Thanks!

Give Away & Happy Birthday to....

2010-12-06T08:43:00.000-08:00

...ME! Not only is today my birthday, I was actually born on a Monday, so today is a double great day! And, I thought I would give one lucky person a wonderful bottle of Deborah Lippmann polish! How does Lady Sings the Blues sound? All you have to do is leave one comment with your email address in it. You can enter from now until midnight tonight (12/6/10), pacific time. This give away is open to everyone. THIS IS A ONE DAY GIVE AWAY! I will announce the winner tomorrow morning.

The rules are:
1. Leave one comment with your email address in it.
2. You must be a follwer through Goodle Friend Connect
3. You must eat something sweet and yummy today! I'm not really going to check, but today is my birthday and I say it's okay :)

Good Luck!

Happy December!

2010-12-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

I love December! I'm not ready for all the craziness, but I still love December! I thought I'd start the month off with some Holiday collections. Today I have 2 polishes from the Nicole by OPI Holiday Magic collection, Bring on the Tinsel & Spark My Mistletoe. Both of these are glitters, and they are perfect for layering or wearing alone. Both of these are 2 coats and inside with a flash(cloudy skies have arrived in sunny California) Enjoy!

Bring on the Tinsel is a beautiful holiday glitter polish. It has silver, red, green, and it looks like a splash of gold glitter in a clear base.

Spark My Mistletoe is gorgeous! Red glitter with silver iridescent hexagon shaped glitter in a clear base. I love this one! You have to click on this picture to see how magnificent Spark My Mistletoe really is.

I picked these up at Ulta and they were on sale buy one get one 1/2 off until December 3, 2010 and I had a coupon! Oh, the possibilities with these two polishes!

NailPro Sacramento

2010-11-29T15:48:00.000-08:00

Last month I went to NailPro Sacramento, a nails only trade show. They had all sorts of things! The most popular things were glitter, colored gel, glitter, acrylic, acrylics with glitter, more glitter, and of course, nail polish. I wasn't too impressed with this show and might only go every other year. I don't work in a salon any more, and I don't have acrylics or gels, so there wasn't a whole lot of things I really needed. But I did manage to drop some cash on some really great things! Here are some pictures of what I picked up:
6 Nubar, 5 OPI, 3 China Glaze, Nubar Diamont, 3 cuticle oils, Lumos base coat & top coat, nail wraps, and GLITTER! I have no idea what I am going to do with the glitter, but I just couldn't pass up all the sparkles!

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T15:35:00.000-08:00

Wow, can you believe it's already Thanksgiving? What I great year I have had and I wanted to thank all of you for reading my blog and taking the time to leave such great comments. I have been blessed with some amazing gifts as a result of this blog and the best one is the friends that I have made through blogging. Most are fellow bloggers and others are sweet ladies who love nail polish. I love chatting with you, exchanging recipes, and some day maybe we will be lucky enough to meet each other. Today I am thankful for the usual things, family, healthy children, & friends. But I am also thankful for all of my new friends! Happy Thanksgiving! Now, go eat some pie!

Essie~Fall 2010

2010-11-24T10:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday everyone! This is the last of the Fall 2010 polish collections that I have to share with you. It may still be fall, but there is snow 30 miles up the road from my house and it is 38 degrees outside today-that is winter behavior, lol. Essie has stepped out of the box in the last year and offered some amazing colors! Their Fall collection is no exception. I have 4 of the 6 colors, Merino Cool, Sew Psyched, Limited Addiction, and Little Brown Dress.

Merino Cool is a beautiful muted lavendar-taupe creme.

Sew Psyched suprised me. I didn't care for it much in the bottle, but I love it on my nails! It is a sage green with just a touch of shimmery pearl.

Limited Addiction is a great brick red creme.

Little Brown Dress is a dark, dark brown creme.

Baghaus.com

2010-11-23T13:38:00.000-08:00

Who loves purses/bags? I do! I found this great website called baghaus.com. They have the greatest selection of purses, wallets, bags and other goodies. A while back, they had a contest on facebook and I entered and won! How cool is my red Hello Kitty bag???

