Nail MADNESS Mondays - Julep "Angela"

I think I accrue Julep nail polishes the way some people save for retirement: slowly, until one day you look around and think "hot damn, that's a lotta stuff!".  Only in my case, it's not entirely as useful as a 401k, but hey, it's shiny?

... I just depressed myself with a metaphor.  MOVING ON.

This is Julep's "Angela", which I recently got in one of their surprise packs.  (The surprise pack was about 30.00 USD, and I got a bunch of stuff in it so I think this ended up being about 5.00 USD all told.)  It's a really pretty sort of peacocky blue that has greens in it when you move it around.  It's not fully holographic, but it's got microglitter out the wazoo.

There's only two layers on the swatch, no topcoat, indoor lighting.  This is absolutely something that I'll wear when I get around to it because dear god I have too much nail polish.

Do you subscribe to the Julep Maven program?  Do you trip over your polish horde sometimes?  Tell me stuff!

Disclaimer: This product was purchased by me.  No compensation was received. All opinions are my own.  I am not affiliated with any retailers mentioned here.

Nail MADNESS - Julep "Joy"

Here's a quick stamping manicure I threw together using Julep's "Joy", a dusky, nude-y pink, Konad black stamping polish, and my Nailz Craze NC02 stamping plate.

Kind of jacked up my ring finger, but whatever - this was my first try with this plate, and it's gorgeous.  Some plates just don't pick up the stamping polish very well, but these work like a dream.  Very, very happy.

Disclaimer: This product was purchased by me.  No compensation was received. All opinions are my own.  I am not affiliated with this seller.

Nail MADNESS - Coco and HexNail Charms

Quick post today!  Just a lazy mani with Julep's "Coco" and a snake nail charm from Hex Nail Jewelry.

I liked it, and got more compliments over it whilst in hospital than I've ever gotten over a mani anywhere.  You can get Hex Nail Charms over on their website for around 1.75 a pop.  They're reusable and hella fun.  This is the Small Snake, and I just love it to bitty pieces.

Disclaimer: This product was purchased by me.  No compensation was received. All opinions are my own.

Nail MADNESS: Julep "Kyllie" and A-England "Princess Tears"

I suck at those 30 day challenges - I painted my nails.  I couldn't help it.  They were so bare and boring and after a week or so of constant cuticle care, they were looking a lot better.  So I figured - hell, nobody cares but me, so why not?

The dark purple is the magnetic polish Julep offered a few months ago, Kylie.  The shimmery lilac holo  is A-England's Princess Tears.  I like how they look together, and I was kind of sick of summer colors.

And because she insisted on butting her nose and fur into the picture, have a picture of my own little princess, my youngest kitty Isolde.

Nail MADNESS - May Julep Box "Boho Glam"

I love my Julep box and look forward to it every month.  However, I'm starting to kind of get off of it, the more I get into crazy indie glitterbombs.  This month was a tiny bit underwhelming for me.  I normally get the 'polish lovers' box, but I already have a billion yellow and orange nail polishes.  So I went ahead and got the Boho Glam box this month.

Their pacakaging is always ridiculous cute, and this month was no exception.

Nicely sized foot file and a bag of goodies!

On the left is Sheryl, which looks just like a load of melted Werther's Originals with some shimmer mixed in.  It's pretty sheer on my nails, which caused me to scoff and immediately remove it.  Bah.  Sheers.  Then the purple is Kylie, the magnetic polish we all got.  I'm looking forward to using the striper magnet with some of my Nails Inc. magnetics and my China Glaze ones to see what happens.  The pedi prep I haven't used yet, but dear god - do not sniff it.  It smells like the devil's asshole.  And I also got a sample of the pedi creme, which is okay, but I still like my Burt's Bees coconut creme.

All in all - meh.  I'm not underwhelmed or overwhelmed, merely whelmed.  Maybe I just don't like summer colors - all bright and happy and cheery.  (It should be noted that this is what my nails look like right now.)

I'm wearing ManGlaze Fuggen Ugly on my index/middle/pinky and Julep Anne on the thumb and rings, each finished with a liberal dose of FingerPaints Asylum and Seche Vite.  Screw summer.  I want winter back.

