PixieDust Colour Blocking

Hi guys! Today I just have a quick little look I did a while ago using the Zoya PixieDust polishes. Here I used Zoya Godiva as the base and Zoya Chyna and Dahlia layered over top. I tried to use tape to get even lines but due to the textured nature of the polish the tape didn't stick down very well and my lines are less than perfect.

LOL - look at the watermark on this photo, it's totally wrong. April Fool's? I actually think I was just too fast with my typing, and I've unfortunately since deleted the original. Damn.

I'm patiently awaiting the release of Zoya's new Summer PixieDusts, I still can't get enough of texture polish, how about you?

Quo by ORLY Spring 2013 Press Release

Hi guys! I felt like I hadn't heard much from Quo by ORLY, one of my favourite drugstore brands, lately so I popped into my local Pharmaprix last week and searched around for new polishes. Unfortunately I didn't find anything, but after a quick email I received this awesome press release to share with you all!

"After its debut in the fall of 2011, Quo by ORLY nail polish has become one of Canada’s leading nail polish brands. Quo Cosmetics partnered with ORLY, one of North America’s top nail polish lines, to create a range of core and limited-edition nail polish shades that are completely free of DBP, formaldehyde and toluene. Along with unique accessories like Quo by ORLY Instant Artist tools and innovative creations like Quo by ORLY Gels at home gel nail system, Quo by ORLY is now expanding its offering of nail polish, available exclusively at Shoppers Drug Mart.

In March 2013 Quo by ORLY introduces 5 new core shades and 12 new limited edition shades, $10 each." 

The first five shades there are the ones that will be joining the core line, and the rest are special limited edition shades. Quo by ORLY is definitely getting competitive in terms of the types of colours they offer - it looks like not only will there be an awesome neon but some beautiful shimmers, and is In A Trance the coolest looking duochrome you've ever seen? Another polish that really caught my eye is Falling Star, it reminds me of the infamous Illamasqua Raindrops.

Have any of you Canadian ladies spotted these in your Shopper's or Pharmaprix? Do any of them look interesting to you? I hope to have a couple of them to swatch and review for you guys so stay tuned!

OPI Matte Top Coat - Swatches & Review

Good afternoon everyone! I got quite a bit of feedback regarding the press release I posted last week for this new Matte Top Coat by OPI, so I'm excited to let you know that I was sent this polish to review for you guys! I tried out a couple of combinations using the Matte Top Coat and I think you're going to like what you see.

The press release indicates that this is meant to be used over your favourite OPI polishes, so for my first combination I chose two recent OPI releases that look wonderful when matte-ified. 

I took two coats of OPI The Man with the Golden Gun that was released along with the Skyfall collection and layered it over two coats of the gorgeous OPI Vant to Bite My Neck? from this spring's Euro Centrale collection. To get the matte look I only used one coat of OPI Matte Top Coat covering the entire nail.

You can see the polish beginning to turn matte right before your eyes. It takes maybe two minutes for the polish to reach full matte-ness, and an added bonus is that it dries really quickly. 

Yum, matte gold flakes are definitely going to be making an appearance on my nails next holiday season. I love the way this looks.

I wanted to test the claims and see if I could use this successfully over a polish from another brand. I used to use my Essie Matte top coat on top of anything, so I was pretty sure the OPI would work the same way.

No surprises here, one easy coat of OPI Matte Top Coat over two coats of Zoya Blu makes for a fun take on pastels. On my ring finger I layered one coat of Lynnderella Love, Lace and Lilacs on top of Blue before adding the matte coat. 

I mentioned my old matte topcoat - Essie Matte About You - which I had to order from ebay. I know that I searched long and hard in stores trying to get a matte topcoat, but there simply isn't one on the market for Canadian consumers that is easily accessible. I'm going to show you next how the new OPI release stacks up against my old Essie.

I wanted to show you how it performs over two colours - OPI Skyfall and OPI Jade is the New Black. I've labelled the photo above with which polish was on which nail. Personally, I can tell a difference, and I prefer the OPI Top Coat. Especially over Skyfall, I think the OPI polish has a flatter matte look which the Essie is a little more rubbery. I waited about twenty five minutes for these to dry to ensure that one of them wasn't still matte-ifying so I don't think that's an issue. Of course, they are pretty similar and if you already have the Essie maybe you won't need the OPI, but if you haven't invested in a matte top coat yet I would recommend OPI's.

