The Winner of the Breast Cancer Awareness Giveaway is Announced

T'was the night before Halloween

And all through the room

Not a sound was heard

It was just like a tomb.

The gifts were lined up

It was a pink giveaway,

Whose name would be picked

The items sent their way.

A pink mesh bag

Held the entries to pick,

Ready to be drawn

I can’t wait; be quick!

It is now time to reveal

The name of the pink diva.

You are the winner

And your name is Eva!!!

copyright Kimberly Purcell

 My office doubles as my workout room.  I set the mesh bag next to my pink kettlebell.  I purchased this kettlebell several years ago.  The man I bought it from was contributing the profits from the pink 'bells to the Susan G Komen organization in honor of his mother.  She had passed from breast cancer.

Using random.org just seemed too impersonal to use to draw the winner this time.  I wanted to be more involved.  So I typed up every entry, cut them and put them in this bag.

Then I asked my husband to pick out just one entry.

And the name he drew was EVA, who follows as Evil Eva12.  An email is coming your way, Eva.  Congratulations, my dear!!!

And many, many thanks to everyone who entered and follows me.

If Love Bites, Does It Mean It Has Teeth?

Well, it's not the same as having your toes nibbled on, however...

Now I am acquiring too many (did I just say that??) polishes because I don't remember where I got this one!!!  Ack!  I am fairly confident that I got it at Rue 21.  And it was on clearance.  But it was such a cool blue, I bit.  ;)

Sorry, but I do not like to have my toes nibbled on.  Libby likes to kiss my toes occasionally and that's OK.  However, Love Bites is just for a pedicure...

No name on this color.  How about 'Itsy Bitsy Blue'?  Guest appearance by Sebastian, a seal-point Ragdoll.  Note: see how clever I am by getting carpet that is very close to the same color as the cat?  Yea, that's thinking with the ol' noodle!!!

Hey, Sebastian!!!  You're stealing the show here!

Definitely blue and sparkles galore to it.  Perfect toe polish.  This is just 2 coats with a Seche Clear and one Vite.  Wore quite well.  Applied way better than I expected for an unknown brand.  The bottle states that this polish is a 3-N-1.  It's a base, color and top coat all in one.  I'm sure that leads to its durability.  The brush wasn't one of those skinny ones, but a normal sized polish brush. 
I'm pretty pleased with this blue polish.  And I will wear it again as a fingernail polish next time.  Just a durn good-looking, fun 'Itsy Bitsy Blue.'

Wearing blue polish on my toes makes me feel so happy.  Do you have a polish that's your 'happy' polish?

It Was A Cold And Dreary Night...

...but, it was NOT in Orlando, FL.  Almost 90 degrees last week and now next week too?  Ugh, can it at LEAST get down to 80???  Just gives my brother another opportunity to rub it in how wonderful the weather is in Colorado.  (He better be careful; I just might move in, AGAIN, with him and his family!!!!)

I swear it feels more like the end of August instead of Halloween.  Sigh, such is Florida.

My Halloween manicures help give me a bit of the 'spirit' of the holiday.

First up is one of the coolest Halloween polishes I've seen in a long time...

China Glaze's 'Ick-A-Body.'  I get the name, but the 'Ick' part was when I went to remove the polish.  Holy cuss words!  But first, let me mention that the first coat of this was terrible.  It's where you get to see, at least, that the base color is a sick, swampy green.  So, it took about the third coat for it to come around and look like the other photos I have seen on other blogs.

I have on a BC, 3 coats of Ick-A-Body, 2 coats of Seche Clear and two coats of Seche Vite that was thicker than slime off a Zombie.  However, I have started a new work project and horror, upon horrors!!!!!!....I end up using my nails as tools.  Bad, Kimberly, bad!!!  Thus, there is wear on this after 2 days.  Which isn't as bad as it should be, thanks to that second coat of Vite glob.

Yes, the polish was gritty and it took a bit of effort to get the glitter to stay down by the cuticle, and it was really hard (OK, it was a royal *%^#$) to clean up because that micro-glitter was stubborn as a three-year-old or, a getting a husband to come kill a spider in the corner of the ceiling.  I didn't mind at all, though.  I think this is one WICKED polish!!!

