Mistletoe Kisses for New Year's Eve

Hello lovelies! Just a quick post for you tonight before 2011 is upon us. I've got China Glaze - Mistletoe Kisses for you today. I won this a little while ago from Mary at Body & Soul and it's so pretty! Maybe my favorite from the Holiday collection this year.

sun (you can see how the silver glitter is more apparent sometimes depending on the light)

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Pretty right? Sorry there are a few stray glitter pieces on my ring finger in the pictures. I'm actually wearing this on my toes right now. It's easy to work with, sometimes glitters can be a little gloopy but the formula here is good. Mistletoe Kisses is one of three I have from this collection, I'll show you the other two soon. Do you have any from this collection? What's your favorite?

I hope you all have a great New Year's Eve! I won't be kissing anyone at midnight since I'm sick, but hopefully you will be :)

Diamond Cosmetics Winter Collection, Part Two

I've got the second half of Diamond Cosmetics' Winter Collection for you. If you missed part one you can find it here. I've got pictures of Starshine and Hypnotic to show you today! Have I mentioned how much I like the names of the polishes from this collection? Because I definitely do. If you've been reading JeweledTips for a while, I'm sure you've noticed that polish names that don't make sense drive me crazy haha. Yay for logical names!

First up, Starshine!

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(click to enlarge all of these to see the glitter better)

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Diamond Cosmetics describes it as, "Dark blue like the cosmic abyss, flecks of glitter in this polish twinkle like stars." I'd say that's pretty accurate! The bits of glitter aren't quite as obvious on the nail, it's more subtle but you can definitely tell they are there. These are all without topcoat, which I think would make it even prettier. The application was good, I used three coats but could've gotten away with two. I have polishes in my stash that are like a cousin to Starshine but no dupes. I'm a sucker for any polish with Star in the name too haha. As soon as I put this on, I thought it would make a really cool base color for something similar to the Space Nails that Asami did a while back.

Now let's check out Hypnotic!

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Oh myyyy goodness is this gorgeous or what? Diamond Cosmetics describes it like this: "Get lost in your fantasy with this shimmery blue green hue." Cute! Shimmery definitely fits this, although I'd say it's more a green that leans blue than a true blue-green, if that makes sense? There is a little more blue to it than my camera captured, but still predominately green I think. Application was great, very easy to work with and full coverage in two coats. I don't have any dupes to this for sure, it's crazy pretty though haha I can't wait to wear this as a full mani!

I don't think I can pick just one favorite from the collection, they all fit different holes in my collection (if you can have holes in a collection closing in on 300, you know what I mean though) I do know for sure I'm going to wear Moonsand on New Year's Eve! Do you have a favorite out of the four? Will you be picking one or all of them up from Diamond Cosmetics? If you're celebrating this weekend - I hope it's wonderful! And if not, I hope your weekend is amazing too :)

(these were sent to me for an honest review)

Diamond Cosmetics Winter Collection, Part One

Hello lovelies! I've been buried in a pile of papers, articles to edit, and school work for the last week and a half, but I think I've finally conquered it haha. I did get a bunch of swatching done in the meantime, including the beautiful Winter Collection from Diamond Cosmetics. I'm breaking it up into two parts, today and tomorrow, so it won't be too picture heavy for you. So today I'm going to be showing you Moonsand and It's Electrifying, check out the pictures below!

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more sun

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I love Moonsand! Everything from the name to the color to the application I like. I've been jonesin' for a charcoal-y silver polish for the last few weeks and I think this fits the bill! It only took two coats to get full coverage and wasn't bad to remove either. Diamond Cosmetics describes it as, "This charcoal foil shines like the full moon; eye catching and magnificent." I think this is going to be the base for my New Year's Eve mani, maybe with some glitter on top.

sun (the color made me camera a little crazy, so my skintone looks...off)

shade (yay for normal looking skin!)

inside (and my skin's back to looking strange..)

"It's Electrifying... do do doo, better shape up dun dun dun cause I need a man, do do do, and my heart is set on youuuu" hahah, doesn't this name make you immediately think of Grease? Maybe it's just how my brain works. This color is fantastic. The formula gave me fits a little bit though, this picture is four coats. The VNL (visible nail line) is a little visible in pictures, but not in real life. This was a little bit patchy when I was applying it, but I was rushing a little bit so that could be partially my fault. It's Electrifying is a squishy color for sure, I know a lot of people will love it even with less coats, but I'm not into VNL so four was what I needed. Diamond Cosmetics describes it, "Give him chills with this powerful and sassy blue." Perfect description right?

What do you think of the first two colors from the Winter Collection? I hope your holiday shopping is almost finished! :)

(these were provided to me for an honest review)

Festive!

