July Julep It Girl Box - With Extras

Well, I had ditched Julep for a while, but this month, I saw I had enough Jules to get the box plus a couple add-ons, and I liked the colors, so I went for it! Do you guys like how I have this ridiculous quantity of Jules all the time lately? haha

Anyway, I was pretty into the colors this month, and then saw the add-on options and said "yep I need some of those". So, I got myself 6 polishes this month as a result (if you ordered 2 add-ons, you got Ilsa as a free bonus). I also used an add-on to get their cuticle cream. You can never have enough cuticle cream. I am literally more than halfway through the bottle of cuticle oil I got from Rainbow Honey two months ago...and I've been using it interchangeably with my Burt's Bees!

The first color I have to show you is Juliana. This is a coral metallic, almost frost-like polish. It was thin, and took 3 coats to become opaque. Not my favorite polish ever, but it's unique in my collection, so I like that. The formula itself was good. It was not streaky and went on smooth.

Next, I have Alyssa. This is a pastel teal cream. This one had a really nice formula and was very opaque. I did two coats, but I think I could have gotten away with just one thick coat. I like it - it's minty. It's not unique, though, so it's not the most thrilling color ever, to me haha.

Next up is Mara. This polish is one of the stardust finish polishes. It is a sparkly textured polish, that I am a bit of a sucker for, to tell the truth. This one was a bit lackluster though. The sparkle wasn't sparkly enough for me, but I will say that the formula was nice on this one. This is two smooth coats.

Next, is Ilsa. This one is insanely opaque. It went on in just one coat. It is a super dark blurple cream. I really like it, although I would not wear it until fall/winter, unless of course it works in some nailart. The formula was perfection.

Next, we have Magdalene. This is a pretty shimmery, metallic blue. It's very ocean-esque. This one had a great formula, too. It was very smooth. I did two coats here.

Last, we have Queen Anne. This is probably my favorite of the bunch. It went on in two smooth coats despite the mega-quantity of glitters, and dried to a satiny finish.

I added topcoat here to show what it looked like shiny. The bottom picture is outside in the sun to show off the holo sparkles a bit better.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I got the August box because the colors were awesome. Hopefully it was a good decision. I'm out of Jules now, so I am going to be more picky about the boxes each month. They reeled me in with the August box with another stardust finish polish. I'm such a sucker! Ha! Have a great evening!

Ornate Coral Nail Art

Hi everyone. My stamping group on facebook had a complex challenge for this half of the month, and I tried my best to achieve a result that fulfilled the challenge. We were to incorporate coral, stamping, ornate, and use some different nail art technique. That sure was a lot of prompts! But, I persevered, and came up with this.

I started off with Wet n Wild Warm Filter for my base, and them stamped the design using OPI Cha-Ching Cherry and PUEEN44. After that I used my Loki's Nail Vinyls to create the half moon shape and filled it in with Cha-Ching Cherry. The next part was the part I hated the most: placing those tiny caviar beads on my nails. It was painstakingly fine work. My hand kept cramping up! But I fought through the pain (lol) because this was important to me.

Oh my, you can tell I'm tired. Anyway, here is what Wet n Wild Warm Filter looks like on it's own. This was two coats. It was pretty opaque, but needed two coats to avoid any thin spots.

I'm off to bed, but I'll be back in a few days with my mani for this week's 52 Week Pick n Mix. Have a great evening!

52 Week Pick n Mix Challenge - Negative Space + 3 Pastels

Ok, so here I am posting my mani at the last minute again haha. I was going to do a cute manicure with little cupcakes for my birthday, but I had too many challenges happening, so I am skipping that little plan. :P Today, I have for you instead, my negative space mani including 3 pastels to complete both prompts for the week. Some of you may have seen on instagram that I nabbed the entire Wet n Wild Silver Lake collection of polishes. I used three of them here so I could show them off right away.

This is Wet n Wild Warm Filter, Reject The Mainstream, and Tree Hugger. I used striping tape to create the negative spaces, and ended up having to do this twice on each nail because the polishes needed two coats.

I am not a fan of the negative space just because I am paranoid that my nails are stained. They actually really aren't stained too badly at the moment, so this doesn't look too bad. I actually got a lot of compliments on these. I think people were just interested because it's different and not something you see every day.

Thanks so much for looking. Make sure you check out what everyone else did for this week's prompts!

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Funky French with Flowers

Hello! I have been playing with my collection of Loki's Nail Vinyls again, and did a cute floral, Spring-inspired mani using her vinyls to create a nice crisp funky french. I'm not sure where my inspiration came for this one. I was just sketching out ideas and then all of the sudden this idea was born. These three colors go so well together, too!

I started of with three coats of NYC Hamptons Peach, then used Loki's Nail Vinyls to mask the tip of each nail and painted over top of it using Julep Donna. Here is what it looked like at that point. Pardon the poor lighting, I wasn't in the mood to pull out my light box for this part. I really need to buy another Ott light. :) Oh and also, the dryness from the acetone - gross. Whatever though, you guys get the idea!

After I did that, I used a dotting tool to create the flowers using Color Club London Calling, then added a dot of Julep Donna in the center of each one. I really love this manicure. It came out so much better than I had even hoped. I have been sketching out my ideas on paper lately, and boy is it helping lol.

Here is NYC Hamptons Peach all by itself. This polish was a bit on the thin side, but it built up to opacity in 3 coats.

