Julep Comparisons

Hey everyone

Today I have the comparison shots from my Julep Secret Store purchases. First up we have Sally.

We have Julep's Sally, OPI's My Vampire Is Buff, and Julep's Kennedy. I honestly grabbed Kennedy by mistake thinking it was Sally. As you can see via the bottle these all look quite different.

The swatches aren't similar at all either. Thumb, index, and pinky are all Sally. Ring is MVIB, and the middle is Kennedy. Sally  has a more peach tone to it where as MVIB has a very white base to it. Kennedy is also khaki as described compared to Sally. Now if I was going to pick a favorite out of all of these, it would certainly be Sally. MVIB is so streaky and thin. It took 3 coats to get it smooth. Kennedy and Sally are both 2 coats. Kennedy is just a strange yellow khaki that I wouldn't use for a flesh tone at all. While Sally doesn't match my skin tone at all, I still think it's the best option for a flesh color if you're doing nail art. 

Next we have Korin's comparisons. 

They all look fairly similar. We have Zoya's Mitzi, Julep's Korin, Sinful Colors' Innocent, Wet N Wild's Toss Me A Lifesavers, and Sally Hansen Insta-Dri's Lickety-Split Lime. 

On the thumb we have Mitzi, index has Korin, middle has Innocent, ring has TMAL, and pinky has LSL. Mitzi and Innocent are completely dupes of each other. Mitzi just happens to have a matte finish. They are both very close to Korin, it's just a bit darker. A person who's not obsessed with nail polish would tell you they are the exact same polish. TMAL is a dark shimmery green and LSL is lighter than TMAL without the shimmer. Korin is $14.99, Mitzi is $8 and Innocent is $1.99. If you're looking to save money then Innocent is what you need to pick up. But formula wise you need Korin. Mitzi is very streaky and you can even see the bumps in this picture. Innocent isn't that bad with 2 coats, but Korin you can totally get away with one. It all depends on a personal preference. My pick is Korin hands down. 

Those were my comparisons. If you'd like to see more leave me a comment and I'll start working on more of these. I hope you enjoyed today's post!

MSMD Monday: Palm Tree Gradient

Hey everyone

Today I have a gradient for you. I love doing these. Granted I don't do them like other people apparently. I start by putting on the top color, this is typically the lightest color. Then I start sponging them on starting at the bottom and going up until it's smoothed in with the lightest polish. Then if I mess up I can get the top color and go back over with a sponge. Does that even remotely make sense? I might need to do a video to show you what I mean. 

Anyway, one of my favorite bloggers, Alice from OneNailToRuleThemAll, did this gradient palm tree design. I immediately fell in love with it. There's also a June Nail Art tag on Instagram and day 1 was Summer. (Go follow me there!) I knew this design would be perfect, it just screams summer to me.

I love it! These turned out so great. I haven't done palm trees in almost 2 years, it's like riding a bike. Seriously love these. 

Polish Used:

1. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls (the base)
2. NYC's Midtown Mimosa 
3. Salon Perfect's Bellini
4. Sinful Colors' Summer Peach
5. Salon Perfect (Long Brush)'s Black

Check out Alice's design HERE. She finished hers with a matte top coat, but I just couldn't leave them matte. I work at a computer all day and matte polish doesn't last long with me. I want these bad boys to last. Love them!

I do want to take a second to talk about Salon Perfect's long brush collection. The bottle is a nightmare. I was shaking it and the balls are obviously way to big and the bottle shattered in my hand. The brush is fantastic though, so I took an hour or so out of my life to try to salvage the black base and move it into an Art Deco bottle. Luckily the brush can screw on to those bottles. This polish is also strange. It dries matte and if you have put on a top coat before you dry, you can literally just wipe it off and start over. This can be both good and bad. Another bad thing about them is that it's a completely pain to get off if it gets on your skin. The brush is completely worth all of the trouble though. It's very firm and shorter than most long brush's. I very much enjoy drawing with it. Keep in mind this is only the long brush collection. The regular bottles are fantastic and they have great colors to chose from. 

