Winners have been selected from the April Giveaway!

Hello, Beautiful!

The April giveaway ended on Sunday night but I didn't get a chance to choose winners until this morning. All winners have been contacted by email and I will post their names (first name, last initial) on my website (under The Winners Circle page) once they confirm their prize and it ships out.

Congratulations to all the winners!!!

More giveaways are coming, so stay tuned :)



Here are some upcoming posts:

My personal in-home nail salon -- I've been moving all my nail polish, nail art supplies, and other nail supplies downstairs to our dining room. I've set up my own personal in-home nail salon (although it's not complete just yet). As soon as I finish getting everything organized (and all polish on the shelves) I will take photos and post them on this blog. In addition to showing my in-home nail salon set up (which, by the way, isn't a real nail salon) the post will also show my organization methods for all things nail related.

Amusement Park Beauty -- Let the 2011 summer testing begin! Every summer I put several makeup brands and products to the ultimate test. Amusement park days are long... makeup goes on around 7am, then has to last through a full day outside in the heat, sweat, water rides and roller coasters... I don't get home until late, sometimes not until 1am! Makeup has to really perform to be wearable in those conditions, and sadly, many products fail. There are a few gems in all the fails, and I hope to find more gems this summer when I test out a new batch of products.

Movie Nail Art -- I've started a few different nail art series based on some of my son's favorite movies, as well as some of my favorite movies. Fun nail art is coming soon!

Illamasqua foundation swatches -- Swatches of their Rich Liquid Foundation and their Powder Foundation, two different shades for each product plus before and after pics. 

The 7*10 Project -- A workout program I designed for myself. I'm going to keep track of my progress on the blog. I'll also post the program details if anyone wishes to follow along with me! Even though I've already started, I just don't have time right now to post details of everything.

Going on a stay-cation... don't forget to enter my April giveaway!

Hello, Beautiful!

It's been just over a week since I packed and shipped my last order for the old ValentineKisses.com. It's been a great week, but I think it's time for a stay-cation.

I won't be away long; I just want enough time to clean my house... to really clean it and get everything organized. I've been so busy running my own businesses for the past 6 years that any free time I did have went to my son or husband, or to sleep (even though I never got much of that). I was pretty good at keeping up with the house and laundry, but all that went downhill about two or three years ago. I hate to admit this, but I haven't cleaned my house on a constant basis for at least two years. I only clean when we need to; such as when family comes to visit or if my son has a party here (like his Halloween party). I barely had time for laundry, and when I did do laundry the clothes never made it out of the laundry room. I'd be lucky to get them out of the dryer! I have a wonderful, large walk-in closet that I don't even use. A closet we built with our own hands and it's going to waste. How pathetic is that? It's just been really frustrating trying to keep up with everything and I'm so excited to finally have the time. After all, that's why I closed the business in the first place.

I took a week to do fun things - like celebrate my son's birthday, do some swatches for the blog, and watch some movies - but now it's time to get down to business and clean!

Hopefully it will just be a few days and then I'll be back to daily posts, but I'm going to stay away long enough to at least get the entire downstairs cleaned, and my son's bedroom and playroom. I should take before and after pics because you would never believe how messy our house is. I'm not embarrassed by that kind of thing, because I honestly think cleaning all the time is a wasted life, but I do like my house to be at least livable. Half the rooms in our house aren't used because of the mess. I want my pole dancing room back! :)

So anyhow, that's where I'll be in case anyone wonders why I'm not posting. I do have a bunch of swatch photos that I already took, I just need to process them, so there is a lot of great posts coming up!

Reminder: Enter my April Giveaway!

Enter through May 8, 2011!

CLICK HERE for all the details! :)

A sampling of the new website...

Hello, Beautiful!

Even though the new ValentineKisses.com is not quite ready, I do have a few preview pages I'd like to share with you.

Click on a link below to check out an example of what you can expect on the new ValentineKisses.com.


April's Birchbox shipment

Tarte Swatches main page

Tarte Reviews main page

Tarte Tutorials main page

Contests & Giveaways main page

Nail Art main page


That's all for now :)

I hope you enjoyed your preview and will look forward to when the full site launches!


On a side note...
Today (Tuesday) I am officially finished packing and shipping orders! It doesn't feel real yet that it's all really over; I feel like I'll have more orders to pack up tomorrow. But I'm really relieved I can begin to get my life back.

Over the weekend I finally had time to rearrange, clean and organize my living room... something that hasn't been done in nearly 2 months! It was a train wreck before Sunday. The rest of my house, however, is still a wild crazy mess.

