Facets of Fuchsia + giveaway reminders

Happy Wednesday! I am SO GLAD this week is halfway over... work has been INSANE! :( Today I had an awesome swatch to show you. This is three coats of Revlon- Facets of Fuchsia. It's supposed to be a dupe of Deborah Lippman's Bad Romance (which I REALLY wanted!) I don't have BR so I can't say for sure but they are pretty darn close :) I love this polish!

Just a reminder: my 30 follower giveaway ends at 11:59 PM EST tonight! So don't forget to enter!!

Click here to enter!

Also, I am hosting a giveaway for My Memories Suite software! Don't forget to enter!!

Click here to enter!

MyMemories Suite digital scrapbooking software review & GIVEAWAY!

Hello everyone! I hope you have all had a WONDERFUL weekend! I have something non-polish related but SUPER awesome for you today! I was contacted by a representative by My Memories wanting to know if I would be interested in reviewing the software and hosting a giveaway and of course I said yes! They make digital scrapbooking software ($40) and scrap book kits (Free-$7) at a very reasonable price in my opinion. After playing around with the software for a while, I can safely say I LOVE IT! It is a very unique product. Personally, I have always been interested in scrapbooking but it ends up costing a lot of money to get everything you need (book, papers, stickers, embellishments, tools, accents, etc..) and it can also be frustrating trying to find things when you have all of your stuff out and not to mention clean up can be a nightmare! I am a very hands-on person, so I am surprised at how  much I liked My Memories Suite. It reminds me a lot of Adobe Photoshop! It's very easy to use and there are a lot of option for paper and decorations. It comes with several templates already set up and they are all really cute. I give this product an A+! If you want to see what it looks like and how it's used, I've added a video from the My Memories Blog that does a GREAT job explaining how everything works. It's a little lengthy (because of the detail) so you can skip around if you like.

The website MyMemories is also very easy to use and has a LOT of great stuff to offer. There are SOOOOO many kits to choose from. Some of them are just paper and other include the embellishments as well. The prices vary on those. Some are free while other, with more in them, can cost up to about $7 which isn't bad. Unlike actual paper and accessories, you can't run out once you buy them!

Here are a few examples of some of the stuff I created (Click to enlarge the pictures)

A page I made about my first nail design

Some of my Halloween manis

One of the templates, that is me and my sister from Christmas 2006 lol

More Christmas '06 pictures using that template. I am on the left, me and my cousin top right, and my little sister one the bottom right.

As you can see, mine aren't as exciting lol but I haven't had a whole lot of time to play around with designing my own stuff! I was mostly just seeing how everything worked!

ON TO THE GIVEAWAY!

Okay, as I mentioned, there is a giveaway involved! My Memories sent me a code for a free copy of My Memories Suite and are also sponsoring a giveaway for that product to one lucky follower! The rules are very simple! You just need to be a public follower and go to the website and choose your favorite scrapbook kit so you can fill out the form!

-Be a public follower

-Go to My Memories website and pick your favorite scrapbooking kit and let me know what it was

-Fill out the form with your GFC, email, and favorite kit

The giveaway ends two weeks from today on December 12. You will not receive additional entries for sharing this giveaway but please feel free to do so! This really is a great product and I hope whoever wins really enjoys it!! Once the winner responds, i will send you the code for your free copy of My Memories Suite and a step by step guide for download :)

Don't forget to check out the My Memories Blog, Facebook, & Twitter

Good luck!

If you have any questions, please email me at babyyypanda@gmail.com

The week's manis from Share the Love!

If you want to check out my designs from this week I will post links to the posts :)

Click here to view my guest post on Nailed!

Click here to view my guest post on See Sarah Swatch!

Click here to view my guest post on Amandalandish!

Click here to view my guest post on Top Coat It!

Share the Love: Day 5. Wrapping up my 5 Days of Glitter!

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and if you are shopping today or already did your shopping on Black Friday, I hope you get everything you need and don't get trampled lol! Today is the last day in my journey with four other amazing bloggers in our Share the Love week. We each did a guest post on each other's blogs and we're finishing up the week by posting our last themed mani on our own blogs. As you may know, my theme for the week was glitter (honesly.. are you surprised? lol). I figured in honor of Black Friday and the big kick-off for Christmas shopping I would do a Christmas themed glitter manicure. I really like how this came out!