Lastly, I wanted to show you guys some fun nail art using the OPI Matte Top Coat. If you follow OPI on facebook you will have seen the variations on matte manicures they have been posting recently. I love the idea of combining glossy and matte into the same manicure, it's a subtle but chic way of doing nail art.

I chose to use another colour from the OPI Euro Centrale collection, so for reference, here is OPI I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw sans Matte Top Coat for a very glossy look.

I taped off some sections of my nails and brought out my dotting tools and this is what I came up with! I love how this looks!

I think in this combination, my middle finger is my favourite, look how satiny the section near the cuticle looks. Wow!

The OPI Matte Top Coat will be available starting in April 2013 and the suggested retail price is $10.95 CAN, which by the way, is less than what I paid for my Essie polish after shipping. I think this is a great product and it's really bridging the gap in the market that we face in Canada where there isn't a matte topcoat easily available. I love the OPI Pro Wide brush and I much prefer it to Essie's small brush. I would absolutely recommend the OPI Matte Top Coat to anyone in the market for one.

 I hope this review has helped you make your decision! Do you think you'll be picking up the OPI Matte Top Coat? What's your favourite way to wear matte polish?

Some of the products in the review were kindly provided to me for my honest opinion. 

Lynnderella The Glittering Crowd

Morning everyone! I have a confession to make today..this is the manicure that I wore on New Year's Eve. That's right..nearly three months ago. I honestly just found these photos and I couldn't believe that I've waited so long to show you this stunning Lynnderella polish.

I really wanted the glitter in this polish to stand out so I layered two coats over black. Did you know that there are over 100 different types of glitter in The Glittering Crowd? I was so lucky to snag a bottle of this before Lynn stopped making it!

As soon as I applied the polish it was begging me to matte-ify it, and I complied. Following one easy coat of Essie's Matte About You this is what my nails looked like.

Mmmm, look at all those different glitters. This look is so fun and colourful.

What would you use as a base colour for The Glittering Crowd?

Barry M Peach Melba

Morning everyone! Today I have another one of the polishes that my friend brought me from England - Barry M Peach Melba. I'm embarrassed to say I had to look up quickly what peach melba is, for anyone who's interested it's a dessert. I was immediately reminded of Melba Toast - anyone else? Apparently they were created by the same chef for the same lady...lucky girl!

I am in love with this colour, it is the best peach polish I have ever had the joy of wearing. Barry M is always spot on with their formula in my experience and this is no difference, Peach Melba is a must have if you're looking for a colour like this. I decided to add some detail to the tips using a black striping polish.

I love this colour, it's the perfect shade of peach - not too much like a bandaid but not too pink.

What are some of your favourite peach nail polishes? Is this a colour you can see yourself wearing this spring and summer?

Zoya Summer 2013 - Stunning and Irresistible

Hello everyone! I have some exciting news to share with you all right now! I was sitting on my computer awaiting an email for school and watching a lecture when something even better popped up in my inbox. This information was originally not supposed to be released for about another week, but unfortunately it was leaked and we now have the go-ahead to let everyone in on the awesome news - more Zoya Summer collections!

"JUST LIKE THE SUN, YOU ARE THE CENTER OF ATTENTION!
STUNNING & IRRESISTIBLE
Twelve new Sun Inspired Colors for Summer 2013.
Summer brings the sunniest colors to nails! Including six super shiny creams and
six fresh foil metallics to put all the focus on the brightest shining light in any room - YOU!

Zoya SUMMER 2013: STUNNING Collection
• Darcy (ZP663) - Sunny Yellow Cream - Full Coverage.
• Thandie (ZP664) - Citrus Orange Cream - Full Coverage.
• Micky (ZP665) - Amazing Coral Cream - Full Coverage.
• Yana (ZP669) - Rubine Red Cream - Full Coverage.
• Josie (ZP667) - Grassy Green Cream - Full Coverage.
• Rocky (ZP668) - Serene Blue Cream - Full Coverage.