Are you guys still into Julep?  What are you wearing?

Nail MADNESS - Nail Art for the Unartistic

When I was in junior high school, we had a mandatory art class.  Part of that art class was sculpting with clay a little figure that we'd eventually fire in a kiln (under supervision, of course) and paint.  I didn't realize until I moved away from Colorado how much of a hippie liberal arts school district I'd been in; it was only when I was under the oppressive bootheel of Arizona's public schools did I realize what a good thing I'd had.  Because while I was sculpting, I didn't get it.  Not the reason behind making us take the class - I didn't get how to do art.  Now writing, writing I get.  I love shaping words and images in people's minds.  I will debate at length why certain writers put commas in certain places.  I loved writing papers about why certain POVs were useful in creating a moral in a certain story.  But sculpting a little woman was beyond me.  I gave up and just poked some holes in a blob and told my teacher it was an abstract representation of the psyche of the woman in a world that was post-feminist and yet still bound by the patriarchy.  I got an A, which I think was mostly out of pity.

The point I'm trying to make here is that I'm not an 'artist'.  I love nail art, but I still don't ... get it.  Plus, beyond my ineptitude, I still have the whole 'no time for extensive nail work' thing.  One way I've found to make nail art super easy is nail decals.  Now, I'm here to tell you that there's two kinds of decals: the kind that are stickers, and the kind what are made out of nail polish.  DO NOT GET THE STICKERS.  Even if you put a topcoat on, as soon as you wash your hands they'll peel off.  I tried ones by Julep and Kiss both and they both said they'd last for five days minimum, more with a topcoat.  And what happened?  I went to wash my hands after I peed because i'm not a friggin' heathen, and bam.  Off with the nail stickers.  On the other hand, Sally Hansen Salon Effects are made with actual nail polish.  Does this make them harder to put on?  Absolutely.  Does this mean they'll last longer?  Um, yeah.  I put a topcoat on mine after using, and once had a mani last three weeks.  At 8 to 10.00 USD a pop (depending upon where I buy them), I'll take it.  And they're cute, too!

"Spun Up", a limited edition from around Halloween last year.

"Numbskull", a limited edition from around Halloween last year.

I also dig crackle for making it look like I put more effort into my nails than I really did.  It's also good for when you really like a color but just chipped the shit out of it by slamming it into your desk drawer at work while trying to root around for a paperclip and being a klutz.  Not that I'd know anything about that, nope.

This is Julep "Emilie" on my fingers (the green) with Chanel "Midori" on my ring finger (the yellow).  Over that, I've got plain old OPI black crackle.  That's about a week in.  You can see the desk injuries right around the cuticle.

And last but not least is my beloved Konad.  I love nail stamping, and it's honestly not as daunting as some people make it out to be.  Yes, it takes some time to do it and make it look good, but that's not too terrible.  In terms of skill needed, as long as you're partient and can handle repetition, you'll be okay.  There's a million and one tutorials on YouTube to help you get started.  And honestly, if I can do it, I know you can.  And I can do it.

That's Emilie again by Julep with Konad Special polish (plate M57) on top.  See how it came out mostly pretty clean?  You can do it too, I promise.

I can't draw a straight line even with the help of a ruler, but I like to gussy up my nails.  How do you do it?

Nail MADNESS - Sumer Skittles Mani

So, I really wanted to do an ombre manicure, but I didn't have any colors that I wanted to do it with.  Or cosmetic sponges.  Or will.  (I had surgery last week, so I've been riding the Vicodin pony all this week.)  So I decided to do a skittles manicure with bright, happy colors.  Summer's back in Texas.  You may be asking what happened to Spring; we had that in February.  That's over now.  The high was in the nineties today, I'm running the AC nonstop, my tanktops are in full rotation - it's summertime, bitches.  So I slapped on some polish - Chanel Midori on my thumb, Hard Candy Yellow on my index, Chanel June on my middle finger, Julep Gloria on my ring finger, and Julep Parker on my pinkie.  On top of that, because I always like to up the ante, I put on some Essie Shine of the Times.  But I still didn't like that, so I matted it out with my favorite matte topcoate, ManGlaze Matte-Astrophe. Here's how it looks, and the colors by their lonesomes.

