Happy Friday!

Y'all I feel like I have abandoned my readers and my blog this week :(
I've had a super busy week and on Tuesday my allergies decided to flare up and I have been walking around since then looking like I'm crying outta one eye LOL So I'm gonna take the rest of the week and try to get as much allergy medicine in me as I can and hopefully feel better next week. I got so many products to review and new nail polishes I want to share with you all! I will also catch up on y'alls blogs next week :)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Pink Ice: Chocolate Chip

A couple weeks ago I went in to Rue21 to check out their nail polish and came out with two. Today I want to share with you Chocolate Chip! A pastel Green with matte bright colored glitters.

This is a great polish for spring and summer, it's just such a fun looking polish! When I put the first coat down I was like oh no this is not what I thought it was, but it worked out. I had to apply 3 coats to get the polish to a good opaque finish. Luckily the polish dries fairly quickly, I was happy with that!

These Pink Ice polishes retail for $3.99, but I guess sometimes they have them on sale 2 for $5, that's what I got mine for.

I think they are a good quality nail polish, I wore this mani for about 4 days with no chips and just minimal tip wear. I really didn't want to take this off, it's so pretty to look at! It was a little bit of a pain to remove, but what glitter polish is not?

In other news, I have no clue what kind of posts I will have for the rest of the week. I have not had time to sit down and plan anything out :/

Hope you all are having a fantastic Tuesday!

Fing'rs Giveaway Winners

Good Morning!

Just a super quick post today to announce the Fing'rs Giveaway Winners! Congratulations to

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Both winners have been emailed, ladies you have 24 hours to reply to those emails :)

I know, super short, but I am headed out of town for the day :)

See you all back here Tuesday (I hope) with a fun TIOT polish!

EOTD: Silver & Black

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If you have been following my blog for a while, you have probably noticed I don't tend to wear anything but brown, taupe and gold shades of eyeshadow. Well yesterday I found this sparkling eye pencil in the shade Charcoal from Avon in my stash and thought it might go nicely with the Hit the Town smudge pot from ELF.

Off I went to create a new eye look for myself, I have to say I was quite happy with the way it came out and I really liked it, hubby even noticed my eyes when he came in from work!

I started off with the Charcoal pencil and colored about half of my eyelid, starting on the inner corners. Then I took the Hit the Town smudge pot and an eyeshadow brush and put that on the outer half of my eye lid. Then I had to go find a black eyeliner from my stash and came across Rimmel Scandaleyes in Black, holy smokes what an amazing eyeliner! It is so creamy and glides across the lid and it's waterproof! It lasted all day even on my waterline, new favorite black liner! I lined pretty much all around my eye for a more dramatic look. I finished off my look with a black mascara from ModelCo. If you follow me on Instagram you probably seen this look on there yesterday and I mistakenly put Models Own instead of ModelCo, my bad LOL :)

Here are some swatches of the products I used; Rimmel Scandaleyes, Avon Big Color Dazzlers Sparkling Eye Pencil in Charcoal and ELF Smudge Pot in Hit the Town.

I don't think I could get away with wearing this eye look for a day time look, but I think it would be great for a night out!

I don't have any blog posts scheduled for the rest of the week, so is there anything that you would like to see from me this week? If so let me know in the comments :)

TIOT: China Glaze Running in Circles

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I was going through my nail photos on my computer and uploading some of them to my Facebook page and I came across China Glaze Running in Circles. I could have swore I already posted the photo of this polish but I searched my blog and could not find it, so I'm gonna share it with you today. As I'm typing this I'm still saying to myself, I know I posted this LOL

Running in Circles is from the Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away Collection and is a gorgeous shimmer filled green! Best I can remember I used 2 coats in the photo below.

How gorgeous is that? You can still see my nail line while out in the sun, maybe a third coat would have fixed that, but I still really love this color.

Really don't know how I manged to skip over this and not get it posted :/ My Mom would say I was showing my age LOL

Next Tuesday I will have Pink Ice's Chocolate Chip for my TIOT, it's a fun little polish I picked up at Rue21

What are you wearing on your nails today?