Head over to baghaus.com now, they are offering 15% off and free shipping over $50. Enter BAG15 at checkout. I promise you will find something you 'need' :)

Catrice

2010-11-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

These 3 beautiful polishes are from my very first polish swap! The wonderful Suzanne from Delta Cephei was looking for a few China Glaze polishes and since China Glaze is very easy for me to find, I swapped with her. I love the polishes she sent me.
London's Weather Forecast is a grey base with tiny blue shimmer. This is such a great color!

From Dusk to Dawn is a taupe creme.

The Devil Wear Red is a gorgeous vampy, blackened wine creme.

Thank you so much for swapping Suzanne!

Sally Hansen

2010-11-22T21:40:00.000-08:00

Today I have a couple of Sally Hansen polishes for your viewing pleasure.

Fireberry Red is a berry red with fushia glitter.

Plum Luck is the most beautiful purple creme polish! BUT, the brush sucks! For some reason, the brushes in the SH Complete Manicure are so cumbersome that it strikes a major nerve with me. I might have to put in another bottle because the color is so beautiful.

Friends & Family at SkinCare RX

2010-11-18T19:22:00.000-08:00

Who's ready for the Holidays? NOT me! But I have something to make shopping a little sweeter and easier. I have a 25% discount code for you to use at SkinCare RX. This is Apothica's siter and it is a great site full of awesome brands like La Roche-Posay, Jane Iredale, Dermalogica, & Korres-just to name a few of my favorite skin care brands :)

All you need to do is fill up your basket & enter FF25 at check out for 25% off your order! This code expires December 1, 2010 and excludes some brands.

Happy shopping!

Polish Donations

2010-11-16T19:54:00.000-08:00

Today I got a phone call from my mom, who works at a nursing home, and she asked if I had any extra nail polish. I asked her why and she went on to tell me that the nursing home that she works at is in need of nail polish. Every week they do manicures for the residents and believe me they LOVE their nails painted. I used to work in a facility several years ago and that was my favorite part of my job. Aparently, my mom walked by the 'manicure room' and noticed the 5, yes 5 old, gooey, and just need-to-be-tossed bottles of nail polish.
So, I was thinking that if anyone had one bottle of polish that they don't want and wouldn't mind sending it to me, I would put together a basket for this nursing home! And if I get too many polishes, I have another place I can donate too. My Aunt works for a receiving home for kids who are removed from thier home due to violence, neglect, drug abuse, etc.
If you are interested, send me an email! polishdcindy(at)live(dot)com

Apothica

2010-11-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

You may have notice a new button on my blog, located to your right. Apothica is an e-tailer that I recently discovered. Apothica has a little bit of everything I love! Nail polish, make-up, perfume, lotions, candles and much, much more. I ordered a couple of goodies last week and thought I would share them.

First up is the Too Faced Pixie Pin-Ups Collection. It is 6 eye shadows(Leading Lady, I Know What BoysWant, Lucky Charms, Heaven, Like A Virgin, & Erotica), a mini Lava Gloss Eye Liner(black), a mini Lash Injection(black), & a mini Shadow Insurance. I am a sucker for Pin-Ups and cute packaging, so this baby had to be mine! The shadows are beautiful and I am so excited to finally try the Shadow Insurance! This Collection retails for $32.

The other goodie I ordered is the Smash Box Eye Wish Pallette from their Holiday 2010 collection. It has 12 eye shadows, 4 cream eye liners, a mini Photo Finish Lid Primer, & a mini DNA Mascara. The shadows and eye liners don't have names, just numbers and this palette also comes with a handy 'look book' or cheat sheet on creating beautiful looks. This palette reatils for $45.

The best news about Apothica is...nail polish! Yes, they have polish and it's good polish too. Do the names, Essie, Spa Ritual, & Deborah Lippmann ring any bells? I really like this website and I just know that you will too! Thanks for looking!

Hair Products Pro

2010-11-10T11:55:00.001-08:00

I have a great website to share with you today, Hair Products Pro. This website is a goldmine of hair styling tools! The have a huge selection of flat irons, hair dryers, curling irons and styling products. Some of the highlights I found were they offer FREE shipping on orders of $75 or more, a 30 day guarantee and there is a lot of information on how to properly use these tools. These are professional tools and you really need to use them properly. Hair Products Pro have been so kind to extend a discount code to my readers! Enter the code GIVEAWAY10 at check out to save an addition 10% on you order! Go shopping!

