JULEP MAVEN SWATCH & REVIEW

Hey guys! Here is my June Maven Box :) Swatches are all done and I'm excited to show you guys! :)

In this box I received Nan, Bess and Char, and I'm excited about these swatches because the colors are stunning!

I decided to opt out of my July Maven box because it's not prudent for me this month, but I still have some new polishes to swatch...Neons! :D And I also have more designs to post as well :)

Char - This is a beautiful midnight blue! I have alot of blue polishes, but this is the best dark blue I own (in my opinion). I only needed to apply 2 coats for the overall opaqueness, and once the top coat was dry I couldn't stop staring at this color! Sometimes I don't like doing swatches because I want to keep the colors on longer :P

Nan - This is a very unique color. I don't really know whether to consider it an orange or a red...I guess red-orange works :P But it's like a burnt red-orange. It's very pretty, just very different. 

The thing I really like most about all of the Julep polishes I've received is they are all pretty opaque, I could get away with one coat for most of the colors I have, but I use 2 just to make sure it's even all over, and the consistency is pretty much a perfect cream :P None of the polishes I've received are runny or thick (that would suck), and they all apply very smooth.

Bess - This is the color that I absolutely fell IN LOVE with!! I was immediately hypnotized by it the moment I saw it! A few months ago I hardly had any blue polishes, but now I think I have more blue polishes than any other color :P And this one is my new favorite! :P (I know I say that about every blue, but it's true!) Every blue is different so I love all of them! :P I really shouldn't compare them to each other.

The consistency of this blue is really what I loved most once I applied it. Like I mentioned a second ago the consistency of the Julep polishes is so smooth and creamy...I fell even more in love with it when I started painting it on my nails :P It was like a polish orgasm (HAHAHA sorry if that's inappropriate). If you happen to do your nails and swatch polishes I'm sure you may have had one of those moments.


Anywho, thank you for taking some time to check out my post :) I hope you found it helpful and maybe even entertaining! I know in previous posts I have stated that I want to post on a more regular basis but I don't think (at this moment in time) that I will be doing that. I don't like doing my nails on a timeline or schedule, I like to paint them and post photos when I feel up to it, and feel inspired to do so, so if that bothers you I apologize, but I want to like what I do and not feel like I'm forcing it...so my posts will be random but I will post my designs for you :)

4TH OF JULY NAIL ART

I know that it's past the 4th of July now, but I still wanted to show you guys my design! :) I really wanted to do something fun and unique this year and after googling, YouTube-ing, IG-ing and even looking all over Pinterest I couldn't think of anything!! So I got out my red polish and decided to paint my toes while (hopefully) something came to me.

I think I got lucky this year because I love how this design turned out! :) I even started painting before I actually figured out what I was going to do...So here's my fun, unique design!

I started off painting my ring finger with Sinful Colors, Snow Me White, and while it was drying the thought of swimming suits popped into my head :P It was quite appropriate because that's how my fiance and I were spending our holiday :) It's been averaging about 106 (degrees) here this week so that's all we could think of doing lol!

Using my acrylic paints, I free-handed the swimming suits (they are not a replica of mine or my fiance's :P), and I think they turned out so cute!! A little Red Polka Dot Bikini :P

I didn't use any other polishes to finish this design, it was all done with acrylic paint...which is good that I have that because I don't have a red polish this color :( 

And this is to prove that my left hand gets love too :P lol This is definitely a 'His & Her' design. I hope you guys had a fun and safe holiday!! Thanks for checking out my blog! :)

FUN NAIL STAMP

If you follow me on a regular basis, you've probably noticed that I haven't done much stamping recently. But because I was going on vacation for a week and wasn't going to take my nail supplies, I decided to do a fun, simple design with my stamps :)

The day I before I left for my vacation my fiance and I were at the grocery store and when I went to put something in the cart my pinky nail hit right directly on the top of the bar :( ...so the Zoya PixieDust held on pretty good right until the end! :P So not only did they need to be repainted, but because of the one break, they all needed to be filed down. I even debated putting the Zoya PixieDust back on, but decided I should do a fun stamp instead.

