For the Kids: 7

Here we have the last update on the Spa Donation Drive for Kids! Thank you so much for all you've given ladies.

Thank you Marjori for these awesome goodies for the kids!

Some polishes from Cheryl!

And thank you Stephanie!

The Estee Lauder lipsticks were gorgeous and tempting! I have two myself and now I really think I need more now lol.

Thank you so much to everyone who helped and contributed to this spa donation drive for kids with disabilities. I can't even count how much stuff was donated, surely more than 100 items. They really loved everything they got! It will get great use! Love you ladies!

Preview: Illamasqua Naked Strangers

Illamasqua is coming out with a new collection set to release May 31st. If you have an account with Illamasqua or make one, you can get it early. You can see the collection here if you're logged in.

 Here are the swatch pics listed on their website

Monogamous - Creamy flesh pink with a matte finish


Faithful - Coppered metal with metallic finish

Swinger - Glistening platinum gold with a metallic finish

Awesome! I love that shimmery brown if I didn't already have one similar to it. Definitely not a dupe though.

Barielle Cashmere or Loose Me

 Barielle Cashmere or Loose Me is a nice multi-faceted brown with gold and pink shimmer. It can look chocolatey, a bit purpley, or a medium tan.
This is two coats and an example of its pinky purple tinge.

And the darker chocolatey

And a nice tan in bright light.

Here is a close up of the shimmer. This is pretty much what it looks like in real life. It doesn't show up as well in the pictures. It's a bit subtle, but you can still see it.

Barielle Cashmere or Loose Me is a bit like OPI Barefoot in Barcelona if you like that one, but darker and with shimmer. It's also similar to OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know, but lighter and smaller less pronounced shimmer particles.

You can buy Barielle polishes for $8 on their site. You get %15 off for registering with your email, and always buy one get one 50% off! Ulta also sells them and you can use their coupons.

Barielle Sweepstakes

Enter Barielle Cosmetic's BFF Sweepstakes!!! 

 No purchase is necessary. All you have to do is like their Facebook page, and enter the sweepstakes. It took 15 seconds! If you are one of the 20 lucky people randomly selected, you will win Barielle's Nail Strengthener Cream (Full Size) and a Barielle Base Coat, Top Coat, and 3 Shades Colors of your choice - a retail value up to $74.50. The Contest runs today through June 30th.

Girly Bits, Graduation, Getting Older Giveaway Winner!

I have chosen the winner of my Girly Bits, Graduation, Getting Older Giveaway to win the entire Girly Bits Sea's the Day collection!

Jenny Clinkenbeard!

I love it when people I actually know win! She's one of my friends on Facebook and is super nice. Yay Jenny! I used Rafflecopter for the first time and it was a breeze, I recommend it! I read absolutely every one of your blog comment entries and hearing your best polish memories was so sweet. 

I hope you guys enjoyed and thank you all for following my blog!

SoFlaJo Buttercup

Meet SoFlaJo Buttercup from her limited edition Spring Flowers collection! She's a medium golden buttery yellow polish with yellow/silver shimmer.  
 
This is three coats. There is a little visible nail line, but it's harder to see than it looks in the pictures. I don't mine it. This is a really pretty polish that really does remind be of a buttercup!

Here is two coats so you can see the opacity.

She always sends her packages with cute things like confetti, a prize, and a ribbon on the bottle.

I love versatile polishes! This is one coat of Buttercup over black. It turns a dark yellow green shimmer and looks super interesting!

SoFlaJo has been making things like this since the 1980's and just started up again in the past year or so. You can get her polishes at her Etsy shop or her blog shop. They're $5 for a mini and $10 for a large bottle. Which are your favorite SoFlaJo polishes?

For the Kids: 6

This was a ginormous conglomeration of packages from a group of ladies that did their own collection, then sent it my way for the kids donation drive. Thank you to Marnie, Alischia, Diana, Katie, Colleen, Alison, Kari, Nicole, Janet, and Alyson!

Here is all of the stuff they sent put together - polishes, rings, eyeshadow, samples, lip balm, lipstick, woo!!

