Awesome giveaways!

Happy Saturday everyone! I'm blogging about Cosmetic Cupcake's 200 Follower Giveaway! She has an awesome blog, please check it out at cosmeticcupcake.blogspot.com!

Updated: Two more awesome giveaways! I'm starting to think that when I hit 100+ followers, I should also do a giveaway. What products should I include?

Elle over at elleheartsblogs.blogspot.com is having a Coach - Poppy, YSL, Chanel giveaway in honor of her first 100 followers. Check it out at http://elleheartsblogs.blogspot.com/2010/07/coach-poppy-ysl-chanel-giveaway.html.

Jen over at l1lmamaj.blogspot.com is having a 500+ followers appreciate giveaway! Go check it out at: http://l1lmamaj.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-500-followers-giveaway.html.

Tara at beneaththesunn.blogspot.com is having a Summer Surfer Babe Giveaway. Check it out: http://beneaththesunn.blogspot.com/2010/07/summer-sufer-babe-giveaway.html

China Glaze Atlantis

China Glaze Atlantis is a glitter polish of green-blue color. This was one of my first China Glaze polishes. I read and saw gorgeous reviews of this and decided to take the plunge. However, when I first tried it on a month ago, I really didn't like it. I can't exactly put my finger on why. Maybe it was that my nails were longer. Anyways, I really like it now that my nails are short. It's very glittery, and depending on the light, can look greener or bluer. I'd say that it generally leans more towards green (although in my kitchen, it looks blue).

Betsey Johnson Version II

My nails are still sad and nubbly... I really miss having my longer nails! It makes it harder to paint/do nail art sometimes. Anyways, today's nail is a different version of the Betsey Johnson nail challenge I did a couple weeks ago. While I liked that design better, the diagonal portion of gold seemed too much for short nails. I also used black rhinestones for the center of the flowers. I'm so addicted to the bright, summer nails!

I started by painting the base color: China Glaze Happy-Go-Lucky. Then, I made brown branches on the thumb and ring fingers using a small brush and China Glaze Wagon Trail. After that, I used a dotting tool to dot China Glaze Sugar High in a flower formation.

I then dotted some China Glaze Innocence (a sheer pink) in the centers of each flower, followed by a dot of white polish. I immediately dropped a black rhinestone in the center of each flower.

Nail Palettes - Golds and Yellows

Today's nail palette contains my golds and yellows. For a while, I was obsessed with finding the perfect gold. I thought (and still think) it goes very well with my tan skin, as I have yellow/gold undertones. However, I'm also trying to branch out and try new colors. This summer, I've stepped out of my nail comfort zone and bought a few bright colors and I love them! Previously, I didn't own many cremes or brights, and now I am a converted fan!

(From left to right: Sally Hansen Fairy Tale Ivory, Etude House Gold, China Glaze 2030, OPI Bling Dynasty, Cover Girl Gold Rush, China Glaze Happy-Go-Lucky)

Sally Hansen Fairy Tale Ivory: The picture did not do this shimmer justice! The color is a very light, beige color with a gorgeous shimmer. It's very sheer, but I use it in French manicures (just like Sally Hansen Pink Promise). This was one of the first polishes I ever got; my mom was the one who picked it out! Still one of my favorites of all time.

Etude House Gold: I bought this polish when I was in Korea last summer. I wasn't that into nail polish yet, which I totally regret! All the polishes were $1-$2, but I only got this one. It's a very pretty gold foil; the gold isn't too bright or gaudy, but not too light either. However, it takes several coats for it to be opaque.

China Glaze 2030: As I mentioned in the post about China Glaze 2030, this polish is an antique-looking rose gold. It appears more yellow gold in certain lights, and rose gold in brighter lighting.

OPI Bling Dynasty: Bling Dynasty is a mustard-y looking gold. It's very shimmery and gorgeous, and I love the name Bling Dynasty. The shimmer in it is darker than the base color; I almost want to call it pepper-y (or maybe I'm just hungry, talking about mustard).

