Category: Nails
July Julep Maven Box – The Poolside Collection
Finally…GOSH! At least Julep was nice enough to send me an email letting me know that my box had shipped late…
July brings us “The Poolside Collection”. It turns out that I did sign up for My Maven Customized boxes last month, so I chose the “Classic with a Twist” box, so I could get “Bare Body Milk”. It smells great and is cooling to the skin. I kept “Vicki” – Pink flamingo crème – but swapped out “Kelsey” for “It Girl” “Braiden” – Graphite stardust (textured matte glitter). The “treat” was a few tootsie rolls. Come on, Julep – at least Pixi Stix are REAL candy!
No add-ons or mystery items this month…
I’m so excited to try the flamingo polish!
Not a Julep Maven? CLICK HERE to join! Get a special 5 piece Welcome Box with code SHIPSHAPE!
The Perfect Nude
Say hello to RUFFIAN “Sahara” from the Endless Summer Collection….the perfect nude.
Well, the perfect nude for ME anyway. It’s almost a perfect match for my skin. It’s almost freaky looking – like I don’t have any fingernails at all. It’s like that nude patent pump trend from last year – to me, it looked like the illusion of no feet. Now I have no fingernails!
After starting with Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat, I did just one coat of “Sahara”. It was a bit streakier than “Blue Lagoon”, but since I cut my nails, I didn’t have to worry about peeling ridges. I topped with Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat. These Revlons are quickly becoming my favorites!
The Dude Abides…and Glitters…
This fingernail polish really pulls the room together…
Behold Funky Fingers “Gnarly, Dude”. It’s a solar polish that is supposed to change color in sunlight.
Indoors, “Gnarly, Dude” is a pink jelly with a veritable Hobby Lobby Bukkake of glitter. (I just want Hobby Lobby to be forever linked with “bukkake”, kinda like what happened with “Santorum”. Please don’t Google “bukkake”, Grandma.) There’s silver glitter, pink glitter, holographic hex glitter, black hex glitter – every kind of glitter, just globbed on my fingernails.
I suspected it was a specious claim, but “Gnarly, Dude” proved me wrong – it did EXACTLY what it was supposed to! Sunlight turned the pink jelly dark purple – almost black. In fact, this picture was taken after cloudy sun. I went outside at high noon full sun and my nails were very nearly black.
I used Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat in case of staining. I covered with a thick coat of Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat, but it still didn’t smooth the curling edges of the hex glitter. If you like smooth nails, this is not the polish for you.
This is a great summer polish, but the hex glitters do peel off easily, leaving blank spots. Luckily, it mends easily with a little dab from the brush.
How to Ruin your Carpet
So I’ve heard about this happening with Julep polishes, but I never thought it would happen to me…
I didn’t realize that the neck of the bottle had broken in shipping. As I attempted to pop the overcap off of Julep “Sabrina” to swatch the top, it snapped off in my hand….and sprayed bright orange polish all over my leg and bedroom floor. SONOFABEEEEETCH!
So pouring half a bottle of polish remover on my carpet seemed to do the trick – I was able to get the polish out, but there is a faint orange tinge if you really look close.
Be warned! Check your Juleps…and open over a table or put a tarp down or go outside or something. At least this was a polish I had only paid $2 for….
Black Dahlia
I’ve been wanting to try Zoya Pixie Dust for FOREVER…so finally…this is Zoya Pixie Dust “Dahlia”.
No base coat, no top coat, just 2 coats of “Dahlia”. Isn’t it divine?
Oh, and I finally cut my nails. They were starting to break, so I just expedited the process. Imagine how much sexier this polish would be on longer nails…
I am getting obsessed with Pixie Dust…I just bought three more! It’s the last day of Zoya’s Fourth of July Promotion – 3 free polishes for $12 shipping. Click NOW before it’s too late!
A Good Red is Hard to Find
A good red is hard to find…but I’ve found the best red fingernail polish ever created – Zoya “Sooki”.
This is a single coat of “Sooki”, topped with Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat. Absolute full coverage in one coat. It was very shiny on it’s own, but the top coat makes it look like glass.