Sally Hansen~Xtreme Wear

2010-11-10T09:54:00.000-08:00

Today I have a quick post for you lovely nail polish lovers. I have a sick kid home today and one on the verge at school. But I have 2 pretty Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear colors to share with you, Mystic Lilac and Gunmetal.

Mystic Lilac is a really popular color and I actually bought it a little while ago. I have read that it is now a hard to find. I'm not really sure why it's so popular, but to each his own. It is a pale lilac base with a hint of teal green shimmer.

Gunmetal is a steel blue shimmer, nearly a frost. It went on really well and I didn't have any issues with streaking.

I found these at CVS, but I have seen them at Walmart and Target also.

Post Halloween Manicure

2010-11-01T19:41:00.000-07:00

I know! Halloween was yesterday and in all of the excitement, I forgot to post my Halloween Konad! So, here you go with a bonus photo :)
I used 2 coats of OPI~Flit A Bit and stamped with American Apparel~Hassid. I used Konad plate M65.

And...my spooky babies-

A very serious Anakin, Miss USA, and Dracula

Halloween Goodies

2010-10-26T13:29:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a couple of pretties I recently ordered from Artisans A GoGo. I first found out about this great little shop about a year ago from one of my very favorite blogs, Black Nail Polish & Lip Gloss. I love skulls and I love hair clips, so I fell in love instantly when I visited this shop. There is still time to place an order and get it for Halloween. The prices are great and the quality is perfect. Shipping was really quick too.

The first piece I ordered was this ceramic necklace with a spider. When I opened the mailing bag this is what was in it. It was so cute I didn't even want to open it.!

This is about 2 inches in diameter and not to heavy. I love that you can either wear it as a choker or a little longer.

I really 'needed' a hair clip too, so I ordered the Day of the Dead Ceramic Halloween Clip. The box had a cute black bow on it too, but I forgot to take a picture. But here is the spiderweb stamped box and the greated skull clip ever!

I love these goodies and I hope you go over to Artisans A GoGo and find something you can't live with out too! My biggest decision right now is do I get the Winter Bride Victorian Head Piece or the Lucky Ceramic Necklace??? Most likely BOTH! Have a great day and thanks for looking!

Kiss Halloween Nails

2010-10-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

Halloween is this weekend and I wanted to devote the rest of this week to Halloween goddies. First up are these awesome Kiss Halloween nails and decals.

How fun are these!?! I love to dress up, but since I am usually busy getting everyone else ready, I am usually too busy to worry about a costume for myself, so I usually do someting fun with my nails and make-up. Kiss makes it really quick and easy to add a little Halloween to my life.

Hayride is set of deep red nails with a black design. They went on really easy and they look really good.

Witch is a set of pointed red nails with black moons. This would complete any witch costume or even a flapper girl costume.

Last week, I even used a couple of the face and body decals on my niece.
They stayed on for several hours and looked great!

I have seen these at CVS, Walmart, Kmart, and Rite Aid. You can check out the Kiss website here. I can't wait to see if they come out with Christmas goddies!
**These products were sent to me for review**

Pedisavers

2010-10-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

I was recently sent these adorable pedicure socks or Pedisavers. These are great! The idea is to put them on before you polish your toes and you can wear flip flops or walk around. So cute! They come in pink, white and black and 2 sizes, ankle and mid-calf. You can check out the Pedisavers website here! Perfect for the upcoming cold months.

Deborah Lippmann~Polish and Music

2010-10-25T09:06:00.000-07:00

What could be better than nail polish and music? Maybe throw in a cupcake and I would say perfection?? We all know that Deborah Lippmann is an amazing manicurist and the creator of some of the most gorgeous polishes I have have ever seen. But did you know she can sing?

Back in July, three lovely glitters debuted at the Nordstrom half-yearly sale. All That Jazz is a trio of beautiful glitter polish, perfect for the upcoming holiday season.

Razzle Dazzle is a gorgeous raspberry glitter. This polish packs a glitter punch.

Some Enchanted Evening is a sheer pink base polish with pink small and hexigon glitter.

Lady Sings the Blues is a sheer midnight blue with silver small and hexigon glitter.

