Maybelline Banana Puddin' & Juicy Tomato Swatches

So, for those of you who have entered the giveaway we're having HERE (still plenty of time to enter), here are some swatches of the featured colors:

Banana Puddin'

Let me just say this: I think this is the prettiest soft yellow out there. It's not as stark as American Apparel Butter or as yellow as China Glaze Lemon Fizz, I think it's the perfect balance of yellow and white. Also, the formula's good, but a tad sheer. Easily buildable though, this was three coats.

Juicy Tomato

This is a classic orange red (sorry it's so messy!). It really lives up to its name. It's a jelly, but a bit on the sheer side. It is buildable, but not like Banana Puddin'. For those of you that are into this, this color is phenomenal. Great formula, gorgeous shine and color. I did three coats for this swatch, so you can see how it builds.

Cropping a boatload of photos as we speak, lots to come :-)

Our first giveaway!! Maybelline Banana Puddin' & Juicy Tomato!!

Friends! I have been super busy and crazy things have been happening in my life. That's beside the point. I have an assload of manicures to show you all but I lack the patience to deal with cropping all the photos right now, so I figured this was the time to finally post our first giveaway!

I don't have a lot of stuff to give away but, what I do have, I consider to be a bit of a gem. Once upon a time, I had excellent luck at a random, out of the way, closeout store. I found a bunch of these:

So yes, for the very first sparkly paints. giveaway, we're giving away Maybelline's Banana Puddin' and Juicy Tomato!!! These are both brand new, never used, and fairly hard to find... and I will be giving them away to one lucky winner :-)

Please read the rules before entering!!!!!:

1. You must be a Google Friend Connect follower-- I'm going to check. To follow, click on the button on the right sidebar in the followers section. Since this contest is in appreciation of the people who've decided to follow my little fledgeling blog, I want to make sure the person I award this to is one of those readers (if you're new that's fine, just sign up to the right!).

2. Contest is available to anyone, anywhere!! (Just be aware that if you're outside of the US, there won't be tracking on the package).

3. Please comment on this post to enter! Please leave a valid email address in your comment, or your entry is void.

You may earn up to 2 extra entries in the following ways:

(1) You can tweet a link to this contest. Be sure to tweet it @sparklypaints, and be sure to

include a link to your Twitter page in your comment.

(2) You can blog about it! Be sure to include a link to your blog post in your comment.

4. The contest will close two weeks from tomorrow, on Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST.

5. The winner will be chosen using random.org on July 1, 2010. I will then contact the winner for their mailing address, and they will have 48 hours to respond before I pick another winner.

Spread the word! Tell everyone! I appreciate you all so much, and good luck :-D

PS: I'll be posting swatches of these lovelies soon (from my own personal bottles, of course) so you can see how awesome they are!

50!!

Woohooo! Fifty followers! I'm pretty excited :-)

So, within the week I'll have the details of our little giveaway here. Unfortunately, we had to hit 50 on a week when I'm incredibly busy, but I'll get it all organized ASAP.

Thanks so much guys!! I'm super excited :-D

(Also, more nail-related posts to come!)

American Apparel Butter

Butter. What a name. What a... condiment? Spread? Though butter is not good for me, I do love it so. I could live on bread (fantastic bread!) and butter and just die happy. But since I would like to live a long time and would like to continue to fit into my jeans, I enjoy it sparingly. Luckily this new polish from American Apparel is kind to both my hips and arteries in any amount. It's a perfect soft yellow, like a stick of butter. It is lovely. It might, dare I say it, be my favorite pastel yellow yet (...though China Glaze Lemon Fizz rocks and Maybelline Banana Puddin' is fantastic too...).

The formula isn't really for the faint of heart, however. A two-coater but a problem child nonetheless, being a bit on the thick side. I'll have to thin it next time. I also got a few bubbles, which is unusual, but nothing too bad. It all evened out in two coats and dried well with my trusty Seche Vite.

