Saturday, November 27, 2010

NARS Pokerface

I'M BACKKKK! 

Hey everyone! I'm finally back to blogging after a very hectic couple of weeks! My sister's wedding was last Sunday and it was beautiful! I can't believe my little sister is a married woman now! She looked absolutely stunning, and despite some mega bridezilla moments on her behalf, the day went really smoothly! I don't have any photos yet, but as soon as I do, I'll put a couple up.... :)

I was so busy with wedding preparations and then spending time with family after the wedding that I barely changed my nail polish. I wore OPI's Dulce de Leche with a coat of Coney Island Cotton Candy for the wedding and kept that on until yesterday! The horror! :P

Today, however, I am wearing Pokerface which is one of the colours released with NARS' Holiday 2010 collection.

Pokerface is a medium lilac with silvery lilac shimmer. Application was a little difficult. I found it to be on the thicker side and so it went on a little gluggy, but a second coat and then one coat of Poshe seemed to smooth it out fairly well.



Pokerface isn't particularly unique, but the shimmer gives it a little special something. It's a really feminine lilac and I personally love the way it looks on me.

In other news, my Rescue Beauty Lounge Giveaway has now closed. I will be drawing the winner for that as well as my Lippmann Giveaway tomorrow. Thank you to everyone who entered! x

Thursday, November 18, 2010

I'm a terrible blogger!

Hey everyone, I'm sorry I have been MIA :(

My sister is getting married on Sunday and this week has been crazy busy with last minute preparations! I also am in the middle of moving floors at my work so I broke two of my swatching nails and I had to file them all down... I now have nubbins... *cries*

I promise I'll be back as soon as I can and I have the following posts coming up for everyone:

* Lippmann Holiday Giveaway Winner
* More Models Own swatches
* Nfu Oh swatches
* Spa Ritual Imagine collection
* Blogger Awards
* NARS Zulu
* More Deborah Lippmann

Thank you again for everyone who helped me win the honeymoon! I am still on a high from winning it :D And thank you to everyone who commented with well wishes for Micheal and I.. You guys are amazing! <3

Saturday, November 13, 2010

THANK YOU!!!!

 
Thank you so, so, so much to everyone that voted for me in the Villa Botanica honeymoon competition! I still can't believe it, but Micheal and I won the honeymoon!!!!!

I honestly thought another couple had us beat, but yesterday afternoon they announced it and we were the winners!!!! Micheal and I have never won anything before (I haven't even won a nail blog giveaway! haha!) so we are over the moon! 

I am so grateful for all the support I received from my followers and the nail blogging community! You guys are amazing, and I simply cannot thank you enough....

On the same vein, I reached 300 Followers today! That is amazing! I absolutely love blogging about nails and having your support makes it even more enjoyable! Thank you for your continuing support! x

Thursday, November 11, 2010

HELP! The competition closes in 10 hours!

I'm totally freaking out. The Villa Botanica competition closes earlier than I thought........ *faints*

It closes in approximately 10 hours! If anyone else could pleassssssse help Micheal and I out by voting, it would mean the world to me.

How can you say no to these eyes! :P

If would like to help simply go to the Villa Botanica facebook page "LIKE" the page and then write "Micheal & Carina 26/8/11". Dont forget that if you do this, pop a comment on my Lippmann Giveaway so that you have a chance of winning those gorgeous polishes as well!

Thank you so much to those that have already voted!

Wish us luck!


Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Deborah Lippmann - Daytripper

No chit chat tonight. I am having such long days at work at the moment and I'm exhausted :( I'm sorry if I haven't replied to some comments yet! I promise I will get to that in the next couple of days... :)

Deborah Lippmann Daytripper is a bright coral creme. This colour is so pretty! I felt really girly when I was wearing it :P 

As with the other Lippmann polishes I have tried, application was wonderful. I only needed two coats for an opaque, even finish.



Don't forget there's only a few days left to get your name down for the Lippmann Giveaway! x

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

50 Follower Giveaway Winner & Swap with Konad-licious!

Hey everyone! 

