Julep Waleska and Harlow - green and gold oil slick jewel nail art

Hey internet! Today I wanted something really rich and saturated and Julep Waleska was calling to me. In the bottle it's a green teal with lots of gold fine shimmer, truly gorgeous like a jewel. On the nail it seems to lose some of the teal and turns more green BUT it does read as teal just slightly greener, I was a little disappointed but the color is so beautiful I quickly got over it!


I used 2 coats for Waleska, it is very pigmented and almost a 1 coater. The first coat did show more teal but once I slapped on the second coat the green took over. The second coat did go on a little thick so make sure to load the brush up with as little as possible. You can see it shimmers like its nobodies business!


Julep Harlow for the ring accent. Julep describes Harlow as a "Golden dragonfly iridescent chrome" so basically a Chanel Peridot dupe lol. I used 2 coats, first coat was a touch sheer but the second made it nice and opaque. The first time I used Harlow I used 3 coats and that helps to bring out a little more of the blue duochrome that shows in the bottle.




The black oil slick jewels are from eBay. They were nice and shiny before I put on top coat but then after I applied HK Girl top coat and they looked a little textured then and lost their shine :( Oh well, they still look cool!


This is my kitty helping me take photos.


RAAAWWWWWWRRRRRRR!

PS What do you think of my improved photos? These were the first taken with my ottlite.

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Color Club East Austin - leopard spots accent nail

Hey Interneters!

This is the last of my posts with crappy pics, I promise ;) I have been taking pics of my last few manis with my ottlite and they are leaps and bounds better. I'm no pro but you get what I mean. Onto the mani!

I love all things coral, neon, gold, and leopard print so I had to combine them ALL into one glorious mani. Color Club East Austin is one of those bright neons that makes your camera freak out all goofy. So yes, it is that bright.

Color Club East Austin is a neon coral peach creme. Formula was a bit wonky, kinda thick but streaky, I used 3 coats. Next time I will add some thinner to see if that helps. But my goodness! The color and crazy brightness are so so great so I forgive it for not having the best formula. I have seen it compared to China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy but I'd say it's a little whiter, very close though.


On the ring I used OPI Love. Angel. Music. Baby aka LAMB from the OPI Gwen Stefani collection. I did 2 coats and it dries very fastI have a thing for golds but this one makes me happy. It's a satin finish and has tons of super fine shimmer which gives it a lot of dimension. The satin finish is meant to be worn without top coat and it does look gorgeous that way but I've worn it both ways and can't decide on topic. The leopard dots are East Austin for the inner part and Sinful Colors black for the outer spots.

I loved everything about this mani and was sad to remove it.

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Gridlock Lacquer Garden Walk and Elmwood Village - purple glitter nail art

Hello Interneters!

Today I have another Gridlock Lacquer look to show you, I first used the glitter Elmwood Village here.

The purple is Garden Walk, a sort of metallic finish. It was interesting. I used 3 coats because it was kind of sheer, and you can still see a little visible nail line which does annoy me lol Some don't mind nail line so it is what it is. It had a peculiar formula, it wasn't a jelly but almost like a gel? It went on kind of thick but surprisingly dried fast! So that was nice. It is very pretty and had a glowy quality to it! So when I wear it again I'll probably layer it over a pale purple cream for opaqueness. Most people would not be bothered the slightly visible nail line, sometimes I think I'm just crazy lol


Now the glitter, Elmwood Village I adore! It has all sorts of colors and shapes, silver, blue, green, pink, black! It matches so many colors. I used only one coat and it applied nicely.

The 2mm black square studs are from eBay.

Aren't the labels adorable? Love that they show my hometown :)

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Julep Winter and OPI In True Stefani Fashion - icy gray nail art

Hey Interneters!

I still have some older manis to post before I start putting up pics taken with my brand spanking new ottlite. I think they've been coming out pretty friggin sweet, so late next week some good photos I promise :)

This gray mani has nothing to do with Summer, I needed a break from all the brightness, MINE EYES!!!


Julep Winter is a nice light/medium creme gray. To me it leaned slightly warm but I dunno, I still classify it as neutral. 2 coats for opaque coverage, decent formula.


OPI In True Stefani Fashion is amazing. I'm not normally into square glitter but this is HOLO square glitter so the rainbow got me :) One coat of ITSF, it's pretty good coverage and applied perfectly. It's shimmers rainbows much more in person. The 3mm square studs are from eBay. I chose square studs because duh the square glitter.

