Julep - An Obsession

Do you have an obsession for nail polish?

I DO!

I currently subscribe to Julep which is an amazing monthly box sent right to your mailbox each month filled with new and exciting polish and products for you to add to your collection.
A fellow blogger Nail Art Couture, is currently running a giveaway where you can enter to win the entire February Julep Collection!  Enter Here

Julep is coming out with a silver holographic nail polish for 

February!

.

 Use coupon code JULEPVIP to get your intro box for a penny, or 

use coupon code INTROTWO to get two additional colours. The 

regular price is $19.99/month.

Being a Maven has many perks!  For example:

• FREE Shipping!!!!
• 20% off all items on their website
• Exclusive Secret Store, just for Julep Maven's!
• Earn Jules to receive free products!

No obligation to purchase your monthly box, you can skip a month anytime you need to.  

Also you get to choose which box you want to receive each month. They are so much more than just polish, they also have mascara, polish remover, foot care and hand care products as well.

Here is a few photos of my personal Julep collection.

Want to become a Julep maven?  Join Now

Water Marbelling meets French Mani

So tonight I thought, why have I never seen anyone try to do a water marble french manicure style.  Can't be that hard, right?

Well here is how mine turned out.  What do you think?

 First I had to choose 4 colors from my polish collection.  I decided that I thought Donna, Gayle, Brandt and Kate from Julep would look nice together.

This photo shows my nails without the flash.  

Well I am pretty pleased with how they actually turned out, but it is was quite time consuming to do the clean up.  I did my full nails in the water marbel and then used a makeup brush with polish remover to remove the excess from the bottom of my nail to give me the french manicure look.  I finished it off with small stripes of glitter to just set off the nails a little bit.

New Year Eve Mystery Box from Julep

 When I saw Julep offer their New Years Eve Mystery box I jumped at it, because I have never been disappointed with their mystery box's in the past.  However the box that I received today has me quite disappointed.  I will say that it is a good box for the price of $19.99, just does not contain products that I am thrilled about.  Here is what my box contained:

So here is everything that was inside my NYE Mystery box.

Stella and Georgia.  Not impressed with these colors.  Stella reminds me of a runny baby poop color lol  Georgia is a orange shimmer color.  I detest orange polish

 Sienna and Cindy.  I love Sienna, it is one of my favorite colors, this is a dupe for me.  Cindy is another dupe for me and not one that I am overly in love with except for Christmas mani's.

This is the "Mystery" glitter that Julep claimed was never released.  However I actually have one of their polishes that looks identical to this called Hillary.  When I hold them beside each other there is a very slight difference in color.  Still a cute glitter thou.

Julep Sicilian Orange Foot Scrub.  I am happy to get this item as I have seen people rave about it.  Cannot wait to actually try it out.

Julep Lengthening Mascara and a Julep nail file.  Well I am not thrilled about the mascara at all because it is brown, so I will never actually use it.  Well what can I say about a nail file, I have a hundred of them, so another one to add to the collection lol

3 Julep nail polish single use remover pads.  I don't like these, I find that I need to use anywhere from 5-8 of these pads to remove my polish from both hands.  2 Age Defying Hand Brightener samples.  Never used these before.

Well there you have it, this was my NYE Mystery Box from Julep.  Obviously like I said previously it is a great box for the price of $19.99, just not impressed with what I actually received, but I guess that is the chance you take when you purchase a mystery box.

A Whole New World - Indie Polish

When most people think about buying new nail polish they think of brands like China Glaze, Opi, Sally Hansen, essie, or Zoya; just to name a few.

It donned on me while I was painting my nails for my last blog for nail friday.  Why am I obsessed with these big corporate name brand polishes?  Honestly I cannot tell you why, I started purchasing them cause of reviews that I had read or friends had recommended a certain brand for me to try out.  So I went with the flow and did what so many people do and bought the big name brands, spending up to $15 for a bottle of nail polish.  

Now enter the world of Indie polishes.  There are an uncountable number of hard working people out there that are try to make a living producing and selling nail polish.  Just check out Etsy and do a search for nail polish and you will see just how many people there are on just this one site.  

