Happy 2013 Giveaway! Featuring Lynnderella’s Snow Angel!

I know everyone wants Lynnderella’s Snow Angel, and even if you already have it, they are selling for a ton on eBay! So I thought it’d be exciting to feature that in my giveaway, since I have a brand new, unswatched, big round bottle of it!

I want to pick 3 winners again. So I’ll ask you what your favorite items are from these, and the grand prize winner will get 4, including Snow Angel! The 2nd place winner will get another 4 polishes, and the 3rd will get 3. Every time I’ve done it this way, I’ve been able to give everyone some polishes that they wanted most, so it was pretty fun!

Here is the list of the polishes in the giveaway! Click if you’d like to see google images swatches for each.

• Lynnderella – Snow Angel
• Color Club – Love Em Leave Em
• China Glaze – Material Girl
• Nox Twilight – Disco Darling
• Nubar – Cherry Cordial
• Kleancolor – Pastel Teal
• Duri – Lazy Days
• Milani – Digital
• Essie – Angora Cardi
• Essie – Pure Pearlfection
• Del Sol Color Changing – Ruby Slipper(Changes from silver glitter to red glitter in the sun.)

To enter, you can do one of two things, or both for an extra entry!

1. Use the giveaway picture and post/blog about this somewhere, put the URL to your post into the form.
Picture to use -> http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8222/8346691467_0d150cc61a.jpg
Link to the giveaway to use -> http://happy2013giveaway.shimmerspark.com

2. Become a facebook friend!
Here I am -> http://www.facebook.com/shimmerspark
(Just put your facebook name into the form, even if you were already my facebook friend.

I will pick the winners randomly, on February 10th!

If you don’t see the form load below this line, click here to go to the original post so that it will load for you…

♥
Holly

New Year Snowflakes

Before my husband and I left for a quick New Year trip, I wanted to stamp some snowflakes with one of my new Bundle Monster plates.

I used Konad White, and BM-323. This is over the China Glaze Refreshmint + Piggy Polish Tic Tac Toes that I posted about earlier.

Its so cute together!

Okay, I’m getting my giveaway ready to post next. 🙂

Piggy Polish – Tic Tac Toes Over China Glaze – Refreshmint

I know you’ve seen this one before, but how can you see it too much? 🙂

Refreshmint, 2 coats – No streaks or bubbles, its just so perfect!

I used it for a base because Tic Tac Toes is a little on the sheer side. Plus I thought it would help it look more minty for New Year’s Eve.

This one wasn’t swatched enough in the polish world in my opinion. I’m not sure how so many people missed out on it. Its too pretty! No hidden shimmer, you can see the sparkly shimmer in any light.

Speaking of that, I’ll keep apologizing for the light in these swatches until I get a perfect swatching spot in our new home. Hopefully I’ll figure that out by Spring at least? 🙂

Happy New Year! 2012 was way too crazy for me, so I’m really looking forward to enjoying 2013.

Party Hearty

I finally unpacked my nail polish and found my China Glaze Party Hearty, just in time for our work Christmas party. It was awesome, they had it at a nice hotel, bought us and our dates food, drinks, and even cab vouchers!

Anyway, I had to swatch with my right hand for once since my left hand still has a short ugly nail that needs to grow.

I started with OPI Germanicure to have a darker base, then covered it with China Glaze Ruby Pumps! I left my toes like that, but on my nails, I added a layer of Party Hearty. 🙂

—

I also got a cool set together for my next giveaway! It will include China Glaze, Essie, Nubar, Color Club, Milani, Duri, Del Sol, Nox Twilight, and even a Lynnderella!

Yep, I’m going to giveaway this sweet thing – A new, unused, unswatched, virgin Snow Angel!

Christmasy Swatches

After going through all of my posts to update links for my new server, I kept my favorite Christmasy swatches aside to put in one entry. 🙂

I might as well try the cool WordPress “Gallery in a post” feature!

RGB – Crimson

LA Splash – Glitz & Berry

Deborah Lippmann – Ruby Red Slippers

Ciate – Dangerous Affair

China Glaze – Ravishing Dahling

From left to right, Femme Couture – Garland, China Glaze – Gussied Up Green, China Glaze – Emerald Sparkle, and China Glaze – Peace on Earth

Ozotic Pro 505 vs 506

These can be hard to tell apart because I found there is only one flash angle where they differ.

