Huemorista Nail Lacquers

Hey everyone! Just a quick post to tell you of a great way to win some nail polish!

If you haven't heard of Huemorista Nail Lacquers, it's this wonderful Esty shop run by Jayna. She makes her own lacquers and sells them in 3 piece sets.

Her collections are amazing! Her most recent one features jellies!!

How can you win some of her lacquers? Just go to her facebook page for Huemorista and hit the like button! At 200 likes she will randomly select a winner! Only 7 more likes to go!

Check out her lacquers and like her page!

Kayla

Random NOTD

Hey! Just giving you a quick NOTD shot. It was taken while standing knee deep in river water. We're flooded again this year and I was taking pics of the water when I decided to grab a picture of my nails!

It's Revlon's Powder Puff with Wet n Wild's Party of Five Glitters on top. 

I needed something fun to cheer everyone up in this flood. Hope you enjoyed this quick post. I'm going to try and get the next drawer in my collection up later today!

My Collection Part 1 (Lots of pics!)

Hey everyone! I know this is late, and I'm sorry. I'm not going to give excuses, I'm just jumping right into it. This is the first part of my five part series on my collection! Each part will be a drawer in my helmer. This excludes my top drawer which is accessories and such. It is extremely unorganized at the moment. Maybe by the end of the series it will be organized and ready for it's blog debut. My collection contains 277 nail polishes! Which is about 100 more than I thought I had! This is not including stripe art polishes. This collection has only been growing for about a year now and I am amazed at how many I have! Wow!

We will start with drawer 2 which contains OPI, Sephora by OPI, Nicole by OPI and Essie. Let's start with a drawer picture:

Oops, my Nic Stick rolled out of the shot! 

OPI definitely hogs the drawer with 36 full sized bottles and 7 minis! Let's check out swatches for each one! I have two nail wheels completely filled up. All swatches are 3 coats unless stated otherwise. Here's a full look at OPI Wheel 1:

ooooh ahhh

And now close ups:

1. Hoodoo Voodoo?!

2. Mod About You

3. Banana Bandana

4. You Don't Know Jacques! (Matte, top coat on top half)

5. Russian Navy (Matte, top coat on top half)

6. Suzi Says Feng Shui

7. Jade is the New Black

8. Damone Roberts 1968

9. Parlez-vous OPI?

10. Done Out In Deco

11. Bronzed to Perfection

12. Clubbing 'til Sunrise

13. Yoga-ta Get This Blue!

14. Eiffel for This Color

15. Smok'n in Havana

16. Kinky in Helsinki

17. Cheyenne Pepper

18. Cuckoo for this Color

Full view of OPI Wheel 2

So pretty!!

19. DS Illuminate

20. DS Extravagance

21. DS Mystery

22. My Private Jet (scattered holo)

23. My Private Jet (teal flash)

24. Glitzerland

25. Black Shatter (over Nicole by OPI Shell me the Truth)

26. Sahara Sapphire

27. The Color to Watch (4 coats)

28. DS Classic

29. Extra-va-ganza

30. Mad As A Hatter

31. Absolutely Alice

32. Glow Up Already

33. Lucerne-tainly Look Marvelous

34. Last Friday Night (4 coats?)

35. Teenage Dream

36. Bring on the Bling

OPI Minis:

1. Holiday Glow

2. Shim-merry Chic

3. Comet Loves Cupid

4. Rumple's Wiggin'

5. What's With the Cattitude?

6. Ogre the Top

7. Fiercely Fiona

That is my OPI collection. Small but absolutely wonderful! :) 

Next up: Nicole by OPI

1. No Limits (Matte/top coat on top half)

2. Respect the World (Matte/top coat on top half)

3. Wink of Twink (holo top coat, 4 coats)

4. Shell Me the Truth

5. Form One Line (Nic's Stick)

Next up: $OPI

1. Under My Trench Coat

2. Call Your Mother

3. 212-Sephora

4. Dating the Drummer

Finally, Essie:

1.Imported Champagne

2. Demure Vixen 

3. Mint Candy Apple

4. Lapis of Luxury

5. Playa Del Platinum

6. Splash of Grenadine

7. Turquoise & Caicos

Well, that's drawer 2! Do I have any of your favorites in this drawer? It's home to quite a few of mine! 

