Julep January 2016 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’m back with new material today: a subscription box post! Instead of going through the backlog of subscription boxes that I didn’t get around to last year, I decided to skip ahead to this month’s Julep box to keep it current (well, sort of current, since it’s not January anymore). So today I have my January 2016 Julep box (New Year, Fresh Look) to show off on the blog, replete with swatches and nail art!

This month’s collection was full of gorgeous cool-colored shimmery shades that immediately caught my attention, so I was very taken with the polishes this month since those are right up my alley. For this month’s box, I just stuck to my favorite three shades from the collection, but there were so many other lovely polishes. I used the three colors plus Julep Mahima to create some eye-catching peacock feather nail art, which came out so very nicely. Read on to see all the polish!

SquareHue August 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I’ve got my SquareHue August 2015 box (the 1970s) to show off on the blog…most of the way through October! I wasn’t able to get around to this post in the past few months because I have been quite overwhelmed by work and life. But nevertheless, I couldn’t NOT do a SquareHue box post! So here it is: the SquareHue 1970s collection!

Swatches – Carpe Noctem Clear Skies and Interstellar Towel

Hi everyone! I’m still here – yes, I am! So…ummm…I’ve been away for a while… A combination of various factors ended up keeping me away from my blog for a month and a half, the biggest one being that I’ve been putting in a lot more time at work. Usually when I come home on weekdays, I’m too tired to paint my nails at all, let alone do nail art. Also, I shifted my spare time towards another creative hobby of mine – sewing – so that I could complete a gorgeous new Renaissance costume for this year’s faire (which is AWESOME). But, yeah, I’ve been away from my blog for a while, which isn’t something I wanted to happen. Hopefully I can get back into blogging more frequently now that I’m not doing as much sewing, and I can eventually move through the backlog of things I’ve wanted to write about (especially the subscription boxes!).

Before I get around to the subscription box posts, though, I thought I’d post some swatches of a few polishes I wore recently by an indie brand named Carpe Noctem Cosmetics. I don’t exactly remember how Carpe Noctem first came to my attention, but I somehow found their Etsy shop and I liked a number of polishes they had and placed an order. They have some gorgeous holographics and shimmers, and the best part is that they offer multiple sizes of the same colors so you can buy smaller (and less expensive) bottles if you want! Since I have photos of some of the polishes I’ve worn, I thought I’d share them: here are Carpe Noctem Clear Skies and Interstellar Towel!

Swatch – Enchanted Polish Daydream

Hi everyone! While I’m busy preparing my subscription box posts for the month, in the meantime, I have a swatch of Enchanted Polish Daydream to show off on the blog. Enchanted Polish is an indie brand with a cult-like following around it that is so intense, it is only possible to purchase bottles within a few hours every couple of weeks or from resellers. Up until now, I hadn’t bought into the hype surrounding the brand because I hadn’t seen anything from them that I felt was worth the expense and the difficulty. But then I saw pictures of Daydream and I was so smitten that I eventually bought a bottle from a reseller at a fairly reasonable price. And so, without further ado, I now present a swatch of the most expensive nail polish I own!

Moving Update

Hi everyone! I’m finally back! Unfortunately, it’s over a week later than I thought I would be, but moving was more stressful than I anticipated. I had a lovely vacation (during which I turned one year older), and I’m now settled into my new place! Thanks to my awesome family who helped me move into my new apartment – a task of Herculean proportions – I am now living in a sweet little place with lovely views in a quiet-ish neighborhood. Moving into my fourth floor walk-up apartment was an extremely difficult task that tired my body out big time, and the process of moving and unpacking was very mentally tiring as well. But I have calmed down now, recovered most of my misplaced valuables, and am ready to get back into blogging!

I don’t really have a coherent theme for this post, so I titled it “Moving Update” since that’s kind of what’s going on here.

Julep June 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! First up, I have an announcement: my giveaway to celebrate my one year blogiversary has ended and I have picked a winner! Congratulations, Cheri M!!! Thanks to everyone for reading my blog, and entering my giveaway – I really do appreciate all of you awesome readers ❤

Today I have my picks from the Julep Maven June 2015 Collection (The Deep End) to show off on the blog! This month’s collection, like the last two, was full of fun brights and mostly cremes, with a few other colors and finishes thrown in. While I loved the color palette and overall look of the collection, I limited myself to my three favorite polishes from the group, one of which has been my dream polish for a LOOONNNG time. As usual, I swatched the polishes, compared them, and did some fun summer nail art with all of them. Read on!

SquareHue June 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’m back with the new SquareHue box for June 2015, which was inspired by the 1950s! This is most definitely the nail polish box that is getting me 100% geared up for summer – you really can’t go wrong with fun, bright cremes like this. Just looking at these colors makes me want to sit down in the backyard and drink some ice cold, homemade lemonade (one of my favorite summer activities 😀 ). I got such an upbeat and fun vibe that I ended up using the three polishes to do some awesome tropical nail art, complete with palm fronds and flowers. A little Elvis in Hawaii, maybe?

With this latest installment of the Decades Collection, SquareHue has now reached the midway point of the year, so I thought it’d be fun to take a look back at my blog posts about the first half of the collection. At the end of this post, I have links to each of the posts, and a bunch of photo grids!

Swatch – Mango Bunny Surprise Bunny #4

Hi everyone! I’ve got a short post today about this cute little indie polish from a brand called Mango Bunny (seriously, how adorable is that name?)! A while ago I saw a swatch of one of their polishes on Instagram (not this one) and I found it so completely mesmerizing that I ended up ordering a bunch of polishes from their Etsy shop, including some “surprise bunny” mystery polishes. I decided to pull out one of them – Surprise Bunny #4 – to wear around for a few days because I was feeling really drawn to the light-blue-with-a-twist thing that this polish is all about.

SquareHue May 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I’ve got the SquareHue May 2015 box to show off on the blog! This next installment in the Decades Collection is supposed to represent the 1940s, and I think this box does a really good job of it – the color scheme is strongly reminiscent of a World War II propaganda poster (like Rosie the Riveter). Overall, I got a bold, strong, and somewhat patriotic vibe from this bunch of colors, and so I did this punchy double-layered star design. It’s bold and splashy and I love it! Read on to see all the stuff!

Julep April 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I have my Julep April 2015 box (Paradise Collection) to show off on the blog (even though I missed the end of the month…again…)! This month’s box was full of brights, and, given how much I love bright colors, I had a lot of fun with this collection. I ended up picking four polishes and, as usual, I swatched them, did a few comparisons, and made some nail art. Since two of the polishes I chose were shimmery blues, I went aquatic with my nail art and did a little seascape with brightly colored fish.