Review: Fing'rs Heart 2 Art Dots So Cool Kit & a Giveaway (CLOSED)

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Last week I had the chance to try out the Dots So Cool nail art kit from Fing'rs, such a great kit! Everything you need for a cute nail look is included in the kit, which is something that I love about kits. Sometimes, really most times, I am so indecisive about what nail colors I want to use for my nail art and with this kit I didn't have to think about what colors because it comes with three fun colors that compliment each other well.

So what does come in the kit? As mentioned above you get three mini nail polishes and a dotting tool. The polishes are really great, they have a great formula and just glide on the nails. The wear time is pretty amazing too, I had this manicure on for about 3 days and did not have any chips in the polish. Dry time was decent too. Now I have a set of dotting tools but I have to say the one that comes in this kit is by far my favorite! I think it makes the most perfect dots, not too big, not too small.

Even though I did not have to pick the colors I wanted to use I still had to decide on how I wanted to do my design, with the three polishes you really have a lot of choices of what you want to do! In the end I decided to use the pink and green for my base colors and the white for the dots. I alternated the pink and green on my fingers for a fun spring look! For the dots I dripped some of the polish on a sheet of paper then dipped the dotting tool in, I did have a cotton ball that had some polish remover on it so I could clean the dotting tool off after I did each nail. 

I really love how this came out and I will be using this kit for many more dotticures! Have you used any of Fing'rs nail art kits?

Who is ready for a giveaway? Fing'rs was so great and sent me some extra goodies with this kit and I want to share them! For this giveaway there will be 2 winners. 

Prizes:

1. Fing'rs Prints in Wild Card + a set of Comic Nation nail tattoo papers

2. Set of Comic Nation nail tattoo papers 

There are only 3 requirements to enter the giveaway; like Fing'rs Facebook Page, be a follower of this blog, and leave a blog comment. There are also a lot of options for extra entries :) Be sure to read all the info in the Rafflecoptor. This giveaway will be open for 1 Week, starting today and ending on Sunday April 20th. To enter fill out the Rafflecopter below. (Open to US Residents Only)

Good Luck Everyone!

Giveaway Winner

Thank you to everyone that entered the giveaway! If you did not win this time, don't worry I have another exciting giveaway coming up next week!

The winner of my Reader Appreciation and 3rd Blogiversary Giveaway is:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations Martha! I have sent you an email, please respond within 24 hours :)

Not sure if I will have a post up on Friday. Hubby and I are planning on going to Grandfather Mountain, provided the weather is nice. If y'all would be interested I could post some photos from that on Friday Evening. Leave a comment if you would like to see them :)

Review: Avon Mega Effects Mascara

Last year Avon introduced a breakthrough mascara, the Mega Effects Mascara. I was skeptical about trying this out so I waited quite some time and got it while it was on sale.

You may have seen this mascara around, it's the one  that looks like a paint brush. Avon calls it the Wonderbrush, it bends and adjusts to multiple angles so it catches all your lashes. Avon claims it fits natural shape of lashes allowing it to coat them all evenly from root to tip. They designed the brush this way so it would deliver 40% more mascara to the lashes.

Avon claims that the mascara provides 24 hour volume, leaves lashes darker, denser and more dramatic. Formula is supposed to be clump-proof, sweat-proof, non-flaking and non-smudging.

For me, I found this mascara to be quite awkward to work with. I could not really find a way to bend the wand that felt somewhat natural for me. It does not hold curl, which is no big surprise to me because I have have a hard time finding a mascara that will hold curl. I did not see any added volume, I don't think my lashes looked denser or dramatic. I will say it did leave my lashes looking darker, but ummm, isn't that what mascara is supposed to do?

In this first photo I have the Mega Effects on one eye:

And in this photo I have it on both eyes:

I honestly do not see what all the hype was about this mascara. I don't feel that it done anything for my lashes that a regular mascara couldn't have done. The only claims the Mega Effects met for me, is that it did leave my lashes darker, it's non-clumping and that it is non-flaking. I will not be repurchasing this and I will be sticking to my Maybelline One by One Volume Express.

Avon Mega Effects retails for $10

Have you tried this mascara? Did you have better luck with it than I did?

Be sure to come back tomorrow to see who won the Giveaway!