But, since Halloween is coming to a close...
{Entering a nicely cued plug for my Breast Cancer Awareness giveaway  ending tomorrow night at 10 PM EST} I wanted to move on to my traditional Halloween polish.

Wet'n'Wild's Fantasy Makers collection...'Vamp Red.'  I have no idea how long this polish has been 'dead', I've had it that long.  It showed its age this year by being a thick witch's brew.  I have on 3 coats of the color and had to put on 2 coats of Vite to smooth it out.  But the best part is the packaging; I love the tombstone!!

The deepest of black red, this is one of my very favorite colors.  Funny coming from a nail blogger that promotes pink, eh?  Vamp Red did not hold up at all.  Regardless of using a base coat and two layers of Seche Clear.  Chipped away like the confession of a mom that raids her kids' Halloween candy.  Sorry, Vamp, you went from 'Vamp' to 'Tramp' by chipping off.

And, last....I think this guy is going to be my only Trick-or-Treater...

He showed up on my patio when I went out to take some photos tonight.  When I asked this chameleon what he was dressed up to be, he just said 'Gecko!'  I gave him a gnat and he was quite happy.  Look at how long his tail is!  I noticed this year the tails were longer than usual.  Hopefully, it helps them escape from being a 'treat' to a bird.

Happy Halloween, dear readers.  If tomorrow is your New Year's Eve, Happy Samhain to you!

Mocha Mish Mash Has An Early Holiday Giveaway

What a giveaway bonanza I have to share with you! 

Mocha Mish Mash is truly one of my favorite blogs.  Tamara owns this beauty blog and does a fine job with it.  Now, she's doing a fine job of hosting a giveaway.  She's itchin' to get the holidays started.  I'm OK with that!

If Tamara was Santa and you won this giveaway, you'd know that this is no lump of coal!!!

Cool things in the giveaway...

Nail polish, makeup, nail stickers, stamping kit and makeup tools...WooT!!!

Click here , read the rules and enter away!!

A Giveaway To Honor Breast Cancer Awareness

It has been a full month of pink.  Of course, Libby LOVES pink.  However, the pink for this month is to raise awareness about breast cancer.  And it's a cause I like to contribute to.  I made some purchases that contribute to the awareness and you can get the goodies!

Here are some of the items in my Breast Cancer Awareness giveaway.  I love that OPI contributes to breast cancer awareness.  Each year they sell a pink polish that donates proceeds for awareness.  This color is 'Pink of Hearts 2010.'

The color is more light pink than this photo shows.  And I really wanted to capture the teeny tiny shimmers; it's not really a frost.  It's just a cute, fun pink!

How about candy that donates?  That was easy!

Can you see the pink ribbon on the York Peppermint Patty?  Seche Vite has a bottle with a pink bracelet.

Can you see the plastic pink ribbon on top of the fluff on the pen?  When you write, it lights up!  I like girly pens because, in my house, no one else is going to be caught using them.  Hee heee!

And the other items are just to make the giveaway a tad bit juicier!
The Piggy Polish is called 'Pink-nic.'  It is an orangy-pink, especially next to 'Pink of Hearts.'  However, there is micro-glitter in this that is fuchsia.  Darling!!!

I have a Mega Mixer lip balm from Wet'N'Wild named 'Electric Lemonade.'  Another yummy!  And I found a Sally Hansen pink file for fragile nails.

There's going to be a few other things added but that's what's fun about my giveaways; there's always a bit more in it than I show.  I love pleasant surprises!!

My story:  I had a scare when I was  34 years old.  I had to have a tumor removed from my left breast.  In my heart of hearts, I knew it wasn't cancerous.  But my doctor didn't.  Several days after surgery, she called me to tell me it was benign.  I just have that 'spooky-ness' that I knew already.  I wasn't afraid at any point. 

I asked a dear friend to think about me the day I went in for surgery, she said she would.  When I called her the next day I told her I could feel her presence with me but there was also someone else, and I thought that was unusual (like all the rest wasn't!!).  She said that she had one of her friends come over and they both focused on sending me healing thoughts.  No matter how I look at this, it had a perfect outcome.

