**CLOSED** Giveaway: Lucy's Stash "1,500 Followers Giveaway"

To celebrate her blog reaching 1,500 followers, Lucy's Stash is giving away 5 colors from OPI The Muppets Collection.  The colors are:  Meep Meep Meep, Warm & Fozzie, Designer... Da Better, Excuse Moi!, and Divine Swine.

Please check out Lucy's Stash for giveaway details and rules.  Giveaway closes January 2, 2011, and is open internationally.  Good luck!

My Julep Box of Mystery

Julep recently ran a holiday promotion called 5 Days of Gifting, where each day featured a new Julep deal.  By far, the most popular deal that week was the Box of Mystery.  A surprise box of mystery Julep products valued at $60 and up to $200, all for $19.99 and with free shipping.  I'm already a loyal Julep Maven, I signed on from the very beginning in August, but that didn't stop me from taking advantage of the incredible deal being offered on this day.  Plus the fact I like having a surprise box of beauty goodies delivered to my doorstep, this was a win win.

My mystery box arrived yesterday and I was giddy with excitement to open my surprise.  I had no idea what I was going to get, but what I received made my jaw drop...

Look at all the products!  I think I really hit the jackpot on this one.  I did a quick calculation and my box retails over $200.  I think it's safe to say I got my money's worth on this one.  Never in the world did I expect to get the grand daddy box. I would have been more than happy with a $60 box, so this definitely exceeds my expectation.

So what's in the box?  Here's the list of items:
Amy - smokey turquoise
Gloria - modern, coral rose
Holly - opaque, super pale pink
Jodie - shimmery, burnt copper
Lucy - modern, dark burgundy
Mandy - fresh, bright, deep coral-pink
Salma - bold, fire-engine red
Susan - cheery, rosy pink
Stella - mustard yellow
Vera - luxurious, sable brown
Pout Plumping Lip Gloss in Intimacy - nude with 24 karat gold shimmer
Essential Cuticle Oil
Fast Dry Top Coat
Glitter Pot in Silver
Nail Applique in Peacock
Nail Applique in Rivet

Amazing enough, I don't own any of the 10 colors here.  I have to say that there are a few colors I would normally not buy for myself, but now I have the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone and give the color a try.  Indeed Christmas came a couple days early for me.  These are quality products.  I am very fond of their nail polish, especially their crème formula.  They apply beautifully on the nails and dries to a glossy shine.  I have to say Julep is incredibly generous to be offering such a wonderful deal to their customers.  I'm definitely a fan!

So what is a Julep Maven?  I'm sure most of you already heard about the program, but in case you didn't, here's it is:  For $19.99 a month (shipping is included), Julep will send out a Sneak Peek Box tailored to your style profile taken from a quick fun style quiz.  The box will include the latest nail color, and/or mani and pedi care products.  For more details on the program, check out the Julep Maven section on the website and the Maven FAQs page.  If you're not a Maven and want to join, I would appreciate if you go through my referral link to sign-up.  (Disclosure:  For each new member that signs up for Julep Maven program through the referral link, I will receive $15 in Julep credit)


Edited 12/27/11 to add:  I didn't post this before because I thought the offer had expired, but it appears that it still may be working.  You can sign-up for the Maven program and get the introductory box for just a penny!  Go to the referral link and use coupon code: SHAREON.

Sally Hansen GEM Crush Cha-Ching! & Featuring "Rudolph"

First off, I have to say that I am not a nail art person.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy looking at them, and I can appreciate all the time and hard work it takes to create them.  But that's just it... Time...  I don't have it, and I have very little patience.  The attention to details I've seen are just amazing... I'm in awe at their talent.  Yes, I'm lazy that way.  But really, just the mere fact that I'm taking care of my  nails and I keep them trimmed and polished is already amazing enough for me.