Zoya SUMMER 2013: IRRESISTIBLE Collection
• Kerry (ZP684) - Yellow Gold Foil Metallic - Full Coverage.
• Amy (ZP670) - Red Orange Foil Metallic - Full Coverage.
• Tinsley (ZP671) - Rose Gold Foil Metallic - Full Coverage.
• Bobbi (ZP672) - Hot Magenta Pink Foil Metallic - Full Coverage.
• Hazel (ZP673) - Blue Green Foil Metallic - Full Coverage.
• Rikki (ZP674) - Fern Green Foil Metallic - Full Coverage.

Shipping April 15, 2013

Ultra long-wearing, glossy nail lacquers by Zoya are BIG5FREE - all formulas are completely free of harmful
industrial chemicals such as toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin and dibutyl phthalate
(DBP) that are known to cause cancer and birth defects.
Find over 300 stunning Zoya colors on www.zoya.com.
Each and every color has a name as unique as the women who inspired it.
ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!
$8.00 ea. (US)
Available on Zoya.com"

WOW! Do you guys realize this means there are going to be 18 new fabulous Zoya shades released in the next few months including the new Summer PixieDusts!? Here are the colour representations of the Stunning and Irresistible collections:

So of these new ones I need Mickey, Josie, Rocky, Amy, Bobbi, Hazel, and Rikki .. might as well just get them all then, eh? I can't believe how many new Zoyas are coming out, how excited are you guys to see these collections?

I'm not sure if you have seen, but Zoya are currently offering mini polishes of some of their gorgeous pastel colours for spring. They have some awesome deals for people wishing to purchase a few of these colours and there are a lot of options!

What colours will you be picking up from the Summer PixieDust, Stunning, and Irresistible collections? Are any of you who don't care for the textured polish trend relieved to hear there will be six cremes and 6 metallics?

Sheer Water Marble

Hello everyone! I'm not really sure what to call this post, it's a technique that I've shown you before on the blog where you watermarble with an opaque colour and a sheer one to make sort of a peek-a-boo over a pattern. I've been envisioning this manicure for ages but unfortunately the black polish that I used didn't spread in the water as much as I would have liked.

Gorgeous, right? 

So to get this look I first did gradients on each of my nails. If I remember correctly, the colours I used were OPI The Thrill of Brazil, Zoya Arizona, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, OPI Green-wich Place, OPI Fly, and OPI Do You Lilac It? For the water marble I used Quo by ORLY Little Black Dress and OPI Don't Touch My Tutu!

I think I need to find a black polish that would spread better in water, if there was just a little less black here I think I would be much happier.

Have you ever tried this technique? What colour combinations would you like to see?

OPI Matte Top Coat Press Release

Hi everyone! I've been anxiously awaiting news of OPI's Matte Top Coat since they started sharing designs on their facebook page which you can check out here. I love me a good matte manicure and I am so excited that an accessible brand is coming out with one. The last time I tried to get my hands on one I paid nearly triple retail value to have it shipped to me, so you can understand my excitement! Let's see what OPI has to say about this new release. I've included the photo that I received with the press release, though it looks pretty much as you would expect a matte polish to look.

Matte is the New Black!

Redefine Color with New OPI Matte Top Coat

OPI Matte Top Coat instantly transforms glossy nail lacquer to a matte finish when applied over any OPI hue.  Matte Top Coat provides sealing protection, without shine and protects nails from chipping, making manicures last longer.  With a matte, transparent finish, Matte Top Coat is designed to leave nails velvety smooth and creates a touchable texture for an edgy appearance.   

“A matte finish can be worn over any OPI nail lacquer shade and should be applied after the base coat and primary coats of color to give nails a unique look,” says Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Co-Founder VP & Artistic Director. “Using Matte Top Coat to transform any shade in your collection makes it a more versatile and budget-friendly way to embrace the matte trend. Give your favorite lacquers an update with a new finish without altering the color.”

Matte Top Coat contains no DBP, Toluene, or Formaldehyde. This product includes OPI’s exclusive ProWide^™ Brush for the ultimate in application.

OPI Matte Top Coat will be available April 2013, at Professional Salons and Spas across Canada for $10.95 CAN suggested retail. 