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OPI LAMB, Julep Denver, OPI Pure 18kt gold top coat

OPI LAMB (Love. Angel. Music. Baby) has to be one of my fav golds of ALL time. It's a satin finish and looks so great without a top coat, really shimmery and interesting but looks equally as wonderful with some added shine on top. I've been using it a ton since I got it a few months back.


I used LAMB without a top coat here and applied 3 coats, and it dried fast! I probably could have gotten away with 2 coats for full opacity but sometimes I'm known for overkill ;) This pic was taken with my phone with no flash in my bathroom......yea I know, once I get my new Ottlight I'll be better I promise haha


Julep Denver on middle to pinky. A great sea foam creme, just overall gorgeous and sleek formula. 2 coats. Pinky has OPI Pure 18kt top coat over Denver, you can see how the clear base of Pure is kind of tinted a goldish tone. It looks ok with this many because of the color scheme but I'm annoyed that it will look strange over some colors. The 3mm gold circle studs are from eBay.


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Julep Kayla and Orly Shine On Crazy Diamond

Purple. This. Is. Purple!!!!  My goodness.

Enough of that :)  This is Julep Kayla and she owns me. It's so juicy and bright and just glows. I knew from the bottle that it would be a bit sheer so I layered it over Julep Elisa, a pale cool toned lavender. I think Elisa was a good choice and it made Kayla pop.  2 coats Kayla over 2 thin coats Elisa.



I didn't want to take away from the vivid purple so I chose Orly Shine On Crazy Diamond as an accent, and I think it set off the mani perfectly. SOCD is a sparsely packed silver holo fine glitter in a clear base. The clear base is a bit thick so I only used one coat, I already had 4 layers of color down and one more coat would have been toooooo much.





This pic is intentionally blurry to show the pink shimmer.

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China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise and Gridlock Lacquer Elmwood Village

A few weeks back I stumbled upon a local (Buffalo, NY) independent polish brand Gridlock Lacquer. They create polishes inspired by Buffalo and the culture. It was instant love for me! I couldn't wait to try the gorgeous glitter topper Elmwood Village.

I'm currently waiting for my Ottlite to arrive so that I can't take some better pics. These are a little blurry but I think they'll work for the time being :)

Onto the mani!

For the base I used China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise. Looks gorgeous in the bottle with some subtle shimmer, it did dry darker than in the bottle and it chipped in about 24 hours :( It is super bright and there must be neon pigments used for it that caused the chipping. I haven't had good luck with CGs lately and I think I'm done with them.

Look at that adorable label! It's the Buffalo skyline :) it's a clear base filled with silver, green, blue, green small and large hex glitter. There is also jagged pieces of black glitter in there which I did have to fish out the black to place them. The other glitters went on perfect, and the formula was very workable for such a jam packed glitter! Love it.

On the pinky is Julep Brandt, an off black creme. Currently my fav black as the formula is perfection and doesn't look as harsh as a straight black. The neon yellow 3mm studs I got from eBay. This mani made me super happy and then Turned Up Turquoise chipped and made me all angry face grrrrrrr.

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Julep Monaco, Max, and Serum No 5 Flashing Lights

Sooooo this is weird. I don't normally post my manis, but I am very into polish and nail art. Shocking, I know. Since all things Twilight have pretty much been at a dead halt since BD 2 was released on DVD :( I thought maybe I could share some of my manis :) See, from sad face to happy face!

My fav brand is definitely Julep. I'm a Julep Maven meaning I subscribe to their monthly polish box. They seem to get a lot of hate and side glances among many nail bloggers but I don't fucking care. I love them and their polishes. Not so much their makeup products, el Yucko fo sho. I wish they'd stick to mani/pedi products but whatever, I seem to have lost that battle. Onto the purdy polishes!


Photo taken with flash, this one isn't really color accurate it looks much brighter here than IRL but I thought it showed the mani off nicely so too bad. Julep Monaco on the first 4, with Julep Max on the middle and ring, Serum No 5 Flashing Lights on pinky. I used some 2mm black metal studs I got off eBay. Glisten & Glow HK Girl top coat.



Dat shine! Pic taken with no flash.


This is way more color accurate. I used 2 coats of Monaco, the first went on kinda streaky, sheer, and thin. I used a second thicker coat and it was perfectly opaque. 3 coats of Flashing Lights.


I love the way this mani came out. I bought Max on a whim since these type of big glitter toppers aren't really my thang, but I think I kinda love it ;)

Interested in becoming a Julep Maven? Use my referral link by clicking the image below!



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