What I used:

OPI- Natural Nail Base Coat

Sally Hansen - French manicure natural color

China Glaze - Twinkle Lights (tips)

Sinful Colors nail art - Be My Valentine (red)

Sinful Colors nail art - Jungle (green)

Seche Vite - top coat

Don't forget to check out my guest posts from this week on everyone's blog! I really enjoyed doing this with such great bloggers! I met several awesome people and I am thankful for that! :) You girls ROCK!

Chelsea of Nailed (Monday)

Amanda of Amandalandish (Wednesday)

Sarah of See Sarah Swatch (Tuesday)

Rachel of Top Coat It (Thursday)

Crown Me Already! french tips + giveaway reminder

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope you all had a GREAT day (including those of you who do not celebrate)! I am sooooo full! The mani I'm rocking today is one I've actually been wearing since Monday! I never wear polish this long but it's so beautiful.. I can't seem to bring myself to remove it! I free-handed french tips with China Glaze - Icicle and then  added a coat of OPI - Crown Me Already! I LOVE THIS GLITTER!!! It's SO dense you only need one coat! This manicure is so simple, sparkly and gorgeous :)

I hope you enjoyed this! I've got another super sparkly french mani for you tomorrow ;) I also wanted to remind everyone that my 30 Follower giveaway ends in less than a week so don't forget to enter!! :)

Click here to go to the giveaway post!!

I actually have a REALLY cool review for you on Monday and ANOTHER giveaway :) I'm really excited to show you guys this awesome product! :D

Share the Love: Day 4, Guest post from Chelsea of Nailed

Hello ladies! I hope you are all having a lovely Thanksgiving with your family and/or friends. Today, I am lucky to have miss Chelsea from Nailed (Click here to check out her blog!) share a guest post on my blog! As you may know, a few fabulous bloggers and myself have put together a guest post circle titled "Share the Love" it has been such an honor to have these ladies as guests on my blog and I am honored to be a guest on all of theirs! Tomorrow we will wrap everything up by posting our last themed mani on our own blogs. Okay, now I'll shut up so you can enjoy Chelsea's post! <3


Hi everybody! I hope you all are having a great week and that all the ladies participating in these guest posts are enjoying it so far- and that all of our readers are enjoying them as well. Thank you Heather for hosting me!


So my love affair with Butter London is no secret. At first I flinched at the idea of paying so much for a single polish but one day I decided to take the plunge and pony up for Wallis, my first Butter. I quickly came to love everything about the brand: the anglophile names, the gorgeous colors and the wonderful formulas. So now no matter how much my wallet protests, I need my Butter fix! :)
My guest post theme is blue so I chose a gorgeous blue Butter London polish to show you today: Lady Muck! What an interesting color this is. Lady Muck is a greyed out pastel blue shimmer. This is kind of like a darker, more pigmented OPI I Vant To Be A-Lone Star. Something about this shade feels very appropriate for winter, but what it really reminds me of is little raindrops on a grey day. But the pastel in this somehow makes it still seem cheerful, if that makes sense. Like I said, a very interesting shade.

Lady Muck's formula is outstanding, as I've come to expect from Butter polishes. I used three coats here, just because I'm kind of OCD about opacity, but I think most (read: less crazy) people would be happy with two. I really love this. Blue and grey are two of my favorite polish colors, so anything that mixes them together-and throws some bonus shimmer on top too-tends to get an A in my book. I've yet to try a Butter London I haven't liked and this one is definitely another keeper!




Thank you so much Chelsea! This was such a wonderful post (and one of my all time favorite polishes!) I'm so glad you joined in with Share the Love!!

If any of you would like to check out the other lovely ladies involved and see my guest posts, just click the links for their blogs!

Amanda of Amandalandish 
Chelsea of Nailed
Rachel of Top Coat It (I will be posting on Rachel's blog today!)
Sarah of See Sarah Swatch

Thank you again ladies for being so absolutely amazing! I have really enjoyed featuring you on my blog, it was truly an honor!

