Sunday, May 20, 2012

Julep January Box

So my love/hate relationship with the Julep Maven program continues.  I am still getting these boxes.  Some months are total loves, other months make me think why and I doing this?  For 20 bucks a month I ended up with a lot of dupes or polishes I don't like.  The extra products are either fantastic or terrible.  But then I get a box I love and I second guess canceling.

January was a box I wasn't that thrilled about.  It contained Heather, Blake, and a Pomegranate Body Scrub.  I also got a bonus polish called Demi.  While I was excited for a bonus polish, the options to pick from were all reds which made me sad.  I barely ever wear reds so this was not for me.  The other polishes were wins though!

Julep Maven January Box
Julep Maven January Box
Julep Maven January Box
First up is Blake, a really luscious pretty yellow creme.  It went on super easy in two coats and screams spring.  It's pastel and very feminine.  I don't think I will reach for this often, but I'm glad I have it in my collection.

Julep Blake
Julep Blake
Julep Blake
Next up is Heather, a metallic grey.  I expected this to be brush-stroke city but it was surprisingly easy to apply and had minimal brush strokes.  You can see them a little in the third picture.  The color is unique for me though, I don't have anything else like it.  This is two coats.

Julep Heather
Julep Heather
Julep Heather
Julep Demi is a fail for me.  It's a red creme.  Very traditional and on the darker side.  This is just boring and so not me.  Oh well.  This was two coats but it seems uneven to me.

Julep Demi
Julep Demi
Julep Demi
The Julep Maven program is $20 a month and you can sign up at Julep.com!  On their own their polishes will cost you $14.  If you want, you can sign up using my referal link.  You can also use the code SHAREONMAY to get your intro box for 1 cent!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Layla Jade Green

Hey guys!  I'm back!!!  Kind of... life is still super duper crazy, for both me and Courtney.  Work is insane for both of us, I just finished another semester of grad school, I'm 4 months out from my wedding and Courtney is in baby prep mode.  The good news is - I'm not taking a class this summer!  The aren't offering one I want to take that I haven't already taken.  It does unfortunately push out graduation, but it'll be ok.  More good news - my fiance got me a lens for our camera for close up nail pics!!! So now I'm dying to try it out.  That being said, I have about 5 posts in the draft queue of blogger.  I put the pictures in and then never get around to writing the text.  So before I start posting my new awesome camera photos I need to post these old ones.  It will also give me a little time to get my cuticles back in shape, I've been seriously neglecting them recently.

So on of my long awaited polishes to show you is Layla Holographic Effects in Jade Green.  As someone who is just getting into linear holos, these Layla's are full of win.  I splurged and bought the whole set :P.  I've only tried a few so far.  I use Aqua Base underneath them and then use my OPI DS Top Coat over them.  They aren't the most long wearing nail polishes, but they are so beautiful.  I usually only get 2 days of wear before they chip.  I think my nails hate the Aqua Bases.  Oh well...

Jade Green is a silver that wants to be green.  As you can tell from my pics, it is barely green.  Just a hint can be seen, and mostly when the holo isn't out in full force.  The tricky part is that the holo is almost always out in full force.  I took pictures in pretty much ever light I could find to try to show you the green.  Can you see it?

First up - outside - full sun.

Layla Jade Green
Layla Jade Green
Layla Jade Green
Layla Jade Green
Outside - indirect sunlight

Layla Jade Green
Inside - indirect light

Layla Jade Green
Layla Jade Green

So I've got a lot more Layla's to show you - what do you want to see first once I break out the new lens?  You can get this and the others at places like Aveyou.com and Ulta.com for $15.50 a bottle.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Lynnderella Mercurial

Long time no post guys!  I am so sorry to have been away, especially when Ms. Courtney is so busy as well.  Between work, grad school, and planning a wedding, my time for blogging has been reduced.  I do have a few posts lined up, and I most recently did some serious hauling with Deborah Lippmann, Lynnderella, and Layla products.  For that reason I thought I would bring you 2 out of the 3 today, with a Layla to follow later this week.

