I Got Sick!  28 Days Is Not Enough!

   Haha, I didn't know what to do with the highlight captions this month.  February sure went by quickly.  Between getting really sick at the beginning of the month and my little girl experiencing a 2-week fussy spell in the middle, it sort of feels like February didn't even happen.

 

February Goals

    Stocking the shop would be done except I found a few more things that need to be listed.  The shop is open however, and sales have been going well!  Zoyas and indies are especially hot sellers!  (Go see what is already available if you don't want to miss out.)  Still haven't found the right box for Goal #2... but I'm faring well without it so far.  And yes, I did host a mini giveaway!  Winner revealed in this post, as I hoped.  =)

Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card!  Princessly Polished is on Facebook!

   Is it any surprise that things didn't go as expected for me this month?  I ended going back to work 2 weeks earlier than we were planning on, and now I'm just starting to get into a new routine.  Again.  As I said a couple posts ago, I'm trying for blog updates on Wednesdays and Fridays for now!

January Checklist

   One of these things got checked off, but I already need to update my social media buttons again.  The media buttons I'm using currently seem a bit off with my new layout, anyway.  (Does this mean I should have left this item un-crossed off?)  As for my other projects, my Storenvy shop is close to being completely stocked (and I've already made sales!  So I'm not too upset about that - I'll have the rest of my destash polish listed soon.  The light box hasn't been built because I couldn't find a box that I was 100% happy with.  I refuse to buy a square box...  I know I will get one to recycle eventually.

New Storenvy Shop Open!  Adventures in Graphic Design!  

   This post is going up a lot later than I hoped it would, but at least I'm typing again!  One day off blogging turned into two, then an entire week.  Losing my momentum is not good!  But I'm back now...  Let's see how I did this month, shall we?

December Checklist

   Not as good as I would have liked to do, but some of my projects evolved into much bigger ones once I got into them, and little Freya had a very needy two weeks midway through the month.

Edit:  Whaa!  I had this scheduled to go live on Nov 30th and I just noticed it still wasn't up... stupid Blogger!  ;_;

    Hello, everyone!  I'm starting a new way to to end each month here on Princessly Polished.  I'm expanding the collective haul post to include other topics such as projects I'm working on, my favorites of the month, blogging goals, etc...  I hope you enjoy it!

   To start things off, this just happened:

   September.  Month of Multichrome Madness.  And Also a Baby!

   Of course you know that on the 15th my daughter Freya was born, so here's a quick rundown of the other little pretties I picked up this month...

   I couldn't resist preordering the new I Love Nail Polish brand multichromes.  (Website here.)  Left to right they are Cygnus Loop, My Little Glacier, Birefringence, and Mutagen.  These look pretty awesome, can't wait to try them myself.  =)

   I did a bit of blog sale shopping for the L'oréal jelly polishes Bananarama Love, Creme de Mint, and Bubble Trouble.  I also snagged the discontinued glitters Ozotic 528 and 530.  These five bottles all came from Jacki at Adventures in Acetone.

   Then I placed a very exciting Digital Nails (on Etsy!) order.  I bought Convergent, along with the Starship trio!  Serenity, Galactica, and Leviathan.  Sadly these multichrome glitters are suffering the same end as their Ozotic cousins above... once they're gone, they're gone.

   So, definitely on a bit of a multichrome kick.  But that's okay, the grey days of fall are a perfect time for appreciating these color-shifting gems.  Of course, I probably won't be paying too much attention to my nails until my little girl can go more than 3 hours without eating.  ;P

   After so little buying of STUFF this summer, this month's haul feels HUGE!  I've been quite happy with "shopping my untrieds", but I did pick up some really awesome new goodies as well!

   If the above picture seems a little bare in the upper right corner, that's it is.  I missed a polish!  Fortunately I managed to include it in the "close-up" photo...

Pure Ice Fairy Godmother and Salon Perfect Kaboom.

   These were both found at Walmart.  I've already swatched Fairy Godmother, which I love.  It's a perfect shade of purple and only $2 for a bottle!  Kaboom is a Floam-type glitter dupe, and the only one I found from Salon Perfect's summer neon glitter collection.  I'm really surprised that China Glaze didn't decide to put out these colors under their name, and make them more widely available.  Oh well.  I figure it should be handy for nail art!  Between one polish being a tricky purple and the other a neon these are very hard to photograph, but this quick picture is actually pretty accurate on my screen.