I finally have the two winners of my 50 Follower Giveaway

I am so excited because the first prize winner is a fellow Aussie nail polish blogger - Sharon from Polish Infatuated

And the second prize winner is Jo!



I will send you both emails now! :D Please make sure you get back to me asap so that I can post out your prizes straight away!

Thank you to everyone that participated in the giveaway! I am totally blown away by all your support and by all the new followers I have! <3

In other exciting news, I received a package from the lovely Carli (Konad-licious) today with these amazing goodies!


Carli, you are ridiculously generous! I will be sending you a return package with the polish I promised you, plus more, and there are to be no arguments! :P

I am so excited to try Borghese Stellar Notte and William Tell Me About OPI! I have been lemming WTMAO for agesssssss! It looks like what I've always wanted Lincoln Park After Dark to be!

That's all for tonight! Please don't forget to get your name down for my Lippmann Giveaway! There's only a few days left! x

Monday, November 8, 2010

Nail Blogging Community - I really need your help!!!!

Hey everyone, I really, really need your help!

There are less than 83 hours left for voting in the Villa Botanica Competition to win our honeymoon. At the moment another couple are really giving us a flogging, so I am begging for all your help! ;(

I'm sorry if you think it's tacky of me to ask this, but it would mean the world to us if we won this honeymoon....

If you haven't already voted, it would be greatly appreciated if you could head over to the Villa Botanica facebook page, "LIKE" the page and then write "Micheal & Carina 26/8/11" on the wall (you can only do this ONCE).

If you do vote, please don't forget to leave a comment on my Lippmann Giveaway post so that it counts as an extra 5 entries for that Giveaway! (Or email me at gildednails@hotmail.com to tell me your follower name and FB name).

If you have already voted and put your name down for my Lippmann Giveaway, thank you so much for your help! You guys are great!!! <3

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Zoya Flame

Hi all! Sorry for the lack of posts over the weekend. I've had a lot going on, but I won't bore you with the details! I also realise I haven't posted the winner of my 50 Follower Giveaway yet! I'm sorry guys! I promise I will do that in the next day or two :D

Today I have some more colours from the Zoya Flame collection. All were three coaters, except for Valerie which only needed two coats. Despite the need for the extra coats, all these polishes applied really well.

Gloria - Rosy pink with gold, pink and red shimmer. Not a colour I would usually go for, but I did like the way this looked on my nails. Some people have suggested this is a dupe for MAC's Bad Fairy. I gifted my bottle of Bad Fairy to Jacie at You've Got Nail, so I can't compare the two, but from what I can remember, Bad Fairy had a far more distinct duochrome effect that Gloria. Gloria has a metallic/shimmery finish. So I'd say they aren't dupes...


Valerie - Dark purple with pink, red and gold sparkle. This one has a distinct duochrome effect in the bottle, but it is lost a little on the nail. However, that doesn't make this polish any less spectacular. This is definitely my favourite from the collection!


Tiffany - Pink/peach with golden foil flakes. This colour is spectacular in the bottle, but a total fail with my skin colour - it looked really dated... Like something my grandmother would wear... :P


And to round off the post, I included another photo of Crystal....  Second time wearing Crystal and I still don't love this polish! haha!


I think I will probably give Crystal, Gloria and Tiffany away in a swap or should I do another giveaway?! Or should I keep them? What do you think? x

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Deborah Lippmann - Waking Up In Vegas and My First Award!

Hey everyone! Today I have photos of one of Deborah Lippmann's Spring 2010 polishes, Waking Up In Vegas.

I had umm'd and ahhh'd about this colour for ages, but when I saw it on Lady Gaga on the cover of Vanity Fair, I went crazy for this polish..... (I have a slightly unhealthy obsession with Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian as well :P But that story is for another day!) 


Lippmann isn't sold in Australia, but luckily I found it at KissandMakeupNY.com so I snapped it up straight away!



WUIV is freakin awesomeness! It applied beautifully, only needed two coats and dried quickly.  The colour is creamy beige-grey goodness! My nails were really long in these photos, but WUIV made them look even longer! I won't lie, Lippmann is pricey, but if you have the opportunity to get some of her colours, try this one out. You wont be disappointed.

