My first Julep Maven box!

I got my first Julep Maven box in the mail a few days ago. I have to say that I am impressed!

So, for my $19.99 (actually I had a coupon so I think this was $5 making it an even better deal) I got 2 full size nail polishes, in Anne (the purple creme) and Maria (pink foil). Their polishes sell for $14 a piece so it's already paid for itself and then some. And these are colors I will actually wear. Also pictured is a sample of their hand cream that was also in the box.

In addition to the polishes and the sample, I got a full sized Glow On Age Defying Hand Brightener. That sells for $32. I have yet to use it but it does smell good. I have a few other hand creams I want to use before starting another.

I am very happy with this Maven box. The polishes apply very nicely, 2 coats was perfect coverage. I am sure that since this was in introductory box it's a worth a bit more than the regular monthly boxes will be, in fact I decided to skip on my first regular box. But that's part of the beauty of this program, if you don't like the box they are going to send you for the next month they give you plenty of time to skip it and not be charged for that month. You also have the option to send it to a friend as a gift or choose a different box.

Here is my referral link if you would like to check it out and take a look around their site.
Julpe Maven

Hurry Up and Enter today!! Valentine Kisses Mega Giveaway

click here to visit Valentine Kisses and enter the mega giveaway

I was making my regular visits to the blogs I follow and looking for some new ones and found this great giveaway (not to mention a great blog to follow). Entries end today, so hurry up and do a little reading while you're over there!

2 Dupe Options for Zoya Phoebe

I am assuming that Phoebe has been discontinued, since it's no longer on Zoya's site and I've seen it clearanced out at a few Ulta stores. But if you didn't get a chance to grab one I found a couple ways to duplicate it.

Phoebe can be recreated by using a matte topcoat over either Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Brisk Blue or SH Xtreme Wear in Blue Me Away! Blue Me Away! Is definitely a more true dup, the Brisk Blue comes up a little lighter. BTW I am using Hard Candy Matte-ly In Love over the two Sally Hansen polishes.

So there you see. If you didn't catch it while you could but you want the look of Zoya Phoebe, you now have a couple of easy drugstore duplicates! And even though there is an extra step it's actually a little easier. I had to apply 4 coats of the Zoya, but did 2 coats of the SH polishes topped with one coat of the matte topper.

Nicki Minaj OPI Manicure

I was at Ulta this weekend and took a look at the OPI Nicki Minaj collection. Most of the colors were not for me, but I did really like the pink and black glitter ones so I picked them up. If you'd like to see the full line, polishaholic has the whole line swatched right here.

The colors I got are Pink Friday and Metallic4life. Pink Friday is a pretty basic pink. In fact I think it looks a lot like I Think in Pink. I plan on doing a comparison of them soon. Metallic4Life is 3 sizes and shapes of silver glitter in a black base. It's completely awesome.

Gelous is what I use over really chunky glitter.

I went for a really basic manicure, using the pink for an accent nail.

As you can see, the glitter really shines on this polish. It is rather bumpy but the Gelous cuts it way down.
Anyone else get any of the colors from Nicki Minaj? The other polishes just weren't my style. Yellow/green looks terrible on me, I already have too many teals that look like this one, the other glitter has glitter bars in it, which I do not like, and I have never been into the Shatter/Crackle looks. So I'd say overall this collection is not really for me, I was able to get a couple really nice polishes out of it.

Helmer, how do I love thee!!

One thing I have read on many many nail polishes is the IKEA Helmer for storing polish. Well, now I too am singing it's praises. It's AWESOME!! I can't tell you how great this thing is. The polishes can all stand up, which is the best way to store them. I don't have much more to say about this that isn't just gushing praise, so I'll just show you a couple pictures and tell you that if you are able to get one you will definitely not regret it!

Ta da!! The Helmer.

Top drawer has all my China Glaze, MAC and Zoya polishes.

Julep Maven program-Check it out!

I was just reading through some other blogs and I found out about the Julep Maven program. You sign up, take a quiz to match your style, then every month for $19.95 they send you a goodie box with over $40 worth of stuff!! The cool thing is that you have lots of options with this program. If you don't like what they have chosen for you, you can choose something else. If you want the to send that month's box to someone else as a gift, they will, for no extra charge! If you just don't want anything you can skip a month, and if you decide it's not for you, you can cancel at any time. Here is a link where you can read more about it and take the style quiz and see what they have to offer.


http://www.julep.com/?r=18624178

I just ordered my first box, and I can't wait to share it with you when it arrives!

Sally Girl Series: Mango Tango 812040 & So Disco 812030

Finally! One of my Sally Girl polishes actually had a name on it!! The majority of them don't, so I have to search the Sally Website for the name. So Disco is actually labeled, yay!! I hope this is a new trend.

