Free Target Summer Beauty Bag

Target is giving away FREE beauty bags again filled with coupons and goodies from Aveeno, Garnier, Tresemme, Neutrogena, Revlon, Rimmel and more. Want one?  Click here for the Target Style Facebook page.  Like the page, and then enter the giveaway.  When you are at the Target Style Facebook page (after having "liked" the page), on the top banner area of the page, just below the "like" button, there are some options in blue lettering with pictures of the options above the text.  The Target Summer Beauty Bag was second from the right on my set of options.  Click through there to enter the giveaway.

It takes a while for the various pages to load along the way, and it takes a while for the entry to be submitted after you fill out your name and address on their entry form.  Be patient, and your entry will go through, and you'll receive a confirmation number on the website once the last page loads completely.

I signed up for and received the last beauty bag.  I have a post about it here.

The fine print:
NO PURCHASE OR PAYMENT NECESSARY TO PARTICIPATE OR RECEIVE A GIFT. The Target Summer Beauty Bag Giveaway is open to legal residents of the 50 U.S. & D.C., 18 years & older. Void elsewhere and where prohibited. Starts no earlier than 5/22/12 at 12:00 PM ET and ends after 477,500 gifts have been claimed or on 7/5/12, at 11:59:59 PM ET, whichever occurs first. Click here for complete Terms and Conditions, entry requirements and gift description. Limit one (1) Gift per person. Sponsor: Target Corporation, 1000 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, MN 55403.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Nail Mail and Beauty Mail!

I left work a little early today because I was feeling ill, probably from the lunch today in honor of our administrative assistants for Administrative Assistant Appreciation Day.  It was just the best day for me to find nail mail waiting for me at home!  And, I got beauty mail, too!

The nail mail is very special because it's from a fellow blogger here in Florida, Jody of SoFlaJo.com, who also has her own indie line of polish.  She sent me a mini bottle of Blue Martini from her newest Happy Hour Collection for me to try.  Blue Martini is a blue jelly filled with multiple sizes of diamond glitter, short tinsel, and round holo glitters.  All of Jody's polish is made from natural pigments and glitters with bases free of Toluene, Formaldehyde, and DiButyl Pthalate.  Mini bottles are $5 on her site, and full sized bottles are $10.  Her shipping charge is low, too, and she has promotions at times where shipping is free!

This nail mail just means so much to me in so many ways.  This is the first time I have received a sample of polish to review!  I can't believe she gave me a bottle to review when my blog is so new, and I don't have anywhere near as many followers as a lot of other blogs. And, I was waiting until the end of the month (pay day) to place an order for some SoFlaJo polishes, and Blue Martini was my #1 choice!  How does Jody know me so well???  You can see the Happy Hour Collection here.  She has done an amazing job with pictures of swatches on a nail wheel of the polishes by themselves and also layered over other polishes.  Go look!!!  Her macro shots of the polish colors are so sharp and amazing!  I wasn't able to take pictures even half as good as hers of the Blue Martini polish.

I'll be buying Pink Lady and Grasshopper (and maybe some more from this collection) after payday.  This week is a no-blue-or-glitter-manicure week for me because of an important hearing tomorrow morning and a conference/seminar on Friday, but as soon as this week is over, I am going to do a manicure with Blue Martini, maybe layered over black. I've never worn black polish before, layered or alone.  Double firsts this weekend!

Here are some pictures of the awesome nail mail from Jody of SoFlaJo.com:

The bottle was very secure in bubble wrap and was sealed with bright and beautiful , colorful tape!

It's like she delivered a mini-party to me!  The bottle has a very pretty label, and it has a very nice color-coordinated ribbon around the handle.  And, there was party confetti and a magic wand in my favorite blue color again!  The wand has a hibiscus on it, I believe.  That's a very pretty flower we see a lot here in South Florida.  And, the confetti is awesome!  I scrapbook, so I will be using the confetti in a layout, maybe a layout about receiving this first polish ever to review!

I tried to get some bottle shots of the polish, but Jody's pictures on her website are much better.  Here's the best I could do with my iPhone's camera:

DIAMOND GLITTER!    Oooooh!!!

