My October Julep Maven Boho Glam Box & Giveaway Win Nail Mail

After wearing my first halloween mani for 4 days, I loved it, but it was so dark, I was ready to change it up with something lighter. So I was super-excited to get my October Julep Maven box just in time! (If you don't know about the Julep Maven program, click here to read my first post all about it, or click here to try it out for yourself.) First, let me show you what it included:

A full-sized tube of Glow On, an age defying hand brightener (ie. lotion) that I like much better than the regular Hand Cream they sent in the September box. This smells and feels so much better. And of course, the nail colors! Malin - a light pink champagne shimmer - and Gayle - a deep eggplant purple creme that is new for this holiday season.

Malin was the perfect breath of fresh air I needed after my last dark mani. I love the color, but my biggest complaint is that it chips so easily. It chipped on me in less than 24 hours. I reapplied and it chipped again in less than 12 hours! It is possible that it was either my base or top coat, or maybe I just had a nail that was prone to peeling no matter what. I will try it again later to find out for sure, and will hope for the best, because I do love this color.

I know, I know, I was just wearing a dark purple before I wore Malin for 2 days, and yes, part of me wanted to wear something else for a few more days before trying another dark purple, but I really wanted to swatch my other new Julep nail color so I could include it in my post. So here is Gayle. In sunlight on top and flash on bottom. This one has a wonderful formula just like all of the other cremes I've received from Julep so far. I think this was just one coat! I wore it alone for one day, and then I received my giveaway prize from Concrete And Nail Polish! So I just had to try out Nubar 2010!

My first Nubar and my first flakie!!! Can you tell I love it?! This has got to be my most picture-heavy post yet! And this is only one coat of Nubar 2010, it's that flakie!

Here's a pic of everything I got in my first giveaway nail mail - Tic Tac 174, Green Litter, 231, Nubar 2010, and she also included the cute Sonia Kashuk makeup bag as a surprise! I love it so much! Thanks April! You'll always be my first...giveaway win that is! 

Well, I think this post is long enough!

Thanks for reading!

Crystal

My First Halloween Mani

In past years, the most I've done on my nails for Halloween was either press on some fake nails I bought at the drug store, or just paint my own a dark blood red. I was never confident enough to even try black polish on my short nubbins, I was always afraid it would look too goth on me. I only recently purchased my first bottle of black polish for nail art purposes. I actually like the look of it on my healthy nails! : )  So I used it for underwear with my first Halloween nail art.

1 coat of Wet 'n Wild Black Creme, topped with 1 coat of Revlon Facets of Fuchsia, stamped with Orly Dazzle and Konad m28

I absolutely love this combination! I was able to wear it for 4 days, with some touchups on the tips and extra coats of top coat every day to freshen it up. Otherwise it wore extremely well. One thing I noticed after I stamped my very last spider just a little crooked, is that I think they would look even better if I purposely stamped them all a little crooked rather than trying to center them perfectly on each nail, which is near impossible anyway! Stamping them a little crooked would be much easier to do, and it makes them look more like they are crawling on my nails rather than dead specimens from science class or something. So I still love this mani, but I'll definitely try to improve on it the next time I stamp my little spiders.

I bought Orly Dazzle specifically to stamp with, since the last silver I tried stamping with (Sally Hansen Celeb City) wasn't thick enough and turned out barely noticeable. Dazzle worked better than Celeb City, but I've seen other bloggers stamp with silver polishes that just pop, and I'm having trouble finding the perfect one for me in stores. Maybe if I leave the bottle open on Dazzle for a little while it will thicken up a bit and will have the consistency I'm looking for in a silver stamping polish. Otherwise I might be forced to buy the silver Konad Special Nail Polish. What do you guys think? Do you have a go-to silver polish that you love to stamp with? And is it still available in stores? I would love to hear your suggestions in the comments below, so let me know.

Oh, I almost forgot! When I first bought Facets of Fuchsia about a month ago now, I wore it by itself for a few days. I took pictures of it then and planned to post them as soon as I had the chance. But when I finally got back to posting last weekend, I couldn't find those pictures to save my life! I thought I had somehow lost them forever. Then I finally found them, just in time to add them to this post. So, if you haven't already seen enough pictures of this beautiful polish in all of its glory, here you go:

2 coats of Revlon Facets of Fuchsia and 1 coat of Seche Vite top coat

Thanks for reading!

Crystal

My First Giveway Win & Military-Inspired Mani

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long, September got really crazy for me! My Mom came to visit for about a week, then I caught a terrible cold the following week, that I'm still trying to get over. I have been doing my nails and taking pictures, but I just haven't had time to post, or felt like posting when I did have the time. But, I have several new followers, which is awesome! Thank you so much for following my little blog! I promise to try to post more often, and hopefully you'll enjoy!

I do have some exciting news. Yesterday I won my very first giveaway! And two new brands of nail polish for me! I won three Tic Tacs and one Nubar from one of my favorite blogs, Concrete And Nail Polish. Thank you so much, April! You totally made my day! And I can't wait to try them all, especially Green Litter! ha!

Okay, so now on to some nail art! This one was somewhat inspired by one of my best friends who just got back home from Iraq this week. Although I'm sure he'd love the idea that he inspired nail art! I wore Finger Paints Military Green alone for one day, and had a bit of tip wear and shrinkage thanks to Seche Vite. So I wanted to try my hand at a Military Chic mani a la Nailside. Jane makes it look so easy and awesome. But I didn't have any gold polish for the tips, the closest I had was copper, and when I tried it on paper, I just didn't like it as well. So I decided to stamp something, since it had been a while since I stamped anything. I tried a bunch of different stamp and color combinations on paper, and finally ended up with this:

Finger Paints Military Green stamped with Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Slick Slate and konad m62

I didn't get all the stamps centered on each nail, and you can already see some shrinkage on my ring finger, thanks again to SV, but overall I'm pretty happy with this mani. It still has a bit of a military theme to it, and I love these colors together. Finger Paints Military Green really does look a lot better on the nail than in the bottle. I had picked it up at Sally's several times and put it back. But after I saw a few bloggers swatch it, and talk about how this is one of the trendy colors this fall, I just had to go back and pick it up! And I'm so glad that I did. 

Well, that's all for now. I will post more soon, I promise!

Thanks for reading!

Crystal

My Julep Maven September Box

I actually received this in the mail last week right before Labor Day weekend, but in my excitement about trying my first patchwork quilt mani, I forgot to even try out the new nail color I received until now! First, let me show you what was packed in my box:

A full-sized Hand Cream, Cuticle Oil, Amy Nail Color, and two extra gifts to thank me for being one of the first Julep Mavens! - A travel lint brush/comb/mirror/sewing kit and a double-sided glass nail file - pretty awesome!

My Julep Maven style was determined to be Boho Glam, and while at first look it seems like the nail color in this month's box, Amy, is awfully similar to one of the nail colors in the Boho Glam Introductory Box, Miranda, they are just different enough. Miranda is more of a bright seafoam green. While Amy is more of a bright turquoise blue. I didn't think to swatch them both in a direct comparison until just now as I'm typing this, so I will have to try that later and post pics. But for now, here is Amy in all of her beautiful turquoise glory:

This is only one coat! With a top coat of Seche Vite, of course. For some reason Julep nail colors don't seem to be very shiny on their own, but since I'm always going to use a fast-dry top coat, it doesn't really matter to me. I really love Julep's creme colors so far. They are really bright and pigmented, and just gorgeous colors. I thought about stamping over this one, but it's so pretty on it's own, I'm going to wear it like this today, and maybe stamp something over it tonight, if I have time. Of course I will post pics if I do! I was thinking of stamping silver on it, but then I thought about stamping it with Julep Olivia, the warm brown creme that came in my introductory box. But I haven't tried stamping with any Julep polishes yet. Have any of you? Is the formula thick enough to stamp with, or would it just be an epic fail? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear about your experiences, good or bad. 

One last note about the Julep Maven program, they did have some glitches with their referral codes, but they seem to have worked it out. So if you are interested in trying out Julep Maven, getting a box full of nail goodies worth more than $40 each month for only $19.99, click here to check it out. I will get a $15 credit for every person who signs up from my referral, and you will also get a $15 credit for every friend you refer, too! It's like a big ole circle of awesomeness! : )

Okay, enough rambling for this morning, I seriously need to get to work now!

Thanks for reading!

Crystal

My First Patchwork Quilt Mani

So this weekend I had plenty of time to play with my polish and try out some new techniques. Recently I had seen a few blogs about patchwork manicures. It seemed fairly easy using scotch tape, as long as I could get the tape to come off clean this time! : ) The only thing is, all of the pictures I saw labeled as patchwork looked more like color block to me. Remember some of those rad ‘80’s and ‘90’s fashions?

I actually had a color block leather jacket back then! So trendy, ha! While all of those patchwork (or color block) manis look awesome - I’m looking at you, Chloe’s Nails : )  – the word “patchwork” makes me think of quilts, more specifically, my grandmother’s quilts. My grandmother made some of the most beautiful hand sewn patchwork quilts. Each piece of fabric had a different design on it, and when the patches were sewn together they made the prettiest patterns, like my favorite, Grandmother’s Garden. When I thought of trying a patchwork mani, I wanted to pay homage to my grandmother and her beautiful handmade quilts.

I wanted each “patch” to have its own little design, and yet blend together with the other “patches.” Originally I planned to use three base colors, like most patchwork manis I have seen, but I ran out of time before I could add a dusty green “patch.” So this patchwork quilt mani is just dusty blue and grey. Not bad for my first try though, if I do say so myself!

Sally Hansen CSM Gray by Gray stamped with Wet Cement m21 & Sally Hansen Wet Cement stamped with Gray by Gray m62

I will definitely try this again when I have more time to add a third color. And will, of course, post pictures!


Thanks for reading!
Crystal

My First Taped & Stamped Manis

I just realized that so far I have only posted water marble nail art. But I have actually been trying more techniques. Thanks to my good friend, Tawny, for telling me to check out Chloe's Nails, I tried working with Scotch tape. I tried to replicate her shredded mani using different colors. I did have a little trouble peeling some of the tape off, so it's not perfect. And for some reason I didn't take pictures til after I had some tip wear. So it's really not perfect! But still kinda cool-looking. It's been a while since I first tried it, and now I kinda want to try it again to see if I can do it better. When I do I'll be sure to post some pics. But for now, here's my first shot at a shredded mani:

Sally Hansen CSM Pedal to the Medal & Wet n Wild Black Creme

Then my first Konad stamping set arrived in the mail! I shopped all over the internet to find exactly what I wanted to start with and the best deal, and I ended up ordering the B Set from Nail Essential on Amazon for $24.

It came with 1 stamper, 1 scraper, 3 Special Polishes (black, white and red), and 4 plates: m4, m8, m15, m21. I also ordered 4 additional plates from them, all for less than $4 each: m12, m28, m62, m63. I had seen m62 and m63 on other blogs and loved some of the images. I chose m12 because of the Christmas images I know I'll play with this December, and m28 for the skull & crossbones and spider images I thought would be fun for Halloween.

Since my shredded mani was on its last legs when I got my stamping kit, I decided to try my first stamping over it, just to see how it worked. If I totally screwed it up, well I would be removing it anyway. But it actually kinda worked. Again, far from perfect, but fun, and a learning experience.

SH CSM Pedal to the Medal & WnW Black Creme stamped with Konad white special polish & m28

My next several stamped manis, for some reason, I still didn't take pictures of until they were a couple days old and showing wear. I think maybe I wasn't real confident with them at first, but still wanted to document them before I removed them. So here are pics of some more fun with stamping:

Sally Hansen Creamy Olive stamped with Konad white special polish & m62

I absolutely LOVE this dainty image!

Sally Hansen Gunmetal stamped with SH CSM Pedal to the Metal & m63

Revlon Blue Lagoon stamped with Sally Hansen Celeb City & m63

LOVE this blue polish, but Celeb City is not opaque enough to stamp with. Will keep looking for a good opaque silver.

Julep Miranda stamped with Konad black special polish & m28

I did this on my thumbs just before I removed this polish because I wanted to see how the spider looked. It turned out better than I thought it would with even more detail than I could see on the plate! I can't wait to use this for Halloween!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my super-long post about my discovery of stamping and taping! Now I am completely caught up with posting pictures of everything I have tried so far since I really started playing with nail art just a little over a month ago. So now I'll really have to start working at it so I've got some cool new stuff to post more often. I can only hope that I keep getting better at it as I go along, for your sake and mine! Let me know if you have any ideas you want me to try, and I just might give it a shot!

Thanks for reading, and inspiring me!

Crystal

My Third Water Marble Mani

As promised, I'm posting a pic of my current mani, a purple water marble. This is only my third attempt at water marbling. It didn't turn out as I first planned. Last week I was wearing Revlon Blue Lagoon, and I loved it so much that I wanted to do a water marble with it, white and silver. But unfortunately, either the Revlon or Wet n Wild white I was using, or maybe both, would not play well in the water. I forgot that I had the same results on my first attempt at water marbling. I tried a couple of Revlon polishes and none of them worked. I thought maybe since this bottle was brand new that it might work, but no such luck. I'm curious, have any of you had any luck at all using Revlon polishes in a water marble? Or are they just not formulated to work properly?


Well, since my new favorite light blue polish wouldn't work, I ended up doing a purple water marble. But this time I wanted to go lighter. And I had already applied a base coat of WnW French White Creme on my nails in preparation of the blue/white/silver marble I had planned. But since I wasn't sure if my white polish was having issues in the water as well, I decided not to use it in the water. Which is why, if you look closely, you can see a little bit of white around the edges on some of my nails. That does bother me. I would rather my base coat match the colors in the water marble. I will definitely work on getting better at that in the future. But for now, here's my current mani:

Sally Hansen CSM Plum Luck & Pedal to the Metal, HAN Xtreme Wear Lacey Lilac & Celeb City with a base coat of WnW French White Creme

So far I've found that Sally Hansen and some Wet n Wild polishes work best for me in water marbles. I've seen on other blogs that China Glaze seems to work pretty well. I look forward to getting more CG polishes and trying them in the water myself. What brands do you guys like the best for water marbling? Let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear from you!


Thanks for reading!
Crystal