Color Club Beyond, Over The Moon, Kismet, Cosmic Fate, Miss Bliss and Eternal Beauty.

   The entire 2013 Halo Hues collection!  These were a gift from my husband, which makes them even more special!  I had the collection on my wishlist and he snagged them right away (without my knowing) when I found them at a decent price on Amazon.  The colors are awesome and very holographic.  I hope that Color Club keeps releasing more Halo Hues because they are so good for the price!

I♥NP Once Upon A Starry Night, Angel Burp, A Nice Chianti, All Gold Everything, Purple Stuff, 11:59, and (still boxed) Silver Spoons

   I snatched up polishes on my wishlist that were being discontinued when I Love Nail Polish announced them going on sale.  So far I've tried Once Upon A Starry Night and Angel Burp and shared them here.  I really love these polishes, from the super-cute but practical packaging they come in to the pretty bottles with their thin grippy handles.  The shipping was fast, too!  So glad to finally have these pretties in my collection~  These came right from http://www.ilnp.com/.

Cirque Dark Horse, Galinda, XX, Lullaby, Iris, and Kaleidoscope

   Finally, I splurged and bought all the Cirque Colors polishes on my wishlist.  They were actually all in stock at the same time (they never are during a sale... =( sigh!) so I gave in.  Didn't want to miss them if they get phased out or something!  I can honestly say that these babies are STUNNING.  They've been swatched on a lot of great blogs already, but I'll be sharing my own creations with them, too!  I have a sneaking suspicion that photos aren't going to do them justice, though...  These came from http://www.cirquecolors.com/home/.

   So, that's the damage for this month.  So many very nice polishes, it's hard to know what to try next!  If you have any requests for what you would like to see layered, compared, or reviewed in particular leave a comment below!

   Or, why it's going to be easy not to buy any polish during February.  (So long as China Glaze doesn't release their new holographic polishes in the US.)

   I ended up with over 35 new (or new-to-me) polishes this month, the above photo is missing a few because they are either on loan or scattered through my house.  January was a good month for polish because all my end-of-the-year sale purchases arrived along with a few sakes that took place right at the beginning of January.

   I snagged some Black Cat Lacquer polishes from my wishlist, they are: I Want Candy, Let Them Eat Cake, Put a Bird On It, and Women & Women First.  These came from etsy.  These are all so, so pretty!

   I had a most wonderful package of Different Dimension nail polish arrive.  Mostly colors that I've helped name, but a few other pretties to swatch and review, too!  I've gotten to try most of these already, and their posts are up on the blog.  The polishes shown above are: Honesty Feels A Lot Like Mean, Orbital, Vervain, Aorta Miss You But I Don't, All Red-y In Love, A Love Hue, and Love Her? I Don't Even Lacquer!  Not pictured because it is on loan to my Mom: Yours, Mine, and Flowers.  You can find these polishes on etsy.

      I picked up a couple discontinued polishes from Laquerlicious, Invitation Only and Mint N Chip Frappe.  Along with those I was sent three minis to review, Melted Ice Cream, Rainbow Sugar, and Tart Taffy.  Go check out those swatches!  These also came from etsy!

   Lush Lacquer had a sale, so I picked up my first polishes from them.  The colors I picked are Glitter Girls, Mr. Bubble, Oopsie Daisy, Pebbles, Pink Panther and Slumber Party.  These are all so cute!  Visit the Lush Lacquer shop on etsy.

   I snagged a couple OPI polishes from my wishlist, My Boyfriend Scales Walls and Don't Touch My Tutu!

   When Zoya had their promo for three polishes my husband got me a few cremes from my wishlist: Breezi, Jolene and Wednesday.

   These polishes were partly from a trade and given to me.  Pure Ice Material Girl, Milani Hot Pink, China Glaze Peachy Keen and Luna, KBShimmer Oh Splat!

   And nail polish in another form - jewelry!  Sweet Tips Nails had an amazing sale, so I picked up some necklaces and other accessories.  These are really cute!  The shipping prices are really good, too.  And yes, these came from etsy, too!