I really hope you have enjoyed today's edition of MSMD Monday!

MSMD Monday: Mosaic

Hey everyone

Today's MSMD Monday comes from a French Blogger named Pshiit. Art really is universal. I didn't realize her entire blog was in French until I actually opened it and read her blog (instead of just searching her on Google). I do not speak nor to I read French so I went to Google Translate. It can really be a hit or a miss. For example, here is a direct quote from her page after Google butchers it, "I propose today a nail art rather easy to achieve if you are a little careful, but first I present the precious which I used to carry you!" It was okay at first, but the last part had me scratching my head. Seriously Google, get it together! I ended up just skimmed through the actual writing and looked at the pictures. The best thing about Pshiiit? She has little GIFs at the end of her posts that show tutorials for her designs. I love it so much, I could not resist remaking her mosaic nails. Pshiiit did a bright spring design, I did a pastel design for Mother's Day. This design uses striping tape! I recently bought a ton of striping tape on Ebay and I'm completely in love. Every nail artist should get striping tape, there's so much you can do with it!

I love how it turned out. It's so pretty and girly. It's very Mother's Day appropriate if you ask me. 

Polish Used:

1. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls
2. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Lacey Lilac
3. China Glaze's Lemon Fizz
4. Sinful Colors' Star Fish
5. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Mint Sorbet
6. Pure Ice's Beware

Here's a link to Pshiiit's blog post. I hope you guys enjoy my design and Pshiiit's as much as I have!

MSMD Monday: May Flowers

Hey everyone

Today I have nails that I did inspired by Sammy at the Nailasaurus. I seriously love her work. She's in my top 5 nail bloggers. This mani features striping tape, accent glitter nails, and roses. It is one girly mani that's for sure. But I got a ton of compliments on it. I even got a complement from the nail salon by my work. That basically means I have arrived in case you didn't know. :)

I seriously loved these, they turned out so cute. The polishes I used were Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Mint Sorbet, OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Sinful Colors' Starfish, Zoya's Katy, Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Green (leaves), and Pure Ice's Beware. 

I posted these on Instagram first (like always, check me out on Instagram!!!) and Sammy even commented. She said, "Amazing. And that was so fast!" I totally had a fangirl moment. Here's a link to Sammy's nails HERE. I hope you guys love these nails as much as I did!

May the Fourth Be With You & Revenge of the Fifth

Hey everyone

Can you tell what today's theme is? Star Wars!!! Yesterday was Star Wars Day and today is a little special too. I could not think of anything to do for these nails. I almost went with a Lego Star Wars theme. Until I thought of my nephew. He's obsessed with Angry Birds. He's played since it first came out and he's so much better at it then me. If I can't beat a level I had my phone to him and he beats it with 3 stars. He's a true genius. He became obsessed with Star Wars once they released Angry Birds Star Wars so why not!

I love how they turned out! I used a lot of polish for this one. 

1. OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls
2. Zoya's Ibiza
3. Love & Beauty's Midnight
4. Zoya's Sooki
5. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Blue Me Away
6. Pure Ice's Kiss Me Here
7. Art Deco Long Brush's Black
8. Art Deco Long Brush's White
9. Sinful Colors' Star Fish
10. Nail Art Long Brush's Cocoa
11. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Sun Kissed
12. China Glaze's Trendsetter
13. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear's Black Out
14. Zoya's Trixie

So many polishes. I ended up having to go onto Youtube to see how to draw out the birds. Took me quite a bit to finish, but I'm so happy with the results. My sister showed my nephew and he said, "Oh my god. I can't believe she can do that. She needs to make Minoauk Pig and Boba Fett." Totally felt like a rockstar. Hope you enjoyed the nails! 

Cheetah, Leopard, whatever...