            For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com. Follow OPI on Twitter @OPI_PRODUCTS and become a Facebook fan!


Do you think you'll be picking up the OPI Matte Top Coat? If I manage to get my hands on it, rest assured I will do some side-by-side comparisons with my current matte topcoat, Essie Matte About You.

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Hi everyone! So I just went through some of my photos and found that I have a bit of a stockpile from late December and early January when I was still in Calgary for the winter break. This allowed me lots of time to work on nails, and I also had that sunlight that I miss so much for swatching. I'm going to queue up these posts over the next few weeks so don't be surprised if my photos and nails look a little different all of a sudden.

Today I have the first of three polishes that my good friend from high school, Melissa, brought me back from England: Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I know the hype over this polish has somewhat died down but I still think it's awesome.

For these photos I layered one coat of Fantasy Fire over OPI Dating a Royal.

Look at that gorgeous red sparkle! For anyone who hasn't seen Fantasy Fire before, it's one of those colour shifting pigments that goes from red to copper to green.

See what I mean? Amazing!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture the green side of Fantasy Fire, it was only at extreme angles that it made an appearance. As far as I know, Max Factor polishes are only sold in England.

Do you ever get your friends to bring you polishes when they go traveling? Melissa actually lives in England now, so I pretty much have a permanent supplier :P

St. Patrick's Day Manicure

Hello everyone and Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all! Today is also my eldest sister's birthday, so I'd like to wish a very happy birthday to Colleen!

I think this manicure mostly speaks for itself, right? I tried to freehand a trinity knot of sorts, I'm not sure how easy it is to identify though.

The two base colours I used were Animeniac Cosmetics Sandman and China Glaze Four Leaf Clover (how appropriate!) For the rainbow I used OPI My Paprika is Hotter than Yours, Zoya Arizona, China Glaze Happy Go Lucky, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, and OPI Do You Lilac It?

I hope everyone has an awesome time today! Drink a green beer for me my friends, and be safe!

Lynnderella Sweet Dreams

Good morning everyone! This is a manicure I was actually sporting the week of Valentine's Day because it's super appropriate for the occasion. This is a colour that Lynn herself sent me around this time last year. I know a lot of people won't buy Lynnderella polishes because of the drama or the price, but I haven't found a brand that I enjoy as much as hers and I know I will be a lifetime customer.

So I originally layered Sweet Dreams over two coats of OPI Pink Friday, but much to my dismay it changed the colour of the base from a sweet baby pink to a different pink that I didn't like. To combat this, I added one coat of OPI Don't Touch My Tutu for a jelly sandwich-esque look!

Here's a bottle shot for you, I love how many types of glitter are in this, I'm not sure if I could ever count them all.

Here's a picture of the manicure before the sheer white topcoat. Still nice, just not how I imagined it would look.

Do you own any Lynnderella polishes? Which ones are your favourites?

Zoya Lovely Gradient

Hi guys! Today I have a sweet little gradient I did with two colours from Zoya's Lovely collection for spring. I started with a base of Zoya Gei Gei and then sponged with Zoya Julie to create this very girl and simple manicure.

Since these two colours are a little more sheer than the cremes I'm used to using for gradients, this look wasn't exactly easy to achieve, but it was well worth it. I love the ribbons of silver shimmer that you can see in this manicure!

Yum, pink and purple have always been two of my favourite colours. I wish there was a light blue colour with this same formula..that would be so much fun to use in a gradient manicure. 

I hope you guys liked this short and sweet post!

Zoya PixieDust - Swatches & Review

Hi everyone! So you probably all saw my last post featuring the Zoya PixieDusts where I featured them in a striping tape manicure, and today I finally have swatches of the entire collection to bring to you.

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Keep reading to see all my swatches, I've put it under a jump because there are quite a few!

Striping Tape Manicure ft. Zoya PixieDust

Hi everyone! Today I have a breathtaking manicure to show you all that I am so proud of. I really wanted to incorporate the Zoya PixieDusts into some nail art so I sat down last night thinking about some of my favourite nail art looks and I immediately thought of this blog that has gorgeous manicures and whose striping tape skills are unparalleled. If you aren't following Dressed Up Nails yet I highly recommend you take a peek - you won't be disappointed.

