Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Shine and Polishment!

Giveaway Time!

Check out this great blog-i-versary giveway from Ash-Lilly!!

Swatch the Fourteenth

Greetings from Panera Bread! (I wonder if I could get sponsorship...?) Halloween is one of my favorite holidays so I have another spooky look for you ghouls this week. This one is sure to be blood curdling:


This is two coats of Sinful Colors "Snow as White" with Sinful Colors "Gogo Girl" for the dripping blood effect. I got the effect by laying a very thick French tip line down then holding my hands vertical to let them drip and using a dotting tool to help form the lines and a few extra drops.


I think the look turned out nightmarish, what do you all think?

Manicure the Eighth

Holy Cow! I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've last posted. My how time has flown. The hubs and I are all moved out of our condo and our new tenant is all moved in. Our settlement date for the new home is late November so we're bunking with my in laws till the house is ready. There is no wireless at the in laws so my laptop is as good as a paper weight right now. Right now I'm posting for the local Panera Bread. So here is a quick spooky manicure for all you Halloween fans:





This is two coats of Color Clubs in Koo Koo Cahoo with LaRosa Black Crackle over top on three fingers and little spider webs complete with adorable spiders on the other two fingers.

Manicured Monkey Give Away!

Check out this great giveaway:
http://manicuredmonkey.blogspot.com/2011/09/giveaway-ends-1016-opened.html

Swatch the Thirteenth

Rainy days make for horrible photographs. And painting your house makes for awful manicures. Both of which are my reasons for the lack of posts lately. And since I'm fairly new to this blogging world I have very little manicure pictures kept in the vault for just such rainy days. I have however managed to dig up these gorgeous shots:





These lovely shots are brought to you by Zoya in one of my absolute new favorite colors, Jem. Jem is from the newest Zoya collection, Smoke and Mirrors. From Zoya's website "A dark red-toned purple base with metallic dark pink highlights and subtle gold duochrome flecks. This shade has it all; bold color, vampy drama, bright sparkle and a glam rock persona." I couldn't had described this color better myself. Application was flawless, opaque in two easy coats and dry time was pretty speedy. This bottle is going straight to the top of my favorites pile. And I can't urge you enough to go out and grab a bottle for yourself before it's gone.

Giveaway Time!

Check out this great blog anniversary giveaway!!

http://www.polishology.net/2011/08/polishologys-1st-blog-o-versary.html

Swatch the Twelveth

Earlier this month my company had their big yearly meeting. This meeting is always themed and participants are highly encouraged to dress to match the theme. This year's theme: The 80's. Check out my totally rad outfit.


And of course this totally awesome outfit needs a great mani to go with it:


And to me nothing says the 80's like pink frost nail polish with rounded tips.


This is two coats of Pure Ice in Love with a hot pink stripe done in Pure Ice Flirt Alert and the black stripe done with a nail stripper. It looked great with all my jelly bracelets. So what do you all think? I ended up liking the rounded tips much more than my normally squared off tips so I think I'll be sticking with them for awhile. And I'll be adding some length to them as well. I think it makes my fingers and hands look slimmer and that's always a good thing.

Manicure the Seventh

Whew! What a crazy couple of weeks! First the earthquake then a hurricane and tornado and then just for some extra fun a tropical depression and flooding. And in the midst of it all hubs and I signed a contract for a new house and began renovations on our condo to ready it for rent. I spent all last week painting and painting and painting and for a change of pace...you guessed it...more painting. Hubs completely reno'd the bathroom and now I have a beautiful new bathroom that I'll probably get to enjoy for maybe a month before we move out to let the tenants move in. Oh well. Here's crazy manicure to go with my crazy week:





This awesome mani was a brand new experience for Tung. Fantastic results for her first time, huh? You would have never guessed the she hadn't done leopard spots before. For the French tips the base is China Glaze in Heaven with China Glaze Ginger Bells for the tips. The full colored nails are done in just the CG Ginger Bells, which went on beautifully in two coats and in the perfect shade of ginger bread and happened to work wonderfully with the look I was going for. The leopard spots are done free hand with acrylic paint in black and gold. You will notice that I also went with a rounded tip instead of my usual rounded square tips. I'll keep that reasoning secret for now and explain in tomorrow's swatch post. For now, enjoy!

Giveaway

Check out this great giveaway from The TraceFace Philes:
http://the-trace-face-philes.blogspot.com/2011/08/trace-face-philes-because-i-can.html

Manicure the Sixth

This week's manicure is super simple but results in an amazing dramatic effect. Check it out:





This is two coats of a basic white polish with one coat of La Rosa's black crackle on top and a top coat to smooth it out a bit. The effect almost looks like Dalmatian spots and I even had a few non polish savvy folks that complimented me on them who thought that each little crackle was individually painted on. So what do you all think of the black and white crackle look?

