And the Winner Is....

a Rafflecopter giveaway Thank you to everyone who entered and submitted some really great nails!! I'm already assembling a fall giveaway & Seche Vite will be part of it thanks to the poll results and everyone who supplied their input. Again thanks for visiting & Congrats again Gabbby!

Sinful Colors: Study in Style Collection "Pull Over" Swatch

I snapped the photo of the collection display when I stopped at Rite Aid today.  I'm really loving this set! Only thing with this collection is that "Leap Flog", a really rich pretty green is the only new color (I learned this fact from Nouveau Cheap - awesome blog!) . I will be swatching "Leap Flog" shortly .  According to G from Nouveau Cheap and many other bloggers, Sinful Colors notoriously re-releases colors all the time.  Anyhow I just fell in love with yellow so I decided to swatch it first, AND green is my favorite color so that should tell you how gorgeous this yellow is! It reminds me of a Thanksgiving-ish color, a really rich yellow and a bit on the dark side with some almost orangy undertones.  It was almost completely opaque with just one coat.  And it's only $1.99! This color makes me want to rush into Fall - I do not like the heat or Summer.  I like bundling up and getting cozy with my chubby babies.

I've been missing my nail art lately! Recently I haven't had much free time.  I just finished up my son's first birthday party and we've just started the process of getting our home on the market so between open houses and trying to keep the place clean for then next open house, I've had little time for my nail art.  But I have tons of post it notes on  my phone with all my nail art ideas to come.  Also before you go submit a picture of your summer nail look.  Just send a quick email with your favorite summer manicure attached to enter into the Summer Giveaway.  THERE IS JUST 2 DAYS LEFT FOR ENTRIES.  And just wanted to remind everyone that if you want to be considered for the awesome prize you need to enter a photo.  Good luck everyone and thanks for stopping by!!

 

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Pure Ice Twinkle

I thought I would do a simple swatch today.   I've been working like a mad man planning my son's 1st birthday party so I've had no time whatsoever to do any cute nail art.  I picked up this color at Walmart the other day because it was only $1.67 and it was so pretty.  It's like a perfect summer color with how it reflects gold nicely.  Kind of like looking at a really nice sunset.  I added a picture from the the Pure Ice website so you can see how it looks in the bottle.  The picture does it no justice at all.  It also went on almost opaque with one coat.  Anyway before you go check out my giveaway page.  Just send a quick email with your favorite summer manicure attached to enter into the Summer Giveaway.  There is less than 2 weeks left for entries.  Also just wanted to remind everyone that if you want to be considered for the prize you need to enter a photo.  Good luck everyone and thanks for stopping by!!

Naked Palette Nails

Jordana - "Cabaret"

Sally Hansens - "Golden"

So here are my "Naked" nails.  I have wanted this palette FOREVER! At $50 the price kept me back as well as the fact that I have purchased things that have similar colors.  But after going to the mall maybe 5 or 6 times now drooling over it, I just splurged.  I love the look of this palette.  The velvety matte brown and the sleek gold lines shining through.  So I tried to recreate an abstract look on my nails using Jordana's - Cabaret, Sally Hansen's Golden and Essie's - Matte About You top coat.  This was a hard manicure!! The matte top coat is unforgiving! I started with a coat of the Golden and a quick dry top coat.  Then I used striping tape from KKCenterHK to place randomly on my nail.  Next I applied the Cabaret and let it sit just a couple of minute before I went over it with the Matte About You.  The tricky part was since the matte top coat dried so quickly I have to be fast at removing the striping tape.  And the tape can be a little sticky.  I wound up having to do a couple of nails over but overall a little bit messy but I really liked it.  It was my first time using the matte top coat in this way so, trial and error.  But I get the gist of it.  Since I showed the outside of the palette I might as well show you the inside.  PRETTY right?! I might have similar colors already but they do not compare to the vibrancy of these colors.  They are so smooth to apply as well.  There is a Naked Palette second edition that came out a bit ago but I like this one better.  In my opinion this one has a better color range.  You can do a mean smokey eye with Naked 1 but with Naked 2 the darkest color other than the black is a medium plum you would really have to pile on to get it deep shade.  Anyway before you go check out my giveaway page.  Just send a quick email with your favorite summer manicure attached to enter into the Summer Giveaway.   Thanks for visiting!!

What is Influenster?

Okay so I know this is a blog about nails but I just couldn't keep this to myself.  A couple of months ago a friend introduced me to a website called Influenster.  It's a website that is basically a middle man for large companies.  They put together a box with anywhere from 4-7 sample and full size products for their members to survey and report back their thoughts on the products by way of post surveys.  So in order to find a demographic for a certain box with related sample products they have developed a variety of surveys which they call "badges".  Once you complete a survey, you are awarded that particular badge and if and when they assemble a box that relates to that badge, they will contact you to see if you would like to participate in that particular sample.  It's that easy.  And it's totally FREE!

When my friend explained this to me, I was like - nothing is free, but this really is.  Companies stand to profit from sending out samples so this is a win-win situation.  I filled out the application, took the badge surveys and was contacted for my first box about a month later.

