Sunday, November 30, 2014

31 Days of Giveaways - Day 8: Tweezerman


Welcome to Day 8! If you haven't read about the giveaway and the rules, click here.



Day 8's giveaway prize is a concealer brush from Tweezerman's new IQ Brush collection!





Fill out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter! And check back tomorrow for the reveal of the holographic trio!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saturday, November 29, 2014

31 Days of Giveaways: Starbucks


Welcome to Day 7! If you haven't read about the giveaway and the rules, click here.



Day 5's giveaway prize is a gift card to Starbucks!




Fill out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter! And check back tomorrow for the reveal of the Tweezerman prize!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, November 28, 2014

31 Days of Giveaways - Day 6: China Glaze


Welcome to Day 6! If you haven't read about the giveaway and the rules, click here.



Day 6's giveaway prize is a China Glaze duo of Escaping Reality and Scattered and Tattered!


Fill out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter! And check back tomorrow for the reveal of the Coffee Lover's prize!


Thursday, November 27, 2014

31 Days of Giveaways - Day 5: Sephora


Welcome to Day 4! If you haven't read about the giveaway and the rules, click here.



Day 5's giveaway prize is a $25 gift certificate to Sephora!



Fill out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter! And check back tomorrow for the reveal of the China Glaze prize!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

31 Days of Giveaways - Day 4: Holiday Indie Trio


Welcome to Day 4! If you haven't read about the giveaway and the rules, click here.



Day 4's giveaway prize is a holiday indie trio! R. Hobby Cosmetics Peppermint Shatter (shredded white and red glitter topper), Vivid Lacquer Theoretically Nude (a nude crelly with pink shimmer), and Philly Loves Lacquer Mummers Parade (a magenta jelly base with dark pink diamond, purple and blue hex, orange bar, and fine pink, orange, and purple glitters) are up for grabs!



Fill out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter! And check back tomorrow for the reveal of the Sephora prize!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

31 Days of Giveaways - Day 3: Julep


Welcome to Day 3! If you haven't read about the giveaway and the rules, click here.



Day 3's giveaway prize is a quad of Julep prizes!! Up for grabs are two Julep lip glosses (Zinnia and Peony) and two polishes (Chelsea and Brielle)!


Fill out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter! And check back tomorrow for the reveal of the Mystery Holiday Trio prize!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, November 24, 2014

31 Days of Giveaways: Day 2 - Nails Inc.


Happy Day 2! If you haven't read about the giveaway and the rules, click here.



Day 2's giveaway prize is the Nails Inc. After Party trio!!



Fill out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter! And check back tomorrow for the reveal of the Julep prize!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Sunday, November 23, 2014

31 Days of Giveaways: Day 1 - Illamasqua


I'm very excited to kick off the 31 Days of Giveaways! If you haven't read about the giveaway and the rules, click here.



Day 1's giveaway prize is Illamasqua Bacterium!


Fill out the Rafflecopter widget below to enter! And check back tomorrow for the reveal of the Nails Inc. prize!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, November 21, 2014

DEAL ALERT: Ebates (aka: How a Broke Student Didn't Break the Bank for Holiday Shopping)

Hello, my lovelies! With Black Friday coming around, I figured now would be a great time to talk about Ebates.



Before you roll your eyes, hear me out. That is MY actual check up there. I didn't do anything other than shop like I normally do online. I didn't give them any money or anything else outside of my name and address to mail the check to me.

This actually helped me out a lot the past year of law school, a time when I only had a meager work study check coming in every few weeks, but plenty of gifts to buy for the holidays and as many friends started getting engaged and married. And it kept helping all year round, especially when it came to buying textbooks.

I discovered Ebates last year as a second-year law student with a very limited budget for the holidays. Ebates is a website that gives you cash back for your online shopping purchases year-round. It's free to sign up and once you do and make your first purchase through the site, you get a $10 gift card PLUS the cash back you're already entitled to.

You don't have to visit the website every time you plan on shopping, which is nice because I would always forget. You can actually just download a button that alerts you every time a place you're shopping online qualifies for cash back through Ebates. You click the button and it syncs with your Ebates account! I mean, how convenient is THAT?!?




 Every site offers a different cash back percentage, but here's a key few:

Sephora and Ulta - 8%, Groupon and LivingSocial - 6%, Nordstroms, Kohls and Macy's - 6%, Ebay - 5%, Amazon.com - 3%, Walmart - 2%, and Best Buy - 1%.

(I know that Best Buy doesn't SEEM like a lot, but wait until you need a new washer and dryer or a TV!) Last December alone, I received over $185 in cash back. Yeah. That's my check up there.

Just think about it this way... every time you spend $100 at Sephora.com, Ebates gives you $8. Really, they do.

And how do you get that cash back? Ebates mails you a CHECK. This isn't a Visa gift card or some online gift card. It's real CASH.

To sign up, simply click HERE and you can start using Ebates right away. It's THAT easy.

(Full disclosure: The above link is a referral link that I get credit for and I would greatly appreciate it if you used PrincessPolishBlog@gmail.com for the referral address. However, if you are uncomfortable clicking through the link, you can visit Ebates.com and I will understand.)

Happy shopping, everyone! :)

Thursday, November 20, 2014

ANNOUNCING: 31 Days of Giveaways!


