Want some bacon?

There is still time to enter my 5K giveaway!  Head on over to IG and check it out!

It's Breakfast Time!

Head on over to my IG for a chance to win my #5k giveaway!

3,000 IG Followers!

I woke up this morning and in the haze of brewing my cafe and getting Mia ready for school I popped onto IG and had to blink.  Sometime last night I hit 3K followers!

While I have been trying to stick to a solid blogging schedule to offer more in depth posts than just posting a couple of pictures a day on IG, it's still my primary means of socializing and sharing.  Needless to say, hitting the milestone was huge and you know what else it means?

It's time for:

Included is:

• A Monthly Planner from Yellow Paper House
• Kiko Eyeshadow single in 129
• Rocket Lippie Stick and Tea Party Super Shock Shadow from Colour Pop Cosmetics
• Pinking Out the Window Polish from China Glaze
• In Bloom Polish from Color Club
• Pink Elephant Stamping Polish from Just Rica
• Iris Stamping Polish from Mundos de Unas
• Mirrorball HOLO from Orly
• Blue Sugar Cuticle Oil from 365
• Gem Glam Top Coat in Jelly Bean from Dream Polish
• Crumpets n Jam and Sunshine and Clovers Polishes from Candied Apple
• Bundle Monster Stamping Plate in XL07 (not pictured!)

This is not a sponsored giveaway, all items were purchased by me.

The rules are as follows for IG:

• Must be 18 or older, I am international and cannot budge on this.
• You MUST be a follower.  If you follow and then unfollow after the contest ends, you will be banned from entering future giveaways.  I do one about once a month, although this is a BIG one.
• No giveaway accounts!  If your IG account is over 75% giveaway reposts, you have a giveaway account.
• You may repost the giveaway post once for one entry, make sure you tag the post #Gias3kGiveaway and tag  a friend who might be interested!
• You may recreate one of my manis for a second entry, make sure you tag the post #Gias3kGiveaway.
• The giveaway ends May 1st and the winner will be chosen at random on May 3rd from the entries with the correct #!  A RUNNER UP prize will be chosen after that, on May 5th.

Thank you everyone who's been so supportive and inspirational.  You've meant so much to me!

With Glitter and Gratitude,

2500

This morning I hit 2500 followers on my Instagram account!

I'd mentioned not too long ago I'd been planning to have a giveaway, but I did not expect to reach this milestone so soon!  I've slowly been collection my favourites and I think that I'll continue to collect them until I reach 3000 and then host a week long series of giveaways, one a day!

Thank you for all your support and your kind words and encouragement!  I had no idea when I first started down this path that I'd be any good at it, least of all successful.  I've met so many amazing lades and made so many good friends, I'm forever thankful I tried!

With Glitter and Gratitude,

Naughty or Nice?

Are you Naughty or Nice?

It's up to you to chose!

If you're Naughty, you'll want one of these collections for yourself.

If you're Nice, you'll want to give a collection away to someone you think deserves it!

The collection includes*:

• Piperita, a Custom Apple from Candied Apple Polish
• A Dream Polish mini collection in Candy Cane
• A mini balm and cuticle oil from 365 Sunny's Skin Care in Jack Frost
• 2 Peppermint and 2 Choco-Mint Mani Bombs from Forever Polished
• Teaspoon of white snowflake glitters
• A sheet of holo snowflakes from Lou It Yourself
• A Holiday Kinderegg
• Italian Peppermints

For a Naughty entry you must be following me, regram this post on IG, making sure to use the tag #00naughty (try not to tag me, it gets crazy confusing) and tag a friend.  You must be 18 years or older to enter, I am in Europe and I can't budge on that, sorry.   Open internationally. No giveaway accounts.  Only one Naughty entry per person, please.

For a Nice entry, comment the post directly, tagging the person you think should win and tell me why!  Share your best stories and spread some holiday cheer!  Again, the person you nominate must be 18 years or older, open internationally, no giveaway accounts, one Nice entry per person.

You can only win once, either entering yourself as Naughty or as nominated as Nice, but you an both enter and nominate!

For a chance to win a runner-up prize, head on over to Facebook and give my page a 'Like', it's a little lonely over there, and tell me what your favorite thing about the holidays is, no matter what you celebrate. 

That's three prizes and two chances to win!

Giveaway ends 15 December with winners to be chosen on the 16th.

This is not a sponsored giveaway.  Everything seen was purchased by me.

