I Won a Giveaway! and Using Glue as a Base Polish ^_^

Last July 20th I shared a giveaway on here from Lydz of Sekhmet's Purple Castle which ended last August 24. Just this Monday I got an email from Lydia with the subject 'Giveaway Winner!!'. Honestly when I opened the email I couldn't believe what I was reading, I had to read it two more times before it dawned on me that I won!:D

This is the first time I've won a giveaway and I'm soooo happy and excited and so thankful that I got picked! ^_^

Ever since I started this blog I've had the chance to join a number of giveaways, mostly if not all are nail polish lots or stamping plates.

Of course the guarantee of winning is quite slim specially if there are hundreds or thousands of entries. Most of the time whenever I join giveaways before actually joining,  specially if I'm not a follower yet, I check out the blog first and read some of the posts and if I like what I see then I join in.

I'd like to follow a blog that I would be interested in and not because they're hosting a giveaway.

Most of the blogs I follow have nail art posts and tutorials. I also like seeing swatches but I mainly prefer nail art/stamping.

I have to say that most of the blogs I follow I found because they were hosting a giveaway, some though are from searching of nail art techniques that I'm interested in. :)

I just wanted to share my experience and excitement of winning my first giveaway ^_^

Do check out Sekhmet's Purple Castle blog, I envy free hand nail artists and she's really great and she does stamping too!

Now the glue...

Last week I've been reading some posts in Adventures in Stamping about using Elmer's glue as base for glitter polishes.

This really piqued my interest because I still have some polishes that I dread to use because it's a nightmare to take off. I didn't jump the wagon because I'm not sure how well it would work in terms of longevity.

Apparently though from those that have tried it the polish would last for more than 24 hours or maybe more depending on often you wash or wet your hands.

 Then I saw this post from Pretty Purple Polish using PVA wood glue, I just had to see what it looks like on the nails so I queried to the girls in AinS what they used and it was Elmer's school glue which says washable and cleans up with soap and water.

So two days ago I went out to find one but unfortunately the couple of stores I went to do not carry this type of Elmer's glue so I picked the closest thing I could get.

I got the blue one but in the small size. I really wanted the Elmer's one because it's white and it dries clear, this one is already clear/transparent so I have to feel it up a bit to see if it's dry yet.

I placed it in one of my empty nail polish bottles, if you don't have an empty bottle you can just use a small paint brush and dip it in. Be sure to submerge your brush in water after use so your brush doesn't dry stiff.

I applied two coats, make sure that the first coat is already dry before applying the second coat. I had to wait 3-5 min. in between coats.

This was the second mani that I did with glue as a base coat.

This consists of:

2 coats of glue

1 coat black nail polish

1 coat EPSA black glitter polish

2 coats LaBelle Crystal Rose Quartz

*stamped with EPSA silver metallic polish

2 coats of top coat

This is how the peelings looked like when I took it off.

I couldn't wait for 24 hours before I peeled them off, I think it was just over 12 hours when I took it off with an orange stick.

I'm happy to say that using glue as a base does work, just the thought of using glitter polish everyday without the tedious work of taking it off is just amazing to me!

With this you can even change your manicure everyday, a very appealing thought because I still have polishes that haven't been used yet. ^_^

If you like your polishes to last at least 3 to 5 days well this might not be to your liking, you can still try sealing the tips if you really want it to last though.

So for me this is such a great discovery. I may be using this method for the rest of the week so I can see if there are any more cons using glue as a base. By the way make sure that the glue you will use is non-toxic and washable okay. ^_^

Thanks for hanging out here!

Nail Polish Haul ^_^

First I want to say that I didn't buy all this in one day

I did get them in a span of four days though ^_^

I wasn't really looking for a particular color of polish, I just wanted to check what new nail polish shades the local beauty supplies shop have at the moment.
I was so surprised to see these Guppy polishes, this is said to be a Korean brand of polish though I'm not 100% sure that it is.
The Guppy polishes are the those that have gold with tiger print bottle lid on them.
I'll do a separate post for the Guppy polishes since there's seven of them.


Now onto the others....

Ever Bilena Lagoon

It's been a long time since I've seen an Ever Bilena nail polish anywhere. This brand is a local brand here in the Philippines, though they did start out as a company that makes nail polishes nowadays their main product line consist of cosmetics, colognes and body lotions.
I think they may have decided to get back in the nail polish game since there are so many new things going on in the nail world today.
I mean you have your crackle, shatter, matte, glitter, holographic, magnetic, spotted etc. and even stamping polishes ^_^
Okay let's talk packaging, Ever Bilena likes to mimic other brands when it comes to their product packaging and this nail polish bottle is no different. When I first saw it, 'hhhmmm looks like my L.A. Colors bottle and Color Craze sounds very familiar...'
When I got home I looked at them both and I was right, EB did try to channel L.A.'s packaging and even the writing of the ingredients at the back are almost identical.The most obvious difference is the lid bottle which I'm pretty sure they got from Orly.
Now the polish color, Lagoon is a teal color very much the same with Caronia's On The Go which I own as well but I only use it as a stamping polish because it's so pigmented. Lagoon is just slightly darker than On The Go but I prefer Lagoon because the formula is much easy to work with and dries faster.
This cost Php25 ($0.59) cheaper than On The Go but you cannot use it as a stamping polish because the formula is thin.
I would repurchase, hopefully it would still be readily available when I do decide to get one again.

OMG Bikini

I only decided to get this when I tried OMG in Sunset for stamping and it turned out well so I wanted to see if this will work too ^_^
OMG nail polishes only cost from Php18 - Php20 ($0.47) depending where you're going to get them. As you can see they're really quite cheap but most of their nail polish have very good color pay off and the formula are pretty easy to work with, thin coats is the key.
Bikini is a hot pink shade, I tested it on my nail and it looked so bright I took it off :p
I'll probably use it mainly for nail art and stamping but if you like bright colors you'll love this one!

Caronia Golden Sun

 Okay I picked this up from our local grocery because it's a gold color that has less yellow tone to it than all of my gold polishes. There are times that you just want to wear gold on your nails that isn't going to look tacky, I prefer cool toned golds than warm toned ones.

Here's a comparison with an EPSA gold nail polish (only bought this because I thought it might be good for stamping, it isn't though). Do you see how more yellow the EPSA polish is?
Golden Sun is a sheer shimmer polish, it would only be good as a topper. I mean you could still use it as a base color but I think it would take 3 or 4 coats or maybe more for it to be really opaque.
This cost about Php33 ($0.78) ^_^

Bichun #3

I really like this polish, its a cool toned silver with small hex glitters that are holographic. It's quite sheer though but perfect as a topper if you don't like how your base color looks like *_^ and it could be good for layering too.

On the brush you'll see the silver glitters and how small they are, on the bottle you'll see the holo effect of glitter. I wish I took a picture of it with the flash on. :/
This was Php25 (($0.59) and it was the last bottle they had, lucky me ^_^




 To sum it all up I guess it was a pretty good haul ^_^
Good thing I decided to drop by that store and it's awesome my boyfriend was supportive enough to get me the other Guppy polishes.
By the way I'm planning to do a franken glitter polish, I don't have a suspension base so I'll be relying on my glitter polishes for that. I hope it works out though.

Thanks for hanging out here!!! ^_^