Cosmetics for a Cure - Raffle to benefit the American Cancer Society

Today, I'm kicking off Cosmetics for a Cure!

Many of you do not know that my father beat colon cancer this past fall, just when my blog was getting started. Many posts were written from hospital rooms during his recovery.

I have always participated in Relay for Life, which benefits the American Cancer Society, but this year it became more personal than ever. As a college student, it's really hard to fundraise around campus and these days, with the current state of the economy, it is a rough economic climate for these charities.

I have been toying around with this for a really long time, but some of my fellow bloggers finally pushed me to do this and I'm glad they did.

Cosmetics for a Cure is a raffle, with 100% of the money donated going to the American Cancer Society via Relay for Life! Each entry costs just $1 and you have a chance to win the VERY Limited Edition Peter Som Collection, hard to find nail polishes, expensive polishes, gift certificates, and more!

Money will be collected via the Relay for Life website and is an entirely secure. Due to ACS restrictions, there is a minimum $5 donations, which is five entries in the raffle.

For every $100 raised (which equals, at most, 20 people's participation), I will add a new prize! And believe me, they're awesome.

Here's the list of the money milestones and the corresponding prizes:

Start: LE Zoya Peter Som Collection

$100 - OPI DS Ruby

$200 - $10 Gift Certificate to Llarowe

$300 - Butter LONDON The Black Knight


$400 - Orly Dark Shadows Collection


$500 - Choice of 2012 Essie Wedding or Resort Collection

$600 - OPI DS Chiffon

$700 - Princess Polish's Favorite Things Pack (includes polishes, nail treatments, and other fun stuff!)

$750 - Floam by Nail-Venturous

$800 - One month of Julep Maven box


$900 - $10 Ulta Gift Card

$1000 - Lynnderella Boy Girl Party


$1050 - Deborah Lippmann Dream a Little Dream of Me

$1100 - Lynnderella Connect the Dots

$1150 - HITS Trendy


$1200 - Lynnderella Mysterious Ways


$1250 - Nicole by OPI Duo: OMB and Eenie Meanie Marry Me


$1300 - Lynnderella Very Pretty Vampire


$1350 - OPI DS Opulence

$1400 - Deborah Lippmann Dream a Little of Dream of Me (YES... ANOTHER ONE!)


$1450 - Custom Mary Kay Compact 

$1500 - Cult Nails Seduction


$1550 - Essie Shine of the Times

$1600 - butter LONDON Knackered


$1650 - OPI Glam Slam duo: Pros & Bronze/Love is a Racket


$1700 - Lynnderella Funny Money

$1750 - Cult Nails Scandalous

If we go over $700, I will add more mystery prizes! Every time we pass a milestone, I will announce it on the Facebook and Twitter pages. And who knows? If we receive donations, I might add in some surprises at $250, $350, etc.

HOW TO ENTER:

Please visit my DONATION PAGE to donate however much you'd like. $5 for 5 entries is the minimum, but certainly not a maximum. Beyond $5, it is the same $1 an entry. (Ex: 15 entries are $15, 100 entries are $100, etc.)

Please be sure to check off the box for that says "Yes, publicly display my donation amount with my name" so that I can correctly record your name and entries in an Excel sheet. When the raffle ends, I will use my Excel sheet and Random.org to select the winners.

The raffle starts today and ends on April 14th at 6:00 am. AND it is open internationally!

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment here or on Facebook and I will do my best to answer them.

If you would like to donate to my raffle, please contact me at PrincessPolishBlog@gmail.com.

Thanks in advance for all of your support!
Princess Polish

Easter Mani Day 4: Funky Flower French

Welcome to day FOUR of the Easter mani series! Today's color is pink!

As it happens, the colors I picked out of my new nail polish holder were both Zoya. That seems to happen more and more often these days, though the odds are pretty high. I think I'm up to over 50 Zoyas at this point. Though, who knows?

