Weekly Giveaway Roundup!

I love giveaways. Each week I'll post giveaways that I think are awesome!


Nail Polish & More

• Win the Orly Bloom & Metal Chic Collections from Star Impulse! Hurry! Ends today!
• Win a Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen and LOTS more from Lip Gloss Gossip. This is a very generous giveaway! Ends 3/30.
  
• Win nail polish and more from Polished Serenity. I love her banner! Flying purple piggies and rainbows! Ends 3/31.
  
• Win a Wet Paint Nail Glaze System from Boobies, Babies & a Blog. Polish Swatches reviewed this system with swatches; has anyone else tried it? Ends 3/31.
• Win nail polish and more from Lauren Rhiannon! Fun giveaway! Ends 4/4.
• Win Dark Divine nail polish from So Many Books. 3 winners! Ends 4/4.
  
• Win the entire China Glaze Up & Away Collection or 9 other runner up prizes from Good Mourning Glory! Ends 4/5.
• Win nail polish and more from Glamorous Geek Chic. Adorable blogger who's having a fun contest! Ends 4/22
  

Makeup & Skin Care

• Win a $40 gift certificate to MAC or Forever 21 from Fashion & Beauty! Ends 3/31.
• Win your choice of amazing makeup prizes (options include MAC, Bobbi Brown & Urban Decay) from Cash or Charge! Ends 4/1.
  
• Win SkinMedica TNS Ultimate Daily Moisturizer +SPF 20 from Born 2 Impress. Ends 4/2
• Win Clinique Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief from Classy & Fabulous. Ends 4/3.
• Win Earthworks Soap & Hand Cream from Savvy Coupon Mommy. Ends 4/4.
  
• Win Perricone MD No Foundation Foundation from The Princess & the Monkey. Ends 4/5.
  

Clothes, Jewelry, Bags & Shoes

• Win the necklace of your choice $40 & under from Bella Lili, as seen in Gothic Beauty. Ends 4/3.
  

Things For Your House

• Win the wall stencil of your choice $40 & under from The Funky Monkey. These are so cool! I think I could do some nice stuff with these and my concrete! Hurry! Ends today!
• Win a Slanket from Closet of Free Samples! Hurry! Ends today!
• Win your choice of print $20 & under from Point Blank Design & me! Ends 4/9.
  

Miscellaneous

• Win an Oxygenfit Body Plan Kit from Girl Heroes. Hurry! Ends today!
• Win an iPod Shuffle from Coastal Mommyhood. Just become a follower to enter. The prize will be awarded to a random follower when they hit 100.
  

Thanks for reading!
April

Point Blank Design Nail Art

I love this manicure! I made it to match one of Point Blank Design's prints for our giveaway post.

I used China Glaze Entourage for the base. Then I made Will fling the other colors onto my nails! I used American Apparel Manila & Hassid and China Glaze Shower Together. Super messy and fun! I can't think of any way to do this on your own hands though. Here it is before clean up. Haha!

And here's the end result.

I want to try this technique (if you can call nail polish flicking a technique!) with a white base and a blood red color for some blood spatter pattern Dexter nails!
So what do you think ladies? Will you be having a friend fling some polish on your nails?

Thanks for reading!
April

Point Blank Design Giveaway! (Ended)

I decided to extend this one 'til Sunday night. I stayed out way too late last night and am just now getting around to even thinking about being productive. So ignore the end dates in the rules below. I'll announce the winner on Monday. I love all of the great ideas you've been submitting for an extra entry!
Don't forget to check out the buy one get one free deal Sara has offered my readers! Details below.

I fell instantly in love with this print of the Bride of Frankenstein and immediately purchased it to decorate my hot pink bathroom. Look at those colors!! It's a print of an original painting by the adorable Sara Bowersock of Point Blank Design.

Here's what Sara has to say about her Etsy shop.

Vibrant, colorful & unique POSTER PRINTS, ORIGINALS AND MORE! All prints are from my original acrylic, spray paint, and hand-cut stencil paintings! Music, Monsters, Girls with Guns! what's not to love?

I couldn't agree more! You may remember seeing more of her monster series from my all-time favorite Concrete and Nail Polish post. Her work went so well with our Halloween nails!

Sara loves music and creates amazing portraits of some her favorite musicians. I love this one of Blondie!

I also LOVE the girls and guns series!

Of course I attempted some Point Blank Design inspired nails! I chose this print for my color scheme.

I love how they turned out. It was a super messy, but fun process. I'll do post with all of the details and more pictures soon.
It should be obvious by now that I really think Sara's work is fantastic. I had a feeling that all of my color-loving, nail polish friends would love it too, so I asked her if she would like to sponsor a giveaway. She said yes!! Woohoo!!!

