First Blogiversary Giveaway!

Wow! I can't believe that a year has passed already! I started this blog so I could stop spamming my family with nail posts on Facebook. I've really enjoyed posting here and, while I may not be as consistent as some others, I hope that my readers have found something of interest in this little corner.

Strangely, one of the things I've enjoyed most has been the writing. I think you know when you've found your niche when you are able to be 100% yourself. Sometimes I'm boring. Sometimes I'm weird and crazy (ok, most of the time). Sometimes I'm grumpy. And I've NEVER felt the need to self-censor here. In past blogging lives I've always tried to "fit in" and the content never felt like me. But this here? It's good. It feels good. I've found my people. :)

So, in order to celebrate and thank you guys for sticking with me, I have a wee giveaway. It's not much, just some things I've been collecting over the last while, but it's a small material token to show my appreciation.

Just a few rules:

1. You must be 18 years of age or have a parent's permission to share your mailing address in the event that you are the winner.
2. Giveaway is open internationally! (Unless your country prohibits the import of nail polish)
3. Please, no giveaway only accounts - that's just dirty pool. All entries will be verified. Let a genuine follower win.
4. Giveaway runs from January 9-22, 2014. Winners will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

"The Best of Me" Advance Screening Giveaway

* This post is brought to you by eOne Films.

If there's anyone who knows how to get the tears flowing, it's Nicholas Sparks. I will never forget the day I was riding the bus when I lived in Vancouver and the woman beside me was crying because she was reading "The Notebook;" I told her she's going to need a lot more tissue.

Now, there is a new Nicholas Sparks movie coming soon and, if the trailer is anything to go by, The Best of Me is going to be another tearjerker.

Based on the bestselling novel by acclaimed author Nicholas Sparks, The Best of Me tells the story of Dawson and Amanda, two former high school sweethearts who find themselves reunited after 20 years apart, when they return to their small town for the funeral of the beloved friend. Their bittersweet reunion reignites the love they've never forgotten, but soon they discover the forces that drove them apart twenty years ago live on, posing even more serious threats today. Spanning decades, this epic love story captures the enduring power of our first true love, and the wrenching choices we face when confronted with elusive second chances.

- Synopsis provided by eOne Films 

Starring Michelle Monaghan, James Marsden and Liana Liberato, The Best of Me is in theatres October 17th.

BUT!! Ten (10) of my local readers can win the chance to attend an advance screening at Cineplex Odeon Eau Claire Market on Wednesday, October 15th, along with a prize pack of a manicure set and tissues (you'll need them)!

Simply enter using Rafflecopter below (opens October 2nd at 12 AM) and you could be amongst the first people to see The Best of Me.

* Due to the location of the screening, entrants should live in and around the Calgary area. *

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And now, for your viewing pleasure... ;)

Nail Polish Canada Great Polish Giveaway 2014

It's been giveaway central around here lately! Hope you guys are enjoying it. :)

When I heard about the Great Polish Giveaway of 2014, I knew I had to participate and I knew exactly which polish I wanted to add to the prize.

Here's the contest description from Nail Polish Canada:

"We’ve partnered with Cirque Colors, NCLA & Picture Polish to host the biggest giveaway ever.

One winner will take home up to 200 nail polish from over 10 different brands! The prize starts at zero, then bloggers can each pick a favourite shade to be added to the prize.

You can enter below. You can also enter once on each blog that adds a shade to the prize."

I decided to choose picture polish lagoon as my prize because I lurves it so. I swatched this beauty in the first month of this blog's life so here are some old swatch photos.

Gorgeous, right? Not only is the turquoise jelly base perfection, but the simplicity of the glitter really makes this a stunner.

So, you want to win up to 200 bottles of nail polish (and who wouldn't)? Enter below! And if you have a blog of your own, go fill out the nomination form and add to that haul!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Emerald & Ash Nail Oil, Hourglass Nebula, Dark Matter, and a FLASH GIVEAWAY!!!

Longest post title ever? Mayhaps but it's for a good reason. You see, Emerald & Ash is launching a new collection tomorrow and, in addition to the new pretties, there are a few being discontinued. Alllllso, I will be reviewing the E&A nail oils in this post and Ashley and Nate offered up some gift cards so that people could try out their stuff. So, do you see where I am going with this now? What better time to have a flash giveaway then right before the launch of a new collection?! My blogger pack hasn't arrived yet (pesky border) so I will include some links to other reviews of the new stuff and I'm going to show you two of the beauties being discontinued. Hopefully this will give you a pretty good idea of what you want to snag tomorrow.