Hey everyone

I recently did 3 different cheetah manicures in the span of 2 days. I had to go on a business trip to Ohio recently. Before I left I watched the Devil Wears Prada and I was inspired by Andie's coat. That's where this first mani comes in.

This is a half moon mani using Revlon's Jaded Night, Sinful Color's Nude and Orly's Prince Charming. I love how this turned out so much. It made my nails look so long and I have little nubbins! I also took my son to his very first zoo as an early birthday present, so that's also why there's an animal print theme. 

Next my friend Courtney came with us and wanted me to do her nails. So I packed a bunch of neon colors and did a different cheetah design. 

This is using OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls, Wet N Wild's Limelight, Zoya's Paz, Essense's Wanna Be Your Sunshine, and Pure Ice's Celestial. These turned out super cute and she loved them. So it was perfect.

This last one is one of my favorite manicures I did for the month of April. This features Sinful Color's Nude and Zoya's Phoebe. I just love the color combo and I'll have to use it again. 

Wizard of Oz

Hey everyone

I am super excited. In exactly a month the new Wizard of Oz movie comes out. I love Wizard of Oz. I'm currently trying to read all of the books in time for the movie. It's been stated that Oz is going to follow the books where Wizard of Oz really didn't all that well. So in honor of the movies I'm posting my Wizard of Oz nails. 

First we have the supplies. Look at all of that! It's crazy that all of those polishes get used in one design. It took forever too. 

1. Sinful Colors' Pandora
2. Finger Paints' Romanticism Ruby
3. Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Blue Me Away & Deep Blue Sea
4. China Glaze in Trendsetter
5. Zoya in Veruschka, Jancyn, and Dree
6. OPI in My Boyfriend Scales Walls
7. Sally Hansen Nail Art Pen in Red and Black
8. Nail Art Brush in Brown

We have the Yellow Brick Road, Dorthy's Dress, Scarecrow's shirt, Tin Man's Chest, and Cowardly Lion's Tail. This took forever to be honest. I had to wait for each little piece to dry. But the final product was well worth it. I love these nails. I totally didn't want to take them off. I even did little witch feet on the other hand which is where the Finger Paints and Nail Art Pens came in, but they were awful. 

ACNC Day 17: Christmas Movie

Hey everyone

I'm past midnight, I'm behind! Oh well a few minutes is better than not at all. Day 17 was Inspired by a Christmas movie. I don't know if you remember, but when I did my lights I said the Grinch would be making a comeback. And comeback he did! I'm so pleased with how my Grinch turned out this time around. He's much more Grinch-like.

Now you may be asking yourself, "What is that other polish she's got on?" This just wouldn't be my blog if there wasn't shameless self promotion! The other polish I'm wearing is 2 coats "Pucker Up and Kiss It Whoville" by Tara's Nail Polish over 2 coats of Exotic Ocean by Sinful Colors. Pucker Up and Kiss It is a red, white, green, and black glitter polish in many shapes and sizes. When worn alone it has predominately clear base with a hint of green.

If you would like to purchase a bottle of "Pucker Up and Kiss It Whoville" you can at this link here. Just don't forget to use the code HAPPYHOLIDAYS for 15% off your entire order! 

ACNC Day 14: Glitter

Hey everyone

Day 14 is glitter. Everyone and their brother has been obsessed with China Glaze's new Cirque du Soleil Collection. Me not so much. The problem? One of their polishes looks almost identical to one of my polishes. It's A Trap-eze by China Glaze and I Killed The Teen Dream by Tara's Nail Polish are both nude jelly polishes with rainbow hex glitter in many sizes. The difference between the polishes would be the amount of glitter. Mine isn't a huge glitter bomb. China Glaze's is a temperamental glitter bomb. I say temperamental because with all of the glitter in It's A Trap-eze there is major dragging if you aren't careful. Below I have comparison swatches both 2 thin coats. And I applied both polishes like normal, no special techniques for glitter bombs. 