Share the Love: Day 3, Guest post from Sarah of See Sarah Swatch

Hello everyone! How excited are you for Thanksgiving tomorrow!? I know I am super excited! I am also very excited to have Sarah from See Sarah Swatch guest post on my blog today! Share the Love has been super fun so far and I've had the pleasure of meeting several new blogger friends!! 

Hi, everyone! I'm Sarah from See Sarah Swatch. Thank you Heather for hosting me today!!

For today's post, I have a super sparkly franken for you:] I call it Super Nova Girl [like from that movie Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century!]

3 coats

Doesn't it look like a polish Zenon would wear??:

Ahhh this polish was a lot of fun to make [& wear]. I want to thank Heather for hosting me on her amazing blog today, and if you want to see my last franken tomorrow, take a look at Chelsea's blog at http://www.nailedblog.com/ ! & now, I leave you with this:

What a gorgeous polish! That glitter is amazing! Thank you so much for being a guest on my blog, Sarah, I really enjoyed your post and I'm sure all of my readers will as well! :)

If any of you would like to check out the other lovely ladies involved and see my guest posts, just click the links for their blogs!

Amanda of Amandalandish (I will be guest posting on Amanda's blog today!)

Chelsea of Nailed

Rachel of Top Coat It

Sarah of See Sarah Swatch

Share the Love: Day 2, Guest post from Amanda of Amandalandish

Hello everyone! I am very excited to have Amanda of Amandalandish (Click here to check out her blog!) guest post on my blog today! Amanda is the one who had the idea for Share The Love! It has been super fun so far and I've had the pleasure of meeting several new blogger friends!! Kudos to Amanda for the great idea!! Please enjoy her post and don't forget to check out her blog!

Happy Tuesday!  And happy two day before Thanksgiving!




Day 2 of my 5 Days of Greys is the most jazzy of my greys and is the one I looked forward to swatching the most.  OPI Designer...De Better! was one of the two must-haves from the Muppet Collection (at least for me) and it truly photographed beautifully.




However...




I am super disappointed in how this looks on my nails in real life.  For some reason, it sorta falls flat.  While up close, you can see the lovely bronze glitter embedded within the silver foil, from far away, that edge gets lost and it just looks like a light champagne foil.  I know that bloggers have raved about this color which makes me all the more upset.  I don't know...I just wish there was more depth there when your face isn't two inches away from your hand.

Application was lovely in 3 coats.  I will definitely give this OPI another run before I officially give up on this and hopefully something will make this work on me.  If nothing else, it's nice to showcase something fun, different, and sparkly in the middle of the short work week.  




Thank you to all of Heather's lovely followers for reading and thank you to Heather for having me!




Stay tuned for Day 3 of my 5 Days of Greys over at Chelsea's Nailed Blog!

OH MAN! What a BEAUTIFUL polish! That detail is amazing! Thank you so much for being a guest on my blog, Amanda, I really enjoyed your post and I'm sure all of my readers will as well!! Thanks again for putting this whole thing together!

If any of you would like to check out the other lovely ladies involved and see my guest posts, just click the links for their blogs!

Amanda of Amandalandish 

Chelsea of Nailed

Rachel of Top Coat It

Sarah of See Sarah Swatch (I will be posting on Sarah's blog today!)

Share the Love: Day 1, Guest post from Rachel of Top Coat It

Happy Monday everyone! :) I hope you had a great weekend! I have something really special for you today!! Me and four other bloggers have put together Share The Love week! We all have themes for our manis and will be guest posting on eachothers' blogs and then finish off the week with our own blog. I am pleased to have Rachel start the week off on my blog! She is a really awesome blogger and I couldn't be happier that she is part of Share the Love! Enough blabbering, her swatches speak for themselves. :)

Hello everyone! I'm Rachel from Top Coat It. I'm so happy to be joining you here on The Polished Panda on the first day of our Share the Love journey. Thank you for having me, Heather!

I'm still pretty new to this nail blogging world. There are so many creative ladies out there and I'm learning so much. When I first heard about water marbles I was blown away that you could put polish in water and do cool things with it. My first couple attempts were messy, gloppy failures. I had no idea what I was doing. It takes some trial and error and practice, but you can get some awesome results. You just have to play around with color combinations and patterns.