This is the other hand, with the colors just opposite - Gloria, Parker, June, Midori, Yellow.

And this is my cat, who isn't as yellow or orange as my nails, but handsomer than anything else in the world.  He's also more photogenic, don't you think?

Julep Maven - March "It Girl"

So, it's a new month, and that means a new Julep box!  This month they included a polish that was intended to be layered over the other polish in the box (or polishes if you got the It Girl / Polish Lover box).  The three girls below, from top to bottom are Charlotte, Melissa (the layery polish), and Jodie.  I already had Jodie, so I gave it to my erstwhile roommate.

Melissa's a bit more opalescent than you can see in these, and has a bit of different shimmer to it.

 As you can see, Jodie's already got loads of shine in it.  Charlotte is more of a creme.

I don't know if I like Jodie more with Melissa on top.  Charlotte's pretty on its own, and always will be no matter what's on top.  All in all, I don't know how much I'll use Melissa.  I'm kind of meh about this box, except for Charlotte.  Her, I'll use and love and call George.

Julep Maven February - "It Girl"

So, today I got my February Julep box.  It was a little late because I forgot to change my billing information, but that's totally my bad, not theirs.  I usually end up getting the It Girl boxes, especially now that they're the "polish lovers" option.  The three colors this month were Rachel, Elizabeth, and Oscar (which was in every box this month).  The also included a candy bar, which was actually really amazing and yummy.  It was incidentally in the shape of an Oscar statuette, which I guess is cute.  (Does anyone get excited by the Oscars anymore?  I haven't since I was eight, so maybe I'm just weird.)  Anyway, here's a swatch of the colors.

Oscar looks like it could do okay by itself - that's two coats there.  With another one, I'm sure it would hold up on its own.  Elizabeth is a dark blue that almost looks purple in some light.  Under this florescent lighting, it looks almost black.  It reminds me of blue-black hair dye.  And Rachel is a pretty copper penny color.  If you own Jodie by Julep, Rachel is less pink and has no glitter.

I got the Valentine's Day mystery box for myself, so I'll be sure to let you guys know what I got!  Also, if you want to sign up for Julep, they're always running promotions.  If you use COLOR2012 here, you can get your first month's box for a penny.  (You can always cancel if you hate it.)  Let me know if that doesn't work!

Nail MADNESS: Carrie in the Asylum

Sorry I haven't posted more lately - my internet exploded (not literally), so I was 'netless at home.  But here are some gimpy pictures of my gimpy mani that I actually really really like.  It's Julep's Carrie, which they say is cotton candy pink but I say is Pepto pink.

Photo from Julep.com

To make it more interesting, I put Finger Paints Asylum over it - it's a red and blue flakie, though in this combo I see more gold and yellow.  All of these photos were taken in crummy natural light.

Yes, that's a cat.  Every post needs a cat.

Nail MADNESS - Julep Gloria + Essie Shine of the Times

So, I got a manipedi yesterday.  Normally I'm all about the dark colors, or maybe something puncy with some glitter on it.  But I had a bunch of polishes from Christmastime that I hadn't used yet, and one of those was a color my roommate got in her Julep Box of Mystery that she knew would look terrible on her.  It was one of last Spring's colors, Gloria, which is alas, no longer on their website.  In the bottle, it looked like a pretty coral creme, but on me was a punchy tangerine.  But then I decided to jump up the ante and do a statement nail with Essie's Shine of the Times on top (from their LuxeEffects collection) because flakies are the shit.  And well, I loved it so much this happened.

I am madly, passionately in love with this.  It's actually sort of grey and wintery around here in Houston which makes my heart happy (oh my gosh, it's supposed to freeze tonight and I'm so stoked) but this adds a dose of gleeful to my days.  Plus, I tend to wear all black - I'm the Office Goth/Metalhead/Daria - and it makes it pop even more.

All photos taken inside my workplace.  One coat of manicurist basecoat, two coats of Julep Gloria, one coat of manicurist topcoat, one coat of Essie Shine of the Times, one coat of Julep Fastdry topcoat.

