Julep is having an awesome giveaway

ALL 80 of their polishes AND an iPad!!
Enter here!  http://blog.julep.com/~cd4fb431b2a0566

31 Day Challenge Day 25: Inspired by Fashion

Good Afternoon!  Today's challenge was "inspired by fashion."  Some of my favorite posts on Tumblr are all the gorgeous pictures of lace dresses.  I think some of the friends I follow track the lace tag or something because there are SO many pictures of pretty lace dresses all the time.  So I based my nails on any number of those lace dresses.  I used Julep Pippa as a base color and then cut out pieces of lace ribbon and adhered it with top coat.  As much as I love the end result, I do agree with DH's assessment that it has more of the 80's hair band look than a high fashion look.  I'm ok with that. :-)

25 days down, 6 to go!  Thanks for reading & don't forget to checkout the giveaway up at the top!

31 Day Nail Challenge Day 24: Inspired by a book

Hello!  Today's theme is "Inspired by a Book."  This is one of the days that I had planned from the first days of this challenge.  I based it on the book "The Cat and the Hat" after seeing some flocking powder the exact color of Thing 1 & 2's hair at Michael's.  I'd never seen flocking powder nails before, so I was kind of sad when I got home and found out it has been done before.  Oh well!  They are still super cute, and perfect for Dr. Seuss!  I used Sinful Colors Why Not as the under color for the blue flocking powder, and Julep January for the red nail.  I love this and would wear it every day if it didn't seem so wildly impractical.

24 Days down, 7 to go!  Thanks for reading, and don't forget, there are still a few days to enter my giveaway.

31 Day Challenge Day 20: Water Marble

I think this is the messiest water marble I've ever done.  Nothing was working correctly last night.  I used a base color of Sally Hansen White On and then Pure Ice French Kiss, Julep Niecy, and Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow for the colors in the marble.  Then I used Orly Matte top coat to mattify it.  I do like the matte effect on the marble.  My nails look really rubbery.  I really love water marbles when they turn out well.  This one bled a lot and I had problems with water droplets and the marble missing part of my finger and the base white shows though (how does that even happen??).  Anyway, even though these are incredibly messy and time consuming I still want to play more with it!  Maybe I'll try a dry marble next time.  :-)

 20 Days down 11 to go!  Don't forget to check out my giveaway posted a few days ago!  I may give it its own page up top to make it easier to find.

31 Day Challenge Day 16: Tribal Print

Today's challenge was tribal nails.  This is one of the days I knew what I wanted to do well in advance, and it just did not turn out at all as planned. This manicure is so messy!! I painted a base color of Julep Alyson then put a thin strip of tape down the middle of each nail and painted the bottom half with Julep Nessa and the top half with Julep Ashley.  Then I used a Sally Hansen nail art pen to draw in the designs.  There were several things that went wrong.  A. My hand isn't very steady (I can't blame it all on the pen). and B. The pen ink pooled and shifted and settled funny.  But for better or worse, here it is!

16 Days Down, 15 to go!  

So many sales lately! Nail Mail/Sally's Haul/Julep Maven

Holy nail polish, Batman!! Today wound up being a crazy eventful nail polish acquiring day.  My Julep Maven box for May arrived, one of my Zoya orders arrived, and I went to Sally's on my lunch break because it was the last day to use the buy 2 get one free discount as well as the last day on the $10 coupon I had.  NOW, before I show the pictures look at this breakdown:

Julep Maven box: FREE because I had 2 referrals
3 bottles Zoya: $16 with free shipping because I had a 1 free bottle coupon
Entire Sally's Haul: $27 after $10 off, 3 free polishes & Sally Beauty Club discount (saved $19)

So basically, everything in this picture cost me $43 and without coupons/referrals would have been $96.94.  Yay sales!!

Now individual pictures.  Here is my Julep Maven box for May.  If you haven't heard of the Maven program  it is an AWESOME nail polish of the month subscription.  I have a more in depth description HERE .  But it's $19.99 a month and you can get your first box for only $0.01 (yeah, a PENNY) by using discount code COLOR2012.  HERE is Julep's page where you take the style quiz to sign up.

This month I kept my It Girl Box, which came with Kylie (purple magnetic polish), Nessa (shimmery yellow), and Ashley (shimmery orange).  They all look like they'll be great for summer, I can't wait to try them! :-)

New Zoyas!  My first ones actually.  Super excited.  Colbie, Jo, and Kat (couldn't resist that one).  Zoya has a cool "Share the Love" program.  I got a free polish coupon just for opening an account and you get points that result in coupons for referring others.  If you don't already have an account it's definitely worth checking into HERE.