I applied two coats of Animeniac Cosmetics Sandman for the base of this manicure. I reviewed this polish and a few others by Animeniac Cosmetics in a post from last week that you should check out if you haven't yet. Keep reading to the end of this post to claim and exclusive deal for Cutie-cles readers that the lovely people at Animeniac Cosmetics were generous enough to offer me!

So you can probably tell which two Zoya PixieDust polishes I chose to create this look - Chyna and Dahlia. I will have my full swatch and review post up of the PixieDust collection in the next few days, but I couldn't help showing off this nail art look first!

I simple painted on my two coats of Sandman followed by one of Seche Vite, then I applied my striping tape and one coat of the PixieDust shade I was using on that nail. I was a little worried that the Zoyas wouldn't play nice with the base underneath them, but I had absolutely no problems at all!

This manicure has already jumped to the top of my "Best of 2013" list and it's only the beginning of March! The PixieDust polishes has great application even over the other colour and this really makes for a stunning combination - not only is there a contrast of colours but of textures too which is what makes this look so special.

I am in love and I never want to take this manicure off my nails!

Have you purchased any of the Zoya PixieDusts yet? I think I want to try another striping tape manicure with them soon, I'm so pleased with their application. You can get the Zoya PixieDusts by following this link to their website. These polishes are $9.00 each and as I told you the other day, they are coming out with more of them for Summer! 

The above link is my personal Share the Love link.

Now remember I told you above about a special offer from Animeniac Cosmetics?  They have been generous enough to offer 25% off to all my readers! At check out, enter the coupon code CUTIECLES25 and it should take that amount off your order. This code is good through March 31st, 2013. I hope you guys can take advantage of this awesome deal! If you want a reminder of the shades that I reviewed you can visit my post here or another awesome review by ChitChatNails.

Some of the products in this post were provided to me for review.

Zoya PixieDust Summer Edition - Press Release

Hi everyone, you won't believe what just landed in my inbox - a press release for Zoya's Summer PixieDusts! I should have my review up of the current PixieDusts soon (they literally arrived today), but I know that polish lovers all over are falling in love with this new trend and I'm so happy to hear they're making more colours.


"INFUSED WITH SUMMERY MAGIC AND WONDER
PixieDust - Summer Edition

Because everyone wants more of it... the color experts at Zoya went back to the lab and created six more beautiful,
long-wearing textured, matte and sparkling Zoya PixieDust Colors!
This incredible and best-selling formula is sure to captivate with a magical sparkle and sugary finish like no other.
Zoya PIXIE DUST - SUMMER edition
• ZP683 - Solange: EXCLUSIVE PIGMENT!!! Gold Metal sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
• ZP677 - Beatrix: Tangerine Metal sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
• ZP676 - Destiny: Coral Metal sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
• ZP682 - Miranda: Rose sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
• ZP675 - Stevie: Violet sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
• ZP681 - Liberty: Blue sparkle, exclusive Zoya PixieDust Matte Sparkle formula.
Ultra long-wearing, nail lacquers by Zoya are BIG5FREE - all formulas are completely free of harmful industrial
chemicals such as toluene, camphor, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin and dibutyl phthalate (DBP) that are
known to cause cancer and birth defects.
PixieDust Application: For BEST RESULTS apply 1-3 (for full coverage) thin coats of polish. Allow product
to dry completely for full effect. Do not use a base coat or top coat.
Find over 300 stunning Zoya colors on www.zoya.com. Each and every color has a name as unique as the women
who inspired it.
ZOYA IS THE NEW COLOR OF FASHION!
$9.00 ea. (US)
Available on Zoya.com
SHIPPING APRIL 1, 2013 (no joke)"

So there you go, shipping April 1st no less! How exciting is that? Here are the two images that were attached to the press release.

Images and information courtesy of Zoya.

Animeniac Cosmetics - Swatches & Review

Morning everyone! I hope you're all having a great first day of the month. Today I have a new indie brand to share with you that I'm really excited about - Animeniac Cosmetics. I was contacted by them to try out and review a couple of their polishes and I think you guys are going to like what you see! They generously offered to send me a full sized polish and a couple of their minis to play around with - let's see what I got up to with these!

