Julep July 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I’ve (finally) got another post out for you, which I really should have done a looonnnnngggg time ago. I apologize to all my readers for not posting as much as I wanted to in July (seriously, I only wrote like 3 posts last month…). Last month I was just all over the place physically and mentally because of my move, and I was in a pretty bad funk for the remainder of the month. Acclimating to a new way of living takes me an extremely long time; this time is especially difficult now that I have to adjust to having a much longer commute than before. It got to the point where doing anything felt like a chore – even things I wanted to do – so I postponed nail art for longer than I should have. I’m trying to force myself out of my “funk” by pushing myself to do more, and I think it’s working. It’ll just take some time, and then I’ll be back to normal. Anyways, again, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to leave my blog for this long, but I ended up feeling semi-crazed for pretty much the whole month.

This post is all about my Julep July 2015 Maven box (Drenched Collection), which I really should have gotten around to before it became over a week into August. The Drenched Collection was rather interesting because it had a huge variety of polish finishes – Julep said that this collection had the most different finishes out of all collections ever – and the colors were all quite lovely. I settled on four polishes from the collection, including two special finish polishes, which I used to create some super fun butterfly wing nail art. Read on!

Emi’s Manis Turns One! Part Two

Hi everyone! I apologize for keeping you all waiting for longer than I expected, but I got kind of burned out for a few weeks and didn’t feel like I had enough energy for blogging. Now that I’m feeling better, I present to you: the second installment of my first blogiversary! In the first part, I talked about how much the past year has meant to me with this blog, and in this post, I want to do a couple of commemorative things to really celebrate the personal significance of this occasion.

And what better way to do that than with nail art? Since I figured this was supposed to be a post commemorating the first year that I’ve been blogging about my nails, I decided to do some nail art styled after the very first mani I blogged about. I didn’t want to do exactly the same thing, just mimic it. Plus, as a bonus, I’ve got a special something for my readers – a GIVEAWAY!!! My first one ever! I hope you like it 🙂

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!

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!

Swatch – Zoya Channing

Hi everyone! I have a quick swatch today of Zoya Channing, which is this astoundingly glowy red-orange shimmer polish. Let’s all admire it, shall we?

Julep InstaGrim Part III: Chevron Candy Corn

Hi everyone! I’ve got the third installment of my Julep InstaGrim series, which completes my Halloween manicures! As I’ve described before, I created a series of Halloween nail art designs for Julep in order to help them promote their contest on Instagram, and am dedicating a blog post to each one; you can read more about it in my first post of the series. This latest one is about my version of candy corn nail art, which is to make a “Chevron Candy Corn” manicure. In total, the designs are:

1. Haunted Hollow
2. Ghastly Gradient
3. Chevron Candy Corn

The chevron candy corn design was inspired by some chevron decals that Julep sold in the October Maven window, which I picked up. When I was thinking of nail art to do for the InstaGrim contest, I thought of candy corn nail art because I love candy corn, but then I thought – nah, that’s been done to death. But then I thought: well, what about candy corn with a twist? And then these chevron decals came to mind, and I was sold on the idea! Chevrons are a great graphic pattern (quite suitable for bright colors) and they’re very of-the-moment. Plus decals/stencils are so easy to use to create clean lines. I didn’t end up using the Julep decals because I thought my friend Kimi might like them, so I came up with a DIY alternative for those of you who are not in possession of chevron decals. They work, but you can probably get better results with the professional ones. Read on to learn how to do them and see the tutorial!

Pumpkin Patch Nail Art with Julep

Hi everyone! I am back with exciting nail art…finally! This month’s outrageous workload may be wearing me down a lot, and we’re only one week in, but I still really wanted to do nail art so I made it happen.

Today I’ve got another seasonal design to add to my fall nail art catalog: a pumpkin patch! The idea for this design came about when I shopped at Julep’s secret store this month and picked up the “Pumpkin Patch” duo (Mariska and Lizanne). When I thought about the two colors together, I went with the obvious and decided to use both polishes, plus a whole bunch of others, to paint a pumpkin patch on my nails. Since this idea was pretty heavily related to Julep’s “Pumpkin Patch” duo, I decided to go with Julep polishes for the whole thing. Besides, so many Julep polishes are sitting in my box of untrieds – just waiting to have their moment to shine – so I thought I’d give a bunch of them a go. I have a mini-tutorial at the end for anyone interested in seeing the process!

There really have been quite a few fall designs that I’ve done recently. Autumn is definitely nail art season for me.

Orange and Cream Vertical Stripes

Hi everyone! I have some pretty basic nail art today: vertical stripes in different shades of orange on a cream-colored background. This idea has been sitting on my nail art to-do list for quite some time, so I’m glad I finally got around to it. It’s pretty fun and summery, and the brightness of the orange makes me happy 🙂

Swatch: Wet n Wild Club Havana and New Instagram

Hi everyone! I have some news: I’ve started a new Instagram account (@emismanis) for my nails! Maybe you’ve noticed the nifty widget in the sidebar to the right… I intend to use it to post “action shots” of my manicures out and about in the world, as opposed to the photos I take for the blog against a black background. By this, I mean that the Instagram account is going to be a supplement to my blog that features more fun/less serious photos than on the blog (and won’t have a significant amount of text). Feel free to follow it if you like!

Today I have a quick swatch of Wet n Wild Megalast Club Havana: a bright red-toned orange creme. The Wet n Wild Megalast line is amazing for two reasons: all of the polishes are $2 and they actually are quite durable. Considering how cheap they are, it’s astounding that these polishes can last for as long as pricier brands (around 6-7 days before tiny chips appear on me, or I feel like removing it). With other cheaper brands, I can get big chips within 1-3 days, which is WAY unacceptable. I don’t even buy Sinful Colors any more for that reason. The polishes themselves typically have decent formulas, although the brush is hard to work with. The only downside to the Megalast line is the small range of colors offered. It would be awesome if there were, say, 50 colors in the line.

Wet n Wild Club Havana

My inaugural post: warm-colored butterflies

Hi everyone! I’ve decided to start sharing my nail art with the world through this blog. For over a year now, polishing my nails has been a hobby of mine that gives me a creative outlet, and lets me have fun playing with lots of colors. Up until recently, I haven’t shared my nail art with anyone outside of my friends and family, but I now feel like I’ve reached a point where I feel confident enough to share my designs with the broader nail art community. I intend to post pictures of my manis on a weekly-ish basis, and perhaps some tutorials if I feel like I’ve come up with something that I think other people would like to imitate. I hope you enjoy my blog!