New Year...New Blog

2012 had it's ups and downs for me in terms of blogging - some months I blogged frequently and others, not so much. A lot of the time it was due to being unmotivated and uninspired and sometimes it was because I felt as though my photos weren't up to par. However, this year I plan to change all of that - I have set myself a schedule which I'm going to do my best to stick to, along with ideas for posts I could do to add dimension and content to my blog.

My schedule: I plan to post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I also plan on setting a running theme for those days, but since I will be starting a challenge on Wednesday, those themes are yet to be determined.

Since this is the start of something new, I thought I would include some goals I hope to achieve by the end of 2013....

• Reach 4,000 GFC followers and 3,500 Likes on Facebook.
• Have published at least 300 blog posts.
• Interact more with my readers on all social media platforms.
• Become more active on social media networks, especially Tumblr & Twitter
• Improve the quality of my photos and find a lighting set up I am comfortable with.
• Learn how to best use both of my cameras.
• Start doing tutorials and improve my line work in Nail Art.
• Do more 'Favourites' posts, as well as 'Bargain Buys' and Comparisons.
• Master Water marbling and Tape Manis.
• Use the majority, if not all, of my Untrieds.
• Be more creative with both Stamping and Nail Art
• Be more adventurous with Colour Combinations.
• Improve Blog content
• Improve my Macro shots, both on the Nail and in the Bottle.

So there you have my goals for 2013 and also a little snippet of information about what to expect from Polished Criminails this upcoming year. I hope you'll all stick around and join me on my little adventure! 

See you soon for the first instalment of the ABC challenge!!

Eye Candy London Magnetic Giveaway Winners!

Hi ladies! I know this giveaway ended a few days ago now, and if truth be told, it had completely slipped my mind, but hey...better late than never right!? I'd like to say a huge thank you to Eye Candy London for giving me another opportunity to share their products with you all.
I won't ramble on since you're all probably dying to know who the winners are, so without further ado....

Congratulations to the winners! I will be sending each of you an e-mail, so if you think that this could be you, be sure to check both your inbox and spam folders! You have 24 hours to respond to the e-mail before another winner is announced. Thank you to everyone who entered into the giveaway and I hope you will all be sure to stick around for Polished Criminails re-launch at the beginning of next month! I have some new and exciting things planned for my little space on the interwebs....Until next time!

EPIC INDIE 2,000 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY WINNERS!!!!

Hi ladies! Today is the day you have all been waiting for....the day I announce the 3 lucky receipients who will each win a mystery grab bag, filled with amazing Indie polishes! I just want to say another HUGE thank you to all the amazing sellers who donated polishes for the purpose of my 2,000 follower giveaway, this wouldn't have been possible without your kind donations!

EUROPEAN WINNER

LUCIE HANUSKOVA!

US/CANADA WINNER

STEPHANIE LOCKWOOD!

REST OF THE WORLD WINNER

SANIA AKBAR!

Congratulations to the winners! I will be sending you all an e-mail within the next hour confirming your win. Thank you to everyone who entered, I wish I could give one to all of you! In the mean time, why not try your chances at my eye CANDY London giveaway! Click the image in the sidebar to take you there!

EYE CANDY LONDON MAGNETICS GIVEAWAY!!!

Hi ladies! I know I said I would be gone until the New Year, but I was contacted by eye CANDY London asking whether I would like to host another giveaway for them and of course I said yes! If you're new to my biog and haven't heard of eye CANDY London, they are a relatively new UK brand which can be found in Sainsburys (both online and in stores), Amazon.co.uk and recently selected Tesco stores. Speaking of Sainsburys, all eye CANDY London polishes are currently running a 33% off promo in stores for one month from today! You can find out more about eye CANDY and see swatches for a few polishes from their range here.

The Prizes

Click the photo to enlarge

The Important Bits

• The giveaway is open internationally, with the exception of Italy & New Zealand due to custom restrictions.
• Winners can pick one colour from the Quilt capped and one from the Wave capped.
• The giveaway will be open for 14 days and will end on December 26th 2012.
• Once the giveaway is over, I will contact the winners within 48 hours, if those emails are not answered within 24 hours from them being sent, a new winner will be picked.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Products in this post have been provided to me by the companies PR team for the purpose of this giveaway.

Just a little update.

Hi ladies! It's been a long time since I last checked in with you all, so I thought an update on what has been happening would be appropriate.

Lately, I haven't had the motivation nor the mind set for blogging, a lot of it has to do with the fact I am unhappy with my current set up with regards to lighting, my camera and just the general look to my photos. I know everyone cannot just pick up a camera and be amazing at taking photos, I know it takes hard work and a lot of reading about the camera and it's capabilities before you can expect to see the results. I started this blog in October of last year because I wanted to share my passion for polish with like-minded others who just so happen to stumble across my little blog, I never expected it to grow as much as it has in a short space of time, not that I'm not grateful, but I feel as though I need to step up my game a little in order to make my subscribers proud and actually want to read what I have to say, not just because I have a giveaway. But in order for this to happen, I need to improve the quality of Polished Criminails, in terms of regular posts, being more interactive with my readers who take the time to comment (I do read every ones comments, I just SUCK at replying to them) and just generally make my blog more appealing.

What do I plan to do? Well, I think I will continue my little blogging hiatus over the Holiday season in order to set myself up a blogging schedule, in which I will plan to set aside time for swatching, uploading, editing and creating posts each week for the whole week and also just get more comfortable with the lighting set up, camera settings and which angles work best for myself. It's going to be a long process, but in the long run I believe it will help me with my 'blogging anxeity' and hopefully keep you, my readers, coming back to see more and who knows maybe bringing in some new people to the fold.

I also plan to bring you more in terms of nail design, whether it's stamping, freehand or even some 'Nail Care' tips and tricks. However, since you guys are my audience, your feedback is of the up most importance to me, so I'd love to hear about what you'd like to see on Polished Criminails, it can be anything nail/nail care related and I will try and put something together for you all.

Hopefully, I haven't bored you all to death with my ramblings and you're all still with me, it's pretty late, but I just wanted to fill you all in about why I'm not around as much & what the future holds for Polished Criminails. In the mean time, my 2,000 follower giveaway is still on going, so be sure to check out the amazing Indie brands you could be winning!


I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season and a fantastic New Year. See you all in 2013!!...if 2012 doesn't happen, of course ;)