Metallic Blue and Good Customer Service

Tuesdays and Wednesdays are always the busiest days of the week for me. I co-host a radio show on Wednesday nights so on Tuesday I have all kinds of prep work to do. Twice as much today because we have a guest co-hosting with me this week, which is fun but time consuming getting ready. I'm almost done with this week's stuff but I need a break, so I'm going to show you one of my favorite blue polishes!

When I first found Diamond Cosmetics, the color I wanted most was Metallic Blue. I placed an order for that and five other of their polishes; but when got my package, Metallic Blue had gotten broken in transit...a sad blue explosion. So I emailed DC to let them know what happened, not expecting them to replace it, but Marissa immediately offered to send me a replacement bottle! And she also explained why she thought it had broken. I've never had a problem with any breakage in any other order from them, it was just a freak accident I think. But it was handled so easily and nicely. Customer service is usually such a hassle to deal with and frustrating, so this was a refreshing change of pace haha. Want to see pictures of the lovely Metallic Blue?

sunlight

shade

indoors

The macro pictures make it look a little brush stroke-y, but it's not with a top coat on at all. This is such a vibrant, kind of lit from with-in color. I love it! It's a darker blue, which I don't have a lot of - but this is the one I reach for most often. If you make a Diamond Cosmetics order, do yourself a favor and add this color to it. Other than that, I'm gonna let these pictures speak for itself :)

Oh, and the giveaway winner was the lovely Raelena! Congrats and I hope you love your new polish!

It's Diamond Cosmetics Week!

Guess who's back, back again. That would be me, haha. I'm about to pick the giveaway winner, and after I contact them tonight - I'll post the winner in the next day or two (whenever they get back to me!) I already have the next... 5 giveaways planned for you guys! One is coming veryyyy soon, so keep watching here.

This week I'm having a theme week - featuring Diamond Cosmetics polishes, 6 different colors and some layering (for Wednesday, of course). This is one of my favorite brands and all of these colors are 1-2 coaters, so I wanted to share them with you. First up is Diamond Cosmetics - Free N Easy. I actually didn't love this color when I first swatched it but now I really really do. Check out the pictures below!

Sunlight

Outside, shade

Indoors

The first picture is color accurate; the shade made my camera go a little nutso.  This is a very pink leaning purple.  When I ordered from the little swatch on the Diamond Cosmetics website, I thought was getting a light purple, but I still like the color it actually turned out to be. :) It's very simple, elegant, and pretty in my opinion.  Reminds me a lot of the base color of Essie- Demure Vixen - but wthout the same shimmer.  If you like Demure Vixen, I imagine you would probably like Free N Easy as well - I know I do!  This color is very appropiate for work and any other formal setting.  Everyone needs a couple of polishes like this in their stash.   What do you think of Diamond Cosmetics and Free N Easy?  Have you tried this brand before?  If not you're missing out!  Hopefully after this week I will have convinced you of that :)

Strawberry Fields Forever

How on earth did it manage to be a week between blog posts?! This last week was a little insane. I helped move my brother into his new house, which was exhausting. But as a thank you gift he gave me an autographed hockey puck I'd been hunting down. One of our friends plays with this player in a summer league so he arranged everything and got it personalized for me, pretty sweet. I collect nail polish and autographed hockey pucks.. I'm a strange girl :) Luckily, no nails were broken in the process! Boo for Mother Nature lately though, any day I have free to swatch it ends up overcast...annoying. I need to make a light box or something soon I think.

Today I have a quintessential summer color for you, China Glaze - Strawberry Fields. I fell in love with this when Brooke, over at Babbling Brooke, posted swatches of it. And this is one of those colors that just screams summer time to me. I even have flowers in my backyard that match this color perfectly! Check it out!


Sunshiiiine


Shade, and the matching flower :) I love this picture. Please excuse my slightly crooked middle finger.. it's compliments of a flag football league haha


Inside

Pretty in all lights I think. But I also think it's a color I love wayyy more on other people than I do on myself. I think we all have one of those, where it looks amazing on everyone and than you get it and it just doesn't look quite right on you. So this might be mine. I waffle on whether or not to swap this. Maybe I will like it better on my toes? Only one way to find out haha. Do you have a color that you liked more on other people than yourself?

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!! Only a few days left!

I've Got A Fever.. And The Only Cure Is... More Holo!