See all that dragging? Most of the glitter goes to the tips of your nails. It's also not very shiny which is due to the dense glitter.

Next we have I Killed the Teen Dream. It's obviously not as glittery. It's not as milky and takes a thicker coat to get a milky base.

This photo shows off how shiny the polish is. 

I then used a nail wheel and swatched 3 coats. The bases are pretty much identical. The glitters are even almost the same. I like to tell myself that I was just ahead of the curve. :)

I do actually like It's A Trap-eze once I apply it "correctly". To achieve complete coverage without dragging or patches I recommend the dabbing method. This is where you get polish on the brush and dab in on your nails and smooth around to get the coverage you need. The only issue with doing this is that it's very thick and can take a while to dry. I ended up smugging my right hand pretty bad and had to start over on 3 nails due to the drying time. Once you do the dabbing method however?

Beautiful. It's built up to a grayish base at this point. It does feel a little strange due to the amount of glitter, but it's nothing a good top coat can't solve. Now for glitter I couldn't just leave it like that. I had to add some flair to it. So I used Sinful Colors' Blue By You and made drips. 

I've never done the drip design before and was quite pleased with my first try. I was completely inspired by Chalkboard Nails! Her drip mani was adorable. Sidenote: What is it with bright blue polishes having a weird smell? This one and a China Glaze polish I have smell awful!  

If you would like to purchase I Killed the Teen Dream please visit my Etsy shop here. And be sure to use HAPPYHOLIDAYS to recieve 15% off your entire order!

ACNC Day 13: Snow

Hey everyone

Day 13 is SNOW! I'm really excited for this one. I started off by painting my nails with OPI's My Boyfriend Scales Walls (Because I use it constantly, oh my goodness!). I used 2 coats to build up a strong base. Then I used Sinful Colors Cinderella in 3 coats to make a nice soft winter blue skyline. I took a makeup triangle sponge and did a soft gradient at the tip with MBSW. Using a dotter I made 2 snowmen on my thumb and one on my ring finger. I lastly used Art Deco in Black for the arms and Zoya's Reva for the scarf.

I took Essie's Matte About You and finished off the gradient on my index, middle, and pinky nails. I think these nails were very pretty and soft. Excellent for a quick winter mani on the go. 

ACNC Day 3: GREEN

Hey everyone

I know I'm like super behind on posting. I'm going to make sure to get all these out today. So if you have me on an alert of some sort I do apologize ahead of time. :D

Anyway. On the 3rd the challenge was to do GREEN nails. I was going to do trees or wreths but pine is coming up so I didn't. Instead I pulled out one of my VHTF polishes. China Glaze's L8R G8R. I used 3 coats on all of my nails. And then I used another HTF polish, Sinful Colors' Green Ocean.

Look at that shiny halo goodness. I like that you could still see the halo on the ring finger as well. I also found it interesting how the base turned a yellow-green shade with Green Ocean on top. 

Sinful Colors Leap Flog

Hey everyone,

I have another Sinful Colors polish today. It's called Leap Flog. This polish came out a while back and recent re-released. Luckily I was able to grab a bottle before it went back into the Nail Polish Vault. 

Isn't it pretty? It applies like a dream. 2 super easy to apply coats with a brilliant shine. You can't ask for much more with nail polish. It's a gray blue color and to be honest I expected it to lean more towards green with the name. Leap Flog. Is it supposed to be Leap Frog? Not sure. Either way I love it.

Leap Flog is not part of the store collection so you'll have to look for it in Special Edition displays. I cannot for the life of me remember which display I got this from. It's been a good 3 months since I swatched. Bad blogger. :P 

Sinful Colors Vacation Time

Hey everyone,

The polish I have for you today is called Vacation Time and it's by Sinful Colors. To be honest when I first saw this polish I thought it looked kind of grandma-ish. Not sure why just something made me think that. So I put it back on the shelf. And part of my routine at Walgreens is circling the nail polish twice just in case I see something else I might want. On my second go around I saw this polish again and thought, what the heck. Let's buy it.