Here are the rules for the Breast Cancer Awareness giveaway:

MANDATORY (1 SINGLE ENTRY)
*1)  You must be a follower of my blog.  Note this in your comment and what name you use.  You must have your email address on every entry you make.

EXTRA ENTRY OPPORTUNITIES
*2)  Tweet about it and let me know.  1 extra entry
*3)  Post about this on your Facebook, let me know.  1 extra entry.
*4)  Post this to your blog, put on the sidebar, on your listing giveaways, anyway is good, as long as you have it somewhere visible on your blog. Give me the link and link it back here. 3 extra entries on this one.



Giveaway is international.  You can do all entries on one comment or each individually, just make sure you put your email address on each entry.  Any entry that doesn't have an email address, gets removed from the entries.  If you have won with me before, you can still enter! 

This giveaway closes on 10/30/10 at 10 PM EST.  Thanks for helping me contribute to a great cause.

Being a Nail Polish Matchmaker

Borghese Nail Polish as always struck me as a chic and cosmopolitan company.  Truthfully, I have no idea about them.  It's purely on speculation.  It's from the name, from the shape of the bottle and right down to the sophisticated colors.
Here's 'Bella Berry'...

Almost sounds like 'Build-A-Bear'!  hee hee!

Just the slightest bit of tip wear after 2 days.  Enough to annoy me.  However, the polish applied easily.  I could have gotten away with 2 coats but I did three.  I have Seche Clear and then Vite on top.

A true vampy color, I just adore!

I know this will be annoying to some that I have failed to do a decent clean up.  I'm blaming it on not having enough corrector pens.  The only one I had at the time was smeared from a blue polish prior.  Eh, I'll just admire the deep, velvety purple color instead.  I must say, vampy colors are truly the only creme polishes I love.

Before moving on to the next mani, I put on an overlay, just to play...

From one of Revlon's newer collections, this is 'Slipper.'  Created to be a top coat, this one WILL be showing up again later in the year on this blog.  Glittery goodness!!

Provided this had been a 'fresh' manicure, this would have been a complete success.  A happy marriage of Borghese's 'Bella Berry' and Revlon's 'Slipper.'

Are you over all these 'Twilight' references as I am?  Do you hope vampy colors stay in vogue for a long time?  I think they are staples just like jeans and blazers; they'll always be around.

The Next Big Thing in Nail Art Design

This proves that I am a magpie at heart.  I hope that this can become the 'next big thing.'  And, I found it!  I met the owner.  And I got my own set of nails.  First, this is what I first saw...

OK, I saw the kiosk with a sign mentioning nails.  I had work to do so I just made a mental note to check this out when I was finished.

I stopped by hoping I wouldn't get a hard sale.  What I did get was totally blown away!  I was greeted by the Founder of this company: Moritz Sticher.   His company: Nail Nuk. 

Moritz was all smiles and just about as excited as I was as he explained the concept of his business...making your own design fake nails!!!

This machine is incredible.  He can take a photo of you right there.  See me on the screen taking the photo?  Notice my gaping mouth!  And, see that design framing my photo?  That image can be put on a set of fake finger nails or toe nails!  Check out the set of blank nails at the bottom ready to be created.

If I would have had a photo of Libby, she would have been my choice for this blog debute!!  However, Moritz showed me a folder that had hundreds of pre-drawn imagines.  He had a whole page just of Halloween designs.  That's what I wanted.

I picked out a cute witch all in PINK!!!  Moritz showed me, on the monitor, that I could change the basic color scheme to purple, blue, then green.  No! I begged!  It HAS to be pink!!

Here's my printed set, made right before my eyes...

I'm holding it upside down.  But I got to chose which way I wanted the design to face. 

The design is more intricate that any freehand art you could find.  Moritz told me I could even pick any design and put it on long tips, take it to the nail salon and have it put on with a clear acrylic coating that would allow the nail to remain on for about 2 weeks.  By keeping a clear top coat on the nails, it will keep the ink from showing wear.

With the set, you get 2 sets of ten nails, a long plastic wrapper to store the nails, a set of nail sticky tape and a small tube of nail glue.  I got all this for their grand opening price of $9.99.  I freaked on the price because you can't even get a regular manicure for that price!