Wednesday Giveaway

Check out this great giveaway from I'm Feeling Nail-Venturous (my very on recent give away winner).

http://imfeelingnail-venturous.blogspot.com/2011/08/my-350-follower-giveaway.html

Swatch the Eleventh

Well, wasn't today an exciting day? At least it was for us East Coasters. I'm sure all those Cali folks are getting a good chuckle out of us all making a big deal out of a little ole baby earthquake. Even without the earthquake today was an exciting day. Today, the hubby and signed a contract for a new town home! This will be his second home purchase but my first so I was super gittery, excited and nervous. Of course a special occasion calls for a special polish. I went with OPI's Designer Series in Mystery. This gorgeous vampy color can be deceiving in color. Indoors it can look black or even chocolate when in reality it is a deep dark velvety purple with a gorgeous copper glass fleck. And it demanded a ton of compliments. The polish went on smooth and was opaque in two easy coats and dry time was pretty quick. This polish will definitely be going in my favorites.

Manicure the Fifth

My apologies to all my followers for the lack of posts recently. I have been under the weather and am just now getting things back on track. This gorgeous manicure was designed with a particular outfit of mine in mind. I chose one of my favorite China Glaze colors, Bohemian Chic, a classic burgundy that I always gravitate towards when I have a desire for a classy and simple look. Tung worked her artistic magic to hand paint some pretty flowers in colors to match my skirt. Check out the fantastic results:

Can you tell I've been practicing my photography? I also purchased some fancy new photo editing software for my iPad. I'm just loving the results. And while my condo's balcony banister needs repair work it does make for a lovely contrasting background. Despite the tremendous amount of rain, thunderstorms and cloudy skies recently, I did manage to get some swatching and photographing done this weekend so posts will resume as normal this week. TTFN!

Giveaway winner!

And the the winner is: imfeelingnailventurous Congrats! I will be sending you an email asking for your address so be on the lookout for that.

My First Giveaway

Today is the last day to enter my very first giveaway.  Please check it out:

My First Giveaway!

Swatch the Tenth

I'm sure this is starting to sound really old, but don't forget to check out my giveaway, it ends August 1st!



This week's swatch is a bit of a fail to me.  I used two think coats of Orly's Royal Navy, a vibrant shade of blue (and one of my favorites), paired with China Glaze's Black Mesh Crackle.  I thought the Royal Navy would shine through a lot more than it did which is really the only reason I consider it a fail.  I think I'll stick with neons under the black crackle, they work better.

Orly Royal Navy

With Black Crackle



What do you think?

Check out this Giveaway:

from Haute Lacquer:
http://hautelacquer.blogspot.com/2011/07/follower-appreciation-giveaway.html

Swatch the Ninth

And yet another reminder to check out my giveaway.

This week is all about nudity! Kidding of course, but I did go with a beautiful nude color from CQ called Silver Taupe. Why the Silver in the name? Because this nude color was accented with gorgeous silver glass fleck and just the tiniest bit of halo micro glitter. This simple color scored me lots of compliments and it will be making my top polishes list for sure.  The polish went on smoothly and was fairly opaque in two coats.  There was still a bit of visible nail line after the two coats but with a nude I expect that. 

Manicure the Forth

Before I begin, I just wanted to give you all a quick reminder to enter my giveaway, just a few more days before the winner is chosen! This week's manicure is once again brought to you by LaRosa. This time Tung went with LaRosa's purple crackle (called Purple Rain). It's a metallic purple that cracked wonderfully with one thin coat. I was undecided on which color to go with for the undercoat so, we went with both of the two finalists: China Glaze's Caribbean Temptation and China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise. Check out the results:

Despite Pink and Purple being such a classic color combo, I ended up liking the Turquoise much better. I think it showed off the purple crackle much better.

Give Away

Check out this awesome giveaway at Nailasaurus!

http://nailasaurus.blogspot.com/2011/05/800-follower-giveaway.html

Swatch the Eighth

This is an old mani from a couple of weekends ago.  The hubby and I went with friends to see Creedence Clearwater Revisted and I thought the event required a mani full of bling.

This is two coats of China Glaze's First Mate with two coats of China Glaze's Treasure Chest and a top coat of Seche Vite.  The First Mate is a deep navy blue creme that went on with ease and was opaque in two coats. Treasure Chest is a gold hex glitter that added the perfect amount of bling and became smooth with just one topcoat of SV. 

I got a lot of compliments on this mani and will probably repeat it again.

Manicure the Third

Got my manicure a little earlier than usual this week since Monday was July 4th. 