They look the same to me at most angles. Here is 506 on index and ring, 505 on middle and pinky (over black, of course!):

(Bottle is 505)

Here are the two in the bottle… 506 on top, 505 on the bottom:

But this is the reason why 505 is my favorite! I prefer the greenish blue flash in the 505 over the midnight blue flash in the 506.

I’m holding the 505 in this picture so you can really see that gorgeous teal-ish flash toward the top of the bottle and on my middle nail:

So it just depends on what shade of blue you prefer if you can’t decide between the two of these. 🙂

Sephora by OPI – 212

I don’t know why I waited so long to post about this one! The awesome Ms. Gemma (greencurry on MUA!) swapped this one to me for my maybe fake My Private Jet since they were kind of similar!

Its like the greenish version of it but with some flakies in the mix. Not quite green but that Wagon Trail/Seriously Hip kind of brownish green!

Orly Space Cadet vs Claire's Venemous

A lot of people say that these are close to being dupes. Sometimes I’d see swatches of them together and they did look similar so I was confused and had to do it myself! Plus, I wanted to show the awesome missgreencurry, who sent me Space Cadet. 🙂

I know they have a similar eggplant to olive type of effect, but to me they always looked pretty different. My swatch really showed how different they are.

Space Cadet on index and ring fingers, Venemous on middle and pinky:

They look awesome in the bottles!

I guess if you love duochrome that has a purple to green shift, then these are both similar and both awesome, so I can see the comparison, but some swatches like this one from stephscloset make them look like almost exact dupes, that’s where I got confused. Maybe at a certain angle they do look alike!

If you want to see some awesome close-ups of Space Cadet, I love this post on lacquerized.com! (Her blog is sooo amazing by the way if you haven’t seen it, I always thought her pictures and swatches were the best quality by far!)

Sally Hansen Prisms – Pink Opal

I have this on my MUA swap list, so someone asked me to swatch it for them over white and over black.

I didn’t have my black handy so I used China Glaze’s Concrete Catwalk since its pretty dark!

It doesn’t look as great over white, but it is awesome over black! It really shifts from pink to green. It stays pink most of the time, its only green at a certain angle…

I just got Ozotic Pro 506 finally… I’ve had 505 but it was more blue than teal, so I’m excited to swatch a comparison here pretty soon!

Tuff Scent – Wish

This is the last Tuff Scent polish from my order. Its not really my thing, but its pretty in the bottle? I put it over Tuff Scent – Inner Strength.

The scent is Pear, which I thought I would hate, but it smells nice!

What do you think? On the nails its a little more yellowy and a lot less pink than it seems in the bottle… must be the angle!

Don’t forget my Tuff Scent Giveaway! You can enter here!

Essence – Speed of Light Blue & King of Mints (And Nfu Oh Restocked!)

First of all, Fabulous Street restocked their Nfu Oh holo polishes, flakies, Aqua Base Coat… go get some quickly! 🙂

I was just informed a couple of hours ago, so I hope I’m telling you soon enough for you to stock up. I had to get some of their holos just now for the first time. I also threw in a “Jelly Syrup”, a flakie, and a glittery jelly along with my 2 Aqua Base coat bottles. I knew they wouldn’t last long on that site!

Back to the You Rock collection… here are the two blue-greens! Speed of Light Blue is on the left, that one is my favorite of the whole collection!

These both apply really well… better than the Chanel polishes they are dupes for.

BB Couture – Adam

This is one of the most interesting polishes I own.

It looks like a dark taupe army green, but it has red shimmer inside!!

Check this out, I’ve never seen a polish like this!

How cool is that? 🙂

My new job has been awesome… Since I started, I have been working on this software, and they are flying me out to Maryland/DC next week to demo it!

BB Couture – Wire Stripper

I have 2 more BB Coutures for this week. This one is Wire Stripper!

It seems to shift from purple, to a warm sparkle. By warm I mean not really gold or green, but somewhere in the middle, maybe pewter?

I love how its dark, glittery, sparkly, duochrome… can’t go wrong with that. 🙂

Zoya – Lolly & Mitzi

I think I made the comments functionality a little better last night… it will either give you a confirmation (if it remembered your identity from last time you commented), or it will at least say that it was posted and you have to refresh to see it. I hope that helps!

This swatch is Lolly and Mitzi from the Mod Mattes that Zoya released for summer. Phoebe was the other one, which I already swatched.

