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

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.

Pokemon Nail Art Challenge: Week 1 Grass Type

Sooooooooo I've been going a little crazy lately getting my school counseling internship started, but I found something fun to do on the weekends! Adventures of the Nail Friends and The Blahg are hosting a Pokemon Nail Art Challenge using the original 151 Pokemon!

Didn't know I had that much nerd in me? I totally do, and I think I did my nerd self proud this time around. Now, the introduction to the challenge was just pokeballs, and then the first week is Grass type. Each week is a different type of Pokemon (there is a picture at AofNF's blog that outlines it), but I ended up combining my grass type with the introductory post to get things started :-).

So, without further ado..

Bellsprout!

Blurry closeup.

I used lots of different polishes for this one. The pokeballs are OPI Alpine Snow and Big Apple Red, with a Sinful Colors black striping polish. Bellsprout is a yellow Sinful Colors striping polish for the head, Zoya Angelina for the stem-like body, Wet 'n Wild Sage in the City for the leaves, and OPI Pink Friday for the mouth.

Here's the links to everyone else's posts!


Peace!
Jessica (Sparkle and Shine)

Quickie for approximately $4.00!

Good morning! So as an attempt to be more active, I did a quickie mani last night that I'm actually loving today! I knew I had a lot of cleaning and work to do today that was going to ruin my nails, so I wanted something quick, easy, and honestly, cheaper.

Now, I don't want to present myself as a polish snob. Every polish I own has a special place for me, because all brands have something unique to bring to the table. However, it is a fact that some brands cost more than others. While I don't own any "high end" brands such as Deborah Lippman, Dior, or Butter London, my OPI's and Zoya's cost more than my Wet 'n Wild's and Sally Hansen's (even if I didn't pay full price for them, hehe).

Now, why would I want my nails painted at all if I'm just going to be home cleaning all day? Well, my friends, I have come to notice something interesting. My nails tend to break off LESS when they have polish on. Even though generally chemicals are not good for our bodies and nails, nail polish acts like a little shield for my nails.

However, I digress. I'm home cleaning today, still wanted my nails pretty so I could share them, and didn't want to spend a lot to do so (even though technically I spent this money long ago...). SO I have decided to try an untied, and LOVE IT.

 This little gem is Wet 'n Wild Fast Dry in Blue Wants to Be a Millionaire. These generally retail for $1.99, though the pharmacy I get them at often has them for BOGO 50% off. Now first of all, I love this line of polishes for the simple fact that they are named after TV shows. I have two favorites because of their names (Sage in the City and Saved by the Blue).

Second, the colors are all super pretty! Blue Wants to be a Millionaire is a very sheer blue base with fabulous holographic mircroglitter throughout. Now, it's very sheer, and may be opaque in three to four coats. However, I didn't have the time to do that, so I just did one coat over a coat of Sally Hansen Xtreme Black Out, my current go-to black. That's another cheap polish, ranging from $2-3 dollars (I spend $2 on mine). And the combo is fabulous!

No flash.

No flash and blurry to show that FANTASTICAL holographic sparkle!

Wet 'n Wild and Sally Hansen polishes are easily available at most drugstores/pharmacies and chain department stores like Wal-Mart or Target. For a combined price of $4.00 and total painting time of ten minutes before bed, I think this is a winning cheap, quick mani that is ADORABLE.

Peace!
-Jessica

Polish Review: Penguin Polish Penguin Poopies and Happy New Year Baby!

Good evening! So I was supposed to do this review sooner during the weekend, but between finishing Christmas wrapping and a sick husband...hey, it's here now, hooray!!!!

So I got a message a little over a week ago from a fabulous lady named Lacey who is the creator of Penguin Polish (the link takes you to her Etsy). We connected by our similarity of love for all things sparkly, hehe. She asked me to review a couple of her polishes, and boy did she pick polishes for me to a tee! She is all about fantastic glitters, and even has some SCENTED polishes, one of which I get to share :-)

I'll post a few bottle shots of the polishes, to give you an idea of what to expect. The bottles are almost exactly the same in shape and size to a Seche bottle, to give you a comparison. (Pardon the cuticles in some of these shots, undoing staples on a bulletin board at school and a change in weather patterns have left my fingers in dire need of more than the treatment I normally do!)

Left: Happy New Year Baby Right: Penguin Poopies

As a note, I was wearing China Glaze It's a Trapeze when I got these in the mail :-)

First we have Penguin Poopies. This is a mix of medium black, white, and purple hex glitters with larger purple hex glitters in a clear base. Now, what I LOVE about this first of all is the name, hehe. That and the color combination, because purple is my color and I love me some black and white glitter (I need to buy a few of the ones I've been eyeballing after Christmas). The glitter was also very good quality, no "tacos" or curling whatsoever! AND the polish smelled like sugarplums after it dried, even after topcoat. It isn't the "OMG I want to eat this" kind of smell, but definitely a delicious "Bath and Body Works" type smell :-)

What I didn't love but could deal with is that, because of the nature of the large hex glitter, you kind of had to dab it on and place it the way you wanted. Here is a base of Seche Clear, two coats of OPI Steady As She Rose, one dabbed on coat of Penguin Poopies, a coat of Gelous and a coat of Seche Vite.

Artificial light, with flash.

Artificial light, no flash.

Thumb shot!

Artificial light, with flash.