I loved the orange on my nails before so I decided to stick with orange-like colors :) I used China Glaze, Sun of a Peach as the base coat (it needed about 3 coats for full opaqueness), and then used Zoya, Maura and Cheeky plate CH7 for the stamp. I only have 2 Zoya polishes (atm...) so I haven't had any experience before stamping with Zoya polishes, but Maura is the perfect color for stamping! It has a really nice consistency and is very opaque with one coat.

(China Glaze - Sun of a Peach)

(Zoya - Maura)

There you have it! Short and sweet! :) I hope you guys enjoyed this design as much as I did! It has inspired me to want to stamp more...I may have to buy more stamps soon :P I'll keep you updated!

ZOYA PIXIEDUST

Good morning! :) I have a few posts to share with you guys today and I am super excited about all of them! This first one is a '3 in 1' post :P I wasn't able to finish the June Nail Challenge because I went on vacation for a week, so I missed some of the fun days :( ...don't worry though, I will make up for it! The reason I am excited about this one is because I was able to do the Sparkles and Match OOTD of the #nailartjune. The reason it's a '3 in 1' post is because this is also a swatch of my first Zoya PixieDust :) I have always wanted the Zoya PixieDust collection because they are absolutely gorgeous! But I was a little hesitant on whether or not I would actually like them, so for starters I bought one.

Say hello to Beatrix :P

So this is Zoya PixieDust, Beatrix :) I am absolutely in love with this polish! I am so glad I bought one and tried it out! I don't think I would have been disappointed if I had bought the entire set, but I think one for starters was good for me. The reason I picked this color over any of the others is because I don't have many orange polishes, and none of my orange polishes are this color so I was happy to have a light orange.

When I applied this polish over my nails I actually applied a base coat first (apparently Zoya suggests no base coat and no top coat, but I didn't read that until I was done painting), and then applied 2 coats of the color. I think I could have gotten away with one coat but I like doing two just to make sure all of the nails have the same opaqueness. When I finished I debated putting on a top coat because I wanted to see how it would look, but I figured since this was my first time wearing a textured polish, I would leave it plain...and I am glad I did. I wore this for an entire week and I loved the way it felt! Plus I'm positive it saved my nails from breaking twice during that week. The only (not really negative) thing about this polish is because it has sparkles its hard to clean up...if you look at the pictures you can see that there are still sparkles on my cuticles.

Overall, I am absolutely in LOVE with this polish and definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to try it out. If you have any questions or comments feel free to leave them below :)

SWATCHES

Alrighty! Are you guys ready to see my swatches?? I'll warn you now, there are alot :P j/k. It's all of the polishes I won from the contest. So there are only 7 polishes, but 3 of them are color changing polishes, so there are alot of photos...but everybody likes nail photos, right!?

China Glaze

Angel Wings - I absolutely love this polish! When I first saw it after opening my package from @thary_xoxo I thought it would be kind of like Fairy Dust, just gold, but it's not. Where Fairy Dust is a silver sparkle, it has a clear base, so it can go over any nail design...Angel Wings has a gold base, so it wouldn't be a good (top coat) glitter polish. So even though this wasn't what I expected it to be, I still love it! The glitter is so dang small it almost looks like sand, or dust! And you'd probably expect a polish like this to need several coats for full coverage, but I only used 2 coats, so I am super impressed with this polish!

Urban Outfitters, Magnetic

Sphere - This color is very pretty, I love the small sparkles in it. For the most part, the sparkles are pink, but when you look at them from different angles they are rainbow colors. The one thing that did throw me off about this color was that in the bottle the color looked more pink than purple, so when I started painting and realized it was purple I was a little confused, plus there is a silver undertone, which isn't to noticeable until you start painting with it.

Intercosmic - This is a nice charcoal, silver. It has the same small sparkles that Sphere does, they look mostly pink, but are all colors of the rainbow. I really like how the magnet pulls out a darker color, but overall I'm not super excited about these 2 polishes.

These 2 magnetic polishes are my very first magnetic polishes. I was really excited that they were part of the prize because I have wanted to test them out for so long, and have debated on buying some, but I could never bring myself to buy any. I love magnetic polish on other people, but the thought of doing it on myself just wasn't enough to make me buy any. It just seems a little to plain...(I know, I'm so picky lol!). 