Stay tuned for Drawer 3!!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!! And some info!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

I hope you are showing off your favorite green polish today!! My 'going naked' plan didn't work out. It lasted 2 weeks but then the temptation grew as I rearranged my collection and I caved. My nails are looking okay. I think if I repaint them every day they should be fine and free of chips that cause more damage. Since I caved I have a green NOTD to show you!!

I love Ireland and anything related. I took a class a few years ago that ended with a trip to Ireland. It was amazing. Breathtaking. I may move there one day. I couldn't let today go by without showing my Ireland love! So here's my green NOTD, I threw in some orange as well (Ireland's flag is green, white and orange).  I hope you enjoy!

Indoors, no flash

Indoors, flash

The sun is hiding today, so no natural light. Ugh, so annoying! :)

For this NOTD, I used Essence Show Your Feet in #10 In the Jungle as a base. Then I randomly taped off different ares on each nail (except my middle) and applied two coats of Sinful Call You Later. This glitter polish is gorgeous. It has at least 2-3 different green glitters in it, as well as a gold glitter. It's the perfect St. Patrick's Day glitter! For the orange detailing I used Milani Nail Art in Orange Graph. 

Earlier this week I posted a 'sneak peek' with some pictures of a bunch of nail wheels. Those nail wheels are painted with every polish of my collection. Starting this week (either Friday or Saturday) I will do a weekly post of part of my collection until we reach the end. I'll show you the inside of my helmer and the nail wheel swatches. I think I'm going to break it up according to drawer or brand. Haven't completely decided yet. I'm excited to show you! I discovered that I have a lot more nail polish than I thought I did!! Craziness! :)

Check back soon for the start of my collection! Meanwhile, go drink some green beer!

Kayla

Sneak Peek

Just wanted to give you a hint of what I'm posting later this week...

Going naked for awhile.

Hey everyone!

Lately I've been breaking my nails so much that the ends are peeling slightly. Anyone who has experienced this knows that peeling can take a little while to go away. And nail polish doesn't always help protect the nail especially if it chips. My job requires me to use my hands a lot and handle things like heavy shelves. This makes my nail polish chip so easily that it's been hard to keep them from peeling and breaking. It's added onto the damage.

I've decided to go with naked nails for a while. They have been filed down and I've applied only Sally Hansen Nail Nutrition. I wanted to put a treatment on that you massage in, instead of something that goes on like a clear topcoat which can chip and peel off. It would just add to the damage. And I am using cuticle oil as well! A healthy cuticle makes a healthy nail! :)

For my upcoming posts, I wanted to know what you would like to see. I have a feeling I know the answer but   I will go ahead and poll you anyways. I'll just list some options and you can go ahead and comment on what you would like to see.

1. I have a stock pile of old swatches that for whatever reason never made it on to the blog. I can start posting them along with some new ones I did last week.

2. Makeup! Swatches, LOTD, etc. Just makeup! Switch to makeup while my nails get back to beautiful.

3. Fashion. LOTD, etc. I like clothes, and I could probably ramble on about it for you. :)

4. Geek out! Talk to us about the geeky things in your life! It is in my blog name....

5. Switch it up! Swatches, makeup, geek, etc. just do it all!

I was going to come up with some more random funny options like lion taming videos or something but I'm so tired today that I couldn't! Lame! I failed on the funny. Let me know what you think or I'm just going to torture you with cute videos from YouTube or something.

Thanks guys! I always value your opinion! You make my world go round *Aww, cheesy moment*

Kayla

Essie in Target March 6th!

I know quite a few bloggers have discovered Essie in their local Wal-Marts recently. I haven't. :(  I also know that a lot of people don't like shopping at Wal-Mart. There's good news: Target is launching their Essie displays in store starting March 6th.

