ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! China Glaze Glitz 'n Pieces...and other surprises!

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, long time no see! I'm RIDICULOUSLY sorry to be posting so late, and so infrequently. I just simply run out of time to post amongst everything else going on with internship and the time I'm away from home (I leave my house at 6:30 in the morning and often don't get home until 7 at night or later...).

BUT I have some fantastic things for you all tonight! First of all, tomorrow, March 1, 2013 (or today depending on when you're reading this!) is my ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! I can't believe I've been blogging for a whole year already! I remember clearly my first post (which is really funny to go back to) was done when I had a snow day at the school I work at, and I tried a water marble for the first time.

Since that first post, my polish collection has doubled, or possibly tripled. I'm close to the 300 mark on polishes, which may not seem like a lot but probably more than anyone I know has. (Except maybe one of my friends, she knows who she is!) I feel like I'm getting a good routine down with my pictures, I'm getting bolder in my polish purchases, and overall learning much more about formula, color combinations, polishing technique, brands/types of polishes, and even certain nail art techniques (though nail art is still not a strength of mine).

And NONE of that would have happened if I didn't have sweet readers like YOU GUYS, who have followed my Facebook page and read my blog posts over time. While my numbers are still small, that is my own doing: I am not active enough for my readers, my pictures always seemed mediocre, and my nail care was never amazing. But those that have still followed what I post: THANK YOU SO MUCH, YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!!! Also, following other bloggers has helped me hone in on what I should be doing. For example, The Polish-Aholic did a post on taking and editing pics, and it helped tremendously!

This evening is probably some of my best pictures I've done, but this polish is probably one of my new favorites. Being that I'm Sparkle and Shine, this polish certainly fits the bill! I have China Glaze Glitz 'n Pieces over OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (perfect barely-off-white for layering!). Glitz 'n Pieces is from the new Glitz Bitz 'n Pieces collection (I'm not 100% sure I have that name right), which are 6 similar glitters. This one has small and medium silver hex glitter, medium and large black hex glitter, and black bar glitter (which doesn't come across hairy at all in this combination). The other colors in the collection have the same black "pieces" with different colors of glitters or "Glitz" I know putting this one over a white wasn't the most creative combination, but it's neutral enough for matching outfits at work, and I've gotten TONS of compliments from co-workers and my high school students! 

You'll have to pardon the rough cuticles and booboo on the ring finger, it's been a rough winter, but I found a six-pack of OPI Avojuice lotions on clearance at Ulta the other day, so I'm trying to stay lotioned as much as possible!

Sooooooo,do you like Glitz ' Pieces? Want your own bottle? Wellllllll, for my one-year blogiversary, I'm going to give one lucky winner three of the colors from the Glitz 'n Pieces collection that they want! From a blog called Sparkle and Shine Nails, it was only necessary! Just a few ground rules:

1.) Please follow the Rafflecoptor instructions for entry (they aren't very demanding :-D) Giveaway runs until March 17, 2013 at midnight EST (St. Patrick's Day!). Winner will be announced Monday evening on Facebook and e-mailed. They will then have 48 hours to respond, or a new winner will be chosen.
2.) Please only US Residents for this one :-( My goal was to have international shipping figured out by the time this came around, but alas I cannot (someday ladies!)
3.) Please remember this giveaway is IN NO WAY AFFILIATED WITH FACEBOOK.
4.) Have fun, thanks for supporting me for the past year, and good luck! Feel free to e-mail me with any questions at sparkleandshinenailz@gmail.com

Peace!
-Jessica (Sparkle and Shine Nails)
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Haul Time! I don't even know where to begin!

OMGOODNESS, it's been a great week in polish purchasing! So, I was afraid that starting my internship I would A.) have no money (which I don't really, but somehow saved well enough), and B.) have no places to purchase nail polish.

WELL, I WAS WRONG! I found the Ulta 20 minutes away from the school I'm interning at (found a Sally's too that sucked!), found a great BOGO deal at Overall Beauty, and even hit up some local drugstores! So, without further ado...

