Hi guys, sorry for not posting yesterday. I had to go in the field for work, so I've been driving all over the state and have been very busy. My posts for the 31 Day Challenge with be patchy now because the rest of the month is just packed for me. Hopefully I will be able to do a few more though.
Today I have my Julep box for September. I skipped a few months because nothing stood out to me but now that we are only a few days from fall, I am loving the deep and vampy colors. I choose It Girl this month and it came with three unique polishes.
First up is Catrina, a marigold yellow cream. This one is a yellow so I won't pretend that the formula was fantastic but it was mildly good. I used two coats, one thin and one thick, for my swatches below. All swatches for this post are without topcoat. I loved this color, it's perfect for fall.
Next up is Josephine, a dusty teal cream. I was worried that I had a dupe for this polish when I pulled it out of the box, but the difference with this polish is how dusty it is. It does lean teal but it has such a muted, dusty quality to it. Very pretty as well. The formula was good, two coats below.
Last up is Candace, a brown microshimmer. I actually got the box for this polish and it did not disappoint. This polish is stunning and so very pretty. I used one coat for the photos below, but next time I will use two just to fill in a few spots.
Overall, Julep seems to have redeemed themselves from some bland boxes over the summer. The colors were stunning and unique and the formulas were very good. Yay! TGIF :)
*Press Sample
Hi everyone here is my second post of the day. I wanted to show you my design for the 31 Day Challenge with some super cute nail art embellishments. These fimo fruit embellishments are from Born Pretty Store. I started off with a base of OPI Pompeii Purple, which leans more pink to me. For my very first half moon mani, I used little stickers (which weren't very sticky at all) and painted over the pink with OPI Jade Is the New Black. I finished off with a tiny strawberry on each nail. I thought these little berries were the perfect finishing touch.
Below is a picture of how I received my nail art goodies. This item is item #4999 and can be found here. I loved this little set and I will be definitely be using these when I bring back "Fruit Week" for round 2. I had no idea a week dedicated to fruit manis would be so popular but for some reason people really enjoyed it :) I can't wait to try those little bananas and the adorable star fruit. I simply picked up each strawberry with tweezers and placed it on the nail while the green polish was still wet. I liked the size of these because they were large enough to tell what they were, but not too big that they stuck up off my nail.
There you have it, a half moon combined with fruit mani haha!
Don't forget you can use my Born Pretty code below for an additional 10% off. These little fruits were only $1.79 for 120 pieces. A great steal in my opinion. Happy afternoon everyone.
*Some products in this post were received in exchange for my honest opinion.
*Press Samples
Hi everyone, happy Hump Day! Today I have another two posts going up, the first one being a fantastic new-to-me indie brand and the second being my 31 Day Challenge nails. Today I have the Halloween Collection from Northern Star Polish (love the brand name!). I love Halloween and fall so this collection really nailed it for me.
Macabre Delight
First up is Macabre Delight...love the name. This polish is a sheer blurple jelly with green and purple square and hex glitters with microglitters in black, orange, and purple. Because this polish was sheer, I decided to layer it over OPI Keeping Suzi at Bay, which is a medium blue polish. If you layered it over a purple base, it would definitely lean more purple than blue. I had no problems with this polish. It applied very easily and photos are one coat below with no digging or fishing for glitters. This polish reminds me of a bucket of bright candies.
Bella Morte
Hello vampire in a bottle! This polish is a blood red jelly with red glitters and black fleck glitters. I chose to layer this polish over OPI Lost on Lombard, a brick red cream. I love the final result, it really does look like blood :) No formula issues whatsoever and photos below are one easy coat.
Twisted Treat
Twisted Treat is a polish with a black base that is loaded with intense orange shimmer. Love this one! This polish is so glowy and makes me think of a spooky Halloween night. This polish, again, applied like a dream. Below is one coat over the plain black polish, Essie Licorice.
Pumpkinlicious
Be still my fall loving heart! Pumpkinlicious is a glitter topper with burnt orange glitter and holographic, green, and gold glitters in a clear base. This polish is perfect for the name and I love that the glitters are burnt orange instead of plain orange, it really gives it depth and has such a warm autumn feel to it. Below is one coat over Twisted Treat. The formula was great, no fishing or digging for glitters.
Phantasmagoric
Okay, I will be honest and say that I wasn't sure how this polish fit into a Halloween collection but there is a reason I saved this polish for last. I still don't see it as a Halloween polish but as soon as I applied it, I thought....who the heck cares....this polish is stunning! Phantasmagoric is a sheer teal jelly with blue/pink/purple color shifting micro glitter. Because this polish is sheer, I chose to layer it over a polish that looked similar to the color in the bottle, L'oreal Not a Cloud in Sight. Seriously, look at those pictures! I bet that it would also be stunning over pretty much any cool-toned color. Below is one easy coat over my base color.
