Good morning, Dear Reader!
I've been so busy showing you swatches of new collections in the last few days that other good stuff has been piling up. I'll show you manicures first, since that's what we're here for, and after the pictures tell you about the things where you save money and win things.
Last week I gave you the update that WSC had the full line of the Glam Rhinestone Stickers that I'd shown you the two packets of which Jessica had sent me as an extra to try out (those were the nail jewelry ones), and I told you I'd planned to load up on them (they're $3, so it wasn't some huge financial analysis to decide that). Well, I clicked the
3D Stickers & Bead Tattoos tab to get to them, and there was more cool stuff, all super cheap. I loaded up on the rhinestone decals, and have two of those for you today, the 3D stickers, and got just a few each of the bead tattoos and hologram stickers. I was reluctant on the bead and hologram decals because I wasn't sure exactly what the bead tattoos were (but for $3 I was willing to find out), and the hologram stickers looked like decals of patterns that are Konad stamps, but I was interested enough to spring for the $2 to find out more, and I have a hologram decal manicure for you today as well.
The one I did right away when they arrived (after spending about fifteen minutes leafing through the packets) is a base of two coats of SpaRitual Ice Ice Baby with the fake pink pearl decals. I pretty much did a little sampler of the decals in the packet, I was so fired up about them.
Konad Rhinestone Glam Decals in Pink Pearl & Rhinestones
Konad Rhinestone Glam Decals in Pink Pearl & Rhinestones over SpaRitual Ice Ice Baby Nail Polish
The next ones I tried were the hologram decals, using some Konad patterns I'm fond of. I thought they'd look good over a black shimmer nail polish, so I used two coats of Nubar Black Chrome. The picture completely downplays the hologram effect - once it came into focus, the reflections came off as silver. The hologram effect is markedly stronger, but the picture gives you a sense of it.
Konad Hologram Decals
Konad Hologram Decals over Nubar Black Chrome Nail Polish, Two Coats
Last is today's Nails of the Day. I used Rhinestone Glam Decals in one of the fake white pearl and rhinestones packets (I have one more white pearl & rhinestone packet that's different). At first I was thinking of using a pale pink shimmer base, kind of the inverse of the one I shows you above, but then decided they'd be cooler on Zoya Robyn, the blue creme from Flash.
Konad Rhinestone Glam Decals in White Pearl & Rhinestones
Konad Rhinestone Glam Decals in White Pearl & Rhinestones over Zoya Robyn Nail Polish
For all of these, I applied the decals about ten minutes after finishing the base color with Diamont, then sealed them with another coats of Diamont.
It ends up that the bead tattoos, which I have yet to try but will in coming days, are actually tiny seed beads on decals - I've never seen anything like them. One of my close friends makes elaborate beaded jewelry (think Grateful Dead parking lot wares fifteen years ago), and the beads are maybe a third to half the size of the smallest I've seen her use. They're really cool, and you don't have to wrap them up to your elbow like in Konad's promo pics. I got butterflies, hearts, and tip decals of those.
Those are the Konad decals, so let's move on to things where you get things for free!
First, the coupon code... Yen from
Victoria's Nail Supply (VNS) is offering you a free Color Club 0-60 Speedy Topcoat with any purchase (I believe the site minimum is $15, but I've never ordered anywhere near just $15, so I'm not sure) with code
NPhile042010. It's a great way to try it out and see if it works for you - free is a good price! VNS is a great etailer - all the basics, plus a TON of
Art Club nail art stuff, which I went crazy ordering this week, as well as a bunch of HTF's, especially
OPI. I can't say anything but good things about Yen's customer service, and I've been a customer there for about a year and a half now, have had help from her, but never a single problem. I'll add a "Codes" tab to the top of the page in a bit so you don't have to find this post later to get the code.
Second, the giveaway... That's from Jessica at
WowSoCool. She's been awesome, working to get back the Konad discount codes that Konad USA put the kabosh on recently, and she even helped me by proofing and giving input on a letter I wrote to Konad USA myself trying to get the codes back. There's been no response from Konad USA yet, so since she can't give all of you a discount code, she wanted to give one of you a $50 gift certificate for her store. I'm running the contest here because Jessica specifically wanted to give something to my readers. At full price, $50 would be 7 plates, lots of polishes, or an absolute boatload of the decals I showed you.
I'll run the giveaway like always, and have verified that the usual way is okay with Jessica: it's open to readers worldwide, one entry per person, and I'll take entries for two weeks. The one variation from usual is about your email: it'll still just be used if you're the winner, but since I'm just hosting the giveaway for WowSoCool, I'll pass your email address on to her if you're the winner and she'll get your prize to you. No email addresses will be used in any other way. Here's the entry form, and I'll include it at the end of every post until it's over.
That's the update for now, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!