L-R: Sally Hansen Glass Slippers, Essie Penny Talk, Revlon Popular, Girly, Scandalous, Nicole by OPI Inner Sparkle and Selena. (These were found at random drugstores or Wal-Mart)

L-R: Revlon Midnight Affair and Blue Lagoon, OPI The Living Daylights, Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, and The World is Not Enough (The OPI polishes at a local drugstore were $4.00, and the Revlon ones were $1.00!)

L-R: Piggy Polish Lightmare, China Glaze Glistening Snow, Essie Love & Acceptance, Zoya Aurora and Jolene (Clearance at Ulta with a 20% off coupon!)

L-R: Sea Lore Arctic Otter and Snowy Seal, piCture pOlish Mallard (*die*), Nostalgic Nail Lacquers Way Harsh and Rollin' With the Homies (*die again*). (These were part of a BOGO deal at Overall Beauty. Except Mallard, that was necessary).

 

Is this not amazing?!?!?!? So now I don't know what to do with myself, what do I use first, what do I pair together...I did use a couple of these since posting, but really only one or two...which is good because at this rate I may need to do a no-buy for March on necessity! BUT, I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get there. For now...

Peace!
-Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

Holy Bright!! LA Colors Flicker with OPI Black Shatter

Okay, okay, okay, I know you're first going to say "ERMAHGERD NO MORE CRACKLE/SHATTER/FRACTURED/SHREDDED!!!!!!" But! This is to amazing to pass up, even though its probably coming off tonight because its a little much for a school counseling office, lol. (I wanted to save it for a party Friday night, but I'm supposed to wear red on Friday...)

I took the brightest polish I own and crackled on it, but what is the brightest, you may ask?  Well, here you will find LA Colors in Flicker. This is the essence of highlighter neon yellow, and its generally only $1-2, I got it for $1 at Dollar General! Now, the formula is kind of thin and sheer, so I did one thick coat over Sally Hansen White On to make it POP, but it looked amazing. I then was hoping the shatter would dull it down a little, but it really just made it very edgy and bold (*cough*80's!*cough*).

Like I said, this would be fantastic for a party, just a LITTLE much for a school setting. What do you think?

Peace!
-Jessica

PS. The pictures are captionless at the end because I'm using my phone app to write this post.

Polish Haul! I've been on a roll...

So while school and work have been incredibly overwhelming, I have had polish to keep me sane :-). I haven't kept the best track of my mani's thus far, but I HAVE picked up quite a few polishes in the past couple of weeks! I'm hoping to be able to show some of this off in the near future, depending on how much I want to procrastinate on graduate work, lol.

So I'll start with my little haul from approximately two weeks ago. This is from three places: Sally Beauty, Beauty PLUS, and Hot Topic.

From left to right: Finger Paints Easel-y Entertained and Where Art Renoir?, China Glaze Desert Sun and Jungle Queen, OPI Super Bass Shatter, China Glaze Hello Gorgeous, Color Club Worth the Risque (holo version!)  and Wink Wink Twinkle, and a Hot Topic Blue glow-in-the-dark skull polish

And here was one mani I did after getting this haul:

One coat of Finger Paints Where Art Renoir? with a coat of China Glaze Hello Gorgeous. Check that holographic sparkle!!!

 Then yesterday, I had the day from HELL at work. So I hit up Sally Beauty again, who is having a 50% off all clearance items sale...so I got the following:

China Glaze Halloween pack with Roughish Red, Glitter Goblin, Bizarre Blurple, and Ghoulish Glow. Orly Flash Glam FX Mermaid Tale and Sashay My Way, Finger Paints Fall of Surprises, and China Glaze Swanky Silk

And then today I had some amazing nail mail! I had ordered a grab bag from Jen over at Jen's Nail Files. She guaranteed ten polishes and at least one full size indie. WELL, she definitely gave what she promises and more!