Hell, yes I'm excited!!!  Moritz just opened his business 2 weeks ago.  He moved here to Orlando from Germany to start Nail Nuk.  He only has this kiosk open at this time but, look out!  It is not going to take any time for this company to spread!

Moritz found out fast about my passion for nails and about my blog.  I told him that I could NOT wait to share this with all my followers.  And, I said that I would definitely be getting these as giveaways!  The winner could pick her own photo to use or, any of the 100's of pre-designed art with the options of basic color schemes, solid colors and, even just the tips designed with your own nail bed showing.

I promised Moritz that I would share this new nail art concept with you and present to you his company's website.  That link takes you to my pink witch design.  Here's his home page.
The online store has free shipping right now and ships within North America.  Let me stress that this is not Minx, nor is it any affiliation to that company or concept.

I'm going to present my pink witchies this weekend for you.  I am so excited!!!!  I just can't imagine all of the endless ways to create your own set of fake nail art.  And, I'm excited to be the first to get to show it!!!

Be Assured, I Am Still In the Game

As a freelance merchandiser, I'm always on the lookout for what I call 'forever projects.'  These are jobs that do not have an ending date.  I can do the project for as long as I want/like.  So, I have a new one that is huge!  It's not a new, per se, to me, job.  I did this same work when I lived In Virginia Beach.  I'm just doing it with a different company here in Orlando.

And with holidays coming around the corner, well...I should be honest; with LOTS of nail polish and makeup collections coming out for the holidays, I will take the extra money.

Just wanted to post that I am not abandoning my blog.  No Way!  And I'm working on one more giveaway to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Also, I'll share my own story about my close call.

In the meantime, I'd like to share some photos with you.

It's Orlando and there are tons of landscaping here.  I have clients that are hotels and they will have the most beautiful foliage and flowers.

I highlighted my hair for the first time evaaa!  The base color is darker than I like but the highlights didn't come out orange.  No hair styling or makeup going on here, so just look at the hair color...please!

I did a swatch on the "Love Bites" polish and Libby's real brother, Sebastian, came in and just plopped down.  This is one BIG cat!!  He's going to be 7 years old in February.  And he's almost 13#.  Ragdoll breeds are large cats so he isn't unusual for that breed.  And, he is as soft as he looks.

Here I am with my bestie's little besties!  Just to prove that I really do NOT scare away children.

I won a PilatesStick in a drawing on Facebook.  This is Libby checking it out before I take the equipment out of the box .  Libby doesn't do Pilates.  She likes to hang around when I do it though.  Pssst....don't tell Libby because it would hurt her feelings, but with her tummy, she really could benefit from Pilates.  What a visual; a cat doing The Hundred!!!!  Haaa haaa!

Lastly, there is a lot of upset going on in nail/makeup blog world.  There is a website/blogs that are stealing, not only photos, not only articles, but even the followers' comments.  Very low and dirty.  If you are a follower of any blog that is doing this, I ask you to unfollow them.  I'm going to ask permission first from the great blogs I follow that are being stolen from before I name names.  I just want to throw that out there that this is an issue and I hope it can be stopped.

Dear readers, you will always get original stuff from me.  If I use anyone else's stuff, I will get permission first and note and link back to original owner; no stealing here.  And with that, thank you for being a reader of my blog.

A Kaleidoscope Of A Better Place

It was a heart-breaking day when I found out  Michael Jackson had died.  The reality couldn't sink in.  I wanted the news to be wrong and come back and retract what had been reported.  But it didn't happen.

Even though I don't watch a lot of TV, I watched the funeral.  Then, I went to the movie, 'This Is It', and cried all over again.

How could I not think of MJ when I saw the name of this polish by Sinful Colors?

 Rats!  The photo didn't pick up the gold and iridescent micro-glitter.  Twirling the bottle around reminds me of a kaleidoscope.   I had one when I was little and literally played with it for hours.  Well, you KNOW that was well before the 'digital' age. :)

Even though 'This Is It' was thin, I put on enough coats to give it some depth.  I was determined to get that kaleidoscope of micro glitters to twinkle of my nails.

