Liebster Award #2!!!

Well hello again all!  I'm amazed that I've been able to do all these blog posts recently LOL.  This is a special one though as I've been nominated for another Liebster Award!!!!!  Thank you so so so so so much to Melanie Snyder of Melanie's Fancies for nominating me.  This is my second Liebster award.  The first I received last year in September.  You can check that post out here if you like.  I'm still just a little blog but actually my followers list has grown a lot in the last week or so I am truly grateful for all my new followers.  I really hope you like what you see on my blog and that you continue to enjoy my content and the things I like to share and have a passion for.

Here are the rules to this award:

1. Each person tagged must post 11 things about themselves.
2. They must also answer the 11 questions the ``tagger`` has set for them.
3. They must create 11 more questions to ask bloggers they have decided to tag.
4. They must then choose 11 bloggers with less than 200 followers and tag them in their post.
5. These lucky bloggers must then be told.
6. There's no tag backs.

11 Things About Me

1. I am married to an Englishman, London accent and all!!
2. I don`t like anything about soggy or squished bananas, triggers a gag reflex actually.
3. I have a leopard print steering wheel cover in my car that my husband thinks makes him look gay when he drives LOL.
4. I have never been nor do I ever intend to go sky diving.
5. I do not have a fear of heights but rather a fear of falling.
6. I am allergic to cats but yet I love wild cats, especially tigers, especially white tigers.
7. I have a step-son who I have been a mother figure to since he was nine months old and who I love as if he were my very own child.  He is now 3!
8. I gave birth to my first born child nearly 7 months ago now and every day I have with him is pure joy and I am in such awe of how perfect and sweet he is and I think he is the best thing I have ever done in my entire life!
9. I am very creative and actually need to exercise my creativity and have a serious problem with jobs that lack a creative outlet.
10. I have a major sweet tooth and love me some candy.
11. Can`t decide who I have a bigger crush on, Bradley Cooper or Chris Hemsworth!

My Answers

1. Aside from your nail polish, what's the one item you could not live without? My flat iron.
2. What's the most recent book you've read? OR if you don't enjoy reading, what's 1 more activity you enjoy other than polish and blogging? I am just starting to read Fifty Shades of Grey.  The last book that I finished reading was One Fifth Avenue by Candace Bushnell.
3. What's your favorite holiday? Christmas!
4. Story time! I want to hear a funny story from your childhood :D I don`t know if this is so much funny or if it`s just gross but it`s literally all I can think of.  I was about 12 years old and I was on a family vacation with my parents and little brother (he would have been about 5 at this time).  We were on our way to Las Vegas from Disneyland I believe.  We were driving and we were crossing the corner of Arizona during the late morning or early afternoon I think.  It was soooooooooooooooo hot and muggy.  Dad stopped to fill up the vehicle with gas and treated us all to slurpees.  I was sooooooooooo overheated and I LOVE slurpees so much that I totally downed mine in a few minutes flat (and it was a large one).  We were back on the road and it had not even been 15 minutes later I don't think.  Having cooled my body temp down so fast and drastically by chugging my slurpee combated with the extreme heat and mugginess of the climate in Arizona, I practically went into sudden convulsions that no one could have anticipated, and before I could warn dad in any way to pull over I got super sick and my mom was twisted around half out of her passenger seat in the front reaching into the back trying to find anything at all for me to be sick into.  Even my brother was scrambling to try and help.  Turns out I filled a bunch of empty plastic bags and then promptly passed out!  I didn`t hear or see a thing until the late hours of the evening when we were just pulling into the surrounding area of Las Vegas and I remember thinking ``where the hell are we?" as I saw nothing but dark and dessert surrounding a sea of the brightest lights I had ever seen.  Needless to say, I have never chugged a slurpee since!  But it did not swear me off of slurpees, I don't think anything could make me give up slurpees LOL.
5. What's your favorite color? Red or Pink
6. If you could have any animal, alive, fictional or extinct, as a pet what would you pick? Definitely a white tiger!!!
7. Favorite and least favorite beauty products, doesn't have to be polish! Fave beauty product would probably be eos lip balm.  I use it like 50 times a day and I have them all over the house.  I have one at my desk, one in the living room, one on my nightstand in my bedroom and one in my purse.  Plus I have about 3 to 4 backups at any given time.  Least fave is probably deodorant.  It's necessary for obvious reasons but I don't like using the deodorants with aluminum in them and there are very few to choose from that don't contain aluminum and the ones that do exist don't really have the greatest scents and there aren't any that are unscented.
8. If you love to cook, what is one of your favorite things to make? If not, just tell me what your favorite food is! I do love to cook.  Not as much as I used to mind you as I find it hard to find the time to cook a really fabulous meal between the toddler and the baby and the husband and everything that needs to be done around the house.  But my fave thing to cook is lasagna.  A big pan of lasagna will feed us all for 2 to 3 days so it alleviates the cooking duties for a bit LOL.  When I make lasagna the middle layer is so densely full of rich, creamy cheese mixed with spinach.  And I love to put a super thick layer of mozza over the top of the lasagna and I bake it until the corners get nice and brown and a little crispy.  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
9. Since polish and candy seem to go hand in hand, what's your favorite candy? Salt water taffy (drool)
10. Favorite place to buy polish? an online store nailpolishcanada.com
11. If you had to sell all of your polish and never buy any ever again, which 5 would you keep? Includes base and top coats because I'm a jerk like that :P China Glaze Calcium Gel Fortifier, Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat, Color Club Halo-graphic, OPI DS Extravagance, Rainbow Honey Pinkie Promise.