Julep Boris and Nicole, OPI Didgeridoo Your Nails, Color Club Hot Like Lava, China Glaze Skyscraper, Confetti Pink Confetti, and Tip Top Rocky Road Glitter

Claire's Flamingo Feather, F4 Hawaiian Punch mini, Darling Diva Antares, Creative King's Ransom, Monster Mixers and Elixers Stratosphere mini, Spoiled Use Protection, and Avon Stunning Cobalt

WOW! I ended up with one full size indie, two mini indies, and a total of 11 full size and two mini bottles of polish. *Billy Mays style* BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!

Halloween Candy!

Bag of goodies including dolphin nail file, witch eraser, two mini vials of glitters, a notepad, and four magic grow beans.

Like, I'm looking at this influx of new polishes dreaming of the different combinations possible! Do I put the Hawaiian punch over the Flamingo Feather? Stratosphere over Stunning Cobalt? Rocky Road Glitter over Hot Topic glow in the dark? Ghoulish Glow under Super Bass Shatter?

What do you guys think I should do with some of this? I did show one combo, because it was GORGEOUS and I had it on for like, four days without chipping! Anything else?

Good night!
-Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

Sorry for the delay! Here's a 10 day challenge...

So I've been out of touch with my Blogger, school as started both for me and the students in the class I'm a T.A. in, so time is of the essence nowadays. BUT I've still gotten to paint my nails, and even join in Erica's Nails and More 10 Day Challenge! She's decided to cut down the time on a nail art challenge, which is PERFECT for me at the moment. But I'm gonna give you guys a lowdown on the first half of the challenge (with a little sneak-peak at some of my entries :-O!).

Day 1: Favorite Color. If you check out this blog (just opening the page gives it away!), my favorite color is purple. And my favorite polish color/finish is sparkle/holographic. SO I did a base of China Glaze Stone Cold with Claire's Night Sky holographic glitter, then did stripes of my most prized polish I own, Color Club Fashion Addict (also my favorite color!)

Day 2: Favorite Animal. Since I first read the Harry Potter series, I've had a thing for owls. So here I did Zoya Angelina with China Glaze Oxidized Aqua for the wings and other fingers. I did L.A. Colors Atomic for the belly, Zoya Paz for the beak, and Sally Hansen White On with a Sinful Colors shimmer black nail art polish for the eyes.

 Day 3: Favorite Season. Now, I wanted to go a little out of the box for this one, and my fingers needed a break. So I did my current favorite time of year, football season! I'm a HUGE NY Giants fan, so I had to do red and blue! It's OPI Swimsuit...Nailed It! and A Out Bit of Red, with China Glaze Unplugged and Sally Hansen White On for the football.

*sneak peak* Day 4: Saran Wrap Nails. I had never done this form of nail art before, but it turned out to be just as easy as sponging on polish. You paint your base and let it dry COMPLETELY (I don't think I let it dry enough). Then you paint a layer of the other color on and, while wet, dab a balled up piece of saran wrap on it. I didn't love the results, but it was easy. This is OPI Pepe's Purple Passion and Pink Friday, with a touch of Orly 54 (Sparkle and Shine at least needs a little shimmer!)

*sneak peak* Day 5: Gradient Nails. I've done this technique three times before, and this is so far my best attempt (my gummy worm nails for my last challenge were an utter fail, and my candy corn nails were...better). I learned you need less polish on the sponge, which is how my pinky turned out so well. This is my metallic duo-chrome gradient, with Ulta Jaded as the base and China Glaze Deviantly Daring as the second color.

So there you have the first part of this 10-day challenge! I will probably post the other five at the end of the challenge, and you can go to Erica's Facebook page to see all the contestants as they post throughout the day :-)

<3 Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

NOTD (or night!): OPI Swimsuit...Nailed It!

Wow, I haven't posted a BLOG post in weeks!! I got caught up in the 31 Day Challenge, check out my Facebook page, there's a 31 Day Challenge album with all the pics. I've also put too much emphasis on Facebook and not enough on my actual blog, I'm such a bad nail polish blogger!!!!