Cover Girl Gold Rush: Cover Girl Gold Rush is gold glitter suspended in a clear polish. Not much to say about this one; it's gold glitter, exactly as one would expect. I wouldn't wear this polish alone, as it is in clear polish.

China Glaze Happy-Go-Lucky: This is a super bright yellow polish. It leans more towards the orange side of yellow than the green, as it is not a neon-colored yellow. I really love this color; it is pretty flattering on my tan skin tone.

China Glaze Fly

China Glaze Fly is part of China Glaze's Kicks Collection from 2009. It's a very shimmer pink/purple/magenta color that is absolutely gorgeous! I had a really hard time photographing this one, because I am indoors with no sunlight! I hope I captured the color well enough. I feel as though in the past, I wouldn't have liked this color, but as I've said, I'm growing to appreciate pinks (and anything in that range) a lot better. This color definitely reminds me of brightly colored sneakers, as the collection name implies.

Blurry, but shows the color better

I apologize that my names are still nubbly looking! I wasn't going to post any swatches for the time being because they are so short, but I got bored so here we are!

Konad-licious! Giveaway

Konad-licious is having an awesome giveaway! Check it out here: http://konadlicious.blogspot.com/2010/07/my-second-huge-aussie-giveaway.html.

Nail Palettes - Pinks and Reds

As you all know, my nails are still extremely short from me cutting them off; I figured they deserve a rest! I think I will also try out my China Glaze Calcium Fortifier during this break time and I'll let you all know how it goes. For now, I will be posting for this week, my nail palettes. I bought these plastic nail palettes from Transdesign for around $1 each because I really wanted a way to see the nail polish out of the bottle without having to look online at other people's posts or my own pictures. My camera didn't do the most awesome job at capturing each polish, so I will also give a description of each one (outdoor and indoor lighting).

(From left to right: China Glaze White Out, Sally Hansen Pink Promise, Revlon Rose Zing, China Glaze Sugar High, Love My Nails Seductive Red, and China Glaze Riveter Rouge)

China Glaze White Out: This is your standard white - perfect for French manicure tips. The formula is pretty good, although if you want to use this as a base color, it may take several coats for it to be opaque.

Sally Hansen Pink Promise: I don't really like sheer colors; I like my base polishes to be opaque. This color is a very light pink, and I personally use it for the base of shimmery French manicures.

Revlon Rose Zing: I bought this nail polish from Safeway grocery store the summer before last, in my obsession with gold-flecked polishes. The polish is a dimmer coral color with gold shimmer in it. I am not a huge fan of this polish because I'd prefer something brighter, but the gold shimmer makes a huge difference.

China Glaze Sugar High: As I mentioned in my previous post, it's a very pretty pink and very girly. I'm actually wearing this one on my toes right now, and it really stands out again my tan skin tone. I am absolutely in love with this pink!

Love My Nails Seductive Red: I bought this red from Wal-Mart during my fall semester with my roommate. I wanted a red because I never owned one before and I wanted a cheap red for nail art. I still have only worn this as a base color once because I'm not a huge fan of bright reds; it just doesn't feel quite right for my age yet.

China Glaze Riveter Rouge: I just purchased this one from Head 2 Toe Beauty Supply.  It is part of the new China Glaze Vintage Vixens Fall 2010 collection. As I said, I am not a huge fan of reds, but this red is really gorgeous. It's very shimmery and glittery (without a top coat, it feels a bit rough). The sparkles look gold to me, although I am in indoor lighting right now, without a top coat. I'll let you all know what it looks like when I wear it myself!

Hair Straightening Iron

Hello ladies,

I need your help! My hair is driving me absolutely wild because I have mildly wavy hair. My hair is current at an awkward length ever since I cut it very short, and the hair on my right side is flipping out, in addition to the hair in the back flipping out in all sorts of weird directions. I have never owned a straightening iron in my life (just a curling iron), and I don't know where to begin looking! Last year, I got my hair chemically straightened in Taiwan (called Li2 Zi3 Tan4 in Chinese), so I never had to worry about straightening my hair; however, my hair has now grown out and is deliberately trying to make me angry. If any of you could give me good recommendations, I would be so grateful! Thank you!

