1,000,000 Giraffes

Hello all! Thank you for all the birthday wishes! It is so nice to hear! I had a great day full of cakes and cards and flowers. I went out for a few cocktails (and shots!! haha) with friends. It was perfect! I chose the gorgeous gold and seafoam green glitter that I got from Tuli as my birthday manicure. It was quite fitting for the occasion!

Today I am bringing you a little nail art and a fun project you can join. It really isn't nail related, I just made it nail related.

I saw Nailoftheweek tweet about submitting a giraffe to a project of getting a million giraffes. I was intrigued. I clicked her pic and it was a giraffe made out of nail polish bottles! I tried to find it to show you but I had no luck. Anyway, this person in Norway is trying to collect 1,000,000 hand made giraffes by 2011. Here is the website with the details and how to submit your giraffe. I thought I would do my part and so I made a giraffe on my nail with nail polish:
I used: Essie - Sag Harbor, Sally Hansen - Lightening and Revlon-Chocolate Truffle. I submitted today and it says it needs to be approved first so I haven't seen it up yet. I read somewhere on the webpage or blog or on twitter, that 10,000 giraffes were received in a day! That blows my mind! And the current total is over a quarter of a million! It's very exciting.

You gotta check out the 1,000,000 Giraffe Blog. There is a giraffe of the day post everyday and they are amazing/hysterical/mind blowing. You have to check it out.

For fun I made my giraffe matte:

Birthday Winner!!

Hello everyone!! Today is my birthday!! YAY! I didn't get a chance to do a birthday mani on myself though! Today at work is going to be rough until I can get home and get some glitter on my nails!!

The reason I am posting though, is to announce the winner of the Birthday/Follower Giveaway! AND THAT IS>>>>>

DENISE!

Thank you all so much for reading and entering! It is soooo awesome!!

Congrats to Denise and thank you all again for reading my blog!

:c)

Oldie Sally Hansens

I went digging in my friend's polish stash recently and discovered some great discontinued Sally Hansen glitters. And since I love glitters I had to try them! Unfortunately, two of the three were almost empty (and the two I wanted to try the most!) and they were pretty dried up. I threw in some polish reviver/thinner to at least get out enough for this swatch, but definitely couldn't get out enough for a full manicure. I thought it would be interesting to post them. Check out these bottles:


Celebrate, New Penny, Wired



The swatches are: Celebrate, New Penny, Wired and Wired over Revlon-Chocolate Truffle.


Celebrate is purple, green and gold round glitter and bar glitter. It's like Mardi Gras in a bottle. It is so fun! I wish this was still around.

New Penny is a small grain, but dense, copper/orange glitter. I really wish this was still around.

Wired is a translucent brown-yellow with small copper glitter and larger holo glitter. I am not a fan of it alone, but layered it's nice.

I wanted to say here "I wish that Sally Hansen would release interesting glitters like this," but we have just gotten some nice glitters, including one of my favorite glitters: Rockstar Pink. I am just such a nut for sparkle, and if I saw interesting mixtures like this in the drug store I would grab them up, no questions asked.

How old these are is a mystery. I don't really know when they came out/were discontinued. But perhaps if you hunt for them, you could find them somewhere. Some smaller independent beauty stores, or maybe ebay. If your like me, you're never scared of a little hard-to-find hunt!

Some Claire's Swatches

Hello all! Today I have for you some polishes from Claire's. I don't have a ton from them (only 5) but I like them all. Claire's stores have a nice selection of holos, glitters, neons, shimmers and those funky layering polishes. Here are the ones I have:

Goldmine - You guys have seen this before... a few times... because I loooove it.


Orange Neon - This swatch has a top coat. It dries matte on its own, as neons usually do. And I love it! It's definitely more neon than this picture depicts.


Rockstar - Pretty grayed purple with an irregular-shaped silver shimmer. I had to see how this one looked matte soooo:

I looooove this look so much! I looks like it could be an O-P-I Suede.


Green Confetti - 3 coats. This is a slightly blue, green jelly base with tons of multi-shaped, holographic glitter, including my favorite: hexagons!!


There's No Place Like Home - Dark pink base with a fine holo glitter. It's really not even like glitter, it's more like a holo shimmer. It's pretty and fun without being over the top.

I know they have even more wonderful colors that I need to get my hands on!

What polishes do you like from Claire's?

I was tagged! Twice!

I was tagged twice for this "10 facts about you" fun! I was tagged by Nihrida and by Tuli!I have to give you guys 10 facts about me, and then tag 10 more blogs! Okay, here they are:

1) I am a fisherwoman. I was the first born child, and since my dad didn't get a boy, I learned the boy stuff. Incidentally, I love fishing and caught my first fish when I was about 2. Mostly I like to fish streams for trout, but last year I went fishing for striped bass in the spring on the Hudson River and caught a 25 lb. bass.

2) I love games. Mostly darts or pool or ping-pong definitely! But I also love card games (not really poker... not much of a gambler) and my favorite board game is Pictionary. AND I loooove to beat boys at games. Especially ping-pong.