Happy New Year Baby! is a rainbow mix of shard glitter, with some micro-glitter, a few holographic shards, and small holographic hexes mixed in. This is the streets of New York City on New Year's night, with confetti all around. The mix of glitter has an abstract, haphazard feel but at the same time is distinct and not just "thrown together," because you can tell what's in it. I LOVE it, it is so fun and festive, it works for almost any special occasion even though it's a New Year's polish.The coverage was also GREAT in one coat!

The only thing I didn't love was it does stick up in a few places, even with topcoat. That's due to the shark glitter, but as with Penguin Poopies, there are certain qualities about glitter nail polish that come with the territory which I have long since set fort in, hehe. Here is Seche Clear as a base, two coats of OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, one coat of Happy New Year Baby, and two coats of Seche Vite.

Artificial light, with flash.

Artificial light, no flash.

Thumb shot!

Artificial light, with flash.

So if you are like me or Lacey and love all things sparkly, these polishes are for you! You can find them at here Etsy shop which I will post again here. Penguin Poopies, as well as her other Christmas and Hannukah polishes are selling for $5.00, but generally they are $9.00 for a full size. She has some other scented polishes, fantastic glitter polishes, and even a polish specially made for Alana on "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo."

Happy Holidays!!
-Jessica

Color Club Revvvolution and Fashion Addict Pt. 1: The Capture!

Good afternoon, lovelies!!!

So I'm a little lack luster this summer, because I work in a school and am off of work. Why does this limit my polish time? Well, I live in a VERY rural area 45 minutes from work at an inner-city school district. Well, when I'm working, I go to the stores after work more often than I should (oops!). However, I need to find excuses to get to the city. And yesterday I had one.

I've been ALL OVER central and northern NY state with my husband, who is on the job hunt for a math teaching position. He's had five interview offers this summer, the fifth interview being tomorrow. He's also teaching summer school, so the interviews take time from his planning and teaching, and it's been hectic helping him get everything together.

BUT. My husband had an interview 45 minutes north of our home yesterday, then had to head 50 minutes south of our home to his summer school job to prepare for the day he was missing to go to today's interview interview (At this point he's had an interview Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week!). So I drove him to let him work during the 50 minute car ride, dropped him off, did some birthday shopping for my mom, and of course...POLISH SHOPPING!

Now, I wasn't just perusing (though I was checking at the Sally's to see if they had the China Glaze On Safari collection, which they did not :-(...) I had heard from the lovely Jen at Jen's Nail Files that Color Club once had some beautiful linear holographic polishes. Anyone who knows my lemmings knows I have CRAVED some holographic polishes.  BUT, from my understanding, when the U.S. stopped the use of the holographic material, Color Club recreated their polishes to be shimmers rather than holos. However, if you look right, the holos are still kicking around.

SO I decided to go to my Color Club and OPI store of choice: Beauty PLUS Salon in New Hartford. I knew I went there for a reason! They carry lots of Color Club colors, and they must have been kickin' around for a little while, because...

Looks innocent, yes/no? Left: Revvvolution, Right: Fashion Addict

BAM! Holographic goodness (you can see the holo better on this color in the full-size pic, but in person it's marvelous!)

Even MORE holo goodness! (it's pretty obvious in this one!)

So the first part of this adventure, as in the hunt and success, are captured.

 Coming soon: Part 2: The swatch!

New Product: Glitter Crackle!

I've been SOOO behind on actual blog posts! For those that DO follow me here on Blogspot/Blogger, I apologize! I've been using Facebook more because of the connections I have there, and because of the 31 Day Challenge.

Well, I used this combo as part of my Day 29: Inspired by the Supernatural mani. This is the hand that DOESN'T have the crescent moon which represents the vampires in the House of Night series. But it has a new product that I'm just DYING to share! (And sorry in advance for the crappy cell phone pic, my husband left my laptop at his sister's, which had my camera's SD card in it!)

I have Glitter Crackles!!! This is China Glaze's Beam me up, over Sally Hansen Complete Manicure in Midnight in NY. Now, I was skeptical about glitter crackles, because glitters are generally sheer unless they are made specifically to be "3D" (Such as the Sally Hansen Gem Crush or China Glaze Eye Candy collections). But this almost condenses as it cracks. It's not the BEST "cracking" action, but the cracks that I have are distinct, which I like. And you have to be careful of the color combination you use, because if you use ANY similar shade, it won't work. I also have China Glaze Jade-d, a green glitter crackle. My sister-in-law tried it over Agro, thinking the greens were different enough...totally couldn't see the cracks! I know that's common with all crackles, but with the glitters it seems especially important.

So there you have it for today, my review of China Glaze Beam me up. Enjoy, and I'll hopefully be back soon!

31 Day Challenge: Day 13 Animal Print

Okay everyone, so I've told you how I'm doing the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge. Now, I'm satisfied with my entries thusfar, but by no means amazed. HOWEVER, China Glaze Reggae to Riches is now my new favorite color. EVER. And here's why:

 This is the color by itself. It's a bright duochrome with a fuchsia base and a blue/purple shine. Opaque in two coats, not too thick or thin...the best color EVER.

So the thirteenth day of the challenge was animal print. I had originally intended on painting zebra stripes on all my nails. But I was careful to start with my accent finger, because once I did, I didn't want to cover the color!

So there you have it, if I have any other awesome days in the challenge, I will totally share!

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).