My Questions for My Nominees

1. What got you started into blogging?
2. Would you change your name, and if so, what would you change it to? (just thinking of that episode of Friends where Phoebe changes her name to Princes Consuela Banana Hammock and her husband Mike threatens to change his to Crap Bag LMAO!)
3. What is your favorite live concert you've ever been to?  If you have never been to a concert, just tell me your favorite album to listen to.
4. Where would you like to see yourself in five years?
5. What is your favorite animal and why?
6. If you could have dinner with absolutely anyone (living or dead) who would it be and why?
7. What is your most cherished memory to date?
8. Aside from painting your nails, what do you most like to do in your free time?
9. What beauty product could you never be without? (doesn't have to be nail or polish related)
10. What is your most sought after and desired nail polish?
11. If you could recommend a nail polish to anyone what would you recommend?

My Nominees

This is the most difficult part and it took me quite some time to come up with this list.  I tried not to repeat the blogs who I forwarded my first Liebster Award to.  Not that they don't deserve it again but I just wanted to share this with some others who may not have already had this opportunity.  But I know for a fact that I could give this to many more bloggers than just 11.

1. Beauty With A Passion
2. ErinZi's Nails
3. Hawaiian Chicky
4. Lacquer by Love
5. Little Bit of Everything
6. Marie's Manicure Madhouse
7. OMG Wait What Polish Is That
8. Paper Thin Nails
9. Polish Insomnia
10. Polished and Glittered
11. Tipsy Tips Nails & Cocktails

KBShimmer: Spring 2013 Press Release!!!!!!!

Good evening everyone.  I am SUPER excited to be able to share with you a press release from the fabulous Indie Polish brand of KB Shimmer.  For those of you who aren't familiar, KB Shimmer was founded in 2008 by the husband and wife team of Jason and Christy Rose.  KB Shimmer offers unique and colorful nail glitter nail polishes that are Big 3 Free, with all glitter formulas being completely free of chemicals such as toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP).  KB Shimmer glitter polishes feature a flat glitter grabbing brush for easy application.  KBShimmer also offers a 2-free quick dry polish top coat, olive oil lotion, sugar scrubs, lip balms, cold process soaps and other skin care products.

Today KB Shimmer has announced the release of NINE new polishes set for release on February 15, 2013.  Owner Christy Rose says "With Easter, warmer weather, and Spring Break fast approaching February is the ideal time to introduce softer pastels to our lineup, but also to add a splash of bold color."

