Giveaway Update...

I picked a winner, but unfortunately, I've yet to hear a response.  I've emailed the winner twice now, but perhaps it got lost in the spam box, as I've gotten no response.  If your email is saori.nail@gmail.com, please email me so I can get your prize to you.  As I mentioned earlier, I had plans of giving the winner 48 hrs to respond before I would pick another name.  However, in the interest of fairness, I wanted to give the winner another a few days.  If I don't hear anything by Monday, I will select another winner.

N/KOTD: Orly Goth (with Misa Got to be Real)

For the longest time (okay, maybe a couple of months.  LOL), I lemmed Dior Black Sequins.  The concept just seemed so awesome... black polish with silver glitter.  I saw it on Sephora over the holidays and then by the time I'd worked up the nerve to spend $20 on a polish, it was sold out.  I consoled myself by reading reviews stating that it was a bit underwhelming, but I still wanted the look.

Enter Orly Goth.  I'm almost certain Goth is in Orly's regular line up.  Or, if it's not, it's around enough in special collections (like Halloween and the current one at Sally's w/ Beyonce on the ad) that you can certainly pick it up.  Also, it's usually less than $5, especially from an e-tailer. 

.......drumroll.........

Swoon.  I swear, I want to marry this polish and have it's babies.  I love it that much.  In fact, I usually change my polish everyday or every other day, and I've had this one on since Saturday morning and honestly, it's not going anywhere for at least another day (I did add a konad, but more on that in a minute).  This was one regular coat and one thin coat to even out a couple thin spots.  The application was perfect.  The formula was great.  :) 

For anyone that was looking at Dior Black Sequins, you may want to seriously consider picking up Goth.  Sure, it's not HE, but it's truly amazing.  It's multi-sized, round, silver glitter suspended in a black jelly-ish polish.  It's not a true jelly as you can make it opaque pretty quickly, but it does have jelly qualities.  The best part?  The glitter does not get lost in the black polish.  There's also a uniform randomness to it.  I guess that sounds ridiculous, but unlike some other polishes *cough* Funky Chunky *cough*, you don't get a little bit of glitter here and a little bit of glitter there.  There are places that have more and places that have less, but your entire nail is convered with a smattering of silver glitter.  I know Essie SSN is supposed to mimic a night sky, but this one truly reminds me of the sky at night.  Pitch black with shimmers of silver.  Sigh.  I think this has got to be the sexiest polish I own.

Also, like I mentioned, I added a konad, as yesterday was Valentine's Day (happy belated Valentine's Day, btw).  I had shows all weekend, so I didn't get a chance to switch to red, so I did the best I could w/ Goth.  I think it turned out amazing, if I do say so myself.  :P

This is plate m73 and I used Misa Got to be Real for the silver.  I am totally in love with this mani.  Pardon the pun.  LOL. 

PS- Here's a bonus pic of my nails now.  I know a few people were interested in seeing them w/o polish.  I think it's been 12-13 weeks since I removed my glue-ons.  It's still going to take a little bit of time to totally un-do the damage, but I think they look pretty dang good.  :)

Whew!

This has been a busy few days.  Over the weekend, I had my 2 Open Houses for my new Temptations Parties business.  We did okay, but we also have invested a good amount in the business on the front in, so it's going to be awhile before we actually turn a profit.

Also... why did no one warn me and tell me that a direct sales business was freaking hard?  LOL.  I've never done so much paperwork in my life.  :P  Here's hoping that as we get further down the line, it will get easier.  Once my sister gets fully on board, I'm hoping she'll be able to take over some of the admin duties, but considering I'm a major control freak, I don't know if I can let go.  :S

I have a few cool manis to show you.  I just have to make time this evening to sit down and post.  Perhaps after I have the kidlets in bed.  My husband has his weekly RPG thingie tonight, so I'll having nothing to do but watch "Chuck" and update my blog.  YAY!  This is all provided I can pick up my house.  :S  The kids made it into a disaster area over the weekend.

Lastly, I am closing my giveaway tonight.  I'll cut it off at around 10p and then work on updating my spreadsheet and picking a winner.  Hopefully, I can contact the winner tomorrow and get their information.  Thank you so much to everyone who entered my giveaway!  It looks like my first one was a great success!!!

Orly Foil FX Collection

I received this information in a press release from Orly's PR company

In step with the metallics that ruled the runway during the Spring 2010 fashion shows in New York, Paris and Milan, ORLY introduces the FOIL FX Collection. Delivering a uniquely texturized foil effect, the FOIL FX Collection extends fashion all the way to fingertips and toes, offering the sought-after “Minx-look” in an easy-to-use and affordable Lacquer formula that won’t damage nails or break the bank. Great news, since bold and “blinged-out” nails are THE must-have accessory this spring!

The colors are:

Rage: Rose foil metallic

Shine: Silver foil metallic

Luxe: Gold foil metallic

I received the gold one, Luxe, to review. 

Isn't she pretty?  I realize this does not look good with my skintone, at all, but there are so many good things about this polish, I'm willing to overlook the fact that it makes my hands look older and a little red.  Who knows... maybe in the morning, I'll feel totally different.

This is ONE coat.  I was in a bit of a hurry to polish my nails so I could watch LOST (WTF, btw), so I was so pleased that this practically flowed onto my nails.  Also, there are no brushstokes.  They really do give the look of Minx.  Though in pictures, it looks like Minx has more of a uniform look, like someone put gold or silver foil on their nails.  However, for a polish, this captures it really well. 

Also, I've been kinda jonesing for a nice gold polish, since I live in the land Ulta forgot and wasn't able to get my hands on Dazzled by Gold.  And while I think this one may be too shiny for me to wear alone, thus not eliminating the need for another gold, I think it would look amazing as a konad base (how fresh would a white and gold konad look in the summer on tanned (not mine. LOL) hands?).  I also wonder how well this polish would work as the stamp color. 