With that said, I will sometimes dabble a little... on certain occasions.  Themed manis can be fun, so I will challenge myself here and there, and try explore my nail creativity.  Well, it's the holidays; and since I'm helping out at my son's classroom holiday party, why not do something fun?  I got the idea after seeing a very fun mani posted by khuuphoria on Copy That, Copy Cat.  If you haven't seen her nail art, you must.  She's so creative!  I actually discovered her blog pretty recently, but I have been enjoying all her manis.  I also need to mentioned that my nail art only extends to one finger.  That's pretty much all can handle. :)

I started off with doing a full mani (minus ring finger) using Cha-Ching! from Sally Hansen's new Gem Crush collection line.  This is based with bright cherry red fine glitter, mixed with some silver glitter.  It most definitely screams "holiday" to me.  In case you're wondering, it does look very much like a dupe to China Glaze Love Marilyn, from winter 2011 collection called Eye Candy 3D Glitters.

For my "Rudolph", I used:
Sinful Colors Nirvana - top half of the face
OPI San Tan-Tonio - lower portion, snout area
OPI Vodka & Caviar (one of my favorite reds of all times) - nose
Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear White On - eyes
Wet n Wild Wet Shine Black Crème - eyes

I'm pretty happy with the way it came out.  Either way, the second graders loved it!

OPI Divine Swine over Julep Gayle

Divine Swine is a glitter polish from OPI's holiday collection, The Muppets.  It's fuchsia glitter in clear base, and has some larger hexagonal silver glitter.  When I first swatched it, it wasn't as glitter packed as I had expected, so I decided I would use this over a base color rather than slathering coats of glitter.

Enter the beautiful Julep Gayle.  Since I was already wearing it, why not extend my mani another couple of days, so I topped it with Divine Swine...

I only used one coat of Divine Swine, and I think it compliments Gayle very nicely.  If I used 2 coats, I think it would have covered up Gayle too much.  The combination is very pretty, and adds just an extra bit of sparkle to an already beautiful color.

Julep Gayle

Regal, deep aubergine.  Sophisticated yet playful.  That is how Julep describes Gayle, a new release from the Holiday 2011 collection.  Well, I have to agree.  Just look at her... a perfect shade of purple that is not leaning too blue, or have too much red...

Gayle is absolutely stunning, right?  The medium eggplant color is really perfect; and so is the Julep crème formula.  It's so smooth, that the color just glides onto the nail.  It dries to a beautiful glossy finish, so a glossy top coat is completely optional.

So aside from being an amazing color, Gayle is also named after a wonderful woman with a huge heart.  I was lucky enough to have "met" the original Gayle on a nail forum.  Her kindness and generous nature is truly amazing, and very contagious.  She is one beautiful woman.

Chanel Le Vernis Blue Rebel

Since my earlier post of Chanel Blue Boy, I thought I would show the other color I picked up from Les Jeans de Chanel collection.  Although not completely unique, Blue Rebel is my favorite color out of the trio in the collection.   It may be due to my preference for darker colors in general, but I just loved the color in the bottle.

Lynnderella Has Landed

Finally!  My very first Lynnderella glitters have arrived!  It took FOREVER to get here, but one of that was Lynn's fault; it was all UPS.

My package was traveling from coast to coast.  After 7 days from when the package gets shipped, I see on UPS tracking that it has landed at my local UPS hub, loaded into the truck and out for delivery.  So I waited, and waited for the UPS truck to arrive.  Nothing.  I checked the tracking again, and this time it says my package is leaving the hub and heading out...  But out to where?  I'm irritated and I text my UPS insider, and asked him what the heck is going on with my package.    He calls me and tells me that they don't know but think the box was recycled, so there may be an old label on it, which got scanned (This however turned out to be totally untrue because Lynn used brand new boxes).

The dispatch sent out an interception for the package, but it was already too late because the package was on the truck leaving the state.  Three days later, the package gets checked in Kansas, and is routed back in my direction.  Another five days and the package arrived at the local UPS hub, and delivery is scheduled.  But guess what?  Again, it's not delivered; it has been intercepted!  Ugh... I text my UPS insider and asked why are they are holding my package hostage.

The next day, I get my goodies.  Everything was intact; the packaging was perfect.  What was UPS doing with my package?  No idea.  I'm just happy they arrived safe and sound.  I present to you my very first Lynnderalls...

Because they are so beautiful and have had such a journey, I think they deserve a couple more...