Giveaway Prize from Ulta & Essence

I hope you are enjoying your Tuesday! Two weeks ago, Ulta had a giveaway on Twitter featuring products from Essence's Breaking Dawn Part 2 Collection along with a shirt and bag. I was lucky enough to win. If you know how much I love Essence products and like Twilight, you can imagine my excitement. I received my prize in the mail today. I could not be happier with what I received (except to maybe have gotten an appropriately sized shirt).

The shirt and bag match, except for the back. The back of the shirt says "Every moment has let to this." The bag is nicer than I expected. A heavy weight canvas tote.

Edward's Love and Alice Had a Vision - Again. Both gorgeous! I already own both. I bought all four of the polishes when I saw the display. I have not tried Alice Had a Vision - Again yet.

Loose eye shadow pigments in A Piece of Forever, Alice Had a Vision - Again, Edward's Love, and Jacob's Protection. They mirror the names and colors of the polish. I cannot wait to try them, especially the gold. I love gold shadows!

Shimmer powder in Bella's Secret and blush in Renesmee Red. The shimmer powder looks very promising. I have heard the blush is gorgeous for Fall and Winter. I do not wear blush; I have a natural flush to my face. But I shall give Renesmee Red a try.

Two lipglosses in Renesmee Red and Alice Had a Vision - Again. The former looks close to my favorite colored lipgloss, Essence Kiss Kiss Kiss. It is my favorite red and the only one I've found that suits my complexion. Renesmee Red seems to be more sheer and has sparkle. Along with the lipglosses, there is one lipstick in A Piece of Forever. A gold lipstick. I am unsure about gold, but depending on the coverage, it has the potential to be gorgeous. Finally, a glitter eyeliner in Jacob's Protection. I have not tried liquid glitter eyeliner before. I am rather excited about wearing it. I shied away from blue shadows for years because it was once said that blue eyes and blue shadow do not go together. I've recently embraced trying blue shades and love them!

I received twelve of the fifteen products from the collection. The others are two polishes (A Piece of Forever and Jacob's Protection) and a glitter eyeliner (Alice Had a Vision - Again). The collection can be found in the US at Ulta stores. I am unsure what stores in other countries carry the collection.

Birthday Club

I joined the Lacquered Me Birthday Club a little over one year ago. There are so many birthday clubs now, so if the idea interests you, it will not be hard to find one or you could start one yourself. Basically twelve ladies (or gentlemen) get together, one for each month of the year. Ideally, you get the month of your birth. Each month, every member sends out a gift to the person who has that month. Meaning when your month rolls around, you get eleven presents in the mail.

My birthday was in August. It has taken awhile for the last of my gifts to get here because of personal reasons with some of the girls in the birthday club. But the goodies were worth the wait.

I rarely post haul pictures anymore, but I wanted to share the lovely gifts I received. It was a lot of fun putting together gifts each month and it was fun receiving them as well.

My gift from Bee! Zoya Midori and Tallulah. Plus yummy candies, some samples to try, bubble bath, and a card.

My awesome gift from Kristal! L'Oreal Owl's Night, Sally Hansen Diamond, Sinful Colors Fiji, Sugar Sugar, and Purple Diamond. Along with Avon Moisture Therapy, Salon Effects Teal With It, Burt's Bees Mango Butter lip balm, a cute bird nail file, and a card. 

My great gift from Erika! ICING After Party, Pre-game, and Zoya Tallulah. Plus OPI ginger lily lotion, gummies, a candy bar, a postcard, streamers, and balloons.

My adorable gift from Jodi! OPI Shatter the Scales, Essie Head Mistress, OPI Suzi & the 7 Dusselldorfs, and Poshe Fast Drying Basecoat. Along with pedi-sox, laffy taffy, and a card.

My pretty gift from Sarah! China Glaze Instant Chemistry, Essence It's Purplicious, Lip Vitamins Banana Split lip balm, an owl mirror, OPI Avojuice Cran & Berry, yummy candy, and a card.

My beautiful gift from Ju! Wet n Wild Party of Five Glitters (mini), China Glaze Avalanche, Trind CC106, Milani Signature Gold, mascara, cute lipgloss, blush, samples, and an adorable handmade card.

My lovely present from Arielle! Three H&M polishes (red, black, purple), Pumpkin Glow in the Dark Orange, Orly Elsbeth's Rose, a manicure set stored in a flip flop, Hello Kitty Halloween stickers, candy, a card, and cute little bands around each polish (that glow in the dark).

My cute gift from Andrea! Cutie Girl polish, Sally Hansen Lustrous, L.A. Colors Sassy Sparkle, lip balm, two eye shadows, mani/pedi kit, postcard, candy, tons of sequins/confetti and a necklace. 

My awesome present from Sarah! Kleancolor Holo Pink, Lex Tuilleries, Essence Choose Me!, candy (including the empty M&M bag hiding in the back because I ate them before the picture), striping tape, samples, owl tattoo, owl nail polish ring, felt owl, and a postcard.

My great present from Amber! Sinful Colors Cinderella, Kissy, Dazzle, OPI Avojuice Mango, Julep scrub & lotion, crystal file, cute pen, and oodles of candy.

If you've been counting, that's ten gifts. Earlier, I mentioned getting eleven gifts during your birthday month. Well, one of the ladies in our group has not been heard from in months. Ninon from I Drink Nail Polish. She hasn't been on her blog, twitter, facebook, pinterest, or anything since February. Ju even tried sending her a card in the mail and never heard anything back. We're all worried about her. If anyone has heard from her, please let me know.

