Shopping Haul (Very Pic Heavy!)

Hello Everyone!

My friend Sharon and I recently went shopping in the next city over.  I hit up several stores while I was there and picked up 16 polishes.

First, we hit Shoppers.  I picked up Gosh - Miss Mole and Gosh - Midnight Blue from the discount bin.



Gosh - Miss Mole

Gosh - Midnight Blue

Lots more after the jump.

My Easter Mani aka Spots + Stripes

Hello Everyone!

Just a quick post today to show you my Easter nails.  I wasn't feeling inspired by Easter at all.  I liked some of the polka dotted manis I was seeing so I came up with my own variation.  I used very spring-like colours and threw in some stripes for variety.

The base colour is China Glaze - Peachy Keen and the purples are China Glaze - Gothic Lolita and China Glaze - Sweet Hook.

I'm quite happy with this.  It's sweet and simple without being too easter-ish.  That being said, look for some nail art from me in a day or two.  I've got some ideas rattling in my brain and Monday and Tuesday off so I'll be painting nails. =)

Happy Easter Everyone!

'Til next time,
Amanda

Girly Girl Challenge #8: Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

Helllllo Everyone!!!!
I've stretched out this challenge as long as I possibly can but there is no getting around it.  This is the last one and the challenge is over.  It's been a great run and I've seen some fantastic manicures from my fellow participants.  Really fantastic work everyone!

So this final challenge was : Girls Just Want to Have Fun!

Since I've been doing a few "arty" manis lately, I thought I'd do something a little different and bring out the glitz!

I did a glitter gradient!  This was my first one and I was happy with how it turned out although I wasn't entirely happy with how it photographed.  This is a base colour of China Glaze - White on White with a glitter gradient of Icing - Lemme See Your Peacock.  (What a dirty name!)  The colours didn't capture too well but it is a great mix of peacock blue, a magenta-ish purple and green.  It looked great outside and I wore it all week.   It held up really well!

Thank you so much to the other participants and to Lindsey for bringing us all together.  I had a great time with this challenge! 

Please check out what the other ladies have done for this challenge!

'Til next time,
Amanda

P.S. I did quite a bit of hauling recently that I must show you!

P.P.S. Don"t forget to enter my giveaway here.
Challenge Creator: Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog
Ashley of Follow The Yellow Polish Road
Stephanie of A Little Polish
Kelly of Devilish Polish
Jodi of Captivating Claws
Danielle of Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll!
Elly of Polishable
Olivia of Unprofessional Nails
Kate of This Charming Kate
Bethany of A Plethora of Nails
Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady
Eugenia of Talon-ted
Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind
Ashley of Smashley Sparkles
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Emily of The Lacquerologist
Jess of LuvMyLacquer
Tressa of O' Natur Nail

ChiChi of I'm just me...ChiChi

CR of Color Me Silly
Amanda of Berry Polished
Robin, Erin, and Anna of Polished Cousins

Bonny of Over Stuffed

Taylor of REJOICE!
Jess of Nearly Natural Nails

Giveaway Time!!!! 50 Followers!--Closed!

It's celebration time!  Earlier this week I hit 50 followers (now 58) on this blog and I'm just about to hit 100 followers (99) on my tumblr.  I think that calls for a celebration.  A giveaway celebration!

Here's the prize!

2 polishes by Quo by Orly.  Orly partnered with a Canadian beauty company - Quo last fall to start this line.  These polishes are exclusive to Canada and are therefore somewhat difficult for some of you to obtain.  I thought that would make them perfect for a giveaway! The giveaway is international!

Here's some more shots...

These are swatched from my own personal bottles not giveaway ones.

These polishes are truly gorgeous!  Amazing glass-fleck finishes.

Turquoise Midnight is supposed to be a slightly darker version of Orly's own Haley's Comet. It's a turquoise to blue shifting glass fleck.  Lots of variation of the shades of turquoise.

Celestial Star is also a gorgeous glass fleck finish.  Its glassflecks range from dark blue through indigo and to a deep purple. (Lol- inadvertant classic rock shoutout!)

I hope one of you will be happy to own these gorgeous polishes.

For anyone coming here from tumblr, unfortunately you need to follow me here also to enter but you will get extra credit for the tumblr follow also.

Good Luck Everyone!

Some Rules:
There will be one winner. I will contact them by email and they will have 72 hours to respond. This giveaway is International, however due to importing laws this excludes Italy and possibly others. If your country does not allow import of nail polish and you enter anyway, I am not responsible if package not received. In fact, for anyone, I will ship package but am not responsible if package goes unreceived.

Girly Girl Challenge #7: Sugar & Spice

So I'm warning you now, my interpretation of this round is very strange!