First, the nail oil review. I'm going to put out a disclaimer right now and say that if you are looking for a balanced review of this stuff, you'll have to look elsewhere. I literally do not have a bad word to say about the Emerald & Ash nail oil. Not only is the blend unique and fast absorbing, the scents are plentiful and there are very, very few that I don't like. I've tried so many of them, in blends and alone, that I've created a spreadsheet to keep track of them all. Hopefully my notes will be helpful in deciding which scents to try.

* I was sent three 4ml bottles to try - Kulu Bay, Cinnamon/Blueberry, and Caramel/Apple Orchard. All three are great but Cinnamon/Blueberry is FREAKING AMAZING!!! *

Here's a note about the nail oils directly from Emerald & Ash:

Our nail oils are hand blended and mixed to order. None of our oils sit with scents premixed into them. We use a unique blend of oils that include Fractionated coconut oil, grapeseed oil, jojoba oil, meadowfoam seed oil, tea tree oil, vitamin A oil and vitamin E oil.

 

We created a nail oil that we love and want to use. We wanted something that was fast absorbing, moisturizing and that didn't leave a greasy feeling behind. It's a cuticle oil that can be used as often as needed, while also using it frequently to help get your nails and cuticles into better shape.

 

We offer 85 scents in both essential oils and fragrance oils. Those 85 scents can also be blended into an even larger selection of scents. Along with that we offer unscented, sellers choice where we choose the scent and a scent of the month that is offered at a discounted price.

Safe to say, I love these oils. I have bottles spread everywhere - in the car, my purse, bedside table, at work, etc. - and use them several times a day because I am a serial cuticle picker. My cuticles aren't just dry, they are damaged. Pretty horrible for a nail blogger, right? You would think that swatching multiple polishes in one sitting would make my cuticles worse but, because I apply some E&A oil after removing each polish, my cuticles generally look BETTER after a swatch-a-thon. Do your hands a favour and grab some now!! My favourite way to purchase is the 4ml three-pack because then I can try three different scents for minimal cost. You can't beat $6.50 for 12ml of oil!!

Now, on to the two polishes being discontinued. Both are from the Hubble collection and both are unique and lovely. I used two coats of polish for both Hourglass Nebula and Dark Matter. I love all of the polishes in the Hubble collection and these two are no exception.

Finally, the giveaway. This is truly a FLASH giveaway. The new collection launches at 9am Mountain time, tomorrow, Thursday, July 10th, 2014 and I am leaving the Rafflecopter open until 8am Mountain time, which gives me one hour to verify entries and get the winners' information to Ashley & Nate. Good luck!!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Links to the Life in Color collection reviews:

Land of Ten Thousand Polishes | Part 1 | Part 2 |
Polished Pathology | Part 1 | Part 2 |
Boom Shaka Lacquer

 

Emerald & Ash

| Shop | Facebook |

Joint Birthday Giveaway!!

Hoooo boy, I'm excited! My birthday is on Friday and, while it's not generally a day that gets me all worked up, this year is going to be epic. Why, you ask? Well, it just so happens that Jenne (she of Polished Pathology) and I share a birthday. We've been getting to know each other more over the past while and since we are both awesome (right?) we decided to share the love with you. So, that means it's GIVEAWAY TIME!!

We collaborated with a bunch of makers and they graciously donated these amazing prizes for our readers! We want to make sure these prizes are going to actual fans of ours, so we are enacting a few rules.

The Rules! <3

• You must be 18+ to enter these giveaways
• This is an international giveaway, but only for certain prizes/restricted to certain countries.
• This giveaway runs from NOW - Friday, July 4 (our birthday!). The winners will be announced on both of our social media accounts, and winners will have 48 hours to respond. If no contact has been made, a new winner will be selected.
• Absolutely NO giveaway, empty, private, or spam accounts, we will disqualify your entry. If we can’t verify you, you can’t enter. ALL winning entries will be verified.
• If you are a new follower of us, and learn about us from this giveaway, we love that you are here! However, if you unfollow us after the giveaway ends we will know about it, and sadly you will be banned from all future events and giveaways from both our blogs. Don’t make us do that to, you so don’t do it.
• Once the packages have been shipped, sponsors are not responsible for lost or damaged packages.