So now that I've had some freedom with my nails and a little time, I've picked up some polishes along the way. One I found for pretty cheap at Ulta the other day was OPI's Swimsuit...Nailed It!! It's a VERY pretty royal blue with what looks like some type of micro-shimmer, giving it a foil-like metallic look. OPI's formula is generally very easy to work with, this being no exception. Two coats to full opacity. Ovearll, LOVE the color and the polish itself!  The pictures get progressively clearer, I promise!

So those were my nails for this evening, I had a church event that I wanted to look presentable for, and thought this color wasn't as OUTRAGEOUS as I may go, but not boring, either!! So it's a short and sweet post for the night.

Future posts:
-Current swatches!
-Polish list!
-Wish list!
-*coughCOUGHcough*giveaway?*cough*

Stay tuned!!

Nail Art: Little Owl

So my nail art skills are limited, I will definitely admit. BUT I do have a thing for owls. They are my favorite animal, and yes this is very much due to my love for the Harry Potter series (I WILL be doing Harry Potter nails in the future). And I always feel I can paint them on my nails, even if it doesn't REALLY look as much like an owl as I would hope. Regardless, I'm sharing my little fella' today because I am on house cleaning duty during my break at work (yay working in a school!), and he's gonna get chipped off as soon as my hand go in the dishwater!

Now, I will say, I actually did these nails yesterday morning so I would have them for my grad class last night, but I never had the chance to post them. And after the house gets clean today, I have an epic candy-based design plan using SEVEN different polishes, which I may or may not do tonight:-)

This is China Glaze Luxe and Lush over Four Leaf Clover. The owl design in done with both of those colors, along with OPI Did it on 'em for the wings and belly, and Sinful Colors nail art polishes for the beak and eyes.

So is he as cute as I thought? I kind of want to name him before my messy apartment peels him off, and I get the feeling he's a male owl...is that weird of me? :-P

Nail Art: Spring!

Hello guys! So my Facebook following is slowly growing, I'm almost to 20 likes! For anyone here NOT following me on Facebook, I've been talking about trying a giveaway when I get 50 likes. I've been apprehensive about doing giveaways, but I like the idea of giving back to such a fun community :-)

So today I really needed a pick-me-up from my nails, after having FOUR students in my class be sent to the principal, along with a nice, but timid substitute (I'm an assistant in a special ed behavioral class, but that's still a lot out of eleven!). Today was exhausting, but at least I had a cute spring mani! Here we are:

The pink background: OPI Pink Friday
The sparkle: China Glaze Fairy Dust
The blue petals: Color Club Wicked Sweet
The stem/leaves: OPI Did It On 'Em
The yellow center: Sinful Colors Morning Breath Nail Art

I know it's not overly impressive, but for me this is quite the accomplishment, and it's adorable!! :-) (Not to mention has a touch of sparkle, what can go wrong?)

Old Mani's

So as I've said before, I have some pictures of different nails I've had since last October. I've only used my phone to take these pictures, but I still want to share some of them, because some of them are pretty cool :-)

This was a polka-dot mani I did freehand in January. The purple is L.A. Colors "Nuclear Energy" with an L.A. Colors white nail art polish for the dots (I did them freehand with the art brush, this was done before I discovered a dotting tool). You can't see it in the picture, but there was also one coat of Orly's "54" on top, which is a very sheer pink shimmer/sparkle. Overall it was really cute :-)

So another blog I follow, Nails Never Fails talked about a "jelly sandwich" mani, using a jelly-type polish with a layer of glitter. So this is OPI's "It's a Girl!" as a base, with a layer of Wet N' Wild's "Sparked" in the middle, and then the "It's a Girl!" on top. It was the coolest thing, the glitter looked suspended in the polish. Therefore, because of this, I bought "Translucent" by Color Club to try this mani again.

Finally, this is probably my proudest mani. These were my Halloween nails, and it was AWESOME! There are three stripes of color underneath: Wet N' Wild's "Sage in the City" for the green, Pure Ice's "Hot Tamale" for the orange, and L.A. Color's "Amethyst" for the purple. I have Color Club's Black Fractured on top. Love this, and will try this type of  mani for another holiday (I have some of China Glaze's metallic crackles that will be nice for spring/Easter).