I wound up picking out Zoya Audrey, which I find myself liking more and more with each wear. She's definitely a "my nails but better" look that I've grown to love. The best part about her is that she hides my secret shame: BAD gaps from the need for a fill! Now, I'm not in need of a fill at the moment, nor do I currently have gels. But in a pinch, the girl will help you out!

Then I used Areej for the tips, with Snow White dot flowers and Trixie for the centers! This is exactly what I wore on my birthday yesterday. It's funky, but it's a very sleek look that fits the in-between of Spring/Summer we're going through now.

You can really use any color combo for this type of french, but I thought a nude color was best for the base to tone it down a bit.

If you try this out sometime... I want to see!

Remember to email me your Easter manis for a chance to win a prize and stay tuned for more posts today!

Thanks again for all the birthday love!
Princess Polish

Easter Mani Day 3: Julep April Maven Box and Eggshell Flowers

Hello to you all! I hope you're enjoying my 22nd Birthday Extravaganza currently going on over at the Princess Polish Facebook Page. It's been so much fun so far!

Today, I'm combining my Easter mani with my Julep Maven box for the ultimate blog post. A new promo code was released from this month, so you can still get your first month's Maven box for just $.01! Click here and use the code PENNY. (Full disclosure, this is my referral link. If you are uncomfortable with that, you can just go to Julep.com)

I got the American Beauty box which came with two polishes, Eva and Renee, as well as pedi cream. That's still in the testing phase, but I will update you in another week on that one!

It was wrapped so beautifully, a perfect spring package. And best of all... it came with chocolate eggs! Although, they were gone in a matter of fifteen minutes after I kept telling myself I wouldn't. Oh well.

 You can see here it also came with toe separators in a cheery pink shade. I loved everything about this box. It was so much better than the St. Patrick's Day box and the chocolate wasn't melted! Bonus points for that!

 This is Eva, a gorgeous raspberry creme. And just like her name sounds, she's a sassy shade that is PERFECT for summer! The application was super smooth.

Now this is Renee, a lilac creme that was opaque in two coats. I wanted to do something with a little egg-theme, but nothing too over the top, so I went for just some art on the ring finger.

 I mixed in Sally Hansen White Out in with Renee to lighten the color and used my dotting tool to make sort of kiddie versions of flowers. I loved that light and dark contrast, combined with the subtlety of the accent nail. The egg tip was actually REALLY simple to do. I just used the side of the brush with the white polish to make angles. It literally took me sixty seconds to do it.

This would be something that would still be okay to wear to Sunday services without being too gaudy.

Remember, you can get your first Julep Maven box for just a penny, using the code PENNY here. These shades are available for purchase at Julep.com for $14, as well.

I've already gotten a bunch of Easter nail art submissions for Saturday and am really excited by them all. I can't wait to see what else you guys plan on emailing me. Remember, the contest ends on Friday at 8pm EST.

Oh! And be sure to hang around my Facebook page and check your tweets for more awesome birthday prizes!!!

Princess Polish

Easter Mani Day 2: Polka Dots + A Contest

Here is Part 2 of my Easter nails for the week. I'm trying to do a different color as a base each day. Yesterday was blue and today is green!

I apologize in advance for the photo not being of the same quality you're used to in recent months. My parents took my sister on Spring Break to DC (lucky her, mine was last month) and that means my dad's fancy DSLR camera went with him. Unfortunately, my purple and pink manis are still on the camera. Oops!

So here is the last one I did, using Revlon Minted:

 

It was actually much easier to do than the Gradient Dots. I did a first layer of different-sized dots in white. Then I used Revlon Sunshine Sparkle, Borghese Incantato Purple, Borghese Romanzo Pink, and a mixture of half Sally Hansen White On and half NYC Water Street Blue in slightly smaller dots over each white one for the outlined effect. It really didn't even take that long at all!

Hope you liked this one! And remember to email me your pictures of your Easter manicure before Friday at 8pm EST! Top 5 will be posted on Saturday and win prizes!

Princess Polish