Now here's the best part-it's open to EVERYONE WORLDWIDE and you can pick ANY print in her shop $20 and under!!!!

Sara is also offering my readers an incredibly generous special offer! Buy one, get one free on prints $20 and under!! Make your Etsy purchase and just message Sara a description stating which print you would like to receive free! Limit of one free print with purchase during the special offer period, not buy x, get x free. Offer good from 3/26 - 4/14.

RULES:
PLEASE READ ALL OF THE RULES BEFORE ENTERING.

• This giveaway is open to everyone worldwide! Yay!
  
• This giveaway starts today, March 26th, and will end Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 11:59PM Central Time.
• We'll select the winner with random.org's random number generator and notify the winner by email on Saturday, April 1oth.
• The winner will have 24 hours to respond. If the winner doesn't reply within 24 hours, that winner will forfeit the prize and an alternate winner will be selected via random.org.

HOW TO ENTER:
Everyone has the opportunity to earn up to three entries per person.

• Mandatory Entry. Go to Point Blank Design's Etsy Shop and tell us which item you want to win. Any print $20 and under. Think carefully and explore all options because this will be your prize if you are the winner! Use the form below to enter. This is required for a valid entry!
• You can earn an optional second entry by becoming a fan of Point Blank Design on facebook. Be sure to leave your facebook user name so I can validate your entry.
• You can earn an optional third entry by making a suggestion for a future painting. Fun!
  
• You only need to fill out the form once. This works MUCH better than comments, so I've turned them off for this post to avoid confusion.

I did not receive any compensation for this giveaway in the form of product or payment of any kind. I just love Sara's work and wanted to share it with you! I love to share!

Thanks for reading!
April

Tic Tac Polishes and bees

Since the last two Tic Tac polishes I had to post were black and yellow, I wanted to share a some links with you guys. A couple of our friends posted this link on facebook today. It's an article about the continued problem of dying bees. Here's another link from a website called Learn 2 Grow. It's about Sedum plants. If you can, plant some in your garden. We need bees!
Sorry I didn't have a bee manicure to post. I'll try do one one in honor of spring and post it soon.

This picture comes from the creative commons section of flickr and belongs to Brenda.

Tic Tac black. I've never worn black nail polish as a manicure, but I wanted one around to use in nail art. I never would have spent $5 or more on a black polish, so at just $1 this works just fine for me. It took 2 coats and the application didn't give me any problems.



The yellow however was awful. This is 5 coats and it probably could have used another. Typical yellow I guess. I'm gonna put it on our frankening pile. Looking at the pictures makes me want to wear yellow again. I like it a lot and it's perfect for spring.




Thanks for reading
-Ashley

Winner of The CleanRest Giveaway!

We had 126 entries from 98 different people, all of which were valid. I used Random.org to pick the winning number.

Woohoo! My friend Jeremy won! Since he's such a good friend, I thought I should show proof of his win, hence the screen shots above.
Jeremy is one of my all time favorite people! He has worked as a Clinic Specialist at the H.O.P.E. Testing Clinic for years. I really appreciate all of the hard work that goes into that job. Thanks Jeremy! He's also super fun. This month he decided that he will go dancing EVERY SINGLE NIGHT in March and is documenting it on facebook. Here's a photo of his amazing Mardi Gras hair. I almost posted this along with my Mardi Gras nails but this put my nails to shame.

Jeremy also has allergy issues like I do and I 'm so glad that this prize is going to someone so deserving.

Thanks so much to everyone who entered! I'll be posting a new giveaway that will be open worldwide very soon!

Thanks for reading!
April

Last Day To Enter My CleanRest Giveaway!

One lucky U.S. reader will win

• 1 Ultra Allergy Blocking Mattress Encasement
• 1 Box Spring Encasement
• 2 Ultra Allergy Blocking Pillows

Enter here
I've been using all of my products for over a week now and I can definitely say that i have fewer morning sniffles. The encasements don't change the comfort of my bed at all and the pillows are perfect for me.
I LOVE the curtains that I won too! They have transformed my bedroom into a more peaceful place to sleep because they block out all of the neighbors lights!
If you want to purchase a set of curtains or anything else for yourself, then don't forget to use this code! CleanRest is offering all of my readers a 10% discount on purchases. Enter MARCH10 at checkout to receive your discount. Expires 3/31/2010. Cannot be combined with any other offer or towards previously placed purchases.