Hello, everybody! I'm super excited to bring you this giveaway that I've been teasing on Facebook the past few weeks!

Starting on Monday, November 24th, I'll be kicking off 31 Days of Giveaway that will run through Christmas! Each day will feature a different prize and the giveaway for that prize will be open for exactly 24 hours.

Rather than reveal every specific prize ahead of time, I've created a handy calendar below that lists each day's giveaway by brand or by category. Tune in each day at midnight EST for the big reveal across the main blog and all social media pages (including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!)

Many of these products are limited edition or are discontinued items!

This giveaway is open to everyone 18 years and older AND is open internationally.


Are you as super excited for this giveaway as I am? What products are you hoping are included based on the listing above?

HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE: Dura-Tags + A Giveaway!


Hello, everybody! Today I have a REALLY cool product to show you called Dura-Tags! I was given the opportunity to design three of my own custom photo tags, which was perfect because I have three Labrador Retrievers!


 But you don't have to own a dog for a Dura-Tag. Any pet will do... a cat, a horse, a bird, a fish... even a pig!

Keep reading to see this awesome product that's perfect for the holidays and a chance to win three free Dura-Tags!

Friday, November 14, 2014

Swatch and Review: Milani Color Statement Skittle Nails


Good evening to you all and a very happy weekend!

Over the course of the past few months, I've been doing a lot of nail art with my new Milani Color Statement polishes. I've used blues and reds and greens and sheers... but there are so many more shades in the collection. So to keep this post relatively short and sweet, while having all the colors in a single post, I decided to skittle swatch the polishes. However, I kept them in color groups for easy viewing.

All polish names are listed from index to pinky finger and have two coats applied.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

DEAL ALERT: Get Zoya Nail Polish for $4.84 a bottle at ULTA Beauty!


Hello, my fellow polishaholics! You may remember last week's post about how to get any Zoya shade for just $6.50 at ULTA Beauty any day of the week. Well, this week only, you get get any non-PixieDust shade for just $4.84 a bottle.

To learn how, keep reading!

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Green and Yellow Polka Dots


Happy Thursday, everybody! Today I have some quick and simple nail art to show you. It's not very complicated to replicate, but I really liked this color combination.


For my base green, I used Barielle Do Unto Others and my yellow polka dots are SinfulColors Gel Shine Bananappeal. It's pretty much my go-to yellow because it's very opaque. I struggle to find yellows that aren't sheer for the purposes of nail art. This was vivid and perfect!

Polka dots have become my default nail art because it's so easy to just throw on to change up a look with minimal dry time.

Until tomorrow!

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Frozen Elsa Holographic Gradient


For those of you who have been following me for a while below nails may not look very familiar to you. There's a very good reason for that!

My younger sister is fourteen and decided to dress up as Elsa from Frozen for Halloween. She wanted something that was Elsa-like on her nails and had previously asked me to create a gradient on her nails for a while. So I figured now was as good of a time as any!

I wanted to use something holographic to create an icy look, like how snow and ice glisten in the sunlight. And of course, who can resist rhinestones?


I used four shades for this blue holographic gradient. From dark to light: Zoya Dream, OPI Blue Chips (aka: OPI The Flowers are Blue-Ming), Wet n Wild Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and OPI DS Shimmer.

I used a bit different of a technique for this gradient than I've used in the past. Normally, I sponge on one color at a time, however, I decided to try a different method. This time, I painted on Who Wants to Be a Millonaire as a base coat and painted the gradient onto a makeup sponge, then dabbed that on my nail.
 
It needed a few touch ups, but I was happy with it and my sister was over the moon.

I added some bling in the form of a rhinestone snowflake... unfortunately, one fell off sometime between the night I painted them and the afternoon I took the picture, but it's still blingtastic to me!

What do you think of this blue holo gradient? Did I do Elsa proud?

Tuesday, November 4, 2014

DEAL ALERT: Get any Zoya polish for just $6.50 at ULTA Beauty

When Zoya released the Entice and Ignite Collections for Fall 2014, I knew I immediately had to pick up an extra bottle of Sansa for a friend who is a HUGE fan of Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire.

There's a Harmon's Discount Cosmetics in my town, so I hardly ever shop at ULTA for brands like OPI, Essie, Color Club, and Orly, as well as a most of the drug store brands. However, Harmon's doesn't carry Zoya or China Glaze and the only other discount place is in the mall. And let me make this very clear: I ABHOR going to the local mall.

However, I've found a way to purchase Zoya polishes for the discount store price at my local ULTA, a mere three minutes drive from my house, right next to Whole Foods. (Let's not even get started on Whole Foods, aka: Whole Paycheck.)

By the time I was done, Zoya Sansa cost me a mere $6.50 AND I got a three-pack of mini nail files as an added free bonus.

So how did I do it? The solution was incredibly easy and all you really need is a smartphone.

Monday, November 3, 2014

Swatch and Review: Barielle AND a Promo Code


Recently, I had the opportunity to select three shades from Barielle to review for you all. It was an arduous process to narrow my choices down, but I finally landed on Blue Cotton Candy, Decadence, and Do Unto Others.


However, my all-time favorite Barielle is Elle's Spell, so I included that in here, too!