Target has newsletters for employees that roll out every month and give updates on new items coming to the stores. I randomly chose to browse it on my break (yes, I work at Target), and discovered this lovely bit of news. I've been dying to see the new Essie bottles and displays! Now, it will be coming right to me! Exciting! And I don't have to venture into the dreaded Wal-Mart. :)

As of right now, Target has the old Essie core line that they've always carried. You know, the generic reds, mauves, pinks and nudes, but no fun colors. So this is exciting to me, I love the idea of having more to chose from and I'll be able to pick some colors I haven't been able to find in any salons in town (Sew Psyched!).

Anyone else super pumped for this?

First sun I've seen in months...

And my camera dies. Seriously? And I was even wearing a holo nail polish. It was just asking for its picture to be taken while it sparkled in the sunshine. China Glaze Techno Teal is gorgeous in the sun, I wish I could show you. I love the Tronica collection. Unfortunately my salon had slim pickings, and I was only able to grab two. My wallet appreciated it.

Funny story from today!! I thought we were being invaded by space spiders!! No lie. Why? Well, I was just about to turn down my driveway when I noticed something strange happening on the road ahead of me. There was a car stopped and it (at first) looked like there was a dog walking in front of it. I was far enough away that details were hard to make out and it was a heavily shaded area.

Then the "dog" turned slightly and the shape changed drastically. It looked like a spider with two pointy protrusions coming out from each side of its body. A giant spider. Insert terrified four letter words here. I had come to a complete stop and was staring. Would you like a better visualization? Here, I drew you a picture.

Terrifying. hahahahaha. Not so much in my drawing. But just add sci-fi special effects in your imagination and you've got what I saw. After about thirty frightful seconds of staring I figured out what it was. 

No, it was not a space spider invading my neighborhood. 

It was two turkeys fighting. Back and forth across the road. They caused a bit of a traffic jam. Oh and a picture to show you what it actually was:

What, you expected an actual picture? Dead camera, remember? Silly. So after I realized what it was, I also realized I was holding up traffic and needed to turn. It was the craziest thing. If I had been closer I wouldn't have had the space spider freak out, but without detail they looked like one creature. Plus I have an overactive imagination and a love of everything sci-fi, and that adds to a situation.

Hopefully there will be more sun tomorrow and I can get some swatches done for you. The quality of pictures taken inside are just no good. I need a solution for the cloudy days that frequently occur here. Until then I will entertain with hilarious space spider stories.

Hope you enjoyed!
Kayla

CSN Giveaway Winner!

Apparently no one wants to win if there's no nail polish involved. ;) Just 17 entries this time around! That's okay, those 17 people have great odds of winning now!

I used Random.org to select a winner. And out of 17 entries it picked lucky number 11. And who was number 11?

shala_darkstone!!!

Congrats!!! I will send you an email right now! Please respond within 48 hours, or I will chose a new winner!

Thank you everyone for entering! :) I loved seeing what you would purchase with the gift card! Awesome choices....makes me want to go shopping. That's not good because I get paid tomorrow. This could end badly...

Giveaway! $45 CSN gift card(U.S. & Canada only) (CLOSED)

This giveaway has ended! Keep checking back,  there'll be plenty more to enter!

Hey guess what?!?

I have a giveaway for you!!  I apologize in advance because there is no nail polish involved, but it's still a really great giveaway! I'm excited!! :)

CSN stores has kindly provided a $45 gift card to spend at any of their stores. If you're not familiar with CSN stores, let me fill you in: They are like a virtual mall with over 200 stores making up their website! They have an amazing variety of items from shoes to modern decor. It's pretty much an online shopping heaven!

I just have a couple of rules before you start entering:
1. CSN can only ship to the U.S. and Canada, sorry international friends. We'll have an international giveaway soon!

2. I'm not requiring that you be a follower, but it is appreciated and will earn you a bonus entry!

3. Leave a comment telling what you would buy with $45 to CSN and include your email and whether or not you are a follower!

Giveaway ends on February 2nd, 2011.

Good luck!
Kayla

1 year old.

Hey everyone!

I thought I would start up blogging again on my blog's birthday. That's right it's been a year since I started up GGC. Crazy how time flies...

