Category Archives: Blog News

Worldwide Giveaway: Win the Bundle Monster Nail Stamping Plate Set of Your Choice

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Edit (April 13): Congratulations, Katie! You’ve WON my giveaway! Please reply to my e-mail within 48 hours to claim your prize.

Thanks to everyone for participating!

I have many more giveaways planned really soon, so keep your eyes peeled like a banana for those! 😉

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While many bloggers are trying to fool you today and your friends are thinking of playing practical pranks on you because it’s April Fool’s Day, I decided to do something different.

Here’s a fun surprise! I teamed up with the awesome ‘manicure monsters’ at Bundle Monster to organize a giveaway for my loyal readers! It’s a way for me to thank you for sticking with me during my blogging journey – THANK YOU! 🙂

Whoever wins my Bundle Monster Nail Stamping Plate Set Giveaway will get to choose any one collection they desire from Bundle Monster’s website!

This is NOT an April Fool’s Joke!

This is for real!

Bundle Monster SwatchAndLearn Giveaway

This giveaway begins now, and it’s open to everyone (yes, you heard me – EVERYONE)! 🙂

Make sure that you carefully read the rest of this blog post because it contains the important details of how to ensure your entry is valid.

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Blog News: Little Update

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Hi everyone!

I hope you’re all doing well. You may have noticed that as of Tuesday March 18, there have been no new blog posts. Don’t worry – there are some posts in the works later on. I have lots of photos that just need to be cropped and then I need to write the posts.

After finishing my full-time job each day, I’ve been coming home and unpacking more boxes from my move for several hours, which is making me feel more exhausted than usual.

Things are coming along nicely, though. I still have more things to organize, but the main things are done, and with fingers, toes, and eyes crossed, I’ll hopefully be able to return to blogging very soon!

Readers like you are very important to me, and if I can’t give a blog post my 100% or even 90%, I just don’t feel right.

Thanks for understanding and for being patient and supportive as I continue to go through the transition of getting my new home organized.

To be fair to you and myself, I think Monday March 24 is a more reasonable day when I’ll begin blogging again Monday to Friday regularly.

This little blog note is just to let all my loyal readers know that you have always been on my mind!

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Giveaway: Win the Entire OPI Brazil Collection! (Canadians Only)

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Edit – March 2, 2014: CONGRATS, ERIN (aka Tin)! You’ve won my giveaway! To claim your prize, please reply to my e-mail within 48 hours of the time posted on the e-mail. Thanks to everyone for participating! Stay tuned – I have more giveaways coming up soon! 😉

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It should come as no surprise that I’m extremely impressed with the wide variety of colours and the amazing formulas in the OPI Brazil Collection!

Check out the official press release I posted for more details about it. Plus I also did a Quick Look post showing you all the bottle shots and swatches. For in-depth reviews on the separate shades (I did a lot!), click on links at the bottom of this blog post!

I wanted to share this amazing collection with a fellow Canadian, so I reached out to PR and asked if we could team up. (They were more than happy to do so, and I extend my gratitude on behalf of all my Canadian readers for making this possible!)

OPI Brazil Collection Giveaway SwatchAndLearn

Read the rest of this post carefully to learn how to enter to Win the Entire 12-Bottle OPI Brazil Collection!

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Please Vote for Me by Tweeting and/or Retweeting with the Hashtag #Mary4Nicole

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I was invited to participate in another exclusive nail competition! The challenge? To come up with a manicure using colours from the Nicole by OPI Carrie Underwood Collection that complement a Carrie Underwood song! (Stamping and using stickers or jewels weren’t allowed.)

I would really appreciate your vote!

How to Vote on Twitter until Tuesday February 25:

  • Tweet about my manicure and/or retweet a photo of my manicure.
  • Use the hashtag #Mary4Nicole for it to count as a vote. 

To make it easy, you can simply just click the retweet button below and sign into your Twitter account to vote!


You can also include the hashtag #NicoleChallenge, but only #Mary4Nicole will count as a vote for me.