I don’t know, I just can’t let these two grow on me. They are just kind of an ugly shade of magenta and green, or at least on my skin tone! I did love Phoebe and I’m keeping that one, but I just can’t seem to like these!

I did used to love some ugly 70s colors like burnt orange and avocado green (like grandma’s kitchen wallpaper!) but this green is like… well, I have parakeets and I’m always cleaning up their poop, and its that kind of green. haha!!

What do you guys think of that collection?

Essence – Absolutely Stylish

I have seen this bottle in online shops so many times but I had no idea what was inside!

Its a dark brown, but it has these duochrome flakes inside that shift from pink to green…

Isn’t that pretty!?

If you like it, grab it next time… it just looks like plain brown, but its the coolest color, in my opinion, of their regular line! 🙂

Eyeko – Vintage & Essence – Mermaid Topper

I had to swatch these before the sun went down, so the lighting isn’t the best, but I have to show off the Mermaid Topper!

I started with Eyeko – Vintage which is a medium shade of blue green:

This one applied a little more lumpy than the other blue greens I have like Essie Mint Candy Apple and Illamasqua Nudge.

When you put the Mermaid Topper on and look at it in the shade, it gives it a little bit more of a blue sheen with some shimmer:

It really comes alive in the sun! Look at that aqua blue teal shimmer that pops SO much where the light hits it!

I’ll probably swap the Vintage but I’ll definitely keep the Mermaid Topper!

Cheeky Monkey – Get Wet

I love light blues with a tiny bit of green tone to it… this one I finally got to try!

It is brighter than For Audrey and Mint Candy Apple, I ran out of sunlight when I was swatching this one, so I didn’t have a chance to do a side by side. I’m sure I like it better than both of those though!

Speaking of sunlight, part of breaking that sun and moon curse better mean that the werewolf bite Damon has won’t have any effect anymore!?!? Oh please!

Oh, and I bought my wedding dress yesterday!! If you want to see me in it, just email me. I didn’t want to post it here, I can’t have him see until the big day! 🙂

This Cheeky Monkey color is the color my bridal party will be wearing!

Target Exclusive Nicole by OPI polishes and news on the Zoya Earth Day promo!

The Zoya Earth Day promo starts as soon as their baby chick video gets 20,000 views, so let’s all go see it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0askM_pENA

I just ordered 28 color spoons so I’ll be ready to order some I haven’t tried yet. I definitely have a lot of polish I can send in! I didn’t do the previous earth day promos, so I’m really excited! You just send in any polish bottles you don’t want and you get a Zoya in return for about 3 dollars a bottle. I’m not sure what the price will be this year but we get to find out as soon as the video has enough views.

Anyway, I did a custom purchase for one of the really awesome swappers I’ve met on makeupalley.com last week. She moved to Switzerland and can’t get any of our Target Exclusive Nicole polishes, so I got
You’re S-teal the One, Iceburg Lotus, Sea How Far You Go, and Make a Comet-ment for her. I didn’t want to swatch them on my nails since I got them brand new for her, so I just did a quick swatch on a clean, new nail wheel so I could show them off.

I did each of these 4 polishes as one coat on the left side of the wheel, and then 3 coats each on the right side of the wheel. The colors are really duochrome-ish and the Comet-ment one is like a holo. Aren’t they pretty?

You’re S-teal the One, Iceburg Lotus, Sea How Far You Go, Make a Comet-ment

There were other colors as well that were just as awesome, you should check them out if you’re near a Target!

MAC – Seriously Hip

This one was swapped to me, so you’re probably tired of seeing greens, but I had to try it as soon as I got it!

This is another olive metallic vampy green like China Glaze Wagon Trail and Chanel Or De Russie. Since I had established that the Or De Russie was a lot more lustrous than the Wagon Trail, I just compared this one to my Or De Russie.

You can see that they are both rich and pigmented, more than Wagon Trail, but the Or De Russie is a little more of a brownish earthier tone than the Seriously Hip.

I’m going to swap the MAC and keep the Chanel!

Me Me Me – Pewter

This is a color I don’t have yet! Not even close! Pewter has a metallic silver look with an olive green tone to it. It isn’t that light actually, it can appear light in the shade, but in the light, the contrast really changes and it pops!

Sun!

I’m keeping this one for sure, it is the one metallic color I definitely had nothing close to. And it goes on really nicely in 2 coats, which is always ideal for me.