Julep and Love, Lace and Lilacs

Today is a stash catch up. As usual, I need some pictures for my Pinterest boards and it has been a long time since my last post. So here we go.

First up, is Julep's Cassidy. This is a bright turquoise creme that only needs two coats.

On top of that, I eventually added that old classic, Lynderella's Love, Lace and Lilacs. This is the first Lynn I fell in love with and the first I owned. No one makes them like her. I know I'm not alone because this one is still for sale on her web site.

That's it for today. I just wanted to get these two manis on the record. So until, next time.

Lynnderella's Mr. Darcy and Illamasqua's Cameo

 Today I have Lynnderella's Mr. Darcy over Illamasqua's Cameo.

I like doing nail art, stamping and all that stuff that goes on with nail design. But my favorite thing it to come up with different polish combination with base and toppers to get a different look with the lacquers. I think that was what first drew me in. And I probably have the most fun with the few Lynnderellas I own. 

Mr. Darcy was part of the 2013 Once Upon A Prince collection. 

Mr. Darcy is made up of multiple shades of gray, periwinkle, lavender, gun metal, black and a tad of red glitters. I had wanted this one for a while and finally got it when it went on sale for $12. Lynnderella is having a few sales now on both her Ebay and StoreEnvy shops. 

I bought four Illamasquas from Hautelook earlier this Summer. Cameo is a Periwinkle blue. This is easily a one coater. Illasmasqua is now available again in the United States through through their UK website. There's free shipping with $75 and standard delivery of $7.50 for less than. Of course, when I got mine through HauteLook, they were half price and that would be the way to go (if they ever offer them again).

And, with a Lynn, I have to do a macro because there is so much going on with this polish. But that is usually the case with her creation. If you love glitters, she just can't be beat. Although, I won't go for any of those high rolling auctions that go over at her Ebay store.

  I wanted to do a dupe comparison for this one, since Illamasqua is so expensive. I have two other Periwinkles; China Glaze's Secret Peri-wink-le and Julep's Isabela. I would have to say that Isabela is dead on. You can find Isabela around but it still seems to be around $10. I got mine originally in a Maven box but I did find some for around $10 on Ebay. Cameo is $18.

Secret Peri-wink-le is just a tad dustier, as seen in this trio comparison. 

That it for this round, just two great polishes that I think go great together. What do you think? Take care and think Shiny.    Terri

All In The Name Of Plaid

Hello, and how is everyone today? I have a very jewel tone mani today. It was created to join the WNAC2015 challenge on Instagram. I have no idea what WNAC stands for. Does anybody know? Please tell me if you do!

So getting back to the challenge. The months theme is jewel tone colors and the last challenge of the month is plaid.

Nail Art Nation's is also having a theme of lines for September. And plaid is nothing but a pattern of lines. So I am also using this as another line mani. Two birds with one stone, as they say!

The base polish is Man Eater by Ruby White Tips.
The wide dark grey/blue stripe is Josephine by Julep.
The small black stripes are Black Ink by Salon Perfect. However I did not use their stripper brush-used my own.
The gold lines are in my every faithful Stripe Rite gold and I did use their brush. I love Stripe Rite's brushes. 
Finally, the glitter topper is Lobster Party by Lynnderella.

The base, Man Eater by Ruby White Tips.

The whole party line up.

Well, that' it for this time. So until next time Shine On!

Terri

The Beach and May's HPBs' June Link UP

Hello and welcome to my mani for the Hobby Polish Bloggers' June link-up. The theme this month was "The Beach". 

I looked at the stamping plates I had and had Nothing what so ever that even came close to the beach or ocean. And any kind of cute starfish nail charms, nope. I really don't have nail charms. I didn't feel like painting beach balls, palm trees, beach umbrellas or anything like that.

Helen Frankenthaler"s color field paintings have always been among my favorites. It's impossible to get the feeling of a huge canvass on something as small as a nail, but I thought I could go for at least the feeling. So I have my abstract representation of the beach, surf and ocean. 