Hooray if you got the Saturday Night Live reference! I love that skit. Today I'm going to show you one of the Milani Holos, Hi-Res. It's chock full of purple and holo goodness - for under five dollars! Life doesn't get much better than that in my book.


Silly hand postion in the sun, to try and get the holo on as many of my nails as possible for the picture haha.


Shade, the holo sometimes shows in the shade/indoors (which you'll see below) and sometimes doesn't so I wanted to show you what it looks like without the holo showing. Still very pretty I think.


Inside!

I really like the Milani holo polishes, especially this one. I think they were really well done. It's extra awesome that Milani made them core, unlike some nail polish companies we know... Whether or not you're a holo addict like I am, I think these are a great buy. A lot easier to find than those elusive China Glaze and OPI counterparts. I know these have been out for a while, so which ones do you have?

Also, don't forget to enter my giveaway :)

Giveaways you need to know about!

There are a few really awesome giveaways that are happening right now and I wanted to make sure you all knew about them and entered! They are wayyyy too good to pass up, that's for sure :) So check them out below!

First up, Magic Maid's 700+ Followers Giveaway!
She's giving away 23 gorgeous polishes - definitely something for every taste here. Plus some Mango Mend products! Here are the pictures of the polishes, click on the link to the giveaway to see the names and to enter!






This ends September 3rd. Click here to enter: http://www.magic-maid.net/2010/08/700-follower-giveaway.html

Next up I have Lacquerized's Kiko Giveaway to show you!
She has four seriously pretty Kiko nail polishes all the way from Germany! What a treat it would be to win these! It's open internationally, so go enter and get your hands on some international gems :)


This is open til August 31st click here to enter: http://www.lacquerized.com/2010/08/kiko-giveaway.html

Katrina is having a 400+ Follower Giveaway!
Really pretty stuff here! Lots of different brands, shades, and finishes - plus lace stickers. I'd love to try those lace stickers - they are so elegant looking! Check out the picture below to see what goodies she has to giveaway and go enter!


This giveaway is open until August 29, click here to enter: http://katrinasnailblog.blogspot.com/

Megan over at Kitschy Suburbia has teamed up with CSN Stores to giveaway a $40 Gift Card!
This is such a cool giveaway! There are literally hundreds of items to choose from. You can get wheatever suits your needs best :) All you need to do is go over and let her know what you would want to get if you won, simple as that!

This is open until August 21, click here to enter: http://kitschysuburbia.blogspot.com/2010/08/giveaway-time.html

OH MY POLISH is having her very First Giveaway!
A great mix of stuff is up for grabs in this giveaway - some HTF polishes like Hidden Treasure and Absolutely Alice, some minis, different brands, nail rhinestones, etc!



this is open until August 24th, click here to enter: http://ohmypolish.blogspot.com/2010/08/first-ever-giveaway.html

Good luck!

I'm not a Demure Vixen, but I play one on TV.

Okay, I lied I don't play one on tv. But I was in commercials as a baby, does that count for anything? hahah. I do really like this nail polish though. I have a handful of pictures of Essie - Demure Vixen to show you because it can look so different! I'm sure you've seen a million pictures of this before, but here are mine.




both in sunlight; sometimes you see shimmer and sometimes you don't! I like it both ways


shade (that's shine at the edge of my nails, not unpainted spots haha)




indoors.. see how different it can look in the same spot of my house? Same time of day even!

I'm assuming by now everyone pretty much has decided whether or not they like this color, so what's your take on it? I love it! I feel like it's super versatile, you can wear it anywhere. I like the pink shimmer, it gives this a little extra oomph, if you will. Normally I'm not a huge Essie fan. I have about 10 colors in my stash. The streakiness of Essie drives me insane, but the formula on this wasn't bad. I felt like I could control it better than most Essie colors. Any big time Essie fans out there? I make exceptions for buying Essie when I find a color that really wows me, like this and the recently released Sew Psyched; or for a staple like Madamoiselle. And the North Fork collection, love that one. But maybe now that the brand seems to be branching out into more bold colors I'll try more of them? Guess there's only one way to find out ;-)

Just a reminder - don't forget about my giveaway! And I updated my stash spreadsheet yesterday, the link is on the right side of the page - feel free to let me know if you want to see a certain color or a comparison.

Giveaway!

Wow, I can't believe that I have over 50 followers already! I seriously cannot thank you all enough for taking time to read my blog :) So I have a (small) giveaway for you! I'll be having another giveaway when we get to 100 followers, I've already started to collect things for that too.