Here is what the survey badges look like 

Here is a sample survey from the "Foodie" badge

Each survey takes about a minute or so to complete.  The questions are pretty general.  If you happen to fit the profile for the next sample box they send out, you'll be contacted to fill out a pre-survey.  They get a little more in depth with about 20 questions.  Once you reply, you'll receive your box within 2 weeks.  Once you receive your box, you check in with Influenster letting them know you have received your box.  They'll send a follow up e-mail about a week later with a post survey regarding the products you tested.  You take the survey regarding the products and what you liked/disliked and that is all.

I was sent the "Latina Beauty Box" the other day.  I'll take you through it:

This was everything in my box.  Great right?! I'm not sure why they called this the "Latina" beauty box.  I don't think any of the contents have anything to do with me being Latina.  I'm taking my post survey in a few days once I've had the chance to use every product.  One thing is that as of now Influenster does not ship internationally.  From what I have gathered from reading blogs and the Influenster Twitter is that they will start shipping to Canada by the end of this year.  Also it's one box per household even if there may be more than one qualifying Influenster member.  One more thing, at times Influenster sends out single items.  So there may be a survey where they only send out 1 cookie to sample.  I know they did this recently with a Quaker oatmeal cookie.  What you receive is random.  Hope you found this helpful and if you like free samples like me, go sign up.  Also before you go check out my giveaway page.  Just send a quick email with your favorite summer manicure attached to enter into the Summer Giveaway.   Thanks for visiting!!

Jelly Sandwich Manicure

E.L.F. "Lilac"

NYC "Starry Silver Glitter"

This was my first attempt at a Jelly Sandwich.  It didn't go over very well.  If anyone has any suggestions for me I would gladly appreciate them.  Maybe I didn't use an opaque enough base color, or maybe my glitter wasn't big enough, I can't figure it out.  I was almost not going to post this but I decided to just do it.  Good or bad, I figured maybe I can get so helpful hints out of it.  Anyway this lilac color from E.L.F. is the ABSOLUTE prettiest lilac I have seen so far.  It goes really well, I think with my skin color.  Also forgive my smeared middle finger nail.  My 1 year old woke and I thought my nails were completely dry but I forget, they are never completely dry when I think they are.  Before you go check out my giveaway page.  Just send a quick email with your favorite summer manicure attached to enter into the Summer Giveaway.   Thanks for visiting!!

Summer Giveaway Entries

HERE ARE THE ENTRIES AS OF NOW  :) 

Entry by: Janelle 

 Entry by: Serena Mertl 

Serena's nail art can be found at

 http://pinterest.com/73sam

 Entry by: Tania Escobar 

Entry by: Maria Raikova 
Maria's nail art can be found at
www.redpolishorbadpolish.blogspot.com

Entry by: Tami McTaggart

Entry By: Laura Fry

See more of Laura's nails at: 

www.picturesnpolish.blogspot.com

Entry By: Gabriel Chambers

See more of Gabby's nails at:

glitchnails.blogspot.com

Entry By: Christine Lui
See more of Christine's nails at:
www.steamynails.blogspot.com

These are wonderful! I will be adding as the entries come in!! Good luck & thanks for visiting!!

Giveaway Time!!

This giveaway is Summer inspired.  Submit a Summer inspired nail art design to enter the giveaway.  This giveaway is open internationally :)  I will post new designs as they come in, in a new post.  I will be using Rafflecopter to randomly choose a winner.  So this giveaway has 3 nail art brushes, 1 Out the Door Quick Dry Top Coat, 1 glass acetone container and 3 nail art striping polishes.  Everything necessary for a cute artsy manicure.  I'm excited to see what everyone will come up with.  It can be anything, even just a swatch of your favorite Summer polish.  Submit your manicure picture to myprettypaints@hotmail.com.  Once entered I will post the pictures in a new post for everyone to view.  Good luck everyone! Thanks for visiting!!


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Learning to Write Inspiration

Base Color: H&M "Lavender Luster Duo"

Lines: Loreal "Dreamer"

                  L.A. Girl "Soft Red"

Writing: Santee "Black"

Pencil: Color Club "Almost Famous"

Eraser: Sally Hansen "Espresso"

 Metal Band: Revlon "Metallic"

I was teaching my son how to write his name today when I had the idea to re-create it on my nails.  Every mom should do this, Joshua has been getting a kick out of this all day.  It also made me wonder why pre-school writing paper was brownish and not just white.  Anyway this was a really easy cute manicure.  Mostly just some lines and a steady hand.  The thumb was pretty easy as well.  I used 1 piece of tape to make the yellow bottom half of the pencil as straight as I can.  It didn't really matter if I messed up on the pencil or eraser because I was going to go over both with the Metallic color.  Try it!  I have the Summer Giveaway gift all ready to go, I just have to take pictures of it.  It's been busy at work for me with the July 4th holiday but I'll get the pictures up tomorrow.  Thanks for visiting!!