Julep Maven August 2013 Bombshell Box

Whee Julep!  Today I have swatches of Julep's August 2013 Bombshell Maven Box.  In the box this month was Bea, Lacey, Double Step Foot Treatment & Friction Stick, and some Forget Me Not seeds! It's Julep's two year Maven Box-iversary, so us Mavens got a cute little package.

I switched my style to Bombshell this month.  I'm usually Boho Glam, but I thought the colors were similar to some I already had.  First up is a swatch of Lacey.
I only needed one coat of Lacey for full coverage. Its a deep blue with a slight purple shimmer.  Dry time was incredibly fast!  Application was great.  Sometimes with shimmer polish I can see the the brus lines.  I didn't have that issue here.

Julep Lacey

I might have to do another comparison post soon!  This looks verrrry similar to Essie Dive Bar to me :]

Next is Julep Bea.  It's a gorgeous lemonade creme polish.  I was not so happy with this polish.  Application was alright.  It was sort of streaky with the first coat.  When I waited for it to dry to do the second coat, to my extreme disappointment, it was still tacky (probably 10 minutes later).  I did a second coat anyway and topped with Seche Vite to speed up the drying.  Of course, major shrinkage occurred very quickly (you may be able to see in my nail art).

Julep Bea

The goodie product in this month's box was the Double Step Foot Treatment & Friction Stick.  This product contains chili pepper oil to promote circulation and shea butter to moisturize and prevent blistering! I only use mine at night because I mostly wear flip flops, so I don't need "friction protection" lol.  I love it.  It smells great and there is a little tingly feeling from the chili oil.  

As you know, I recently ordered some Winstonia stamping plates.  I have just been itching to do stamps, so here ya go!

Moustache and Glitter Nails

I used Julep Bea as the base.  The stamp is from Winstonia plate W109 stamped with Julep Lacey with a glitter accent of Rainbow Honey Koi Pond.  

If you want to become a Julep Maven, click here to read more about it!  If you decide you want to join, please use my referral link HERE because sharing is caring :]

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Don't forget to follow me on Pinterest and IG @nauti_mermaid

Mermaid Mani!

NAIL ART WHAAAAAT?!  I know.  Three posts in one day AND nail art?  Who am I??!

What's better than glitter and holo?  Adding a mermaid.  Duh.

Mermaid Mani

My nails aren't long enough to fit the whole stamp, so her head kinda got cut off :/  I still like the look though!

Mermaid Mani
sun

I used Essie Butler Please, Color Club Kismet on pinky (and for stamp), and Chaos and Crocodiles Underwater Treasure to create this mani.  I ordered the Winstonia stamping plates based solely on the mermaid stamp.  Good buy I think! ;P

Birthday Dinner Nails

Last night we celebrated my Aunt's third anniversary of being 50 ;)  We went out to some super fancy-schmancy Italian restaurant and had to get all dressed up.  So of course I wanted my nails to match my dress!  

I used one coat Essie Licorice for the black base, then I used one coat Essie Shine of the Times on all but the accent nail.  I matted everything with Hard Candy matte topcoat.

Then I stamped the accent nail with Bundle Monster stamp plate BM-206 in Essie Good as Gold.  I really wanted the gold to be shiny and stand out more than it did (I thought it would look less matte), but I was okay with the end result.   

Two highlights of my year happened yesterday:  

1: I was featured on Nail Art Ooh La La for the first time on IG for this mani ANNNND

2: I got to eat truffles (the mushrooms) for the first time in my life!  I had always seen them on the Food Network and was dying to try them.  They.  Were.  Amazeballz!!

Now.  Here are some pictures of all the dessert and wine we had.  I was bummed I couldn't take pics of the meal.  I felt awkward having my phone out, so I waited until everyone else did lol

I couldn't tell you what all this is, but my favorite was the one on the bottom left corner of the big plate.
It was some chocolate mousse with creme brulee filling and candied kumquats
whaaaat?? lol

 And here is our party:  (clockwise from center) Aunt Sue, me, my mom, my daddy, my Aunt's friends Leo, Marie and Scott.

Cranberry Smashed and Tiffany’s Nails

Hey y’all! I hope everyone had a great week. I know I’m glad it’s almost the weekend!  My Drink of the Week (I guess I should change it to Weekend) is called a Cranberry Smashed – it’s a twist on the regular vodka-cranberry.

You’ll Need:

·         Vodka

·         Cranberry Juice

·         Ginger Ale

·         Ice

Make It!

(Pretty self-explanatory guys…I shouldn’t need to say, but here ya go!) Put the ice in the cup, add the vodka (a few glugs – you be the judge), then fill the rest of the cup with ½ cranberry and ½ ginger ale. 

I like this drink because the ginger ale tones down the sour of the cranberry…and I just like fizzy drinks! :)

Tiffany’s Nails

First I applied the Seche Clear basecoat (pictured in my previous “Weekend Haul” post) because I will be putting glitter polish on (which, as you may already know, is incredibly hard to remove).  I heard it was the best basecoat and that you can practically peel the glitter off when you’re ready to take it off – we shall see!

After that was dry, I applied two coats of China Glaze For Audrey.  I hadn’t planned on doing anything special with this manicure, I was just going to leave them plain since I did the nail art last week….but I got a crazyyyy idea.  This stuff looks JUST like a Tiffany’s box! So, what else would I do but add some silver sparkle (Essie Shine Of The Times) and a little white bow stamp?  It just made sense guys! :)  After everything, I finished it off with a topcoat so the bow stamp would last longer.

Two Coats China Glaze For Audrey

Two Coats China Glaze For Audrey, Konad Bow Stamp,
and One Coat Essie Set In Stones

Close Up - kinda blurry - sorry!

Now, as freakin amazeballs as they look, I am NOT happy with this China Glaze polish…AT ALL!!  It was so gloopy and thick.  It took F O R E V E R to completely dry before I could stamp the bows and put the glitter coat on.  It got a million bubbles once it did finally dry, so my nails are all bumpy (most annoying thing ever!  I’m really OCD about bumps/bubbles/smudges/chips etc.).  Speaking of chips, two of my nails chipped the next day.  I have never had polish chip on me that fast.  Maybe it was the Seche basecoat, because I really did peel half of my thumbnail’s polish off.  I will give it another try because I’m seriously in love with this color, but if it does the same thing again, I’m going to be really disappointed.  This was my first time using China Glaze (as a “regular” polish – I have the crackle stuff, which honestly has the best crackle effect I’ve found so far), so it was a double bummer for me.  Maybe I just got a bad bottle…who knows?? :(

TELL ME!  Did you try my drink? How was it?  What are your thoughts on China Glaze polishes?