3) I love comedy. Movies or TV. I enjoy laughing. I am not a very serious person. I love to laugh out loud at things I watch, even if I am alone, and I have a very loud, semi-obnoxious laugh. Favorite TV: 30Rock, The Office, South Park. Favorite Movie ever: Dumb and Dumber

4) I am short. Only 4'11''. I don't think I have ever shared that with you guys! I love it, I just hate when people guess my age is waaayyy younger than I am. I have a bit of a baby face, and it sux! I know that when I am older it will be great to look young, but it is no fun to be an adult and have people tell you that you look like a child. I get IDed for rated R movies and last week a guy in a toll booth didn't think I was old enough to drive! I am going to be 24 next week!!! Come on!

5) Although I am a shopper when it comes to nail polish, I am not when it comes to the other standard girl stuff. I don't have tons of shoes, bags, clothes or make-up. I wear the same shoes everyday, and when I wear down the heel tips (yes they are usually heels... shorty here!) I get them replaced! I have had the same couple purses for years, and I rarely do much to my face. I have been getting more into eyeshadow recently though.

6) I love to ride my bike!! I live in a city, so I don't bother having a car, but I love to ride my bicycle. When I lived a little closer to work/school I rode back and forth everyday. It was 5 miles one way. That seemed perfect. But now it's 11 miles to get to work. I can make it. I have done it a couple of times, but I just can't tire myself like that. Plus I would be so gross by the time I got there!

7) Although I don't have a car now, when I was still in New York, the only vehicle I ever had was an SUV. It was huge and I loved it. I carted around everyone and everything and I was always the driver on roadtrips. I have a good sense of direction. It was also a stick, and that is another thing I got from my dad. He had me driving that thing, by myself, when I was 12!!! Only on dirt roads up in the woods though. Not on real roads! This was my baby:

8) I have never dyed my hair!

9) I went skydiving on my 18th birthday.

10) I love spiders. I mean, they creep me out just like the rest of you. I don't touch them or anything, but I am fascinated with them. I think they are so cool and amazing and I love to look at them, and photograph them (I have a collection). Last week Tommy and I were at Target, and when we were pulling in I saw a huge web between two trees, and I had to go take a look. When we got out of the store, I looked... it was, hands down, the biggest spider I have ever seen in the wild! I mean, it was HUGE!!! Body was like a golf ball. From a distance Tommy didn't think it was one spider. He thought two or more. He didn't want to even get close! He was freaking out that I was so close to it. I could kick myself a hundred times for not having my camera. I want to go back, but I just figure he will be gone and I'll be disappointed.

Here's one I took a couple years ago:

And here are my ten blogs. I tried to hit ones that haven't done this yet:
Sparkling.Pink.Gorilla
Vampy Varnish
Concrete and Nail Polish
Lou Lou Land
The Nailphile
Steph's Closet
Dizzy Nails
Nail Art Tuesday
Gettin' Nailed
Alexlyndra

Giveaway For My Birthday/100 Followers (EDITED)

I am so excited to finally post this! I am hosting a giveaway starting today and lasting for 1 week. I had the idea brewing for a while now. I wanted to do a giveaway for my birthday, which is in one week, and I wanted to do one for gaining 100 followers, and since they coincided, this is a combo giveaway!

First of all, thank you so much for reading! I can't even believe how far my little blog has come since April. 100 followers and thousands of page hits, is just too much to handle! I never would have thought. I was freaking out when I had a follower! I thought 20 was just out of this world! And then it kept going up and up! And I will always keep the posts coming for you guys! I don't think I could stop now. I have so many things planned to do all the time. I can't swatch as fast as my little mind ticks!

Since this is also for my birthday (9/22) I thought it would be appropriate to make the prizes some of my favorite things. Well, those would be green, gold and glitter!! So the prize package includes:

China Glaze - Emerald Sparkle, Sinful Colors - Call You Later, and Claire's - Goldmine

And lastly the rules. I HAVE CHANGED THE RULES> This contest is open to my readers, however it may be that you keep up with my blog. It is open starting today, and will close Monday night, 9/21/09 at 11:59 PM Central ST. Please leave a comment on this post to serve as your entry with your email. If you would prefer to not post your email address, you can email your entry to lacquerlaine@gmail.com.

This is open to international readers. :c)

I am liking the way some other bloggers have opened up their contests to allow for multiple entries, so I thought I would do the same! If you have a blog and do a post including this giveaway, it will get you an extra entry.

If you are on Twitter (and are a follower of mine on Twitter), and tweet this giveaway it will serve as an extra entry.

In your comment, let me know if you get extra entries, and if you tweet about it, let me know your Twitter name.

I will announce the winner next Tuesday, my birthday!!


And to show off what you'll win, here are swatches of all the colors:Good Luck and THANK YOU!