The good thing is I will have a bunch of organization towers to use since I no longer will need them for my inventory. I mostly used (although not only used) those tall Steri-lite 7-drawer units to store all inventory for ValentineKisses.com. I have between 15 and 20 of them I can now re-purpose for organizing my son's toys, adding additional storage for makeup, jewelry, hair accessories, and just about anything else I can stuff in them!

I'm also excited to get back into pole dancing for fitness, something I used to do on a regular basis before I injured my leg (from pole dancing) over 3 years ago. I'm putting the pole back up and will slowly get back into it. I'm not rushing any crazy moves; not just because I need to build my strength and flexibility back up but also because I don't want to risk bumping my nose! I'll need to wait until at least September or October before I can attempt most moves.

Do any of my readers pole dance for fitness, or have thought about it? I was seriously OBSESSED with it. I even put off getting pregnant again so I could continue to pole dance... although looking back I wish I hadn't. If I had only known I would face fertility issues later down the road I would have gotten pregnant again years ago! Now having a baby is what I want more than anything, and I know in time it will happen. My goal is to be pregnant within a year.

Anyhow, it's late (12:19am here), and I'm super tired. Until next time...



April Giveaway! WIN one of TEN prizes!

Hello, Beautiful!

With my surgery last month, I wasn't able to pull together a March giveaway like I had hoped. Better late than never, so here is my April Giveaway, which will be up for a month from today's date.

April is "the birthday month" in my house. My son's birthday (he'll be 6 on the 26th), my husband's birthday (he'll be 31 on the 30th), and my birthday (I'll be 27 on the 12th) all fall in April (my mom's birthday is also in April on the 20th). April is usually a month of fun and celebrating for us; it's one of my favorite times of the year!

To celebrate even more I've made this giveaway as awesome as possible! Continue reading to enter and to see all TEN PRIZES, yes ten prizes! Woo Hoo!

 

RULES:

• Enter April 7, 2011 through May 8, 2011
• Giveaway open to United States residents only (sorry international ladies).
• Winners will be selected and contacted within a week of the contest end date.
• Enter only once for your chance to win one of the ten prizes you see below! There will be a different winner for each of the ten prizes (so that means you cannot win two of the prizes below; I wanted to give more people the chance to win).
• For my April Giveaway there are no bonus entries available. I wanted to keep it simpler this time around with a one-entry method. To enter, scroll down past the prize pictures/descriptions.

 

TO ENTER:

1. Become a follower of my blog if you aren't already. It's easy to become a follower, just go to the left side of the blog and click 'follow'.
2. Once you've become a follower, CLICK HERE to go to the online giveaway entry page (the giveaway entry page is on ValentinKisses.com). Fill out and submit your giveaway entry form.
3. And you're done!

 

 *** The pics of the prize packs are not the best, which I apologize for. I just don't have the time right now to go back and re-take photos of the prize. Please refer to the list below the prize photo so you know everything you'll receive in your prize pack. ***

PRIZE PACK #1

Your prize pack will include:

• Make Up For Ever faux eyelashes #152
• DDF Ultra-Lite Oil-Free Moisturizing Dew - 1 fl oz size (this is not full sized but is more than half the full size)
• Prestige My Blackest Lashes Intense Black Volume Mascara, which includes Blackest Black eyeliner.
• 3 - Color Club nail polishes (they don't have names, but one is clear, one is a glittery purple and on is a purple creme)
• Funky Fingers nail polish in Sand And Stilettos
• Nutra Nail Maximum Hardener polish
• 2 - Rimmel Play Fast nail polishes (one is Cat Fight, the other is Killer Queen)
• Milani nail lacquer in Hot Orchid
• e.l.f. Cosmetics Candy Shop Lip Gloss in Berry Pop
• Jordana Lip Pencil (the shade says "silver streak" but it's more of a lavender; you can use this one your eyes too)
• Milani Easy Liner for Eyes in the shade Charcoal
• Prestige Lip Concentrate Longwearing color in Tahiti
• pink flower ring (from the Finger Paints spring nail color collection; I kept the polish but flower rings aren't my style, so I'm throwing it into the prize pack).
   

PRIZE PACK #2:

Your prize pack will include:

• Philosophy Hope Oil-Free SPF 30 Daily Moisturizer - this is a deluxe size (0.4 oz)
• Milani nail lacquer in Diamond Dazzle
• Nutra Nail Magic Growth Biotin Formula
• Rimmel Play Fast nail polish in Chill
• Color Club nail polish - this doesn't have a name; may be Snakeskin
• Delux Beauty Cream Powder Eyeshadow in Antique Blue
• e.l.f. Cosmetics Toe Separators
• Goody blue flower ponytail holder
• Ardell Fairy Wings faux eye lashes
• 12 nail tips - lace pattern
• Wet n Wild Fantasy Makers faux eyelashes in Countess 11217
• Karisma Ring
• blue flower ring (from the Finger Paints spring nail color collection; I kept the polish but flower rings aren't my style, so I'm throwing it into the prize pack).

