Halloween Giveaway

I have a quick giveaway for Halloween for you because I couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy some polishes and nail polish strips at really great prices.  These prizes were purchased by me specifically for this giveaway.  You don't have to be a GFC Follower or Like my Facebook page to enter this giveaway.  Follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below to enter, and please give the Rafflecopter widget a few moments to load on your screen.

This giveaway is open internationally as long as it is legal for me to send you nail polish in your country.  For the full terms and conditions, please click on the terms and conditions link in the Rafflecopter widget below.

There will be two winners.  The prizes are explained in more detail in the Rafflecopter widget below, but here are some pictures of the prizes, starting with WTFuschia:

And also Party Action, with lots of really pretty glitter in there.

And also Deceit, a favorite of mine with its gorgeous flakies.  I have a post on the blog comparing Deceit to Finger Paints Twisted and I have another post with pictures of my own bottles of Blackheart Beauty and swatches of those polishes on nail wheels.

This picture is from Hot Topic's website.

And also the Sally Hansen nail polish strips in the skull & crossbones pattern.

I have my own bottle of Deceit.  I don't own the other two Blackheart Beauty polishes, and I don't own the skull & crossbones nail strips; I bought them just for this giveaway.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Comparison of Blackheart Beauty (Hot Topic exclusive) Deceit and FingerPaints Twisted Flakie Polishes

As I write this post, Tropical Storm Isaac is over South Florida, and tropical storm conditions will intensify here for the next 12 hours and continue for probably another 12 hours after that.  So far we have not lost power in our home, so I'm taking advantage of that to put up a blog post, maybe even two posts if I can.

On Saturdays, after a week of wear on my manicures, I usually try an accent nail of glitter or some other special effect top coat because I don't have to worry about being work-appropriate, and I take off my polish and give myself a new manicure on Sundays just in time for work on Monday.

In the pictures in this post, the base color is L'Oreal's L'Orange, which I reviewed here.  In the pictures it looks red, but it's orange in real life.  My camera photographs oranges as reds and purples as blues, and I have not figured out a way around that yet.  I had worn the L'Orange for a week, so there is tip wear and shrinkage in the photos below.

I decided that Saturday to try Blackheart Beauty's Deceit--a flakie polish--as an accent nail on my left hand.  Blackheart Beauty is an edgy brand of cosmetics created especially for Hot Topic.  From what I understand, the products are vegan-friendly and not tested on animals.  The products are very low in price, and the prices are even lower now.  They are available in Hot Topic stores in malls and also online at Hot Topic's website.  Everything is buy-one-get-one-half-off now on the site.

I started out with an accent nail on my left hand with Deceit, but I liked it so much that I put the Deceit flakie polish on all my nails on my left hand.

Here are some pictures of Blackheart Beauty's Deceit, taken indoors, in my bathroom, so not the best pictures (but you can click on them to enlarge them to see more detail), and it's not easy to photograph flakie polishes, either, but here are the photos I was able to take:

I started with just an accent nail.
I don't know why I held my pinkie out, but I assure you that I do have five fingers on my left hand.

See?  Five fingers on my left hand.

I liked the polish so much that I put it on all my nails on my left hand.

I thought that the polish was similar to FingerPaint's Twisted flakie polish, so I tried Twisted on all my nails on my right hand.

Here are some pictures of FingerPaint's Twisted on my right hand:

Indoors, bathroom lighting again.

Weird pose or picture or both, isn't it?

You can see that Twisted's flakies lie flat on the nail with just the slightest amount of dimpling after top coat.

Sunlight.

Sunlight.

Indirect sunlight.  The flakies are clearer on my pointer finger in this photo.

The polishes are similar enough that I could get away with putting a different one on each hand.  There are quite a few differences between the polishes, though.  The flakes in Deceit are more shard-like rather than the traditional fish flakes in Twisted.  The flakes in Deceit stick out a bit, like most shard flakies, but the flakies in Twisted lie flat.  Twisted is shinier but not as eye-catching.  Also, Deceit has added glitter to the polish which contributes to it being more eye-catching.  Deceit is in a pink base, so it tinted my manicure and changed the color of the L'Orange manicure, making it more red-orange rather than orange.  Twisted comes in a clear base, so it doesn't change the color of your base polish.  Twisted's flakes also seem to have more gold and green whereas Deceit looks more pink and purple.  So, they are different enough to justify owning both . . . in my opinion, wink, wink.