Thanks for reading!
April

China Glaze Adore & Layering

This is 2 coats of China Glaze Adore from their Romantique Spring 2009 Collection. I don't like having turquoise nails for reasons that I can't fathom. It's one of my favorite colors, but every time I use a turquoise polish, I want to take it off. I have no explanation at this time.
Anyway, even though it won't be going into my regular rotation, China Glaze Adore is still a definite keeper for Konad and nail art!
I haven't experimented with layering, probably because Ashley & I have very few glitter polishes, just not usually our thing. I do love Sinful Hottie though and I thought it might look cool over China Glaze Adore. I used one coat of Sinful and the results are magical! I even wore this one for two whole days.



It reminds me of the ocean in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, where I lived for four months several years ago.

Thanks for reading!
April

Weekly Giveaway Roundup!

I love giveaways. Each week I'll post giveaways that I think are awesome!

Nail Polish & More

• Win Revlon Red Nail polish and so much more from Sparkles, Sequins & 6 Inch Stilettos! Hurry!! This one ends when she gets 100 followers! Last time I checked she had 95!
• Win 6 BYS Glitter Glam polishes from Toxic Lipstick! Great blog from Australia. Ends 3/23.
  
• Win 2 nail polishes and a bottle of remover from Karma Organic Spa & New Age Mama! Ends 3/24.
• Win 12 nail polishes, 2 Konad plates and more from Emerald Sparkled. One of my new favorites! Ends 3/27.
• Win 5 nail polishes from Polish on Digital Paper. I feel like Niki & I have a lot in common when it comes to our nails! Check out her blog if you haven't! Ends 3/27.
  
• Win 14 nail polishes including the entire Color Club Vixen Set from My Latest Obsession! Woohoo! Ends 3/28.
• Win an Inglot Nail Polish and tons more beauty products from the lovely Marcia of Let There Be Shopping. Ends 3/28.
• Win one of three sets of the Claire Mood Polishes from the adorable Sawan! One winner will also receive a bottle of Seche Vite. Incredibly generous! Ends 3/28.
• Win the elusive Sally Hansen HD Opulent Cloud from Beautopia! Great swatches! Ends 3/28.
  

Makeup & Skin Care

• Win Urban Decay goodies from Makeup By Crystal S. 2 winners! Ends 3/25.
  

Clothes, Jewelry, Bags & Shoes

• Win the swimsuit of your choice from Diviine Modestee & Real Moms Real Views. Ends 3/23.
  
• Win a custom Silver Name necklace from Being Brazen. I want one that says concrete! Ends 3/24.
• Win your choice of Stacking Rings from Muffin Top Designs. I love the copper set! Ends 3/24.
  
• Win a custom Initial Wax Seal Necklace & a set of notecards from Julian & Co. So pretty and unique! Ends 3/25.
  

Chocolate & Other Goodies

• Win Godiva Chocolate from Stop & Smell the Chocolates! Ends 3/24.
  

Things For Your House

• Win a set of CleanRest Allergy Blocking Bedding including a mattress encasement, a box spring encasement & 2 pillows from me. $200-$240 value! Ends 3/23.
  
• Win a PUR Flavor Options Water Pitcher from The Mom Reviews. Ends 3/29.

Miscellaneous

• Win a Resistance Toning Kit from Nashville Newlyweds. Hurry! Winner will be chosen tomorrow!
  
• Win a set of notecards & journal by Clare Rojas from Chronicle Books & Candid, Clever & Cost-Effective. I love that evil, yet beautiful bunny. Gorgeous! Ends 3/23.
• Win a Philips goLITE BLU Energy Light ($199.99 Value) from As They Grow Up. Ends 3/23.
• Win a $50 credit to the CSN Stores from Mommy Loves Stilettos. Ends 3/25.
  
• Win an amazing prize package ($175 value) including an iPod Shuffle from Brimful Curiosities. This is a really fun giveaway; be sure to read some of the other entries. Ends 3/29.

Thanks for reading!
April

Winner of The Queens Metal Giveaway!

We had 111 entries, all of which were valid! Random.org chose #104.
3/21/2010 14:51:26 Krisprimps who said "Very hard choice,. but I love the Mina necklace!
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=41604173"

Krisprimps has a lovely nail polish blog with beautiful swatches! You can check it out here if you haven't already!

Thanks to everyone who entered and left lovely comments for me and for Queens Metal! I love giveaways! And thanks again to the lovely Krita of Queens Metal for sponsoring this giveaway!

Mad Max Interceptor & Special Pursuit Nails!

I watched Mad Max for the first time last weekend and as soon as I saw the Yellow Interceptor Car, I knew I'd be doing a version of that sweet paint job on my nails!

Below is the Special Pursuit. I used Sinful Secret Admirer with China Glaze Matte Magic to mimic the awesome Special Pursuit. Matte black nails look evil. I love it!

I used China Glaze Solar Power, OPI Red & OPI Blue My Mind for the Interceptor. My beloved Migi Nail Art Pen for the white stripe.

