The Great Sephora Giveaway!! ::CLOSED::

Hello my lovely followers both old and new. I am so happy to say I just hit over 100 followers here on the blog and over 200 on my Tumblr. You gals are so amazing, and I am so very thankful to each and every one of you! You keep me posting week after week. I'm hoping this giveaway will show you just how thankful I truly am.

The Great Sephora Giveaway will have two prizes and two winners! The first winner will receive a $50 Sephora gift card. Yes, you read that right! $50 to spend at your local Sephora or on Sephora.com.

The second winner will receive a $10 Sephora gift card. Okay, so it's not $50, but look on the bright side. That's $10 that doesn't come out of your pocket!

I purchased these gift cards through Swagbucks by taking various surveys, completing offers, and other such tasks. If you decide to sign up for Swagbucks for yourself you can use the code SBISONTHEGO during your sign up for an additional 60 swagbucks on top of the normal 30 you get just for signing up. This will give you a great start with 90 swagbucks. This code is only valid until Friday, August 3rd at 11:59 pm P.T. so sign up quick!

::NEED TO KNOW::

This giveaway is open internationally, however Swagbucks says Canadian residents can only use these cards in Sephora stores. I repeat, these gift cards are not valid for purchases on Sephora.com to Canadian residents. I recommend my other international followers to check with your local Sephora if you have any doubts you can use these gift cards. Just because I say it's open internationally doesn't mean your Sephora can't still refuse to take them. Still, did I mention these gift cards don't expire? Free money with no expiration date?? Cool, right?

This giveaway will run from Wednesday, August 1st to Saturday, September 1st. Winners will be announced shortly after, once I have had a chance to go through the entries.

Last but not least, I will send out winning emails to two lucky followers shortly after giveaway ends. Winners have 24 hours to reply before I choose a new winner. These gift cards are e-gift cards so they will be sent to your email after I receive confirmation. However, if the winners prefer I can also print and mail them.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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On Safari: Purr-fect Plum

Hello lovelies! I bring good news, great news even! The prizes for my upcoming giveaway have arrived and I will be spending tomorrow setting up the post and Rafflecopter so be on the lookout August 1st.


With that awesome news, I bring you today's post. I know it can't really compare, but I hope you enjoy another On Safari swatch.

This is Purr-fect Plum. I thought it really was going to be the most perfect of plums but it went on so much darker than I was expecting. The color was much lighter in the bottle but went on the deep, dark color of an actual plum fruit.

On Safari is a China Glaze fall collection however, so this color will be perfect for Autumn. I actually have the perfect matching outfit already and can think of another handful of ways to use this color.

Here is a look at Purr-fect Plum in direct sunset lighting. Is this not a really gorgeous color? I can just imagine how wonderful this will look surrounded by brightly colored leaves or even against the brightness of snow.

The only thing besides Fall that could make it better is nail art! As I said in my previous post, I'm hoping to continue with a tribal theme. This isn't the design I had sketched out, but I think it works somehow.

It's a bit of an odd design, isn't it? Maybe not fully tribal ... it actually kind of reminds me of a door. A heavy wooden door? A castle door? I don't know but whatever it is, I like it.

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Lush Emotional Brilliance Make Up Review & Swatches

This week Lush have launched a new make up range called Emotional Brilliance! The range is designed around providing shades that match up with the wearer's emotions. The line has a collection of vegan lip colours, eye shadows and eye liners in an array of vibrant colours. Lush provided me with a few samples which I've been testing out for a couple of weeks so I can share my thoughts with you.

First up are the Liquid Lipsticks. The quirky packaging really fits in the the aesthetics of the brand. On first impressions I though it would be a pipette type applicator but it's actually a doe foot applicator which works really well the the product consistency. The glass bottles the lipstick comes in is 100% recyclable and not tested on animals. I found the pigmentation of these to be excellent. The colour went on nicely as they have a smooth creamy texture which left my lips feeling  moisturised. The staying power of these are amazing, almost like a stain! Below are some photographs and swatches of the product.

Another item from the collection is their liquid eye liners. I have the shade 'Healthy' which is a bright green. I do like this but because the wand is so short it does make it difficult to apply. The liner dries fairly quickly and the consistency makes it easy to get a neat line. The staying power on this is also amazing - great for oily eyelids! 

 

So, what do you think of the new make up range from Lush? About time they launched a make up line I say!The colour range is joined with a mascara, a translucent powder and two skin tints. Emotional Brilliance launched worldwide on July 21st and prices start from �14.50. 