And yes, I do have my bare foot propped right up on my antique desk.  lol  I'm a bit sorry I put this on my toes because, well, my toes don't get as close to my face as it used to.  However, my foot does come up enough for me to put it in my mouth.

If you have never used Sinful Colors before, they are a very inexpensive nail polish treat you can get at Walgreens for $1.99.  Very often they will have them on sale at $.99.  Even though one color can last forever, a bag full of them will last long enough for you to know you should become a nail polish blogger.

'This Is It', in typical Sinful Colors fashion, has a chubby top and, I feel that it's easy to hold.  The brush is long and a bit on the skinny side so it can take a few extra strokes to cover a nail.  I'm going to say that this is a gold jelly that has the micro glitter kaleidoscope suspended within it.  There is no problem at all with that glitter transferring onto the nail.  However, because it is a thin polish,  I had to use about 5 thin coats to get enough coverage to make me happy.  I finished with Seche Clear and then Vite.

And I can't close this post without sharing my favorite MJ song:
The Man in the Mirror
There Will Only Be One King Of Pop ~ RIP

300 Followers Giveaway Winner

Random.Org assisted with choosing a winning number.  Total valid entries was 187; chosen number was 154. 

Entry #154 is Jacenda Leeann at Kiss 'N Makeup Blog.

Congrats to Miss Jacenda!!!  And let me recommend her beautifully done blog!!!

I sent you an email, Jacenda, so shoot me one back.

Everybody, thanks a bunch for your well wishes and comments.  What a kind and lovely bunch you all are.  I have a total of 312 followers and I hope you all do follow and enjoy my blog.

I'm going to have one more giveaway before the end of the month with the theme around Breast Cancer Awareness.


Love you, girls!!!

Glowing Pumpkin Fun

Oh, my goodness!  I love a good treat and only a fun, harmless trick.  I got a little of both with these polishes.

These two are glow-in-the-dark polishes.  I've had them for several years.  Truly, the polishes barely glow but I love these stinkin' lil' pumpkins.

 Sally's had some Savvy color collections this summer and the colors were just yummy!  However, what's in the bottle does NOT translate onto the nail.  I knew that, since that seems to be the Savvy way.  I'm really glad that I didn't pay pull price for this one.  It's 'Fairy Twinkle' I have on here.  {They had a 'Fairy Tinkle' but it was a terrible yellow; not appealing!  ;) }  Very sheer and something I wouldn't hesitate to let a young child wear.

I knew better than to get my hopes up but, crap!  Look how pretty this bright pastel pink is with the gold micro-glitter!  It still looked very 'gossamer' on my nails though.

The Savvy summer collections had shimmers too.  I got this one, NOT on sale.  I couldn't resist this color...

'Orange You Happy' did make me happy.  I feel it's a summer orange but, it does work well for Halloween too.  I like the yellow color veins through this.

After 3 coats, this color is almost opaque.  Very high shine.

So, with the couple of pumpkins I showed at the opened of this post, I think you see where I'm heading.

'Fairy Twinkle' got a hint of some iridescent sparkles from the pink pumpkin polish.  The iridescent color just blended into the faint pink.

It didn't change the 'Orange You Happy' much either, save for giving iridescent sparkles.  Faint but there.

You might wonder if these pumpkin colors really do glow.  I went to my friend's house with these so I could paint her 8 year-old daugther's nails.  Just as I had done, one hand was orange, the other pink.  She held them up to the window for a bit, then we ran into the laundry room, lights out and they gave off a hint of glow.  Enough to put a smile on a little girl's face.  Her almost 4 year old brother wanted his nails painted so bad.  But his mommy didn't want a little boy to have polish one.  I talked her into letting me put orange on  just one toe nail.  We ran into the laundry room and he was as pleased as punch to have one glowing toe.

As far as the Savvy polishes, I'm going to keep 'Orange You Happy' because I am happy with it.  'Fairy Twinkle' will be tested as an overlay someday or, go into a box for later frankens.

One last thing: my latest giveaway ends tonight at 10 PM, EST.  Check it out and enter!!!