Matte Suede-fest '11: Day 1

Welcome to a little week I'm calling Matte Suede-fest 2011. I love most of the shades from Revlon's Matte-Suede line that came out a few months ago, a very serious love. So instead of sporadically posting them at random, I'm making it a Matte-Suede palooza! Woooo! I own 3 of the 4 shades (Fire Fox didn't appeal to me) so you'll be getting six days of fun. Let's get it on - Day 1 brings us Powder Puff, without topcoat


sun!

shade

indoors

This is without topcoat, which means it's Matte-Suede, so kind of flat. To me the whole Matte-Suede concept is really like a hybrid of the flat almost plastic looking matte finish, and the more suede like finishes (like Zoya Matte Velvets and OPI Suedes). So when these Revlons are topcoat-less, they are more interesting looking than a full on matte polish, in my opinion at least. I don't know if you know that I pretty much hate the look of matte polishes, so I always wear topcoats on these types of things, but the Revlons I like enough that I've contemplated leaving them Matte-Suede-y.

Powder Puff seemed to be the shade that got the most attention out of the four when these first came out, because it's one of the most interesting looking white polishes on the market. There's this really pretty blue flash to it. My pictures are three coats of polish, but I know a lot of people need four and Powder Puff is sloooow to dry. I'm pretty sure this can be solved by layering a coat or two of Powder Puff over a regular opaque white, but I haven't tried yet (I keep meaning too...) White it tricky for me to pull off because I'm ridiculously pale, but I like how Powder Puff looks on me. Tomorrow I'm going to show you the shiny topcoat-ed up version!

A Little Crack(le) Giveaway!

Heyyyy! I should be studying for a final I have tomorrow afternoon (yes, final, my schedule is silly) but my back is being highly uncooperative. Shooting pain in my back and legs is preventing me from focusing - so my lack of productivity is your gain! Somebody should be getting something good out of this situation, don't you think? :)

So I came across some old Cover Girl Crackle Polishes recently and decided to give them away to one of my awesome readers!


the prize!

close-up of the bottles

One reader will win 1 bottle each of Cover Girl Crackle in Boo! and Ghost. Boo! is a black crackle polish and Ghost is a white crackle polish

This giveaway is open internationally! So as long as you have a mailing address, you can enter

Mandatory: You MUST be a follower! New or old, either works.

Tell me how you follow and what name you follow under. You also need to leave me your email address. (1 entry)

For additional entries:

1. Follow me on twitter (@JeweledTips) & tweet about the giveaway (must include a link to this post and @JeweledTips so I can see that you did!): (1 entry)

2. Blog about this giveaway! (putting it in your sidebar counts): (1 entry)

3. Add Jeweled Tips to your blog roll and leave me a link: (1 entry)

4. Tell me what your all time favorite nail polish is and why :) (1 entry)

So a possible 5 total entries! You will be disqualified if you do not at least leave the mandatory information. I had to disqualify some people in the last giveaway for this, so READ this whole entry please!

The giveaway will be open until midnight on March 17, 2011. As long as it's March 17th where you live, you can enter. Please leave you entries in ONE comment if possible (I know sometimes you may blog about it later or something so I understand that, but please do your best here). Also, once I contact you that you've won - you have 72 hours to respond or else I will have to pick a new winner.

Good luck everyone! I can't wait to see the answers to the favorite polish question :)

Nail art, a tutorial, Paradoxal swatches.. oh my!

Hello lovelies! I'm all kinds of out of wack today. Why you may ask? Well, I've been up since 4 am (on purpose!) to watch golf. The Open Championship in Scotland started today and TV coverage started at 4 am EST, so I'm rocking 2 hours of sleep and have happily been watching golf all day. Yes, I am very aware that this is insane behavior; but I love it! My sports addiction might be a wee bit out of control haha.

But since I knew all week I was planning to do this, I figured today was the perfect day to introduce you all to my friend Alexandra and show you all the wonderful things she has in store for us. First up Paradoxal swatches! I asked Alexandra if she would mind taking a couple of Paradoxal swatches inside because, 1) I can't get enough of this polish! and 2) I feel like every picture highlights the shimmer in Paradoxal, but most of the time the shimmer isn't very visable. So Alexandra indulged me and took pictures of Paradoxal to show us what it normally looks like :)




Ahhh, I can't get over how pretty this nail polish is!

Are you up for some nail art? Alexandra provided an incredible step by step tutorial to create some really really pretty flowers. Here are her instructions:

Basic Flowers
Level: beginner
Materials: Rhinestones, tooth pick and 2 small bottle caps. If you don’t have rhinestones choose another color for the center.

Steps:

1) Start by getting a table lamp or getting close to a well illuminated place. Add 1 coat of the nail polish you like to all of your nails.


2) Add a generous second coat to only one nail, it is costumary to start with an average size finger, because you can get a sense of the layout.


3) Fill a little container with water and dip the toothpick, this will help for picking up the rhinestone, although you can also get a “picker-upper” at a beauty supply store.


4) Place the rhinestone on the nail while the polish is still wet, and press slightly.


5) Make sure the rhinestones follow a curved pattern, and not a “/” or an “L” pattern, a “moon” shape looks more subtle.


6) Place a drop of a contrasting color of nail polish in a small container, I use a bottle cap. Dip only a tiny portion of the toothpick and “touch” the surface of the nail, the color will transfer much like a refrigirator magnet, there is no need to press or sink it in. Some people use dotting tools and press on to make an effect, but usually for bigger flowers. Nail art brushes also work well, some even come within a bottle of nail polish.




7) Work each nail one by one, or add the rhinestones to all your nails and then start the dotting process. Add top coat.




One last thing, don’t be afraid to try it, the previous picture was made very cautiously to show the detail, but the following ones show flowers made really fast and not so perfect. The big picture is what matters, the overall look is still very good, even if the close-up shows some flowers are missing petals and some dots are bigger than others.




Tips: - to keep a more together look, draw flowers on the outside corners only, meaning the flowers on the right hand will be on the right side and the ones on the left hand will be on the left side.

- try on one nail first, with just clear base/top coat, or on a fake nail, so you can get a sense of the separation of the rhinestones.

- the polish used for dotting dries really fast, since it is just a drop, so you must work fast and use a new drop when it does. However, when I first pour the drop it is too watery, not optimal for dotting, I wait about 20 seconds. It takes practice, but it’s a good idea to always try the first flowers on a piece of paper.

- when in doubt, make very tiny dots first and put your hand about two feet away to see the overall picture, and if the flower petals need to be thicker, just dip in the polish again and dot over it.

Colors used for this tutorial: Chanel 509 Paradoxal and OPI Alpine Snow.

----
How pretty is that?! Thank you SO much for the tutorial and swatches Alexandra! What do you guys think? Are any of you going to try this? I think I am, hopefully soon. I'll be sure to post pictures when I try it. I think it looks so classy and professionally done... I hope mine turns out just as nice!