Giveaway! Max Factor Fantasy Fire (Clarins 230 Dupe!)

1,500 Polish Milestone giveaway!

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

(Clarins 230/Unicorn Pee Dupe)

Ok, hold onto your hats ladies, I'm having my first giveaway!!! I have been wanting to do one of these for awhile now. I'm not really celebrating a milestone in followers but a milestone in polishes! This week I tipped the scales over 1,500 polishes in my collection :) It was an amazing and proud moment for me and I have to thank Stephanie for starting me into the maddness :) So that is what I will use as my reason to hold a giveaway, when really all I want to do is give someone a bottle of the most amazing new polish to hit the market! Of course we all know about Clarins 230 (aka Unicorn Pee) and how expensive and elusive it is. Well Max Factor picked up on this and has come out with a small (8ml) bottle of an almost exact dupe. When you wear it over black you can barely tell a difference between it and Clarins. Anyway, you can view my whole comparison post here. Let's get to the good stuff.....

Below is my first Raffle Copter giveaway, I hope I have it all filled out right! You have the opportunity for 10 entries total! Please spread the word! This opens 1-27-12 at midnight and ends 3-10-12 at 12:01AM so get your entries in by the 9th to be safe!! :) And yes...I do ship internationally! ;) <3

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Max Factor Fantasy Fire Swatches

Max Factor 

"Fantasy Fire"

Multichrome

I spoke to this polish more indepth in my comparison to Clarins 230.  You can view that comparison blog by clicking here.

To sum it up, Max Faxtor Fantasy Fire makes a great dupe for Clarins 230. They are not exact, but close enough to satisfy anyone lemming it.

This is only currently available in the United Kingdom, get it while you can. We are unsure if it is Limited Edition or not so I suggest just not waiting.

These pictures are a single coat of Fantasy Fire over a single coat of black creme. Topped off with Seche Vite.

Enjoy the eye candy, click to view more if you are viewing from my main blog page!

Comparison: Clarins 230 vs Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Clarins 230 vs 

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Hello, I'm doing another comparison tonight! One of my favorite things to do!! This one excites me a lot because I have a LOT of friends who are really lemming Clarins 230 and with the price continuing to go up and up, it is out of reach for many. I was fortunate to obtain Clarins 230 (Unicorn Pee) through a swap with my dear friend Ruth. So I have it on hand and can now compare it to the newly release Max Factor Fantasy Fire to see if it is a dupe.

Max Factor Fantasy Fire is only in the United Kingdom, I am not sure if it will expand later. Currently many people are finding it at a store called Boots. My dear friend Deb snagged me a few bottles of this.

Now for the comparison...make sure you click below to view more if you are viewing from my main blog page! And check back soon for an awesome announcement!!! :)

Teaser! Max Factor Fantasy Fire!!

OMG....my bottle of Max Factor Fantasy Fire has arrived!! Thank you Deb, 100 times over thank you!! And after I get through swatching this and comparing it to Clarins 230....I have a special surprise for all of you!!! Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming posts!!!! 


For now, here is my teaser picture!!! Wait for it to completely load!!!

View the comparison to Clarins 230 by clicking here
View the full post on Max Factor Fantasy Fire here.

Deborah Lippmann Edge of Glory - Packaging

Deborah Lippman 

"Edge of Glory" 

'3D Holographic' (Flakie) polish set

Yes, it is finally mine :) I may be tardy to the party but even so, I have arrived :) Always good to be fashionably late, right? :) So I know this has been out for awhile but it was kinda exciting for me.

Not only is this my first official Deborah Lippmann purchase (not first DL polish, my first DL polish came from my dear polish-sister Stephanie who sent me "Waking Up in Vegas" because, as she put it "Everyone needs a Lippmann"...she is the best polish sister EVER!) This is also my first purchase from Barney's :) Yeah, I'm a corny dork! But I can't hide my excitement!

So because of my excitement, for the first time I took pictures of my unwrapping process because I feel like I paid extra for the presentation!!! So without further ado....here they are :) Swatches will come in a post later. I'm going to do a Deborah Lippmann week soon....

Manglaze ad with my girl Chelsea!

Ok, I just had to share a link to this, you gotta see it....my girl Chelsea made it into a Manglaze ad.....

http://prettynpolish.blogspot.com/2012/01/i-made-it-onto-manglaze-ad.html

Gotta love that! <3

China Glaze Magnetix swatches

China Glaze Magnetix

Magnetic polish collection

I scored the entire China Glaze Magnetix collection yesterday while on my regular shopping trip to the supply stores. This collection includes:

• "Pul Me Close" - a cool Steel Blue
• "Instant Chemistry" - a deep, rich Burgundy
• "Drawn to You" - a lighter Wine
• "You Move Me" - a shimmery Gold
• "Cling On" - Sage green
• "Attraction" - Metallic Silver Black

The magnet comes with 3 patterns: Star, Points and Lines. Of course you can use any other nail magnet you already have. In the photos below I used the three patterns on China Glaze's magnet and I used the wavy lines from Icing's Magnetix on the pinky. 