The spring lineup includes three glitter top coats, two bold jellies, and four creamy pastels, one of which is scented.  "Our new line was created to play off the softer palette of spring, but also to accent unique glitters like small black dots and spring 2013 Pantone colors like the color of the year, Emerald Green.  We are also excited to debut this collection in our new printed bottles.  With the printed bottles, and our glitter grabbing flat brush, we feel our polish is a solid addition to any collection" says Rose. 

Here is your first look at KB Shimmer's SPRING 2013 COLLECTION:

A Dot Mess - Fuchsia and black dots, hexes, and micro slices in a clear base - Top Coat

Pastel Me More - Pastel colored glitters in a rainbow of colors and range of sizes - Top Coat

Squared Away - Square glitters in a variety of sizes, colors and finishes including metallic and holographic in a clear base - Top Coat

Spring Training - Soft green crelly full of pink, purple, blue and green floral toned glitters, scented with a floral freesia note - Full coverage in 2-3 coats 

Where My Peeps At - Soft yellow crelly with circle and tiny hex glitter in fun jelly bean like shades - Full coverage in 2-3 coats 

Lottie Dottie - Turquoise and fuchsia dots and coordinating glitters micro slices in a soft white base - Full coverage in 2-3 coats

Iris My Case - Violet pastel crelly with glitters in purple, pink, silver and blue - Full coverage in 2-3 coats

Get Clover It - Emerald green jelly with micro shimmer and circle glitter in shades of green, gold and turquoise- Best in 3 coats or layered over coordinating polish to cover nail line 

I Got A Crush On Blue - Royal blue jelly with holographic silver glitters ranging from micro to extra large- Best in 3 coats or layered over coordinating polish to cover nail line

HOW FREAKING FABULOUS ARE ALL OF THESE?!?!?!  I'm totally in love and I hope I have some funds freed up come mid February so I can at least snag some of this.  Although ALL of them would be an absolute dream come true!!!!!

KBShimmer products can be found at the KB Shimmer website.  For sales outside of the US visit Harlow & Co.

If you would like more information about KB Shimmer, contact Christy Rose by emailing sales@kbshimmer.com or visiting http://www.KBShimmer.com.

Mani Monday: Rainbow Honey and OPI

L to R: China Glaze Calcium Gel Fortifier (strengthener/base), Rainbow Honey Spirit of Wonder, OPI DS Magic, OPI Gone Gonzo, Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat

Hello all!  So I have another mani Monday for you.  I know it's Tuesday but I did this mani on Monday and with two small boys and the husband home right now it's difficult for me to get a mani and a blog post in all in the same day LOL.  The end result of this mani is not what I originally had in mind but I do love it in the end.  I started off with my usual and go to strengthening treatment as my base (China Glaze Calcium Gel Fortifier).  If you know my history with this treatment at all you know I cannot praise it enough.  It's pretty much the only strengthening treatment I've used since I removed my gel nails and decided to go with my natural nails.  It took my nails from really flimsy, thin and splitting to much thicker, super strong and no splits.  I like it for any sort of manis where I do just the tips of my nails and leave the base bare as the subtle pink color of it evens out any yellowing and marks that my nail beds may have.

I originally planned to use only two polishes.  The first being one of my newest Rainbow Honey polishes from the 2012 Holiday Collection.  Ever since buying the Equestria Collection from Rainbow Honey probably about 6 or so months ago (were the first Rainbow Honey polishes I ever purchased) I have been hooked and obsessed and super duper uber impressed with everything about Rainbow Honey.  For an indie brand the packaging is amazeballs!!!  There always extra pamphlet info on other collections and the labelling and boxes that each polish comes in are phenomenal.  So much attention to detail!  And once you get past the packaging and to the polish itself you'll feel like you've died and gone to heaven!!  I can't get enough Rainbow Honey and the fact that they constantly send emails with pre-order opportunities and discount coupons just makes it even better and feeds my addiction something fierce LOL.  Anyway, I digress...