I honestly couldn't be more pleased. This polish is so pretty. It's a smooth dusty rose shade that I just adore. The formula was a dream. And it's completely covered in 2 coats. 

This polish goes so good with my skin tone. My skin is naturally the color of paper, this polish makes this look almost tannish. Success!

No H8

Hey everyone,

Bullying is not funny. It is not cool. It is not right. And more importantly, it's not okay.

Most of us are, thankfully, residents of countries that support tolerance and many of our families have settled in these places simply for that reason. Generations later, it is our responsibility to perpetuate that message of tolerance across our new social platforms, including the internet.

As members of the nail polish blogging community, we all share a love of beauty, color, and lacquer. Other than that, we are remarkably different: from our race to our religion to our hair color... even our polish application techniques. To marginalize anyone because of those differences is completely unacceptable and today I take a stand against that. I refuse to allow other people's view of "normal" dictate how I behave, believe, and blog.

In solidarity with a multitude of bloggers linked below, my purple manicure represents my proud commitemnt to the No H8 movement. Today, November 8, I dedicate my post to ending bullying of any kind and to encouraging diversity and imperfection among our colorful community.

Here is Sinful Colors' Fig. Fig is a beautiful purple polish with flashes of blue. 

This polish applied like a dream and has full coverage at 2 coats. Luckily for me there was no staining. 

Monkey See Monkey Do: Pinterest

Hey everyone,

I'm terrible about keeping a set schedule for my blog. I have so many swatches left to still post. Bag blogger bad! Anyway, today is Monkey See, Monkey Do Monday! I found my favorite pin on Pinterest and recreated it. And it took forever to search for the original creator. It made me happy to read that the person who actually did these nails was an professional nail technician and I was able to recreate them without their training. Here's the link to the pin: <Click Me>

China Glaze's Flip Flop Fantasy has taken off on Pinterest. Everyone and their brother who likes summer neons has repinned a swatch. So when I bought it at my local Sally's Beauty Supply on sale for $4.99 I knew I'd have to use it in my design. And I'm not a fan of yellowish looking gold so I used silver gliter. Sinful Color's Queen of Beauty to be exact. The chevron nail I did freehand with an Art Deco striper and Claire's Snowball as the base. I love these nails so much!

Flip Flop Fantasy can be a little streaky. I found myself having to go over it with 3 coats and the spot checking with a very thin 4th coat. Queen of Beauty has full coverage with 2 thick coats. I was very pleased with the ease of this glitter polish. It is also smooth and not rough like Milani's One Coat Glitters. I topped all each nail off with a coat of Seche Vete to seal it in. So shiny!

All in all this is my most successful MSMD Monday yet! Can't wait to do something for next week!

Sinful Colors indeed!

Hey everyone,

I wanted to make a quick post to share with you something terrible. Sinful Colors has placed fairly large displays in Walgreens recently. In their big display there is a pamphlet talking about nail art techniques. Mary over at Swatch and Learn had one of her designs stolen and published in this pamphlet without credit. Check out her post for more info!

Blog News: Sinful Colors Used My Photo in Their Pamphlet without Permission & Distributed it in Walgreens

I remember looking at this photo and thinking it was a Konad stamp and most certainly not a toothpick swirl design. Shame on Sinful Colors for using her photo and not crediting her. And didn't Revlon buy them too? Shame on Revlon too!

Let's Bowl, Let's Bowl, Let's Rock n' Roll!

Hey Everyone!


First, 5 points to whoever gets the movie that this title came from!


Second, It's Monday, which normally sucks, but not in the nail world! Mondays are Monkey See Monkey Do Monday! I have had this one planned out the minute I saw Katy from Nailed It! post this. My hubby is from Michigan and his whole family grew up in bowling alleys. Not to mention his sister's name is Katy. It was fate people!