My new favorite nail polish

L to R: Funtime Fuchsia, Caramel Cupcake, Instyle Coral

This is just a quick post to sing the praises of my new favorite nail polish: Rimmel London 60 Seconds Nail Polish. This line's "Sweet Lavender" shade was one of Oprah's 2014 Spring Makeup Awards winners. :) Very nice!

My go-to polish lately has been Caramel Cupcake, which has been a godsend for doing a quick "one and done" manicure. I just apply one coat, and I'm out the door in a minute! The polish truly does dry in 60 seconds, and this shade is a modern nude that I imagine would work with all skin tones.

This photo has no filter, so it shows the true color payoff you get. I did polish on two coats and a clear topcoat, but you can get away with one coat if you're in a hurry. 

The only drawback to these types of polishes is that they tend to chip more quickly. That's the price that you pay for a speedy manicure, I guess.

PROS:

--Super-fast drying time

--The line offers so many shades, there's a color for everyone

--Crazy-cheap! I get mine for $1.50 at Walmart, and sometimes you can find a $1-off coupon in the newspaper

CONS:

--They chip quickly

--The bottles are small

--One coat is enough, but it looks infinitely better with two coats (I have that problem with a lot of polishes, though)

5 tips on how to get Twitter responses from celebrities and big companies

I've been on Twitter since 2009, but only recently became super-active on it. You can follow me @angelacruz! :) It's amazing how the social media network gives you instant access to well-known celebrities and large-scale companies/organizations that otherwise you would have to jump through a bunch of red tape to contact. Even if you were to reach them the "old-fashioned way" through a personal letter, it could take weeks or even months to hear back from them, if they were to respond. Nowadays, you have a direct outlet to reach them on a public social media forum.

Here are 5 tips on how to get responses, whether it be a RT ("retweet"), a personal response ("reply"), or even just a star ("favorite"):

Tip #1. Get creative with photos. Whether it's a selfie of you holding a photo of your favorite celeb with a thumbs-up, or maybe you tweet a photo of a company's product shown in an interesting way (see below)-- you're more likely to get noticed in the online crowd.

Tip #2. Endorsements, AKA declarations of love confined to 140 characters, can motivate responses. Below is another response from smart USA, after I shared this Palm Beach Post article that talked about how much I love my car. It makes the company or celebrity look good, so they are more likely to RT or favorite, or reply like smart USA.

Tip #3. Use hashtags as short endorsements. It's a spin-off of tip #2, but hashtags are quickie ways to let a brand or a celeb know you love them-- and if you use a hashtag that's trending, it can gain you more followers, more favorites, and more RTs, which can put your particular tweet on a company or celeb's radar, increasing your chances of a response.

Tip #4. Tweet @ the celeb or brand, and also tweet @ another user, perhaps a well-known one. Good Twitter users retweet and tweet @ other Tweeters, and you are forming connections that, again, can lead to RTs and replies from your main prey... uh, I mean, the big-name company or celebrity you were hoping to reach.

Tip #5. My favorite tip: BE SINCERE! I adore Good Morning America contributor Tory Johnson's book, The Shift, and I let her know that in a couple of tweets that she retweeted and personally responded to:

I honestly didn't tweet her just to get a response, but it was really rewarding to get that little acknowledgement of a personal reply and two RTs from her. 

Tip #6. (Little extra freebie) Don't expect to hear back, but be pleasantly surprised if you do. I've tweeted The Today Show, JLo and Harry Connick, Jr. Still waiting to hear back from them. ;)

Seriously, though, Twitter accounts with tons of followers are far less likely to notice your tweet. Be strategic when you post-- I tweeted Tory Johnson about how much I love her book, and it comes out on paperback in a week. Good promotion for her to time RTs from fans, although I prefer to think she really was touched by my honest admiration. :)

Don't spam, don't be a cray super fan and DO have fun tweeting at your favorite Tweeters. That's the whole point!

Hopefully these tips can get your creative juices flowing, and you can get a response from your favorite celebrity or company! Have you ever been retweeted before like that? Let me know in the comment section below.

Thanks for reading, and good luck,

~Angela~