So my first attempt proved that obviously I didn't follow the instructions to well, because I was left with no design. I didn't shake the bottle very well so the polish was very thin and runny, which meant the magnet didn't leave any design...I decided to start over and before actually trying again I watched some YouTube videos to see how others applied the polish and worked with the magnet. Second attempt was much better! I applied one (thick) coat and then quickly held the magnet over the polish...I did mess up again because the magnet touched the polish and ruined it...but I was getting the hang of it. The only thing that made me not like these so much (which isn't any fault of the polish itself) is that my nail beds are so long and curved, that the magnet could only leave a design on the center of my nail. If you look closely at the photos you'll notice the design didn't show up on my entire nail. So if my nails were shorter, maybe it would work better for me...I do like these polishes and I will keep playing around with them until I find a way to make them work for me. If you have any suggestions or tips on magnetic polishes, I would love some feedback :)

Urban Outfitters

Lollipop - This is the Cutest polish! I love everything about it! :P The sparkles, the color, even the bottle! I've never had such a fun sparkle polish before lol. The pink base of this polish is very sheer, I used 3 coats and it still wasn't very opaque, but I actually like that. The sparkles (as you can tell) are the best part! There are 3 different size sparkles and they are all rainbow colors! The 2 bigger size sparkles are a hexagon shape, which makes them so unique...they're not just circles. I give this polish an A+ :P

Ruby Wings

Eclipse - Eclipse is the perfect name for this polish :) This is a gorgeous blue polish with more of a purple base (which isn't noticeable in the photos). It only took 2 coats to get the full coverage, and it applies so smoothly. 

This is Eclipse in the sunlight, it turns from a medium blue to a dark, midnight blue!

Sweet Rose - This is a pretty baby pink. I applied 2 coats for full coverage, and honestly, I didn't love this color when I first put it on, it made my skin look super pale. But once it changed colors I was IN LOVE!! :P (and I love the way it looks next to the gold cap so I may have to pair it up with gold...).

This is Sweet Rose in sunlight, it changed to a dark, kind of coral/pink. I need a polish that is this color all the time because it is absolutely stunning! :) I could stare at this color for hours! Haha.

Desert Valley - This was the polish that really caught my eye the second I saw it! I was most excited about this one! Which is sad, because this polish was the hardest polish to work with/figure out. The very first picture of this color (right below my description of Sweet Rose in sunlight) was my first attempt with this polish. I painted over a base color of Ulta, Set the Nude, and the reason I didn't like it so much was because it was very difficult to get the polish evenly over my nails. The consistency of the polish is like jelly (and not like jelly polishes). I don't know how many coats I used because I was more focused on trying to spread out the sparkles and make them all lay flat...That is one thing I do really like about this polish though, the sparkles are more like translucent shardes, they aren't all the same size or shape. Which is what makes it so unique and eye catching.

My second attempt with this polish I put it over Revlon, Peach Petal. Both colors I put it over were good choices in my opinion. I really like the way it looks over each color...and you may be looking at the pictures wondering why I don't like this polish...

When I saw it in the sun this is how it turned out...the dark purple it changes to is really pretty, however, you can see every mistake/flaw once it changes colors. And because this polish doesn't apply like a normal polish you can see how thick it is. The second to last picture of this color over the pink is to show how thick the polish is, and how the shardes don't all lay flat...even the picture doesn't do it justice though...I don't ever have many complaints about a polish but this one was just horrible...but at the same time I think it is so pretty! I totally have a love/hate relationship with this polish! So I will keep it and use it, I'll probably just avoid putting my hands in direct sunlight hahaha!!

This was the first time I have ever seen or heard of Ruby Wing polishes, and I am super impressed with them! (I'm talking more about Eclipse and Sweet Rose right now) I love the consistency and the fact that they change colors in sunlight! ...I used to have color changing polishes, but that was like 10 years ago, and they weren't the best polishes. So these colors are super fun and gorgeous! And even though I am disappointed with how Desert Valley looks in sunlight, I do love it in normal lighting.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post and found it helpful if your looking into magnetic or color changing polishes! If you have any questions, comments, recommendations or even some tips please don't hesitate to share! :) And Thank you for taking the time to read this! Have a great night!