Movember Nails!

Hey everyone! Long time no posting, sorry about that! Hopefully once I graduate I'll be able to post more regularly.

For today's nail art, I have a review of mustache charms from the Born Pretty Store! I've had these for a pretty long time, but was waiting to use them specifically for Movember. If you don't know what  Movember is, feel free to click this link and read about it :) Essentially men grow mustaches to raise awareness for mens health.

For this manicure, I knew I wanted to do some sort of fall plaid and place a mustache on top. It wasn't until I saw Wondrously Polished's plaid nails posted on her Instagram today that I knew what color combination I wanted to use.

I Love Nail Polish Swatches!

Hello everyone! I have some very exciting swatches to show today from the brand I Love Nail Polish. I love these, even the packaging, which I will talk about at the very end.

Matthew Peri is made of periwinkle, gunmetal, navy blue, and prism glitters in various sizes and shapes. I love this, and I imagine over white, it would look very wintery. I watch Friends on the regular, so I love the name of this. The formula was great, not too thick, not too think. In this photo, I have one layer of Matthew Peri over Julep Meryl.

So Ghoul is a Halloween polish with silver, black, purple and even a few yellow glitters. I don't have many polishes with yellow glitter so it's very unique to my collection. The formula is nice, not too thin, not too thick. In this photo, I'm wearing So Ghoul over Orly You're Blushing.

Bad Mogwai is a Gremlin inspired polish and a combination of black and green glitters. There are hexes, bars, and even squares. This polish was also made for the Halloween collection, but as you can see, it doesn't have to be just for Halloween. In this photo, I've layered it over OPI La Paz-itively Hot. The formula for this was also great. Even if I didn't love this polish, which I do, I'd love it just for the name. My pugs name is Gizmo, after the mogwai in the Gremlins movie. When he was still a puppy, we would say that at certain times of the day, he would turn into a gremlin himself. Now he just sleeps all the time :)

Now onto the packaging!

Each polish comes in its own box, with a die cut heat, showing off the labels on the bottles. The designer in me just swooned when I saw this, seriously. So in love! The handles are nice too, they kind of have a rubber/grippy feel too them so it's easy to open the polishes.

And the bottom of every bottle has a color coordinated label with the name of the polish.

I Love Nail Polish can be purchased on etsy for $10.00 a bottle. The Winter Collection looks absolutely stunning.

*Products provided for my honest review*

31DC2012 Day 6: Violet

It's 10:20 pm where I'm at, so sorry that this is being posted so late. I had school and blah blah blah let's talk about these nails!

For day six, I honestly had no idea what I was going to do. I spent the day at school thinking I was going to paint some purple pansies and by the time I got home, I didn't feel like it anymore. Then it came to me, I wanted to do The Count from Sesame Street. I don't think I've ever done anything this complicated before and I'm so happy with how he turned out (and those cute little bats...awwww).

I used a medium length striper brush for this manicure. 

The polishes I used are Orly You're Blushing, OPI Funky Dunkey, Julep Meryl, a mixture of Julep Anne and Penelope, Julep Emilie, Finger Paints Pop Art Purple, and Jordana Pop Art striper polishes in black and white. 

Check out other ladies nails for today :)

31DC2012 Day 5: Blue

Day five is blue. I had to do something simple because of school so I figured I'd try out a seran wrap mani. I like it, it looks like water to me. if I would've had time I would've done bubbles or pool toys.

For this I used Julep Jessica, Color Club Chelsea Girl, and OPI snow for the little white dots.

Check out the other bloggers participating in the 31 day challenge!

31DC2012 Day Four: Green

Okay, I said yesterdays nails were my favorite, but I think I love these wayyy more. Also, I own too many green polishes, I even have tons of green glitters but I was trying to limit it to cremes. I used twelve green polishes all together, and I wouldn't have had to repeat if it wasn't for my thumb.

Here's the long list of polishes used-

Julep: Alma, Courtney, and Emilie.

China Glaze: Four Leaf Clover and Electric Pineapple.

OPI: Did It On 'Em, Jade Is The New Black, Mermaid Tears, Who The Shreck Are You?, and Stranger Tides.

Zoya: Tracie

Orly: Viridian Vinyl

and Jordana Pop Art striper brushes in black and white.

Check out the other ladies doing the 31 Day Challenge!

31DC2012 Day Two: Orange

Day two is orange nails. I'm definitely stumped when it comes to these color days. I've done something similar to this before and I liked it so I thought I'd recreate it in orange.

Took my photos outside this time but there's no sun. I usually take photos in my room, but if you follow me on instagram you'd know my room is currently under construction.

For this, I used Julep Alyson (my favvvvvv nude), Orly Old School Orange, Sally Hansen Whirlwind White, and China Glaze Black Leather.

Here's a recap of all the days coming up. Only 29 to go!!

Check out other bloggers taking part in the 31 Day Challenge!

31DC2012 Day One: Red

I've decided that I'd take part in the 31 day nail art challenge. I'm going to try my best to post everyday, we'll see. Day one is red. I'm not really sure what's going on with my nails, but I kinda like it. Can't go wrong with stripes and diamonds, right? Right.

Yeah, I know in my last post I said I only owned like two reds, but I lied. Not purposely, I just forget about the OPI minis I have, like all the time.

I used OPI Sanguine, OPI Pedal Faster Suzi, and Julep Delaunay. 

And heres a photo describing all the days (from Chalkboard Nails).

Julep September It Girl

It's the first of September so I thought I'd post swatches of Julep's It Girl September box! In this month's box I received Otte, Delaunay, and Alma. I also decided to make the Boho Glam Lengthening Mascara an add-on. Julep partnered with designer Trina Turk to create these fall nail colors, inspired by Turk’s Modernist Maverick Collection. On to the swatches...

