Youtube Contest and Giveaway

Whewf.  Now that the blog giveaway is over I"m finally having my super delayed nail art contest and giveaway on my YouTube Channel.  There is both a nail art contest as well as a random giveaway for those of you who like nail art but don't do nail art, or don't do videos.  All the info is in the video.  If anything's missing, click the video (which will take you to the YouTube page and check out the info bar for info/updates.

Hope to see some of my blog followers showing me their nails skillz!  lol.. i'm so Not gangsta.  :p

Blog Giveaway - New Winner

Hello Everyone!

I did not hear back from my first winner by the deadline (March 28th, midnight) so I did a re-draw and am back to announce the new winner of my blog giveaway.

The Winner has until APRIL 4TH to email me to claim their prize.

And!

THE

WINNER

IS

...

BELINDA M.

CONGRATULATIONS!

don't forget to contact me by April 4th.

via either email

or directly through Youtube private message

Giveaway Winner

First I want to give a big thanks to all of you who follow my blog and/or my youtube channel.
I really appreciate the support that you've given me in the past couple years.  I want to give a big virtual high five to all you subbies and followers, both old and new.

So, as you guessed it, this post is to announce the winner of my sponsored giveaway!
And with any further ado...

THE

WINNER

IS

...

NOTD: Rebellion against Green

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day.  I wore a jade and gold necklace and some simple one colored green nails.  (I wore Essie's Going Incognito.)

I'm not really a huge green nails kinda girl and after several fails at trying to spice up my plain manicure with some glitter water marbling I ended up removing all the polish and starting from scratch.  I almost just re-applied the green b/c I'm kinda already known at work as the girl with the nice nails, and I didn't want to be bombarded with the question of "How many times a week do you change your manicure?"  (the answer to which is 'usually once a week')  But I just wasn't in the mood to reapply green.  So instead I went anti green ... sorta.

I did a naked purple glitter reverse moon manicure.
and frankly, I Love it!

Here's what I used:

OPI - Matte Nail Envy nail strengthener

OPI - Natural Nail Base Coat

Orly - Goth (it's a black sparsely flecked with small silver glitters)

Wet'n'Wild - Night Prowl. (dark purple shimmer)

Seche Vite

I created the curve of the moon with small circle stickers I got from Staples.

I think it's hot!  and just in time for the weekend!!

Neon Graffiti Nails - Tutorial

whoo hoo!

So I had a request to do neon punk rock nails.  Unfortunately I didn't have my list in front of me when i was coming up with this design, so in my head the request got translated to neon graffiti.  Fortunately, I think it still falls within the theme of punk rock.

I did a few test nails (which I rarely ever do!  -ususally I just turn on the camera and wing it ;)
I decided to try and do my user name (shortened): M80M.  Here are how the test nails turned out.  oops, sorry.  i forgot that those images are on my external drive.  (see previous post regarding the issues with that)

ok.  so just the tutorial instead.
I LOVE this design!  HOpe you do too!  and I hope you give it a try!  only average skill needed.  but with a little more time required.
If you do try it, I'd love to see photos of how they turned out!\

Polishes used in this tutorial:
OPI - Russian Navy (Suede Finish)
Rimmel - White French Tip Pro
Color Club - Wham Pow
Color Club- Poptastic
Color Club- Chelsea Girl
Color Club- Lime Light
Rimmel - Black Satin
Essie - Matte About You (Matte Top Coat)

{The polish - most noticeable on my pinkie - streaked a bit when I applied my top coat.  Although not intentional, I'm not bothered at all by this at all.  I think it works well with the theme :)

Hope you enjoyed!
Thanks so much for stopping by!

Blog Giveaway - Last Chance Reminder

Hey all!

Just a last minute reminder that my giveaway ends this friday!  If you want some free schtuff, click the title, or [HERE] to go back to my original giveaway post for all the details on how to enter.

St. Patrick's Day Plaid - Nail Art Tutorial

Who's ready to wear green this thursday??

I AM!

I forced myself to do a green tutorial for St. Patrick's Day this year. (Since I failed to do any last year - even though I managed to whip out over 5, i think, Valentine's Day tutorials.)
I couldn't figure out anything that I really liked, so I decided to just go for a simple green plaid nail.  Hope you enjoy!

