Giveaway and Review for Zenka Nails - Manhattan Beach

I'm so honored to have been given this fabulous opportunity with Zenka Nails at Trilogy Spa in Manhattan Beach, CA.  My awesome friend, Jasmine, works there and contacted me to generously offer a Spa Indulgence Pedicure in exchange for a review on my blog.  And as we were saying our goodbye's, she said that I could also give away the same amazing package to a lucky blog reader!!  Trust me - you WANT this.  Promise.  :)

First the review, then the giveaway details!

Oh, and please pardon all the pictures of my piggies!  They aren't the prettiest things around by any means, but I couldn't do a review on a pedicure without having pics of my toes and the process to go along with it! :) :)

Zenka Nails at Trilogy Spa is located at 451 Manhattan Beach Blvd. in the Metlox Plaza in Manhattan Beach, CA. just up the street from the pier.  Right next to the super chic Shade Hotel and alongside tons of other cute boutiques and restaurants. (Contact: 310.374.3600)

Upon entering the Trilogy Spa, you're greeted by the very welcoming lobby and front desk ladies (there might be men too, but I didn't see any on my visit).  I was then whisked away into the nail spa area which was a very cozy room with 2 cushy seats side by side with a small table in between, a curtained area with a manicure table to the side, a television with headphones, magazines, and relaxing music playing in the background.  Very much like a spa atmosphere versus the typical large nail salon with 20+ seats, tons of chatter, and background noise.  This is a great spot to come with a girlfriend to relax and catch up on gossip, or to just come and relax by yourself.

I was also told that there's a rooftop area for nails - sounds heavenly, but I didn't get a chance to see it on this visit. :)

 

I was then introduced to my AMAZING nail tech, Valery.  She was super sweet and made me feel relaxed and confident in her work.  She's been doing nails for 5 years now and has worked with several celebrity clients as well.  Prior to nails she was a masseuse which translates into - she gives great foot and reflexology massages in her pedis!  :) :)

She started off by soaking my feet in a warm, foamy fizzy bath of rock salt.

Next she worked at removing my nail polish....which happened to be many, very heavy coats of glittery polish.  Not easy to take off, but she was a trooper and kept at the stubborn polish. :)

Next she cut and filed my toenails making them all pretty and straight :)

Next up was a hibiscus and tiger lily sugar scrub treatment.  I love sugar scrubs personally because they exfoliate and all that good stuff, but aren't as harsh as a salt scrub...I have very dry skin so the salt isn't always the best thing for me.

After rinsing the scrub off, Valery then proceeded on to the next treatment which was a detoxing seaweed wrap.  This detoxes your skin of impurities and opens up the pores.  She rubbed the mixture over my feet and then wrapped them up like little babies in warm towels. :)

She let the seaweed wrap soak in for a bit and we talked about another service that she does.  As far as she knows, last she checked she's the only one in the South Bay that offers the following service:

Minx Nails

They're basically little foil-like nail coverings with various designs.  They don't chip like polish or anything like that and on the toes they can last for 8+ weeks...depends on the wearer and how much you put your feet through. ;)  You can also get then on your fingernails.

Here's a couple of examples:

And here's an example of how they look on the toes:

Because it's not a polish, you can really achieve that metallic look which is super cool.  I'm all about the shine myself.  And I love all the fun designs you can get!

It's a difficult process to do and nail techs must be trained and certified in doing this process, so it can get a little pricey - but totally worth it if you want something unique that isn't really offered in the area right now!  (Price list link below)

OK - back to my pedi.  After the seaweed wrap soaked in a bit, Valery took the towels off and rubbed all the green mixture off.  She then moved on to the best part of the whole experience - the foot and leg massage!  She used this plumeria and hibiscus lotion that smelled sooooo good - a nice, light, fruity/floral mixture.  And as I noted earlier, she has that professional massage background, so she definitely knows what she's doing.

And so...the massage was so relaxing that I completely forgot to take a picture, lol.  So no visuals on this one, haha.  But just picture me sitting there in complete bliss and relaxation. :)

:) :)

After that it was time to put on the polish.  I requested french tips, my favorite!  She polished away and sculpted those tips.  She's very quick and precise.  Great lines and technique.

I even got the fancy fan treatment to help it dry a bit. :)

And here is the lovely final product!

Please don't mind that ugly cut on my left big toe - Apparently I forget how to walk sometimes and I stepped on my own toe last week with my heel.....very hard....it still hurts. :(

I love them!  And I felt super happy and relaxed when I left.  And of course being right down the street from the beach amongst all the beachy shops just added to the experience when I left. :) :)

Oh - and before I forget, if you get a nail treatment with Zenka Nails, you can add on usage of the Trilogy Spa amenities for $25 (regularly $45)!  A great way to relax before/after your manis and pedis!

LINKS:

Zenka Nails @ Trilogy Spa

Zenka Nails on Facebook 

Zenka Nails on Twitter

Price list

Specials 

OK - now on to the FUN part!!

GIVEAWAY TIME!!

I encourage you to enter this giveaway, and do as many of the entries as you can because this is a fabulous package to win!

One lucky Avery James Photography reader will win the same Spa Indulgence Pedicure package that I did from Zenka Nails at Trilogy Spa.  Zenka Nails at Trilogy Spa is located in Manhattan Beach, CA. so you'll need to be local in order to claim this prize.