My decision was to keep the visuals simple and experiment with surfaces as far as texture and reflection.
 

So here were my steps:

1. I first painted all nails with one of my new Juleps. The sky blue is Manda and Manda also has a holo shimmer to her. From the distance it does seem gold but up close you can see the rainbow. 
2. Then came the beach with Pure Ice's Shore Bet.
3. Next up was the surf which is made up of two parts. The white is Zoya's Purity. 
4. With the surf, I played with texture and added free glitter. First, I put down some clear coat, sprinkled on the glitter, patted it down and finally shook it off. The surf is actually a tad higher than anything on my design and being glitter, reflects light.
5. I wanted the water to sparkle like the sun was hitting it. Manda by herself was not going to do this. But add Nfu-Oh 39 and I got my sparkle. 
6. I then turned my attention to the beach. It just didn't look right to me. I wanted texture but wanted it also matte from contrast. 
7. This probably will sound crazy but I put Lynn's Love, Lace and Lilacs on the beach and then matted it out. It took two coats to tame that one. Lynn's polishes just don't like the idea of not shining. 

This was something I could do with both hands. I don't know if people will like this. Hey, I wasn't really sure I liked it when I finished. But wearing it, I decided that, yea, I like it.

I am writing this on Thursday (6/11)and I still have this mani on. I did it Monday and it is wearing like steel. Tomorrow, I will finally take it off. 

So here's the lineup-from left to right:Hard Candy's  Mattly-In-Love, Pure Ice's Shore Bet, Julep's Manda, Zoya's Purity, Lynnderella's Love, Lace and Lilacs, and Nfu-Oh's 39. In frony is sitting the small bottle of glitter that I had previously gotten at Dollar General.

That's it for the mani part. If you made it all the way down here, thanks for hanging in with me. This one was simple but took a while to do because every coat needed to dry. I got a lot of reading done last Monday!

Well, that's it for me this time around. But as I mentioned earlier, I am taking part in The Hobby Polish Blogger's group link-up. This is a great group of bloggers on Facebook that are very supportive and always are willing to give help to other bloggers. So check some of their art out below.

So until next time, take care and shine on! Or I guess matte on or glitter on.

I had to throw in one Helen Frankenthaler painting. 

See you next time.

An InLinkz Link-up

Seeing Pink

Hello,

I going going to say that one of my favorite colors is becoming pink. Could it have something to do with the time of the year. I seem to be showing a lot of pink mani's. I especially had fun wearing this one. 
 

It seems that I never use my Juleps so I jumped at this one and ended up using four. A V-Day theme just seemed appropriate for these colors.

I don't get a Maven box every month. There has to be something else besides nail polish that catches my eye. And if Julep does something bonehead (most of us know about their missteps), I refrain for a few months also. 

I think Julep makes good products and I am not obligated to get a box every month. 

It's a big hassle to stop your subscription (you have to call them and good luck on getting the phone answered on that line) program so I just go in an op out of the monthly box.

 My last box was free (you collect Jules) so that was a treat!

From left to right: Bunny, Gianna, Raegan and Zelda

Bunny:  a white cream with micro gold flecks
Gianna: a irregular shaped gold glitter-absolutely my favorite gold glitter!
Raegan: a passionate deep pink glossy cream
Zelda: A gold metallic-surely this one was named after F. Scott Fitzgerald's wife.

That wraps this one up. I have been a sucker for some Valentine sales this year. So fair warning, there will be more V-Day things coming from me this year.

I have started putting my IG name on my photos also. Check me out there at bnails_tg

OK, that's it. Take care and until next time.

This is a link up so check out the ladies below for their favorite colors. 

Terri

An InLinkz Link-up

Julep's Katie And Avni, Two Just Made For Each Other

I rarely purchase a Maven box from my Julep subscription (purchasing is optional). But August was a no brainer. The August box offered two polishes that in my eyes were perfectly paired and Julep threw in a gel liner pencil to boot. 