And, although the swatches on a nail wheel are better on Jody's website, here are some pictures I took at home, because, of course, even feeling ill, I couldn't wait to swatch the GORGEOUS bottle of happiness that Jody sent to me!  On top is the polish by itself, two coats, and below is just one coat of the polish over one coat of black.  Can you believe how gorgeous it is over black and how much glitter is packed in one coat?

Application was super-easy.  You don't have to worry about not getting enough glitter or having to fish for any particular shape of glitter in the bottle!  And, there is no problem with placement of the glitter; it goes on evenly with the first brush stroke.

I compared the Blue Martini polish to a few other polishes I own.  There were no dupes, and nothing is as dazzlingly beautiful, not even close.

Top left is Blue Martini over Wet N Wild Black Creme.  Top right is Blue Martini by itself.  Below that is Sinful Colors Kissy on the left and Nail Junkie on the right.

On the left, top to bottom, is Essie School of Hard Rocks, Revlon Radiant, and OPI Austin-Tatious Turquoise.  On the right is Blue Martini over black and by itself.  The closest polish I own is Revlon Radiant, and it is nowhere near as beautiful as Blue Martini. Revlon Radiant doesn't have diamond glitter, either!

And now for the Beauty Mail!  I can't believe I got Nail Mail *and* Beauty Mail all on the same day!  The beauty mail was the free Beauty Bag from Target that I mentioned in this post on April 6th, the day I ordered the free Beauty Bag.  The samples I got were different from the samples in the picture of the offer from Target, but they are very nice samples.  Here are some pictures of the Beauty Bag and its contents:

The bag is pretty, and it's nicely padded, so I will probably use it to transport nail polish when I go on trips.

On the upper-right of the picture above, that's a coupon booklet with discounts for beauty products at Target.  I looked through it, and there are some nice $1 off and $2 off coupons for brands like Cover Girl and Maybelline.  But then I got to a coupon that made me stop and pull out my camera again:

Oh my!!!  I may be a lover of nail polish, but I'm a magnetic polish junkie!!!!  I have 15 bottles of different magnetic polish from different brands.  I cannot wait to see these Sally Hansen magnetic polishes at a local store!  Please, if any of you see these polishes in your local stores, let me know where you spotted them!  Wow, these will be the first magnetic polishes available at my local Target, Walgreens and CVS stores!  Up until now, when I've asked salespeople whether they will be carrying any magnetic polish, I have had to explain to them what magnetic polish is because they had never even heard of such a thing, let alone heard of them planning to offer it in the future at their stores!

Oh, thank you so much, Jody, for your incredibly thoughtful, sweet, and very special to me nail mail!  I am no longer feeling sick, so your nice surprise cured me!  :-)

Thank you for reading my blog!

Vacation Haul

We went to a Target store in Savannah to get a few essentials. I found the E.L.F. concealer brush that Lacey had mentioned to me when I asked about cleanup brushes for manicures. I thought I remembered her mentioning that particular brush as one she heard other people used, so I pulled out my iPhone and started frantically checking my e-mails to try to find the post on Lacey's blog. It took some time with the iPhone, but I eventually found the post, and yes, she had mentioned the E.L.F. concealer brush. It was only $1!

In the same strip mall, I saw a Sally Beauty Supply store, so I had to go inside, of course. I wanted to take advantage of the Buy Two Get One Free sale on "all" (not really all) their polishes. First I picked up some Sally Girl mini bottles that I thought would make a nice little "extra" when I have my first giveaway, maybe when I reach 30 followers. The bottles cost $1.92 for the three of them. They are Circus (very pretty pale purple with tiny holographic sparkles), Metallic Gray, and It's So Me (pretty light purple duochrome shimmer).

Then I saw the Finger Paints magnetic polishes. They are exactly the same as the Color Club magnetic polish you can get online or at Hot Topic. They are the same bottles, the same magnets, and the names of the four colors are the same.

Then I found the clearance racks. I found a Christmas set called Holiday Spirits with a wine bottle topper with a Cristmas tree on it and also with the polishes China Glaze Ruby Pumps, Dorothy Who?, and Frostbite, all for $2.99. I may have this be a giveaway prize or save it for swaps, or I might use it. I already have a Ruby Pumps mini bottle and a bottle of the Milani dupe for it, and I have my new bottle of Ring in the Red, so I don't *need* the full bottle of Ruby Pumps. I always look at Dorothy Who? at Sally Beauty, but I never buy it. But, I worry it might be too similar to other blue polishes that I own. The last one, Frostbite, I will have to look for swatches online to decide if I will wear it or if I should give it away.