Urbay Decay Apocalyptic Nail Kit Swatches

As soon as I saw that Urban Decay was releasing nail polish for the holidays I knew I would buy them. What I didn't know, was that they were releasing this cute set of 7 shades! I thought there would be only one or two colors. I am so excited! I love them all, and I love the packaging:

They come in a metallic purple zip pouch, and I have been thinking this would make a great gift.


White Widow - This was the selling point for me. I really liked all the colors, but I rushed to click "buy" a lot faster for this one. It is a gray-white with silver shimmer, and it goes on like butter! I love whites, and this one is one of my favorites.


Gunmetal - The second I got this out of the box and looked at it, it looked brown to me and not really gunmetal-gray. But I have changed my mind. It is gray, but a brown gray. Brown-gray shimmer. This was the only one that I was not a fan of, formula wise. It gave me a few bald spots.


Apocalypse - This one is like OPI-Lincoln Park After Dark: It's a really hott, super black, purple creme, but it just pretty much looks black with two coats. Luckily the formula of this is so wonderfully super smooth, it allowed me to do a nice one coater to show the true color of it.


Grunge - I am so torn on what this color is! I can't even think about it. As soon as I decide it's green, I say, "noooo, it's blue. But.... it's green!" And it's not a typical teal. I went back to the Urban Decay website to get the link for these, and found their description for this polish: "metallic peacock". I like that! Very fitting, since the shimmer flashes blue and purple and therefore, looks peacock.


Meltdown - Royal purple shimmer. Gorgeous.


Big Bang - Hot pink foil. I looove this one. Very hott, opaque and metallic-shiny.


Fbomb - Bright, brick-red creme, this swatch is only one coat!! These are incredible.

And since I have been on a matte kick, I did a quick shiny/matte comparison using Essie - Matte About you matte finisher.

Shiny:Matte:
I especially like White Widow, Grunge, Big Bang and Fbomb matte.

The set can be purchased online at Urban Decay and goes for $26. The bottles are not standard half ounce (15 mL) size. They are 0.17 oz (5 mL).

Nubar Modern Matte

Hey! I got my Nubar Mattes from Beauty Judy's giveaway and I swatched them to share! They come in a little plastic baggie/carrying case and they are are all shimmery and very matte. Judy also sent me a little something extra to share a taste of Philly with me! They are a box of Tasty Kake, Butterscotch Krimpets. They are a soft, yellow cake like a Twinkie, but without the filling, and they have a butterscotch icing on top. Yum! I seriously opened the box and shoved one in my face before I even looked at the polishes!! I have a major sweet tooth. I did the same thing when Tuli sent me polishes (here). She sent along some chocolates, and I dove into those before getting to the rest of the package! I think if I sold polish, I would send them with sweets in every box! Wouldn't that be great.


Vital - Sun and shade - I wore this one as soon as they came. It was vital. It is a royal purple shimmer with blue and pink shimmer. It reminds me of grape juice.


Prevail - Sun and shade - Grayed purple matte shimmer. Sorry for the speck on the middle finger. I got something on it while painting. It's not the fault of the polish. The shimmer in this is dense and gorgeous. It's like a peach shimmer. I love the way it looks with the shade of this polish.

Avant-Garde - Sun and shade - Brownish, burgundy matte shimmer. I think this is perfect for fall.


Contempo - Sun and Shade. Bright red matte shimmer. This is a smidge brighter than Zoya - Posh, but they look pretty much the same.

And to showcase how shimmery they are, I put on a topcoat which really makes the shimmer pop. They look beautiful:

Vital - With topcoat and without

Prevail - With topcoat and without

Avant-Garde - With topcoat and without

Contempo - With topcoat and without


Nubar Modern Matte Collection is available at bynubar.com. They retail for $7.49 each, or $24.95 for the set, which saves you $5.01

Thanks to Beauty Judy and Nubar for the giveaway!

L.A. Colors and L.A. Colors Color Craze

Helllooooo everyone! I went on a hunt recently for polishes and I was trying to hit beauty stores I never went to before. Independent or smaller chains as opposed to something like Sally's. I discovered LA Colors!

In picture above: Silver glitter, Shock, Force, Phenomena


Silver Glitter - Shown alone and over black. This is a small grain, silver glitter top coat. This swatch was two coats but it covers very well with just one too. This is the stuff I used to make Evening Twinkler, my Starry Starry Night dupe.


Shock - I love this shade! I just wish is was more opaque. I would layer this over white for a mani. It's a neon yellow-orange, tangerine color and dries semi-matte. If I remember correctly, this was 3 coats and you can still clearly see visible nail line.


Force - I love this one too! This is a very shimmery metallic burnt orange. It reminds me of fall more than any other fall-ish nail polish I have seen. It is gorgeous.


Phenomena - This is a red purple creme. I love red-purples! I can not get enough. But this would NOT photograph. It looked cooler/more blue in real life than this. More magenta and not so red. This was the best pic I could get and I still don't like it.

I found the Color Craze polishes at the same store as the Santees I showed you. They were $1. And I found Silver Glitter in a different store and I think it may have been $2. These are all also available on Cherryculture.com.