piCture pOlish Swatches...

For the sake of not overloading the Blog Fest post on Monday, I would like to show you my swatches of the piCture pOlish shades that I used for the manicure (and one more for the heck of it), today. I was going to show them to you yesterday, but I somehow got pulled into watching Ukraine Got Talent on YouTube all night instead of writing the post. I admit it, it's my guilty pleasure. Half the time they speak in Russian and I can understand it and the other half they speak Ukrainian and I'm looking at my bf for translation. His translation is always along the lines of "they didn't say anything interesting" so I gave up, but the acts on there are still pretty amazing to watch. Well that was pretty random, so let's get back to the swatches...

Citrus - "looks as good as it tastes!"
A bright orange cream that lives up to it's citrus name. I'm a bit confused by the tag line though since I would think it looks better than it tastes although honestly I have not tested that theory. The formula on this one is nice and smooth. It took just two coats to reach full opacity. No problems with application. These swatches are with no top coat...

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013

I'm so honored to once again get the opportunity to participate in the annual piCture pOlish Blog Fest. This year, piCture pOlish is celebrating the Year of the Blogger by challenging the participants to create our ‘most amazing nail art manicure ever’ using 3 piCture pOlish which were sent to us. In addition we were asked to create a step by step tutorial for the look. No pressure, right?

Actually, if that wasn't pressure enough, there is the promise of an amazing Blog Fest Award. Three lucky bloggers who are participating in this year's Blog Fest will get the chance to collaborate with the gals at piCture pOlish and create their own shade. One winner will be chosen by all the lovely fans, one by the participating bloggers and one by the piCture pOlish gals themselves. Since I have already had the privilege of creating Sea Jewel, I'm not eligible for the Award, but I'm so excited to see all the manicures and vote for my favorite. I hope you'll be doing the same.

With the Award off the table for me, the pressure was lessened and I got to dreaming up my manicure using the 3 shades sent to me... Citrus, Flirt and Splash...

Pueen Love Elements Stamping Plates Review

Today I would like to show you the second set of stamping plates by Pueen. In case you missed it, you can check out my review of the first set here. As I mentioned yesterday, I received a few plates from this set for review and after falling in love with their quality, I purchased the full set for my growing stamping plate collection...

This is the Love Elements set...

Pueen Sumptuous Gallery Stamping Plates Review

I guess the one good thing about having a nail break and taking time away from swatching is that I finally have no excuse to delay my review of the Pueen stamping plates. I have already shown you a number of manicures with these plates, but today I would like to show you the plates themselves and my thoughts on them. I received a few plates from both this collection and the second one (which I will show you tomorrow). I quickly fell in love with the quality and bough both sets to add to my collection...

This is the first set named Sumptuous Gallery...

Nicole by OPI - Modern Family Sweepstakes!

Nicole by OPI is having a fantastic sweepstakes where three lucky winners will get the entire Modern Family collection just for sharing their most memorable family vacation story! Winners chosen at random so don't miss your chance to enter! You can see my swatches of the collection here and here...

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Nicole by OPI Modern Family Collection Sweepstakes

Nicole by OPI Modern Family Collection Sweepstakes

How to enter: Share your most memorable family vacation story on the sweepstakes tab on Nicole by OPI's Facebook page. This will unlock the sweepstakes entry form - fill it out and click submit!

Rules: One entry per person. Valid to residents of US & Canada, excluding Quebec.

Prize: entire range of Modern Family shades

Winners: 3 lucky winners will be chosen at random on August 5th, so get your entry in today!

Contest link: Enter Here

** Disclaimer: All information and images in this post provided by the manufacturer or their PR **

Ruby Wing Crowd Surf...

Anyone in Seattle will tell you that you have to enjoy the sunshine while it lasts because around here summer is short. I'm savoring every bit of sunshine that I can and what better way to enjoy it than with a Solar Active shade from Ruby Wing. Even if you are the type of person who doesn't like going outside, these will make you want to go out just to watch it change...

Subtle Geometry...

This is a manicure from way, way back in April when I was first swatching and playing with the China Glaze Hologlam collection. I really wanted to try out stamping with these holos because I expected some amazing results. Although it did stamp well, the result turned was a lot more subtle than I anticipated. Of course subtlety has it's charm as well so I still enjoyed the mani...