TIOT: Mint Chip

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Today I have super short Try it on Tuesday featuring Mint Chip, one of the polishes from Sally Girl March Ice Cream Shoppe Collection.

Overall I was not very impressed with this polish. For starters I could not get the polish mixed together properly, you could see where it was starting to separate, you know the way polishes do if they set to long. I shook it, I rolled it between my hands and could not get it to mix to save my life, so I just used it as it was. It was a little thick and goopy and it was streaky. I had to use three coats to get it evened out. I also feel that this comes off more blue than mint.

I purchased the other 3 polishes in this collection, I hope the formula is better on them :/

Today is the last day to enter my Reader Appreciation/3 Year Blogiversary Giveaway, so if you haven't done so head on over. I'll be announcing the winner on Thursday :)

I'm With the Lifeguard and Born Pretty Water Decals

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I love spring and summer, not only for the warm beautiful weather and occasional thunderstorm (yes I like thunderstorms, as long as they are not severe), but it also gives me a reason to wear neon green nail polish!

I purchased I'm With the Lifeguard from China Glaze off of Amazon earlier this year and it's just been sitting in my unworn nail polish box, waiting for the perfect time to wear it. I also received some nail decals from the Born Pretty Store to review and I thought they would go great with this polish.

Let me tell you a little about I'm With the Lifeguard then we'll get into the mani. This polish was a weird one for me, like most neons it has a matte finish, but I don't feel that it's completely matte. Maybe it's the micro shimmer in it, but to me it still seems to have a little sheen. The formula on it was just okay for me, since it is a neon you have to work a little faster with it, or else it's gonna start to dry and when you swipe the brush across it, it's gonna drag the polish around that is already on your nail.

Now for the mani details, I started out with a coat of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, so that the green would pop. After that was dry I applied two thin coats of IWTL and waited for those to dry. Then I applied my decals.

The decals that I got are so cute, zebra stripes and pink bows that look a little like Hello Kitty's bow. These were super easy to work with, I cut out the decals I wanted to use then, one at a time I used tweezers to dunk them in water for about 15-20 seconds. I slid them off the paper and used the tweezers to help place them on my nails, then used a paper towel to soak up the excess water. Super Easy! For $2.03 you get one sheet that has 20 decals of different sizes. Last thing I did was added a shiny topcoat.

Now I did notice after applying my second coat of IWTL I started to get some bubbles in the polish, and I thought oh no this is going to turn out horrible. I kept with it though and after I applied my topcoat none of the bubbles or other little imperfections were really noticeable anymore. Really love the way it came out in the end :)

I'm With the Lifeguard is even super bright in the shade!

I was also really shocked that my camera didn't get all wonky trying to capture this neon, it's actually a fairly accurate take on it.

Tomorrow I'll be back with one of the Sally Girl 2013 March Ice Cream Collection polishes!

Essie Full Steam Ahead

Happy Friday! Today I was planning on posting a beauty product review, but since the weather has been so nice I could not stay indoors, had to get out and enjoy it and needless to say I didn't get around to writing up the review. So instead I'm sharing Essie Full Steam Ahead with you :)

Full Steam Ahead is the only actual nail color I have from Essie, I do have a couple of their Luxe Effects though. FSA was a super easy formula to work with, no streaking or other issues. It is a little on the sheer side, in the photos I used 2 coats and I feel like it could have benefited from a third coat. My photos make the polish look a shade or two darker that what it really is.

In any case, it is such a lovely lilac shade, would be great for a spring or Easter manicure. In the bottle it appears that it has a lot of silver shimmer, but once you have it on your nails it's not quite as noticeable.

For me this is just an okay polish, mostly because I wish that it wasn't so sheer and that the shimmer showed up better. It did dry fairly quick and wear time has been great too! I've been doing housework, been outside planting flowers and I only have minimal tip wear.

Imagine a shade darker than the photo below and that is the true color of Essie Full Steam Ahead.

Hope you have a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday with a new post, just not sure on what yet. The weather is supposed to turn yucky again so I'll have plenty of time to get it sorted out :)

Color Club, Sinful Colors & Stamping

I am so over the winter weather and the other day I did a manicure to reflect that. I picked some bright colors that made me think of spring.

Let me apologize for the quality of the photos, I had to take them on my phone because my actual camera was having no part of them, I think it secretly loves winter.

