Sunday, March 30, 2014

March Julep It Girl Box

Back-to-back Julep posts were necessary as you are now aware from reading through my last post. ;) I really love the colors I got in my March box, and I'm pretty sure you will, too. Check them out!


First, we have Margaret. It is a nice pale blue creme. It's not a dupe for anything I own, which made me very happy.


Next is Princess Grace. This name made me giggle. In high school, I had a biology teacher who always called me Princess Grace. I'm still not really too sure why. It cannot possibly be that he was actually comparing me to The Princess Grace. I always thought it had to do with how clumsy I was, like a sarcastic nickname. It is another creme and is the same color as orange sherbet or a creamsicle. It went on very nicely. This is two coats.


Last, we have Lizanne. It is a lovely green, leaning slightly teal, with a pretty shimmer. It went on so smooth and this is just two thin coats. It's definitely my favorite from this box.


These colors would all look awesome together, too. Hooray for more nail polish!!! Have a great day everyone!

Friday, March 28, 2014

Golden Oldie Thursday - Yellow

Good evening. I have to make this quick because as usual, I'm running behind and need to get to bed so I can wake up for the gym/work in the morning! This is China Glaze Kalahari Kiss. I never wore it on it's own because it looked a bit ugly, and like it would be terrible with my skin. It did turn out to be pretty ugly - "baby poop" is what my husband called it, but it was surprisingly neutral-looking. It could be a nude on someone with less pink in their skin. I don't hate it. It would definitely look good paired with another color and some fabulous nail art.


The other yellow I have to show you is Sally Hansen Lite. I had originally planned to do nail art with the two, but it just looked really bad. This is two coats of Lite over Kalahari Kiss. It is VERY thin, so you would have to paint it over some white/cream/pale yellow color to use it effectively. It's a nice, fun, bright color, so I like it.


I added a quick bit of nail art with these flowers I got in a nail art goodie bag years ago. They wouldn't lay flat liked I hoped they would, but I'm trying not to let that get me down! I'm trying to think Spring over here. I know everyone in America is complaining about the weather, but the winter just drags on for SO long here, and we are OVER it. It will be better by the end of April; it always is.

 

I'll be back this weekend with my March Julep box. Have a great Friday everyone!


Tuesday, March 25, 2014

February Julep It Girl Box

Well...this post is a little delayed because I LOST one of the polishes from my Julep February box. *gasp* Yeah, I know, how could I??? Well, here is what happened: I was all stoked to get to swatching these beauties and took Roc Solid to work with me. It was safely tucked inside my purse all morning, and I planned to paint my nails at lunch, so I set it out on my desk so that I would remember. Some stuff came up, so I didn't get to do my nails.

At the end of the night, I was in a hurry to get home so I grabbed my polish, basecoat, topcoat, and file and shoved them into my purse on top of everything else. I couldn't be bothered to latch the top because I was in a state of complete desperation to get home. I was swinging my purse around like I always do as I walked out to my car and then my purse dumped in my car on the way home. I picked up everything, and shoved it back in, and still couldn't get my purse closed because everything was all messed up in there. I proceeded to dump it AGAIN getting out of the car. I picked up my file and went inside.

By now, I was beyond frustrated with my messy purse, so I pulled everything out to organize it, and Roc Solid was missing. Everything else was there, but that one bottle of polish. I went back outside, and looked around the 3 foot high mound of snow that used to be my front yard. I looked all over the driveway with it's 3 inches of ice, and found nothing. Then I thought maybe it was in my car, and looked everywhere. It was dark, and I gave up. At work the next day, I retraced my steps but there was no sign of the polish anywhere. I asked the secretary if it was in lost and found. Nothing. I looked around my car with a flashlight and it was nowhere to be seen.

Ah the devastation! I eventually gave up although I still looked on the ground every day as I was walking into my building at work, and at home in the driveway. It was lost. Probably gone forever.

BUT, then...a miracle! Ok well, the sun is technically not a miracle, but this past Friday morning as I walked out to my car, I saw something shiny poking out of the now melted remains of snow at the edge of my driveway. I plunged my hand right into that snowbank, and sure enough - it was Roc Solid. Oh hallelujah! Reunited at last! After two long weeks, I had found my precious bottle of green glory! It was very dramatic.