On November 7th & 8th, Deborah Lippmann with be performing live at Feinstein's in New York. You can get more information and buy tickets on the Feinstein's website. You can also follow Deborah Lippmann on twitter for updates.

Today Was a Fairy Tale

2010-10-21T10:19:00.000-07:00

Today is Kim Kardasian's 30th birthday and in honor of her birthday, I have a Deborah Lippmann polish to share with you. Kim wore this color on a recent photo shoot and it is also one of Deborah Lippmann's holiday colors. But, before I go any further, I want to give you fair warning that there is a picture of Kim Kardashian at the end of this post that some might find inappropriate. I totally understand and respect your right to that opinion, but I feel this picture is beautiful and I'm posting it.

Today Was a Fairytale and all of the other gorgeous Deborah Lippmann polishes can be found at Deborah Lippmann's website, Nordstrom, Barneys New York, & Neiman Marcus.

Today Was a Fairytale is an amazing combination of large and small glitter shapes and is infused with Virgin Diamond Powder, suspended in a very sheer blue-grey base. This polish is extemely sparkley! I am really left a little speachless by it.

~Outside~

~Shade~

~Inside with a flash~

Kim Kardashian recently wore this polish on a recent photo shoot for the November 2010 issue of W Magazine. Kim wore this and her outfit was nothing more than silver body paint. I think this picture is beautiful.

This is a gorgeous color and a very happy birthday with to Kim Kardashian. I would also like to welcome my husband to Nail'd & Polish'd, lol.

**This product was sent to me for review**

Zoya~Halloween Funness

2010-10-19T12:14:00.000-07:00

OPI~Tease-y Does It

2010-10-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

Today I have the last of the OPI Burlesque polishes. Tease-y Does It is by far, my favorite of this collection.

Tease-y Does It is a beautiful warm plum shade with purple micro glitter.

Happy 101 Tag!

2010-10-19T11:48:00.000-07:00

I was tagged! The super creative and talented Renee at The "E" Girl Blog tagged me. If you haven't checked out her blog, you need to. Did I mention she owns Eye Kandy? It is really great eye glitter and shadows! I'm not going to say too much, because I plan on doing a post really soon! Anyways, I am supposed to do the follwing:

The rules of this award are as follows:

1. Copy the award image into a post
2. Then list 10 things that make you happy
3. Tag 10 bloggers who brighten your day
4. Put in a link to their blogs
5. Notify the award receivers
6. Award recipients must link back to sender’s blog

10 things that make me happy:
1. Blogging. It has really pulled me out of a mommy coma.
2. Sunsets
3. Good food
4. Nail Polish-duh
5. The ocean
6. Being alone with my husband
7. My kids laughing
8. Glitter
9. A new lip gloss
10. Lola, my Chihuahua. She was the best present I ever got and she will be 1 tomorrow!

For the 10 blogs, here are my girls. They make me laugh, they encourage me and I really don't thing I could do this with out them!
Magic Maid
Black Nail Polish & Lip Gloss
Also Known As...
Babbling Brooke
Scandalously Polished
Prim and Polished
Lambchop Mobile
Bright Lights, Big Color
Beauty Judy
Thoughts of Beauty

Belle Blossoms Give Away!

2010-10-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

I have a really great give away to share with you this fall Monday morning. Belle Blossoms is having a 1 year Anniversary Give Away! Belle Blossoms is a great place to find beautiful, handmade hair accessories. I am a memeber of the Blossom of the Month Club and once a month a receive a stunning flower! I have done this for a few month and I have not been disappointed!

You can find out all of the give away details here. GO ENTER THIS CONTEST!

Here are the fabulous prizes:

Deborah Lippmann~Dark Side of the Moon & Lady Sings the Blues

2010-10-14T15:38:00.000-07:00

I know the Emmy Awards were a while ago, but I have two Deborah Lippmann polishes that were really hot at the Emmys and are timeless colors that should be in every nail fanatics collection.

Lea Michele wore Lady Sings the Blues. Lady Sings the Blues is a stunning polish! It has silver glitter and silver hexagon glitter suspended in a dark blue base.

January Jones wore Dark Side of the Moon. This is the perfect vampy color. It is super dark blackberry creme.

