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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Swatches – Different Dimension Tulips Are Better Than One and Julep Marla

Hi everyone! I sincerely apologize for the lack of blog posts recently. The truth is: I’ve been sick with a really bad cold since my last blog post over a week and a half ago. Between having a fever for a few days, frequent coughing fits, losing my voice for 5 days, and difficulty sleeping, my “energy” for painting my nails (much less nail art) was completely sapped. On the bright side, I’m FINALLY starting to get better after what feels like forever, and I’m back to posting! I know I missed at least one blog post that’s usually a monthly feature on my blog (you probably know what it is), but I hope to get back on track soon and finish up all the things I got behind on when I was sick. Anyways, to any of my readers who have stuck around, thank you so very much for continuing to read my blog ❤

Today I have two swatches of some random polishes I wore while I was sick. The first is Different Dimension Tulips Are Better Than One – a really fabulous bright “blurple” (blue-purple) duochrome shimmer – and the second is the polish I picked to wear on the first night of Passover: Julep Marla. Unlike the majority of the posts where I show swatches of polish, these two don’t really have any relationship to each other. But, still, I thought I’d combine them into one blog post since my swatch posts are pretty short.

Purple Textured Half Moon Manicure

Hi everyone! I have a quick two-color nail art design of textured half moons to show you all today while I’m prepping a large post set to come out soon! In a spur-of-the-moment burst of creativity, I combined two Julep purples – Joanne and Glam Roc – to get this textured half moon design. Considering that not much planning went into this, I think it worked pretty well! The two purples are great together, and a half moon design is a nice way to incorporate textured polishes into nail art.

Julep February 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! I know it’s kind of late in the month (the March reveal is, like, today) but I of course need to do my monthly Julep Maven box post! Today I have a post about my picks from the Julep Maven February 2015 collection (Afterglow), which is the first box I’ve customized. That’s right – I reluctantly switched to My Maven so that I can get what I want out of each collection, and avoid things I don’t. It makes sense at this point, since I usually never want the beauty products and Julep has been putting more and more of them into the Style Profile boxes. Now it’s just polish for me! Yay!

This month, I chose my three favorite polishes from the February collection, plus I got another one (Hartleigh) as a freebie, for a total of four polishes. I used them all to create a nail art design that somewhat echoes the dark, rich florals that were part of the collection artwork.

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!

SquareHue January 2015 Swatches, Comparisons, and Nail Art

Hi everyone! Today I have the SquareHue January 2015 box to share on the blog, complete with swatches, color comparisons, and some nail art! This year, SquareHue is going with a “decades” theme, with each month’s colors representing a decade from the 1900s to the 2010s, and I’m pretty excited for the whole thing. The colors I’ve gotten from SquareHue in the past two months have really inspired me in terms of nail art; it’s a fun challenge for me to take the colors and figure out a good way to combine them, especially since they’re totally random. Given my excitement about the upcoming SquareHue Decades Collection, I’ve decided to continue with them for the indefinite future, and my SquareHue box will be a monthly installment on the blog.

January’s box was inspired by the 1900s and contains some really lovely polishes. Unlike the previous two months’ boxes, which contained some rather offbeat colors, this collection is rather conservative and demure in terms of both colors and finishes. Although I initially subscribed to SquareHue for their unconventionality, I absolutely adore the toned-down elegance of this bunch of polishes, and I’m really happy with this box. With the 1900s as the theme of the collection, I used the three polishes to create some classic-looking floral nail art – inspired by Robin Moses – that reminds me of flowery Victorian era patterns.