First Blogiversary Celebration!

All items and prizes were purchased By Shelby Lou 

One year ago today I finally started my blog and posted my first manicure. It has been one exciting, scary, crazy, and fun year! I've met some lovely people and learned so much from so many. I have a lot of plans for the next year and I hope you will stick with me. I love connecting with other polish-aholics and escaping reality through pretty polish! Every like and follow still makes me smile and I thank you from the bottom of my Pretty & Polished Swift Sparkle topcoat ;-)

I will be continuing to have guest posts all month long in celebration, but for today I decided to recreate my Queen Skittlette from this day last year. It's almost exactly the same, just a few updates (hello, triangle studs!).

Darling Diva - We Will Rock You
Dance Legend - Argentum with one coat TC
Stamp - Vivid Lacquer
Stamping Polish - Pure Ice Silver Star

I am pleased that my photography and poses have improved, but there are still a lot of things I'd like to get better with. Check out We Will Rock You with flash--rainbows! That multichrome shift though...

Rainbows and shift, oh my!
Darling Diva - We Will Rock You
(with flash)

So you know I can't celebrate a first blogiversary without having a giveaway! I have been hanging on to a few special polishes for a couple months now. There will be three lucky winners! Check out the photo captions for more details about prize packages. And yes, I had to track down some Dollar Tree Essie Sleek Sticks.

Three prize packages will each include:

1 feature polish

1 of my favorite mani must-haves

3 sheets of Love, Angeline Nail Shields/Stickers

2 Essie Sleek Sticks
Paper stars made by me, inspired by Chaos & Crocodiles!

A closer look at the feature polishes:
Pahlish Bespoke Batches: One Billion Day Funeral & Favorite Kind of Smile
Hare Polish For the Love of Lisa

Giveaway begins NOW and will end at 11:59pm Eastern on November 1st--Note that the rafflecopter says November 2nd at 12am, I'm just making it easier since 12am always confuses me. Must be able to supply a US address and be 18 or older to enter. For more specifics check out the terms and conditions on the rafflecopter form. Good luck and thank you for your support!

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Have you loved your cuticles today?

Guest Post from Be Happy And Buy Polish

Quick announcement: I got a little too involved in giveaways this month, so here is the first one you need to check out. Boom Shaka Lacquer also turned 1 (on October 1st), go check out her awesome giveaway here! I contributed a prize pack of two Essie Sleek Sticks, Lumina Lacquer Child-Like Empress, and Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter-A-Peel. I will also have my own giveaway starting on Monday!

This month I will be sharing lots of guest posts from some lovely ladies I have come to know and love in my first year of blogging. To kick us off I have Jessica from Be Happy And Buy Polish! Jessica shows off all kinds of polish from indies and mainstream to expensive gems and cheapies. Lets see what she has for us today!

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Good morning everyone! If we haven't been introduced before, I'm Jessica and I blog over at Be Happy And Buy Polish. I'm a wife, a mom, social media coordinator, and an artist. I'm a little goofy sometimes, but I try to stay upbeat most days. I'm happy to be guest-posting for Shelby for her blogiversary! She has such a lovely home here on the internet. :)

For today's look, I started off with 2 coats of Précision Nail Lacquer Sage. If you've never tried Précision before, I really encourage you to give them a shot. They have great colors, and the price is right (come on down!!).

Precision Nail Lacquer - Sage
Be Happy And Buy Polish

I then used a long striping brush with Précision Poison Ivy (green), Intoxicated (glowy pink), The After After Party (blue), Toxic Wast-ing My Time (bronze), creating horizontal stripes on all nails except my accent nail, which I created vertical stripes.

Precision Nail Lacquer
Be Happy And Buy Polish

I hope you like this simple yet visually interesting look! Let me know what you think in the comments below, and tell me a little something about yourself. You can find me at my blog, Be Happy And Buy Polish; I'm also on Facebook, twitter, google+, tumblr, and instagram. Thanks Shelby!

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Thank you, Jessica, for your lovely swatch and nail art! She does some great art from the simple to the advanced (which I just sit back and admire haha). I so need to steal her glitter background, too. Be sure to follow Be Happy And Buy Polish on your favorite social media platforms for more!

Have you loved your cuticles today?

Hump Day HARE: Love You To Pieces!

Purchased By Shelby Lou 

October 6th is my First Blogaversary. I have a few giveaways and guest posts planned for this month to celebrate. Thank you so much for your support!

Hump Day HARE is a new feature I'd like to start to show off my beautiful HARE polishes. I don't know if it will be every Wednesday but it will be at least twice a month. HARE is my favorite indie EVER and I own pretty much every single one. I'm about to need a second melmer drawer for them!

Love You to Pieces! was released for Valentine's Day earlier this year. Nikole, the creator of HARE, explained her mother has been telling her "Love you to pieces!" her whole life. LYtP is a red-toned jelly packed so full of flakes I can't even take it. Gold, silver, red, and lavender flakies aboundwith plenty of additional shimmer. I don't know what is with my sudden obsession with purples, but I am liking it.

HARE polish
Love You to Pieces!
Valentine's Day 2014

My swatch shows four thin coats of LYtP. It was so beautiful and unique I didn't even want to do an accent nail, although it might end up stamped tomorrow. You can see what looks like tip wear... that's just silly me forgetting to wrap my second to third coats of the jelly. Jellies and I have only recently become friends so I'm still learning. And of course--imagine this polish 10 times more gorgeous in real life. It is one of those polishes you could stare at all day and never get bored.

HARE polish Love You to Pieces!
My attempt at a "macro"

I believe this polish is still randomly restocked in HARE's etsy shop. If you even kinda like flakies I highly recommend Love You to Pieces!

Products:
HARE polish

Have you loved your cuticles today?