So, that was a pretty lengthy story, but that is why this post is going up so late. haha

On to the goods!! February's box came with a bonus nail polish, which always makes me super excited! And, to make it even better, three out of the four polishes are glitter! Woooo! :)


The names of the polishes are kind of dumb, but whatever. I like the colors, and they all went on so nice, I really can't gripe about it. The first polish I'm sharing is the creme of the bunch: Julep Roc Solid. It is a dark sage green. I liked it pretty well, although by the time I got to wear it, I was already craving Spring...I'll file this one away for use next fall.


The next polish is called Julep Glam Roc. It is a purple and gold micro glitter with what they are calling a "stardust finish". It is matte and textured and does give the effect of looking like space-y.


Here is what it looked like with two coats of Seche Vite. I like it both with and without topcoat.


Next up is Diamond Theory. It contains multiple sizes of dark gold glitters. It went on pretty solid, too. It is very thick, and this was just two coats. You could easily get away with one coat, but I used two for the sake of the close-up pictures.


Last is the bonus polish: Love. It is full of champagne colored micro glitter with dark pink glitters throughout and a color-shifting shimmer. It looked pink, pale yellow, and then pale green sometimes depending on how the light was hitting it.


Thank you, Julep for making 4 pretty polishes for me to enjoy! And thank you readers, for looking at my blog today! I'll be back with another post in a couple of days!

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Golden Oldie Thursday - Ruffle Manicure

Good morning! Look at me being all on-time and stuff. Who would have thought it?! Anyway, I have a cutesy ruffle mani for you today - the first one I have ever done! Each color used in the manicure is not TOO old, but I've definitely had all of them for over 1 year and still haven't really used them.


The white is Confetti Wedding White - it's on the thin side, but went on thick enough since I was using a dotting tool. The green is Spoiled I Only Eat Salads - this one is an odd color, but works great in this combination. The grey is China Glaze Elephant Walk - it's a nice grey with a very subtle gold shimmer. And last, the pink is Wet n Wild Dream Poppy. I love all of these colors together. They make me think of spring!


I hope you like my mani today - please make sure you look at what everyone else did!


Thursday, March 13, 2014

Golden Oldie Thursday Two-fer! - Purple & Skittle

I'm really getting to be quite terrible at blogging. I swear I blogged more when I was juggling school on top of everything. Now I have no school...and no excuse to be neglecting my baby blog and my nails!! Ah well, maybe I just have a case of the winter blahs. Spring will be here soon...right?! I better keep this brief or I will miss yet another deadline! Ok, so first up is my purple mani for this week.


The base is Zoya Areetha, which was a purchase I almost instantly regretted when I realized that it was a chrome/frost polish. I can't stand seeing brushstrokes on my nails and this polish was terrible for that.. I bought it and then never used it...until this week. On top of that, I added China Glaze CG In The City. This is the first bottle of China Glaze that I ever purchased, and then NEVER tried. I did a random design with striping tape and tried to keep it simple so I could finish this post on time. :)


Here is Areetha by herself. Ugh I hate the streaks! It is such a shame because the color is gorgeous. I got a few compliments on it too. Those people didn't look at it up close, like I have been...


Haha, ok next we have my skittle. This is 4 untrieds/loaded into one mani! I started with COS BAR (an unnamed dark bronze. I did my nail art with Bath & Boddy works Copper, Townley Mochachino (these two colors are both over 10 years old!), and Sally Hansen Snappy Sprinkles. Snappy Sprinkles is another glitter I bought years ago and then didn't really know what to do with.



Here is COS BAR's Bronze all by itself. It's not bad. It's actually a pretty good fall/winter color.


Thanks for looking and make sure you look at what everyone else did!






Monday, March 3, 2014

Golden Oldie Thurs...I mean Monday - Orange

Hey everyone. I know I am insanely late on this one, but I was so busy all week, it just didn't happen. I actually painted these on Friday night, but with everything going on all weekend, and then a lengthy power-outage, I just couldn't post until today. I painted these floral nails in honor of the annual trip I make to an orchid show at Cleveland's Botanical Gardens with my mom. I used two oranges here,but you almost can't tell.



This is a gradient with Salon Perfect Tangy Tangerine and Revlon Fearless. I stamped over it using several different floral images from plates from Mash, Bundle Monster, and Red Angel. The first image below is Tangy Tangerine all by itself. The second is once I had completed the gradient with Fearless. It is very, very subtle.


Thanks for looking, and make sure you look at the other orange manicures!