December 27, 2012

Julep New Year’s Mystery Box Swatches ⁴

by Andrea • Nail Lacquer Swatches • Tags: Creme, Glitter, Green, Julep, Metallic, Pink, Shimmer, swatch

Well as you can see I just couldn’t wait to try out the new polishes that I got in my Julep mystery box. I thought I would just try out one or two today, but I ended up swatching all five of them! I’m really pleased with this box… all of the colors are gorgeous.

I’m going to start with the polish that I thought was my least favorite in the bottle, but turned out to be one of my favorites once applied. This is Lauren, a HOT pink with a creme finish. I’m normally not a fan of bright polishes, but I really like this. It applied very smoothly and was pretty opaque with two coats, but I applied a third coat for good measure.

This is Sienna, a gorgeous shimmery gold. This one also had a great formula and only required two coats.

This is Cindy, an emerald green with gold micro-glitter. I wish I had this one before Christmas, it would be great for some holiday nail art. The little micro-glitters sure did get all over the place during removal though! It took a bit of work to get rid of it all.

This is Georgia, a shimmery peach.

And last, but not least, this is a mystery color with no name. This one has a semi-clear base with a grey/black tint and is loaded with different sized glitters. There are teeny tiny black glitters, and then larger orange and other metallic glitters. This one reminds me a bit of Halloween. I applied one coat of the mystery polish over two coats of OPI Black Onyx.

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December 26, 2012

Julep New Year’s Mystery Box 2012 ⁷

by Andrea • Makeup • Tags: Julep

Julep had a New Year’s mystery box for sale this month for $19.99 and it was advertised as $100-500 worth of products, so I decided to take my chances and buy it. Below is a quick pic of what came in my box. It did contain over $100 worth of products if you tally it all up based on their retail prices, but I think those prices are overstated. Regardless, I’m pretty pleased with the haul that I received in my mystery box! I skipped my January box since this will keep me busy for a little while.

Here’s the breakdown of what my box included:

5 nail polishes; Cindy, Sienna, Georgia, Lauren, and a mystery color with no name. Retail value: $70
Boho Glam Lengthening Mascara. Retail value: $24
Full size Sicilian Orange Foot Soak. Retail value: $26
Nail file
2 samples of Glycolic Hand Scrub
3 nail polish remover pads

Total retail value: $120+

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December 23, 2012

Gelish Layering: Bella’s Vampire and Good Gossip ²

by Andrea • Gelish Swatches • Tags: Creme, Gelish, Glitter, Purple, Red, swatch

One of the great things about gel polish is that you can create new shades by layering two different colors. Today I was playing around and layered Good Gossip over top of Bella’s Vampire and the result was stunning! My light box totally drowned out the sparkles in Good Gossip, so I had to take this shot with a desk lamp to try to show you how gorgeous these two colors are layered together.

Good Gossip is a very sparkly red glitter polish, and Bella’s Vampire is a creamy dark purple. Here are my swatches of Bella’s Vampire before adding the red sparkles. Bella’s Vampire is very close in color to Diva, but it has a slightly redder tint and I actually like the formula of Bella’s Vampire much better. It didn’t pull back from the edges and was very easy to apply.

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December 21, 2012

Winter Snowman Nail Art ²

by Andrea • Nail Art • Tags: Christmas, Gelish, nail art, Winter

I decided to add some art to my Gelish Up In The Blue manicure. The color seemed perfect for a sky, so I added some snow and a snowman! I sponged OPI Apline Snow (fitting name) onto the tips and added different sized dots using a dotting tool. Then I freehand painted the snowman on my ring finger. Isn’t he cute? LOL

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December 19, 2012

Gelish Up In The Blue ³

by Andrea • Gelish Swatches • Tags: Blue, Creme, Gelish, swatch

This is Gelish’s Up In The Blue – a soft, creamy cornflower blue. I really like this color, but it took 3 coats to get full opacity. I might try to do some stamping on top in the next day or two if I have the time.

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December 17, 2012

Candy Cane and Christmas Tree Nail Art ³

by Andrea • Nail Art • Tags: Christmas, nail art

This is just a simple Christmas manicure that I created with tape. I painted 2 coats of OPI Alpine Snow on each nail and then added stripes for the candy canes using nail art tape and OPI Affair in Red Square. I made the Christmas tree with tape as explained in this tutorial from Nailside. The green polish is China Glaze Cha Cha Cha. And of course I topped it all off with my favorite top coat, Seche Vite.

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December 14, 2012

Adoring Adorée Polish ⁶

by Andrea • Nail Lacquer Swatches • Tags: Adorée, nail polish, swatch

I tried a new brand of polish called Adorée which you can find over at Esther’s Nail Center. I have several polishes to try from this brand, but these are a few that are solid colors… the next batch will be of the glittery variety. They all had great formulas and applied flawlessly. I didn’t even have to do any cleanup on any of these because I was able to control the brush very well and stay in the lines. Each of these swatches is three coats of polish with one coat of Seche Vite top coat.

The bottle shape is rounder than any others that I own so I decided to try some new “poses” for these photos. Let me know what you think of them – yay or nay? I think my hand looks too angular in a few of them, but I’m probably being overly critical.

First up is Buckland Blue – a gorgeous light blue with a chrome finish.

Next is Jewel Peach – a frosty peach unlike anything else that I own.

This is Garrison Red – a frosty, coppery brown.

And the last one for today is Rosy Apple – a bright red with a slight slight pearl finish.

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December 13, 2012

Julep Harper & Ivy ⁹

by Andrea • Nail Lacquer Swatches • Tags: Blue, Duochrome, Glitter, Julep, Purple, swatch

My December Julep Maven box contained three gorgeous shades this month: Harper – a glitter packed aqua, Ivy – a duochrome blue/purple, and Vivien – a glittery gold. The box also had a ring with a clear stone. It didn’t come with an explanation, but I’ve seen these on Etsy before and I think the idea is that you apply a nail polish color to the underside of the stone and then you have a ring that matches your polish. I really liked the look of Harper, so I decided to use it with the ring which you can see below.

Julep Harper:

I have to be brutally honest and tell you that I didn’t have a good experience with Harper. The end result is gorgeous, but the polish was extremely thick and goopy (ew!). This is the first negative experience I’ve had with a Julep polish, and I hope it’s the last. I did read other reviews about this polish and they said the formula was nice. Unfortunately mine will likely be going in the trash.

Ivy:

I had a much better experience with Ivy. It applied flawlessly and is a very beautiful duochrome polish. Depending on the light it can look blue, purple or both. I had a hard time capturing the purple with my camera, but it looks much more purple in certain lights. You can see this more in the bottle of the second photo.

I haven’t tried Vivian yet, but I will be sure to show you if I do!

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December 11, 2012

Gelish Light n’ Neutral Swatches ⁵

by Andrea • Gelish Swatches • Tags: Gelish, swatch

I have more Gelish swatch spam for you today, a few light and neutral shades. A big thank you to my friend Janie for letting me borrow these colors. If any of my readers have a collection of Gelish polishes I am interested in borrowing shades to swatch. I’m on a mission to get photos of every color, and so far I have 47 out of 111.

First up is Princess Tiara – a light pastel purple with a creamy finish.