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*Pr Samples

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Go For The Gold

I am so excited about the Olympics this year. It's never been a big deal before but something about this year just seems different to me. I was actually so excited that I did these nails weeks ago! However, I wanted to save them for today. The qualifying rounds are over and the Opening Ceremony is tonight!


I'm from the United States, born and raised, so I felt obligated to do Go For The Gold: USA nails. However, if you support another country simply swap the red, white and blue used for my nails for your chosen countries colors. It's a very simple gradient. I used my trusty eyeshadow applicator to dab on two coats of red and blue, top and bottom, before dabbing on some white between them. I went back with red or blue where the white covered too much.


Who else is excited about the Olympics? Have you watched the qualifying rounds? Will you be scheduling your lives in an attempt to catch as much of the Olympics as you can? Will you be on the lookout for only certain events? How many of you are going to try avoiding the Olympics all together? I know I will attempt to watch a little bit of everything, but my mom will be avoiding everything to do with the Olympics.

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On Safari: Desert Sun

Hello again lovelies! Another day, another On Safari polish swatch.

This one is Desert Sun. I am amazed at the pictures I managed to get with my new camera. I'm sure my old camera would have turned this lovely shade some vastly different color, but I am beyond happy to say that my new camera managed to capture the shade nearly perfectly.

The color of Desert Sun is hard to categorize. It's a very muddy orange color, not unlike sun-baked clay. I think the closest shade I've found through Wikipedia is one of the many tawny shades. 

I decided to keep with the tribal theme. I'm thinking of carrying this theme through almost the entire collection seeing as these colors are just so perfect for tribal art. The exceptions would of course be those colors I don't have (yet) and the glitters.

Desert Sun was so much better than I expected and it looked wonderful with this tribal design; I didn't want to take it off! When I first showed interest in this color it was simply as a base for the glitters of this collection, but I see now that it can be so much more!

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On Safari: Exotic Encounters

I am so excited about this next line of posts!! I made mentions of the new China Glaze On Safari collection and my mom brought home almost the entire collection for me! How great is she?? I'm still missing one of the two new glitters and the bright blue - I Herd That and Manhunt. I'm also missing Prey Tell and Call of the Wild, but I think they are simply too dark for my tastes.

This post focuses on the one polish from this collection, besides the glitters, that I was most looking forward to.



Exotic Encounters is lovely teal green creme. Another blogger called it a kind of dusty teal with blue undertones and I find this to be a near exact description of this shade. However, what I found exceptionally funny while browsing shades of green to compare it to is that this color in some lights takes on a shade Wikipedia describes as 'jungle green'. Oddly poetic.



I know I have problems keeping my coats thin and this polish certainly didn't help with that (not that I consider that anything bad!!). It went on very thick with just one coat, as seen above. If I was in a hurry I could have walked out the door right then. Two coats brought me to the perfect coverage. You may need three if you find you have better control over your coats.



The moment I saw this on my nails I thought this shade would make an absolutely gorgeous base for a tribal mani, and I was right! Exotic Encounters being from the 'On Safari' collection just made it all the more perfect in my eyes. That said, I think it is just as stunning when used alone. I got many a compliment while out the day before I added the tribal print.



In the end, I am very happy to say I own Exotic Encouters and definitely recommend this shade to all of you. :)

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A Week of Glitter: Flaming Glitter

Welcome to Day 5, the last and final post for 'A Week of Glitter'. There are many more ways to use glitter, but I have to end somewhere! So, I'll end with one of my favorite ways of using glitter. This post focuses on gradient glitter.

Both polishes I used are from the China Glaze Capitol Colours Collection. If you'll remember this was dubbed the China Glaze Hunger Games Collection. I used Stone Cold as my base color and created the gradient using the red and gold glitter, Electrify.

You can see in this picture that Stone Cold has it's own bit of sparkle to it with it's silver shimmer. Stone Cold is a matte polish, however I used a top coat with this mani. The color change of Stone Cold from matte to shine is almost startling. It goes from the dark silver/grey of stone to a deep almost black color. Different, but still gorgeous.

No matter how much I love the look of Electrify, I try to use it only occasionally. Why, you ask, if I love it so much? Electrify is one of the most stubborn glitters I've ever encountered. Even using the foil method recommended for stubborn glitters it still takes a few minutes of scrubbing to get this removed from my nails. That's saying nothing about how the bits of removed glitter cling to everything they meet.

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Real Life News

There is a nail related post coming later, but I couldn't resist sharing some real life news. I know I mentioned in a previous post that I was going for my learner's permit and learning to drive. Well, after two tries (one with a flat tire and the other with a closed DMV), I finally made it yesterday and took the test.