See for yourself (Yes, pastel yellow makes my hands look red! Nope, don't care!):

I'm craving buttery, salty popcorn right now. Are we sick of American Apparel yet? Too bad, I still have seven left to try, but we'll give it a rest for a bit now. I still have so many untrieds. I shudder to think.

Thanks for reading :-)

American Apparel L'Esprit

Here's one of the new ones! L'Esprit is a pastel blue? Purple? Periwinkle? I can't decide. I want to say blue, I really do. There's something in me that doesn't want this to be purple but I guess it slightly is. Pastel cornflower? Perhaps. Not quite though. Whatever, it rocks. 2 flawless coats, super opaque, AMERICAN APPAREL: you guys are full of win! Unique cremes, I could just die happy.

So, now I'll bitch for a moment: I sucked at this manicure. I dinged it, tried to fix it, it got too thick over an Orly Nail Rescue(d) nail, and yeah. So whatever I ended up taking a picture of looks a little lackluster. This color just make me happy though.

L'Esprit. Pronounced Lespree? Sorta? Maybe? I took Spanish in school. In sixth grade, I made the informed decision to take Spanish because it's supposed to be a very good skill to have in the US. For my life, it has deemed irrelevant. I'm marrying a Canadian and will possibly soon live in Canada (probably not in a French-speaking part, but the influence is undeniable and everywhere). I've extensively studied film and literature, in which there are lots of French theorists who have lots of fun things (bullshit) to say (occasionally in French, and I have zero pronunciation skills with this language to my embarrassment). While I enjoy Pedro Almodovar and Pablo Neruda, you gotta admit I chose the wrong language to study at the tender age of eleven. What am I even talking about here?? Anyway, L'Esprit. 2 thumbs up.

Thanks for reading :-)

American Apparel Passport Blue

Ready for a steady stream of American Apparel polishes? Well, deal with it :-P So Chris, my fiance, AKA my AA polish smuggler, arrived in town last week with six more. Six, you ask? Well, when I was there in March I went hog wild and bought almost all the current polishes they had. But Passport Blue, how it nagged me. I didn't get it because I felt it was too dark. But it bugged me. So he grabbed me that and the five new colors :D Yup, I am a lucky girl.

But, for suspense's sake, here's Passport Blue. It's wicked gorgeous! I was concerned it was going to look black but it sure doesn't. It occurs to me now that I probably should've gotten all artsy with these photographs and clutched my passport while taking them.... hindsight's 20/20, I guess. The formula was fantastic, two coats to opacity and I have no complaints. It also gets extra awesome points for drying SUPER DUPER shiny. While Seche Vite usually dried everything to a nice sheen, Passport Blue has been endowed with some magical innate shine. It's awesome.

Here are my photos (Full disclosure: I forgot to take pictures of the actual manicure I did with this, so this is a swatch from earlier today! Two coats, no topcoat, excuse the bald patches on the ring & pinky fingers, that was my eyesight's fault not Passport Blue's).

Let me stress that this polish is not, in any way, teal. It might appear so from these photos, depending on your monitor. Anyway. New things tomorrow! I also just bought a boatload of OPIs (coupons from a local beauty supply that make them about as cheap as etailers and NO SHIPPING!) so that's forthcoming as well.

Thanks for reading!

OPI Smitten With Mittens

Wrong time of year for this one, but I needed something to wear for a few days while my fiance was visiting. I wore this from Sunday until Friday. Yes, it's true. This is right after I applied it and I didn't clean up very well, and these pictures don't really capture the awesomeness of this polish. I figured I'd share them anyway. This is in the vein of China Glaze's Ruby Pumps but there's gold glitter in it and the red is so dramatic and saturated. I did two coats in these photos, but three is probably ideal.

Love this one! Not entirely happy with these photos but I tried. You've all probably seen this one before too, since it's from this past year's holiday collection. If you can still find it anywhere, I highly recommend grabbing it. Sorry things are unexciting around here today, more interesting stuff coming tomorrow! Thanks for reading :-)