Plus…it was FREE.
America, Fuck YEAH
Don’t these patriotic nails just say, “America, Fuck YEAH!”???
I’ve been waiting at least 6 months for the 4th of July. Julep “America” isn’t just an everyday polish…
I started with Revlon Quick Dry Base Coat. Rimmel “Blue Eyed Girl” for my blue, Julep “Bunny” for my white and Zoya “Sooki” for my red. I used just a single coat of each. I topped each nail with Julep “America” and then finished with Revlon Quick Dry Top Coat. The Revlon dried fairly quickly and didn’t bubble or crack…good news!
My BFF also did “America, Fuck YEAH!” nails.
Her blue was Sinful Colors “Ciao Bella”, her white was Julep “Bunny” and her red was Sinful Colors “Gogo Girl”. She also topped with Julep “America” – I got a dupe in my Cupid Mystery Box and gave it to her.
We’re twinkies!
Five Below Finds
I discovered a new store! It’s called Five Below and it’s a dollar store – or technically, a five dollar store – because everything is under five dollars. Five Below is bright and clean and full of cheap crap from China, so in other words – very dangerous for me.
I got a Frozen T-shirt and some hair clips for my daughter.
I got macaroni and cheese duck tape and a “No Farting” button for my son.
I got matching Jason Hockey mask socks for my BFF and I…what am I forgetting?
OH YEAH…nail polish. Five Below has an exclusive brand of nail polish called “Funky Fingers”, which is produced by Color Club. The regular colors are 3/$5, but I picked up a couple of bottles from the solar collection at 2/$5.
“Cowabunga” is a hot pink that is supposed to turn red in the sun. “Gnarly, Dude” is a clear base with pink and black glitter that is supposed to turn darker in the sun. Internet scuttlebutt is that they don’t work so well, but we shall see…
$2 off Revlon
I was supposed to be getting something to eat for dinner, but like a recovering crackhead, my feet took me to the cosmetics section before my head realized I was there.
The first thing I looked for was Orly Bonder, but there was an empty spot on the shelf. At least I know I should try to find it at HEB at $6.99 instead of $10 at Ulta.
Did you know that HEB now carries Sinful Colors? $1.98, so I gotta wait for a sale…
Then I noticed that there were store coupons for $2 off any Revlon product over $3.50. I took this as a sign that I should snatch up Revlon’s Quick Dry Base Coat and Quick Dry Top Coat, regularly $4.31, now $2.31 each. I also picked up Revlon Leather Cuir “Motorcycle Jacket” from the Spring 2014 “Leather & Tweed Collection”, regularly $4.28, now $2.28. I had been eyeing it the last few times I had been at HEB. It wasn’t in its own display, just mixed in with the “Amazing Spider-Man 2” Display…but this lonely bottle has been patiently waiting for me for several months…and now it’s mine!
I love a good coupon…my feet have the urge to go back to HEB soon…
Modern Mermaid in the Blue Lagoon
I went full mermaid this morning.
Captain Blankenship “Mermaid Mane” Sea Salt Spray in my hair – in a loose, wavy bun. After showering with Bath & Body Works “White Citrus”, I tried Atelier Cologne “Cédrat Enivrant” Cologne Absolue. I played a tense game of “eyeliner chicken” with my Vasanti Kajal Extreme Intense Eye Pencil in “Electric Navy” – luckily I won. (“Eyeliner Chicken” is when you keep putting on more eyeliner, trying to get it even. You know you’ve lost when you look like a raccoon.) The most important part was my mermaid manicure…
This is RUFFIAN “Blue Lagoon”. As beautiful as it is, it is a very unforgiving polish. I got full coverage in one coat, but it shows every imperfection. I have a few peeled tips on my right hand and they show. I also gave Sally Hansen “Diamond Shine” another try as a top coat…it didn’t dry fast enough and I got a few bubbles. Next time, I’ll use a faster drying top coat to try to avoid the bubbles. “Diamond Shine” can kiss my ass.