And I passed! I can now legally get behind the wheel of a car as long as I have an adult with a valid driver's license with me. In other words, a responsible adult. Where do I find one of those again?? :)


That's all the news I wanted to share. I hope you girlies have a great day and an even better weekend! My permit makes up for the cold, wet weather that rolled in around here over the past few days. Yuck! I certainly hope for the return of the warm weather.

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A Week of Glitter: Feature Friday

Another Friday, another Feature. I decided to follow along with my 'A Week of Glitter' and do a glitter Feature Friday. Since this has been a week of fairly simple nails on my part I knew from the start that I wanted this week's Feature to be a nail art design.

That's when I stumbled across Graffiti Style by Algae Veronica's Nail Art Obsession. I think this is an awesome design, but if these nails aren't your glittery style you might like ...

these Glitter Union Jacks by WAH Nails. I can only imagine the patience that went into these to make them so perfect.

Brilliant job to both artists. :)

With these two great designs as starting points you should be able to add sparkle to any nail. And if you're not feeling up to doing a complete design ... always remember the accent nail! It's the perfect way to add some flash without having to spend hours on your nails.

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GOSH Lip Markers review

Hello :)
Earlier in the year we saw the launch of 'lip pens'. First, Max factor brought out their Lipfinity Lip Tint followed shortly by other brands such as Maybelleine, Rimmel, 17 and GOSH. These are designed to give long lasting staying power and easy application. They can be a bit drying as they don't have the same sticky formula you get with a lipstick. I find the colour of lip pens is quite intense and the pen applicator allows you to build up the colour nicely . Here's a review of the newest shades of GOSH Lip Markers!

In the first photograph I'm wearing the shade 'Natural Brown'. Personally, i don't think it looks very natural. It's quite a dark brown and looks a bit vampy, lovely shade if you like darker lip colours.

The next swatch is 'Soft Rose' which is a bright pink. This colour is really easy to wear and would suit most skin tones. 

I've found with the GOSH lip markers they aren't as drying as other lip pens i've tested out. They last around 3 hours before having to reapply. I love using these as a base for lipstick. The pen applicator allows you to be creative and build up using different colours to create your own unique shade. 

What are your thoughts on lip pens? Can you get along with them? I do like them, but i'd love to see brand doing their own versions of other lip products such as lip butters from Revlon or Chubby Sticks from Clinique! 

These are available from Superdrug and retail at �6.99

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A Week of Glitter: Dazzled

For day 4 of 'A Week of Glitter' I bring you complementary glitter.

For my complementary glitter, I chose NYC's bright red Madison Avenue and paired it with their red based glitter Big City Dazzle. Big City Dazzle is filled with not just red glitter but blue and purple glitter and tiny silver micro-glitters as well. Madison Avenue looks very thin and sheer in the bottle and had me worried for a moment, but it only took two coats to cover my nail.

When choosing a glitter for a complementary mani, make sure you can still see the same color glitter over your base color. You want to pair slightly different shades together so it all shows up. Also make sure the other glitter colors match well with your base color too. If the colors of glitter and polish don't go together it tends to draw the wrong kind of attention.


How do you guys like the pictures? I got a new camera the other day. It's much better than what I've been using, and I'm so excited by how amazing the pictures look! I don't think I've ever managed to capture a glitter so well!!

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A Week of Glitter: Cinderella

The 3rd post in 'A Week of Glitter' isn't exactly a glitter. It's a shimmer, but I figure that still qualifies for this week since it adds a sparkle to any outfit.

This is Sinful Colors Cinderella. I looked everywhere for this when it first came out and only just now found it in a 'brand new' display. I hate living in a small town for this reason.

Cinderella lived up to my, admittedly small, expectations. I can't say it really impressed me ... but then I wasn't expecting it to. While I adore this shade of baby blue, it's not one of the colors I can wear well.

I also found the beautiful pink shimmer you could see so clearly in the bottle got a bit lost on the nail unless you looked very closely. However, I used 4 coats to get Cinderella opaque so that might have something to do with the lost shimmer. I know other bloggers raved about the shimmer and their pictures showed it much more than my own.

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A Week of Glitter: A Pop of White

Welcome to day 2 of 'A Week of Glitter'. This one is A Pop of White.

Draw attention to yourself and your nails with a base of white. Then, wow them with glitter.

I don't think I managed to wow anyone with this glitter however. As you can see from the pictures the purple glitter is Glitter Addict by LA Girl in Eutopia. I also added a few flakes of Luxe and Lush from the China Glaze Capitol Colours Collection, nearly unseen in this mani and only then if you know what you're looking for.