Katie and Avni in a sponged/painted gradation

THE POLISH LOW DOWN

Both polishes are a new oxygen based formula. I have Julep's Oxygen and use it regularly on my toe nails except sandal season (then I have to paint my toes). So I was really interested in these two.

Avni (left) and Katie (right)

Katie

According to Julep, Katie is an orchid iridescent chrome. I am glad I didn't read the reviews until after I used it. Katie gave me no grief. But others had a horrible experience. Many times this polish managed to get just one and two stars from customers. Phrases like,"goopy, like glue, and worst nail polish I have ever bought", were some phrases that I remember. Thick, yes-but I was just very careful. And the color is oh so gorgeous!

Avni 

Julep says Avni is a African Violet shimmer. The shimmer is the same color orchid as Katie. In all, it makes Avni a real stunner.

I did have trouble with using the sponge technique with these two. Avni just would not go on as strong as I wanted. That is why I ended up using brush and sponge to get the strong purple color on the tips. 

I had to play with these two. Here's a little abstract. The orchid shimmer in Avni really shows up. 

Well, that's it for this time. Until the next, take care............Terri

P.S. I didn't get October's box. Nothing thrilled me. 

Pick Up Sticks

Last weekend I taught a color theory class for fiber artists. I also wore a dress with a digitally printed kaleidoscopic pattern. Every hue in the prism was represented. These are the nails I did for the dress and class.

Polish Notes 

Juleps Bunny-This is the only polish I am going to discuss. The others I will just list. Bunny is a white cream that is infused with gold shimmer. I had never seen a white like it before. I actually purchased it last summer and am now just getting around to using it. It is a fairly thick polish. You could probably us just one coat, but I used two. Bunny was a nice one to work with. Although the gold shimmer shows up quite nicely in my closeup, it doesn't really show up that well on the nail.


Polishes Used For The Lines

Jenna Hipp's mini's from last summers "What's Hot Collection:

• Damage Control (light pink)
• Freshmaker (light blue-green)
• Look Hot Feel Cool (Dark Turquoise)
•  Tweet Me (light yellow)

Orly

• Fancy Fuchsia (hot pink)
• Blue Sky (light periwinkle blue)

Essence

• L.O.L (yellow-green)

That's it for this time. So until the next, take care.  Terri

Jodie Is Movin' Out

This is a re-post from the MeadowTree Journal. It was first published 1/16/13.

Jodie thinly topped with Movin' Out, then tipped with Jodie.

Jodie was the second polish in my introductory Julep Maven box. Frankly, it did not illicit too much excitement. But it gave me a chance to experiment with a vintage OPI polish that I added to my collection a while back. 

Movin' Out was part of the Holiday On Broadway collection in 2003. When I read about it, I knew I had to have it. For me, it lived up to the hype. Does anyone else have this polish and still uses it? Or get possessed with an older polish and hunt for it? 

Jodie came alive when I added a thin top coat of Movin' Out. I then tipped the nails with Jodie, to show the true color. This, I  like (see above). 

Close up of Jodie

A close up of Movin' Out.

Zoya And Rainbow Honey Mani

This is a re-post from The MeadowTree Journal. It was originally published 2/7/13.

It was time to play with some of my great deals that I got in January. I decided to layer two polishes: Caitlin by Zoya and An Element Of Magic  by Rainbow Honey (from their Equestria collection). This is what it makes it so fun for me; creating something original out of what you have. The camera does not do this combo justice. I hated taking if off, but a function Friday night calls for a different design.

The lineup: Zoya's Caitlin, Rainbow Honey's An Element Of Magic, and Julep's topcoat Freedom, which really dries fast.

Shown with the sweater that I was wearing all week with this combo

I had loads of fun with this one. Until next time....

Blue Room Nails

Earlier this month we went to the Blue Room to listen to Eboni And The Ivories. The Blue Room is located in The American jazz Museum in Kansas City. 