I have already showed you Deborah Lippmann's Stormy Weather, but I thought it would make a great base for Lynnderella's Mercurial.  I took what I like to call a picture story of this amazing glitter, because words just can't do it justice.  Well neither can the pictures aparently.  There is so much to this polish you can't see in the picture.  Besides the silver, grey, black and purple glitter of various sizes suspended in a clear base, you have this gorgeous teal shimmer.  It was really hard to capture on camera with my current lens inside, but man, it just sparkles.  And check out the HUGE hexagon on my middle finger :).  I love this.

Lynnderella Mercurial over Deborah Lippmann Story Weather
Lynnderella Mercurial over Deborah Lippmann Story Weather 
Lynnderella Mercurial over Deborah Lippmann Story Weather 
Lynnderella Mercurial over Deborah Lippmann Story Weather 
Lynnderella Mercurial over Deborah Lippmann Story Weather 
Lynnderella Mercurial over Deborah Lippmann Story Weather 
Lynnderella Mercurial over Deborah Lippmann Story Weather 
Lynnderella Mercurial over Deborah Lippmann Story Weather 
This is just so cool. :)  If you are into this edgier glitter look, I highly recommend trying to get your hands on Mercurial.  It's pretty difficult to get at this point, but you'll want to head over to Llarowe's website to request to be put on the wish list when it reopens.  Stormy Weather can still be purchased from Deborah Lippmann's website, or my ever favorite - Zappos.com.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Catch-Up Spam, Anyone?

Since I'm already failing on my promise to get it together with my blogging, I thought it might help if I just go ahead and get caught up on all my manicures I haven't gotten around to posting yet.   That way I don't have a HUGE backlog of stuff to overwhelm me post.  Sound good?  Awesome!  Let's get started!!


Nails Inc. Whitehall - Gifted to me by my coworker, who totally gets my nail polish "thing," I was SO excited to try this.  It came out pretty cool, but admittedly not as good s this photo would lead you to believe.  My nails are just too curvy for the flat magnet, so I had a hard time getting the pattern to wrap all the way around.  I didn't think fighting with it to make it work would be worth my while, so I've re-homed this one.



Color Club Revvvolution - Not a new polish, but definitely one of my absolute favorites.  The holo isn't super strong, but it's definitely there.  Even when it's not, this polish has one of the coolest textures I've ever seen.  If you could color your nails with a graphite pencil, it's exactly what it would look like.  The holo version of Revvvolution seems long gone now, but I still think this one's worth picking up anyway.  Plus, it's only like $3!





Jessica Disco Diva - Shame on me for not giving this polish its own post.  It deserves it.  Hell, it deserves its own blog!  This isn't my first linear holo to own, but it's the first one I've actually tried (GOSH Holographic is still sitting in my Helmer untried.  I know.).  I owe Jessie big time for this one, because this polish is awesomeness in a bottle.  The holo effect is so strong, it shows up under pretty much every lighting except overcast and darkness.  It should be illegal to drive while wearing this polish.  It's that amazing.


OPI I Don't Give a Rotterdam - A pretty greyed out blue with golden flecks.  It's pretty, but it actually kind of bored me.  Maybe because I wore this right after Disco Diva.  It really is lovely, I just wasn't blown away.



A-England Princess Sabra - I was itching to try this one ever since I saw Jessie's swatches, and I loved it just as much as I'd hoped to.  It actually leans a little green, so it's not completely unwearable if you typically shy away from golds.  The holo effect is subtle, but definitely there, especially in the sunlight.  It had a great formula too, but I've almost come to expect that from A-England.  Perfection.