First I put on Mango Tango, a medium tone orange color. It's like a fall orange. This picture is 4 coats and you can still see a bit of VNL.

Then, just so I could keep on polishing, I put on some So Disco glitter. I just love glitter. But I have never had such a hard time photographing one!! I don't have the benefit of natural light and I have tried everything, this is the best I can get.

With flash.

No flash.

I think the next thing on my list of things to do is moisturize, when did my nails/hands/cuticles get so dry?? Yuck.

Revlon Colorstay 2012 - Update

OK, it's now been 5 days since I applied this and it's still pretty much perfect. I did have a small chip on my thumb but I think that was more an issue of a crack in my nail than the manicure. All the other fingers look fine. Barely even any tip wear. The only problem, for me, is that it's boring to wear the same manicure for 5 days!! And I can't sit here and swatch my polishes just for fun like I like to do sometimes.

So if you need a mani that stay for days, definitely try this. I am also going to do a couple more experiments, one wearing the Colorstay polish with other base/top coats and another wearing the Colorstay base/top coats with different polish.

Here's a picture of five days of wear. Sorry I got so bored with it I put some China Glaze Glam on the tips, but I think it's thin enough (I didn't finish) that you can see the tip wear or lack of it. And unfortunately you can see where my cat managed to scratch me right at the cuticle on my picture hand!! I obviously need to do something about them anyway, they all look horrible. But the polish is good. :)

Revlon Colorstay 2012

I saw a huge display of this stuff at CVS the other day. It promises a gel-like shine for 11 days. The small print tells you that this is if you use their base coat, polish and top coat. All they had was the colors here, no base or top coat. Tonight I was at Walgreens and found the display with everything. I just had to try this out.

I remember the old Colorstay nail polish. It came in a bubble pack of a color and a top coat, many of which were glitter. I actually still have a bottle of the top coat and it smells like plastic so bad (and always has) I remember why I hardly ever used it.

So I have better hopes for the new stuff, and I picked up the base coat, top coat and 3 colors. I am going to test it out and see how long it really lasts. I will keep you updated. The thing I find odd is that Revlon does not have any information about this polish on their website yet, and I wanted to link to it. I don't get that. If it should ever go up I will put a link to it. There are several colors in the new line.

Here is the top and base coats and the three colors I got: Rain Forest, Amethyst and Cafe Pink.

Amethyst

Cafe Pink

Rain Forest

Base and Top Coat

I did my manicure on Saturday, finishing about 2am, so far, so good. I was really looking forward to using the green but sometimes I can't keep the darker shades on my nails for too many days. I'm not really a dark polish person, even though I like it, so I tend to wear it less often and for shorter periods of time. So I used the Cafe Pink for my test run. I did have to use 3 coats but it smoothed out really well and I think it looks nice.

I will keep you updated about how long this lasts, etc...

Sally Girl Series: Luv It 812049

I've been wanting to get swatches of all my Sally Girl polishes out there. I love these little things. They have some great colors, and at $.99 a piece they are a great way to try out colors that you might not want to buy a full bottle of. The only thing I don't like about them is that the name of the polish is not on the bottle, just the SKU number. I usually go through the list at sallybeauty.com to match the number to a name. I will just randomly pick a color each time and post about it. Enjoy. First up is Luv It, sku 812049, a glittery blue.

Luv it is very sheer, so you need a few coats to make it really stand out.These fingers took at 5 coats to get it even this.

On my thumb I tried my new holy grail color to use under sheers and glitter , Powder Puff (I have a whole post coming on that soon), and then 3 coats of Luv It.

Looks better and more even to me. And that's my first Sally Girl polish post. More come!

Dupe of the Day

I've been inventorying my polish collection and testing the each out as I list them. China Glaze Re-Fresh Mint and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Mint Sorbet are definitely very close. If you have on you definitely don't need the other. The Sally Hansen is just a touch more green, but it's a very small difference. Formula wise they both go on about the same.

New Wet n Wild Megalast polish - On a Trip

Wet n Wild has come out with a new bottle and new brush as well as some new colors. My store didn't have many out, but I did get one. I really like the new brush. They call it a Manicurve Pro Brush. It's a lot like the brushes in the Sally Hansen complete salon manicure bottles. The size of the bottle has gone from .30 fluid oz. to .45. The color I got is called On a Trip, and it's number is 213C. It's also one of those colors that is hard to capture in photos, turning out much more blue than it really is. It's actually a more like a darker lilac creme.

WnW On a Trip - 2 coats

Taller, squared off at the top and 50% bigger than the old one.

And the new brush

Have you tried the new WnW Megalast? I really like the brush a lot better, and the formula was really easy to work with.