 

PRIZE PACK #3:

Your prize pack will include:

• Ardell Dark Angel faux eyelashes
• Nutra Nail Advanced Formula Super Tuff nails
• Sally Hansen Maximum Growth Plus Nourishing Nail Color in Blush Charm
• China Glaze nail lacquer in Naked
• Essie nail lacquer in Very Cranberry
• Ulta nail lacquer in Pinata-Yada-Yada (a dupe for Deborah Lippman's Happy Birthday)
• e.l.f. Cosmetics nail polish in Bubble Gum Pink
• Wet n Wild Megalast nail color in Undercover
• Milani nail lacquer in Pyramid Passion
• Benefit High Beam - this is a mini size
• Prestige Lip Concentrate Longwearing color in Indochine
• Victoria's Secret Ultra Moisturizing Hand and Body Cream in Strawberry, Champagne and Cassis
• pink flower ring (from the Finger Paints spring nail color collection; I kept the polish but flower rings aren't my style, so I'm throwing it into the prize pack). 

PRIZE PACK #4:

Your prize pack will include:

• Benefit BadGAL Brown Mascara (FULL SIZED)
• L.A. Colors Art Deco nail polish in Gold Glitter
• Wet n Wild Crystalic nail polish in Jade Frost
• Color Club nail lacquer - no name; this is a green glitter (could be Untamed Luxury)
• e.l.f. Cosmetics nail polish in Golden Goddess
• Milani nail lacquer in Good Morning Sunshine
• Nutra Nail 5 to 7 Day Growth Protein Formula
• Nutra Nail Magic Growth Biotin Formula
• Sinful Colors nail lacquer in Innocent
• Prestige Vinyl Wear High Shine Lipgloss in Cha-Cha
• Jordana lipstick pencil in Summer Tan and one in Platinum Tint (these can be used on your eyes)
• L'Oreal Wear Infinite Eye Shadow Duo in Forest
• Xhilaration floral print satin headband
• Xhilaration floral paisley print ponytail holder
• Karisma ring
• Revlon nail set - includes Double Twist Instant Base & Top Coat, nail whitening pencil, nail clippers, and two emery boards.
• yellow flower ring (from the Finger Paints spring nail color collection; I kept the polish but flower rings aren't my style, so I'm throwing it into the prize pack).

 

PRIZE PACK #5, #6, #7, #8, #9 and #10:

Mystery box of items from ValentineKisses.com!

Your prize pack will include:

• There are six total mystery boxes up for grabs in the April Giveaway. Each mystery box is packed with random items from my website. You won't know ahead of time what's in the box, which is why there is no photo for this prize pack, but that's part of the fun! Each box includes a random assortment of brands and products - which includes cosmetics, hair accessories and jewelry.  

 

 

February Giveaway!! WIN 46 ITEMS! Includes Philosophy, Color Club, American Apparel, Korres, e.l.f., Essie, China Glaze & MORE!

Hello, Beautiful!

February is one of my favorite months; I hate the weather, but it's full of love. Of course there is Valentine's Day, but it's also my wedding anniversary (7 years on the 7th!) and it's also my grandmom's birthday (and I love her very much).

To celebrate, I've put together a big beauty giveaway! You have until February 25 to enter! Keep reading for details on how to enter this contest!

Here's what you can win...

List of items (46 items!!!):

• Sephora Pink Grapefruit Travel Set (includes pink grapefruit 2.5 fl oz body wash, 2.5 fl oz body scrub, and 1.7 oz body butter).
• Victoria's Secret Love Spell Ultra-Moisturizing Hand And Body Cream (6.7 fl oz)
• Philosophy 4 fl oz Oatmeal Raisin 3-in-1 Shampoo/Shower Gel/Bubble Bath
• Philosophy 2 fl oz Amazing Grace Perfumed Firming Body Emulsion
• Philosophy 0.5 oz Peppermint Bark Lip Shine
• Korres 0.68 fl oz White Tea Facial Cleanser
• Skincare Face Scrub Brush (great for applying your cleansers - it will get your face so much cleaner vs. using just your hands)
• American Apparel Nail Lacquer in Malibu Green
• China Glaze Nail  Lacquer in Tree Hugger
• Essie Nail Lacquer in True Love
• e.l.f. Cosmetics nail polish in Mint Cream
• e.l.f. Cosmetics nail polish in Desert Haze
• e.l.f. Cosmetics nail polish in Party Purple
• 10 different Color Club nail polishes! These are not labeled, but they do have names. I can provide you with them if you'd like.
• 3 different Goldie nail polishes! These are also not labeled and I have not been able to track down any names for these.
• Rimmel Super Wear nail polish
• Rimmel Faster 60 Second top coat
• 3 Rimmel Lycra Wear polish in Posh Trash, Tequila Sunrise and in Oyster Pink
• Rimmel 60 Seconds Vinyl Shine in Ethereal
• Wet n Wild Megalast Nail Color in Candy-licious
• Love My Nails nail polish in Hot Tamale
• Pro 10 nail lacquer in Daydream
• Yellow-Out Clear Acrylic Top Coat
• Nutra Nail Magic Growth
• Nutra Nail 5 to 7 Day Growth Protein Formula
• Milani Nail Strengthener
• Milani nail lacquer in Lilly Valley
• 2 zipper flower rings (from Hard Candy polish bottles). One is purple, one is red.
• 2 Sure Foot anti-slip soles. I love these - I have them in bulk and put them on the bottom of all my slippy heels. They make it safe to wear heels - especially in winter weather. You'll get two pairs of these.