I started off with Sinful Colors Snow Me White, so my nameless Color Club polish, (that we now know is called East Austin, Thanks Lizzy) would pop! I want to call this a neon coral, would look gorgeous on tan skin. I think the It's Real 18k Top Coat would look good over this too, need to try that out.

I then used Sinful Colors Mad About Hue as my stamping polish. The plate that I used was Cheeky Plate CH40, it has super cute designs on it! I found this on Amazon, but not directly from Cheeky.

I really loved the final result:

Super short post for today, I think Mother Nature took note of my mani and gave me some spring like weather! Yesterday was gorgeous, sunny and near 80! This morning however it's currently 8:25, 56 degrees and we are having a thunderstorm, go figure LOL

Hope you all have a fabulous day and don't for get to check out the Giveaway!

Reader Appreciation & 3rd Blogiversary Giveaway (CLOSED)

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Are you ready for the something special I mentioned yesterday? As you can tell from the title I'm having a Giveaway to celebrate the 3rd Blogiversary of the blog and to say Thank You to my readers, because with out y'all I would have no blog!

When I started this blog 3 years ago I was just hoping to get a handful of followers and to connect with other ladies that shared my interest in beauty products, I never thought I would have 100+ followers and to go along with that I have met some super nice gals that share my love/obsession with nail polish and other beauty products! I want to say thank you to everyone that follows this blog, stops by to read my thoughts on beauty products, checks out my hauls, nail swatches and art. I also want to say a big thank you to those that leave comments on my posts, I love reading them and interacting with y'all.

This giveaway is only for my current followers, so please don't share the giveaway via social media. It would not be fair for someone who just started following me for the giveaway to win. I know if you are a current subscriber ;)

Prizes:

• ELF Smudge Pot in the shade Cruisin' Chic
• Avon Color Creme Eyeshadow in Champagne
• ELF Vacation Trio Nail Polish Set
• Avon Brushed Metals Polish in Burnished Copper
• Avon Mosaic Effects (crackle) Polish in Fiery Fuchsia

Rules:

• Must be a current subscriber of my blog via Blogger or Bloglovin'
• You must leave a comment, comment can be anything you want it to be, except for enter me or anything of that effect.
• Must be 18+ or have parents permission, as I will have to ask for your mailing address.
• Open to US Residents Only, if you live outside the US but have a US mailing address that I can ship it to that is fine.

Extra Entries:

• Follow on Twitter
• Follow on Instagram
• Like Facebook Fan Page

Each method of entry can only be done once, gives each person a max of 5 entries. Giveaway begins today and ends April 9th at midnight. Any questions let me know.  Winner will be announced on Thursday April 10th, they will have 24 hours to get back to me before I draw a new winner. GOOD LUCK!

TIOT: Pure Ice Twinkle

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A quick Try It On Tuesday post today featuring Twinkle from Pure Ice. This is a polish that I seen swatched on another blog and I loved the way it looked so I set out on a search for it! It only took me like 3 months to find it LOL

Twinkle is a lovely peachy coral shade with gold shimmer, perfect for summer. As gorgeous as this shade is in my photo, I did have some issues. I'm not 100% sure if the issues were with Twinkle it's self or if it was because of the matte top coat I added to the top, which you can't even tell that I did that.

For me the formula seems to be a touch thicker than the other Pure Ice polishes I have used. Although I may have gotten a bottle that someone used to paint their nails in the store then put it back on the shelf, Yes that really happened. Hubby and I were in Walmart and I dragged him to the polish aisle with me and there was a teenager and I'm assuming her mother painting their nails then put the polishes back on the shelf. If you are someone that does that, please don't, when I buy polish from a store I expect it to be NEW not used.

Okay, I'll get off my soap box now. As you can hopefully see in my photos, I ended up with some air bubbles. I did have to apply 3 coats of this to get it to the opacity I wanted, so I don't know if that's what caused it or if it was in fact the NYC matte top coat.

I really want to say it was the top coat because I just swatched it on my nail wheel and it came out fine. May have to put this back in the Unworn basket and give it another try.

Hope you all are having a fabulous day and be sure to come back tomorrow for something really special!