The rest of this week is going to be great. I've got a giveaway coming up tomorrow, just a small one to get things kicking again. And I'll finish off the week with some swatches. I was hoping to swatch the new Katy Perry collection, but it hasn't hit my town yet. I'm on a call list so as soon as it gets here, I will have it. Instead I will be swatching some old OPI polishes. I was one of the lucky 150 fans to win in the Facebook giveaway and my prize set arrived today!!! So expect those swatches starting tomorrow!!

Thank you for celebrating my blog's first birthday with me! You mean the world to me! I <3 you! :)

Kayla

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving have a wonderful holiday! And those of you who don't, just have an amazing Thursday! :)

I wanted to quickly say Thank you! from the bottom of my heart. I never imagined that I would have so many loyal followers ever! Especially since I've had so much happen recently where the posts have been few and far between. I feel the love! :)

I'm hoping to start up the blogging shortly, so do not fret! I still have a passion for it and will try to come back full force!

For now I leave you with one of my favorite recent NOTDs. I called it "Bling Dynasty". Because I'm a geek. Anyways, it's American Apparel Dynasty with Wet N Wild Fireworks sponged over the top half. Enjoy!

Weekend Away with My Bestie

Hello Lovelies!
A quick update for you:  my grandma is getting out of the hospital within the next two days! We are all excited and relieved! It's been a loooong two weeks!

Today I am headed to the Minneapolis/St. Paul area with Abby, my best friend. We will most likely partake in some shopping and I may return with some goodies to share with you all! I promise to do a haul post right away. I've decided to get motivated and get posting more frequently! Yay!

I promised a new giveaway and that will be posted early next week (think Tuesday-ish). Thanks for sticking around while I sort out my life! I love you guys, even if we've only exchanged pictures of manicures on various blogs! haha that sounded a lot less strange in my head.

Random side note: I found an old Cover Girl crackle polish at my local Dollar Tree. Unfortunately, it was all dried up. I thought I would get it and try to revive it. Thinner seems to be doing little, if anything, to it. Anyone have any suggestions, this is the first time I've attempted it and I'm not 100% sure how to do it.

Stay Glamorous


Or Geeky...whichever you prefer! ;)

Kayla

Worst Week Ever

Wow. This week has not been fun. Right now my grandma is in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery repairing a complication from a surgery she had just this summer. I've spent every available minute in her hospital room, keeping her company.

*Edit* Oh great, my mom just informed me that my grandma will be having a second emergency surgery. Most likely tomorrow.

On Tuesday, my dad was in the ER from a fall/dehydration. Scariest night of my life. My mom and I thought he was having a stroke. I've never had to call 911 before and I hope I will never have to again. He's "perfect" in the words of the doctor. And we all wish he would have used different wording because my dad brings it up any chance he can!

There's been more drama and chaos but I won't go into any more details. Just wanted to let you know what's been going on and why there hasn't been a post. Hopefully soon I will get more time to make a better post, something with nail polish in it. I'll talk to you all soon.

Networking!

Hey GGs! That's short for glam geeks, FYI. ;)

Just a quick post today. I've been wanting to catch up on following everyone's blogs but haven't had the time lately. So, if you have a blog that you would like me to follow, drop a link in the comments and I'll head on over and hit that shiny button labeled follow.

I'm also looking for more interaction on Twitter (I've had it for ages and still haven't gotten completely into it, so I need your help) Just DM me or tweet @glamgeekchic, so I can follow you and keep up with everyone. Or try to keep up. :P

Do a lot of you have Facebook pages for your blogs? I've seen that lately, and though I don't think my blog has quite the popularity needed for one yet, I would love to check some out!

Yay, social networking! I think it may be taking over my life.

P.S. I'll be posting a giveaway soon, yes another one. No nail polish this time though, but still great! And I have some new polishes to show off/review! Exciting!!

Viva La Nails--Review

Hey! How was your Tuesday? Mine was okay. I didn't have to work today (yay) but I had class all day (boo). Another plus, Glee was on! Loved it, as usual! Anyways, on with the post..

I have a review for you today! Viva La Nails! They sent me the Blogger Nail Art Sample Pack full of nail art goodies! Now, if you've been with me from the beginning you'll know that I'm not one for nail art. I have the ideas, just not the follow through! However, they sent me such a variety so I was able to try out different types and figure out what I could do!