You must do the Mandatory entry below in order to be eligible for any of the Extra Entries.

Remember to leave your email address in each entry so I know how to reach you if you win!

MANDATORY ENTRY

What part of the spa package described in my post above do you think will be your favorite?

EXTRA ENTRIES

(Do any or all of the following, leaving a separate comment for each entry letting me know which task you completed)

• Share this post on your Facebook (Copy and paste the following text and link (or you can make your own text up): Free Spa Indulgence Pedicure being given away for Zenka Nails in Manhattan Beach on Avery James Photography's blog! http://averyjamesphotography.blogspot.com/2011/10/giveaway-and-review-for-zenka-nails.html  ) - worth 2 entries, leave 2 separate comments
• You can post to Facebook once a day and get 2 entries each time (remember to leave 2 separate comments each time)
• "Like" Avery James Photography on Facebook (here) (Leave Facebook name - must be from personal page, not a fan page)
• "Like" my personal travel agent company page (specializing in Disney vacations!), Ever After Vacations, on Facebook (here) (Leave Facebook name - must be from personal page, not a fan page)
• "Like" Zenka Nails on Facebook (here)
• Follow Zenka Nails on Twitter - @ZENKASTYLE (leave Twitter ID)
• Follow Avery James Photography on Google Friend Connect
• "Like" my friend's t-shirt company iNMAAKOi on Facebook and tell them @Avery James Photography sent you!
• Follow @AveryJamesPhoto on Twitter (leave twitter ID)

This giveaway ends at 11:59 pm Pacific Time on November 6, 2011.  The winner will be selected by random draw and will have 48 hours to respond to my notification email before another winner is selected.

CSN Store Review - Farberware Skillet

(Please pardon the pictures, they're just snapshots I took and not up to my usual standards...but I was hungry and really just wanted to eat, so I didn't take the time to try and actually take a good pic...just put the camera in auto-mode and snapped away)  :)

So I promised a few weeks ago a review on an item that I was going to get from the CSN Stores...and then the holidays hit, and then life and all that.....in addition, I purchased two things - a skillet and a wall vinyl art piece...well the skillet made it, but the wall vinyl did not...actually according to the CSN site it did make it to my doorstep, but just never into my hands unfortunately....meaning someone took it off my doorstep. :(  So I was originally going to do the review on that item, but obviously I cannot...luckily I took some pictures of my first use of the skillet so I can at least do the review on that item.

And enough of my rambling and excuses....here is my review on this awesome and beautiful, red Farberware Premium Nonstick 12" Deep Skillet that I purchased from the CSN Stores website:

I purchased this skillet because I was in desperate need of a new one, my old one was extremely scratched up (evidence of either a bad cook or a bad pan...?) and I figured it probably wasn't safe to continue using it when there was a good chance black bits of non-stick pieces would end up in my food.  I also am not quite ready to move up to copper cookware or anything other than non-stick (starting to think it was probably the 'bad cook' option above...).  The size of this skillet looked about perfect for those larger dishes with lots of leftovers or feed-more-people type dinners.  And the red just looked so snazzy that I thought it might just make me at least LOOK like a better cook (obviously the logic of a 'bad cook', guess it was me that ruined the first pan).

So I unwrapped my new skillet, gave it a little scrub down, then placed it on the stove burner to admire it's apple-red exterior on my extremely ugly and ancient stovetop.

Then I picked an easy dinner that I knew I couldn't mess up and would still look pretty in the pan for pictures.  I had a bag of this frozen PF Chang's General Tsao's chicken in the freezer....super yummy and extremely easy to prepare.  You just open the bag, dump it in your skillet, cover, cook for awhile, then uncover and cook a little more....then voila!  Chicken and broccoli for dinner....and delicious at that.  I am NOT a fan of vegetables whatsoever, but the cooked broccoli smothered in this sauce is something even I will eat.  Now is it healthy for you or are any of the nutrients retained?  I haven't a clue...but I feel better eating it. :) :)

The brown chunks are actually the sauce in its frozen form...I know you were thinking - I thought this was a chicken dish...why is there steak in there??  Yea....that's sauce....weird looking, but oh so yummy!

Anyways - back to the skillet....so it cooked my food perfectly, the lid didn't get too hot for me to remove it from the skillet, not a single piece of food stuck anywhere on it, and when I washed it, all the sticky sauce just slid right off and it looked good as new again.  The food tasted delicious as it should, no strange tastes transferred from the skillet, and it was perfect enough to fit my whole meal in it (as well as subsequent meals since then) without me spilling half of it off the side when I stirred it.

It's kinda like my baby now...I just love having such a great skillet to cook dinner in....I have to keep it clean and I'll bite anyone's hand off that tries to use a metal utensil in it.  And it's also encouraged me to cook more since it's a bit safer to cook with when I don't have to worry about bits o' non-stick falling in my dinner.

My son's dinner....I know you thought it was mine, but no, I do not drink from a Scooby Doo cup or eat from a Madagascar plastic plate....I prefer the Target plastic plates actually, much more adult and all. :)

Well I hope you enjoyed my review.  And if you didn't, at least I enjoyed my meal. :)