ORLY! Sweet Peacock, Bubbly Bombshell, Royal Navy, Fowl Play

China Glaze First Mate, For Audrey; Finger Paints Are You Blue?, Putty in my Hands, and Art You Wondering?.  Two of the Finger Paints aren't actually for me, but there will be more on that tomorrow. ;-)

So, that's my haul!  I think I'm going on a buying hiatus *except in the case of excellent sales for a little while.  Sales are so satisfying.

31 Day Challenge Day 14: Flower Nails

Hello!  Today's theme in the 31 Day Nail Challenge is flower nails.  I've seen several cherry blossom manicures floating around online and always think they're so pretty so I decided to try one of my own.  I used Sinful Colors Cinderella as the base color and then Julep Niecy for the flowers and black Stripe Rite as the branches. I used Konad Black for the centers, and then didn't let it dry enough (again) before adding top coat.  Since I waited 30 min this time I really just think Konad black never ever dries.  Rawr.  Streaking or no, I still like these and have gotten lots of comments on them today.

14 Days down, 17 to go!

31 Day Challenge Day 13: Animal Print

Hi!  Today is animal print day.  Animal prints on nails seem big lately, but I'm not a huge fan.  Especially of cheetah print...I don't know why, I just particularly dislike cheetah print.  But that's irrelevant.  I decided to do zebra print with Konad black polish and Red Angel plate RA113 on top of Butter London Slapper.  Slapper is such a pretty pretty teal.  It took 3 coats for both full opacity and to smooth out.  I used a dotting tool on my index finger to make a little heart with Julep Niecy.  My top coat dragged the black stamping a little, but I kind of think that makes it look more like a hairy, teal zebra hide.  Stamping with Konad polishes always seems to take FOREVER to dry with me and I almost always have bleeding with it.  Even using the floating method.  Oh well.  I like how this turned out anyway.  I still probably won't make animal prints a regular thing though.  :-)

13 days down 18 to go!  Go check out the other participants at Painting Outside the Lines!

31 Day Challenge Day 6: Violet Nails

Hello!  Today I have a tape manicure for day 6 of the 31 day challenge: violet nails.  I used Julep Charlotte as my base purple then taped diagonally and topped it with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Going Grape.  Then I used Miliani silver glitter striper as an accent.  I really like how these two purples look together!

Tomorrow is black and white day!  6 days down 25 to go!

31 Day Challenge Day 3: Yellow Nails (with a nod to Pink Wednesday)

Today is day 3 of the 31 Day Challenge: Yellow Nails!  I used Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow, as it is the only yellow I own.  I'm not really a fan of yellow, but I actually think I like this.  I may need more yellows.  You would think that yellow nails would be really unattractive because you think of yellowing natural nails as a negative thing, but this is really bright and summery.  I added a lip stamp in Julep Niecy because it is also Wednesday and therefore pink needs to happen or I can't sit with the cool kids at lunch.

There you have it!  3 days down 28 to go!

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Colors Used: Sally Hansen Mellow Yellow & Julep Niecy
Technique: Stamping
Purchased: Target & Julep
Verdict on the colors: Pretty!

31 Day Challenge Day 1: Red Nails

Today is the first day of the 31 Day Challenge hosted by Painting Outside the Lines!  If anyone else wants to join you have until 11:59 PM PST today to enter.  The first few days of the challenge are just basic colors, and I'm going to keep it pretty simple the first few days because the challenges get more involved as it goes on so I don't want to wear myself out.  Today's theme is red nails so I used my new Julep January polish that came in my Spring Mystery Box.  I love this red!  It's a classic cherry red and reminds me of what the original Barbie wore.

See?  Pretty sure she's wearing Julep January.

I think this color is going to be my summer toes color.  I don't know if it's my monitor or the picture but it looks a little orangey here...it's not.

One day down 30 to go!

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Colors Used: Julep January
Technique: Plain ol' painting
Purchased: Julep Spring Mystery Box
Verdict on the colors: Simple, classic red.

"Vintage Fabric" Manicure

I had this manicure in mind the minute I saw Molly and Alyson in the Julep April Maven lineup.  Alyson is an almond colored creme and is not something I think I would ever wear on it's own, but as a base for stamping I really like it!  Unlike some of the other Julep polishes I've tried this one definitely needs two coats.  Then I stamped Molly over it using plate RA-109.  Then I used some french tip guides to do the tips.  I'm really happy with how this one turned out, it has kind of a vintage upholstery look about it.  My top coat bubbled horribly on a couple nails but it would up just contributing to the antique look so I'm ok with it.

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Colors Used: Julep Molly and Alyson
Technique: Stamping
Purchased: Julep Maven.
Verdict on the colors: Alyson good as a base but wouldn't wear it on it's own.  Molly is pretty and stamped very well!