When I was a little girl, my best friend used to pass me notes in class with these things on them.  When I asked what they were, she told me very matter-of-fact-ly, "Killer Cinnamon Buns!"  Like it was the most obvious thing in the world. :)

Well now, that's sugar with some spice!

And so I give you:  Attack of the Killer Cinnamon Buns!

They're gonna eat you as payback for all their kin you've consumed!

I know this is a little crazy but I thought it could work as a silly mani for April Fool's Day too.

Also, it's Jodie's (she who thought up these wicked little creatures!) Birthday next week. 

Happy Birthday Jo!

ETA: Jodie has approved this message!  ;)

So, only one more entry in this challenge to go for me!

Most of the other ladies participating have already completed it but you should check out what they did!

Oh, and...  Happy April Fool's!

'Til next time,

Amanda

Challenge Creator: Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog
Ashley of Follow The Yellow Polish Road
Stephanie of A Little Polish
Kelly of Devilish Polish
Jodi of Captivating Claws
Danielle of Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll!
Elly of Polishable
Olivia of Unprofessional Nails
Kate of This Charming Kate
Bethany of A Plethora of Nails
Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady
Eugenia of Talon-ted
Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind
Ashley of Smashley Sparkles
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Emily of The Lacquerologist
Jess of LuvMyLacquer
Tressa of O' Natur Nail

ChiChi of I'm just me...ChiChi

CR of Color Me Silly
Amanda of Berry Polished
Robin, Erin, and Anna of Polished Cousins

Bonny of Over Stuffed

Taylor of REJOICE!
Jess of Nearly Natural Nails

Girly Girl Challenge #6: Sunflowers and Ladybugs

Hello Everyone!

Here (finally) is my Girly Girl Challenge entry #6.  Day 6 was, Who Inspires You? Show some love to your favourite female role model by creating gorgeous nails in their honour.

So like many of the ladies in this challenge, I chose my Mom.  I thought about choosing something different just for some variety, but, when it comes right down to it, she's inspired me most in my life.

So, these nails are for her...

My Mom really likes both Sunflowers and Ladybugs so I figured, why not both?

This is China Glaze - Smoke and Ashes with Acrylic paint freehanded on.  The Ladybug is China Glaze - Red Pearl.

I really liked how this one turned out.  It's definitely the most involved freehand I've done so far.
I had two sources of inspiration for this:  A metal garden decoration I just bought for my Mom of a Sunflower with a Ladybug on its leaf and an old copy of Painting Magazine from July/August 1994!  It featured a black watering can with Sunflowers on its cover.

I was really thrilled with how this turned out as this was basically how I'd envisioned it.

Please check out what the other lovely ladies participating came up with.  Most, if not all, are up now.  The next round starts tomorrow!

ETA: I've swapped some of these photos out for new ones.  I wasn't happy with how dark those other ones looked.

'Til next time,
Amanda

Challenge Creator: Lindsey of Neverland Nail Blog
Ashley of Follow The Yellow Polish Road
Stephanie of A Little Polish
Kelly of Devilish Polish
Jodi of Captivating Claws
Danielle of Polish. Glitter. Rock & Roll!
Elly of Polishable
Olivia of Unprofessional Nails
Kate of This Charming Kate
Bethany of A Plethora of Nails
Lizzy of The Do It Yourself Lady
Eugenia of Talon-ted
Johanna of Neues vom Kellerkind
Ashley of Smashley Sparkles
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch
Emily of The Lacquerologist
Jess of LuvMyLacquer
Tressa of O' Natur Nail

ChiChi of I'm just me...ChiChi

CR of Color Me Silly
Amanda of Berry Polished
Robin, Erin, and Anna of Polished Cousins

Bonny of Over Stuffed

Taylor of REJOICE!
Jess of Nearly Natural Nails

A Snow Leopard Goes His Own Way

Hi Everyone,

I know I still owe you all a Girly Girl Challenge and that is coming, I promise.  But first, I wanted to do something for the nail art contest at rebecca likes nails.

I like leopard patterns but since I've had so much colour in my manis lately I went for a more subdued colour scheme.  A Snow Leopard! 

One of the leopards is just a little wilder than his buddies! ;) 

I love the colour scheme of dark teal and tan so I went with that.  As I was painting this, I kept singing that old Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the others..."

This is Base Colour - China Glaze White on White.  Spot on all except ring are China Glaze Fast Track.  Ring spots are China Glaze Shower Together.  Black lines are China Glaze Liquid Leather.

I freehanded the pattern and am pretty happy with how it came out!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post.  It's finally my GGC#6 post.  I'm absolutely in love with how it came out.  So, that's up next.

Anyway, what do you think?

'Til next time,

Amanda