This is Sandman and it's a beautiful gold metallic foil polish. I used two easy coats here for opacity, this glided on like butter! I was really impressed with the formula on Sandman. I have to say, I'm a big fan of the full-size bottles that Animeniac Cosmetics uses, they are clean and professional looking.

Here's the colour label attached to the bottom of the polish bottle.

And here is something I'm thrilled to see included on their bottles - an ingredients list! 

I wanted to put Sandman to the test and see how it fared again my favourite gold polish ever - Quo by ORLY Filthy Rich. Here you can see that they are quite similar in colour, with the Animeniac polish leaning a bit more silver. 

Here you can see a comparison between the two, they're obviously quite similar and I'm very happy about this because my Quo by ORLY polish is running out. I think the Quo polish is a little more opaque, but I usually end up using two coats of either one so it doesn't much matter.

I'm thrilled to have found a polish that can rival one of the staples in my collection.

This is Geek Chic and it's one of the mini bottles I got to try out. This isn't a combination of glitters that I would pick out for myself, but if multicolour glitters are you calling then you should check this out. Here I used two easy coats over OPI You're Such A BudaPest. It was easy to get a lot of glitter on the brush, I never had to fish around.

I like the combination of the different shapes and sizes of glitter in Geek Chic. I bet this polish would look awesome layered over a bunch of different colours.

Here's a bottle shot of Geek Chick, it's pretty fun isn't it? Glitter polishes with such a heavy presence of red and pink aren't usually ones that I opt for, but I did like the way this looked layered over a cooler toned colour.

The next polish I was sent to review is Mayhem, and it is not yet available on their website. I honestly wasn't expecting to like Mayhem much - boy was I surprised! I couldn't tell by looking at the bottle if it was in a truly clear base or not, and it definitely is for anyone who's wondering. I chose to layer it over both OPI Skull & Glossbones and OPI Nein! Nein! Nein! Ok Fine! Shown in the above photo is two coats of Mayhem.

I knew I loved this polish as soon as I saw it over the darker OPI, but there was something missing - matte! I threw on one layer of Essie Matte About You and took this manicure from cool to amazing. Mayhem reminds me of crayon shavings on a chalkboard, I can't get enough of this combination.

Here's a closeup of the matte goodness for you to enjoy. I really like the purple glitter shards in Mayhem.

Such a fun polish, I can't believe I didn't think I'd like it at all. If you're interested in trying out a glitter shard polish Mayhem is absolutely one I would recommend, the glitter was easy to work with and none of it stuck out from my nails.

The last polish that I received to review is Screen Saver. This is a gorgeous black and white polish in a transparent base. To really show this off I chose to sport two coats of Animeniac Cosmetics Screen Saver over a gradient using China Glaze Happy Go Lucky and OPI Can't Find My Czechbook. Something to note about this polish that sets it apart from all the Connect The Dots - esque polishes is that the white glitter isn't completely opaque, which I think is a nice touch.

I think this is just gorgeous, such a fun gradient and Screen Saver looks awesome over top. Once again I had no problems with the formula. I did end up fishing a little bit for the two bar glitters, but I know that some people hate bar glitter so much that this might be a bonus for them.

Something I did notice about this polish was that it took quite a while to dry completely, this may have to do with the many layers of polish to achieve this look, but I would recommend a coat of a quick dry topcoat like Seche Vite.

Here's a bottle shot of Screen Saver, see what I mean about the white glitters being slightly translucent? 

Overall I'm quite pleased with the Animeniac Cosmetics nail polishes that I got to try out. They have a great selection on their website, I love that they don't stick to just glitter topcoats and that they have a variety of nail polishes that cater to those who aren't so crazy about glitter. You can purchase Animeniac Cosmetics nail polishes from their website right here. 

What did you think of these polishes? Which was your favourite?

EDIT: The lovely people at Animeniac Cosmetics have been generous enough to offer 25% your order to all Cutie-cles readers! You can enter the code CUTIECLES25 at check out to get this discount. This code is valid through March 31st, 2013!