Rescue Beauty Lounge Jane - Another feeble attempt at my epic journey to find my perfect nude.  This ain't it.  I had so many issues with this one.  The formula was sooooo thin that I needed four (!) coats for full coverage, and then it didn't really self-level at all.  It almost had that same chalky feel that the some of the OPI Pirates Collection had.  Really weird for an RBL.  Then it just leaned REALLY grey on me. More so in real life than in these photos.  I mean I love me a good grey, but I was just hoping this one was going to be more nude.  Then to top it all off, none of that gorgeous shimmer in the bottle showed up on the nail.  NONE.  Even in full, direct sunlight, I was grasping at straws to see any shimmer.  Le sigh.  The only good thing I can say about this polish is that it wore like IRON.  While most of my polish nowadays wants to jump off my nails in less than a day, I got 5-6 days of perfect wear out of this one!



Butter London HRH - A lovely red-toned purple shimmer.  It's vibrant, but deep at the same time.  I really liked this one, but I was surprised when it took three coats for full coverage.  For some reason I was really thinking this would be a standard Butter London two-coater.  It's nothing to write home about, but if you're missing a good purple shimmer for your collection, this may be a good one to check out.

Aaaaand, that's it!  Phew!  Hopefully NOW I can get back on track!  Hopefully.  Besides battling after-work laziness, I started this:


If you haven't read it, I whole-heartedly recommend it!  I just finished the first book, so now I'm totally sucked in to the series.  I can't just casually read while I paint my nails or whatever.  I have to devour the whole thing.  But it's a devour-able kind of book.

But then, I suppose it's finally time to come clean with the BIGGEST reason I've been shying away from blogging:


Yup.  The hubby and I are expecting our first child in September!  It's been such a ride for the past few months since we found out!  I battled extreme fatigue (but thankfully no sickness) for the first two months, and it's definitely getting much better but it's still very difficult to hunch over for an hour a few times a week to get my nails painted.  Plus, I've had some pretty bad headaches that just get worse when adding polish to the mix.  I also switched my base coat and top coat combination since both of my old products were NOT Big 3 Free, and since then I haven't had any kind of good wear on my polish (except for with RBL Jane).  

When my polish chips, it leaves my weak nails extremely vulnerable to breaks, so at this very moment I'm sporting 6 breaks in all of my nails - an all-time high for me.  Pregnancy is supposed to make your hair and nails amazing, but I have yet to see those benefits.  My nails are in terrible shape, but I just can't bring myself to nubbinize them just yet.  But I also just don't have the heart to show you guys photos of my nails looking like crap.  It's a catch-22 for me.

SO!  Now you know it all, and I hope you can find it in your hearts somewhere to forgive me for the general lack of posting.  I appreciate all of your love and support while I figure out how to make all of this work through pregnancy and baby.  I hope to be able to share with you whether we're having a boy or a girl in just a few weeks!  :-)

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Joe Fresh Teal

Good gracious guys, I've been such a doofus when it comes to blog posts lately.  I feel like work is sucking the life out of me lately, so I just come home, eat dinner, and then the hubby and I veg out on the couch trying to get caught up on all the shows we DVRed throughout the week.  I'm usually not a huge fan of "apology posts," but please - forgive me.  I promise I'm gonna get back into the swing of this.  I've got a lot of catching up to do!

First up, yet another polish I owe Jessie big time for snagging for me - Joe Fresh Teal.  Not the most creative of names, Joe Fresh, but alright.  "Teal" it is.  Teal is a medium-toned, well...teal, with subtle silver shimmer.  I'd say it leans more heavily on the blue side than green, but it does look greener in some lighting.  The formula was pretty good on this one, but I did find it a little hard to spread around.  I think next time I'll thin it out a bit and see if that helps.  The bigger issue was the brush.  The bottle is short and stumpy, and so is the brush.  And it's attached to the ginormous round lid, which made it a little hard to grip properly.  All very small complaints, though.  I made it work with two coats.