I'm sure if I tried this mani again I would add much more glitter, probably using more than one shade of glitter as well. The theory is sound though. Attract attention with white nails and then hit them with glitter!

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A Week of Glitter: Gold Glitz

Hey girlies. I hope you all got your week started off right. I've dubbed this week's posts: 'A Week of Glitter'. Haven't you always wanted to add some spice and bling to your outfits? Sometimes your outfit just doesn't have enough sparkle for your liking and a necklace just doesn't work, earrings just don't dazzle enough. That leaves us with nails. 

Today's post is a very simple (and cost effective) way to add some sparkle to your nails.

This is LA Colors Art Deco in gold. It's a nail art striper polish that I picked up at my local Dollar Store so it's a much less costly option to other glitters. 

You do have to contend with the brush. Like I said, it's a striper polish thus having a long, thin brush. Still, I found I had no problems getting the glitter on my nails with this brush. It's very glitter dense, so I left it at one coat. I did have trouble getting this glitter off my nails but certainly none getting it on!

This is definitely an option to look into if your looking for an awesome glitter for cheap. Art Deco has a variety of glitter colors. Look to their site here for exact colors. I know both my local Dollar Stores, as well as my local Walmart and Rite Aid sell this polish so if you can't find the color you're looking for check elsewhere.

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My Week of Disasters

Hey girlies. Sorry for missing Feature Friday this week, but it's been a pretty disastrous week here. I had a slight nail break, not anything to really worry about, but it was done opening a car door! I was getting into my sister's car, talking to her kids in the backseat, and the door was locked. Really?? I was lifting the handle and pulling the door so it goes without saying my hand slipped when the door didn't open. It was just the corner of my nail, but it just had to be my picture taking hand. :(


The other big thing is the flat tire my mom's car got when she was taking me to get my driving permit. Yep, I'm finally learning to drive. It's only ten years late, but better late than never. So, flat tire, no one to help us ... what do I do? I change the tire!! She was so impressed she got pictures.

Yep, that's me, changing a tire. If you look close you can see China Glaze Sun Worshiper on my only visible toe.

I may be dirty and greasy, but I didn't break a nail!

Sadly, by then it was too late to make it to the DMV. Maybe next week I'll have a  permit to share, and I really hope to have some awesome nails to show you this coming week too.

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Emote Nails

Wow! I didn't realize just how close I am to 100 GFC followers. You guys are amazing!!! So, for being such amazing followers I will let you in on a little secret. I will be having a super awesome giveaway soon. I have an order in for one of the prizes and I am so close to being able to order the other prize. This will be a giveaway with 2 winners and many ways to enter. I'm hoping to have everything together for August, so tell everyone you know! Now, onto the actual post.


Today's (short) post is Emote nails. Emote: to show emotion. I think these nails certainly do that, don't you? :)

They show love, anger, happiness, boredom/tiredness and ...

Sadness on the thumb. I love this little guy. He's just so cute and definitely my favorite.


What do you gals think of emote nails? Are they something you would try? What emotions would you have your nails express? ... How excited are you for a giveaway??

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Neon Splatter

If there's one thing I love it's neon nail polish. I really don't think there's much better ... except maybe neon splatter nails!!!

Splatter nails create such a unique look for your nails. You'll never get the same design twice even if you use the same polishes. And, all told, they're really not that hard to do. All you need is polish, a piece of paper, some tape (for easier cleanup), and a straw. Tape around your nails, drop some polish onto a piece of paper, dip your straw into the polish and blow in one hard puff over your nail. Be sure to keep the piece of paper under your hand so you don't ruin your workstation. This may not always get a splatter but just keep trying until your straw picks up enough polish.

My problem with splatter nails? I don't know when to quit! I just keep adding more and more splatters until my base polish is practically covered and the splatters are everywhere. I think I managed to reign myself in more than usual with this splatter, but there's still a lot of them.

My right hand is less covered with splatter, but I did have a major drip on my middle finger and couldn't manage to get very many on my ring finger. Also, I somehow managed to smudge the polish on my index nail. I have no idea how. One moment it was fine and then next it was bunched. There was simply no fixing it.

And here you can see the thumb of my right hand. It has a good splatter pattern and managed to get a good splatter of each color.

Overall, I think this turned out really great. I definitely want to do more neon splatter nails. I'm thinking Sun Worshiper would make an amazing base color.

Polishes Used

Color Club - Yell-Oh!

Color Club - Mrs. Robinson

Funky Fingers - Kingston

China Glaze - Sun Worshiper

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