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 July 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I have the SquareHue July 2015 box (the 1960s) to show off on the blog! Finally, I’ve gotten around to the subscription box posts! About time, too – it’s almost the end of the month…oops…  Anyways, this is the box that I was most looking forward to for the entire year because I figured that there would be some pretty “out there” polish inside. I was totally psyched for the crazy stuff! Indeed, SquareHue did not disappoint: this is the grooviest bunch of colors I’ve gotten so far from them; it’s highly appropriate for the ’60s and the summer. Since the psychedelic influence of the colors and names was very obvious, I combined all three polishes into an electric daisy design for some flower power on my nails.

Also, as I mentioned in my last post, I’m trying to explore my new neighborhood more now that I’ve moved into a new apartment. Given how much I was digging the ’60s inspiration behind this SquareHue box, I took the opportunity to conduct some firsthand “research” on the decade by traveling to one of the hotspots of the hippie movement on my way home from work one day. I’ve got a bit about that trip, with a few pictures, at the end of the post!

Disney Princess Tiana Waterfall Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’ve got some simple nail art today inspired by Disney’s Princess Tiana! I originally got the idea to do this when I was trying to pick a color to wear, and found myself drawn to light greens. Eventually, when I had settled on using Zoya Tiana to wear, I figured: why not just do some nail art with it? To emulate the dreamy, magical vibe of the swamp that the movie is set in, I decided to do a “waterfall” manicure with a few complimentary shades of green polish, plus some gold to set off the green.

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!

Julep May 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! It’s past the end of the month, but I still have my monthly Julep Maven box post for you! Today I have my picks from the Julep May 2015 collection (Set Sail) and some really adorable chintzy nail art that I made using the polishes. This month’s collection was very creme-heavy, but I did find that I liked a number of the polishes and, luckily, was able to fill some gaps in my collection. While the collection overall seemed to have a nautical theme, I instead used the polishes I got to make some nail art that had been on my to-do list for a long time: floral china patterned nails! You know, like fine china that people serve afternoon tea in. Kinda kitschy, kinda girly, very cute.

By the way, if you haven’t yet entered my 1 year blogiversary giveaway, it’ll be open until the 21st of this month! Follow the link!

Nail Art – Dark Gradient with Metallic Greek Key Pattern

Hi everyone! Sorry about my absence in the past two weeks; I’ve been feeling some “burnout” and felt too exhausted to do nail art/write posts. Anyhow, I’m back with some nail art that I was originally going to post after the second part of my blogiversary thing, but  I’ve been procrastinating on getting that post done so I figured I might as well put this up first.  I’ve been in a rather glum mood recently and the weather’s been nasty, so I’ve been drawn to a lot of dark, moody colors (Julep Elise is my <3) and ultimately decided to try one of the dark-colored nail art ideas that I hadn’t gotten around to. I was inspired by Julep’s metamorphic topcoats to create this (undesirably) subtle dark blue-to-green gradient that I accented with a bit of shiny gold polish in a Greek key pattern. While it didn’t turn out like how I originally intended, I’m still drawn to its dark glamor.

SquareHue April 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I (finally) have my SquareHue April 2015 box to show off on the blog! Things on my blog have been a bit backlogged for me these past few months, but this month I’m hoping to cram both subscription box posts in like I want to, rather than dropping the ball like last month…eventually I’ll get back on track with my blog posts…eventually…

Anyways, back to SquareHue! This April box full of bright, happy colors is supposed to represent the next installment in the Decades Collection: the 1930s. Never in my mind would I have associated the era of the Great Depression with bright, happy colors, but I don’t mind whatsoever because I love this box! These are my kind of colors for sure – I love brights!

St. Patrick’s Day Nail Art – Green Gradient with Gold Shamrocks

Hi everyone! Although it’s several days after the fact, I have my mani for St. Patrick’s Day on the blog! While I am in no way Irish, it’s always a good chance to wear green (my favorite color!) and put on some green nail polish. Plus, I had such a good idea for St. Patrick’s Day nail art that I really wanted to do it. My idea didn’t turn out quite as well as I hoped, but it was still pretty great. Since I did this manicure with the #fourleafjulep Instagram contest in mind (so many Julep contests!), I used all Julep colors for this manicure. Read on!

SquareHue February 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I know it’s the end of the month, but it’s still February so here today I have my February 2015 SquareHue box to show you all! As the second installment in the decades collection, this month’s box represents the 1910s. While I really loved last month’s box, this one was kind of a let down for me in a few ways. I definitely wasn’t as excited about it as the other boxes I’ve gotten, but I suppose they can’t all be winners. At least the colors made for some pretty great nail art! I used all the polishes to make this gradient French tip with roses design, which is super adorable and feminine. I loved it so much that I did a mini-tutorial at the end!

Julep Metamorphic Topcoat Combo – Tilda and Mae

Hi everyone! I’ve been having some technology issues recently that have been delaying me in posting, but, not to worry, I’ve still got stuff to write about! Today I have a quick post about one of the metamorphic topcoats that Julep released this month – Tilda (the green one) – and its polish soulmate Julep Mae. In the January Maven boxes, Julep added one of three free “metamorphic topcoats” that are supposed to transform whatever other color you put them over into something more fabulous. If you recall from my last post, the random metamorphic topcoat that came in my box was actually Tyra (the pink one), but I wasn’t all that jazzed about it. So, thanks to the magic of the internet, I was able to obtain a bottle of Tilda, which I find much more exciting! My experience with Tyra led me to believe that there was probably some magic combination out there that would be truly transforming, and I’m happy to report that I found it! Julep Mae and Tilda were meant to be together because, combined, they make this incredibly ethereal manicure. So perfect!