Just an aside, if you enter and then unfollow after the giveaway, you will be blocked so that you'll be unable to enter upcoming giveaways.  As you can see, I host one about every month, sometimes throwing in a 'flash' giveaway along the way.  If you have unfollowed in the past, you may already be blocked, sorry!

Head on over to IG and good luck!

 *Not everything is pictured!

#19seconds: SUCCESS!

Whoo!  That's a lot of pink!  How did you do?  Need an incentive to finish?!  Everyone who participated in my #19seconds Challenge will be entered to win a bottle of Rainbow Honey's BCA polish, Keep Believing and a jar of Sunny's Hand Cream in the scent Lavender Apple & Oak!

Each posted mani gives you one entry, so the more completed manis you have, the more chances to win!  You've still got a few days, good luck and don't forget to spread the word about self examination and early detection.  That's what this is all about!

365 Days of Awesome

One evening the image of a cute little pot of cuticle balm crossed over my Instagram feed.  I clicked on the link and soon found myself lost in a world of balms and oils and lotions, oh my!  365 Days of Color Polishes features Sunny's Body Products.

I right away ordered the Halloween box, which included:

Werewolf Cuticle Oil:  Fresh citrus highlights sparkle around the floral heart of lavender and ylang in this sensuous blend. An earthy signature of patchouli and spiced wood leads to a base of warm animal tones. Leather and musk balance with balsamic undertones as hints of powdery vanilla complete the blend.

Boogie Man Intensive Oil: Begins with notes of geranium, bergamot, and rich Indian spices; well rounded with notes of amber, woods, and musk.

Kiss of Death Lip Saver: Beware of this totally kissable scent! It might just kill you!! A sexy aroma very similar to Hawaiian punch! 
 
Bite Me Cuticle Balm: The scent description is fresh notes of lime and orange sparkle with highlights as they lead to a luscious blend of berry and cherry in a playful scent. Leafy green accents add intensity along with a base of sweet vanilla.  
 
Poison Pie Hand Cream: This smells of fresh picked blueberries and fresh cut granny smith apples smothered in butter, cream and cinnamon with a background of fresh baked crust.
 
Tricks and Treats Hand Scrub:  This begins with top notes of pumpkin, persimmon and apple followed by middle notes of blueberries, elderberries, currants, orange and cinnamon. It has base notes of sugar cane and vanilla.

Everything came in well sealed tubes and jars and labeled with coordinating spooky labels. 

I also took some time to peruse through Sunny's list of over 170 scents and decided to just order whatever sounded interesting.

Opening the box was exciting and I sat at the kitchen table with my mum, who's visiting, and opened and smelled everything.  We made it a game, I had her smell and guess what she thought it was.  So far I've been using the balms and intensive oil.  I'm a bit obsessive about keeping my cuticles and nails moisturized.  

The Miracle Balms are a very nice consistency.  It's not soft or oily at all and melts into your skin and nails easily without leaving a greasy mess.  Any little dry patches are smoothed over tamed.  Full sized pots are 1/2 an ounce and cost 4$us each or you can get a set of three samples that are 1/4 an ounce for 6$us.  The little pots sneak easily into my pants or sweater pockets for easy use.

The Intensive Therapy Oils are amazing.  Ah-may-Zing.  A lot of cuticle oils on the market have a lot of jojoba in them and I wasn't sure how this would work, considering it doesn't boast jojoba.  Instead it's a blend of argan, coconut, flax, apricot seed, hazelnut, and rosehip (jojoba is the main ingredient in her cuticle oils).  It reminds me of a posh hair treatment and seems to completely condition my cuticle immediately.  It soaks in easily, although I do tend to massage it a bit.  It's, again, not overly greasy and doesn't leave an uncomfortable feeling on your fingers.  Full sized vials are 15mls and 7$us or you can get a set of three samples that are 8mls each for 9$us.

Right now she is offering a Fall Exclusive Box for only 22$us:

You will receive 1 full size cuticle balm, 1 full size cuticle oil, 1 full size intensive therapy oil, 1 full size lip balm, 1 one ounce hand cream, and one 1 ounce hand scrub!

Balm: Pumpkin Crunch Cake: aroma of creamy pumpkin pie filling; surrounded with freshly baked yellow cake, melted butter, pecans, and hints of spice

Cream: Pumpkin Apple Butter:notes of orange, apple, pear, pineapple, and cherries; middle notes of pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove; with base notes of warm vanilla.

Scrub: Autumn Mums: features a sparking top note, a floral heart combining neroli, rose, carnation and marigold, with a base note of twigs and earth.

Intensive Cuticle: Caramel Apple: the aroma of a big red juicy apple dipped in warm, buttery caramel.