Fimo Canes!

Fimo polymer clay canes to be exact. I have been debating about buying some for a long time. I usual see thick slices as nail art. I cannot get 3D nail art to stay on very long at all. Rhinestones usually pop off within a day.

Someone on PAA mentioned purchasing cute fimo canes and again I wanted to purchase some. After a little trip to eBay, I found a bulk set of them. One week later, they arrived from China. I was so excited to see which ones I received. And to actually see a fimo cane in person. They are so cute!

Some of these are just down right adorable. Others I will forever stare at trying to figure out what they are supposed to be. But I cannot wait to practice slicing then do a manicure with some of these.

If anyone is interested, I got them from this store on eBay.

New Essence Collection & Born Pretty Stamping Plate

Another haul post! :) Just a small one this time. 

Essence Like Leo's Pilot Jacket, I Wear My Flying Goggles at Night,  
No Better Way to Sky, & I Am A Viator

Plate m71 from Born Pretty

I noticed Ulta had a brand new display with the Limited Edition Essence Legends of the Sky Collection. Nouveau Cheap has a great post about the entire display, if you're interested. It seems that the U.S. displays only have four of the six polishes from the collection.

I literally gasped when I saw the display and was so happy to get all four. I was honestly a little iffy about the shades, but I could not pass up a LE Essence collection. I have a post planned for Wednesday with these lovely polishes, and trust me, they are worth owning.

On to the stamping plate. Born Pretty has been running a promotion for a very long time that offers a free Hello Kitty stamping plate to ten people per day. You do not even have to place an order for anything else. The plate can be found here, along with instructions on how to receive it for free. It does take some time to arrive. I ordered mine on April 9th. It shipped the next day and arrived today. The shipping is free from Hong Kong, so the time is not surprising.

Polish Haul and Nail Mail

I have not posted a haul or nail mail (aside from my surprise swaps) in months. I wasn't sure people liked seeing my purchases. However, I decided to start up again. Hopefully someone likes seeing them. :)

Color Club Blossoming Collection

Blushing Rose, Sweetpea, Lavendarling, Blue-ming, Hydrangea Kiss
& Diamond Drops

Ulta Pinata-Yada-Yada (3), Lav-ish & Maine Attraction

OPI Houston We Have a Purple, Lincoln Park After Park
& Essie Pink-a-boo

Zoya Zuza, Skylar & Bijou

Nabi Cute Punky, Spoiled by Wet n Wild Pet My Peacock
& Maybelline Twilight Rays

Its an interesting variety of polishes, I know. I finally have the CC Blossoming Collection. My mom found it at Burlington and was sweet enough to purchase it for me. I got all of the Ulta on sale. The glitters were clearanced to $2 and the others were 2 for $4, so I ended up getting them all for $2 each. The OPIs, Essie, and Zoyas are all from a Bloom.com order. Does anyone remember the $5 for $40 vouchers? I finally used mine. The Nabi and Spoiled were purchased from Copious and the Maybelline was a Walmart find.

Spring Surprise!

Another exchange on PAA! Secret Santa, Be My Valentine, and now Spring Surprise. Names are drawn by random and who is sending our gift is a surprise.

I received a wonderful gift from Gwen, who runs SpaceLifeThoughts.

A sweet note, polishes, glitter, and candies

Essence Blue Addicted & World Inspired Colours by Herôme Bogota

Up close shot of Bogota

Up close shot of Blue Addicted

Holographic bar glitter

I had never heard of World Inspired Colours by Herôme until today. Bogota is gorgeous! I cannot wait to try it! Its no surprise if you've been reading my blog that I love Essence polishes (and the rest of their cosmetics). Blue Addicted is not sold here in the US, so I was beyond thrilled to receive it. I have wanted it for awhile.

The holographic bar glitter is amazing in person. I'm not sure if I'm going to franken with it or just use it like sprinkles on a manicure. Either way, it will definitely get used. The little candies are coffee candies. How amazing is that?! As soon as I snapped the picture, I popped one in my mouth. Coffee heaven!

Be My Valentine! A Gift Exchange

Remember in December when I posted about my Secret Santa gift? Well over at PAA, we did it all again. Krissi put together another amazing exchange for Valentine's Day. Names were drawn at random and we had no idea who was sending us a gift until it came in the mail.

My amazing gift came from Iva, a wonderful member of the group. I was so excited to get it!

China Glaze Sunshine, Kleancolor Chunky Holo Purple, Catrice Dirty
Berry & Iron Mermaiden

Essence Magic Wand, Fruit Punch, I Like & Look by Bipa Metallic Matt

I'm absolutely in love with it all! I love Essence and can only get the Colour & Go here so I was thrilled to get three of them. I seriously cannot express how excited I was to pull out a Catrice polish. I did not have any of that brand before this. I've been wanting to try the Kleancolor Chunky Holos, but I can never find that brand near me. I've never heard of Look by Bipa, but the polish looks amazing. Its a silver holo! Last but not least, my new sunny China Glaze. Yellow and sparkle!

I also received a bottle of Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers Confetti. I cannot wait to test this out for frankening! I got a rhinestone wheel. I love rhinestones! Also an Essence lipgloss from their Blossoms etc... collection named Naive. I'm a major lipgloss junkie. So I was thrilled. I also got a bunch of Haribo candies. I've had the gummy bears before, but the rest are something new for me. So far I've only gotten into the Happy Cola ones. Yay for self control. They taste just like soda.

So thank you again, Iva! I love love love everything!