This is Spirit of Wonder from the Holiday 2012 collection.  Spirit of Wonder is described as "A bright winter white with hidden blue shimmer and a dusting of snow; a mix of blue and silver holographic glitters make this polish a joy to wear."  I had originally planned for this polish to be the star of my mani.

The formula was great and fairly easy to work with.  I always find the mini bottles a little bit more difficult to work with as the brush is smaller and not as much polish gets loaded on the brush so sometimes you have to go back for another dip in the polish before you have a full coat on the nail.  But even then the formula of Rainbow Honey has never been a disappointment.  I found it was best to do thinner coats as the thicker coats tended to get drag marks with more brush strokes and sometimes you need an extra brush stroke or two to disburse the glitter super even over the nail.  But with that being said there was no fishing for glitter necessary.

I then planned to use one of my all time favourite polishes on a couple of accent nails.  This would be OPI DS Magic from the Designer Series.  I first fell in love with this polish in December of 2011.  I was on my "Honeymoon" (I use quotations because we brought our then 2 year old son Daniel with us so I suppose it wasn't a true honeymoon but I don't regret having the family time at all.  It was our first vacation as an official family) in Banff, Alberta, Canada at the Rimrock Resort Hotel.  I went for a pedicure at the spa in the hotel (best pedicure of my life!!!!!!) and the lady used DS Magic as my polish and I was hooked.  It took me a while to acquire it myself for my personal stash but I finally got it all for myself a few months ago and I've been dying to use it.

Formula and application were awesome and just what you would expect from a high end polish and a special collection.  The brush was a nice wider flat brush which made application a breeze.  Dry time was very minimal in between coats and the colour is so stunning!  See for yourself.

It's a deep, rich sapphire blue jelly base loaded with blue and purple micro shimmer.  It's mesmerizing and magical and what's not to love?!?!

I ended up deviating from my original plan in that I added a third polish to kind of make the above two polishes read better together.  When I originally had Spirit of Wonder as the main polish and DS Magic as the accent nails (ring finger and thumb) it was like there was too much contrast between the white and the deep, rich blue.  I wanted to use a blue polish on my accent nails to pick up the blue glitter in Spirit of Wonder, however DS Magic totally took over even though it was only a couple of nails.  The deep colour and super shine and shimmer just outshone the matte white of Spirit of Wonder so I needed something to bring a little more pizazz to the white to counteract DS Magic and downplay the deep tone of DS Magic a little bit so there was not as much contrast between the two polishes.

For that I turned to another favourite polish of mine, OPI Gone Gonzo from the Muppets Collection.  As with DS Magic I first fell in love with this colour on my "Honeymoon" during a pedi at the hotel spa where the lady placed a thin coat of Gone Gonzo over DS Magic.  It was like a magical match made in heaven!  I actually came home from my "Honeymoon" and went straight out and purchased Gone Gonzo for my own personal collection.  I've used it a decent amount over the last couple years as you can see from the fill line in the pics below.

Formula is exactly what you would expect from OPI.  It's a fabulous glitter that gets easy and even coverage with little effort.  It's a clear base full of bright blue glitter and silver hexes.

So after all this talk of polish are you ready to see the results?

I started off with 3 thinner coats of Rainbow Honey Spirit of Wonder on my index, middle and pinky fingers. Within 3 coats I had full opacity.  I probably could have gotten full opacity with 2 thicker coats but I found that I had a problem with dragging and balding if I used thicker coats.

And 2 coats of OPI DS Magic on my thumb and ring finger.

look at the blue/purple shimmer in that bottle, how can you resist that?!

I then added a thin coat of OPI Gone Gonzo over top of all nails except my middle finger leaving just the Spirit of Wonder on the middle finger.

Here's a look at just the three different nails.  Again, the dark nail is 2 coats of DS Magic with 1 thin coat of Gone Gonzo over top, middle finger is 3 coats of Spirit of Wonder, and white and blue nail is 3 coats of Spirit of Wonder with 1 thin coat of Gone Gonzo over top.