Here are the goodies!



Rimmel - Deliciously Dark
Cover Girl Boundless Color - Crystal Mist
Essie - Geranium
Rimmel - Climax

I tried to have a mix of colors and finishes so there would be something that hopefully appealed to everyone... a vamp, glitter for layering, a bright, and a shimmer.

The rules are going to be easy for this! Everyone gets one entry, if you would like to mention it on your blog/twitter/etc I certainly won't complain, but it's not a requirement for winning.

All you need to do is 1)Be a follower! and 2) leave a comment telling me how you follow (I will be checking) and with your email address (so I can notify you!) if you'd prefer to email me with your address instead of posting it, that's cool just mention that you did so in your comment, and make sure you tell me your follower name in the email, of course. You can send that to me at JeweledTips (at) yahoo (dot) com

That's all you need to do! Easy right? :) I'll have the contest open for two weeks. So you have to enter by midnight on August 25th. Unfortunately, this contest is only open to the US and Canada, but the 100 follower giveaway will be open worldwide! (So I hope that makes up for this a little bit for my international followers)

These are all brand new polishes and I will post a swatch of Rimmel - Climax soon, that's the only one of these I own myself but there are swatches of the others floating around if you want to check them out. Again, thank you all SO much for following!

Galaxy Girl, I am in L.O.V.E.

I've been kind of on the fence about whether or not I wanted any of the Orly Cosmix collection, ever since the promo pics started coming out. And I went back and forth on which colors I wanted. Finally about two weeks ago I realized I wanted Galaxy Girl badly haha, so I put it on my MUA wishlist and figured I'd get it eventually. Then I was at Ulta on Wednesday or Thursday? I forget which, but I digress. So I found myself face to face with a brand spankin' new Cosmix collection display, totally untouched. And Galaxy Girl just jumped into my hand! Who am I to fight with fate? I had a coupon too. And I tried to resist putting it on so that I could get some swatching done, but that lasted about 36 hours. It's too pretty to resist. So here it is, in all it's glory! Lots of pictures because I can't get enough of it, just fair warning :)






Those are all in the sun, can you see the pink and blue/green shimmer!




shade


Indoors

First things first, I apologize for the tip wear, this is day three of the mani and I was kind of rough on my hands during those three day. Also I don't know why my hands look so old in these pictures. But I am sincerely in love with this nail polish. I don't have anything like it at all in my stash. I need back ups. Lots and lots of back ups. I want to wear this forever. I can't stop staring at it! Different angles let you see different colors (one or two!) of shimmer. It's so sparkly and wonderful :) Isn't it fun when a color makes you so ridiculously happy? This totally does for me. (If you couldn't already tell that, haha) What colors make you that happy? Are you getting any Cosmix colors? If so, which?

I have more exciting news! I have 49 followers, yay!! Thank you all of you lovelies who take time to follow and read my blog. I'm going to be having a giveaway at 50 followers, so hopefully I can post that soon! And I've already started gathering things for my 100 followers giveaway too.. hopefully that's not too far off either. So keep an eye out for the giveaway.

Alexandra's back with Fruit Salad!

Today I've got another amazing tutorial from the lovely Alexandra. Last time she brought us pretty flowers on a Paradoxal background. This one we have for today is adorable summer Fruit Salad! She even made a video to go along with the tutorial, how cool is that? Also, this is a special kind of nail art called 3d Nail Art. Basically that means it's not under a lot of topcoat, that it's going to be raised on your nail a little bit. Which means this probably mean this mani won't last you 7 days, but how cute would it be for a weekend?! Read on!

Here's the video that goes with the tutorial, it's just under a minute and definitely worth the watch. Alexandra I NEED to know what the mani you have on in the video is! It's really nice!


Fruit Salad
Level: Intermediate
Materials: Adhesive tape, clay slices (4 different fruits), nail glue (AKA crazy glue), paper and pen.

Step 1: Color the tips of your nails in white (french style) or any bright color that goes with the fruits you chose. The advantage of this form of nail art, is that you don't have to make perfect lines, because the fruits will cover most of it. There are french tip guides available in certain stores, if you want to make sure to have all the tips be the same size.

Step 2: Apply top coat, and let the nail polish dry. This step is important because when you apply the fruit slices sometimes the glue is slippery and they move around, until they are secured by the tape.