I have a thing for 70's muscle cars. It's bad. My heart goes all a flutter every time I see one.

Please enter my giveaways if you haven't already. Queen's Metal Jewelry Giveaway ends tonight! You can enter here. Clean Rest giveaway ends 3/23. Enter here.

Thanks for reading!
April

Last Day To Enter The Queens Metal Jewelry Giveaway!

  

Open Internationally! Choose any piece $40 & under. Open 'til 11:59 pm CST tonight! Enter here!

Thanks for reading!
April

I just found this awesome giveaway and wanted to share it with you!

Latina Beauty is giving away all of this to one lucky reader!

• Full line of Maybelline Express Finish Nail Color in all 9 Sweet Thing shades
• Full line of Maybelline Color Sensational Lip Color in all 5 Sweet Thing shades
• Expert Wear Duo Eye Shadow in Goody Plum Drop, Excite Mint and Pie in the Sky
• Eye Express Cream Shadow Stick in Lovely Lilac and Mint

I haven't picked up any of the Sweet Thing polishes yet, but I've been wanting to!

Thanks for reading!
April

Shoe Dish & Atelier Shoes Design Your Own Contest

This is a super fun contest I found on The Shoe Dish.You get to design your own pair of shoes! That's fun enough for me without any contest, but Atelier Shoes is giving away $50 gift certificates daily! Ashley & I both won! Here are our winning designs.

Ashley's Winning Shoe

April's Winning Shoe

Let us know if you enter and we'll post your designs here. I bet you ladies can come up with some winners! You can enter daily through the end of this month.

Thanks for reading!
April

More St. Patrick's Day Fun

I didn't go all out like Ashley did! Amazing! She stayed up all night doing her nails and then went to work. I don't even understand how she did her thumb with the Irish flag with the shamrock in the middle!
Anyway, I had lots of ideas, but couldn't get any of them to work, so in the end I just went with American Apparel Cotton and stamped the argyle image from Konad plate M60 in Konad Green Special Polish. There nowhere close to perfect, but I like them!

I decided to see if any of my facebook friends did their nails today, and my friend Monika sent me this fun picture! She said, "My nails match my salad!". She's wearing OPI Greenwich Village.

Thanks for reading and thanks to Monika for sending me your green nails!
April

Treat St. Patrick's Day Like a Real Holiday!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everybody!!!


This is one of my favorite commercials. It's from 2004. The soccer channel I used to watch soccer on played it constantly and it still makes me happy every time I see it.
Holidays always seem to creep up on me. I wanted to watch some movies and check out some books from the library about Ireland but I never got around to it. There's just always so much going on.
I have the movie Quiet Man that I want to try and watch this weekend. I've never seen it before. It's one of my dads favorites. And of course there's always Darby O'Gill and the Little People. It has a young Sean Connery singing this! It always get stuck in my head (like right now).
I did change my computer background, and strung up these shamrock lights I got from Target a couple of years ago.

What are you guys doing to celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

And now on to the nails.

I did this manicure with OPI Hey Get In Lime! as a base and Tic Tac Green for the art.

On the thumb I did a french manicure with OPI Greenwich Village, but decided I didn't like it enough to do it on all my nails.

This next one took too long to do so I only did it on my thumb. I think it's really cute. It would have taken me 2 or 3 hours to finish though! I got the idea from here.

I used OPI Alpine Snow as a base. For the outline of the Shamrock I used a dotting tool and Orly Enchanted forest. To finish off the flag I used OPI Atomic Orange and OPI Jade is the New Black (one of my new favorite colors!).

The one i'm actually wearing today is much simpler than both of these. Which is more my style.
I'm wearing OPI Jade is the New Black, and on a couple of my fingers I did the Irish flag with the same colors as above.

On my other hand I put the Irish flag on my thumb.

Don't forget to have a Guinness (or several) and wear green!
Thanks for reading.
-Ashley

China Glaze Recycle & Konad

I can't believe that I've never posted pictures of China Glaze Recycle! This is one of the polishes that got me hooked last year and is without a doubt in my all-time top five!
I used my second favorite Konad image from plate M60 with Maybelline Blue Aluminum on one of the last truly wintry days we had in Tulsa.

Thanks for reading!
April

Winner of the MaryMary Handmade Giveaway

177 entries all of which were valid! Yay! Everybody followed the rules! I used Random.org to choose the winning number 38.
3/6/2010 20:00:08 Monica C. Who said "So many cute things but I LOVE the Narwhal!! My teenage daughter is totally obsessed with narwhals and would really LOVE this!"

Don't forget that MaryMary Handmade has also offered a 10% discount to my readers, good through the end of March. Use the word 'concrete' in the message to buyers section when making your purchase.

Thanks for reading!
April