I topped everything off with 2 thinner coats of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.  The only reason I used 2 coats rather than 1 was to make sure all the glitter was smoothed out and not bumpy in the end.

I'm loving how this turned out in the end.  It almost reads like an ombre mani with the differing shades of blues.  And it's super glittery and who doesn't love that?!?! :)

Talking about my "Honeymoon" above made me all nostalgic and I thought I would reminisce and share a few of my photos from our time in Banff.

our maid made a house of towels for Daniel's stuffed puppy while we were out

going up Sulfur Mountain on the gondola

Me, Daniel and Dorian in the gondola

Me and Daniel in the cafeteria at the top of Sulfur Mountain

Me and Dorian in the cafeteria at the top of Sulfur Mountain

Daniel standing in the giant gingerbread house in the lobby of the hotel.  It was actually made out of real gingerbread and icing and candies etc. and had a "flower box" under the window with flowers made of candy canes.

Daniel was so excited about the horses when we went for our sleigh ride

on our sleigh ride

modern day Obi Wan Kenobi heading to the pool LOL

the hotel spa where I got my awesome pedi

another look at the waiting area of the hotel spa.  Still best pedi of my life to this day!

OPI DS Opulence and Darling Diva Polish Fancy Nancy

Good evening all!  Today I am bringing you a mani that I absolutely love!!  The reason I love it so much is because it is done with an OPI DS polish.  The DS line is probably my most favorite and sought after line of all nail polish brands out there.  I'm trying to get the complete line but as you can imagine, that is difficult, and can be pricey.  But I've got a decent chunk of them to keep me happy...for now ;)  I have mainly the newer shades rather than the original first shades that came out.  This mani also turned out to be somewhat appropriate for Valentine's Day, although that was not at all intentional.

Opulence is one of OPI's Designer Series shades.  It is a deep rose pink loaded with fine holo glitter.  The formula and application were perfect.  One decent coat is really all that is needed, however, I used two coats just to make sure I got full opacity and good depth to the colour and glitter.  Dry time was nice and fast and it finishes nice and glossy and smooth, even without a top coat.  I would highly recommend any of the DS shades if you can get your hands on them.  And if you like pink this is a gorgeous pink to have in your collection.  It's not too pink that it makes it bubblegummy or super girly but it is definitely pink and I actually love this shade of pink with my skin tone.

Darling Diva Polish is an indie brand of polish and actually one of the first indie brands I purchased when I first got into indies.  This is Fancy Nancy which is a shimmery clear base with various sized hex glitters in various pastel shades of blue, yellow, pink and white as well as red hexes, iridescent glitter, white hearts and holo diamonds.  The dry time was good, however, it was difficult to get the hearts and diamonds out and I had to do some major fishing and even then didn't get a lot of them out.  Once I fished out the large shapes I had to use the placement method in order to get everything nice and spaced the way I wanted it.  If you just use the normal nail polish painting technique all you end up with is the iridescent and smaller hex glitters, which that looks nice too but the diamonds and hearts are what really make it special and interesting.  I am overlooking the application though as I love the look of the end result of this polish and I think the name is just too cute.

So I used Opulence on all nails in two coats and on my accent nails I placed Fancy Nancy over top.  Everything was then topped off with a generous coat of Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat.  Here is what the result looks like.

OPI polishes can be purchased a various stores, salons and e-shops.  Designer Series shades can be difficult to find but sometimes you can come across some old stock that is sitting on a dusty shelf somewhere or you can find some on various websites.  If I recall correctly I actually purchased my bottle of Opulence with a few other DS shades and some Skyfall shades off an ebay store back in November.

Darling Diva Polish can be purchased from her etsy store:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/DarlingDivaPolish

And you can follow Darling Diva Polish on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/DarlingDivaPolish

So what do we all think of this mani?  Like I said, it kind of turned out to be an unintentional Valentine's Day mani with the heart glitters and the pink but I think it's really cute and pretty.  And well I love anything to do with an OPI DS polish!! :)