Click to check out my first blogger award after the jump! :D

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Zoya - Crystal

No chatter tonight! Super tired.... 

Zoya Crystal is from their recent Flame collection. Zoya describe it as "a light, silvered shiny blue metallic foil with sparks of brilliant yellow gold".. I really can't do better than that :P



It's not my cup of tea, but the polish itself is gorgeous! Zoya have been pumping out some fantastic colours in their recent collections! Keep up the good work Zoya! :P 

Edit: Forgot to mention what application was like! In all honesty, it was fab! I used three thin coats. It looks streaky on my pointer in the photo for some reason, but I promise that was just the photo. It was really smooth and even on my nails. x

Models Own - Coral Reef, Purple Grey, Champagne and Top Turquoise

Tonight I finally(!!!) have some Models Own swatches for you! I will try and get the rest of the swatches up this week :)

Thank you to everyone that has voted for my fiancee and I in the competition to win our honeymoon! You are all so generous and wonderful! Please keep the votes coming as we need all the help we can get :)

Coral Reef - Super bright coral that leans orange. I just couldn't capture this gorgeous polish when I took the photos and it came out really red. I'll have to try again.


Purple Grey - Exactly what the name says, a gorgeous dusty purple grey. This polish is meant to be a dupe for the base colour of Chanel's Paradoxal. It doesn't have the shimmer that Paradoxal has, but I think it is equally as beautiful.


Top Turquoise - One of the BEST turquoise polishes I have ever seen! I should have put top coat on for the photo, but regardless it is bright and creamy and fantastic! 


Champagne - Gold and silver metallic. This colour is really quite unusual. It definitely looks gold in my photo, but on certain angles, it looks like a silver metallic! I'd love to try a matte top coat on this one.


All these colours applied well and required only two coats. My only gripe was that they were a little too runny for my liking. Apart from that, I was quite happy with these!

Don't forget to get your names down for my Rescue Beauty Lounge Giveaway and my Deborah Lippmann Giveaway! x

Monday, November 1, 2010

Lippmann Holiday Giveaway!

EDIT: Giveaway is now closed! Thank you to everyone who entered! Winner will be announced soon!

Hey everyone!

I just wanted to say that I am blown away by the response I had to my 50 Follower giveaway! I am extremely grateful for all your support and encouragement over the past couple of months! You guys are amazing! <3

I will put all the entries together over the next few days and announce the winner by the end of the week :)

Now, because you have been so kind to me, I think it is time for another giveaway ! :D

What are the prizes you ask?! One brand new bottle of Deborah Lippmann's Today Was A Fairytale and a brand new bottle of Boom Boom Pow.



Now, I am going to be a little cheeky here.......... All the normal entry rules apply (see below), but I was hoping that you might be able to also help me win that honeymoon that I posted about the other day. Soooooo, if you are willing to help me and post a comment on the facebook page for Villa Botanica (you can only vote once on the page), I will give you 5 extra entries in the giveaway :D I have included info below on how to vote for me and then have your vote counted as extra entries for this giveaway :)

Thank you all again for your support and good luck!


Rules for entry:

1. Be a follower.

2. Leave a comment with your follower name and email.

3. This step is completely OPTIONAL but very much appreciated!! :) For an extra 5 entries, go to the Villa Botanica facebook page, "LIKE" the page and then write "Micheal & Carina 26/8/11" on the wall (you can only do this ONCE). I can understand that you may not want to put a comment here telling the whole world your facebook name, so if you choose to help us out and you want the extra entries, send me an email with your facebook name and follower name to gildednails@hotmail.com so I can verify your vote :D Once the giveaway is over I will delete the emails with the names.

4. Following me on Twitter gives you one extra entry (you gotta tell me your twitter name!)

5. Blogging about the giveaway gives you one extra entry (please leave a link!)

6. The giveaway is open internationally.

7. Giveaway closes on 13th November 2010.

Please include all info in one comment only.

Good luck!



Once again, I bought these babies with my own moolah! I wish I got stuff for free, but I dont :P