You can tweet once per day & retweet once per day. That’s 2 votes per person per day.

Here’s the quick manicure I came up with:

Swatch And Learn

To find out the exact colours I used to create this freehand design and to read my explanation for how this ties into Carrie Underwood’s song, See You Again, keep reading the rest of this blog post!

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Blog News: My Leopard Nail Art Tutorial on PromCanada.com

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SwatchAndLearn February Nail ArtI have something exciting to share with you! For a little while, I’ve kept this quiet, but now it’s time to let the cat out of the bag. (Poor cat! Why were you ever put in a bag to begin with?) 😉

You may remember that recently, I told you about my print magazine feature for Prom Canada. Well, I got another amazing opportunity to collaborate with them!

I’m 1 of only 2 hand-picked Canadian bloggers to be chosen for the amazing opportunity to be featured on Prom Canada’s website! (Check out the post to see both of our nail creations throughout the year.)

For alternating months, I’ll be sharing a nail-art tutorial using Nicole by OPI nail polishes.

My first Prom Canada nail-art tutorial went up a couple of days ago, and it shows you step-by-step how to create funky Leopard Nail Art!

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Blog News: My Nail Art Featured in Prom Canada’s Print Magazine (Spring/Summer 2014 Issue)

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Prom Canada Magazine Spring Summer 2014 SwatchAndLearn2014 is getting off to a great start, and I have some exciting news to share!

Remember a few months ago, I was invited to participate in a prom nail-art competition?

In August 2013, Langton Communications reached out to me. (They’re an incredible PR firm with talented and hard-working women who I respect and admire. I’m fortunate to have been able to collaborate with them for a few years!)

They asked me and a few other lovely Canadian bloggers if we’d be interested in creating a prom-inspired manicure for Prom Canada using 3 Nicole by OPI shades. (We got to choose from a list containing a few colours.)

For my design, I chose to use Nicole by OPI Candy Is Dandy, Please Red-Cycle, and Dream Maker.

Then, I played around by stamping some hearts on my index and baby fingers and freehanded a prom-couple’s outfit – dress with a necklace and a tuxedo plus bow tie. I showed you the finished manicure (complete with the step-by-step tutorial) in this post.

The contest was held on Prom Canada’s Facebook page in September, and for each “Like” a contestant’s nail-art photo got, it was counted as a vote. (A huge thank you to everyone who voted or even looked at my manicure!)

In addition to challenging myself to think outside the box for this creative opportunity, I was absolutely ecstatic to learn that, even though I was a runner-up, Prom Canada wanted to publish my manicure in the premier issue (Spring/Summer 2014) of their print magazine! (They also shared my manicure on PromCanada.com, which I showed you in this post.)

I haven’t seen the Prom Canada Spring/Summer issue on the newsstand near me yet, but it should be available soon and will be out until July 2014, according to the cover. I need to go buy 2 issues! Of course I want a copy, but I also want to give my mom one.

PR was kind enough to provide me with scanned photos of the magazine feature, so I can share the article with you!

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Happy New Year from Swatch And Learn!

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Hey everyone!

Wherever you are, I hope that you’re having a blast!

I want to take this opportunity to thank every single one of you who have visited my blog, left a comment, interacted with me on social media, and supported me in 2013.

Your encouragement and love never cease to amaze me, and I’ll never take it for granted.

Because of readers like you, I have the motivation to continue blogging, and it brings me a lot of happiness that means the world to me! It’s a joy to share opinions with fellow nailphiles and to gush over new colours and finishes!

You. Are. The. Best. (Don’t forget it! I won’t!)

Happy New Year 2014

Also, if you’re of age and are drinking, please do so responsibly. I want you to have a good time and to start the new year on the right foot! 🙂

In case any of you are wondering, the manicure above was something I painted back in the summer, I think. It never saw the light of day on this blog, though. But, since I’m wishing you a bright 2014, it was appropriate. 😉

Let’s see what 2014 has in store for nailphiles!

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