Step 3: (Optional) calculate the width of the nail you are working on. Using a piece of paper measure it and draw lines at both ends with a pen. When working on your own nails place paper over the nail, press and make marks with your thumb and middle fingernails at the sides, then write lines on the dents made on the paper. After practicing with one hand this step becomes optional because one already has a sense of the width.

Step 4: Place a piece of the tape with the sticky side up, on top of the paper with the markings, holding it be the edges. Make sure to cut a piece that is big enough to be wrapped around the nail (or around th finger, when working on your own nails) so that the ends stick together to hold the fruits in place.

Step 5: Place the fruit slices on the sticky side of the tape one by one, with approximetely one third of each slice above the next.

Step 6: Apply Nail glue on all the clay slices.

Step 7: Grab the strip with the fruits and place on top of the nail, covering part of the base color and part of the tips. When using artificial nails, place the nail on the tape instead, as shown in the video.

Step 8: Join both ends of the tape to hold the fruit slices in place and check that they look straight while the glue is still wet, rearrange when needed.

Step 9: After approximately 10 minutes, or when you feel the glue has dried, carefully remove the tape. No top coat needed.

Tips:
-You can also apply the slices one by one, but this takes more time, because, depending on how thin the clay is, they tend to wrinkle outwards with the wet glue, so one has to press, wait for the glue to dry, making sure the fruit is stable and then proceed to do the others.
-To make mirror images on both hands, note the order of the fruits. For example if on the left hand you started with apple, lemon, kiwi and strawberry from left to right, when doing the right hand start from right to left.

Colors used for this tutorial: Video was made on french falsies, but any white polish would do the trick.

Here's the finished product!







--------------
Thanks again for another amazing tutorial and cute nail art, Alexandra! I though the video was a great addition for this one, it helped me understand exactly what to do after initially reading through the steps. What do you guys think? I love it for summer!

You know what day it is...Wednesday!

Which means times for layering fun! Yay. This week's layering combo has taken over as my favorite one. Sorry, Teal My Heart Away with Nail Junkie on top, you are number two in my heart now. This mani is just SO PRETTY! At least in my opinion haha. But let me show you the pictures and you can decide what you think :)

The base color is Wet n Wild - Eggplant Frost, which on it's own is really nice. A deep purple with a strong blue flash. Super easy to apply too!



Then I thought, "Oh hey, wouldn't Nfu-Oh #51 look good on this? Maybe I should find out." AND I did. It's magical!




sunlight


shade


inside

I love this! Squishy, flake-y, magical goodness. So what do you guys think?

Red Light, Green Light...Blue Light?

Happy August everyone! It feels like summer has gone by really fast doesn't it? I'm sick of it being so ridiculously hot and humid all the time, so I'm not too terribly sad to see it go. Seasons don't effect my life in that I don't have summers off from anything. I work and take online classes pretty much year round so the only thing different for me is the temperature. Although this month is going to be kind of busy for me since I'm starting new classes online and I co-host a weekly fantasy football radio show (online) that premiered last week; so I have lots of stuff to do for that now. My sports addiction is why I have two seperate twitter accounts, my main one where I mostly ramble on about sports and my JeweledTips one where I can keep track of all my nail polish loving friends :) Speaking of the JeweledTips twitter account, I spent some time today trying to find everybody to follow but I know there are more of you lovelies out there I can be following- so if you want, leave me your twitter name in your comments so I can follow you! I set up the JeweledTips account on my blackberry now too so I will be using that much much more! Now that you've read my rambling, want to see some nail polish? :)

Today I have pictures of Color Club - Blue Light to show you. It's a pretty light blue. Actually this was one of my first ever Color Club polishes. I saw a swatch somewhere and had to hunt it down immediately. Sorry I was chasing the sun the day I swatched this (and Strawberry Fields, but that's for another post) the clouds got the best of me, so the "sun" pictures are a little weak today haha sorry about that.


sun, kind of.


shade


indoors

I like this a lot. Pastel/pale blues really appeal to me; and I like how they look on. I was lemming the light blue, What's With The Cattitude, from the OPI Shrek Collection pretty hard but I think the light blues I have already are close enough to it. I have the new light blue and lavender polishes coming from Avon this week so I can do a light blue comparison when that arrives for you guys.

One last thing for today, I have a handful of really great new nail polish blogs that I have added over the last few days to My Blog List (on the left side of your screen). If you have a few minutes try to check them out, there are some really sweet bloggers behind them!