Used in this tutorial:
Essie - Going Incognito
LA Colors Art Deco - Mint Green
LA Colors Art Deco - White
Seche Vite - Fast Dry Top Coat

On my nails:
China Glaze - Lemon Fizz

It's Official: Essie Has Gone Retail

Yep.  I heard the press about it a while ago.
And a couple days ago while wandering through my local drugstore (Shoppers Drug Mart - for those Canucks out there who are curious) I saw the new Essie retail stand.

(sorry for the crap photos.  my phone's camera is a also crap)

The bottle seems to have been slightly relabeled.  The name 'Essie' is no longer simply moulded in the glass but is also printed in white vertically along the bottle.  I think this  is a simple and non-offensive change to the look, and frankly, will always appreciate the simplicity of the shape of the bottle and font of the logo.

The stand not only features the newest collection by Essie, but also tempts nail polish addicts with treatments and top and base coat polishes.

Sometimes Essie colours are great.  I personally think the formulas are hit or miss.  But one thing I will probably never love about Essie is the price.  In Canada (and in the stores I shop in) OPI generally sells for $9.95 (excluding the Designer series which sells for $14.95.)  I think OPI is tops!  Essie is up there but with a price tag that's $2 more expensive than OPI will always make it a hard sell for me.  

Have you seen Essie make an appearance in your local drug store?  How much is it selling for?  Are you super psyched that the brand is now more accessible, or do you feel kinda 'meh' like me?

ACK! MY VIDEO FOOTAGE! NOOOooooooooo......

I wasn't completely sure what was going on with my 500G external hard drive.  It holds EVERYTHING from old school work and thesis stuff, music that's not currently on my computer, a whole crap load of movies and photos, and of course all my unedited videos and photos of nail tutorials that I was hoping to post in the next couple weeks.

I had a couple cool ones that I wanted to get up last weekend, but alas, they're being held prisoner within the walls of Western Digital.  :@

Luckily, I randomly had a couple finished and placed in my documents on my computer (total fluke that they were there instead of my hard drive.  I never put my nail tutorial stuff on my computer.  It just takes up too much space and my poor Mac is too old for that kind of kid stuff.. lol)

So it wasn't showing up on my computer and didn't seem to be making the fast 'whirring' sound like it usually does.  So I tried hooking it up to my mom's computer.  It started to be acknowledged by the computer until a little pop-up window told me that it couldn't connect because it wasn't working properly.  ARGHHH!

Dang.

Well, hopefully the tech guy at work can retrieve some of the data for me.  So in the mean time I guess that means i'm going external hard drive shopping.... yay... : |

So I guess you're just gonna get the two videos that I managed to not have on my external hard drive.  One is a nail tutorial (a pretty wicked one I must admit) and one is a collection video (that was requested) of my MAC eye shadows.  My collection is quite pittiful, but it works for me :)

I'll probably have my collection video up today and the tutorial up a few days after that.  and hopefully by then I will have retrieved my data from my external so you won't have to wait too long after that for the next update from me.  :)

Hope everyone is having a better week than me!

First Blog Giveaway Ever!

Hello Dear Readers,

I am happy to announce that I am holding my first ever blog giveaway!  It is being sponsored by Apothica.com

You may have noticed that little ad I have on the right side of my blog, and I figured, if I'm going to be sponsored, my readers may as well benefit from it.

So here's the deal!

Introductions  first.
Rules second.
What's the free swag, third.

Dark Vignette - Bundle Monster Stamping Tutorial (BM10)

I've been slacking on the stamping tutorials.  I didn't have too many ideas at the time I did this one.  So instead I decided to go for a really simple elegant design.
It uses Bundle Monster image plate 10.

Hope you enjoy!

Dragonfly Trails - Fimo nail art tutorial

Ok.  so i finally broke down and got some fimo for my nail art.  yeesh.  I got the 100 stick pack from bundlemonster at amazon.com
I've sliced a quarter of them.  it sure does take time, but it goes quickly once you get the hang of it.  :)

So, naturally I was dying to do a tutorial using some.  I chose these cute little dragonflies.
The tutorial's really easy.  If you've got some fimo, hope you give it a try!