   So, a pretty good haul, I'd say!  A lot of polish to keep me busy this month and a lot of it from indie sellers.  The plan this month is to be good and not buy much.  ;P

   Here is my last haul post for 2012!  I'm looking forward to the content I have planned for next month, some of which has to do with what I found this month.  Not very much to show in this Haul post, so here we go...

   I managed to snag some more of the Pure Ice limited edition colors, which sold out at our local Walmart very quickly.  Last month I picked up Treasure Hunt, and I should have grabbed a few more of the pretties that were on the shelf then...  Oh well!

   Top Row: Vintage Glam, Internationally Known, Monte Carlo

   Bottom Row: Blue Midnight, Ruffled Sheets, Get Low, After Hours

   Of course I also snagged a few of these polishes for my giveaway, which will be running until January 11th; did you see that post?

   I picked up Sinful Colors Hazard and Mint Apple, and Salon Perfect Silver Sparkler.

   My Sephora haul was made possible by a coupon given to VIBs.  I picked up Dior Crème Abricot and two of Sephora's glitter liner-and-mascara combos.  I started using the Crème Abricot right away, and will be officially trialling it next year!

   And of course there was my special CosmoVoxBox from Influenster, which I've been having fun with testing and reviewing.  So far I've gotten to post about the Gillette razor and Forever Red perfume.

   Finally, I wrapped up my expenditures at Sally Beauty, where I grabbed a container of Bubble White and Orly polishes Green With Envy and Miss Conduct.  Green Wtih Envy seems to be one of those polishes that doesn't want to photograph accurately.

   With all the awesome end-of-year sales that are happening now I'll probably have a more exciting haul post next month, though for budget's sake I'm trying to resist!  As always thanks for reading and I'll blog to you all next year!  ;P

   This post was almost going to be purely nail polish.  I had all my pictures ready to go and hoped to get my hauls of November posted in a timely manner when I had a surprise before work.  I was on the phone when my husband walked in with an ARMLOAD of packages, both the look on his face and his all-encompassing gesture saying "all this stuff is for you..."  Poor guy.  I was only expecting one package, but everything I bought in the past two weeks showed up together, haha.  And because I want to keep things by month to the extent possible (and one box had a giveaway prize in it!) I'd rather take more pictures, type more, and post late.  =)

   One of the first things to show up was my Cherry Culture order.  The eyeshadows are already put away so I'm snagging my picture from Instagram to show you those. 

   Nyx Single Eye Shadows clockwise from top: Cherry, Irises, Luxor, Seafoam Green, Baby Blue, Dust Sparkle and True Taupe in the center.  The Jumbo Eye Pencil is Black Bean.

 

   I was really happy to grab some of L.A. Colors' new glitter polishes, I've worn 3 already!  You can see my post of swatches here.

    From left to right: Candy Sprinkles, Broken Hearted, Glitter Bomb, Flurry, Tinsel and Cocktail.

   I picked up three new Milani polishes, as well. These are packed with glitter! My camera couldn't pick up all the sparkle and especially vibrant blue and purple glitter.

    Left to right: Lavender Fizz, Twinkle, Pink Flare.  They are all "One Coat" glitters.

   The highly anticipated Color Club collection of Halo Hues - holographic beauties - were released and I couldn't resist snagging a couple, as well as two other Color Club polishes from my wishlist.

   Left to right: Diamond Drops, Halo-Graphic, Harp On It, Wild At Heart.  ...Actually, every one of these polishes is technically a holo, cool!

   I also managed to get my hands on some of the new China Glaze colors from their Cirque Du Soliel and fall and winter releases. 

   It's A Trap-eze! is another glitter-in creme polish.  Looks fun in the bottle.  Pizzazz looks a lot like the glitter in It's A Trap-eze! with a clear base instead.  Interesting...

   Glistening Snow and Hello Gorgeous!  Absolutely loving the look of these microglitters...  Need to wear these soon!

   Here is something that is not make-up!  I'll have a review up on these soon so I'm not going into detail, but if you couldn't tell they are a set of mini camera lenses.

   At last I found a bottle of Wet 'n Wild Black Creme.  It was the only bottle in CVS, too!  I hope it is as good for me as all the race reviews make it out to be!  I also picked up Sparked.  Don't know if I really needed another pink-and-silver glitter, but I imagine it would make an awesome gradient.