Juicy Nails Giveaway

Check out Juicy Nail's International blogger giveaway! The colors look absolutely fantastic; I personally would love to have the China Glaze Purple Panic. Click here for the link to the giveaway!

Short nail hiatus

My nails are on a short vacation this week - I cut them entirely off because they were really stained and cracking a little bit! I will most likely blog about all the other new make-up I have acquired until my nails grow back to a reasonable length. Enjoy my other posts for now!

French Manicure 1.1 and 1.2

I call these French manicures "1.1" and "1.2," because I forsee myself doing many French manicures in various styles. I have never owned any sheer pinks/beiges typically used in a French manicure. Instead, I use Sally Hansen Pink Promise or Fairy Tale Ivory, for a shimmery version. In today's 1.1, I started with CND Stickey Base Coat, followed by one coat of Sally Hansen Pink Promise. Then, I painted the tips white along the "smile line" with China Glaze White Out. I followed that with one coat of Sally Hansen Fairy Tale Ivory and finished it off with one coat of Seche Vite.

Of course, if I just stopped there then I wouldn't be me. I decided this morning that tips weren't white enough, so I painted another coat of CG White Out on the tips, followed with one coat of China Glaze Wireless Holographic Top Coat. The result is a super shimmery French manicure, with very white tips!

Nail Designs

If you haven't heard already, I am currently offering nail services to friends and family (and anyone else who wants their nails done) for free. Because I am not a nail professional, I am not charging for nail services. However, keep in mind that I buy all my nail polishes myself, and they are not cheap, especially with shipping and handling costs. With that being said, I am asking for donations for services instead; $3-5 for polish only, $5-7 for French manicures and print patterns (such as Cheetah Girl, Zebra Diva, etc), and $7-10 for more intricate designs and rhinestones.

I have sample palettes of all the colors I own, and sample palettes for nail art designs. I can use color you own for designs as well, and the colors on any of the nail art designs can be interchangeable. I am also totally open to new ideas! I am currently without transportation, so you can come to me either at my college apartment or at my house on certain weekends. You can e-mail me at aliceinpolishland [at] gmail [dot] com, message me on Facebook, or text/call me (if you know my number), for requests/appointments!

Designs will continue to be featured on my blog on my full set of nails, but here are the current designs on a nail palette:

(From left to right) Cheetah Girl, Zebra Diva (I don't intent on using holo on it again as it takes away from the hotness of the pink), Ghetto Princess (full rhinestones on one finger), Starry Sky (incomplete for now, am waiting on my silver polish to come in), Betsey Johnson, and So Fly.

(From left to right) Modern Cheetah, Cali Gurl, Boys Boys Boys, Polka Dot Bikini Girlll, Love Game, and Stephanie (incomplete, I will update this when I finish!)

Cheetah Girl

I was feeling the animal print today after I painted my nails with China Glaze Passion. When I first painted them, I think the lighting made Passion look more yellow-gold, but it's really more of a rose gold. Nevertheless, it made for a good background color.

I started with one coat of CND Stickey Base Coat, followed by two coats of China Glaze Passion. As I mentioned in my post when I was swatching Passion, it seems to dry almost instantly - if you go over a spot too many times, the polish will peel off a bit, so you have to have the right amount of polish loaded on the brush already. Then, I painted with my LA Colors Art Deco in Black the cheetah spots. I followed that with dotting some of the spots with OPI Bling Dynasty (don't you just love the name?) and some with Sally Hansen Fairy Tale Ivory. Finished it all off with two coats of Seche Vite! For future times, I think I will make the cheetah spots in more varying size. In my next post about nail designs, you will see that I did a better job drawing cheetah spots.