Now onto the prizes!!

 

Prizes available for international shipping:

 

Ice Polish:
Two prizes of two bottles of winners choice

 

WingDust Collections:
Four bottles from the upcoming collection

Harlow & Co:
$50 gift certificate

 

Prizes available for US and Canada:

 

Finger Lickin’ Lacquer:
Five Polishes from the Totally Rad Collection

Gothic Gala Lacquers:
Two full size bottles of winners choice

Firecracker Lacquer
Two full size bottles

 

Emerald & Ash:
Prize pack of four 11ml size bottles of polish and one full size cuticle oil

Literary Lacquers:
Four full size bottles of winners choice

 

Digital Nails:
One full size bottle of Supernova and Ain’t nobody got time for that

Reverie Nail Lacquer:
Full size bottle of Summer Wine, Agave, and a cuticle balm

 

$weetcheeks Polish:
Two 15ml bottles of choice

Model City Polish:
One full size polish and one mini cuticle oil, winners choice

Alchemy Lacquers:
One full size Elixir #5

Octopus Party Nail Lacquer:
One full size bottle of Water Glass

Vivid Lacquer:
One prize pack

(There are no substitutions for the prizes won, or for different colors in the prize packs)
—
So, that’s it! We are so excited that you are fans of ours and we can’t wait to see who the winners are!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
xo, Courtney and Jenne

Emerald & Ash Stubble Jumper and a giveaway!!

Today is a very special post. When I started this blog I decided that when I reached 100 Facebook followers I would hold a giveaway. Well, the "share the love" campaign happened and that number sky-rocketed. I also knew that I really wanted to include a custom polish in my giveaway so I started working with Ashley of Emerald & Ash to bring my vision to life. I wanted the polish to represent something that was special to me and, being a life-long prairie girl, I knew that would be my inspiration. I sent Ashley a picture and she got to work. As she tweaked things she sent me prototype pictures and to say I was excited was an understatement.

Today is the day that I am finally able to share Stubble Jumper with you and I really hope you love it as much as I do. Today is also the perfect day to share this with you because two years ago today my dad passed away and he is the one who taught me the word stubble jumper. I thought everyone from Saskatchewan would get it but maybe not. :)

Stubble jumper refers to a person or farmer who has to jump over the wheat "stubble" as they walk across the fields. That stuff is stiff and sharp and I spent many a childhood summer hopping over it. The colour was inspired by wide open prairie sky, trees, and wheat fields and I think Ashley nailed it.

Stubble Jumper is a teal crelly that sparkles with blue shimmer and yellow and green/gold micro-flakies. Shown here is three coats along with one coat of CND Stickey base coat and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

Ashley made five bottles of this polish and three of them are part of the giveaway!

There will be three prizes... three winners... open internationally (unless your country prohibits the import of nail polish)... closes Tuesday, April 1st, 2014.

* Unless otherwise indicated, prizes were purchased by me.

 Prize #1 includes:

- Red Shift & Boot Season from Emerald & Ash
- Stubble Jumper from Emerald & Ash
- *Raspberry Mud Pie from Eat. Sleep. Polish (* provided by Caterina of Eat. Sleep. Polish.)
- lavender nail oil from Emerald & Ash
- HK Girl Quick Dry top coat from Glisten & Glow
- 4-sided nail tool

 Prize #2 includes:

- Strawberry Jam & Dipping Chocolate from Model City Polish
- Stubble Jumper from Emerald & Ash
- *Raspberry Mud Pie from Eat. Sleep. Polish. (* provided by Caterina from Eat. Sleep. Polish.)
- *chocolate nail oil from Model City Polish and *glass nail file (*provided by Nina from Model City Polish)
- Poshé quick dry topcoat

Prize #3 includes:

- Bewitched and Love Spell from Two Gypsies Lacquer
- Stubble Jumper from Emerald & Ash
- *Raspberry Mud Pie from Eat. Sleep. Polish. (* provided by Caterina from Eat. Sleep. Polish.)
- basil sage mint nail oil from Emerald & Ash
- Poshé quick dry topcoat
- *nail file (* provided by Michelle of Two Gypsies Lacquer)


  a Rafflecopter giveaway