Thank you for stopping by to look today! I will be back in a couple days with a new mani for the 52 Week Pick n Mix. Have a great day!

January 2015 Julep Box - Chrysalis Collection

Hi all! I have been slowly swatching this collection as I cashed in all of my Jules and got all of the colors from their Chrysalis collection back in January. I received 10 bottles of polish (9 from the collection and then a bonus polish that I will show here as well). You have seen some of these already as the base of some of my recent manicures, but here I will show them off on their own. I received a gigantic box because of all the polish they put in there. I also got another add-on that I will show at the end of this post. They are holographic chevron stickers, so I paired this with one of the polishes that came in the collection. I have some left, and I'm thinking about trying them out as a mask to see how that works. I'll let you know when I use them. :)

First up, we have Maryam. This is a dark red-wine shade with gold shimmer. It applied nicely in two coats.

Next, is Shawn. This is a lovely bright pink leaning red. It is a great opaque cream color and went on in two smooth coats.

Next up is Alicia. This is a lovely, clean, coral and was nice and opaque as well. This is two coats.

Next, we have Phyllis. I feel like I have at least a few other polishes from Julep that look just like this, but it is a soft pink cream. As I looked through my other pale pink creams from Julep, I found that it was similar to (but not the same as) Jules and Fifi. Normal girls probably want a selection of classic pale pink creams, but I am not a normal girl. I want crazy new glitters and lots of variety. :P

Next, is Margit, which is a really interesting polish. It is dusty rose shimmer, but it's neat because you can actually see three different shades in there. I see a mushroom-y color, a rosy color, and a darker, almost brick color. I like it even though it is very muted. It looked good with everything I wore because it was so neutral. This is two coats.

Next is Sandi. It is a dark eggplant cream with a slight grayish hint. Again, this is two coats. You all know I love purple, so I am happy to add this to my collection. You can never have too many purple creams. ;)

Next up, is Casey. This is a pretty, dark teal cream. As much as I love teal, this is pretty much identical to Julep Donna, which I already own, so it is another disappointment in my book. Beautiful color, but a duplicate from Julep, which is why I'm skipping March, and will probably ultimately cancel my account. This is two coats.

Next, is Tilda. This makes up for the disappointments in this box, as it is an iridescent topper. Julep calls it a "Metamorphic Top Coat". These are cool because they can change the look of any polish. This one is green, so I layered it over Casey. This would still look green if you layered it over a black polish, though. I did just one coat over Casey here.

Next, we have Shelly, this is a pale mint cream. This is slightly more blue than Julep Susie if you have that shade. This is two coats.

Last, we have Janae. This is a dark charcoal grey cream. This is a good shade to have for nail art, so no complaints here. This is two coats.

Here is what the holographic chevron stickers look like over Sandi. They are pretty cute, but I found that they started peeling up (even after topcoat) after just a day. This really isn't a problem for me since I was ready for a change anyway, but I have to figure out how to combat this issue with nail stickers. It seems like some are worse than others, and this may have been more of an issue with these because the stickers went right to the edge of my nails and that is where they started peeling up. Once that happened, I could not keep myself from picking at them. This pretty much happens with any sticker that has a loose edge at the side of the nail, so I'm not sure if it can be helped. If any one has any tips for this, please comment below with your solutions!

Thank you so much for taking the time to check out my swatches. I still love my Julep polishes, but will probably just buy a polish at a time from them when they come out with something interesting as opposed to getting the monthly boxes. I forgot to skip February, and wasn't disappointed, so I will show off that box in the next couple of weeks (I know, you all will LOVE to see Valentine's Day polish in April). :P Bye for now, I'll be back in a couple days!

Dragon Lady Nails + I Heart MoYou London!

So a few weeks ago, my mom gifted me my first MoYou London stamping plate. It was love at first sight, but I didn't actually have a chance to try it out until now. And oh my goodness - they are just as amazing as everyone says and then some. PERFECTION. Who knew a little piece of metal and plastic could make me so happy?!

Haha anyhow, my mom chose well, and I got a plate from the Suki Collection - plate 07. It is so beautiful, I spent a lot of time just looking at it, but then, I thought I just had to use it and get it broken in. :) I decided to use the dragon image, because it is just too cool not to. Check out how awesome his face is! What?!

I started out with another new Zoya my hubby got me - Tinsley, then stamped the dragon's face and body using Konad Special Black, and filled in his dragon eye with Zoya Chita (a PixieDust I will show off in another post).

Here is Tinsley all by herself. I just love Zoya's shimmers, they are always the perfect consistency, and always paint on flawlessly. This is two coats.

Oh dear I love this so much, I can hardly stand it! I have a feeling there will be more MoYou plates in my future (oh why, oh why, can't I be RICH?!) Have a great night everyone!

Golden Oldie Thursday - Coral

Good afternoon! I was hard-pressed to locate a coral that I hadn't already worn, so I am giving you the closest thing to it that I had. I consider this to be a bit on the coral side. I used to wear it all the time - this is actually my second bottle, but I haven't touched it in years, and I have never shown it off on this blog. This is NYC Central Park. It is a nice neutral on its own - great for the office.

Of course, I felt the need to dress it up with some stamping. So, I used Konad Special Black and my Mash-46 stamping plate to sass it up a bit. :)

That's all I've got for you today. Make sure you take a peek at what everyone used for their coral prompt. Have a great day!

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