Hi again! Second post today... told you I was playing catch up here haha. I just finished my radio show and I'm sneaking in really quick to show you a perfect holiday mani that Alexandra just did! And it's super easy, I promise.

base colors
close - up of some of the stickers

finished product!

Alexandra alternated Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear - Emerald City and Orly - Bus Stop Crimson for the green and red base colors. And then topped it off with some holiday Cina nail stickers from Sally's Beauty Supply. I think most of the time you can find these seasonal style stickers by the registers at Sally's if you want to pick some up to try this yourself!

I love it! I need to get to Sally's to get a pack of these stickers, they are so adorable :) Thanks again Alexandra!! Have any of you started doing holiday manis yet?

Lots Of Neat Stuff Happening Right Now!

Hey everyone! Sorry my computer has been uncooperative the last few days... the display settings changed themselves and four days of various techs and people working on it and it's still not fixed, yuck. So my laptop is now hooked up to a separate monitor and keyboard so I can finally start playing some catch up here! I've got a few press releases to show you of some cool stuff that's going on in the nail polish/beauty world.

First up, some of the amazing people in the beauty blogging community have put together BeautyBloggers.org

"BeautyBloggers.org is the collaboration of almost 50 different beauty bloggers and brands. In the spirit of the holidays, we wanted to make a meaningful contribution to charity — knowing that the most effective donation to any charity is cash.
So we’re putting our makeup on the auction block. Winning bids will be donated directly to Doctors Without Borders.
We’re raising money for Doctors Without Borders because women are always disproportionately affected in any disaster. This organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people in crisis, regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. They treat rape victims in Papua New Guinea; they make sure women don’t die in childbirth in Pakistan; they helped flood victims in Mexico and earthquake victims in Haiti. They work in 65 countries around the world, and your donation will make an immediate impact. "

So go check out all of the amazing make-up and nail polish that's being auctioned off at BeautyBloggers.org to donate to a great cause and get yourself something pretty in the process :) The auctions are live now and run through December 20th at 5 pm CST.

Color Club has exciting news about their partnership with Amethyst Jeans, and a contest!

click to enlarge

"Enter to win on of 20 holiday totes given away over the next five weeks!
You and your BFF will each receive an Amethyst Jeans tote filled with a pair of Amethyst Jeans, shimmery lip glosses and a holiday set nail polish set from Color Club and a shampoo and conditioner set from Totally Texty!

Contest runs from November 29th through December 31st, 2010. Go to http://www.facebook.com/amethystjeans to enter! Happy Holidays!"

Glitter Gal has a new partnership to announce as well! They have teamed up with Australian shoe brand, Wanted Shoes!

"Glitter Gal custom created Limited Edition nail polishes for “Wanted Shoes”
We have collaborated with “Wanted Shoes” and custom created six nail polishes to compliment this season’s shoe collection.

Stockist: Wanted Shoe Stores
Available now"

Toxic Seduction

Hi lovelies! Sorry it's been a few days, my back has been crankier than usual :( but I'm sneaking on here for a minute to post for you! Today I have Misa - Toxic Seduction to show you. This is my first Misa and a lemming that I've had for a while that was recently fulfilled, a really sweet lady on MUA gave this to me as an EXTRA! Honestly I can't get over how kind people are sometimes, that was so sweet. I love that when I get amazing things like this, everytime I use the polish, I'm reminded of how nice and generous the person was. Enough of me rambling haha let me show you how gorgeous this color is:

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Toxic Seduction is this great dark green lit from within polish. It was super easy to work with formula-wise, I only needed 2 coats. I've really only branched out into using dark-er colors over the last 6 months or so; this is kind of perfect in my opinion haha. It's dark but you can always tell it's green, it doesn't look black in shade or inside. All the pictures are accurate representations of how it looks in the different settings. I think the name is a perfect fit too, Toxic Seduction... I feel kind of seductive with this on my nails haha :) Names that fit the polish make me so happy. But after finally getting this in my hot little hands, I definitely want to get some more Misa polishes soon. Maybe a post holiday haul?

Don't forget!! My giveaway ends tomorrow December 3rd at 11:59pm Eastern Standard Time! If you haven't entered yet, what are you waiting for silly goose? Go and enter here: http://jeweledtips.blogspot.com/2010/11/giveaway-nail-art-style.html

I have some great things coming up... some gorgeous necklaces from Ginger Kitty Designs, Revlon - Perplex swatches, holiday manis and nail art, and showing you one of my all-time favorite polishes for my birthday mani on Tuesday! Yay for lots of pretty upcoming things :)