Giveaway Question: What is GFC?

I've gotten a few questions about "What is GFC?", "How do I do it?", etc.  I assure you, it's super simple.


First, GFC stands for "Google Friend Connect".  It's what shows me that you're following my blog.  In my early days, I would just bookmark all the blogs I enjoyed reading, then open the bookmarked link on my Internet Browser.  While it worked for me, it didn't show me as an official follower of the blog.  Why are followers important?  Well, while being in consideration for some companies for polish samples, press releases and reviews, they want to know how many people actually read your blog.  I've had companies ask for me for my number of followers, I've had other companies ask for actual site stats (I've been using StatCounter since February 15, 2010).


The easiest way to find and join my GFC is straight on my blog's website (not available with most RSS readers).  So log onto PolishGalore using the direct URL http://www.polishgalore.com.

Scroll down until you see this box on the right hand side of the page (please note you can click on my images to see them larger)

When you click the "Follow" button, you will have a pop up window appear.

Here you can start to follow Polish Galore through Google, Twitter, Yahoo!, AIM, Netlog, or OpenID.  All these are free services, so you can sign up for one if you don't have one of these accounts already.  I recommend either Google or Twitter only because I love Google (I used to work for one of their engineers), and Twitter because I absolutely am obsessed with Twitter.  :)  However, I also have Yahoo (it was my first email address back in 2001), and AIM (it was my first instant messaging program back in 1998), but I have not used Netlog or OpenID.  (My GFC is "PolishGalore")  Update: I've tried OpenID - it's not terrible but not my favorite.

I sure hope this helps everyone!  You must be listed as a Follower to win in my giveaway.  To find your GFC name, just refresh the page and your name will show under the Followers.  Here is a screen shot of Scrangie's website, which I follow using GFC.

500+ Readers Giveaway!

We're having a giveaway!  Thank you to all my readers, and in honor of hitting 500 readers at the end of this summer, I'm having a huge giveaway with 5 lucky winners!

China Glaze Grand Prize

• All 12 colors from the Fall 2010 Vintage Vixen collection
• Body Drench Quick Tan Tanning Mist sunless tanner
• bye bye blemish for acne anti-acne cleanser
• bye bye blemish for acne drying lotion
• SurgiCare face cream smoothing hair removal
• Gena Nail Brite Whitening Scrub with nail brush
• Seche Retain
• Seche Recondition
• Seche Plus
• Seche Vite
• China Glaze Fast Forward Top Coat
• Andrea Eye Q's Eye Makeup Remover Pads 
• Duo eyelash adhesive
• Ardell Runway Lashes "Claudia"
• Ardell Fashion Lashes Natural "110"
• Ardell Fashion Lashes Natural "109"
• Ardell Fashion Lashes Natural "Scanties"
• Ardell InvisiBand Lashes Glamour "Fairies"
• Ardell InvisiBand Lashes Glamour "105"
• Ardell InvisiBand Lashes Glamour "101"
• One new bottle of Seche Natural provided by me (because I love the stuff!)

China Glaze Hotsy Totsy

• Jitterbug – Grey chrome with silver micro glitter [review]
• Bogie – Plum frost with shimmer [review]
• Hey Doll – Rose frost with shimmer [review]
• Foxy – Burgundy frost with shimmer [review]
• Ingrid – “Greige” crème with copper micro glitter [review]
• Swing Baby – Taupe frost with silver micro glitter [review]

China Glaze Cat's Meow

• Goin’ My Way – Brown frost with copper shimmer [review]
• Riveter Rouge – Deep red shimmer [review]
• Classic Camel – Khaki crème with gold micro glitter [review]
• Emerald Fitzgerald – Turquoise green frost with shimmer [review]
• Midnight Mission – Navy blue frost with silver micro glitter [review]
• First Class Ticket – Deep purple frost with shimmer [review]

Mish Mash Nail Prize

• Incoco "24 Karats" dry nail applique and polish removal cloth
• Zoya Nidhi [review]
• Evil Shades Nightmare duochrome holo [review]
• Evil Shades Nightmare periwinkle blue holo [review]
• Nailene So Natural short length, square shaped 71000

True Blood and iTunes Gift Card

• True Blood - the complete second season (Region 1 discs)
• $10 iTunes Gift Card

1. You must be a follower of PolishGalore.  Be sure to leave your GFC (Google Friend Connect - What is it, how to join it post here) ID in the form for verification.  Both domestic and international readers are welcome, but please note that you will be responsible for any customs fees that your country may impose.
2. You may only win one prize, but you may enter your email address for which ever prizes you wish to win (for example, you may want to win the Grand Prize and the Mish Mash Nail Prize).  You are not required to put your name under each prize, but you definitely can do that!
3. OPTION BONUS ENTRY - Follow my Twitter and tweet the following phrase "Follow @keysgoround and http://www.polishgalore.com for a chance to win one of five awesome prizes!"  Only public Twitter accounts will have their entries validated.  Be sure to write your Twitter username in the appropriate section so I can mark that you have done so.  Your extra bonus entry will be added to the prize of your choosing, so if you do Tweet, also leave which prize you want your extra entry for.
4. Example
1. Twitter username: IEatFlies
2. Add my entry to prize: China Glaze Grand Prize

This giveaway runs for October 1-October 18 at midnight:01 GMT (or Sunday, October 17th at 7 p.m. CST).  GOOD LUCK!