I sat down with all the stuff and felt overwhelmed, extremely overwhelmed. Feeling that way I decided it was best to pick one of each kind of art and go for it.

I am a changed woman. Why did I think nail art was so difficult? Granted, it may not be a Picasso painting on my nails, but I enjoyed it and I think for my 'first' try it was pretty darn good. Without further ado, I present my nail art:

 Take one: Star shaped sequins and small round ones. Both holographic, and lovely. Easy to apply, easy to remove. Loved them! 

Take Two: One of everything! Thumb: Small blue sequins Index: Black rhinestones Middle: Crushed Shells Ring: Small Gold rhinestones, large gold rhinestone Pinky: Water decal

Another view. The crushed shells are the only ones I really had trouble with. 

Close ups:

I was confused by this:

 Not sure how to use that for nail art. I tried but it did not work. It was one big fail full of goopy feathers. Or rather, feather. Fail. 

Viva La Nails has a large variety of great nail art items. Check them out! I'm definitely going to try a lot more nail art now that I'm such a pro. Or semi-pro. Meh.

A little birdie told me..

Hello!

So I was looking through random tweets on Twitter, and I found one that really caught my attention.  Nyx Cosmetics tweeted: 

Hint hint: I hope you're all signed up with @Hautelook by this time next week! ;)

I don't know about you, but this makes me really excited! I love discounted makeup! If you haven't heard of HauteLook, it's a great site that offers up to 75% on certain items from different brands. Each brand is featured for a few days and it's only select items but you can certainly hit the jackpot if you get to the sale early enough. 

I suggest joining because there's always a beauty sale going on and there's always other amazing sales on clothes, jewelry, home decor, etc. 

If you haven't been joined yet, here's your chance! Nyx sales are always great! Plus The Body Shop and Butter London have sales going right now (ending Weds. 8am).

HauteLook

Happy Shopping! :)

Kayla

Beauty Tips That Changed My Life

There are many beauty tips that I could list here, but these are the ones that truly make a difference in my life.

1. Use a toothbrush to work cuticle oil into the cuticle. Results are amazing. My cuticles never look better than when I use my trusty toothbrush. Uh, it's not the same one I use on my teeth. That would be nasty. I suggest separate ones. ;) 

2. Only use products from the same line for face wash/moisturizer/etc. My skin has never looked better! The chemical war on my skin is no more! 

3. A paintbrush is amazing for cleaning up your nails. If you look at my first swatches...yikes! Now, I can not paint my nails without cleaning them up to perfection. Or as close to perfection that I can achieve. 

4. Eyebrows aren't supposed to be identical twins. Just sisters. Do you know how hard I tried to get them to be exactly the same! Ugh! It's great not having to worry about that anymore. 

5. Switch it up! Wearing the same eyeshadow or whatever day in and day out gets old. Have fun with makeup, hair styles, clothes, and, of course, nail polish!

Okay, now it's your turn. Tell me about the beauty tip that changed your life, or your beauty habits, at least. Leave a comment and maybe I'll compile a list from everyone and we can share our amazing tips with the world!

Kayla

Giveaway Winner!!!

The moment had finally arrived!! I received 209 entries (a-ma-zing!) and gained a bunch of new followers (double amazing)! I'm gonna keep this short and sweet.

The winner of 10 polishes (6 ChG Vintage Vixen and 4 OPI Swiss) is:

Megan Harmeyer!!!

Congrats!!! She was entry number 88, the number Random.org picked for me! Megan, I'm sending you an email tonight, please respond within 48hrs. If I don't hear from you, I'll pick a new winner. 

Thanks to everyone who entered, it was a lot of fun for me! I only wish I would have received more manicure entries! I only received two! Sad face. 

In the coming week I've got some reviews planned! Thanks for following!

Kayla

Reminder

Hey!

Just a quick reminder that giveaway entries need to be in by the end of tomorrow. That's September 5th! I want to see at least 10 more entries. I'm at 190, and I want to hit 200! It would be fabulous!!! Thanks to those who are new followers! I hope you stick around and enjoy!

Check back September 6th to find out who the winner is!!! I hope its you! Yeah, you!

Kayla