Cuticle Oil: Autumn Harvest :Crisp apples, vanilla, nutmeg, sweet pumpkin and cinnamon make this a perfect Autumn blend!

Lip Balm: Pumpkin Pecan: A delicious blend of pumpkin spice and pecan cream filling!

Although it's sold out right now, she will be restocking it, so keep an eye on it! I ordered one within minutes of it being available as well as a few more samplers set.  The small sizes are wonderfully handy for travel, and I'm often on the train back and forth to Rome and then out with clients.  I've sacrificed one of my little balm samplers to a client with notoriously dry hands and he's been remarkably happy with it as well!

Don't forget, I'm also giving away a mini set of oils and a balm in my #00Muertos giveaway/contest!

Day, Of the Dead

I've always loved the imagery surrounding the Mexican holiday of Dia De Muertos, or The Day of the Dead.  I asked Alison of Candied Apple Polish to create two custom polishes inspired by the sights and colours of the festival.

Day is a bright aqua crelly filled with confetti and skulls and Of the Dead is it's dark and somber black counterpart.

This month I'll be giving the pair away each along with a cuticle goodie assortment from 365 Days of Color including a mini lip balm in Pumpkin Pie, a cuticle mini oil in Pumpkin Vanilla, and a mini cuticle balm in Pumpkin Patch.

To enter, create a Day of the Day mani of your own to post on Instagram.  They must include the note "00 Muertos @bondgirlstyle" and be tagged #00Muertos!

• The giveaway is open internationally.
• You must be 18 years or older to enter.
• Manis must created just for this giveaway, no sneaking!
• The giveaway runs from 11 Oct 2014  through 20 Oct 2014.
• The winners will be chosen and posted on 22 Oct 2014.

Good luck and have fun!

And the winner is....

I counted each unique entry this morning and plugged the number into the random thingiedoo and here is what it gave me! 

 Which means the winner is:

Please use the contact tab to email me your address!

A lot of you asked for a stamping tutorial which I'm working on!  Part One can be found right here.

For the next three months I'll be doing the #31dc2014, each month following a theme... just to give myself even more of a challenge, you can see more checking out the tab up there ⬆️.  I'd love for you to join me!

Also in October I'll have another giveaway and I'll start a monthly feature focusing on indie brands and their owners!

Day, Of the Dead

Thank you all so much!

Congratulations and SURPRISE!

The winner of my 100+ Followers Giveaway is:

Congratulations!  It took me and Mia about two hours to go through all the entries and verify them... there were some people who didn't follow the rules.  We wrote all the names down and Mia fished one at random out of a box!  Please use the contact feature above to email me your mailing address!

And SURPRISE!

I'm hosting ANOTHER giveaway!  Actually, it's Part Two, featuring another bottle of Seva from Candied Apple Polish as well as some other amazing goodies!

To enter, please leave a comment below telling me what you'd like to see on my blog!  Maybe you want swatches, maybe tutorials, maybe brand features!  Let me know, anything goes.  If you have a nail blog of your own, please make sure you leave the link, I'd love to visit.

The rules:

• One comment (entry) per person.
• You must be 18 years or older, because I am international, I can't make exceptions.
• Giveaway runs through 22 September, the winner to be drawn at random and announced on the 23rd.

I will be hosting a giveaway EVERY month.  October's prize is another set of custom made polishes! 

Seva: A Candied Apple Custom

 

"Living creatures are nourished by food, and food is nourished by rain; rain itself is the water of life, which comes from selfless worship and service." - Bhagavad Gita, 3.14

I asked Alison from Candied Apple Polish to create a Custom Apple for me based on, of all things, my favorite pair of pajama pants, the ones I most often wear when I meditate.  They're bright and cheery and really really comfortable!  The resulting polish I named Seva, which means Selfless Service and it's the anchor in my 100+ Giveaway.  It just feels right to share this gorgeous polish!

It's a bright blue/aqua crelly base filled with bright shades in a variety of sizes, which is the thing I admire most about Alison's polishes.  They're always so thoughtful and complete.

Here I'm wearing three thin coats so that it remains airy and light.  Two 'normal' coats gives a full opacity.  See that puncture on my ring finger?  Yeah, that's from Beau, we were fighting over a green bean and he won!

While I'm still working on getting to know my camera, it was only released from Customs yesterday, I'm really exited to share these pictures with you!  If you're interested in winning a bottle, along with a mass of other goodies, don't forget to enter my #BGS100 Giveaway on Instagram!  You have until Monday, the 15th.