Lush Lacquer's Flippin Out and some Crazy Awesome Nail Mail!

I was finally able to swatch my Lush Lacquer Flippin' Out.  Since I haven't received a replacement label from the recent name change, I'm just showing the bottle side not the label.  The name of this polish was recently changed and Lush Lacquer asks that we not use the old name--legal reasons, I suspect!  Anyway, this is Flippin' Out over Julep's Emilie.  Great combo, right?!

Yet another label problem with one of my nail mails-- I ordered Princess Celestia from Darling Diva Polish and the bottle was mislabeled.  The store owner is sending me a replacement label but I couldn't wait to show it to you.   Love it in the bottle and will soon have it on my fingers and toes!

 This next polish is Strawberry Limeade from Two Birds One Store.  It reminds me of a different take on Floam or Sand Art.  Soo pretty and says "summer" to me.

I get a lot of polish advice from following The Trace Face Philes blog and facebook page.  She said the Windestine store was open and so I ran over to score these two beauties.

 Someone else on Facebook posted that HSN was having a sweet deal on Deborah Lippman polishes.  Don't Tell Mama and Dream a Little Dream of Me are full size and were under $10 for the pair.  Brings my humble total of DL polishes to 5!

I must confess that I recently dropped my Julep subscription.  There was a little problem with my gift certificate order never arriving and I was given the run around by customer service. After not receiving their 2nd attempt of shipping I gave up.  Still, I love America and O Canada so I happened upon a deal where if I ordered two Julep polishes, I'd receive America for free.  I bought O Canada and the pre-order of Chelsea. So at $24 I got my polishes for $8 a piece.  I'll take that and no, Im not renewing my subscription!

 Last, I ran out of Sinful Colors Snow Me White, one of my nail art staples, and went to Walgreens to replace it.  I found the Suit Up with Haute display and bought these four lovelies too.   I now have 70 Sinfuls...omg!

So I am quickly approaching 500 separate, unrepeated bottles of polish.  That doesn't include the stuff I've bought for giveways.  What an expensive, rewarding,  and cluttering hobby this nail art thing has turned out to be!

A Rainbow of Julep Polishes

I put all my Julep polishes together today and took a picture.

Sooooo pretty!!!

And...five more Julep polishes soon to be added :0)

Nail Mail and another Polish Haul

On my way home again from work, I decided to hit the discount beauty supply store again for some more $1-$2 polishes.  I was not disappointed! $26 dollars later, I had 16 new bottles of polish. 

When I got home, I had my Julep Maven box for this month waiting for me as well!

This month I went with It Girl because Niecy speaks to me and Penelope and Annette are perfect pastels for Spring!  On top of the polishes, Julep sent toe separators and chocolate eggs!  So glad I joined Julep!


I did get my polish fix for now but as most of you know from experience, it doesn't last long.  Can't wait to use some of these awesome holos, chromes, pastels, shimmers, glitters, and cremes!

Key to My Heart Nails

Pinterest how I love thee!  There I was pinning my brains out and I saw these flats that someone pinned!  I repinned them on my Nail Art board

All these nails require is two coats of Glennn, followed by a small nail art brush dipped into Gold Coin.  Freehand the heart lock and heart key and script out the word love and a free handed heart on your other set of nails.  Carefully ooutline the lock, key, and heart with black polish.  Draw a key hole on the lock in black polish and coat all nails with a protective top coat.

These nails are so darling!  Oooh, I bet these would work with some light or hot pink nails too!  Have fun with your nails, girls and guys!

Today is Awesome! Nail Mail!!

The nail gods smiled upon me today as my Deborah Lippmann and Julep Maven orders arrived at the same time.

If you are a glitter fiend like me, you would have jumped at the chance to get two of Deborah Lippman's awesome glitters, Across the Universe and Happy Birthday for 50% off.  Deborah put these two glitters and one other on sale for one day only for a segment on GMA!  I happened to catch her tweet about it and voila! magic happened!

I can tell you that w/o the sale I would never have ponied up the $18 per bottle that the DL polishes, especially these two glittters, sell for so I feel pretty fortunate to have caught the one day sale!

Next, as always, I enjoy the delight that is my Julep Maven box.

No, your eyes aren't deceiving you--that is a nicely sized piece of chocolate in my Julep Box!  I tried some and it was sooo good!  The two polishes I received were Glenn, a sparkly red polish, and Oscar, gold glitter.  I also got some great smelling roll-on cuticle oil.  Last, Jane's tip on my Julep postcard is one EVERY glitter fiend must practice.  She says to get glitter off nails, "saturate a cotton pad with polish remover and then press the pad on the nail for a few seconds before wiping the polish off."  This is exactly what I do.  My tip to add to this is...if your regular polish remover still doesn't work well, you probably should use 100% acetone instead.  This is especially true if you do glitter layers.  Be sure to moisturize your hands prior to glitter removal because leaving remover on your skin for long can and will dry out those cuticles.   Better yet, use your new Julep Roll-on Cuticle Oil to protect cuticles from harsh removers!

Love days like this where I increase my polish stash with polishes on my wish list and polishes that I love and can't wait to use! 

Symbols of Peace Nails

These nails are something I've been mulling over and finally sat down to do.   I do love my causes!