***Many thanks to China Glaze and AII, Zoya, Incoco, Nailene, and HBO for their donation of prizes***

This giveaway is now closed.

Zoya Tiffany

Zoya Tiffany is another from the Winter 2010 Flame collection that comes out today on their website.  This one is listed as a soft champagne sparkling metallic.  I've always loved kind of the soft rose gold colors - since it's what my Mom wore all the time when I was a kid, but this is definitely a lighter version of that.  The formula was great, no messiness.  I used a base coat of Zoya Anchor, 2 coats of Tiffany and a top coat of Zoya Armor.  Cleanup was easy but as with Crystal, I needed to wash my hands afterwards to get all the microglitter off.

In the sun, you can see how this is a soft peachy color.  It almost blends in with my natural nails slightly.  I love the whole duochrome silkiness that these colors have.  It's something quite new for me to see, especially after seeing all the fall frosts out.

This is why I love this color.  Check out all that gold in with that peach!  It's such a good color for an evening out with the girls or maybe a first date?  Nothing too flashy, but very feminine.  Out of the 6 colors, I've featured my favorite 3, and today I'm determined to swatch the other 3 before I go pick up my Venomous Villains MAC nail polishes I had on hold for me - yay!


Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Zoya Valerie

Zoya Valerie is a deep purple from the Flame Winter 2010 collection.  At first, on the spoon I kept thinking it was just a dark purple, but oh no.  Check out this awesome bottle picture.

Reds?!  Gold?! What's going on here?


Sadly, this was horrible to photograph but I did the best I could.  I really didn't want to take this color off, and in fact, my friend snagged it from me as soon as I showed it to her, because she wanted to have her nails done with it.  I used a base of Zoya Anchor, 2 coats of Valerie and a top coat of Zoya Armor.  I also scratched my index finger with the door handle, so please excuse that.

In the sun you can really see the richness of the purple shine through.  The glass fleck like properties really make it shine, but it doesn't have any blue in it like China Glaze Stroll or some of the other recent blurples.

In the indirect sun, you can start to see the jewel toned purple really shine.  I'm seriously in love with this color (even more than Crystal I think!) and its richness.

Finally in the shade you can see that the color dries silky smooth - no grit or bumps.  Definitely an A++ in my book - great job Zoya!


Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Zoya Crystal

When I first heard from a Zoya Fairy that a Crystal would be gracing a nail polish bottle, I nearly jumped out of my skin.  While I knew it was Crystal, not Krystal, I didn't know what color it was going to be, or when it was coming out, but when I got my Flame plate, I nearly died (in a good way).


Crystal is a frosty blue sparkling metallic.  As I mentioned before, I feel like these are very close the summer 2010 Sparkle collection because when I removed the polish, I had tiny microglitter particles all over my fingers that I had to actually wash off with a nail brush in soap and water (which I prefer doing anyway after removing nail polish).  I feel like this color could actually be Edyta's younger sister.  While Edyta was a fern green with a bit of olive gold, Crystal is a light periwinkle blue with yellow gold.  Interesting enough, this is very close to the colors of my Alma Mater, so I'm super excited and had to really swatch this NOW.


I used a base of Zoya Anchor, 2 coats of Crystal and a top of Zoya Armor.  I found the formula to be very smooth, no grittiness with the microglitter/sparkling metallic.  Very lovely.

I mean really, look at that!  Obviously we have some sun action here.  It's finally sunny so I'm swatching as many and as fast as I can while still taking time to record the details.  I'm actually hoping to have all 6 up today - but that's a LOT of blogging.  ^_^

In the shade, you can see more of the gold coming through - it almost reminds me of salt and pepper but instead of black and white it's blue and gold.  Love it.

A rare side bottle shot taking in indirect sun.  The polish almost looks like a foil to me as well - it just lays so well unlike some frosts (which is what I first thought of when I saw this).  Removal was a cinch, just like I said before, a bit of microglitter remained on my nails.  Definitely a unique color - seriously debating on a back up.


Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

Zoya Flame

Zoya Nail Polish presents six new metallics for winter 2010.  They reminded me a lot of the summer 2010 Sparkle collection because it left the same kind of fine microglitter on my hands and when I think metallic, I think China Glaze Khrome.  Anywho.


From left to right on the plate
Tiffany: soft champagne sparkling metallic
Gloria - pink champagne sparkling metallic
Crystal - frosty blue sparkling metallic
Lisa - celebration red sparling metallic
Sarah - possibly the prettiest sparkling red metallic ever! <- straight off the release, exclamation mark included
Valerie - deep purple baby in a sparkling metallic


Flame are available today, October 1, 2010 on Zoya's website.


Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.

China Glaze Tis The Season

I absolutely love Christmas.  Also, I do not hope I'm offending my readers, but I do call it Christmas, as that is the actual name of the holiday.  I've always grown up with Christmas and Santa Claus, and I enjoyed it.  To those who do not celebrate Christmas because of another holiday or don't celebrate at all - doesn't matter to me as long as you're happy with it.  


Anyway, when I first heard that China Glaze was going to be putting out 16 new colors for the Winter 2010 collection, I kept thinking "Wow, that's a lot - how much can you elaborate on red and green?"  Well, plenty.  By far the longest name I've seen, this collection is called 'Tis The Season to be naughty and nice but I think it's going to be abbreviated as just 'Tis the Season. 

• Naughty and Nice: Deeply rich wine crème.
• Sugar Plums: Plum shimmer.
• Mommy Kissing Santa: Deep cherry red shimmer.
• Phat Santa: Red crème.
• Ruby Deer: Bright red crème.
• Mrs. Claus: Red glitter.
• Party Hearty: Green, gold and red chunky glitter.
• Mistletoe Kisses: Green glitter.
• Jolly Holly: Forest green shimmer.
• Peace on Earth: Olive green shimmer.
• Little Drummer Boy: Navy blue shimmer.
• Jingle Bells: Champagne shimmer.
• Midnight Kiss: Gold shimmer.
• Cheers to You: Silver shimmer.
• Frosty: White frosty shimmer.
• Snow: White crème. 

 Now, notice that the promo picture up there only has 12 bottles, but there is indeed 16.  That's because BAM:  Certain colors will also be available in the following gift sets:

Celebrate in Style Collection: Includes Little Drummer Boy, Peace on Earth, Mommy Kissing Santa, Jingle Bells and a holiday necklace. 

Merry Mint Set: Includes Naughty and Nice, Mrs. Claus and a complimentary China Glaze Peppermint Oil.

Rejoice Set: Includes Mistletoe Kisses, Mrs. Claus and a special red holiday candle. 

Cheers to You: Includes Midnight Kisses, Cheers to you and a China Glaze shot glass. 

Dreamin’ of a Green Christmas: Includes Mistletoe Kisses, Midnight Kiss and Jolly Holly.

Oh, Ruby Deer: Includes Sugar Plums, Ruby Deer and a stuffed animal. 

Peppermint Kisses with Holiday Wishes: Includes Mrs. Claus, Phat Santa, Snow and Frosty. 

I was also sent this image, even though it wasn't listed in the press release.

Party Hearty Set includes Phat Santa, Party Hardy and Jolly Holly... it appears that the "free gift" with this one is the Party Hearty top coat.  It's not an actual top coat, but rather a glitter to be layered instead of worn alone.

The release date has not been set, but I'd expect to see these in late October or early November.  I've seen Head2Toe have China Glaze gift sets before, so that might be a good place to stake out.  I personally am dying for a set of China Glaze shot glasses, just saying!

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website], Sally's Beauty Supply [official website] as well asTransDesign [official website].

Zoya Flame

I'll have more information available (and color swatches!) starting Friday, but for now, here's something to make you giddy... it's Zoya's 2010 Winter Collection called Flame.  Unlike their last few collections, this is only 6 colors collectively called "Flame" (unlike the Flash and Sparkle or Wicked/Wonderful).


Note:  This collection was originally called Fire & Ice but in September the name was changed to "Flame".


Here's the entire plate - Valerie is very hard to photograph because it's pretty dark.

From left to right: Tiffany, Gloria, Crystal (!), Lisa, Sarah, Valerie.

Tiffany, Gloria, Crystal

Lisa, Sarah, Valerie.


Now, Zoya didn't contact me directly about the color Crystal, but holy cow, it's perfectly me because of the blue with gold sparkle... Blue and Gold are my Alma Mater college colors, so I'm excited to rock this for Homecoming which as a faithful alumna, I go to.  Woot!  (Too bad it wasn't Krystal though, I would have been over the moon then.)  Like I said, more on Friday!

Zoya [official website] can be purchased on their website for $7/bottle.

Disclosure: The product[s] in this post was [were] provided to me by the company for consideration.  For more information, please read this post.