I'm loving these colors together! I started with a green base color of OPI Uh-Oh Roll Down the Window (I love this green!) I wanted the green to stand out the most. The purple is Jordana Purple Bright and the grey is Essie Power Clutch.

Using the green as the base color as opposed to white deepened the purple a bit, but I like it.

I used white as a base on my thumb so the purple is more vibrant. The con to using white as a base instead of one of the colors you are marbling with, is if you end up with any bubbles or flubs, you're going to see the white showing through, like near the cuticle on my thumb.

These are nails that get noticed. Isn't it disappointing when you do an awesome mani that you're proud of and no one says anything about it? I hate that. What's worse is when you've spent a lot of time on a cool mani and it chips. Maddening!

In the next week or so I'll be posting a tutorial on how I do water marbles on my blog, Top Coat It, so watch for that. I'm happy to answer any questions. I hope you'll give water marbling a try and don't be discouraged if your first or even second or third attempt aren't so pretty. Keep trying.

Tomorrow I'll be Sharing the Love and guest posting on Nailed: A Nail Polish Blog with another fun mani. Be sure to check it out! Thank you again to Heather for hosting me today.

Thank you so much Rachel for your AWESOME post! Those are really great colors! I can't believe I still haven't tried water marbling! This post definitely inspired me to give a try asap ;)

If any of you would like to check out the other lovely ladies involved and see my guest posts, just click the links for their blogs!

Amanda of Amandalandish 

Chelsea of Nailed (I will be posting on Chelsea's blog today!)

Rachel of Top Coat It

Sarah of See Sarah Swatch

Sweet Peacock

Hi ladies! I hope you are all having a lovely weekend so far! Today I have one of my new favorite polishes for you :) This is two coats of Orly - Sweet Peacock topped with Seche Vite. Sweet Peacock is from Orly's fall Birds of a Feather collection. I don't normally go for blue polish because.. I just don't really care for it. But when I saw swatches of this I KNEW I had to have it! I actually got it in a set from Sally's with Fowl Play and Lucky Duck (the other two polishes I wanted!) for ten bucks so I am happy about that! :)

Isn't it beautiful!? I can't stop staring at it!! Sorry for the VERY messy clean-up! I hope you all have a great weekend! Next week will be very exciting. Next week is Share the Love week for a few other bloggers so stayed tuned! :)

The Versatile Blogger Award!

Hello ladies! This is my 100th post! WOOHOO!! The wonderful Amanda of Amandalandish has nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award! I am so thrilled! Amanda is such a great blogger and a very sweet girl! She is the first blogger friend that I've made and I hope we can become better friends as we continue blogging! It is such an honor to receive this award from her!

As a winner, I have a few duties:

- List 7 things about myself

- Nominate 15 other bloggers I believe deserve this award

1. I love to learn, I never want to stop going to school! I am very interested in psychology and how the human body works.

2. I want to become fluent in German and Dutch.

3. I am definitely a cat person, but when I have a house of my own, I want a German Shepherd and a Great Dane <3

4. My pupils are unable to constrict so my eyes are always dilated because of all of the surgeries I've had on them making my eyes extremely sensitive to light.

5. My favorite TV show will always be Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I have all never seasons on DVD and have seen every episode at least 6 times.

6. Within the next 5-10 years I plan on taking two years off work and whatever else I have going on to travel the world.. and maybe I'll never stop! I want to experience everything!

7. My favorite brand of nail polish is China Glaze.

Congrats to all of the great bloggers I've nominated!!

1 An Amateurs Nail Obsession

2 Bella's Box

3 Bright Lights, Big Color

4 Colores De Carol

5 Do Not Refreeze

6 Emily's Nail Files

7 Haul of Fame

8 Ice Queen's Nail Parlor

9 Lacquer Ninja

10 Libby's Pink Vanity

11 Moondancerjen's Nails

12 Pixie Polish

13 Show it and Glow it

14 That's So Fresh

15 Valentine Kisses

It's... BUDDHAFUL !