If you are interested in the other colors, be sure to check out Vampy Varnish.  Looks like Kelly received the colors I didn't.  I'm already dying for Rage.  I love me some rose gold, so I can't wait to try it.  The email stated that these should be out in mid-March.  However, the information for the Metallic Matte collection was also included in the press release, and it stated that Metallic Matte would be out mid-March as well, and I think that one has been at Sally's and etailers for months, so who knows... Foil FX may be released sooner.

This was sent for review.

A Polish Problem's First Birthday Giveaway!

To celebrate A Polish Problem's first birthday/my first bloggiversary, I've put together (what I consider to be) a great giveaway.  You may recall a few weeks ago, I asked for opinions about whether or not to break this up into multiple gifts, and in all honesty, that's what I wanted to do.  However, I also know I have a tendency to flake out on stuff, so I decided to do one giveaway and do it well, rather than half-assing 4 little giveaways.

 

The theme of this giveaway is "my favorite things".  Think of it like Oprah's Favorite Things, only on a much smaller and nail-polish-themed scale.  :P

 

Prizes:

• NARS Dovima - pretty much, my favorite red.  It's a perfect, tomato red that isn't too orange, so it looks great on any skintone.  I took it out of the box to photograph it, but it will come boxed.
• Essie Viva La Vespa - my favorite purple.  This is a gorgeous tyrian purple shimmer.  This is a HTF, long d/c'd polish (though I think Essie brought it back in LE, along with SSN, a few years back), so it's OF.
• ChG Emerald Sparkle - my favorite green, and probably one of my top 5 polishes.  ES is a deep green jelly packed with tons of emerald green glitter.  This one was released in 2008 and re-released for Holiday 2009.  This the original color, but from the 2009 release.
• ChG Sky High Top - my favorite medium blue.  It's a cerulean blue shimmer.  It's included in this giveaway (along with the nail art decals), as I used it to create of my favorite manis from 2009 (please ignore the long glue-ons).  I never thought I would like this color of blue on my nails, but lemme tell you, it's what completed my blue-love conversion.  LOL.
• Cina 3-D Nail Art decals in Daisies - my favorite nail art decals.  These look great with the blue of Sky High Top, but they are a great accent for a myriad of colors.  I really like this with a warm pink, like OPI ElePhantastic Pink. 
• OPI Absolutely Alice - You know, when VH1 or E! has those "countdown" shows, and the #1 pick is a relatively new movie/TV show/star/scandal?  I hate it when they do that, and that's what I feel like I'm doing here.  LOL.  However, AA is definitely deserving to be in a list of "my favorite things".  It's my favorite glitter (even over my much lemmed and loved RBL Locavore), and my early pick of best OPI of 2010.  I know Mad as a Hatter from AiW got the most press and love, but AA blows it out of the water.  I love it so much, I bought back-ups, my first ever.
• ASP Manicure Saving Claw - this is one of my top products.  I don't know how I'd ever live without it.  I use it mainly for konadding, but this would be perfect for redoing your pedi when you didn't want to screw up your mani. 
• Ruby Stone Crystal Nail File - I really like this file.  It's pretty cheap in price, but I have no problems with quality, and I love that it's in it's own sheath.  My husband calls it Excala-file.  :P

(all products are new)

 

I was going to use a contest generator to keep track of my entries, but it looks like the one I used in the past is offline now, so I'll just do this manually.  Oh well, at least this way, I can offer extra entries.  :)

• I ask that everyone that enters be a follower of my blog (new followers are just fine).
• Giveaway is open to US and International followers.
• To enter, please reply to this post.  If you don't have your contact email in your profile, please include it in the reply or send it to me in an email (apolishproblem@gmail.com).
• You can obtain 1 extra entry (for each) by...
• following me on Twitter
• tweeting about my giveaway (please include link in your reply)
• mentioning this giveaway on your blog (please include link in your reply)
• adding me to your blog roll
• For the extra entries, simply mention in your reply that you tweeted/blogged about this, are following me on Twitter, and/or you've added me to your blog roll.  Each reply can receive up to 5 entries.
• I will close the contest on 2/15/10 (a week and a day from now).
• I should contact and post the winner by 2/18/10.

Whew, I think that's it.  LOL!  If you have any questions, please email me.  I'm pretty new at the giveaway thing (I had a previous one that I had to retract due to finances), so bear with me.  :)

Happy Birthday, A Polish Problem!

Bwahahaha.  I went looking for a "Happy Birthday" picture and when I found Homer, I just had to post it.  It cracks me up.  LOL.

Today is the first birthday/bloggiversary of A Polish Problem.  A year ago, I had the bright idea to start a polish blog.  I figured I'd keep with it for a few weeks and then abandon it, like I did every other blog I'd had.  It was touch and go for a while, but I'm pretty proud of the fact that I haven't given up on it.  That's a huge achievement for me.  :)

I'm very fortunate to have 175(!) followers, over 20,000 hits and the opportunity to try new products and review them.  This experience has done very little get my addiction under control.  In fact, in the year I've had this blog, I went from about 30 polishes to almost 350!  I swear, they are breeding.  :P  I've gone from being a slave to glue-ons to polish my own, albeit short, natural nails.

Also, as I mentioned about a week, I'm having a giveaway to celebrate this event.  After much hem and hawing, I decided to go with one or 2 big(ger) give aways.  I'm heading to Sally's tonight to round out my prizes, so I'll know what I'm going to do, either 1 or 2 after that.  :)  Tomorrow, I'll probably post the contest information.

Thanks again for reading my blog!