   Pure Ice is releasing new colors!  I liked the unique mix of colors in Treasure Hunt, I just hope it didn't get it's name because of the effort required to get those diamonds out of the bottle!  Can't wait to try this one, either.  Here is a collage I made with pictures on my phone.  =)

   Then, the mail came...

   Maybe I should have broken this up into parts 1 & 2?  Haha, no worries, I'm not showing each individual item.  First off, I took advantage of the Zoya Dream Box offer to snag their new holographic microshard colors.  This picture doesn't do them justice.

   Blaze, Storm, Aurora...  They are better than I imagined!  But that is typical of Zoya.  By the way, they will be doing flash promos again soon, and they were a steal last year.  You have to sign up NOW to qualify for them.  Hurry and make an account!

   I sniped an eBay auction for a new stick of my favorite deodorant.  Pure Vanilla by LAVANILA.  Good stuff!  Mini review: it's natural, smells nice when I sweat, and it doesn't ruin clothing or leave residue.  Oh, plus it goes with most of my perfumes.  I have several by LAVANILA, and a few other vanilla fragrances, too.  =)

   I made my first purchase from My Beauty Addiction on etsy.  Just one group photo for all this stuff now because I will be picking it apart on the blog later.  Still, look, colors!!

   And finally, I'm so honored to have been chosen as a winner in Smashley Sparkles water marble contest!  That's right, my Citrus Splash marble was actually deemed worthy of a prize!  I was in third place, which originally didn't even exist, haha.  OverallBeauty generously provided the prize.  She included a cute little glass file, too!  But I'm not going into a whole lot of detail here, I'll make a separate post once I get to try my polish from Naild'It.  Thank you Kim, thank you Smashley!!

   My first bottle of Naild'It polish: Summer Lovin' Melon.  Can't wait to swatch it!

   So, this ended up being a lot of stuff, but very little was impulse buys thanks to crazy sales.  In fact I was pretty "meh" about most of the sales that went on!  How about you?

   ...More like October 2012 Updates, haha!  =P  Honestly I misplaced a few of the things I picked up over the month of October, so rather than my usual big group shot I'm just going to share some of my Instagram pictures and blab about what's been happening...  (I'm fighting a yucky cold, cut me some slack!)

  

   New Jeffrey Campbell Blyke shoes!  I had been wanting a pair of these and snagged them when they went on clearance - yay!  This is the baby pink suede color.  They are really soft to the touch...  And yes, they don't have heels!  They feel like regular heels, though.  Love them.  =)

   A peek into my cell phone...  My husband was kind enough to root my smartphone, and now it is looking very pretty!  Prettier since this capture, in fact.  I've switched to a new live wallpaper that is more delicate, but still black with teal, white & purple!  Time for another screenshot, I guess.

   One other gift from my other half was a new washer and dryer set!  They are white high efficiency models by LG,  No pictures of those but they are wonderful~  ^-^  Finally, no more toting laundry out of the house to get it done.  I did the Happy Housewife dance that day.  =D
 

   New Layla nail polishes from www.FabulouStreet.com!  Must swatch these soon!

   One of the reasons I've been away from the computer is that I've gone on a sewing kick...  Mom let/made me take a bunch of her sewing goodies and fabrics.  My sewing room was in a state of chaos thanks to all the new doo-dads that had to be put away, and I'm sure that is why I'm missing a few things around here!  Still, I got it back in working order and finished a few projects, as well as made this crazy nightcap for my guy.

   How can that not put a smile on your face?  =D  He loves it and now his noggin stays nice and toasty through our chilly autumn nights.  It is made of flannel and love.

   One day I was feeling depressed and had very little motivation, but I got myself to mix up a franken polish that I had dreamped up forever ago.  It helped lift my spirits and after that I was productive again.  This is Stardate, and it is a black jelly packed with holographic glitters!

   I'm wearing it right now but it has been on my hands since last week and is not at all worthy of photographing.  It came out very nicely, though!


   Well, that's all I've got for this quick post.  Once I have the rest of the clutter cleared out of my sewing/crafting/nail polish/shoe stash room maybe I can share some photos!  =)

The amazing strawberry shortcake with ice cream that I shared with my husband last weekend.  Yum!