Why I haven't posted lately + MY FIRST GIVEAWAY!

Well, hello there, my Purdies! How have you all been? I've been a busy mama lately, hence my lack of posting over the past couple of weeks. Not to mention, I broke every single nail but one, and then realized that my metal cuticle pusher, when combined with my cuticle remover, has ruined my nails. They're awful. And I don't know if I'm being brave or just crazy, but I'm going to show you guys just how bad they are...

I had heard so many people rave about how they just LOVED their metal cuticle pusher, so of course, I had to have one. I've been using mine for about a year now, and I have enjoyed using it. It worked really well. Too well, evidently. Now that my nails have grown out enough, I can see just how horribly I have damaged them.

It's downright embarrassing. After the last two broke all the way to the quick, I was so heartbroken. The first two that had broken were finally growing, and now the other two had broken so badly. 

But, this? I feel so defeated. My nails look like I've got acrylics on, and need a fill-in. It's REALLY bad. I evidently didn't use the metal pusher properly, and I've ruined them. So, if you use one of those metal cuticle pushers....BE CAREFUL! And don't use cuticle remover when you use it. Your nails will be so soft, you could be taking perfectly healthy layers off of your nails, and not even realize it.

I know I could probably use a ridge filler, but of course, as is typical in my life, I can't afford to just go out & buy one. Well, I probably could go out and buy a ridge filler, but I'm choosing not to (You'll see why shortly). So, I guess all that I can do, is let my nails grow out until they're back to normal. But the way my nails have been growing the past few months, that could take a year or more!

I want to be able to work on this blog, this nail polish blog, that I've started. I needed this. Something just for me. So, I hope you guys won't stop reading or following if I don't post about nails for a while. I DO plan on still posting, sooooo I have decided that I will just post about whatever I feel like. Household product reviews, children's product reviews, makeup, hair, grocery shopping, kids, family.....whatever my little heart desires. Trying to keep to one single thing like nails to blog about just isn't easy for someone like me! 

Soooooo....to celebrate a new beginning for myself in my little teeny-tiny piece of the world, I decided to have my VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY! I had decided to see if anyone would want to participate, by letting me include their blogs/pages in the Rafflecopter entries, just to "share the love". But the response was even more amazing that I even thought it would be. Several people decided to contribute prizes, making it possible to have FOUR WINNERS! How freakin' cool is that?!

I'd like to thank everyone who chose to be a part of this. From contributing prizes, to just participating and sharing the love...you all are the best! This was originally just gonna be a little bitty giveaway, but it's turned into something even greater! But enough about that, here's the Rafflecopter!

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at polishedaway@gmail.com! This is my first experience with Rafflecopter, so it might not be perfect, lol. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Salon Perfect Holographic - Pixel Pink

Hi guys! I have another Salon Perfect Holographic polish to show you. This one is called "Pixel Pink."

Again, I won the entire collection from an Instagram giveaway held by Salon Perfect last year. And again, I was a little disappointed that the holo effect just isn't that strong in these. But the formula is great. I only had to use two coats, and I do love me a "two-coater"!

*HK Girl topcoat is sold HERE*

I was also a little surprised by how strongly it smelled! Polish smells usually don't bother me much, but this one was a little harder to tolerate.

I had a slight accident and smudged my middle nail a little, so please try to overlook that, lol

Remember the bad break I had on my index finger a couple of weeks ago? Yeah, I finally broke down and filed the others down to match. In doing that, I decided to go back to square nails. 

I decided to use some Color Club "Harp On It" to show you guys the stark contrast in the holographic effect between Salon Perfect and Color Club. *Even though it was late and all I had was my crappy indoor lighting* It also gave me an opportunity to finally use my chevron nail vinyls that I bought from NailVinyls.com (@teismom on Instagram) a few months ago, when I had a little money in my PayPal account. *Which are simply AH-MAZING!*

"Harp On It" is the only Color Club holo that I own, since I haven't been able to find any places near me that sell the brand *yet*. (I got this one in another Instagram giveaway last year) I personally consider Color Club to be the only "mainstream" brand that could ever really compete with a lot of the Indie brand holos out there. I mean, daaaamn, lookit dat holoooooo!

Of course, I couldn't just leave this manicure alone! Since I'm still on a "glitter placement trip," I added a little more sparkle...

So, what do you all think? Does the Salon Perfect Holographic polish have enough holo for you? Or are you like me, and wish it was at least a little bit stronger?

Hope you guys enjoyed this post! Happy polishing! :)

Salon Perfect Holographic - Silver Screen

Hi guys! I hope you're all having a great week so far!

Today, I'd like to show you all a Salon Perfect Holographic polish. I won the entire collection in an Instagram giveaway held by Salon Perfect last year, and decided to pull them out since I hadn't really used them much yet.

This one is called "Silver Screen." I love the color choices in this collection, but I have to say, the holographic *or lack thereof* effect was a little disappointing! Of course, I haven't really found a mainstream brand whose holographic could stand against a lot of the Indie polishes out there.

Either way, though, this polish is very pretty...