These two polishes are classy, timeless, and a must have! You can find Deborah Lippmann polish at Nordstrom, Barneys, Neiman Marcus and at the Deborah Lippman website.

**These polishes were sent to me for review**

OPI~Burlesque III

2010-10-13T15:18:00.000-07:00

The OPI Burlesque 'shimmers' portion of the the collection is made up of 6 sparkly, shimmery polishes. These are a little on the frosty side for me, but they are still really pretty. The four I have today are all mini bottles from the 'Little Teasers' pack.

Rising Star is golden copper shimmer with golden micro glitter.

The Show Must Go On! is a gorgeous dark raspberry shimmer with pink micro glitter.

Take the Stage is an orange shimmer with copper and golden micro glitter.

Ali's Big Break is a beautiful red with red glitter.

Incoco

2010-10-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! I have a great weekend planned. My sister & my nieces are flying in from Tennessee today and on Sunday, I am going to NailPro Sacramento. It is a nails only trade show! I can't wait to share all the great goodies I'm going to find!

Today I have Incoco. They are dry nail polish that you apply to you nails like a sticker. These are really cool! I was warned there is a learning curve, so I followed the directions and i think it went pretty well. I couldn't believe how fast and easy it was. The pictures look like the tips are peeling up, but they are not. This is were the learning curve came in for me-I just smoothed them out a little more and they look like I had just polihed my nails. You can find Incoco here or I saw them at Walgreens.

Incoco~Jazz Blue

**This product was sent to me for review**

OPI~Burlesque II

2010-10-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! Fall is here in my neck of the woods. It's cloudy and cold! Well, not cold, just not 90+ degrees. I have the other 2 OPI Burlesque glitters to show you today. But first, I need to correct myself about the release date of these polishes. They are out now! You can find them at your favorite OPI e-tailer and retailer!
These pictures are all inside with a flash. The first picture is one coat of polish and the second is two coats of polish.

Simmer & Shimmer is a beautiful sheer aqua colored blue base with aqua, silver and just a tiny bit of pink glitter. So pretty and sparkly!

Show It & Glow It! By far my favorite of the glitters. It is a sheer dark magenta base jammed pack with dark and light pink and siver glitter. This one is a must have!

There are 2 other glitters in this collection. Glow Up Already! is an olive green and gold glitter and Bring On the Bling is a gold glitter. So what do you think of the gitters? Have you bought any yet?

Chrome Nails

2010-10-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

Whoo-hoo! This is the craziest thing I have ever done to my nails. I am sure by now, you've heard about Minx manicures. Well, Broadway Nails has their version called Chrome Nails. These are longer lasting and a more cost effective way to achieve the Minx look. They are glue-on full nails and they retail for $5.99! Look for them at your local drug store!

This kit comes with every thing you need to Chrome out your nails! 12 Chrome nails and 12 Chrome with zebra print nails and glue. It's really easy and check out how cool they look!

I couldn't get a good close up without turning the flash off and it gave them a golden tint in this one, but they are the same silver nails as in the first picture.

OPI~Burlesque

2010-09-30T10:50:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: Prepare to be razzle dazzled!

The Burlesque collection by OPI has to be the most talked about upcoming collection to come out since I started Nail'd & Polish'd over a year ago. I have been hearing about it, probably since late June. So when I called my favorite beauty supply and they said it was in, I hot footed it over there!

The Burlesque collection is made up of 6 glitters and 6 shimmers. This is OPI's Holiday 2010 collection and I believe it will be available towards the end of October, but, check Transdesign. The glitters are a must! The shimmers on the other hand looked a little too frosty for me, but I did pick up a couple to show you. I have so many plans for these glitters, hopefully you won't get tired of seeing all of my comparisons :) Today I have Sparkle-icious and Extra-va-vaganza!

Sparkle-icious is simply stunning! It has every color of the rainbow in glitter in a clear base.

1 coat of Sparkle-icious

2 coats of Sparkle-icious

Extra-va-vaganza! is...orange! I love orange glitter! This is a beautiful orange, gold, and coppery glitter party in a sheer orange base. Perfect for Halloween and Halloween nail art-can't you just see spiders and webs on top of this orange goodness?

1 coat of Extra-va-vaganza!

