Julep Maven ~ Glitter & Glow

I received my December Julep Maven box this week - beautiful sparkly holiday colors!  

I choose the It Girl collection which included 3 polishes.

• Ivy - a beautiful shimmery sapphire blue
• Vivien - golden coat with large chunky glitter
• Harper - turquoise chunky glittery under-the-sea green  

Check out my unboxing video here:

My mini review of the colors are that they are stunning!  

All 3 need at least 2 coats for a nice coverage.  Ivy, is beautiful as a stand alone.  Vivien would be better if used as a glitter top coat.  Harper could be used either way - if you use 3 coats it is a beautiful chunky & sparkly sea green.

 

Sign up to receive your own Julep Maven Box ~
http://www.julep.com/rewardsref/index/refer/id/18699/
Invitation code: 1439823
$20 a month and you can cancel or skip any time.

You can also get your 1st box for a penny if you use this promo code:   PENNY

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!

I haven't posted a blog in a LONG time! I have been totally obsessed with my nail polish lately and want to try to keep this updated to show my latest designs and what I used to create them.

Here are a few of my past Christmas/Winter favorites:

Winterberry Sparkle

Silver Snowflake

Golden Holly Leaves

Sparkle Snowman

Shades of Gold

And my latest creation:

Blue & Silver Snowflakes

If anyone wants details, let me know. Happy painting!

I've Finally Cracked!

I know this is old news to most but for me it's my first time!  I finally got to try the China Glaze Crackle Nail Lacquer!  I have not been able to shop much lately due to the crazy kids sports schedule so I haven't been able to pick this up at the store to try it.  My sister got a couple colors a couple months ago and I have been begging her to let me borrow one to try.  Finally, when I saw her on Mother's Day she gave me the choice of trying either Black Mesh (black), Crackled Concrete (gray) or Crushed Candy (blue/teal).  I went for Crackled Concrete.  Wasn't sure what I would pair it up with yet or when I was going to be able to use it but I had it home to finally try.

One afternoon, between polishes & bare nails, I was getting ready to go to a wine tasting.  I wanted to quickly paint my nails to have something on them since my fingers would show while holding a wine glass.  I quickly grabbed a light pink color and even quicker put on a coat of polish 3 minutes before I ran out the door. 

The next day, looking at the pale pink, quickly decided - what a great combination!  Pale pink & gray crackle!  So I grabbed the crackle glaze and painted it on.  The stuff is so cool how it goes on solid and then it separates into the crackle design.  Also covers up any nicks & mistakes I had from sloppily putting on the pink polish the night before.  I was in love!  This crackle glaze was so easy to use and looks so cool!  Next time I make it to Ulta I will definately be picking up some of my own!

Thanks Becky for letting me borrow yours!


 


Products Used:

Revlon - Peach Petal
China Glaze Crackle - Crackled Concrete
Seche Vite - Top Coat

Softball Season!!

So, as some of you know, I was asked to be the head coach of my daughter's AAA softball team this year.  For the past several years, I have been helping out but never the head coach.  Since they didn't have anyone else to step up, I decided, why not? How hard could it be?

Well, I jumped right in - made a binder with all the info and put together my list of girls for my team.  12 girls ranging in age of 8-12.  So far so good.  Then, it was practice planning time.  Since we had the winter that did not want to leave this year, we couldn't get out onto the field very much.  It was either snowing, raining, or just too cold!!  Our first couple practices we suffered through with the windchill factor of 35-40 degrees.

Finally, Softball Opening Day was arriving.  Saturday April 16th was the big day!  We got our team shirts.  Our team color is blue and we picked the team name of Blue Thunder.

We had to create a banner for the opening parade of teams in the morning.  My daughter and I had a good time putting that together. 

Also, in preparation for the big day, I painted my nails.  The nail color to match our team shirts.  For the design, I made lightning bolts on two nails and on my thumb I made a flaming baseball.  It came out pretty cute :)

So, Saturday came and the weather forecast was about 45 degrees, overcast, windy and rain in the afternoon.  It was a miserable day but we made the best of it.  The parade started at 8:45 a.m.

 Our game wasn't until 1 p.m. but it did not warm up at all!  We made it through the game but lost :(  The girls did great though and we are looking forward to our next game this Saturday.  Though, it may rain...

Candy Cane Nails

I have been watching lots of nail polish tutorials lately and have seen lots of great ideas. I normally never wear nail polish because it takes time to do it right which is one thing I don't have. My schedule is CRAZY!! I have however, been making an attempt and have been painting my nails lately and love watching all the ideas out there on You Tube.

So, I finally broke down and will attempt to do my own tutorial.  Just a reminder, I am so far from a professional and have no idea how to blog or do tutorials so bear with me and hopefully you will enjoy.

So, here we go with my Candy Cane Nail design...

I used 3 main products/colors: 

• Wet n' Wild Craze Nail Color in Morbid #235 - CRAZE 
• Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Red Frost #06 - Sally
• Migi Nail Art pen in the white color - Migi 

 First I painted my nails with the Wet n' Wild nail polish.  This color is a dark green which I picked up just for Christmas but it was much darker than I expected - it almost looks black and I only painted one coat.  I would have liked it a little lighter but I didn't want to start over.  It is still pretty.

Next, I took the Sally Hansen Nail Art red pen and painted the upside down J's on every nail.  I love how the little pictures look on nails but when it comes to painting them onto my right hand using my left hand it looks like a 2 year old does it!  (You can assume that I am right handed).  I was able to do a decent job on the other side since they were simple enough but for the pictures, I will only show the left hands :)

Finally, I took the Migi Nail Art pen in the white color and drew the stripes.  Relatively easy to do.

I think they came out pretty cute!  Followed up with a top coat since that is the one main reason why I hate painting my nails is because it wears off at the tips within one day.  Using a top coat helps make it last.


So, pretty easy to do even for amateurs like me :)


Hope you enjoyed reading and let me know what designs you have tried.


Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to All!

Bloggie Newbie!!

Hi everyone!

I am going to attempt to start a blog.  Not sure how well I will do to keep this updated but I will do my best.  This blog will be a little about my life but probably more about my new addiction to pretty stuff.  I don't know if I will get any followers but we'll see how it goes.  

Wish me good luck and Keep Reading!!