Category Archives: Blog News

CLOSED: Surprise Giveaway: Win This OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sand 4-Bottle Mini Set

OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sand Giveaway Surprise! 😉

The second I found out that the OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sand 4-Bottle Mini Set existed, I knew that it would make the perfect giveaway prize!

So I had to buy it to treat one lucky reader! It’s a small token from me to say thank you for your support.

Not only will you get adorable mini bottles, which are highly collectible, but this set includes all of the Liquid Sand colours released so far!

This will be a great way for you to see which one you like the best before you commit to a full-size bottle.

Since reviewing 2 of the Liquid Sands, OPI Get Your Number (my favourite) and OPI Stay the Night, I’ve noticed that a lot of you are intrigued with the unique Liquid Sand finish…and for good reason! I think it’s one of the most original concepts that we’ve seen in the nail industry in quite some time!

Please carefully read the full rules in this post before entering.

Edit: After this post was published, I’ve also reviewed & photographed OPI Can’t Let Go (purple Liquid Sand), OPI The Impossible (red Liquid Sand), and OPI What Wizardry Is This? (taupe Liquid Sand coming out in March).

Another Edit: The lucky winner is Melissa! Congratulations! Since there are multiple Melissas, just to be clear, the winner is the one who left a comment on January 16 at 6:18 am. I’ve sent her an e-mail. She has 48 hours to claim her prize! Thanks to everyone for participating. I’ll be having another giveaway soon. Stay tuned!

Yet Another Edit: Melissa was so fast! She already replied to my e-mail! So now this giveaway is officially closed.

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Happy New Year!

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Dear Swatch And Learn Readers,

I wish you good health, happiness, and humour! May you challenge yourself more, develop new skills, and befriend colourful characters in 2013! 🙂

Love,
Mary

The Best of 2012

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The Best of 2012 Another year is coming to a close! Are you ready to see what 2013 brings?

What you probably didn’t know is that in 2012, I faced a lot of stressful issues in my personal life that caused me great emotional pain.

Blogging and interacting with you helped me push through it instead of giving up.

If you’ve been following Swatch And Learn for even a little while, I hope it’s evident that blogging and interacting with readers bring me a lot of happiness. Yes, it is hard work and very challenging to keep up, but I’m not the type of person who’s afraid of pulling up my sleeves to get things done.

Thank you for listening to what I think and for valuing my opinion, post after post and tweet after tweet. That is a big compliment!

Most of all, thank you, dear readers, for being encouraging and kind as well as for cracking the much-needed joke.

You remind me that genuinely good people are still out there. I needed that reminder, and you gave it to me in spades!

So, while in this post I list the best of 2012 in terms of nail polish, nail art, etc., I want you to know that Swatch And Learn readers are really the best of 2012!

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Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

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Dear Swatch And Learn Readers,

I wish you all a Merry Christmas that’s full of love and laughter!

You’ve brought a lot of joy into my life, and I’ll always appreciate your kindness and creativity.

You are a constant source of inspiration for me, and even when I’m having a difficult day, somehow readers like you know just what to say to put a smile on my face.

Thank you for joining me on this rewarding blogging journey.

Love,
Mary

P.S. The above image is a photo I took of the design on Christmas cards I’ve been giving out this year.

Note: I will be very busy today and the rest of the holiday season, so I may be slower to reply to your comments, e-mails, and tweets than usual. But I’ll still be checking in from time to time and moderating comments. I promise to reply to you as soon as I can. 🙂 Also, I’ve scheduled daily posts in case you do happen to drop by again during the holiday season.

Blog News: My Blue Fiend Nails Featured on NailPolishCanada.com

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I have something exciting to share in today’s short post! 🙂

Earlier this month, the awesome people at NailPolishCanada.com reached out to me and asked if they could feature one of my manicures in their new weekly newsletter for the “Favourite Swatches of the Week” section.

Of course I said yes, especially because they were courteous to ask first and provide proper credit plus a link back to the blog.

They chose my Blue Fiend Nails where I used some colours from the China Glaze Cirque du Soleil Collection. (Click here if you’d like to see my Blue Fiend Nails blog post.)

You can click here to go to the original article on NailPolishCanada.com or on the below screenshots.

Here’s a closer look:

They also chose to feature a number of other amazing manicures created by talented women. Check out the article to discover a new blog!

I must take this opportunity to thank all of my incredible readers for supporting and motivating me during my blogging journey. Swatch And Learn wouldn’t be what it is today without you!

I appreciate everything that you’ve done for me, and I hope to keep this up for as long as possible. Thank you for leaving me thoughtful comments, for engaging in fun conversations on Twitter, and for following me on the various social-media platforms. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – Swatch And Learn readers are the best! 🙂

Hope that you’re having a wonderful Thursday!

Edit: They retweeted my tweet about this blog post and also sent me an encouraging tweet! 🙂

Blog News: My Glittery Manicure Featured on beautylish

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The beautylish team whipped up an article about holiday manicure ideas. They included photos of manicures done by fellow members. I was honoured to have been included among such a talented group of women!

Below is the screenshot. Check it out, and get inspired by the others’ nails that are full of personality! (And if you’re not already a member, sign up – it’s free!)

To go to the original article, you can click on the screenshot or here.

To achieve this look, I layered two nail polishes from the Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez Collection due out in January 2013: Kissed At Midnight (gold glitter) and Pretty in Plum (purple).

If you’d like to see my swatches and review of each, click on the below links:

As usual, when I receive wonderful news like this, I like to thank all my readers (new and old) for making blogging a very rewarding journey! I know that we all lead very busy lives, so the fact that you’ve taken the time to leave comments means the world to me. Thank you for encouraging and inspiring me! The nail-polish community is a very creative and welcoming place. 🙂

Closed: Enter to Win My Milani Giveaway! (2 Winners: 1 CA/US & 1 International)

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Edit (November 1, 2012): The giveaway is now closed. Thank you all for participating! Congratulations, Anna Z and Randi! You both won! You have 48 hours to reply to the e-mail I sent in order to claim your prize. Also, please note that I’ll be replying to all the comments left, but it’ll take me some time. 🙂

Okay, so this Milani Giveaway was delayed a bit, but it was worth the wait, right?

Thanks to Milani’s amazing PR team, I was able to hand-pick every single product for this giveaway! I chose 6 killer nail polishes, 1 powder eye shadow, 1 eye-shadow pencil, 1 lip gloss, and 1 liquid eye liner. Hope that you’ll like the variety of beauty products!

Milani-Giveaway-Swatch-And-Learn

All of those nail polishes are ones that I’ve never tried, but have been drooling over after seeing beautiful swatches of them online. I tried to choose a variety of bright and dark shades to keep it more interesting.

And here’s the best part…There will be TWO winners!

One will be from Canada or the United States. The second winner will be from anywhere else in the world. Yes, this giveaway is open to ALL of my amazing readers! (Each winner will receive all the products shown in the above photo.) 🙂

Please carefully read the rest of this blog post in order to find out how to enter because it’s a little different this time around. Also, I’ve included larger photos of each product to show you exactly what you can win!

P.S. And, yes, I’m running this Milani giveaway at the same time as my other surprise giveaway announced in the blog post about how I had dinner with Suzi Weiss-Fischmann of OPI! More chances for you to win!

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