I decided to pull out some of my glitters, since I've been on a glitter placement trip, lately. Maybe it was because it was around 3am when I was adding the glitters, or maybe I'm just a little crooked *hehe*, because you can clearly see that my lines aren't straight, lol

But, I still really like how the accent nail turned out! 

There wasn't much sun around, since we had just gotten an inch of snow the night before, and it was still very overcast, but I tried to get some shots to show the holographic effect.

This is two coats, with one coat of HK Girl Glisten & Glow topcoat.

As I said before, the holo effect in this polish really isn't the strongest I've ever seen.

All-in-all, I like this polish. I just wish the holo was a bit stronger because, well, who doesn't love a good holographic polish? At least the formula was pretty awesome. That kinda made up for the lack of holo. *For me, anyway lol*

Hope you all are having an awesome week, so far! 

Happy polishing, and I'll see y'all again soon! <3

Bipolar Ramblings, CCL, and Nail Art

For those of you who don't know, I am bipolar, and pretty much live in a bubble. I have no friends, and I don't work. If I get to leave the house, it's usually for an appointment of some kind. I currently do not have a phone. I have an ADHD 7-year-old, who I am a single parent of (even though I am married), who has been through a lot over the past year. I'm trying to help her simply deal. And my 2-year-old is in the midst of some kind of "stage" where she wants nothing to do with me. She only wants her dad. I am lonely, I am depressed, and I've been back & forth between manic & depressive for days, now. Don't be surprised to see posts from me every once in a while where I babble, just as I'm doing now. As I said: I am lonely. And hey, it's my blog for a reason, right?

Now, I know my blog isn't the greatest thing around. I don't have a computer, and do everything from an iPad. And there's only so much you can do from an iPad. BUT, I am slowly but surely learning new things, and just kinda feelin' my way around. My photos still suck, though. My brand new camera turned out to be a hunk of junk (that happens when you buy off of craigslist.com sometimes), and every single light in my house sucks. I can't afford to build a light box, so if I want to get decent photos, I have to be out in the sun. Which doesn't come out around here much, these days. Which tends to work fine for me, I think. Considering the limited equipment I have, I like to think that my photos are pretty decent. This works fine for swatch photos.

The only opportunities that I get to do my nails are late at night when my kids are in bed, and when the husband is settled. I literally sacrifice sleep to do my nails. So, in order to show you guys some nail art, I have to suffer through the terrible lighting. Unfortunately, so do you, lol. I hope to improve in the future. (It's a goal!) But I wanted to show y'all some nail art, dangit! So, please forgive these awful photos.

I've been stuck in a rut for several months, now. This manic-depressive shit sucks. I stopped taking care of myself (not eating right, not taking my vitamins, not drinking my water), and my poor nails have suffered. I haven't attempted any serious nail art since Halloween, and I've just been so down lately, that I decided that I finally wanted to play with my nails. It's the one thing I seem to be able to get right most of the time. 

So, I started with a nice, blank canvas. A couple coats o'white, coat of topcoat, take a break & let 'em dry! :)

2 healthy coats of SinfulColors "Snow Me White" *pre-cleanup, sorry!*

Now is as good a time as any to publicly admit that I only do nail art on my left hand, 9 out of 10 times. Hell, sometimes I don't even bother polishing both hands. (Don't judge me.) So, while my polish dried on my ONE hand, I got out everything I needed, lol.

I had decided to do a Valentine gradient, then go from there. I had seen a post on Facebook where someone had used a peel-off base coat to protect their skin when doing a gradient, to save from having to do some hellish cleanup. So, of course, I decided to try it!

Now, I know a lot of people just use plain Elmer's glue as a peel-off base. But that never worked for me. So, I was so tickled when my good friend, Cameo sent me a bottle of Cameo Colours Lacquers' "Take It Off!" Peel-Off Base Coat. It works great for me. I've even got a little stash of some previous nail art, because when it peels off perfectly, it's just a tiny little work of art, lol! *Is it weird that I've saved some? Lol* I usually only use mine as a base coat in warmer weather, though. It just works better for me when the air is warmer. But it worked PERFECT for easily cleaning up my gradient mess!

It didn't take too long to dry enough for me to start my gradient; maybe 10 minutes.

I really detest every single light in my house.....

And I still don't think I'm using PicsArt right when trying to add my watermark. But, hey...I'm gettin' there!

How cool is that?! The messiest part peeled right off! I only had a little bit of cleaning to do around my cuticles!

I added some China Glaze "Fairy Dust" to try to mask some of the little imperfections from the sponge, and from cleaning up my cuticles.

Added a coat of HK Girl topcoat...

I messed my thumb up, but was able to hide it with a stud & some rhinestones, strategically placed. :)

I practiced some glitter placement on my accent nail, and this was the final outcome...

Blurred to show off the sparkle :)

I still need LOTS of practice doing glitter placement, but I enjoy it. It relaxes me, believe it or not. And that's coming from someone who tends to have very little patience sometimes.

Haha. My poor Stubby still looks cute together with her sisters! *hee hee*

I know this post has been all over the place, but I hope the three of you who read my posts will still come back & read again, lol. If you're bipolar, then you'll understand, lol. If you're not, maybe you'll get a giggle out of it. You never know unless ya read it, anyway!