The Mysteriously Multiplying Bad Fairy Giveaway!!

I really loved Orly's Cosmic FX collection, so you can bet your sweet buttons that I hurried myself right over to the MAC counter this morning to pick up the one polish in their new collection that doesn't have an Orly dupe.

Bad Fairy.  Ooooo, you are so lovely!

Excuse the application, I was just too excited!  Not only is it beautiful, duochrome-y, foil-y goodness, but it's my first MAC polish, too.  Hurrah!

This is actually three slick coats of Bad Fairy over my manicure of Maybelline's Gray-t Glamour from yesterday.  (Like I said, a bit over excited.)  Though two may do the job, I would suggest three.  It gives the color more depth.  I don't think that my camera is marvelous at picking up on the subtle details in polish, but the polish can appear magenta, golden orange... I've even seen it turn a vibrant rust color!

 

Ahh, so gorgeous!  MAC classifies this as a pearl, though?  Err... what?

Onto the good stuff!!!

The Mysteriously Multiplying Bad Fairy Giveaway!!!

I really appreciate my lovely readers, and I want to be able to give back somehow.  Reading your blogs always makes me happy, and knowing that some of you read mine makes my day!  And what better way to show it than some free stuff, right? :)  So I have one brand new bottle of MAC's Bad Fairy for you!

BUT WAIT!!!

I currently have 25 lovely followers.  If that number jumps to 75 before the giveaway closes, more polishes will be added to the winner's stash!  If the number of followers rises to over 100, additional goodies will be added! :D

You must be a follower of Persistently Polished.  I don't mind if you're a newbie to my blog or if you've been around since the beginning, but I will check follower status of entrants.  Make all of your available entries in one comment, or I will likely miss any additional entries you've made!

How do you get entries?
-- Leave a comment on this entry with your name and email address. (1 entry)
-- Add Persistently Polished to your blog roll and provide me with a link. (1 entry)
-- Post about my giveaway on your blog and provide me with a link. (2 entries)
-- Tweet about my giveaway and provide me with a link. (2 entries)

You could have a total of six entries for my giveaway!

The Mysteriously Multiplying Bad Fairy Giveaway will come to a close on October 20th at 11:59 PM EST.  Any entries after will not be counted.  The entries will be numbered and the winner will be chosen using random.org. The winner will be announced shortly thereafter, and will receive an email from me.  If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, I will choose a new winner.

International entries welcome!

(This is my first giveaway.  If you see something that I may have missed or neglected to mention, or have questions or comments, please please please email me at erinface8D@gmail.com or leave a note in the comments section, and I will get back to you.)

Island Girl - Hana Coast and Aloha Paradise

Sweet baby Moses!

I love Fall.  I do.  But I'm also SO digging these colors right now, even though they're a pretty flashy "up yours!" to the coming season.

Check these babies out!

This is two coats of Hana Coast.  I have little nublets, so the small amount of visible nail line doesn't bother me.  You ladies with longer nails might want to slap on a third coat for better coverage. 

What I loved most about this polish was the fact that it applied thin but covering coats.  When I touch my nails, they don't feel thick.  That makes sense, doesn't it?  The paint is sleek and smooth, and lies flesh to my nails.  I enjoy that because it means there's little opportunity for me to chip it and then have water seep in underneath to ruin the rest of the manicure.

I still don't think that my pictures in the sun did this polish perfect justice.  Is it a screaming bright red?  Electric tomato?  In your face orange?  It seems to pick up different color tones under different lightings, so I'm not sure.  What I do know, though, is that I really like this kick-your-teeth-in shade, and I can't wait to rock it a lot next Summer! :D

I also tried out the new Rush topcoat that I bought from the blog sale over at Polish Insomniac.  Thanks, Jessika!  I'm really liking it so far!  The brush was thin and manageable, and the top coat itself is thin and shiny.  The best part I've found is that it doesn't shrink up and pull away from the edges of my nails the way that Seche Vite always does! :)  So Kudos to you, Rush topcoat!


WARNING!  Toes ahead!  Most of my feet are covered, but if you don't dig toes, head on to your next blog, my friend. :)


I don't mind feet at all, but I can understand and try to sympathize with people that do.  I'm not offended at all if you don't want to look, haha!

I love-love-love Aloha Paradise!! It's bright teal, and right up my alley!  This was two coats, but more for consistency than out of actual need.  Had I been in a hurry, one coat would have been fine.  Both Aloha Paradise and Hana Coast are at least partially neon.  They both dried quickly to a satin finish.  Seche Vite does work well to seal in my pedicures, so I used that on my toes.

Here's a quick bottle pic, to save you from looking at the toes again.