Below are the swatches, enjoy. I found these to be quite easy to use. Once of the best magnetic sets yet.

Polish Haul success! China Glaze Magnetix!

Ok, so after a long day out shopping and surviving an el train zombie attack, I am happy to report that I successfully obtained 5 sets of China Glaze Magnetix...I felt guilty and left one set behind for others! Here is a teaser pic...I am too incredibly tired to swatch them for you all tonight. I'll also add in my full haul photo, don't panic, the majority is not for me...cause I already have those HA! :)

Stamping Stars!

Ok, this is a quick teaser post! I am going shopping downtown Chicago tomorrow to some supply stores and we are expecting SUN! So I had to use some holos, that were feeling neglected! I didn't do tutorial pics, just one final pic! I will tell you what I used but I really just wanted to share because I liked how it turned out!

I used 2 coats of my own black holo franken Megatron, then a single coat of Hits Zeus and stamped with Gosh Holo. I used Dashica plate SdP - 46. I hoe you like it! I will try to get a picture of this in full sun tomorrow and add it to the post, so check back tomorrow night!

Tutorial - Pink Heart Love Nails

Pink <3 Love Nails
In honor of Dyan...we <3 you!

I'm going to try to get some Valentine themed manis posted out here for you in anticipation of February 14th. Since my Birthday falls 2 days after, this holiday is a little, shall we say, close to my heart. <3

At the same time my dear friend Nicola has organized many of us bloggers and non-bloggers to come together this week in honor of a very special lady. Dyan is the daughter of a good friend of ours, Brenda. She recently has gone through some hard medical issues and is in recovery right now. In honor of her and to show her just how much we love her, we are all banding together to honor Dyan this week. Brenda please show Dyan our nails and tell her WE LOVE HER!

If you would like to express to Dyan how important she is, please leave a comment below! If you want to do YOUR nails for her, DO IT! Leave your link in my comments and I will make sure she sees them!!!

Keep an eye on my blog roll for other bloggers who are honoring Dyan this week, both on our blogs and in our hearts!

For this mani I used:

CND Stickey Basecoat

OPI La Paz-itively Hot Matte

Hits Branco Stamping (white)

OPI La Paz-itively Hot

Seche Vite (pronounced Seh-Shay for those curious)

Here is a sneak peak of the steps:

Icing Magnetix Collection (Icing Magnetic Nail Polish Swatches and Reviews)

Icing Magnetix Collection
Icing Magnetic Nail Polish swatches and review
(Expand below for MANY more pictures!)

I am very excited to bring you this post!! I stopped by Icing today and picked up 2 of the new Icing Magentic Nail Polishes trying to be good and then realized I had to have the other two. So I swung by and grabbed the other two! Of course!

I don't have Nails Inc or Essence Magnetic polishes but I do have the entire LCN collection. While I like my LCN collection, I found them temperamental and could not always get them to work consistantly. During my swatching of the Icing Magnetic polishes, which they call Magnetix, I really felt they were very easy to use and I didn't have any issues with them. <3

One nice plus is that the magnetic caps are removable so you don't have to fight with the brush while obtaining your patterns. Also, they have the handy finger guides to help you rest your fingers which also helps you prevent the magnet from touching your nail....but you still have to be oh so careful! Another nice perk is that they give you two different guides so you can alternate your patterns easily.

These come in four colors, each of which are sparkly/shimmery and contain the finest glitter. They really have a magnificent finish! My favorite is the blue, which shows both purple and blue both...in some places it is blurple (one of my favorite words!). There is Silver, Blue, Pink & Gold.

Of the four colors, there are 2 different magnets, a diagonal lines magnet and a wavy lines magnet. On my set, the diagonal straight lines came on the Gold and Silver. The wavy lines came on the blue and pink. You can tell the difference on the labels, show below. The darker nail image has straight diagonal lines and the lighter image has the wavy lines.

These are available at Icing stores across the country for $9USD each. To top it off, you can get these for BOGO1/2 so the entire set of four costs you about $30USD. Not bad ;) Enjoy the pictures!!!

Icing Silver Magnetix, Icing Blue with purple Magnetix, Icing Pink Magnetix and Icing Gold Magnetix









Tutorial - Poison Dart Frog

Poison Dart Frog Mani

So, all who know me well know I have a deep love for frogs. Any tropical cutie steals my heart :) The blue poison dart frog is on of my favorites. So tonight my gal the 'Chalk Lady' (tee hee) posted that Sally Hansen Salon Effects has one with a blue dart frog design. This led into our conversation that she had done a mani sometime last September... but before I got around to looking it up, I saw miss Laurie's blue dart frog mani on HER blog (while linking her to my feather post!) So I am giving both of you fine ladies kudos on your manis! Here is mine!!! Enjoy!

Tutorial - Feather Manicure

Feather Manicure Here is just a quick tutorial of how to do a Feather manicure! I have the tools shown below that you will need with the exception of a pair of manicure scissors that made the fine feather trimming much easier! These were real pheasant feathers sent to me by my dear friend Laurie. You can use any feather obtainable at a craft store. My next one will be with Peacock feathers!