I started doing my research on the internet and reading blog reviews on various Indie sellers and decided to give a few of them a try.  I have made my purchases and will be posting reviews of this polishes as soon as my orders arrive.  You can find pretty much any color you would ever want, not to mention their unique creativity that they use to come up with super cute Holo, Jelly, and even super sparkly glitter topcoats.  

• My first Indie purchase will be coming from ILoveNP , I have chose Her Highness and All Gold Everything  It was very hard to choose which polishes I wanted to try out because they all look so amazing.

• Next I stumbled upon Glitzology who was actually referred to me by a fellow polish addict.  I chose to purchase Blue Lagoon Raspberry Beret Nebula and finally Diamonds & Pearls  All of her polishes look so amazing it is very hard to choose!

• Finally I found Lacquerhead Polish  where I decided I needed to pick up some Jelly polish!  So I decided on Plum Crazy Blueberry YumYum and Cherry Bomb These all look so amazing and I cannot wait to try my first ever Jelly polish!

Look for these reviews to come in the next few weeks. Check out their stores, let me know if there is a polish that catches your eye that you would like me to review.  All of my reviews are unbiased as I am making all the purchases myself so I am receiving no compensation from any of these companies.  Do you have a favorite Indie seller that you think I need to check out, leave me a comment.

Welcome to 2013 where my New Years resolution is a no buy on big name corporate polish brands!  Lets support the little glas/guys that pour their heart and soul into creating these nail polish masterpieces.

Glitzy Girl - Friday Nails

Here they are ladies!  My glitzy girlie friday nails.  
I used Julep's Vivien, Barbara and Ellie to create this ultra feminine mani for the weekend.

This is a very simple mani which any lady can do.  I first applied to thin coats of Ellie and topped the tips with Barbara.  On my accent finger I used 2 thin coats of Barbara over the entire nail followed by 1 coat of gorgeous Vivien.

My top 3 hand/nail products from 2012

Here is a list of my must have hand/nail products from 2012.

The first thing I recommend is investing in a base and top coat.  You do not need to spend a lot of money to get a great quality product.  I highly recommend the PRO-FX line that you can purchase at your local Walmart for only $4.97.  I call these my miracle products lol  Without them I would be back to horribly short nails. The price is amazing as these are huge 75 ml bottles.  I personally use the Protein Enriched Base Coat & Revitalizer and the Quick Dry High Gloss Top Coat.

You will want to keep your hands moisturized, especially during these cold winter months.  So the next thing I recommend is finding a hand lotion that you love.  I am partial to the Layers by Scentsy hand cream (My opinion is biased thou as I do sell this product)  I use lotion on my hands several times daily and a small amount goes a long way with this product.  The cost is $7 for an 85g tube and comes in a large variety of scents.  Visit Scentsy to find a consultant near you.

Julep has an amazing product.  I fell in love with their Essential Cuticle Oil when I received it as one of my items from one of their mystery box's.  This product is a little bit pricey but I still love it! Apply this oil daily to your cuticle's to strengthen your nails and maintain your manicure.  This product sells for $18 or $14.40 if you are a Julep Maven.  Become a Maven with Julep to receive 20% off and free shipping on all orders.  

There you have it, my top 3 products that I cannot live without.  These products help me maintain healthy looking beautiful hands and nails.  I hope you find this information helpful.

Brush Strokes

I love to try new things with my nails so when someone set me a mystery package of 12 different Kleancolor polishes I wanted to give them a try.  This morning I decided to try something a little different and fun and this is what it turned out like.  I used Metallica Fushia and Metallic Purple from Kleancolor and just a little bit of Julep's Vivien for a little touch of gold.

For this look I started at the tip with only a little bit of polish on the brush and made short sweeping strokes.  The finished look is a little bit of a fiery look.  I love the color combo.  

I am not overly impressed with Kleancolor polish, it seems quite thick and seems to dry out on the brush super fast.  I do however love the colors that they offer.

So what do you think?  Love this look or hate it?