Isn't it gorgeous? :)


I'm looking forward to seeing the wear time that I'll have with these, but bottom line, these colors are amazing.  Another huge thank you to Jill for bringing these back for me from Hawaii.  You're the sweetest boyfriend's-little-sister ever, and you have great taste in colors. :D


So what did you guys think if Hana Coast and Aloha Paradise?  Has anyone ever brought you polish back from a vacation?  Tell me about it!

Thanks for reading!

How about a sneak peek?

 Brad's sister spent part of her summer in Hawaii and brought these back for me!  What a sweetheart!

I painted up my fingers and toes with these this evening, but you can't capture the amazing brightness of these shades without sunlight.  Hey, they can't be called Island Girl for nothing, right? :)  So look forward to reviews of these shades tomorrow!

China Glaze - Zombie Zest

I love Autumn.  Everything about the season is wonderful to me.  The weather is changing, the days are getting shorter.  I think that everyone that gets to experience Fall to the fullest looks forward to the beautiful transformation in the leaves of the trees, and savors the crisp bite in the morning air.

Of course, Fall also means that Halloween is coming.  I'll confess to not being in love with Halloween, but it always brings fun along with it.  And it really wasn't until getting into polish that I realized that I'd been missing out.

The title of this polish alone had me completely hooked before I even knew what color it was.  Zombies have always been a favorite of mine.  Groaning, mindless hoards with a single purpose.  Braaaaaaaaaiiiiiinnnsssssss.....!!!

Wonderful boyfriend just bought us a game called Zombie Fluxx.  It's a great game with endlessly changing rules and gameplay.

It's a really good time!  There's even a card in the deck that demands you moan like a zombie whenever you draw one from the deck.  If someone else catches you not doing it, you have to draw another card! :)

The title of this polish had me thinking a little too in depth, though.  I mean, really...

+   

Did anyone else think about it this way?  Haha!  On to the polish pictures~!!

 This is three coats of Zombie Zest with a top coat of Seche Vite.  I LOVE this color!!  Look at all that shimmer!  Just look at it!
 

Poooooooliiiiissshhhhh....!!!

Without a doubt, this color is being worn again.  And again, and again.  I love this ugly-pretty green shade.

 

Just out of curiosity, I decided to paint up my right hand with both Zombie Zest and Orly's new It's Not Rocket Science.

As you can see in the bottle picture above, it looks like Zombie Zest would be less shimmery.  But can you tell the difference?  I hardly can.  I can't tell at all in person.  In the picture, there's a very subtle difference.  Index and ring fingers were painted with Zombie Zest and middle and pinkie were painted with It's Not Rocket Science.  I really like both, but gosh.  The Orly cost twice as much!  So if you've been thinking about buying It's Not Rocket Science, you should just grab a bottle of Zombie Zest instead. :)


Did you get your ghoulish hands on Zombie Zest?  How much do you love it?

Thanks for reading!

Nudies + Grab Bag

You read right.  Nudie nails.  It doesn't really ever happen anymore, so I thought I'd take a picture to commemorate the day.

They're short and kind of stained, but they're mine, and I like them. :)  There's not a lot that I can do about the length.  I'm always wearing strengthening base coats, but my nails always split and peel at the edges.  Especially my pointer and middle fingers.  When they peel, they're weakened, and when they're weak like that, they grow very oddly.  It's much easier to keep them short than be bothered by their awkward growth.  As for the stains, well...  All I have to say for myself is that my love for Four Leaf Clover (the only polish I've known to stain me) is greater than my love of perfect nails.

I actually went with nothing but a clear coat for almost eight hours.  And I'm proud to say that I wasn't sleeping ANY of that time!  Haha!  It was pretty distracting to let them go bare like this.  I found myself looking at my nails so much.  Awkward...

While I was cleaning out my old photo folder before The Wipe, I deleted a lot of old nail pictures.  I found a few pictures of random that I did save, though. :)  I don't think that it would hurt to post them.

These hands are clearly not mine, but I did the nail polish. :)  My mum's best friend's daughter (pretty much my adopted little sister) asked me to do her nails for prom this year, and this is what we came up with.  I was pretty proud of it, considering I'd never done a French manicure before.  The color we used for the tips was Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in (I believe it's called) The Real Teal.

This was two coats of China Glaze's Turned Up Turquoise and one coat of China Glaze's Medallion.  I usually don't like gold, but I liked these two colors together.  If I did this again, though, I'd go with a base color that leans more blue than green.

I did this one while I was working long, ridiculous hours between the two jobs.  Two coats of China Glaze's Re-Fresh Mint and two coats of China Glaze's Dollhouse.  I've had Dollhouse for quite a while, and just wanted to use it on something.  Ehhhhh... :)  And the green got all bubbly on me.  My coats were too thick, I guess.

I did this one quite a long while ago, but it was really pretty!  Two coats of Orly's Enchanted Forest and one coat (ONE COAT!) of Cover Girl's City Lights.  So stunning out in the sunshine!


