Santee Black Hole

Here's a polish I picked up a beauty supply store. It was a buck and I figured it was worth it! I thought it was a good chance to try out a color I wouldn't normally pick, being that it is brown. How did it work out? Well let's see...

It's a nice medium brown with golden shimmer. That being said, I have no idea why the name of this polish is black hole. Black? Not hardly. In fact, in these pictures it looks a little red to me. Go figure. This was three coats. This is my first time using Santee polishes and I think they are good quality for a dollar. This one required three coats to get to the opacity that I like but that's not a big deal. It also dried fairly quickly. I have two more Santee polishes to show you, so stay tuned to check them out!

Essie Pink Parka

Here is the other polish I received from my Twitter friend, RebeccaKaz! How did she know that I loved pink? Hot, neon, retina burning pink? Hmm, is it that obvious? I honestly squealed when I got this out of my mailbox!

This is three coats of Essie Pink Parka from their Fall 09 collection + Seche Vite. It dried quickly and matte because its a neon. I used three coats because it was kind of thin, but those three coats were absolutely worth it! I love that they released this for a fall collection, because I promise you I will be wearing this even in the dead of winter. Finally, someone gets it! I knew I loved Essie for a reason.

CND Colour Effects

While browsing around CND's website to check out their new release, Colour Effects, I found out that you can request/win a sample. Just visit their website by clicking this link to request yours. The offer is open to residents only in the United States and there will be 1,500 lucky winners who will receive a bottle of Colour! You will have to fill out a short questionnaire to enter.

While you're on the website be sure to play with their demo of the color effects! Also check out Mary's post at Body and Soul Beauty about the effects she made.What do you guys think about this new concept? At first, I didn't get what the deal was, but after seeing the possibilities I'm sold!

*Picture taken from http://fashionindie.com/get-yourself-800-new-shades-from-cnd/

Essie Matte About You + My Favorite Purples

One of my lovely friends on Twitter, RebeccaKaz, sent me Essie Matte About You topcoat! So this post is possible because of her! Thanks again! I love Essie's Matte About You, I mean its a great solution to the matte nail trend. You can use it to make any nail polish you already own matte. It has a smooth velvet texture when it dries. There's nothing I don't love about this topcoat! So while looking through my stash, wondering what to try it out on first, I came across Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl. I also gathered 3 more of my favorite purples to try out. Here they are:

L to R: Zoya Hope, China Glaze Grape Juice, Hot Topic Iridescent Purple, Sinful Colors Daddy's Girl

The before picture: 2 coats of each polish with no topcoat:
L to R: Daddy's Girl, Iridescent Purple, Grape Juice, Hope

These polishes are already so gorgeous, lets see them with Essie Matte About You.

I love all of these polishes with the matte topcoat! But guess which ones are my favorite?

Zoya Hope + Matte About You. Isn't this a great purple to matte? I didn't cover all the polish with topcoat though,so a little glossy polish still remains by my cuticle. Besides that, I love this!

I saved the best for last. Hot Topic Iridescent Purple is already gorgeous. With the matte topcoat, I think it becomes even more dramatic. I love it. I'm going to do a whole manicure with this one and the Essie topcoat. You can see the purple and blue shimmer in it as well.

I'm sold on Essie Matte About You. That's coming from someone who didn't like the matte trend at first! Did you love these purples with a matte topcoat? I did!

LA Girl Matte Polish Contest Winner!

Today, we have a winner for the LA Girl Matte Polish contest!

Uneautre!

I will be sending you an email soon so I can get your mailing address. Thanks for all those who entered my contest! I hope to have more giveaways so keep reading Polished Beauty Blog!

Have a great weekend everyone!

LA Girl Matte Giveaway!!!

After overwhelming response to my poll about this giveaway (11 responses, lol) I have decided to go through with it. Thanks to all who voted! My first giveaway and this makes me happy! Plus, I haven't seen these LA Girl Mattes anywhere. I even checked their website; nothing. I picked three polishes to give away; I know I said four, but things change.

Here is the prize all together:

The colors individually:

Matte Orange. Doesn't it look like orange sherbet?

Matte Pink. I couldn't do a giveaway without giving away my favorite color!

Matte Alpine Green. I just thought this would be a cool green to give away. Reminds me of an old chalkboard.

How to enter: Leave your name and e-mail address in the contest form below! Tell me which one of these colors you like the best. That's it. :-) The contest will end this Friday, September 18th at midnight. Only open to those in the US. Sorry, but I cant afford international shipping just yet.

Thanks for reading Polished Beauty Blog! Good Luck!

Would you be interested in a matte nail polish giveaway?

Hey guys, I saw a LA Girl Matte nail polish display today at the drugstore that was absolutely fabulous! Look:

Now I know some people were sick of the matte trend (raises hand) but these colors have totally shifted my interest! These are not the normal colors I've been seeing from every other collection. Look there's a sherberty-orange on the bottom row! So if you have been interested in matte polish and havent gotten your hands on any yet, a giveaway might be the perfect opportunity. Or if you want to see some new shades that havent been "mattified" then this would be good as well. I would pick 4 shades from this collection to give away. ----> Please take the time to vote in the poll on the right hand side under the about me section and let me know if this giveaway would be worth doing!

If this is not a giveaway you would be interested in leave me some comments on what you would like to see. Thanks for your input!

TJ Maxx and Albertsons Goodies

It's Labor Day for us here in the US! What does that mean for me? A free day from school and work and I'm going to use it to the best of my ability. Shopping! Here are some things I have picked up or spotted last week and the goodies I got today.

First, I tweeted about Albertsons having the Wet n Wild Color Craze collection for $1.49! I even took a picture on the BlackBerry to prove it! Don't sleep on Albertson's. They always have something unexpected,( hello, CND Solar oil? ) or things on clearance in the makeup aisle.

I also picked up Sally Hansen Disco Ball there too:

Sparkly goodness! It was $2.24 I believe.

Last, but not least today I took a trip to TJ Maxx and I found Essie and Barielle goodies! Both for under 9 dollars! I'm on a college student budget so this was right up my alley! I wanted to hug the store associates!

Both of these were 3.99 apiece! They also had Barielle basecoats and topcoats there but the Growth Activator was what I was most interested in so I got that. The Essie kit has a mini crystal nail file! How great is that?! It also includes Pink is the Link nail color and Sensitivity base coat. This set was in support of breast cancer awareness and it came out in 08.

Also while I was at TJ Maxx I spotted Rescue Beauty Lounge bath and spa products! Follow the link to see which ones I'm talking about! At TJ Maxx ranged from $3.99 to $12.99 in price, which is a huge discount because their regular prices start at $20.00! I personally did not like the smells so I didn't pick any up but I'm interested in the quality of the products since they are from RBL.

So are you going to scour the aisle at TJ Maxx and Alberstons now? If you do, let me know what you find!

Sally Hansen Violet Sparks

This is a polish given to me by one of my coworkers :-) Its a polish from Sally Hansen's old Xtreme Wear line and it is a light purple, lavender shimmer. It is pretty sheer, this is three coats + Zoya Armour but I can still see my nail line. On another note, I chopped my nails down again. They were all different lengths; however my index finger is filed funny now that I look at it. LOL