Pink Wednesday: A Dupe?

My Julep add-on (Niecy) arrived over the weekend, and when I set it on my end table I noticed it looked a lot like OPI's Strawberry Margarita which happened to also be sitting on my end table.

What do you think?

Here my index and ring fingers are painted with the OPI, the middle and pinky fingers are painted with the Julep.  Sorry for the total lack of clean up.  I was just swatching these and then taking it off to do something else.

So, dupes?  They were super close.  I think Strawberry Margarita has a tad more blue in it.  And I will say I like the application of Niecy better...this is 2 coats of each and you can see on my ring finger that Strawberry Margarita still has some thin spots.



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Colors Used: Julep Niecy, OPI Strawberry Margarita
Technique: Quick 'n dirty painting
Purchased: VyVy's and through Julep Maven program
Verdict on the colors: Super similar!  Like application of Julep better.

April Julep Box

My April Julep box got here yesterday!  I got the Boho Glam box instead of It Girl this month because it's flip flop season and I wanted the pedi creme!  I also got one add on because I did really like the Nicey one from the It Girl box.

This month's Boho Glam box came with Alyson, Molly, and the aforementioned pedi creme.  I've yet to try them, so as soon as I do I'll post polish pictures and whatnot.  It was packaged beautifully, as always, and came with little chocolate eggs for Easter.  It looked really nice opening it with the pink paper wrapping, green bow & grass crinkles, and chocolate eggs!

Alyson is the almond creme, Molly is the cherry red creme.

I really love the Julep program!  If you don't have it yet and want to try it click HERE to take the style quiz and try it.  You can try it for only $.01 (A PENNY) by using code COLOR2012.  After that it's $19.99 a month and you get at least $40 of nail polish and other beauty products a month, with a chance to preview the upcoming month and skip it if you don't like it.  It's also cancel-able at any time, so you could just get your penny box and then cancel.

Do you subscribe to the Julep Maven program?  If so which box did you get this month?

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Julep Glitter

I went to visit my family last weekend and borrowed the nail polish my sister had brought with her!  She signed up for the Julep Maven program last month too and had Viola from her Bombshell box as well as Sephora by OPI To the Glitter End.  Viola is a deep, raisin colored creme polish.  I wasn't sure how the glitter would look layered over it, but I really liked it!

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Colors Used: Julep Viola, Sephora by OPI To the Glitter End
Technique: Layering
Purchased: Borrowed from baby sister
Verdict on the colors: I like Julep's polishes, and this color was really pretty.  However, it wasn't super "me" so I'm okay with just borrowing it occasionally.  I think I might buy the Sephora one though.

March Julep Maven Box!

My March Julep Maven box got here today!  I can't wait to actually try out the colors (versus painting over yesterday's manicure with each of the colors just to see).  This month the It Girl box came with Melissa, Jodie, and Charlotte.  I believe of the bunch Charlotte is going to be my favorite, she is a pretty lavender creme.

If you aren't familiar with the Julep Maven program, it's a nail polish of the month club, and comes with at least $40 worth of nail polish/beauty products depending on your box for $19.99.  You get to preview the upcoming months box to make a decision and can cancel if you don't like that month's.  You can also switch your style if you like a different box better.  If you use coupon code COLOR2012 then you get your first box for $0.01.  You can find out more and sign up HERE.  **Disclaimer, Julep does not pay me, I just think it's a great deal :-)


Polish reviews and swatches to come.

Tape Manicure/First Julep Box

I didn't take pictures of my first Julep Maven box, but February's "It Girl" box came with Rachel, Oscar, and Elizabeth.  I'd never tried the Julep brand before, but the deal on the Maven boxes is amazing and was the perfect opportunity to try!  I love them.  I decided to try a tape manicure with Rachel and Elizabeth.  Rachel is SO pretty.  I took probably 50 pictures trying to capture how shimmery and deep the color is and still don't feel like I adequately captured it.  It really is beautiful in real life. 

This one is way over exposed, but you kind of get more of the glimmery-ness of Rachel here.

I really liked this manicure.  I got multiple compliments about it at work and even a referral credit for Julep out of it. 



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Colors Used:  Julep Rachel and Julep Elizabeth
Technique: Taping
Purchased: Through the Julep Maven program (disclaimer: not being paid by Julep).  If interested you can find out about the Julep Maven program HERE And use discount code COLOR2012 to get your first box for only $0.01. 

Verdict on the colors: LOVE both of them!  I really like the Julep formula, it's so smooth and the colors are really vibrant.  I used 2 coats of Rachel, but both are already pretty opaque in 1 coat.  I want to try stamping with them.