In the clearance racks I also found a bottle of China Glaze Blonde Bombshell gold heavy-duty glitter polish. I would always pick up the bottle and put it back down whenever I saw it. It was on clearance for $1.99, so I bought it. Now that I have it with me, I feel such a strong desire to wear it RIGHT NOW, but I want to keep the Sally Hansen polish strips on a little longer. Maybe if I get tip wear I can do a funky French with Blonde Bombshell on the tips.

Also in the clearance racks was Finger Paints Sparkle Topcoat. It's very pretty. It looks like a cute somewhat translucent pink shimmer polish, but it also has duochrome shimmer that shifts from purple to green, especially when layered over darker polish (based on swatches I have seen). It was on clearance for $1.49. I was originally buying this polish for a giveaway, but I will have to think about whether to keep it. ;-)

When I got to the cash register, I saw the Finger Paints flakie top coats. They are limited edition, and they have run out of them at many stores. So, I picked up all four for $4.99 each. I already have Twisted and Motley, and I don't need Asylum because it's similar to Essie Shine of the Times that I already have, and I don't *need* Flecked. So, I bought these for either my first giveaway or for a swap if a fellow blogger is dying to have them and cannot find them online.

Nothing that I bought qualified for the Buy Two Get One Free promotion except the Sally Girl mini bottles. But, I had a $5 off $25 or more coupon.

The total I spent at Target and Sally, including tax, was $25.95. Not bad for 9 full size bottles of polish, three mini bottles, and a cleanup brush!

Here are a couple of pics I just took in my hotel room with horrible lighting at night because I didn't want to wait for tomorrow morning to put up this post:

Itty-Bitty Haul

On Wednesday I got the free Target Beauty Bag through the Target Style Facebook page by liking the page here and going on to another screen here.  I think they may still have more because they're giving out 457,000 of them or giving them out until May 26, 2012, whichever happens first.  Here is a picture of the bag & contents:

Here you can see at the bottom right the top of a lip balm, the 7th product.  In the picture below, you can see the first 6 products more clearly, but you can't see the lip balm.

Then last night I bought some Clinique products to get the free bonus gift.

At the top you can see part of my bottle of toner, then below that on the left is a lipstick that I bought (Tenderheart).  By buying those two items, I got the two pretty bags for free, the little bag inside the big bag.

Inside the bag were these five free products:  Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion,  Moisture Surge, black mascara, double-sided lip gloss with lip stick in Raspberry Glace (the lipstick) and Fireberry (the gloss), and a set of three eyeshadows (strawberry, fudge, and slate) and a blush (new clover).  Darn, I should have taken a picture of the compact open so you could see the shadows and the blush and the little brushes.

And, then I had to go to CVS to buy something to cover gray hair temporarily.  I had my gray roots colored yesterday, but they missed one spot RIGHT IN MY PART!!!  *How* does that happen?  I didn't have time to go back today, so I just picked up the product in the picture below.  I had never tried it before.  I figured the regular rule applied as with hair color where you buy a color that combined with your gray blends to the lighter color that you would like as a result.  But no.  The wax-based stuff is very dark.  I sent my husband to work this morning with the product in a bag with the receipt so that he can exchange it for a lighter shade.  Other than that, though, it worked O.K., and you can't see the little patch of gray roots.

So, I keep thinking that I can keep to spending under $100 per month on nail polish & make-up and beauty supplies, not counting staples like shampoo and regular styling products.  But, I spent $38 at Clinique for the large bottle of toner and the lipstick.  At CVS, though, I spent negative $2 because the hair cover up wand cost $5, but I had $7 in Extra Care Bucks (my husband bought some stuff, and I paid for it in part with the extra $2 in Extra Bucks).  Still, that's a net of $36 yesterday, added to the $16 at Ulta on Wednesday, and the $20 at CVS on the weekend, for a total of $72 so far this month, and we're only 6 days into the month.  At least keeping track makes me think before buying more.  I wanted to buy my first indie polishes (or try to, anyway), but now I decided to put it off a little bit to keep my spending down.

Thank you for reading my blog!