Julep August 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I’ve got my picks from the Julep August 2015 Collection (Muse Montreal) to show off on the blog! I know it’s been a while since my last post (and it’s no longer August), but I thought I should write my August subscription box posts eventually. Seriously, I feel like I’ve been fighting exhaustion all the time now that my commute is now 2 hours every day instead of 5 minutes. Lesson learned: if you can help it, don’t move an hour away from work.

Anyways, I almost didn’t take a box this month because I just wasn’t feeling the particular polishes that made up the collection, despite the fact that I liked the color palette overall. While I eventually convinced myself to take a box using up some of my store credit, I don’t think I chose very well and ended up disappointed with most of my selections. The plus side of taking a box, though, was that I received a set of super fun metallic temporary tattoos as a freebie and I LOVED them! I’d been contemplating getting a set before, and Julep sent some for free! So I used them to create some cute, geometric mix-and-match nail art.

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.

Nail Art – Pink and Rose Gold French Tips

Hi everyone! I’ve got another nail art post for you before I move onto the big stuff coming up soon! I know I haven’t gotten around to doing the second part of my blogiversary posts yet, and also my Julep box post from this month (most likely that won’t make it in by the end of the month unfortunately). But at least I’ve got something going in the meantime!

This weekend I went to an AMAAAAZING gem and jewelry show that had so many fascinating sparkly and shiny objects that the whole experience bordered on sensory overload – it’s THAT glittery. Of course, when you attend a jewelry show, it’s best to keep your outfit as plain and simple as possible in order to make the jewelry stand out more, and so I made a conscious effort to keep my nails on the toned-down side for the show. I’ve been feeling the muted pastel peach/pink colors in the past few days (my taste in nail polish really changes with my mood), and so I ended up doing very dainty French tips in a super feminine pink/rose gold color combo, which was absolutely perfect for the show: simple with just a little shine.

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.

Swatch – Julep Dawnelle

Hi everyone! Before I get going on the subscription box posts for this month (I REALLY want to finish both of them by the end of the month this time!!!), I’ve got a quick swatch of Julep Dawnelle. This insanely sparkly microglitter polish was originally released in the St. Patrick’s Day-themed March 2015 Mystery box (this polish is basically the reason I bought the box), but has since become available for individual purchase. If you’re into dense, full coverage microglitter (I am after I discovered Different Dimension Antheros!), this is definitely a polish to consider because it is SO gorgeous!

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!

Swatch – Julep Kathy

Hi everyone! This is going to be my last vacation post! I’m excited to get some new content going, once I am reunited with my stash, and to move forward with my New Year’s Resolutions! But before I move on to new stuff, I have a swatch of the first polish I wore during my vacation: Julep Kathy. This is the only polish I have to show you from my vacation, since I had the opportunity to take photos of it before my vacation started. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get good photos of the other stuff I had on due to bad lighting and general holiday busyness.

Anyways, Julep Kathy is a lovely polish consisting of this magical iridescent golden fleck glitter that really “glows”. I’m glad I picked it to kick off my vacation, since its golden tone and luminescent quality do remind me of winter and holiday festivities. All the same, I think this polish would be fantastic year-round, and I’m glad I have it in my collection.

Julep December 2014 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I have my picks from the Julep December 2014 collection (Countdown) to share with you! As I wrote in a previous post, I got to see what all these polishes looked like first-hand at the San Francisco Maven Meetup in November, so I was absolutely sure what I wanted to get. This time around, I chose the Bombshell box with no add-ons, since I was only really interested in the two Bombshell polishes out of the selection. Fun fact: for the entire time I’ve been a Maven, the Bombshell box is the one I have most frequently picked out of the four main profiles…in spite of the fact that my default profile is Classic with a Twist. Discounting the month of June (I went with Polish Lover’s), I’ve picked the Bombshell box 50% of the time. Funny how that turned out!

Anyways, the two Bombshell polishes were absolutely gorgeous and I am quite glad that I picked those two. I thought about doing a two-color nail art design with just those polishes, but I had no good ideas. So I decided to add a few more colors and do something more awesome: Hanukkah nails! In the spirit of the season, I wanted to do a fabulous manicure that celebrates my favorite winter holiday (Chanukah/Hannukah/Hanukkah/whatever spelling variant), and I opted for a dreidel nail art design. For those of you who don’t know what the game of dreidel is, I’ll write down the game instructions at the end, if you’re curious. Read on!

Julep November 2014 Maven Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’ve got my picks from the Julep November 2014 collection today (Friendsgiving)! While work has been quite busy for me (and will be until January), I really wanted to get this post going because I am quite excited about it. This month, Julep’s “Friendsgiving” collection had a nice fall-to-winter transitional look – some warmer, muted fall colors mixed with cooler and more saturated winter shades. And there were a variety of different finishes between all the polishes, so there was something for everyone. For me, that “something” was the It Girl box this month. While I liked the overall look of the collection, and a few of the polishes looked intriguing, I decided to go for just the It Girl box with no add-ons. Mascara was a no-go for me (I have never worn mascara, and never will), leaving my options as It Girl, Polish Lover’s, or nothing. Two of the colors in the It Girl box looked awesome, so I used some Jules (store credit) and went for it! I swatched all the polishes, did a few quick comparisons, and combined all three colors into a wintery nail art design. Read on to see everything!

Modern Shiny/Matte French Manicure with Wet n Wild Roadwork

Hi everyone! I have some simple nail art today because this month is CRAAAAZY for me…and we’re only two days in! For work, I have a whole bunch of projects to finish, or significantly work on, by the end of the month and I’m quite anxious about getting everything done. And these are not small projects – these are really big and REALLY IMPORTANT. Therefore, I’m going to warn all of you readers in advance that my nail art this month may be a little underwhelming, and will be on the simpler/easier side. Most likely, I will also be posting less frequently (the last time I posted was over a week ago), so don’t expect too much from me this month. I was really looking forward to doing some really fabulous landscapes soon, but now I may have to postpone that until the somewhat less busy months of November and December.

Anyways, my manicure today is a modern French manicure that uses a brand new color from the Wet n Wild Megalast line called “Roadwork”. By “modern”, I mean that the colors I chose are not sheer pink or white, and that I played with shiny and matte topcoats on the different regions of my manicure. My idea for this manicure actually came from a set of fake nails at a drugstore that I saw and loved, so I decided it would be fun to do something similar on my real nails. Once I saw Roadwork from the new Wet n Wild Halloween collection, I knew I wanted it to be the base color and everything fell into place.