After prepping my nails with a protective base coat of Pro FX Complete 3, I painted three nails (thumb, index, and ring fingernails) with two coats of Julep's Amy.  I painted the remaining nails with two coats of Snow Me White.  Once polish was dry, I free handed a dove shape onto my index and ring fingernails in Snow Me White.  To add sheen, I glossed over each dove with Tokyo Pearl.  I used Black on Black for the single dove eye on each dove.  I then used Julep's Michelle, a fabulous navy, to outline each dove shape. On my middle and pinkie fingernails, I used Golden-I to freehand the olive branches. Using Julep's Selena, I drew in a couple of oval circles for the olives.  Finally, I used Julep's Diane for the olive branch leaves and to outline the olives.   On my thumb nail, I used a nail art brush and gently patted on Snow Me White and Tokyo Pearl in a peace symbol shape to get the cloudy effect.  Once all the art was mostly dry, I covered each nail with Julep's Fast Drying Top Coat. 

I love how these turned out, especially my doves.  Unfortunately, now "This is what it sounds like when the doves cry..." is in my head for the remainder of the night *sigh*.

2012 Aqua Holo Glitter Nails -- My last post of 2011

I hope all you lovelies have a great end of 2011 and start off 2012 with positivity, energy, and love!  I've already posted some 2012 nails but with Julep polishes arriving today, my nails screamed for an NYE celebration. 

Out of the three new Julep polishes, I chose Megan.  I am a sucker for blue, aqua, and teal polishes and Megan is not only shimmery aqua but very pigmented so two coats turned out beautifully and covered my nails with ease.  Check out my swatch...

As you now know, I simply cannot stop at just polish so I did a sponge applied glitter gradient using Kaleidoscope.  I then drew in 2012 on my four main nails in Snow Me White with a nail art brush.  Last but not least, I used Julep's Fast Drying Top Coat to seal it all in!

*Tip* Putting on a top coat not only protects your glitter or nail art but I find that it takes away some of the roughness that glitter polish can produce on your nails.  You don't want to walk around feeling like you have sand paper on your nails, right?!  Use a top coat and smooth out those tips!

Happy New Year, folks!

January Maven Box Arrived!

Just want to warn you ahead of time that this post contains a crazy amount of photos but I wanted you to experience what I do when I get my monthly Maven box!  If you don't subscribe to Julep's Maven program, consider getting on their mailing list for offers at least! 

First up is Julep's Nail Therapy.  This was a bonus freebie to the first 5000 Mavens as a thank you.  I chose this bonus because it specifically says "Hydrates and protects dry, brittle, peeling nails. Nourishes nails with Vitamin E. Dramatic results in just three days" in the product description on Julep.com.  My nails do tend to peel and I will let you know the results.  I am hoping for stronger nails!

Now onto the polish!  I have to say I was torn between getting my usual American Beauty choice or the It Girl selections this month but I am a sucker for more polish and I don't have colors like these.

Hayden is a very peachy color.  I'm not sure how often I will break her out as a full on nail color but its nice to have for nail art!

Megan is a shimmery blue that does match a few other polish colors but you can't go wrong with the quality of Julep's polish. 

Leah is my FAVORITE.  She's a shimmery bright green and I can't wait to get this color on my nails.

Fashion bloggers and magazines alike are all predicting that one of the beauty trends of 2012 will be Bright Nail Colors so those of us in the know are getting a great start with these three polishes!





Last, I had to post a picture of Jane's Beauty Tip that showed up on the bottom of my Julep postcard.  I do most of my nail art at night and overnight smudges are a common occurrence for me so this tip is something I think everyone should know.  I will be trying it and thanks, Jane!

Julep Hauls from two shipments today!

I finally received my December Julep Maven box.  Also, Julep have a twofer sale last Tuesday so I bought a couple more polishes Ive been drooling over. 

The picture above is what came in the December Maven box.  The Pomegranate Body Creme smells soooo nice.  It leaked a bit in the decorative bag it was sent in but not enough to make a big mess.  I also received Julep's Helena polish which is such a pretty fuchsia color.   I compare it to Sinful Color's Dream On only I bet it dries 10x better.  Looking forward to using it!  I also received Julep's Fast Drying topcoat.  I tend to shy away from anything that says "fast-drying" for my basecoat and topcoats because I want my nail art to last.  Still, I will be trying it out soon!  Last, as an added bonus, Julep threw in these delightful little glitter balls with a business card explaining how to used them.   I recently saw these used in a studded effect over a shiny black base color.  Everyone has been raving about those nails so now I guess I can recreate them!

In the above pic is the two polishes I bought in Julep's two-for-one sale they had recently.  Julep's Amy is such a sweet pretty light blue.  Julep's Charlotte is a divine light purple and how could I resist a polish that shares my name?!  I cant wait to see how these two polishes hold up under stamping.  Last, I did get some samples which I throw in my purse for the days my hands need a little something extra.  

The last pic shows everthing all together that I received today. I wish you could smell the Pomegranate body creme.   Today's haul makes me happy. 

In other news, I do have some exciting new nail art coming up.   I recently came up with following designs:

• Pet Adoption nail art-I am an animal lover from way back!
• Star Trek nail art-  My husband is a big fan and we recently started watching the original series
• Chipotle nail art-  I love this restaurant and its roots are in Denver so I have to pay homage!
• Burt's Bees nail art- Another product I love, I always have two or three chapsticks floating around!
• Nails, Actually nail art-  Wanting to do some great nails that promote my blog!

So as you can see I'm going to be busy with all my new polishes and products and ideas.   There is never enough time in the day...