Manicure Monday: A Giveaway. CLOSED

Giveway time!! It's a small prize, but I think it's pretty great nonetheless. Unlike usual, though, this one requires a bit more on your part!

The Game

Think of a polish you own whose name doesn't quite fit. Take a picture of yourself wearing the polish and post it in the comments with the name it has, and the name you think it should have. You may also use a photo from online, but if you do so, please be sure to include a link to the original post. Post as many entries as you have ideas! Entries posted after 11:59 pm PST on Monday, Feb. 3 (one week from today) will not be considered.

I would love to take credit for this idea, but it was all Z. She also proposed an example entry that was way better than anything I could come up with (good thing I'm not competing for the prize, eh?), to give you an idea what I'm looking for:

frrom The PolishAholic

Name: Belugaria

Better name: PMS

The Prize

One (1) bottle of Maybelline Lavishly Lilac, one (1) bottle of L'Oreal Sexy in Sequins, and one (1) bottle of Illamasqua Baptiste, as well as some other surprise bits and bobs.

Top to bottom: 2 coats Baptiste, 1 coat
Sexy in Sequins without top coat (not
fully dry, either), and 3 coats Lavishly Lilac

The fine print: Open to US residents only (sorry, my beautiful international readers; shipping is too expensive to your locales!), must be 18 years or older. Use an email address you check regularly so I can contact you if you win!

I look forward to seeing your ideas! Good luck :-)

2 Year Blogaversary

It's been another year! Which means it's been 2 years since I started BJB, which is...really freaking weird to think about. I feel like this blog has grown and changed with me; this past year has seen a move away from just reviews to things completely unrelated to beauty (depression, sexual assault, crap why is grad school so much work). Other things have started taking up more of my time, but y'all keep reading my sporadic posts, and for that, I thank you. This blog is a place for me to talk about pretty things, and ugly things, and things that interest me, which has certainly shifted over time, so I'm very grateful that you've decided to accompany for the ride, bumpy as it is!

It wouldn't be a BJB blogaversary without a giveaway, now would it? Since I am currently overwhelmed with work, I'm going to make this an electronic gift so I don't have to worry about getting to the post office (but hang tight for the end of the term, when I'll have a giveaway with physical goods!). Namely, a $20 gift certificate to Sonoma Scent Studio, maker of some of my absolute favorite perfumes (Forest Walk, Winter Woods, and Jour Ensoillelé are particularly beloved, but I really like pretty much everything I've tried!). This is open to US and Canada residents, must be of legal age, etc., and will run until May 26 (1 week). Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Today is also the 1 year anniversary of my first date with the boy, so I made him anniversary chocolate-dipped chocolate chip cookies. It's been ages since I've baked anything, and making these reminded me how much I enjoy it! Now I just need more time...

sea of cookies!

The recipe, should you like to recreate the magic for yourself, is:

A Not-Quite Related Giveaway!

I was recently (okay, not that recently, but I am perpetually behind the times) contacted by Zinio, an online newsstand with pretty much every magazine imaginable. They asked me if I would be interested in hosting a giveaway for 10 free subscriptions to any of their magazines, to which I said no duh, of course I would. (Okay, I didn't actually say that, because I can be professional! Sometimes.) Full disclosure: I get to keep one of the subscriptions. But that means there's 9 left for y'all! They recommended "women's" magazines, by which I mean Cosmo, Glamour, Lucky, Allure, etc., given the topic of this blog, but I prefer getting my beauty news and reviews from blogs (less airbrushing and advertising b.s.!), so I was thrilled to discover they have National Geographic, Smithsonian, and – be still my heart! – Consumer Reports, among many, many others.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who obsessively read Consumer Reports as a kid?

So here's the deal. Fill out the widget below before April 15 (tax day, ugh) for your chance to win 1 of 9 free digital magazine subscriptions. You can choose from any of the many (have I mentioned there's a ton of choices? THERE'S SO MANY CHOICES! 5500, they say, which is just insane) magazines they offer, and should you win, I'll send off your email and magazine to Zinio and then they'll send you your subscription information! These magazines can be read on tablets (I plan to read mine on my iPad), computers, or smartphones, online or offline, and they store any issues you've already read so that you can go back and revisit them. Now go! Check out their selection! And good luck :)
Fine print: Must be legal in country of residence (18+ in most of the US). Only one winner per email account, but you can complete all options for more entries and a correspondingly higher chance of winning. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

They also have other awesome monthly promotions; for example, through April 16, they have 50% off 50 titles in honor of Earth Day, and their promotions change pretty frequently so it's worth checking their website every so often to see what's new and exciting!

Have you ever heard of Zinio? What are your favorite magazines?

Vacation!

I'm on vacation (Portland, then Newport Beach!) until the 28th, but you'll probably still be hearing from me. Regardless, as has become somewhat of a tradition around these parts, I offer you a giveaway!

Included are:
––A MUA eyeshadow palette in Undressed––MUA is a drugstore brand in the UK, and I ordered two of these when they had a sale with free shipping. I haven't gotten around to doing a review of the whole shebang, but I find it to be a nice neutral palette, not the most amazing thing ever, but definitely something I enjoy wearing. Here's (blurry) swatches of all the shades:

Yes, it's an UD Naked dupe, clearly.

––A mini French Baguette candle from Bath and Body Works, aka the candle that launched a thousand obsessions. It smells like buttery croissants when burning (and like sweet popcorn cold, which my mother deemed "disgusting", but don't let that put you off!), and it is delicious.

––A brand new L'Oreal Colour Caresse lip gloss in 190 Endless Red. I know some of you haven't been able to find these in your area yet (though probably by the time I get the package off to the winner, they'll be everywhere, ha!), and this is just such an awesome product that I paid full price so I could give it to you. Yes, that's how much I like it. It's an easy, flattering, long-wearing, gorgeous red that I think everyone can make work––if you're not a bright lips kind of girl, you can always wear it as a stain! You can check out my full review here.

Rules: Open until midnight Pacific on Dec. 28 (aka 3 am Eastern on Dec. 28), to US residents only (I can't afford international shipping, I'm sorry!). I'll inform the winner sometime that day, who will have 24 hours to respond before another winner will be selected.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck, and I hope you have safe travels if you're going anywhere!

Birthday Giveaway!

Hello lovelies! In honor of my 23rd birthday, here is a little (seriously, emphasis on the "little") giveaway for y'all. The gifts are nail polish jewelry, made by yours truly! The pendant is a 1 inch circle with Zoya Reece topped with the Essence Black Crackle and INM Northern Lights, and the earrings are 10 mm circle studs with Reece and Northern Lights.

ETA: Everything shown above is exactly as it will be arriving to you :-) I decided to add Northern Lights on top of Reece on the earrings to jazz them up some, so hopefully everyone who's entered already is okay with that...The giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry, my beloved Canadians!) and will be open for a week. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Giveaways!

Well, dearest readers, I am currently en route to New York for an awesome visit (with some of you reading this, in fact!). I've got some posts scheduled, and I'll have lots of posts (both beauty-related and personal) once I get back, but while I'm gone I'll probably be pretty absent. In recompense, though, I offer you: 2 giveaways!

Many bloggers hold their first giveaway when they hit 100 followers. I, however, have no such patience (not least because GFC has been giving so many bloggers so much angst since being pulled from non-Blogger blogs, and I suspect that it will soon disappear from Blogger, too)! And, because I want to spread the love around as much as possible, I'm going to do two smaller giveaways. I really want this to be a present to my actual readers, not a way to get more followers, so I'm not asking you to tweet or blog about it, and as long as this isn't the first BJB post you've read, you're welcome to enter!