2 coats of Extra-va-vaganza!

China Glaze~Awakening Collection

2010-09-23T18:13:00.000-07:00

Halloween is quickly approaching. My kids have decided what they want to be and now it's my turn to make their ideas reality. I love Halloween and I am really getting excited!

China Glaze is ready for Halloween with their great Awakening collection of 3 Halloween colors. Zombie Zest, Ick-A-Bod-Y, & Mummy May I are 3 festive and glitter packed pretties!

Zombie Zest is a sheer olive green polish packed with light and dark green glitter and I see gold glitter too. I really thought I would hate this color(I'm sure you have heard me go on and on about my love/hate for green polish) but not Zombie Zest-I really like it!

Ick-A-Bod-Y is a sheer black polish with gorgeous orange glitter. This polish screams Halloween to me!

Mummy May I is a pretty dark purple polish with a great shade of purple glitter. The color of the glitter is a grape-ish purple and it pops off of the darker base. It's purple, it's dark, of course it's my favorite of the trio.

My set came with the CG FastForward Top Coat and I am really excited to try it. I don't know why I never picked it up before. I'll let you know what I think soon!

Who's Ready for Halloween?

2010-09-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

I am! I love Halloween! I have 2 Halloween collections to share with you and today I am showing my vote for best Halloween collection first. OPI's 'Go Goth!' is a collection of 4 mini polishes and a black lace bracelet.

Unripened has a black base with teal glitter.

Nevermore has a purple base with purple and pink glitter.

Sanguine is a gorgeous blackened red shimmer that has that lit from with-in glow. It is my favorite of the bunch. It reminds me of Urban Decay's Gash.

Obscurity is a black matte.

Orly Cosmic FX

2010-09-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

Orly has the most amazing collection out right now. Cosmic FX is 6 unique and gorgeous polishes. The Orly website uses words like "multi-dimensional", "mineral FX raw mineral technology", and "light reflecting" to describe the collection. To me they are creative, unique and a must have! I only have two of the six. But, I have the best two! These polishes look different in different light, so I took a bunch of pictures.

Space Cadet is probably the hardest polish I have ever had to describe. It is a blue-green duochrome base with a TON of pinkish-coppery sparkly shimmer. The consistancy was a little on the thin side, and I think next time I'll do three coats.

Inside w/flash

Shade

Sunlight

Galaxy Girl. I don't even know what to say, except welcome to my Top 10 polishes! This polish has a purple base with purple and teal sparkly shimmer. This color is a stunner! Do whatever you have to do to get your hands on this color. You will love it, I promise!

Inside w/flash

Shade

Sunlight

Galazy Girl is a lot like Urban Decay's Bruised, which an old favorite of mine. Should these lovelys be sold out, Nicole at Magic Maid did a great comparison post that you can check out here.

Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss Give Away

2010-09-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

I must admit, I love me some Evil Angel and if you have been living under a rock and haven't ever checked out Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss, then now is the perfect time! Andrea is having another one of her amazing giveaways! She always finds the greatest things! This time, you have your choice of a gorgeous hair clip or an amazing eye patch. Yes, I said eye patch! She has teamed up with Artisanagogo to give us a super give away. So get on over to Black Nail Polish and Lip Gloss and get all the details and get entered!

Orly Plastix

2010-09-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

Sally's has Orly on sale this month, 2 for $10! I picked up a couple of the Plastix collection that recently came out. There are four colors in this collection and they all have a slightly matte finish. I have to say this is probably my favorite finish of all the alternative(matte, suede, plastix) finishes.

Viridian Vinyl is a pretty turquoise creme.

Purple Pleather is a dark lilac creme.

I really like the finish and these two colors. I did learn that the Plastix dries a lot slower than the suede and matte finishes. What do you think, do you like this alterative to the matte finish or are you a matte girl? Also, I didn't see any instructions for this polish, I used a base coat and no top coat, as that would change the finish and defeat the Plastix finish. Thanks for looking!

Tuli's Nails Give Away!

2010-09-07T22:26:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow polish lovers! I have a hot tip on a fabulous give away going on at Tuli's Nails. It's perfume! So go on over to Tuli's Nails and enter. Plus if you are not already a follower, you should be!