What fun combinations have you found?  I love contrasting colors, and I'm open to suggestions! :)

China Glaze - Bogie

My poor nail polish.  It never lasts.

I bake bread for a restaurant in my city, so I spend many hours a week doing (quite literally) hands-on work.  My painted nails are lucky if they survive through a single day, so I tend to go out of my way after I get off work on Friday to give myself a nice manicure that I'll be happy to wear all weekend long.  This particular Friday, though, I couldn't decide what color I wanted to wear.  I have four new-ish Color Club polishes that I want to wear, but I have some very tempting standby polishes that I love to pieces.

What's a girl to do?

Generally, the answer to this question isn't "raid your mum's new polishes."

I was in a rush to get ready to go out with a friend, though, so I didn't have time to be indecisive.  I grabbed her bottle of Bogie and got down to business.  Also, advanced apologies for poor lighting and slight mess.  Haha!

When I first saw the Vintage Vixens promos, there were only a couple colors that I was interested in seeing.  Hey Doll ended up being a lot more of a dusty pink than I like, so I was hoping I'd like Bogie more.  It's a rather pretty color, but not something I personally love.  There is a very subtle shimmer to it, which you can see in the pictures (are they clickable?  I don't remember, lol).

I ended up taking Bogie off that evening and applying a different color.  Nothing against it, just not a color I could really fall for.

Due to all the computer issues, I was pretty much MIA during the Vintage Vixens era.  Did anyone love it as much as they thought they would?

Borghese "Almondine"

While I was cleaning out my pictures before The Big Laptop Wipe of '10, I found a loooot of old polish pictures I'd taken.  I deleted a good number of them, but I salvaged a few of them.  I won't promise that they're excellent pictures or that I did a great job with the paint, but some of them are colors that I've passed on or ones that I don't plan on wearing again.

This is one of those colors.

There was a big hubbub about Almondine when it came out.  It was one that I'd quickly passed over when I bought others from the collection, but after so much fuss from other polish bloggers, I picked up a bottle.

I think that this was probably two coats with some sort of top coat.  I don't usually mind the weird Borghese brush, but I had difficulties with the formula.  It was such a thick cream that even brand new, it just wanted to goop.

I can see the dark flecks and super slight shimmer, and I do think that the subtle details make it neat.  Neutrals and I rarely get along, though, especially neutrals that aren't at all complimentary to my skin tone.

The lighting on this one looks nicer, but I never really felt like it looked this good while I was wearing it.  I think that it only stayed on my nails for the afternoon before I decided that I wanted something more exciting.

Sorry, Almondine.  It's not you, it's me.  Just kidding, it's definitely you.  Subtle prettiness aside, the formula (at least in my bottle) was really difficult.  And if I'm going to deal with a difficult color, I much prefer that it's a color I can't live without.


Maybe I'm just judging everyone's favorite Almondine too harshly.  What do you think?  If you've reviewed this polish in your own blog, drop me a link!  I'd love to see it on someone else!

Sally Hansen's "Purple Gala"

And we're back online!!

I'll say it a million times over, Bradley is amazing. :)  He wiped my whole buggy system clean and installed a fresh new copy of Windows 7 for me.  I'm still getting the hang of it, but I can understand why people love it so much.  I'm really just loving it right now for the fact that I can use my computer again!

I went to Ulta on Friday hoping to grab a few polishes from their new collection.  The new collection wasn't there (sadface), but while I was browsing around, I happened upon a new Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear display.  I believe there were ten new colors, but only half of them appealed to me.  I bought Plum Burst (a medium plum cream), Concrete (a super grayed out lavender cream), Fireberry Red (candy apple red with what looks like tiny gold and red glitter flakes), Purple Gala (purple base with gold glitter flakes), and Mystic Lilac (very sheer lavender polish with tiny iridescent glitter).  I was very unimpressed with the rest of them.  They all appeared to be pearly colors with very, very sparse glitter.  Yawn!

The one that I just couldn't wait to try was Purple Gala.  Looking at it reminds me of Hard Candy's "Mr. Wrong."  (I confess that while I own Mr. Wrong, though, I have yet to wear it.  After the horrible time I had trying to remove Lava, I wasn't eager to go through the same experience with Mr. Wrong).

Swoooon.  Can you see the deep purple beneath?  I tend to dislike golds (they're related to yellows, after all), but the purple and gold are really beautiful together.

When everyone was fawning over Opulent Cloud, I was disappointed with it.  Why?  Because this is the purple and gold that really appeals to me.  Deep yet shimmery.

This was three coats followed by a top coat.  Two would have done the trick, but I messed one of them up and decided to just go a third round.

What do you think?  Will you be picking up your own bottle of Purple Gala?