Overall I was seriously impressed with this brand. This was my first experience with Northern Star Polish and I have nothing but rave reviews. Every polish I tried applied like a dream and was unique and interesting. I seriously love the entire collection.
Northern Star Polish is sold on etsy and can be found here. These polishes just came out on the 15th of September so they are available now.
*Polishes in this post were received in exchange for my honest review.
*Press Sample
Hi everyone. Here is my second post of the day. A while back I was contacted by a company called Wantable which is a customizable monthly beauty subscription box. The system for picking products was actually really cool. You start off with broad categories like lipstick, nail polish, blush, etc. and choose really like, like, or dislike. From there, you go more in depth with the categories. For example, nail polish, you can choose if you like or dislike bright colors, nudes, metallic, etc. After you choose your selections, you box consists of full-size items, possibly one sample size, of only your likes and really likes, none of your dislikes.
I was really impressed with the selection process and with my box as well. Below is my entire box which included a blush, eyeshadow, pencil sharpener, a lipstick, a nail polish, and a skin tightener sample. I will describe each product below.
First up is a really cute pencil sharpener by Michael Marcus. It's about the size of a mascara bottle and a pretty blue color. I actually needed one of these :)
Next up is a mineral blush in Peach Pink by Cailyn Cosmetics. This blush is a pretty color and I think it will work well with my pale skin tone.
Up next is an eyeshadow by Be a Bombshell. The color is called Divine and it's a shimmery blue that reminds me of Cinderella's dress. I haven't used this yet but I'm up in the air on how well it will work with my green/blue eyes.
Next up is a pretty lipstick by 29 Cosmetics in the color Expressive Rose. It is described as a shimmery fuchsia but I think it leans more red. I am excited to try this color, it's super punchy.
Above are my swatches of the eyeshadow, blush, and lipstick.
Last up is the only thing I know about in the box...polish haha! The polish is from LAQA & Co. and the color is Blurple. This polish is a cool toned medium purple that had a fantastic formula. I used two easy coats with topcoat for the photos below.
Overall I was really impressed with the quality of this box. An individual box is $40 and a monthly subscription is $36 a month. I think the price is very fair considering how many full sized products I received and how much you can customize the box. One more cool thing with the box is the paper that comes with it that describes every box and product in it along with the retail value of the products received. My total retail value was $86. Wantable can be found here.
*Products in this post were received in exchange for my honest review.
Hi everyone, welcome to Tuesday. I am back at work today. I feel better than yesterday but still have stomach pains. This is my excuse for wearing yoga pants to work today :) Unlike yesterday's prompt, I really enjoyed the theme of glitter because there really is so much that can be done with it. I've never done an ombre mani and I really wanted to try it. I love the look of it and how pretty it can be. As I was staring at my polish stash, I realized that I had enough warm purples to create an ombre look.
The colors are as follows:
Thumb: OPI Honk If You Love OPI
Pointer: OPI Plugged-In Plum
Middle: Essie The Girls are Out
Ring: OPI Sparrow Me the Drama
Pinky: Essie Go Ginza
I followed up with a reverse glitter gradient with Shimmer Polish Gerry. I really love the contrast of the warm purples with the cool tone of the glitter. This was a winner for me :) Later I will have a second post for the day, a review of a new-to-me subscription box.
Hi everyone. Wow look at me up bright and early this morning. Normally I would be getting ready for work at this hour but last night I had my worst food allergy attack yet and will not be going to work today. And what was this horrible reaction from might you ask.....Sam's club vegetable steamers. How stupid is that? We later found out the package said may contain traces of wheat, dairy, eggs, etc. That was enough to send me into debilitating stomach pain and violent sickness that no one wants to hear about. I am still dealing with the horrible pain this morning....but look at this blog dedication :)
Oh tribal, the bane of my blogging existence. Overly dramatic much? I had never attempted a tribal mani and it was much harder than I thought it would be. My first design didn't have enough contrast, wasn't tribal enough, and photographed horribly. For my second design, I had my husband look at it and I knew it was bad when he just stared at it and didn't say anything. That got removed immediately. Below is what I settled for. Two coats of Essie Sunday Funday with some tribal accents with a permanent marker. Definitely the hardest design of the challenge so far!
Hi everyone, happy Sunday. Yesterday was the perfect fall day here. Today is more of a relaxing day in this household which I am thankful for. I will be catching up on cleaning and blogging while the hubby watches football all day long.
Today's prompt was delicate and I had a hard time figuring out what to do for this one. I stumbled upon some water decals that I bought from Born Pretty Store and thought they were the perfect thing for today. I started with Zoya Mason, a stunning purple metallic shimmer. I applied the white water decals and then a layer of topcoat. I really like the finished result.
