5th Blogiversary Giveaway Winners

I mentioned last week that I was still waiting for one more winner in my giveaway to contact me. Yesterday she did, just in time, as I was set to contact the backup choice today. So now I can announce all the winners!

Prize #1: Funky Fingers Glitter Toppers went to Cindi in Texas.

Prize #2: Salon Perfect Neon Collision Collection is heading to Sweden to join Emelie and perhaps make an appearance on her blog, Nails and All That Jazz.

Prize #3: SpaRitual Trio flew east to New Jersey to be a part of Alina's stash there.

Prize #4: Formula X Sextet was won by Stacy in Minnesota.

Prize #5: Orly Trio joined Prize 1 in going to Texas (it's a big, populous state); these will be gracing Elizabeth's nails there.

Prize #6: OPI Anniversary Duo will be crossing the border to Canada to be with Holly in Ontario.

Prize #7: Sephora by OPI Quintet is also going to Canada, but to Manitoba and Christine's stash.

Prize #8: Selections from Essence Aquatix went to Kathleen in Connecticut.

Prize #9: Essie Trio Featuring Flakies is the third package to go to Texas; they're now with Mel of Delicious Color (or soon will be).

Prize #10: Butter London Fash Pack Set went west to Colorado and Christina's stash.

Prize #11: Rescue Beauty Lounge Duo made record time and is already in Denmark with Maria of Maria's Nail Art and Polish Blog.

Prize #12: OPI Mad as a Hatter and Absolutely Alice will be going to Arkansas to live with Sarah (in a small city that coincidentally I once visited as part of a job I had years ago).

Congratulations to the winners, and I thank each of you who took the time to enter and especially those of you who added comments to your form, from a simple thanks to constructive criticism. I would not kept up this blog anywhere near as actively without the encouragement of those of you who read and comment.

A few data points:

1) Eight of the winners got their first choice prize; the remaning four got their second choice.

2) The most popular prize overall was #12, the OPI Alice in Wonderland glitters, with 18.5% of 1st Choice entries, 13.4% overall. #10, the Butter London Fash Pack, was a close second, with 12.8% overall, though it was third when considering just people's 1st choices, where it had 12.5% to 14.6% for the Salon Perfect prize pack. Third place overall was a dead heat between #2 Salon Perfect, #4 Formula X, and #7 Sephora by OPI.

3) #5 Orly was the least popular overall, with only 5% of entries. I'm curious how that might have been affected if that prize had more bottles in it, as when ranked on an "entries per item" basis, it was not at the bottom, #1 Funky Fingers was.

By the time my 6th blogiversary comes around, I will be retired, which means I should have more time for swatching and blogging but will definitely have less money for buying polish. There will still be giveaways, but whether they will be quite as big as this most recent one, I'm not sure. My current plan is to finally, finally do that blog sale I've talked about forever, and use those proceeds to fund my adventures here. I even set up a storenvy store before the whole Stripe debacle, so now I'm back to figuring out the best way to unload my excess pretties. I'd welcome comments with any suggestions you might have. Where do you look for stash sales? Do you like to buy single bottles or lots or both? If you've done a blog sale, what worked and didn't work for you? I'd love to hear any thoughts.