(click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)

Nice, right?  I really loved this color, and got several compliments on it.  But the best part is that you're looking at a $4 (almost) dupe of Rescue Beauty Lounge 360.  360 is one of Jessie's favorites, and she's been raving about it ever since I first met her, but between the $18 price tag followed by the out-of-stock status, I just never got a chance to try it for myself.  Nail board whisperings of a cheap dupe led to (of course) needing it for myself.  Joe Fresh isn't the easiest to snag here in the States, so Jessie managed to pick this up for me during her Christmas trip to New York.  wo0t!  You can check out comparison swatches of Teal and 360 here from the lovely cilucia.  Pretty darn close, huh?

Soooo, back to that whole availability thing.  If you're a Canadian girl, you can probably track down Joe Fresh polishes with ease.  Stateside, not so much.  Right now there's only five stores and they're ALL in the New York City area.  Hopefully they'll start to branch out with more stores across the U.S., but for now it'll take a little work to nail down their polishes.  On the other hand, RBL's got 360 back in stock for $18, if you love the look!  It really is lovely!  :-)

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Julep Maven December Box

So obviously I am still getting caught up on my Julep Maven boxes.  This one was really fun, but actually contained no polish to swatch for you guys.  It came with some peacock feather print nail polish stickers which I haven't tried yet, an amazing smelling pomegranate body creme and some Julep Fast Dry Topcoat.  The also threw in some nail polish glitter in a yellow iridescent in a bar shape.  I was pretty happy with this box overall!  The package was super cute too!

Julep Maven December Box - Boho Glam
Julep Maven December Box - Boho Glam
Julep Maven December Box - Boho Glam
I'll have to post a review of the nail polish strips once I get around to using them.  I have tried to top coat and like it a lot.  I use it when I use Julep polishes.  The Body Butter is pretty fantastic.  It smells amazing unlike their hand lotion/scrub/brightener combo.  I'm not into the nail glitter, but it's a cute idea.

Anyway, sorry this is a boring post!  I'm still subscribed to the Maven program and like it.  These boxes are $20 a month.  I keep thinking about dropping it, but then they send me a polish that looks interesting.  Oh well!

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Max Factor Fantasy Fire

Oh man!  So those of you either really into nail polish or just getting into it have probably heard of Clarins 230.  It's a nail polish so rare, it's been dubbed Unicorn Pee.  It has this amazing color shifting pigment suspended in a purple jelly base.  You can buy it for a ridiculous amount of money on Ebay.  Now I've been know to spend stupid amounts of money on throw pillows (ask Missy), but $60+ on a bottle of nail polish.  No way.

Enter Max Factor.  I read online that they released a very close dupe for Clarins 230.  It came in mini bottles, and was only available in England, and only $6 a bottle.  So next step was how do I get this!!!!!!!!!! Well through some lovely ladies named Jenny and Jill, I was able to get this amazing polish.  I did some quick research and to figure out the perfect undies for it.  Color changing pigments look fabulous over dark colors and I knew I wanted something other than black.  I decided on OPI's Sapphire in the Snow.  

I didn't even get one nail painted before I almost fainted from the amazingness that this polish is.  So amazing I would now actually consider paying $40 for Clarins 230. :)  At least I haven't lost all my sanity right?  Check it out and you'll see what I mean.  There's red, gold, green and teal.  SWOON!

Max Factor Fantasy Fire over OPI Sapphire in the Snow
Max Factor Fantasy Fire over OPI Sapphire in the Snow
Max Factor Fantasy Fire over OPI Sapphire in the Snow
Max Factor Fantasy Fire over OPI Sapphire in the Snow
Max Factor Fantasy Fire over OPI Sapphire in the Snow
Max Factor Fantasy Fire over OPI Sapphire in the Snow
Max Factor Fantasy Fire over OPI Sapphire in the Snow
Max Factor Fantasy Fire over OPI Sapphire in the Snow
Max Factor Fantasy Fire over OPI Sapphire in the Snow
And just to capture the full effect, here is a very shaky video.  Sorry :) I couldn't resist!!!


Unfortunately this polish isn't available online for international shipping, so to get it you'll need a friend in the UK.  It's so worth trying to get though.  Buzz is that this polish may be part of their permanent collection, so you may have some time to acquire it!!!