Tung has picked up some great new polishes in the last couple of weeks, including LaRosa's line of crackle polishes.  So, despite it being the July 4th weekend I decided to go with a teal color with a white shatter on top.  Check it out:

This is two coats of Verity in Beach Blue with one coat of the LaRosa White Crackle on top. We had no problems with the LaRosa and the Verity was a decent polish as well.  The Verity in Beach Blue is a gorgeous shade of teal jelly that was fairly opaque in two coats.  I would suggest three if you use it without some sort of top coat effect (like the crackle or a glitter) but otherwise application was a breeze and it dried fairly quick.

Don't forget to check out my giveaway!

Swatch the Seventh

Here's the promised review of the Nic's Sticks:

I picked up two colors from Tuesday Morning: Red Eye to NY (a red creme) and Baby Go Bye-Bye (a light blue creme).  The colors are very nice but the application was horrible and I would not recommend it. The brush is thick and uneven and as a result more polish is needed which resulted in a lack of control that caused cuticle flooding.  And watch out for splatter.

Don't forget to enter the giveaway, it's open to Canadians now.



My First Giveaway-Now Open to Canadians!

Now that the Canadian Postal Strike appears to be ending I am opening up My First Giveaway to Canadian followers.  Make sure to you sign up today!

Thanks!

Swatch the Sixth

I headed to Five Below last weekend to pick up some great deals.  Check out this super halo glitter from Funky Fingers in Sand and Stilettos (that I snagged at the great price of 3 for $5):

There was so much glitter in this polish that it was completely opaque in two coats! Best of all it was smooth as a baby's bottom once a topcoat of SV was applied.  A word of warning though this glitter is not fun when it comes to removal so use sparingly.

Don't forget to check out my giveaway!

Manicure the Second

This week's manicure requires sunglasses for viewing.  I went with two very bright colors from Famous: #15 Baby Rose and #S31 Brazillian Waxed.  I had Tung alternate the colors on each nail with the tips being done the same way for a checker board look.  It was finished off with a holo nail glitter stripper and a top coat.

I love the look of the mani but let me tell you, the application was not easy.  Both polishes were very thin and required three heavy coats to cover and even then I still had bald spots and thanks to the numerous coats (including the top coat) there were bubbles visible on a couple of fingers. And the drying time took forever.  An hour after I left Tung's I ended up with dents and that's after a fast drying top coat, being under the dryer and drying drops.

Don't forget to sign up for my first giveaway!

My First Giveaway!

Picked up this cute little mini kit from ULTA and thought it would make for a great first giveaway to help bring on new followers.  It's not too big, not too small, just right.

This kit from ULTA contains mini bottles of: High Shine Top Coat, Sunbathing Beauty (pink), Beach Bum (green), Surfer Girl (blue), Bananarama (yellow).  All four polishes are Matte finishes but they do come with the high shine top coat if you prefer a shiney look.

So here are the rules:

1. Giveaway open to US and Canadian followers only.
2. You must be a public follower

3. You must blog about this giveaway (it is after all to encourage new followers)

4. Add me to your blog roll for an extra entry

5. Tweet about this giveaway for an extra entry

6. Contest winner will be picked randomly on August 1st.

How to enter:
Leave a comment with the following information:
1. Your google friend connect user name
2. Email address (so I can contact you if you won) 
3. The link to your blog post about this giveaway
4. If you tweeted about this an extra entry, provide a link to your twitter page
5. If you added me to your blog roll for extra entries let me know that too

Good luck everyone!

Swatch the Forth & Fifth

Another swatch from last week. I picked up a mini kit from Revlon the other day and decided to give it a whirl.

Inside were three mini bottles in Garden, Waterfall and Sparkle.  Garden is a lovely pastel shade of green creme, sparkle is a clear topcoat with small halo glitter mixed with larger hex halo glitter and Waterfall is a baby blue with some silver shimmer to it.

I started with the Garden and added the sparkle topcoat to it.  I have to say that I did not like the formula of either of the creme colors.  Both were a bit rubbish going on.  Either they were gloppy or there were bald spots and both colors took about three thin coats to go on opague if you didn't want the polish to pool at your tips.  The sparkle was decent but  I had to take three passes to get any of the hex glitter on my nails and even then I only got about five pieces total for all ten fingers. The green was easier to apply than the blue and I did leave it on for a day as the sparkle topcoat did cover up most of the issues.  The blue was bad enough (it bubbled on some fingers and was bumpy for unknown reasons on others) that I took it off immediately after swatching and put on something else.

Swatch the Third

Here's a swatch from last week. This is Nicole by O.P.I. in OMB from the Justin Bieber Collection.