HOW TO ENTER:

Enter between February 1 and February 25, 2011
*Open to United States residents 18 and older*

1. You must become a follower of my blog if you aren't already. It's easy to become a follower: Go to the left side of the blog and follow with Google Friend Connect.

2. Once you've become a follower, CLICK HERE to go to the online giveaway/contest entry page (the page is on ValentinKisses.com). Fill out and submit your contest entry form. You may only enter once through this method, so be sure to check out the bonus entries listed below so you have even more chances to win!

BONUS ENTRIES:

I pretty much never have time to keep up with Facebook or Twitter, so becoming a Facebook friend or Twitter follower will not gain you any bonus entries. You're still welcome to become our Facebook friend or follow us on Twitter, but just know that I almost never make updates. I wish I had more time to, but there just aren't enough hours in the day!


[5 Bonus Entries] Make a blog post about this contest on your blog.

• Just mention "ValentineKisses.com is holiding a contest on their beauty blog", etc. and be sure to link your readers to the contest.
• Once you make your blog post, leave a comment below including a link to your blog post and your email address [email (at) email (dot) com] so we can get in touch in case you're the winner!
• You may post about our contest on your blog as much as you want, but we'll only count a maximum of 3 blog posts towards the contest (a maximum of 15 bonus entries for blog posts). Each blog entry must be posted on a different day in order to be valid.

[5 Bonus Entries] Make a YouTube video about our contest.

• Just mention "ValentineKisses.com is holiding a contest on their beauty blog", etc. and be sure to link your viewers to the contest.
• Once you post your YouTube video, leave a comment below including a link to your YouTube video and your email address [email (at) email (dot) com] so we can get in touch in case you're the winner!
• You may upload as many YouTube videos about our contest as you want, but we'll only count a maximum of 2 YouTube videos towards the contest (a maximum of 10 bonus entries for YouTube videos). Each YouTube video must be uploaded on a different day in order to be valid.

[2 Bonus Entries] Tell your friends about us on your Facebook!

• Just mention "ValentineKisses.com is holiding a contest on their beauty blog", etc. and be sure to link your friends to the contest.
• Once you make your Facebook post, leave a comment below including a link to your Facebook and your email address [email (at) email (dot) com] so we can get in touch in case you're the winner!
• You may post on Facebook about our contest as much as you want, but we'll only count a maximum of 5 Facebook posts towards the contest (a maximum of 10 bonus entries for Facebook posts). Each Facebook post must be posted on a different day in order to be valid.

[2 Bonus Entries] Tweet about us on your Twitter page! 

• Just mention "ValentineKisses.com is holiding a contest on their beauty blog", etc. and be sure to link your friends to the contest.
• Once you make your tweet, leave a comment below including a link to your Twitter page and your email address [email (at) email (dot) com] so we can get in touch in case you're the winner!
• You may Tweet about our contest as much as you want, but we'll only count a maximum of 5 Tweets towards the contest (a maximum of 10 bonus entries for tweeting). Each Tweet must be made on a different day in order to be valid.

PLEASE NOTE: I will be selecting the winner within 48 hours of the contest end date (ends February 25). If you reply back by February 28 I will be able to ship out your prize before my surgery (my surgery is scheduled for March 2). If you do not reply by February 28 I will not be able to ship out your prize for at least 1 to 2 weeks after my surgery.

GiveawayScout.com

Hello, Beautiful!

If you love to enter contests then you'll love GiveawayScout.com! We just signed up so nobody ever misses another one of our great give-aways (and there are many more to come).

Check it out HERE and sign up (for free) so you won't ever miss another blog contest again!

Don't forget to enter our contest...

Today is day seven of our Twelve Days of Beauty contest! Read the post below this one or just click here to go to the post to enter today's contest.