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Last Weekend's Shopping

Last weekend I bought some of the new skull-bottle Wicked brand nail polish sold by Hot Topic.  They had a large part of the collection out on display on the store in my local mall, and the store clerk said that they were getting more selection in the future.  The entire collection is available online at Hot Topic's website.

I bought Deceit, a flakie polish similar to China Glaze's Luxe and Lush, except where Luxe and Lush has a clear base, Deceit has a very pretty light pink base with a little purple to the pink shade.  It's very dainty and girlie and delicate on its own; I don't know what it would look like layered over another polish.  The flakies are like shards of mylar, and the polish base is thick.  Sometimes a flakie will want to stick out, and you need to either push it flat or remove it or use cuticle nippers to nip off the part that is sticking out.

I also bought Royally Screwed which looks more dense and opaque in the bottle, but it's more of a top coat with royal blue small glitter and larger hex glitter.

Then I went to Claire's at the mall.  I bought Claire's Color Club Little Dipper, a beautiful orange shimmery polish with golden orange shimmer.  I also bought Claire's Candy Shop, a dupe for Deborah Lippmann's Candy Shop, a pink base with glitter in many sizes and colors.

And, you could get one Revlon polish of your choice for 99-cents at CVS last Saturday (after Extra Care Bucks and a $1 off manufacturer's coupon), so I got another bottle of quick dry top coat.

Most exciting of all, Sally Beauty Supply was having a large clearance sale, and I had a coupon for 15% off my entire purchase.  I didn't get any of the clearance polish, but I did find a bottle of Finger Paints Special Effects!  I found (and purchased, of course) Flecked!  I will offer this polish to my Finger Paints Special Effects giveaway winner if they don't already own it.  Then they can have 3 different ones of these hard to find flakie polishes.  Flecked has mostly green flakies and some blue flakies.  I also bought another set of nail wheels at Sally's.  It's what I intended to buy when I went there.  I can always use more nail wheels.

Here are some pictures of the bottles and some swatches of the polishes:

From left to right:
Finger Paints Special Effects Flecked, $4.24 + tax
Claire's Color Club Little Dipper, $5.09 + tax
Claire's Candy Shop, $3.91 + tax
Wicked Deceit, $5 + tax
Wicked Royally Screwed, $5 + tax
Revlon Quick-Dry Top Coat, $.99 + tax

Blurry picture of the package of nail wheels.  They're very inexpensive.  I paid  $4.58 + tax.

ONE COAT OF EACH:
#3 is Claire's Color Club Little Dipper
#4 is Claire's Candy Shop
#5 is Wicked Deceit
#6 is Wicked Royally Screwed

TWO COATS OF EACH, #3 through #6

THREE COATS OF EACH #3 through #5
TWO COATS OF #6

On the left #16 is Spoiled Vitamin C.
To the right is Claire's Color Club Little Dipper.
They are similar but I like the Color Club formula better, and it's more vibrant.

On the left, #3 is Revlon Orange Fizz.
To the right is Claire's Color Club Little Dipper.
They are slightly different shades with a very similar glass fleck or shimmer effect.
Also, the Revlon is more sheer and is scented.

On the top wheel, #17 is China Glaze Luxe and Lush which has the most similar flakies to Deceit on the bottom right.
On the bottom left at #18 is Luxe and Lush over black polish.
On the top wheel, #18 is Finger Paints Motley, and #16 is Finger Paints Twisted.
On the top wheel, #15 is Essie Shine of the Times.

Royally Screwed (#6 on the left) has similar sizes of glitter to Revlon Radiant (#10 on the right).

The glitter in Royally Screwed (#6 on the left) are most similar in color to  Sinful Colors Midnight Blue.

So hard to capture the sparkle in Deceit's flakies!

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Hot Topic Blackheart Beauty (Pretty Nail Polish in Skull-Shaped Bottles)

I received an e-mail from Hot Topic with an ad for a new beauty line, and new nail polish in skull-shaped bottles!  Some of the nail polish colors look really great!  I am not affiliated in any way with Hot Topic or rewarded in any way by them, just a regular customer receiving their regular e-mails.  Here is a copy of the ad I got in the e-mail.





The polishes cost $5 each.  Here are some bottle shots from their website:

Beautiful Revenge--dark red and black glitter polish

Deceit--pink glitter (and does that look like flakies in there?)

Violet Tendencies--regal iridescent sheen

Bright Night--glow-in-the-dark turquoise polish

Royally Screwed--royal blue, and is that flakies or shimmer or glass flecks in there?

They also have black-light reactive polishes and plenty of other colors.  If you buy any of these, please let me know about the formula.

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