China Glaze 2030

China Glaze 2030 is an antique-looking rose gold. It's very beautiful on its own, or with nail art (as you will see in my next entry, I did cheetah nails!) The application is a little difficult - I don't know if this occurs with all metallic nail polishes (this is the first true metallic I've ever owned), but it dries almost instantly and can be difficult to apply evenly. I had to take off the first coat I did after messing it up, but when I got used to it, it was fine. (Update: I accidentally titled this post China Glaze Passion, because originally I ordered both 2030 and Passion, but ended up just getting 2030).

China Glaze Sugar High

Happy Wednesday, July 21st! Today is my one year anniversary with my boyfriend. I've been best friends with him for three years and then we (finally) started dating! He's the sweetest ever and I'm super excited for our upcoming weekend together. In honor of my sweetie, today's polish is China Glaze's Sugar High from the Up and Away Collection. I don't normally wear pinks, but I felt like I needed to at least have a pink or two, especially for nail art. I am a huge fan of this pink creme; it's very pretty and girly, and even though I don't typically wear pinks, I could see myself rocking this. I had a bit of a problem with formula on this one, but after two coats it was opaque and less troublesome, though the formula felt a bit thicker than usual.

The color is much more similar to the second picture, but I wanted to show how shiny it was in the first picture!

I ruined it shortly after these pictures were taken by trying to put French tips on, but the white was a little too see-through. I ended up taking it off and putting on China Glaze's Gussied Up Green, which I'm saving for tomorrow's post!

Diet Tip: Lip Gloss

A new diet tip I discovered: LIP GLOSS. No, not for eating. I (try to) wear lip gloss every day now, so that I won't snack. I take off the lip gloss before meals, but that way it prevents me from eating snacks between meals because crumbs will get on the glossy surface. Sounds strange, but so effective! I don't wear lipstick because I find it drying/damaging to my lips and inconvenient to remove; I prefer lip balm and lip gloss instead.

Favorite glosses:

Burt's Bees Lip Gloss in Sweet Pink: Burt's Bees always makes awesome products and this one is no exception. The gloss doesn't dry out my lips and it looks perfectly sparkly and shiny. It also smells fantastic (supposed to be pink grapefruit I suppose).

L'Oréal Colour Juice Sheer Juicy Lip Gloss in Raspberry Smash: This is a really bright red lip gloss for me, so a little goes a long way. The gloss isn't sticky and smells very good. I usually use this one if my eye make-up/blush is more neutral.

Neutrogena Moisture Shine Lip Soother SPF 20 in Gleam: Even though my lips aren't irritated or anything, the cool, mint-y feeling of this lip gloss was very good. It didn't feel like it was stinging, as it is not a lip plumper; I imagine this would be a good gloss to use if my lips were sunburned. The sheer gloss looks shiny and not too color concentrated for days when you want simple lips.

Neutrogena Moisture Shine Gloss in Fruity Pink: This is a really adorable pink! There are little specks of gold in it. I love the smell of Neutrogena glosses because when I was younger (think middle school),  my mom bought Neutrogena lip glosses from Costco for my sister and I, so the smell reminds me of when I first started using lip glosses at all!

Ghetto Princess

My best friend came over today for some nail polish goodness! After looking at my large collection of polishes, she settled on Sally Hansen Lacquer Shine Flair, a very pretty purple. Unfortunately, the formula is either thickening or wasn't good to begin with and was rather uncooperative, even after adding a few drops of Seche Revive (by the way, can you use that stuff to thin out polishes other than Seche Vite?) I decided to fully bling out her ring fingers with rhinestones! It was very fun (and a little frustrating) to get all those rhinestones on there before the polish under it dried. I used 2 1/2 mm rhinestones and 2 mm rhinestones, in addition to a few Swarovski crystals she brought over in pink and clear. I love the blinged-out look a lot; it helped that it was only done on one nail so it wasn't too over-the-top.

My friend with her fresh manicure!