 Some of the things that stood out to me:

OPI Pink Before You Leap and Pearl of Wisdom

Barbie polishes and a cool looking Sula polish.

Mini's are so adorable. Too bad almost none have names on the bottle. Here is one from Hard Candy, Sephora by OPI, Essie, OPI, and China Glaze!

A cute pink flakie Spoiled and I forgot to take a pic of the name, and Claire's Candy Shop

I go to Five Below all the time to get the unique polishes from Funky Fingers. How have I not seen these? - Diva and Paparazzi

Thank you ladies!

Beauty Coupons

Just found some good printable coupons you might enjoy.

$1.50 off 2 Burt's Bees lip shimmers

$3.00 off a YES TO product purchase of $10 or more

$2.00 off Revlon eye makeup item at Target

$1.00 off ALMAY Cosmetics & Makeup Removers

Birthday Cupcakes!

 Happy birthday to me! My 23rd birthday was actually a couple days ago, May 4th. We've been busy doing fun stuff for my birthday weekend, so here are my birthday nails!

Cute cupcakes! I wanted to use my wedding colors because I've got wedding on the brain lately.

The polishes I used: Catrice Sold Out Forever as the base color, Zoya Cassi for the cupcake icing, Revlon Mystical raspberry jelly for the cupcake liner lines, Lynderella Love Lace and Lilacs for the sprinkles, and I use StrideRite white for the liners.

Here are closeups of my accent nail cupcakes. I also did my thumbs, but they bubbled really bad because I did the topcoat in the car and obviously didn't do it well.

As I was taking pictures, a lady bug landed on me :D. They are very sentimental to Jeremy and me. Today is one year since my best friend Marian died, so this was really special.

Here is Moose playing with his personal catnip plant in the sunroom while I was taking pictures. You can see his little kitty mouth :P.

We went to the Botanical Gardens for my birthday. The rose garden was at its peak.

We took the boat ride and saw the resident eagle that has nested in the Gardens. I love seeing them wild like this!

We picked our own strawberries!

And we had fun at the gardens. Smile! :D

For the Kids: 5

 Here is update 5 of the spa donation drive for kids! The drive is technically over now, but we still have some straggler packages coming in. It's awesome!

 Thanks to T. Quach for all this awesome stuff!

She sent a million samples and regular sizes of perfume, lotion, hair stuff, just everything. Not to mention some of the brands were Dior, Prada, Julep, OPI, Victoria Secret, Chanel, and even my favorite perfume by Kate Spade.

 
The mini bottles were absolutely adorable!!

Here are the polishes. I forgot to take a picture of the actual polish names, but of course we have OPI My Private Jet in there.

T. Ross was another lovely lady who sent Zoya and some of those nice scented bath petals. Counterclockwise from the top left: Zoya Emme, Goldie, Shawn, Gabrielle, Mimi, and Ginessa. I really really need Shawn now!

Thank you ladies, and there is even more to come!

Country Hoedown!

 I just finished my 15 week 560 hour internship, wahoo! Now as soon as I graduate in two weeks, I'll actually have a life again! And my birthday is in two days! One of the things I did at my internship was plan and host a family event. The theme was Barnyard Hoedown and these are the nails I wore!

I didn't think about it till bed time the night before, so I did this super quick! Cow print on most of the nails, with an animal accent nail, and a gingham thumb nail. This one is a baby chick with Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty and NailArt orange :D.

Here is the piggy with OPI Sparrow Me the Drama and Sinful Colors Feeling Great.

Oink oink! I used Nubar Diamont as a top coat for the first time and definitely should have let my black dry longer, as it smeared. Good thing cow spots aren't perfect.

Chirp chirp! The white was one coat of Milani White, which is super sheer sadly. So I topped it with one coat of an unnamed off white shimmer from WetNWild, their Rock Solid line.


Here is a close up of the gingham nail. It actually wasn't too hard! I couldn't find a stamp for anything so I just free handed it.

One of the activities I planned was decorating cupcakes like farm animals. Here is a chicken cupcake! :D

The photo booth was a big hit and was super fun. We had all sorts of props including the pitch fork I made. The kids actually painted the cow!

Grab your partner and do-si-do!