I did a blue design for the occasion.  The polished used were:

Base coat-Char by Julep
Lines-Silver Stripe Rite
Accent nail-Merlin by A-England

Cranberry And Gold Nails

This was one of my nail looks this past month. I combined the Vintage OPI color, My Throne For A Cranberry Scone (From the British 2003 collection), a Winter Affair (a gold foil from Color Clubs Christmas 2012 collection), and finally Gianna,  a wonderful jagged irregular glitter from Julep that just came out this year. 

Two From Glitzology, Which Is No More

This repost is a combination of two posts on The MeadowTree Journal. The Indie company that made these two polishes did not last long. But when Stacy Boyd was making polishes, they were glitter-bomb dreams.

The "Starry Night" post was originally published 2/4/13 and the "Nebula" post was originally published on 3/13/13.

After years of using Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night for the basis of an oil pastel lesson with second graders, how could I not have Glitzology's Starry Night polish. Back in the day, I even designed and knitted a pair of socks based on Starry Night.

Glitzology was an Indie polish  on ETSY. 

This polish is chalked full glitter and is a visual powerhouse. It's thick and takes some effort to put on smoothly. If you want a really smooth surface, I think a top coat would be needed. Top coating might make it feel smoother to the touch.

I approached the design as a landscape and color blocked the undercoat with green (Wet N Wild's Sagreena) and blue (Wet N Wild's Saved By The Blue).

The color blocked undercoat

The Lineup-had to use my Starry Night socks that I knitted years ago as a backdrop

This polish has a lot of light reflection. I even put a coat of matte on it for everyday wear and it still has plenty of shine going on. 

And being the (retired) art teacher that I am, how could I close this without the real thing.

Nebula

In the Mid-West we have four distinct seasons. It's almost Spring and I have so many dark polishes that I have not even worn yet. Here's the first of a few I am trying to squeeze in.

Nebula is a super thick glitter and holographic polish. I wanted it to have a purple aura so I first put an undercoat of Julep's Alfrie. I even went a little purple with my top coat. OPI is the only I have that has the purple tint in it, so on it went. 

Nebula does cool stuff in direct sunlight. It was fun watching what my nails were doing while I was outside. Indoors, it is fairly understated. I didn't feel that I had to matte this one out to for everyday wear. 

But is is also very thick. For me, it was a tad hard to put on. And if you like a smooth finish to your nails, you would not like this polish. I put three tops coats on and it was still had texture.

Glitzology's Nebula, Julep's Alfrie, and OPI's top coat

A Nebula in a bottle! These polishes are so lovely, I like jut 
keeping them out to watch the light play in the bottle.

Glitzology's shop is on a short vacation

I follow Gltizlogy on Facebook, and Stacy Boyd (the owner), has posted that because of back problems, the doctor has put her on bed rest. She will be back up and running when she has the OK to do so (but now we know she never did start the shop back up). 

Taking glitters Off

Here is a small video showing an easy way to take glitter polishes off. The traditional method takes a lot of extra work.  

That's it for this time around. 

Nail Journal-Sept '13 #1-Julep, Pure Ice, and Rainbow Honey

Polish: Base coat-Top Photo-Julep's Char 

             Base coat-Bottom Photo-Pure Ice' Splash

             
            Glitter Topper for both-Rainbow Honey's 20% Cooler

(from the Equestrian collection)

Notes: I was interested to see what 20% Cooler looked like on light and dark bases. I used a gradient in both looks. The above photos are the results. 20% Cooler is a multi color glitter in a clear base. It is not one of my favorites. It is soon to find a new home with my daughter.

Cruelty Free Status:

Julep polishes are vegan and cruelty free. Rainbow Honey is also cruelty free.

 Pure Ice is no longer cruelty free. It was sold to Revlon which has resumed animal testing to sell in China. I no longer buy Pure Ice or Revlon products. But I will still use what I have. 

July-2013 Nail Journal #3 Color Theory Nails

Nail Journal 7/15/2013
Color Theory Nails

Polishes: 3 from Julep, described in an earlier blog found here.