Julep - Box of Mystery

I love Christmas.  Now, lots of people may suspect the opposite.  This is probably largely based upon my hatred of Christmas carols (which I blame on being in a children's choir for a few years - sing those fuckers about five hundred times and tell me if you like good Saint Nick).  Or possibly my hatred of Christmas decorations (I GET IT, LIGHTS BLINK, THAT'S FANTASTIC, GOOD ON YOU).  But I love presents.  I love giving them more than anything else in the whole world.  To me, giving gifts is as close to the hunter/gatherer instinct as we can get in this day and age.  Plus, it means I can buy one or two things for myself and not look like a prat.  Which brings me to today's post!

Julep is a nail polish parlor up in the Pacific Northwest that also makes their own products.  They have a 'polish of the month' club that they call the "Maven" program (which is not the point of this post, but I'll explain in case you don't know).  Every month for 19.99 USD, they send you a box at the beginning of said month that includes at least forty USD worth of product.  They have little fashion "profiles", one of which you're put into when you sign up.  But if you hate your box for your profile that month, you can switch.  You can also skip the month, or just have the whole shebang sent to a friend as an impomptu gift.  I love Julep.  I love my Maven boxes.  It's like a gift every month, and it has cute packaging, and Julep polishes have one of my favorite nail polish formulas out there.

So when they announced they were doing a "Box of Mystery", I jumped all over that.  They described it as a box containing at least 60.00 USD worth of product but might have up to 200.00 worth.  For 19.99?  Yeah, I got myself one while I was shopping for other people's gifts.  It came today, so I took pictures at work.  (I'll put more up when I finally get a chance to use the polish!)

I squealed when I saw it had come in, not going to lie.  Happy flaily arms abounded.

This is what I got.  I got three polishes, a lipgloss (which they call a "pout popper", but I refuse to ever say that again unless someone A) has a gun to my head, or B) I've recently had a lobotomy), a nail file, and some pretty generous (30 ml) sample sizes of their glycolic scrub and age defying hand cream.

The age defying hand cream isn't really that special to me.  I've gotten samples of it in my Maven boxes before, and it's ... hand lotion?  It didn't really do anything that made me think "hot damn, I should spend 32.00 USD a bottle on it".  Now, the "Facial for Hands" glycolic hand scrub is totally a different matter.  I have debated spending that much on it, if only because that combined with my argan oil has been giving me baby soft hands.  The scrub smells like a fruit smoothie and feels like most facial scrubs.  I use it in the shower and slather my elbows up with it too, and that actually does make a difference.  It also just feels good - I'm an exfoliation junkie.

Onto the polishes!

This is "Jodie" (Julep names all of their polishes after girls).  It's a dusky rose color with a lot of bronze shimmer to it.

This is "Carrie", a lighter than bubblegum pink.  I normally wouldn't go for a color like this, but it's just bright enough that I'm excited to give it a go.

This is "Christina".  At first I was bummed out because it looked like a boring red in low light (and I actually hate red nail polish), but then I saw it had a buttload of gold shimmer in it, and now I'm stoked.

And lastly, I got a lipgloss.  I admit, I was pretty dubious about trying lipgloss from a manicure place, but I'm wearing it right now, and it's not awful!  It's not super sticky, almost feeling more like a lip cream than a gloss.  It's shiny without being glittery, so you won't look like you just took a moneyshot from an elf.  I dislike the smell (it's like they were trying to duplicate Chanel's lipstick scent, but way more floral), but it goes away once it's on your mouth.

This was a full size in the color "Arousal".  It's a pretty color, very close to my own lip color but better.  I can't find this exact color for sale on their site, but they do have some other colors available for 18.00 USD each.  They claim that this is a plumping gloss, and maybe they're right; my lips do look a little bit fuller.  But I'm also filled with Cepacol cough drops, and they do the same damn thing.

I also got a nail file, but nobody cares about that.  It's a nail file.  It files nails.

All in all, I'm super stoked to use all my loot over the next few days.  For 19.99, this was a great deal (the polishes retail for 14.00 USD alone).  And if you're interested in the Maven box, click here to sign up.  (Under the promo code, be sure to put down INTRO5 - you'll get your first box for five dollars, which ends up being about eight or nine bucks with tax).