Otte is a camel creme color. Awesome formula, two-coats, quick dry-time. Don't think it goes with my skin tone, whoops. Honestly, I don't even care, I love nudes, I love this, love.

Delaunay is a nice, bright, red creme. Again, amazing formula, two-coats, quick dry-time. I don't own very many reds, actually the only red I own is China Glaze Phat Santa, so I love this. It stains quite a bit though, as you can see, I had a hard time removing it from my cuticles. 

Alma is a dijon mustard creme. It's one of the many ugly yet pretty green/yellow shades (CG Electric Pineapple, OPI Did It On 'Em, OPI Who The Shrek Are You, etc). However, it's not a dupe for any of those. It might be more like OPI Fiercely Fiona, but I don't own that so I can't say for sure. I love this though, mustard yellow is one of my favorite colors. And Alma also has a great formula, two-coats, quick dry-time. Seriously, some of my Julep's have not-so-great formulas, but these are just awesome!

Now for the awkward, 'let me show you mu eyeballs' part of the post.

I'm gonna start off by saying I don't know much about mascara. I think I've went my whole life only using two different brands and I'm happy with my current one, but I've never used brown mascara and wanted to try it out.

So there's my left eye mascara-free.

And here's my right eye wearing the Boho Glam Lengthening Mascara. Hands down, adds length. Seriously, awesome. It's not really as brown as I thought it would be, but it's definitely not black. My eyelashes are kind of dark naturally, so I'm sure it would look more brown on someone with lighter lashes. I really like this product, it does what it says, it isn't clumpy, it doesn't feel too heavy, my eyelashes don't stick together. Like seriously, I'm wearing it right now and I completely forgot I was wearing mascara because I can't even feel it.

If you’re not a Julep Maven yet, click here and take the quiz to receive your first box.  Use the code COLOR2012 or PENNY at check out to get it for only a penny! As always, let me know if any of those codes do not work!

Octopi, Octopuses, or ... Octopodes?

Day 7 of the Superfluous Nail Art Challenge is animal spots. I had to think about what to do for this one quite a bit, but then it hit me. I decided to do the Blue Ring Octopus. A quick google image search will show you that these octopuses are any color from a light beige to a bright yellow but they always have these vibrant blue rings.

And now for a little English lesson. I've done some research, and while all my life (and maybe yours too) I've been told that the correct way to pronounce multiples of octopus is 'octopi.' However, throughout history it has been referred to as 'octopi,' 'octopuses,' and 'octopodes.' Here is a nice little video about that, if you're interested.

I decided to go with the taupe/beige color for the base, and put a bright orange/yellow in the middle of the rings. I do think this manicure is sort of strange, but for some reason I can't stop staring at it, seriously, I just love it.

The colors used were Julep Alyson, Julep Parker, Color Club Chelsea Girl, and China Glaze Liquid Leather.

And, out of curiosity, what word to you use for multiple cephalopods?

Ombré Hombre

Day five of the Superfluous Nail Art Challenge is gradient (or ombré) nails.

I wanted to do something more than just a regular gradient, so originally I was going to add white stripes. I had seen it on some guys swim trunks at the beach and I really liked it; however, when I started painting the stripes on my nails, they didn't look how I envisioned so I quickly removed them.

Then I remembered when Sarah from Chalkboard Nails used Windestine's Asbestos over her Springtime pink and green gradient and thought I'd borrow that idea. I seriously love this look, one of my favorite manicure's I've ever done, and to me it screams summer.

The gradient technique I used is The Nailasaurus's gradient tutorial. The only difference is, I don't use a kitchen sponge, I use one of those wedge sponges used for applying makeup. I've tried various ways of doing gradients but hers just works the best for me.

For this manicure I used Julep's Jessica and Taylor and Windestine's Asbestos. Asbestos is a clear base made of of itty bitty white square glitters. Windestine polishes can be bought through her etsy and big cartel.

Julep August American Beauty

Hey guys! It's my first post on a real blog. Pretty awesome, huh?
Anyway, this month was Julep's one year anniversary and they filled the boxes with variety of metallics. I'm normally an It Girl but this time I switched to American Beauty. Dakota was calling my name. On to the swatches and review.

Dakota is described as a "rose-gold metallic chrome" and that's just what it is. Absolutely gorgeous, applied like a dream. It was opaque with just one coat but I did two for the photos just even everything out a bit. I thought it would be really similar to Essie's Pennytalk, however, upon visiting WalMart, I've seen that it's not. This is a bit darker and is actually more similar to color of a penny, in my opinion.

Stefani is described as a "gold-flecked grey metallic." To be honest, this was kind of a let down. I thought the gold flecks would be more obvious, but honestly I can only see them because I know they're supposed to be there. They are more noticeable in the bottle than on the nail. This formula for this was okay, I've had worse. It bubbled a little but I'm not sure if that's my fault or the fault of the polish.

This month Julep announced a new product, their acetone-free conditioning nail polish remover. I've only used it for clean up on the above swatches so far so I supposed you can be the judge of how well it works. I really love the pump action bottle, it's something I've been thinking of buying for awhile now and haven't gotten around to it, so now I don't have to. The smell is okay, not bad but not good. I want to say it smells like unscented lotion and with a little bit of something else. It definitely conditions like it says it does. I'm very pleased with it so far.

If you’re not a Julep Maven yet, click here and take the quiz to receive your first box.  Use the code COLOR2012 or PENNY at check out to get it for only a penny! (If the codes do not work, please let me know)