Hi everyone! Can you believe it's almost the weekend already!? I can't wait! :) This mani is actually several days old. I got my package in the mail from Barielle (which I still haven't posted!!) so I layered over Zoya - Marley when I was wearing it last week.... ummm can you GORGEOUS!?!? I absolutely LOVE Buddha-Ful.. it's my new favorite top coat polish!! Absolutely lovely. This is two coats of Zoya Marley with one coat of Barielle Buddha-Ful <3

It's still soft and beautiful but now it catches the light perfectly! *swoon*

Caramel Zebra

Hello ladies! I hope you all had a great weekend! Mine was pretty good :) I just laid around all day yesterday! It was nice having a day to relax! I've purchased a lot of neutrals over the past few months and haven't really worn any yet! So for today I have this mani:

I used two coats of Color Club - Earthy Angel and then stamped a zebra print BM plate image with Color Club - Antiquated. What do you think? Subtle, but very cute! :)

Oh & don't forget to enter my giveaway!

CLICK HERE TO ENTER!

A lovely palate cleanser

Hello everyone! Gosh, can you believe it's Friday already!? I feel like yesterday was Monday!! I won't complain though ;) Yesterday I received my Zoya package in the mail! I didn't take pictures but I got Harley, Cynthia, Cheryl and Neeka. So after wearing Color Club - Wild at Heart (which I haven't posted for some reason) for a while I decided I wanted to dial it down a little and go with something more neutral. This is two coats of Zoya - Harley and it's beautiful!

It kind of has a blue-ish hue as well. I really like this. Super pretty, and also neutral! What is your favorite neutral color to wear?

((CLOSED)) IT'S GIVEAWAY TIME! The Polished Panda's 30 Follower Giveaway!

It is my pleasure to announce, I am hosting my very first giveaway! I am so thrilled to have so many great ladies out there who follow my blog! So this is my way of saying THANKS to all of you! I honestly thought I'd never have more than 15 followers so this is amazing! Thank you all so much!

Okay, on to the good stuff ;)

There will be ONE lucky winner of this giveaway. So you have a chance to win.....

The Prize: Three Finger Paints polishes from the Holiday 2011 collection: Santa Kisses, Frosty Night, Comet's Collar. 2.25 oz Beyond Relief lotion in Peppermint Frost and a very cute black and white clutch wallet! I will probably end up throwing in some extra stuff, too ;)

A close up of the polishes: 

Santa Kisses, Frosty Night, & Comet's Collar

The giveaway ends on November 30th at 11:59 EST. Unfortunately, I am only able to ship within the US so this giveaway is only for US residents.

On to the rules:
You must be a public follower. You must be 18 years or older or have permission from you parents. You will have several chances to gain additional entries! Only fill out the form ONCE, if I catch duplicates I will have to disqualify you because that isn't fair to everyone else :( Also, if you fill out the form and then decide to share the giveaway, add me on Twitter, etc. to gain additional entries, please email me and I can add your entries! Again, thank you SO much to all of you <3 You guys rock!

If you would like to see swatches, pleaseCLICK HERE



All of these products were purchased by me. :)

Pink Wednesday

Hello ladies :) I hope you week is going by as quickly as mine is! Today I have for you Revlon - Starry Pink
This is like... three coats I think and no top coat.

I know my cuticles look horrible :( It makes me sad!

Happy pink Wednesday ;) Have an awesome day everyone!

Big Smoke

Ughhh it's Monday! I'm ready for this week to be over already LOL! Today I have for you Butter London - Big Smoke. I LOVE this polish. It's a great dark blue. It goes on perfectly and only needed two coats. There's not much else to say other than this really is a fantastic polish!

What do you guys think? Do you have this color and if you do, what do you think about it?

Worth the Risque (WARNING: Pic Heavy!)

Hello ladies :) How is you weekend so far?? Mine is going great! A week or so ago I purchased Color Club Worth the Risque and Wild at Heart on eBay. I crossed my fingers and hoped they were the holo versions and they were!! The lady I bought them from also has Revvvolution, Fashion Addict and Love 'Em, Leave 'Em. If you are interested in purchasing any of these because you don't already have them, the link to her eBay store is: http://stores.ebay.com/JJP-Beauty-Supply. Okay so this is two coats of WTR:

SO PRETTYYYYYYY!!! Holo is very hard to capture lol. I am very happy that I bought this finally!!