It's a fantastic Fuschia glitter than can appear reddish indoors.  The new brush design is short and stubby but allows you to cover more nail in one swipe. It was opaque in two coats and because I was applying it before clocking in for work, I decided to leave well enough alone and just did an SV top coat.  And let me just add that I LOVE Seche Vite Top Coat, the stuff is just amazing.  I was typing away after just a couple of minutes thanks to this brilliant product.

After work I went and hung out with my parents and fellow nail polish addict, my four year old neice, Kara.  I painted her fingers and toes so she could match Aunt Mimi.  She loved it.  Every time I come over she makes a point to take my hands and go "oooooooo.....pretty" no matter how bad they look.  And sometimes when her mommie gets her nails done at Ms. Tung's Kara goes with her and gets her nails done too.  It's one of the few things that gets her to sit still for more than two minutes at a time.  She's such a little princess.

Swatch the Second

I hit up ULTA on Wednesday and picked up this gorgeous bottle of pink from Essie called Mod Squad (along with a few other goodies) and I think this bottle and I are going to be new best friends.  I am just in love with the color. I couldn't stop looking at it when it was on my fingers. It is the PERFECT shade of pink for summer. The creme formula can be a bit iffy if you are not careful with application (leaving bald spots even with two coats) but otherwise it is fine.  I applied this Thursday morning before work with a topcoat of Seche Vite and then when I got home I added the pink and purple dots with a toothpick for fun super girly mani for the weekend.  The dots are in Essie's Guchi Muchi Puchi and Lilacism.

Pardon the slightly blurry cell phone picture but I just had to share this mani as soon as possible because I love it so much and didn't have time to bust out the camera.

Followers

I have FIVE followers!  Yipee!!!

Thanks you guys!

Giveaway Time

Check out this awesome giveaway from Canadian Nail Fanatic!

Deal the First

I also stopped by a thrift store this week and picked up three bottles of polish from L.A. Colors (Silver Metallic), Bon Bon (no name) and Wet n Wild (no name), total cost was $2.39.

Swatch the First

Came home with a bottle of CQ in Slate the other day and was dying to try it out.  Check out the results:

CQ's bottle is a squared oval shape that's easy to grip with a round handle and standard brush. The color is a deep green blue creme and it goes on opaque in two coats, one if you're careful.  And because I'm obsessed with Essie's Matte About You topcoat right now I did a matte topcoat with glossy french tips.

Enamel Girl Giveaway

Check out Enamel Girl's First Anniversary Giveaway:

Two winners, contest ends June10th.
http://enamelgirl.blogspot.com/2011/05/1st-blog-anniversary-giveaway.html

~Polish Freshie~: My Double Dose of Birthday Fun & Giveaway~

More fun Giveaways: ~Polish Freshie~: My Double Dose of Birthday Fun & Giveaway~: "Man, it's that time of year when I get another year older and realize time just flies by! I celebrate the big 27 today, truly can't believe ..."

Silence is Loud: 500 Followers Giveaway!!!

Another Day, another great giveaway: Silence is Loud: 500 Followers Giveaway!!!: "Yes, I realized that when the bf texted me and congrats me for having 500 followers already. I'm thankful and really appreciate the kind wor..."

Manicure the First

So here's the first manicure up for your viewing pleasure.

This week's colors were handpicked by Tung:

This is O.P.I Play Til Midnight with the tips done in Zoya Crystal and a Silver Nail Art Stripper. 

Play Til Midnight is a gorgeous shade of blue with purple and blue glitter/shimmer to it. It went on like a dream and was opaque in two coats.

Zoya's Crystal is a blue simmer with small light blue and gold glitter that went on opaque over the O.P.I. after one coat.

Both look smashing together.

Fashion Polish: A England Giveaway

A third great giveaway: Fashion Polish: A England Giveaway: "If you have already read my previous A England nail polish posts, you definitely know how much I love them. Adina Bodana, the woman behind t..."

Lulla Writes...: Lulla Writes Springtime Giveaway!

Another great giveaway, ends Junes 10th so hurry up and get over there: Lulla Writes...: Lulla Writes Springtime Giveaway!: "Today I have a very exciting post to do. This Post is about my 2nd Giveaway! whoo i loved doing the first one so much, that when it was over..."

GildedNails: 1500 Follower Giveaway!

Check out this great Give Away: GildedNails: 1500 Follower Giveaway!: "Hey everyone! As I mentioned on Tuesday, last weekend my blog clicked over the 1500 follower mark and to celebrate I'm holding another givea..."

The Neverending Stash

As promised, pictures of Tung's stash.

I've only just begun cataloging all of it.  I've logged over 230 bottles so far and have many more to go.

First the cataloged polishes:

And now all the goodies hidden away waiting to be cataloged: