Author: Lara
Mother Daughter Salon Day
I don’t normally get pedicures – I’ve had maybe 2-3 in my entire life. The last time I got a pedicure, Lily was with me, too – because I was 8 months pregnant with her. But when my BFF suggested a salon day with her & her daughter and Lily & I, I jumped at the chance to have someone else scrape the dead skin off my feet.
My BFF and her daughter regularly get their nails done. I tried it once in high school and it was a horrifying experience. I slammed my thumb in a door during PE and the damn thing cracked in half, horizontally across my thumb. Never again.
I played it safe and chose OPI “You Only Live Twice” from the 2012 Skyfall Collection. It is an insane magenta/fuchsia shimmer. Lily surprised me and chose Color Club “Almost Famous” – bright yellow. The lady painting them asked if she wanted a design on her toes and of course, she picked the one thing the poor lady couldn’t do – a heart. She tried several times, but she kept having to repaint and start over. Eventually, another lady came over and did it and she had a hard time, too! NOTE TO SELF: Never tried to freehand paint a heart on a 6 year old’s toe.
My feet are as smooth as a baby’s bottom. Lily was spoiled rotten, getting to sit in a massage chair for an hour and get her toes done. We had a wonderful day.
Invisible Wiener
I hate posing my hand like this, without polishes. It looks like I am holding an invisible wiener…or sausage…or um, frankfurter…cylindrical meat product? There is just no good way to say it.
On top of Julep “Natalia”, I tried 5 different glitters to see which one looks the best – I cannot decide! They all look awesome!
Thumb – Julep “Oscar” – Multi-dimensional gold glitter
Index – essie Luxeffects “A Cut Above” – Shattered pink diamond glitz lacquer
Middle – Julep “Jane” – Full-coverage rose gold multi-dimensional glitter
Ring – essie Luxeffects “Set in Stones” – Disco mirror ball chaos
Pinky – Julep “Antonia” – Light pink holographic diamond glitter top coat
My 1st Birchbox Purchase
Don’t you love it when you get home and there is a stack of shipments? I came home to 3 today…some Victoria’s Secret Yoga Pants, some Julep polishes and a Birchbox order!
My Birchbox points had been adding up and I had $20 in credit, so after hemming and hawing for 3 days, I ordered the Cynthia Rowley Beauty Collection No. 2. It came with Cynthia Rowley’s Eye Shadow Palette – No. 2, Mini Creamy Lip Stain in “Valentine” and Mini Eyeliner in Black, all in a Neoprene Confetti Bag. List price was $35, but I got an email with a code for 20% off of my first purchase. With $20 in Birchbox points, my total was $8 – what a steal! I was supposed to get 2 free samples, but for some reason, I only got one…more StriVectin Night Cream with Retinol. That shit WORKS. In another 10 years, I’m really gonna need it…
Even though I’m excited to try out my Cynthia goodies, it’s bittersweet. I wish I had waited a few days to use my points…I want that Modern Mermaid box in the WORST way. I need more points! Click my referral link – https://www.birchbox.com/invite/5453f – I’ll get 50 points if you join!
Priscilla & Kathy
I am loving Julep’s Birthstone Collection. They’re like Pokémon – gotta catch em all.
“Priscilla” – Emerald for May is a full-coverage Emerald glitter. It’s named for Priscilla Presley. She hardly stacks up to Rosa Parks or Coretta Scott King, but they’ve got to be running out of names?
“Kathy” – Pearl for June is a pearl shimmer. It reminds me of mother-of-pearl, more than a regular pearl. It’s named for Kathy Bates, possibly the best thing about this past season of American Horror Story. I picked up 2 – one for me and one for my mother-in-law, also a “Kathy”.
I had already used my “BOGO” code, so I used “$10 off $30”.
Sinful Sickness
I couldn’t resist adding a few more Sinful Colors to my collection while they were still on sale…
“Green with Envy” doesn’t look green to me, it’s more of a teal jelly with holographic bar glitter.
“Mimosa” looks like a tasty alcoholic beverage…with red glitter floating in it.
“Nirvana” is a beigey, grayish creme. I had a poop this color once.
“Ice Dream” is ice blue and silver glitter.
I also had $1.00 of rewards on my Walgreen’s card, so my haul was $3 and tax…don’t hate the player, hate the game.
Penny, Penny, Penny
View this post on Instagram
Julep’s description of their polish “Natalia” is refined copper metallic. Well…that’s just fancy way of saying that the polish looks like a freshly minted penny.
Even more than a penny, “Natalia” reminds me of rose gold. (Rose Gold is a mix of gold and copper, usually 75%/25%.) Back in grade school, I won a $25 Zales gift certificate (Spelling Bee, I think) and picked out a rose pin made out of rose gold. At the time, it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I wonder if I still have it?
Considering adding pink glitter to the rose gold…or maybe gold glitter. Or both.
Suck it, Chanel
I’ve been getting Consumer Reports for years and I can honestly say that they’ve never steered me wrong. I learn something new with every issue…that I get around to reading. This month’s issue, however, contained information that I already knew – expensive isn’t necessarily better when it comes to nail polish.
Consumer Reports tested 7 polishes, ranging from luxury brand Chanel at $27 to drugstore brand Sinful Colors at $2. Surprise! Sinful Colors won! Read the entire article on Consumer Reports site.
Since Walgreen’s has Sinful Colors on sale for 99 cents again…I decided to celebrate their victory. I picked up 6: “Tokyo Pearl” – pearly white, “Cinderella” – literally the color of Cinderella’s dress, iridescent baby blue, “Hot Chili” – rusty red shimmer with red holographic glitter, “Yellow Spotted” – bright yellow shimmer, “Green Ocean” – light green jelly with iridescent green glitter and “Pinky Glitter” – pink jelly with iridescent glitter. Are you sensing a theme? Lots of iridescence and glitter?
Morpho
Julep “Jennine” – I’m in love!
“Jennine” reminds me of a Morpho – a genus of tropical butterflies, the brilliant blue iridescent kind that you only see in Butterfly Exhibits like the one at HMNS or the Rainforest at Moody Gardens. Or maybe a the head of a horny peacock, huge tail displayed, eyes darting around for a homely brown female…In sunlight, there are flecks of gold, green and violet.
I’m in love with the stardust finish. My husband said it feels like sandpaper, but it’s smoothed quite a bit since yesterday. I definitely wouldn’t recommend wearing pantyhose with a stardust or sand polish – they’ll get shredded.
I was was actually a good girl and used the Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat. It dried quickly and gave a beautiful smooth start for my nails. It was like a coat of gesso on rough canvas. We’ll see if it prevents “Jennine” from staining my nails – blues and greens are notorious for staining…
My one complaint with stardust/sand formulas is edge creep. As it dries, it tends to retrest from the cuticles and edges of the nails. I feel like the base coat helped a lot, but I still have major chip on my right index finger. I’m going to patch it tonight before bed, but I’ve got a feeling that I’ll be seeing “Natalia” tomorrow.
June Julep Maven Box – The Three Wishes Collection
View this post on Instagram
I got my box! I got my box! Of course, my BFF already got her box on Saturday and totally rubbed it in…
June’s box is called “The Three Wishes Collection”. I guess they’re going for the “genie in a bottle” Moroccan theme. I’ve been fairly MEH about the last several months’ colors, but I absolutely LOVE every color in every box this month. It took FOREVER for me to choose which box I wanted. I was going to customize, but then it turned out that I didn’t need to. I thought I had pre-paid for 3 months of the customizable plan by accident…but then I wasn’t charged for it. Hmmm… I ultimately chose “Boho Glam” again, although I had initially planned to keep “It Girl” – but I had to have the new Oxygen Smoothing Base Coat. I never EVER use base coats, but I should.
“Boho Glam” came with the Oxygen Smoothing Coat, “Natalia”, refined copper metallic, and “Harlow”, golden dragonfly iridescent chrome. I went crazy with the add-ons this month. I got “Jennine”, full-coverage borealis blue stardust (matte glitter), from the “It Girl” box. I also got more “Swatch Me” stickers and a color fan to test out my color idea. Because I got 3 add-ons, I got a special gift: “Marjorie”, citrus orange frost, and “Veronica”, modern mauve crème. Both colors are from the August 2013 “Garden Party” box.
I almost forgot – there were 3 Grape Pixi Stix in the box, too. Julep…STOP with the candy!
Not a Julep Maven? CLICK HERE to join! Your first box is free with code FREEBOX!
My Glitter Game is Strong
After several rounds of Tilex and scrubbing my shower stall door with a toothbrush yesterday, I found that my nails didn’t look quite as spiffy as they did just a few hours before. The solution…you guessed it – GLITTER.
My glitters of choice were Sally Hansen Gem Crush “Lady Luck” and Gem Crush “Glitz Gal”. “Lady Luck” is exactly the same shade as the base coats of JulieG “Gift Wrapping” – they look really spiffy together. You can see “Gift Wrapping” just barely peeking through underneath the steel gray glitter in “Glitz Gal”.
As usual, I used Sally Hansen Diamond Flash to seal the glitter. I washed dishes all morning and my nails still look great. Like I said, my glitter game is strong.