Notes: A simple design using three coordinated polishes. I did this design for a color theory class I taught this past weekend. It's not quite analogous, probably closer to monochromatic. 

When Dew Drops Go Splat

I almost didn't do this post, but decided what the heck. First of all, let me say that this mani was beautiful and exactly as I imagined it. But, it was not photogenic at all. In my attempt to make it look better for the camera, I ruined it and immediately took it off and repainted my nails in just the plain polish (well, if you could call this polish plain).

There are basically three reasons that I am doing this post:

1. This Julep polish is beautiful (in my eyes).
2. It was a pretty neat symbolic idea.
3. In my art teaching career (scads of years) I always shared with students any downfalls that I had when working up an assignment. 

 Julep's Etta is a metallic peridot color. I could be that metallics just don't work well with what I was trying to do. I still consider myself a beginner and learn new things about what works and doesn't work constantly.

My idea was to put a medium matte topper on it (China Glaze's Matte Magic) and then to take my dotter tool to make very small dots to look like dew drops. I thought the shiny versus semi matte would give a jewell sparkle effect. And it did in real life. But, it Etta has a slight texture to it and the camera (or the photographer?) was having trouble with surface reflection of the base texture versus the applied texture. Hope that makes sense.

In an attempt to make my dots look bigger for the camera, I created something in the end that looked likes warts on a toad's back; not very great looking!

I hope you enjoyed this not so very successful design idea. 

A Word About Julep

I have read my share of bad Julep reviews on other blogs. So far, I have not had any problems with their program. But, the Maven has to take the responsibility of notifying the company if she does not want the monthly box.

The monthly choice email always comes on the 20^th and you have four days to let them know if you do or do not want any box. I always do it the day I get the email. I know pretty quickly if I love something or if I can pass it by. I have only purchased two boxes since my membership started.

But I have given both my daughter and sister a box for their birthdays and they loved them. And Julep knows how to make you feel special. If you have ever unwrapped one of their boxes, you know what I am talking about.

Personally, I think the Julep polish is a bit overpriced. That is why I always wait for a sale. There is no shipping so the price you see is the price you pay. That, I love. And I have not had a trouble with quality issues. I think they perform nicely in application and lasting ability.

The polishes are not cutting edge, just strong creams, shimmers, metallics, and glitter toppers. But there are plenty of other places to get cutting edge polishes. ETSY is full of them.

I do a lot of nail art, so basic colors are always good for me. And Julep is Vegan and cruelty free. That is a lot in my book. A lot of the polishes companies who use to be cruelty free have been bought up by larger companies that aren’t. And this China thing, I am not even going to get in that.

So there it is in a nutshell. I will stay with Julep for a while. It isn’t costing me anything and just gives me more choices in feeding my obsession.

That's it this time. So until next time and I hope today brings you a beautifully polished life.......Terri

A Julep Trio

There is a first time for everything. I never thought I would show swatches on my blog. However, when I received this curated set from Julep, I knew what I had to do. This set was $13.99 through a private sale for members of Julep's Maven program.

So far, my experience with Julep polishes has been a good one. I think they are high quality products. It only takes two coats to give a good coverage. Their polishes don't seem to be as adventurous as you find in some brands. But this trio is just glorious to me. 

Parker, a glossy yellow orange cream.

Gloria, an on trend summer coral-also a high gloss cream

Bethany,  the most intense of the three-but it is  balanced with a satin finish. If you want super shiny, I guess
throw a top coat on. 

A Word About Julep

As mentioned earlier, I participate in the Julep Maven program. It comes without strings attached. I will admit that haven't purchased very many boxes.  

But I love the sales, as obvious with this post. Another plus is that I can send a box to someone else. I just sent my daughter one of the April boxes for her birthday. 

It is a company for women run by women, their products are vegan and cruelty free. This is like. 

I wish I had some catchy by-line, but I don't. Until next time...